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00:12 ♪♪ 00:21 ♪♪ 00:35 Jëan Ross: Good morning, everyone, and we'd like to 00:36 welcome you once again to "Sabbath School Study Hour," 00:40 coming to you from the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church 00:42 in Sacramento, California. 00:44 Like to welcome our online members and our friends who are 00:46 joining us across the country and around the world. 00:50 We started a new lesson series talking about 00:53 the everlasting covenant. 00:54 It's entitled "The Promise," and today we're on lesson number 3 00:59 that's entitled "All Future Generations," so that is going 01:02 to be our study for today. 01:04 But before we get to the lesson just a few announcements we want 01:06 to let you know about. 01:08 Today, we're doing our regular Sabbath School lesson, but next 01:12 Sabbath, in place of our regular Sabbath School lesson--now, I 01:16 know some of you are watching this three weeks after the live 01:19 recording, so that will actually be April the--I believe the 3rd. 01:24 We'll be having--April the 2nd, we'll be having a special 01:27 program during our Sabbath School time, and we're going to 01:30 have a focus on the sanctuary, a special sanctuary presentation, 01:35 so you're welcome to tune in and join us. 01:36 That will be the live broadcast next Sabbath at 10 a.m., and 01:41 we'll be recording the lesson for that week on Wednesday 01:45 evening, so just wanted to give you a little bit of an update on 01:47 what's happening. 01:49 Want to remind you we do have a free offer. 01:51 It is a book entitled 01:53 "Satan's Confusing Counterfeits." 01:55 This is our free offer. 01:56 If you'd like to receive it, the number to call is 866-788-3966, 02:01 and you can ask for offer number 191. 02:05 Or you can receive a digital download of the book by simply 02:09 texting the code SH058 to the number 40544, and you'll get a 02:17 digital download of the book, and you'll be able to read the 02:20 book for free online at the Amazing Facts website. 02:23 But before we get to our lesson today, we have a wonderful, 02:28 special musical item that's going to be brought to us by 02:31 some young people. 02:32 It's entitled "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." 02:38 ♪♪ 02:47 ♪♪ 02:56 ♪♪ 03:05 ♪♪ 03:14 ♪♪ 03:23 ♪♪ 03:32 ♪♪ 03:41 ♪♪ 03:50 ♪♪ 04:00 ♪♪ 04:09 ♪♪ 04:18 ♪♪ 04:27 ♪♪ 04:36 ♪♪ 04:45 ♪♪ 04:54 ♪♪ 05:02 ♪♪ 05:11 ♪♪ 05:16 Jëan: Let's begin with a word of prayer. 05:18 Dear Father, how grateful we are to be able to gather in Your 05:21 house to worship You today on this beautiful Sabbath. 05:24 You've given us the blue skies, the warming weather, and, Lord, 05:27 we invite Your Holy Spirit to come and be present. 05:30 That the warmth of Your Spirit would fill our hearts and guide 05:34 our minds as we open up and look at the great promise, this 05:37 covenant, You have made with mankind and what our 05:40 responsibility is as part of that. 05:42 So, Father, we ask your blessing upon our time together. 05:44 Be with Pastor Doug as he opens up the Word. 05:46 And we ask this in Jesus's name. 05:48 Amen. 05:50 Our lesson this morning is going to be brought to us by Pastor 05:52 Doug Batchelor. 05:54 Doug Batchelor: Good morning. 05:55 We're continuing with our study in the new quarterly dealing 05:58 with the subject of the promise of God's everlasting covenant. 06:02 We're going to be looking at a number of the covenants that God 06:05 makes through His Word, and today we're on lesson number 3, 06:09 dealing with all future generations that are impacted by 06:13 these initial covenants that you're going 06:15 to find here in Genesis. 06:17 And we have a memory verse, and the memory verse is 06:21 from Genesis 6, verse 8. 06:23 If you have your Bibles, you might want to go there and look 06:25 with me. 06:26 Genesis 6, verse 8, and it says, together, "But Noah found grace 06:32 in the eyes of the Lord." 06:35 Sounds like a song, huh? 06:36 Some of you have heard that quartet song, "Noah found grace 06:39 in the eyes of the Lord," so we're going to be talking about 06:43 the covenant that God made with Noah and why that happened and 06:46 what happened in the world in those first generations. 06:49 And I'd like to start by encouraging you turn to the book 06:53 of Genesis. 06:55 Go to Genesis chapter 3, and we're going to talk a little bit 06:59 about why we need these covenants to save, and it's 07:03 because of section number 1 for Monday, "The Sin Principle," or, 07:08 actually, this is in Sunday's lesson. 07:10 The sin principle. 07:11 And you read in Genesis 3, verse 6, "So when the woman saw that 07:16 the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the 07:20 eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its 07:25 fruit and ate. 07:27 She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate." 07:30 Notice right away something you notice about sin. 07:34 Your decision to sin never affects you alone. 07:37 It always seems to involve others. 07:41 Sin always hurts God, sin hurts you, and sin hurts others. 07:45 It's basically the inverse of the great commandment, 07:48 "Love the Lord. 07:50 Love your neