(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in the book of Genesis, and we're in the third and final part of our three-part series on the flood of Noah. And this has been a very interesting series to me. I've learned a lot while preparing these sermons. And the first sermon we talked about was, why did the flood even take place to begin with? What was it that made God so angry that He flooded the world? Then we actually talked about the destruction last week, and we're going to talk about the result of God's destruction today. Now obviously when you have an event like flooding the entire world, we need to learn lessons from why that happened, and what we need to change, and what were the changes that took place. We're going to be in a lot of chapters here in Genesis, you know, from 6 to 8, but we're going to go back to Genesis 6 to start out, and look at verse 7. Genesis 6, verse 7. Now the first three points in this sermon are going to be kind of more basic points, and the last three points are going to be kind of more in-depth and more interesting. Obviously a lot of these things are going to be familiar to you. But it says in Genesis 6, verse 7, So God says He's going to destroy the world, then He does destroy the world, and then there's some changes that take place. Look at verse number 3, Genesis 6, verse 3. And the Lord said, Now this verse in the Bible is very debated. There's a lot of different opinions. What does it mean by 120 years? And so some people would look at this and say, what God is saying is that in 120 years from now, I'm going to flood the world. Whereas other people would say, what He's saying is that the calf in your life is going to get 120 years. You can't live past that going forward. And you say, well, what is right? They're both right. Oftentimes in the Bible, verses have dual meanings. You know, obviously the word God is very deep, and He's teaching both these things. I do believe it's 120 years, but one thing that took place after the flood, people's ages started to slowly drop, didn't they? You know, before the flood, people lived 900 years. I mean, that's hard to imagine, 900 years, okay? Now, the Bible doesn't tell us why they lived to be 900 years old, why we live shorter lives today. Some people think it was basically a direct miracle from God, and some people think that what caused the flood made changes in the atmosphere, which resulted in people living less of a life. That's personally what I believe. The Bible talks about how the windows of heaven were open, and there was water from beneath the earth and also from above. And, you know, I believe that there was changes in the atmosphere, and the way the earth actually was, that caused people to live shorter lives. In fact, if you would look at fossils in the ground, there are fossils of people that are very tall, a lot taller than we get today, where you can see lots of people, 8, 9, 10 feet. It was more common back then. Now, obviously, if you live nine times as long, you have more time to grow, right? But for the flood, you know, dinosaurs were around very commonly. You know, they were around afterwards as well for a time period, but obviously, you know, we don't see dinosaurs walking around here normally. But there was a time when animals got pretty big, and people got pretty big, and people lived very long lives. Now, I'm not here to teach a creation seminar. This stuff's interesting. But one thing we do know for sure, even though we don't necessarily know why the ages start to slowly go down, we do know that people live shorter lives today. People live, and pretty much the cap is 120 years, even if you reach the top of the peak. If you're at the top of the bell curve, you're still not getting past 120. Okay, that's about as far as you possibly could go. Now turn to Psalms 90. It's hard for us to imagine a world where you would live to be 900 years old. You know, it was a completely different time period. But you can look at fossils, and not just with humans, but with animals as well, where they were a lot bigger than they are today. It's kind of funny, because evolution teaches that we were, you know, ape-like animals, and we slowly got bigger, and everything like that. But it's like, then why do we see, like, 10-foot, 12-foot tall humans in the fossil remains? That kind of goes against your theory, because you're telling me that we started off really small, and slowly became from an ape-like creature to being taller, and to being a human, whereas the fossil record would actually teach the opposite of what you believe. Because you can see plenty of animals and humans that completely disprove what they believe. This is what it says in Psalms 90, verses 10 and 12. The days of our years are three score years and 10. Score is referring to 20 years. So when it says three score, it's three times 20. So that's 60 years plus 10. Three score and 10. That's 70 years. And if by reason of strength they mean four score years, that would be 80. Four times 20. So basically what it's saying is, you live around 70 years in your life, and if you're pretty strong and healthy, 80 is a decent-sized life to live. And then it says, yet is there strength, labor, and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Now obviously we know that some people live past 80, and some people don't live to be 70. But in general, most people are going to be in that time frame. Right? That's around the time that people live. And so what it says here, in verse number 11, Who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. So the Bible says we should actually number our days that we have. Now I remember my friend and I were reading the Bible one time, and we took that very literally, and we sat down and numbered how many days do I have left on earth if I live to be 70 versus if I live to be 80. And quite honestly, you know, life flies by. I mean, you don't have as much time. Now if you live to be 900 years, maybe you don't have to number your days, you know, for a while. That's a lot of time. But when you're living 70 to 80 years, it's not that long of a life. I mean, you're growing up and you're not really an adult that's out on your own until you're in your 20s. So there's already a lot of your life, you know, you're at home or whatever. Obviously the time frame is different for people. And then you end up starting a family. Guess what? Once you get married and have kids, time accelerates. I mean, it doesn't make any logical sense, but that's the way it works. And for people that aren't married and don't have kids, you don't realize that. But once you get married and have kids, it literally speeds up. Your time just flies by. And before you know it, look, you're not that young anymore. I was talking to my wife the other day and I was just saying, you know, we're not that young anymore. I was like, you look at our church and, you know, we're older than most people in this church. And I don't have a problem with that because, you know, obviously I want people to look at me and respect me and everything like that. And if I was younger, it'd probably be harder to do. But it's like, we're not that young anymore. And once you get older, your time starts to fly by. You say, well, what do I do then? Number your days. Don't waste your time when you're younger. Every day matters because your time is going to be gone like this and then it's over. You can't change the past. Once it's gone, it's gone. And look, we've all spent time before we just wasted days and just wasted our time. I had a friend of mine in college. This guy was obsessed with video games. Now talk about a waste of time. Let me tell you something. You want your wife not to respect you? Go ahead and play video games for hours. And she won't respect you very much because she's going to be like, man, my husband's like a child. You say, why? Because he is like a child. Because when you become a man, you put away childish things. And I had a friend of mine and he had a video game that actually counted how much time you played the game. Now you have to think about it. A day is 24 hours long. But nobody plays video games for 24 straight hours. Even if you're obsessed, you know, let's say four hours and six hours, you know. But my friend had literally played one video game for thousands of hours. Now there's 24 hours in a day. Even if he played just 24 straight hours, day after day, he spent over 50 days. He spent a couple months of his life. Because it was at over a thousand hours and he was real proud of it. And it was only going up from the Super Smash Brothers. It was a big game back when, you know, I was in college. And I didn't really play video games, but some of my friends did. But he literally spent two months of his life playing a video game. What a waste of time. You really want to end your life on your deathbed and just think, man, I wish I had played Super Smash Brothers more. No, you don't. You wasted your time. You're going to think, man, I wish I had spent more time with my wife and kids. I wish I had done more for the Lord. I wish I had done something that had real lasting value. The Bible says to teach us to number our days. Now turn back to Genesis, Genesis chapter 6. And so one big change, kind of the most famous change, is just the fact that people live shorter lives. And people like to mock the Bible and they say, wow, you know, you could never live to be 900 years old. Yeah, you could never live to be 900 years old today, but there was a day when you could. And look, considering all the things that God does, considering that he resurrected himself from the dead, you know, I don't have a problem believing that he did other miracles as well, or that he was able to do things differently. The world was different before the flood. We don't really know why. Maybe God just decided to make a switch one day. That is very possible. I tend to think that there was actually more scientific reasons for what caused the flood and changed the way the world was, but we don't really know. Now I've seen a lot of creation seminars, and most of those guys end up being heretics, so I don't really know whether I even want to trust the science they gave me. But you know, it's an interesting topic. We don't really know, but we do know that we live shorter lives today. Another thing that we see is this. We do see a change in diet that takes place. Notice Genesis 6, verses 21 and 22. And it says in verse 21, And take thou on to the evolved food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee and for them. Okay? So what he says is, the food, Noah, is going to be for thee and for them. He's sending it to you and also to the animals. So on the ark, by and large, the animals and humans were eating the same thing. The food that was gathered would have been plants for both of them. Now let me say this real quickly. I don't necessarily believe that everyone before the flood was a vegetarian. I'll explain that in a second. But I will say this, that people ate a lot less meat before the flood. And I can prove that to you here in a second. Verse 22, though, says, Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Now turn to Genesis 9. Genesis 9. And so the food that was gathered on the ark, it was for thee and for them. Okay? Now notice a change that takes place after the flood. Genesis 9, verse 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea. And to your hand are they delivered. So what does God tell Noah? The animals are going to be afraid of you now. You say, why is it that the animals all of a sudden became afraid of humans? Because we started to kill them and eat them. And that didn't really take place too much before the flood. So all of a sudden, they're afraid of it. Before the flood, animals didn't fear us. That's what it says in Genesis 9, verses 1 and 2. I remember I was going hiking one time near my parents' house. I was up in the woods and I had, you know, I was listening to an iPod. I had my head down. I can't remember if I was listening to a sermon or the audio Bible. And all of a sudden, even though it was pretty loud, I heard this big thud. And I looked up and there was a bear like 20 feet in front of me that had dropped from a tree. Now you say, what was your reaction? I was like David and the Bible. I was ready to just kill that thing, right? I was afraid. But guess what? That bear was more afraid of me than I was of it. Right when it hit the ground, it went running the other direction. You say, why? Because animals are afraid of humans. The Bible teaches that. Now, does it really make sense that he would be afraid of you? Well, not logically. But guess what? He was afraid of me. And he did run away. Why? Because in Genesis, chapter 9, verses 1 and 2, he says, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every creature. Animals are afraid of humans. That is what the Bible teaches. Even if they're a lot stronger and more mighty than us, they are afraid of humans. That's what the Bible teaches. Now, notice what it says in verse 3. Now, as it went running in the other direction, guess what? I went running in the other direction. Now, it was probably going faster than me compared to faster than humans. But, man, that next 15 minutes, I was doing some great praying. Man, I was running down that mountain, you know, like a madman and praying, you know, kind of just letting you back to the house safely. And so notice what it says in verse 3. Even when you see stories where animals attack humans, usually they're attacking because they're trying to defend. You know, they're a little choked, you know, they're little cubs or whatever. It's not that they just want to kill humans because, by and large, animals are afraid of humans. The Bible teaches that and you see that. There would be no other reason for a bear to just run away from it. Why did he run away? He was afraid of humans. That's the truth. Animals are afraid of humans. Notice what it says in verse 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be neat for you. So he says, you can eat anything. Every moving thing that liveth shall be neat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things. So this is after the flood and he says, I've given you the green herb and now you can eat any animal. Do you see the difference there? There is a change in diet that takes place. Now turn back to Genesis 4. Genesis 4. Now the Bible doesn't really talk to us too much about what took place before the flood. Like I said, I believe probably there are scientific reasons why people live shorter lives and the world was a lot different. Look, if you eat no meat in today's world, that's not a healthy diet. You need a balanced diet. Now if you're a carnivore and all you do is eat meat, that's not a healthy eater. You need a balanced diet. You say, are you against the Atkins diet? I am against the Atkins diet. The Bible says give us daily bread. So we eat bread every single day. You need a mix of all things. You need fruits, you need veggies, you need bread, you need meat. Everyone goes on these crash diets to try to lose weight in a couple weeks. Look, if you are capable of losing 10 pounds in two weeks, that might not be healthy on your body. Just because you can lose that weight doesn't mean it's good for you. And there are all these crash diets and yeah, you know what? They work for a couple months and then they stop working. People that end up being in decent shape are people that just have a normal diet of everything. They just get a little bit of exercise. They get a decent amount of sleep. They just need a balanced diet. They just don't eat a lot of pangimatas. They get some exercise. And look, you'll be in decent health. Then there's what it says in Genesis 4 verses 3 through 5. Verse 3, So Cain gives an offering from the fruit of the ground. Abel gives an offering from the first things of his flock. I would presume he probably ate the rest of that animal. You say, why? Because in the Levitical law, that's what you were supposed to do. I don't think it was necessarily a completely new thing that took place. So I'm not saying that they ate no meat at all before the flood. But you do clearly see in Genesis 9 that animals are now afraid of humans. Why? Because humans are eating meat every day now. There is a change in diet that takes place. He says, I've given you the green herb. That was very common. You're used to eating mainly plants, but now meat is a much bigger staple of your diet. So I'm not saying that they were all vegetarian. The Bible doesn't really say. When you look at Genesis 4, I guess you presume you probably ate the meat there. But it's not necessarily something that they were doing every single day like us. Most people in this room, you probably eat meat every day. I mean, you eat chicken. Lots of egg men are going to come around the room. Everyone loves chicken, fish, pork. It's the year of the pig. Chinese New Year, you're going to eat some baboy. But we eat meat as a regular part of our diet. Before the flood, though, it wasn't as much. Now, there could have been real reasons why. Perhaps the fruits and vegetables tasted a lot better before the flood, if the atmosphere had changed. You eat certain foods here, and they taste a lot better than you do in America, and vice versa. For example, if you were to eat a mango in the U.S., you guys would probably take one bite and throw it away and say, this is basura. Why? Because it tastes a million times better here, because it grows better in the Philippines. Now, likewise, there's things that taste better from America than they do here. Where I'm originally from in West Virginia, and my parents are in Pennsylvania, apples taste amazing. It was like my favorite food when I lived there. But then when I moved to California, they weren't that tasty. Why? Because apples generally grow better in colder temperatures, and so things grow better at different times. So what I'm saying is, before the flood, maybe things taste a little bit differently. And here's the thing. Before the flood, there's probably a lot of fruits and vegetables. And once the flood comes, guess what? There are no more fruits and vegetables. So by necessity, your first thing is, well, I've got to start eating meat. And that's a change that God had take place. So I'm not saying that people were vegetarian before the flood. The Bible doesn't really explicitly say that. But I will say this, that people ate a lot more fruits and veggies before the flood. Now, turn to Genesis 9, verses 5 and 6. And here's the thing. We live after the flood, so we shouldn't eat everything. And I'm not saying we should go back to this fruit and veggie diet. It's like, no, that was before the flood. Maybe things were a lot different there. But this is after the flood, and he says to rise and kill and eat. That's why animals are afraid of humans. Now, the third thing I want you to look at here is the death penalty mentioned in Genesis 9. Notice verses 5 and 6. In verse 5, the Bible reads, And surely your blood of your lives will I require, At the hand of every beast will I require it, And at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother, Will I require the life of man? Whoso shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, For the image of God may be man. And so what we see here in Genesis 9 is the death penalty is started in Genesis 9. Now, turn back to Genesis 6. Now, the death penalty is something that people really debate about. You know, some people are for the death penalty, and some are against it. Now, even some people that are Christians would say that they're not for the death penalty. And they'd say, well, the death penalty was part of the Mosaic laws, and the Mosaic law was done away with. Well, first off, that's not really true with the Mosaic law being done away with. There were parts of it that were done away with. The claimliness laws and things like that, carbon ordinances. The moral laws haven't changed. And that's a whole other sermon. I don't have time to get into that. But here's my point. Let's say the Mosaic law was done away with. The death penalty would still be around. You say, why? Because it was before the Mosaic law. This is Genesis 9. Before the Mosaic law, guess what? We have the death penalty. So you say, well, let's say the Mosaic law was completely done away with. We'd still have the death penalty. Why? It started in Genesis chapter 9. He said, if you shed blood, your blood will be shed. This starts in Genesis chapter 9. This is before the Mosaic law. Now turn back to Genesis 6, and let's look at verses 11 to 13. Now, I remember before I was, well, it was after I was saved. But I remember I was talking to someone. And my first thought about the death penalty, I used human wisdom and logic. And here's what I said. Well, I mean, if somebody's in jail, we want to give them another chance to be saved. Even if they kill someone, we want them to get another chance. Until the day they die, they have a chance to get saved. And that was my human logic. It made sense. But I remember somebody told me, well, actually, the death penalty was before the Mosaic law. And I was like, well, I guess I'm wrong. I can't answer that. Right? Because it was before the Mosaic law. And I had a wrong view of the Mosaic law at the time. But the death penalty's been around since Genesis chapter 9. You say, why is that? Well, because the death penalty prevents murders from taking place. It prevents crime from taking place. Look at what it says in Genesis 6, verses 11 to 13. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. So God says the earth is filled with violence. Okay? So after the flood, guess what? The death penalty comes around. After the flood, guess what? The death penalty comes around. Why? That helps prevent violence from taking place. I had a class in college, a criminology class. And my professor was, you know, he was a Catholic. He wasn't a believer or anything like that. But, you know, he was studying criminology and crime. And he had studied the death penalty. And he showed a lot of charts. And he told us that if you look at highly publicized, you know, death penalty trials in America, that during the time period when that trial is taking place, and especially when the sentence is going down, the amount of murders drastically decreases. And he had looked at a lot of trials. It was not just one trial. And the amount of murders had drastically decreased during that time period. Why? People are afraid. When they see somebody being put to death, they're like, man, I really want to kill that guy, but I don't want to be put to death myself. And the truth is, there would be a lot less murders to take place. You know, people mock things in the Bible, and they say, well, God is too hard for the God of judgment. Well, here's the thing. When you have strong laws, they actually prevent crime from taking place. Now, one thing we don't do is make up our own laws that the Bible doesn't. Okay? Like, I'm against drinking, but it's not illegal to drink in the Bible. So we don't make up our own law. Okay? God has his laws, though. And his laws are perfect. And you know what? If we actually followed them, there would be a lot less crime. There would be a lot less violence. Now, turn to Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22. And this principle makes sense even outside the death penalty when you look at things like your children. You say, why do you spank your children? Because it prevents them from being troublemakers. It gets them to be obedient. Okay? It says in Proverbs 22, verse 15, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Turn to Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23. Look, if you have kids and you spank your kids, you know that sometimes they have this look when they know they've gotten into trouble and they're afraid. Right? They're afraid they're going to get spanked again. Now, here's the great thing about being a parent. For the most part, a new parent, my son is just over a year old, so a lot of this is still new to me and things like that. So when I first became a parent, I didn't know about all this stuff. I just took the Bible by fact, and I got wisdom from other people that had raised kids and were doing a good job. But here's one thing that's great about this. When you spank your kids, they don't stay mad at you that long. They immediately forgive you and want to hug you, and they feel bad that they messed up. Now, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. We do need to spank them. Look, they forgive you pretty quickly. And the truth is, when you look at kids that actually are disciplined by their parents, they grow up and become good kids. When you look at kids that weren't disciplined by their parents, they're not good kids at all. It says in Proverbs 23, verses 13 and 14, Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell. Now, when it says he shall deliver his soul from hell, is God just using words to be entertaining? There's a lot of logic behind what he's saying. Because here's the thing. Let's say, for example, that I've never disciplined my child at all. And then when he turns out to be five or six years old, I try to preach the gospel to him, and I explain that there's a Heavenly Father up there that will send you to hell forever if you don't believe. He's going to have trouble believing that. Why? Because he's never seen correction for anything that he's done wrong. It's going to be hard for him to really believe the gospel, because the way he looks at it, there's never judgment for anything he does. He can do whatever he wants, and there is no punishment. But let's say, for example, you have a child, and you do discipline that child. You do spank that child. They're going to realize, well, wait a minute. There's a Heavenly Father that, you know what, if I act up, if I break his rules, guess what? He's going to punish me. You see, all parents have rules, but some parents allow their kids to break the rules and do nothing about it. And if you do that, your child is likely going to grow up and not really respect God's rules at all. And even if they do get saved, they're still probably not going to be that good of a kid. They're still not going to really care about God that much. But you know, if you discipline your kids, they're going to be more obedient kids. That's the truth. And it makes logical sense as well. Turn back to Genesis. Turn back to Genesis. And so the first three things we looked at are pretty common ones that we know. There's a change in lifespan that takes place. There's a change in diet that takes place. We see the death penalty as well before the Mosaic law. We see that in Genesis. The last three things I want to look at are kind of a little bit more in depth, but I want you to look at the rebuilding process that takes place after the flood. Obviously, when the flood took place and flooded the entire world, everything was destroyed. We don't really know what the world was like before the flood. I tend to think it was actually pretty advanced in a lot of ways with technology. There seems to be in the record, the apostle record and things like that, they've dug up remains of things that would seem to indicate that. I tend to think that they were pretty advanced. We don't really know though. But once the flood took place, they weren't all that advanced anymore. Because everything was destroyed. Think about if there was a global flood that destroyed everything in this world. You'd have to build computers from square one again. Everything would be at the very bottom. Everything is starting over after the flood. Now in Genesis chapter 8 verses 1 and 2, this is what it says. And God remembered Noah, and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark, and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were swayed. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. So now it comes to the point where the rain is no longer coming down. Even still though, it took a long time before everything went back to normal. Now when you think about what took place with the flood, obviously God destroyed the entire world, and amongst those people that were killed were both believers and unbelievers. Everything was destroyed. And amongst those that were in the ark, the Bible doesn't really tell us who was saved and who wasn't saved. Now we don't know what was saved. And you presume that most of them were saved. Wouldn't we all agree with that? Probably of those eight people spiritually speaking, probably most of them were believers. It doesn't explicitly say. But what I want you to understand is this, that the picture of the flood is showing us the judgment on believers post-flood. Why? Because the people that were left in that world that had nothing were mainly believers of those eight people. So mainly the people that are left are believers. So the picture we have from the flood is judgment upon believers. Now turn to Genesis 8 verse 11. You notice during the reading, Noah keeps sending out the dove, and the dove comes back. Why? The dove finds no rest for its feet. Because there is no plant life at that time. It's taking time, and Noah's trying to find out when the water's gone down enough where they can basically get out of the ark. Notice what it says in Genesis 8 verse 11. And the dove came into him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off, so no one knew that the waters were baited from off the earth. See, here's what I want you to understand at this point of the rebuilding process. No matter how bad you screw up your life, no matter what sins you commit, if you are still alive, the olive leaf will appear again one day. What do I mean by that? It means no matter how bad you screw up, you can still be used by God. And look, in the Bible, we have stories of people that committed murder, that committed adultery, that had kids with lots of different parents, and they were still used by God. So here's what I'm trying to tell you. No matter how bad you screw up your life in the future, you can still be used by God. Now, obviously, I could commit certain sins where I could no longer be the one running this church. But even if I committed those sins, guess what? After I committed those sins, I could still lead people to the Lord. God could still use me to preach the gospel and get people to say, I could still do something in my life that had meaning and value. As long as you, as a believer, are alive here on earth, you can still be used by God. No matter how bad you screw up your life. Turn to Judges 16. Judges 16. And so it said, no one knew that the waters were baited from off the earth. And here's the thing. You might commit sins where God has to really lay down the hammer on you and your life is completely destroyed, but eventually the anger of God will be abated. And you can get right with God like David did. We're not going to look at David, but he's a great example. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, but he got right with God. And you know what? He was used to do great things after that. Now, he had permanent repercussions for his actions. So I'm not saying just, hey, have this attitude. I can go out and do whatever I want. No big deal. God can still use me. Yeah, he can still use you, and you're going to screw up your entire life. You regret it though. Notice Judges 16. We don't have time to go into the story of Samson, but I think most people are probably familiar with that. With Samson, he was a guy who did a lot of great things for God. He did a lot of bad things as well. He's kind of one of these interesting characters. He has these major highs and he has major lows. That kind of shows us that there are people in this world that can do amazing things for God and then really hit the other end as well. Most people are going to be more balanced, but some people can go to extremes on those things. Judges 16, verse 19. And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. This is the story of Delilah, and obviously most of us are probably familiar with that. If you remember, his strength was found in his hair. Okay? Now this is obviously a picture of a lot of different things God is trying to show us, but his strength was actually found in his hair. He had long hair, whereas the Bible teaches men are supposed to have shorter hair. He actually had long hair, and his strength was in his hair. So over and over again, she's trying to get him to admit, why is it that he's so strong? Why is it that he's basically the strongest man in the world? And he keeps lying to her. He keeps committing these sins with her. He keeps fornicating with her. And then all of a sudden, he makes up these excuses, and she tries to get him caught, and she doesn't, because he's lying to her. Now one thing this shows us is this. Notice verse 20. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. She said, I'm going to go out like I kept doing, and just shake this off, and I'll be perfectly fine. But you know what? He wasn't able to do it. Why? The Lord departed from him. I remember a brother of Bruce, and he had preached a really good sermon, where he said basically you can no longer shake yourself. I think the sermon was something like that. Basically what he was saying was when you're involved in sins, oftentimes God is merciful to you, and you think you can just get rid of it. No big deal. But eventually you reach a point where you can no longer shake yourself. And eventually God says, You know what? I've given you chance after chance after chance. I'm not giving you another chance. And what ends up happening to Samson? He no longer has strength. And when the Philistines are upon him, he can't shake them off anymore. Why? Because his strength was found in his hair, and his hair is all gone. Notice what it says in verse number 21. But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes. He basically goes blind immediately. Now, can you imagine that? I mean, obviously, there's not much more precious than our eyesight. And to be blind, that would be terrible. And he went from being able to see, being used greatly by God, and now guess what? Now he's blind. Notice what it says. And brought him down the gates and bound him with fetters of grass, and he did grind in the prison house. So he has his eyes taken out, but I want you to notice verse 22. This is a verse sometimes people can look over and not notice this. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaded. You say, what is the Bible trying to teach? The Bible's trying to teach, hey, he got judged by God, and he hit rock bottom. He lost his eyes, but then his hair starts to grow again. Then he can start being used by God again. See, it doesn't matter how much of a rock bottom you hit. Your hair will start to grow again. Symbolically speaking. It doesn't matter how bad you screw up. You can always get right with God, and you can always be used by God. Now you're going to have permanent repercussions. Samson had permanently lost his eyesight. That's pretty bad, but he can still be used by God, and no matter how bad we screw up in our lives, we can still be used by God. Now I hope that nobody in this room goes down the road of what some people do and commits terrible sins where you lose your eyes or something else where God really has to judge you. But I do want you to understand if you think back to this sermon five years from now, if you have screwed up your life, you can get right with God. Say you're sorry, really mean it, and God can use you again. Now your life might not ever be the same, but you know what? The most important thing is that we live for the Lord, and you can start doing that again even if you screw up your life. Now turn back to Genesis. And another great example of this, we're not gonna look there for sake of time, but is with Jonah. Jonah rebelled against God, and he got swallowed by a whale. Now that's not the most fun place to be for three days. You say, brother, I'm gonna take a three-day vacation. Oh, where are you going? Yeah, I'm just gonna hang out in a whale's belly for three days. It's like, you know, maybe you're short on money, but I can think of better things to do with your time than spend time in a whale's belly, right? Jonah is a great example, but you know Jonah when he was in that whale's belly, he got right with God, and the Bible says he was vomited out in the dry land. I mean, that's obviously not good. I mean, obviously it was disgusting, and you know, I'm sure there was repercussions to his body just being in there for three days. I'm sure it wasn't healthy to his body, but he was able to be used by God again. So no matter how badly you screw up your life, God can use you again. Now I want you to notice a couple other things here. In Genesis chapter eight, we're also gonna look at two perspectives on what will destroy our world. See, there are basically two perspectives in today's world of what's gonna destroy the world. One perspective is that God will destroy us due to sin. Now that makes sense to me because you think about what caused the flood to begin with. We were sinful, and God destroyed the world. Well, the other perspective is found in Genesis eight verses 21 and 22. Verse 21, And the Lord smelled his sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. Verse 22, See time and harvest, and cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. And so what God promises in Genesis eight verse 22, he says you're gonna have cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night until the very end. Isn't that what he says in verse 22? But doesn't this environmental crowd out there, the politicians, tell us that we're gonna destroy the world by polluting it in a short period of time? In fact, there's a famous politician in America. It's this new, this woman's like 29 years old, she's in New York. She's real famous because you can take clips on YouTube where she just, she's not a very smart person. It just kind of shows you in America, you can get a degree and do no work in America. In America, you can get a college degree and put in this much time. She's not very intelligent at all. She said a lot of really dumb and stupid things. She said we're gonna destroy our world in 12 years. That's what she said. 12 years, we're gonna destroy our world. Okay? Well, according to the Bible, we're not gonna destroy our world by polluting it in 12 years. Notice what it said in Genesis 8 verse 22. It says, cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. They always talk about global warming. This world is getting so hot. It's gonna get so hot, no one can live here and in 20 years, it's all gonna be destroyed. Now, according to those people, those are the same people that believe the earth is four and a half billion years old and they think in 20 years, we can destroy it? We've lived for four and a half billion years according to them and in 20 years, we're gonna completely destroy it. It's like, are you kidding me? Do you realize how much four and a half billion years is? I know it's just a few more zeros on the end, but those zeros on the end are a lot of time. I mean, four and a half billion years, that is a really, really long time and they say, we're gonna destroy it in just 12 years. We're gonna destroy the world when it's lasted according to them four and a half billion years. See, the Bible says, cold heat, summer and winter day, night shall not cease. Now you say, for a second, I've never felt cold weather in my life. Well, in most parts of the world, it does get cold. Okay, I know that global warming started here a long time ago. In most parts of the world, it does get cold. I'm used to winter time where I grow up snow all the time, where you have winter, you have cold weather and look, it's not going to cease. And if you look at those same charts that they use for global warming over a long period of time, the temperature, I remember looking at number 40, your period had gone down on average. It hadn't gone up. It had gone down. Okay, now turn to 1 Samuel 17, 1 Samuel 17. Now let me say this, that there is a shred of truth to what they're saying. I don't think that we should pollute the world. Right? I'm glad that they're cleaning up the Manila Bay. I think that's great. You know, if they had community property, they would have a lot of people You know, if they had community projects to help clean up some of the other things, you know, I might even go on a Saturday to help them out. If they didn't do it on a Sunday, if they didn't do it on a Thursday, why? We should live in a clean place. Remember what I said in the first part of the sermon series? Why is it that the world is physically filthy? Because it's spiritually filthy. See, it's physically filthy simply because it's spiritually filthy. See, this is the real problem. What is the fact that it's physically unclean in a lot of places? That is a symptom of the problem. Okay, let me give you an example. Let's say, for example, you had a headache, okay? And you have a headache every day and you take two Tylenol or two Advil to fix the headache and it goes away, okay? Now, let me ask you a question. Is the reason why you have a headache because you're not taking enough water? It shows you there's a problem with what you're doing. Most of the time when people have a headache it's because they're not drinking enough water. That's what the problem is 90% of the time. So the fact that you have a headache, it's not the problem. The headache is the symptom and a lot of times people focus on fixing the symptom of the problem but it doesn't change the fact you're damaging your body in some way. If you have a headache all the time, maybe you listen to really loud rock music for hours every day, I don't know what it is but that is a symptom of the problem. That headache is not the problem and merely taking Advil or Tylenol to fix it is a foolish thing. Why? Because that headache is a good thing for your body. It's telling you there's a problem. If you have a massive headache all the time, I don't get headaches. I can think of one time in my life where I really felt like I had a headache. I know I drink a lot of water, maybe that's part of it but if I started getting headaches every day starting tomorrow I'd be like maybe I need to go to the doctors. What am I doing wrong? Because I don't get headaches. I either start drinking water more or something and if I can get rid of that maybe I have a real problem inside if I keep getting headaches. That's not normal. That's showing you there's a problem you're doing outside. You might need to start drinking more water, eating a healthier diet or doing something getting more sleep. Now I understand people can have various things, problems for various reasons. It might not be your fault but I'm just saying that is a sign that there might be something wrong and the world being physically filthy they're right about that. There are some problems that we trash the world but that is only a symptom of the problem. That's not fixing the problem as well. Now why is it the world was destroyed? Before the flood it was a physically filthy place. We talked about that in the first sermon in this series but the main problem was it was spiritually wicked and so the physical problems the physical uncleanness was a symptom of the problem and so what is it that our government is trying to do? Well here's what you have to understand about politicians. They're not good people. Does anybody think a politician is a good person? They're not wicked bad people right? They're pretty sinful, they're pretty wicked and you know I don't care who you are you still know that according to the Bible God destroyed the world because of wickedness. Everybody's aware of that and they're not going to fix the fact that they're wicked people so what do they do? Well they try to deceive you. They try to make you think the real problem is not the fact that we're polluting it. Now yes that is a problem but that's just a symptom and that is this much of our problem in this world. The real problem is that we don't obey God's rules at all. 1 Samuel 17 is a great example where people try to shift the blame like the politicians in the government do. 1 Samuel 17 verse 26 and David speaks to the people besides posting that he should defy the arms of the living God. And the people answered him after this manner saying so shall have you done to the man that killed him and Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake on the men and Eliab's anger was kindled against David and he said why came this thou down hitter and with whom has thou left us those few sheep and Eliab is standing in front of you and nobody wants to fight the battle. And notice how he tries to shift the blame and blame David when in reality the problem is Eliab and King Saul all those people they wouldn't fight the battle. King Saul still has to be destroyed. And so what David actually has the guts to do it and he's been saved by living a wicked life. So there's two perspectives on what's destroying this world. One perspective is our sin is destroying this world. Kind of makes sense considering that's why the flood took place to begin with. That's not what our politicians are going to say. They're going to say well you know global warming it's getting so hot general each individual is notien o d o s h y n a h n d h a l x u g h y u e e v g y So notice how his older brother tries to blame him. What he's saying is completely false. He's just throwing out a wild accusation that's not real, because David was told by his dad to go to the battle, and David left the sheep with a keeper. Isn't that what Elia blamed it for? He said, who's there to keep in charge of your sheep? Well, I mean, he left someone in charge of them after he obeyed his dad, which vividly he should have done. And so he didn't do anything wrong. But you know, with our government, like I said, there's a shred of truth to what they're saying. We ought to protect the environment. I don't think that I should just go out outside and just throw this bottle on the ground. I think that's stupid. Just throw it away. We don't want to trash the place we live in, OK? But that's not the main problem we have in the world today. And you say, well, Brother Shaki, it seems to me that that's the main problem. Well, that's because you spend more time watching TV than you do reading the Bible. Because if you spend all your time watching the news shows, yeah, you know what? You'll start thinking all these things are these massive problems and not even think about the problem with the sin that's going on in the world. I mean, if you actually read the Bible, you say, OK, wow. Why is it that God always gets mad? Well, it's because of sin. That's the reason why. That's the problem we have in today's world in the Philippines or whatever country. Now turn to Genesis chapter 6, Genesis 6. And this point, point number 6, kind of goes off on the last one. But I want you to understand something that the wicked have not learned their lesson. Because they're blaming us polluting the environment. You know, wicked people, whether it's the politicians, the LGBT, people that just don't care about the Bible, look, they haven't learned their lesson from why God should destroy the world the first time. You know, people always say history repeats itself. That's the truth. Because people never seem to learn from history. They should have actually opened up the Bible and seen, OK, this is why God destroyed the world. Genesis 6, verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now remember in our first sermon, we link every imagination to Romans chapter 1 where every thought they have is a file, which is a description of the Sodomites in Romans chapter 1. And so the world was filled with a big LGBT agenda, free flood. That's what we see. Now notice Genesis chapter 8, verse 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet saber. Genesis 8, verse 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet saber, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil too. Neither will I again smite anymore every living thing as I have done. So God told us a few things. He said, I'm not going to smite every living thing, OK? And he tells us that he's not going to destroy the world with a flood later on. Turn to Genesis 9, Genesis 9, verse 11. Now here's the thing, though. It doesn't mean that God's not going to destroy, pour out his judgment upon the world. Because we know what's going to happen during the end times where we are going to be raptured before the wrath of God, but after the tribulation, the poster of the Bible teaches. We are going to be spared from God's wrath upon the world. God is going to pour out his wrath on the world, though. God hasn't changed. I mean, he does still send people to hell where it says the wrath of God abideth on them. Forever and ever, God's wrath abides on that person. And look, you know, if God destroyed this world once, he could destroy it again. Now, he's not going to kill every living thing, and he also is not going to destroy it with a flood. But that doesn't mean that we won't have a new heaven and a new earth one day, as he promised. Genesis 9, verse 11. And I will establish my covenant with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood. Neither shall there be any more be a flood to destroy the earth. Notice how he gets real specific, and he says, it's not going to be a flood, okay? Verse 12. And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I made between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be her token of the covenant between me and the earth. Now, what does he mean by a bow? He's talking about a rainbow, okay? Because once the rain comes, after it's gone, we see a rainbow that often appears. Why do we see that? Well, that was a sign given by God here in Genesis chapter 9, it's still around today, that shows us, hey, God is not going to flood this place and completely destroy it. Now, you know, when you look at some of these Asian countries, there have been tsunamis that have killed a lot of people. But in the grand scope of things, 100,000 people is like this much of the world. By no means has the whole world been close to being destroyed by a flood. Now, you know, where my parents are in Bedford, Pennsylvania, like 45 minutes nearby in Pennsylvania, there's a town, Johnstown, and it was the second biggest city in Pennsylvania, I think it was behind Pittsburgh, maybe it was behind Philadelphia at the time, but it was number two in Pennsylvania. He said, why is it that it's not number two today? Well, because the Johnstown flood took place, where basically they didn't properly engineer everything, and so it ended up flooding and destroying the entire town. But look, that was only one small town in the grand scheme of things. God hasn't destroyed this entire world with a flood. But you know what? The wicked should understand this, because the rainbows mentioned in the Bible, God tells us why we have a rainbow, and it's the simple, he's not going to destroy the world with a flood anymore. Now, if I could have just two guys to help me out, I want you to hand out this picture. Just maybe two guys, Brother Avi, Brother Erwin, do you mind just handing this out? Just give everyone one of these or one per own. I want you to look at this picture for a second. Sorry, camera, I don't have a picture for you, but I'm speaking to the YouTube world and the Facebook world for a second. But I want you to take a look at this picture real quickly. And so God's promise was that he's not going to destroy the world with a flood anymore. Now, I remember when I was a kid, and the rainbow I thought was the most beautiful thing in the world. I mean, isn't the rainbow a beautiful symbol? I mean, isn't it an amazing God's creation? It's amazing. I remember when I was comparing the circle this week, I was watching somebody who was in an airplane. They took a video as they went through a rainbow. It was so cool. It was amazing, you know, God's creation and how beautiful it is. Now, I want to ask you this question. The picture that you just got, is that a picture of a rainbow? Who thinks it's a picture of a rainbow? Who doesn't think it's a picture of a rainbow? Who doesn't understand the question? Who thinks it's a picture of a rainbow? Who doesn't? That is not a picture of a rainbow. You say, why is it not a picture of a rainbow? How many colors do you see in that? One, two, three, four, five, six. How many colors does a rainbow have? Seven. Seven colors. What's the number seven? It's the number of perfection that's in the Bible. God's number of perfection. What about the number six? I mean, have you ever heard this number before? 666? You say, what is that a symbol of? That's the symbol of the LGBT. You see, an actual rainbow looks like this. You guys want to hand this out? This is what an actual rainbow looks like. See, that is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Six colors. An actual rainbow is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. There are two colors there that they merge into just purple. Okay? There's a difference. Six colors versus seven. Now, I don't think that's a coincidence, but here's one thing that makes me mad about this. When you go out in public and you go to the mall and places like this, even companies that are not intentionally doing this, companies will actually have a rainbow as six colors, and I don't even think they're aware of the fact. That's not a rainbow. That is not what a rainbow looks like. That's a symbol of wickedness, which is the reason why the world was destroyed the first time. That is not a picture of a rainbow, because a rainbow has seven colors. It does not have six colors. And we need to be aware of this. When we go out in public, pay attention to it, and you're going to see six colors on a rainbow all the time. That's not a rainbow. And it makes me mad because it's a symbol of wickedness, and now it's becoming so normal to us. We don't even realize that we're out in public. And look, I didn't know this even a year ago. Somebody told this to me that a rainbow has seven colors. Guess what? I was used to it having six. Say why? Because everywhere you go, what do you see? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Whereas an actual rainbow is indigo violet. Two colors there, not just purple. There's two colors after blue. There's a major difference. But you know, this isn't a coincidence. I mean, don't tell me that it's an accident that they actually changed. It's obvious it's referring to a rainbow. Say, what is the rainbow really about? Well, here's the thing. God's promise was he would be long-suffering and not to destroy the world with a flood anymore. Now, the LTBT and this wicked agenda, they don't believe in the God in the Bible, do they? They don't believe in a God that is going to pour out his judgment upon the world. They don't believe in a God that would send people to hell forever, do they? They don't believe that. And so you know what they do? They take God's symbol to mock God and basically shove it in God's face, say, hey, you said you're not going to destroy the world anymore. You need to read the Bible a little bit more. I mean, I think he missed the parts after Genesis chapter 9 because if you look at those chapters, guess what? God's willing to pour out his judgment a lot. And you know what? They can use that symbol to mock God all they want. But you know what? That symbol is God's symbol of mercy and love and passion. And you know what? We ought to be angry when the wicked world takes that symbol to mock God. Turn to 2 Peter 2. Let's look at one last place, 2 Peter 2. I think this is out now, so I have to scream. I'll do my best to keep my voice. I mean, isn't it just a few chapters later in Genesis chapter 19 with Sodom and Gomorrah? I mean, did you not get that form in your Bible reading? I mean, that agenda wants to mock the Bible. It's not that much further, but guess what? God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You say, why did he destroy it? Everybody knows why he destroyed it. They try to say, well, it was destroyed because of pride. Look, the Bible speaks in the book of Ezekiel as pride being the first thing that led to more wickedness. That's not why he destroyed it. He eventually destroyed it because of the wickedness that was actually taking place because it went too far. Now let's look at 2 Peter chapter 2. This is the last place we'll look at. In 2 Peter chapter 2, verses 5 and 6. And spare not the old world, but save Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. In turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example or example unto those that after should live ungodly. So you know what? These politicians and the wicked liberals and people that hate the Bible and don't care about the God of the Bible, they can mock God all they want. But God told us in 2 Peter 2 that this is an example of what's going to take place upon the ungodly. A long time has gone by since Jesus was here, a couple thousand years, but there is going to come a time when God's going to come back and say, what's the world going to be like? Because we've talked about the flood and why it destroyed the world. What is it going to be like when God finally comes back? It's going to be like it was before the flood. It's going to be a really, really wicked place we live in. You say, Brother Stuckey, is it possible that the world will become better? No, it's not possible. You say, well, how do you know that? Because in the day of the internet and the TV and all kids being in the public school system and being taught by the public schools, we are being trained and taught by them. And people have their smartphones out all the time. Most parents give a smartphone to their kid when they're five years old. It's like, what are you doing? You're just going to put everything in front of their eyes when they're five years old. And the world is influencing us so much now. And with the internet and with the TV, it's a point of no return. Now, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but the truth is it's a point of no return. And the only thing we can do is do everything we can to preach the truth, to get people saved, and to get churches started. Why? Because you know what? This world's not going to be around for that much longer. But I hope when I get to heaven, God can look down on my life and say, Brother Stuckey, you worked hard. You accomplished some things in the Philippines. I'm sure all of you feel the same way as well. Let's do everything we can to make this a great church to win souls of the Lord and just preach the truth. Let's go to the word prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just being able to look at the series on the flood. And there's a lot of lessons we can learn as a result of what took place in the flood, what caused it, and the result of it. God can help us to always strive to live godly lives. And it's difficult in today's world because sin is all around us, and there's temptations and things that a lot of people didn't have to deal with. But at the same time, in today's world, we can reach people at a greater level than we ever have before, God. So let us take advantage of that and live our lives.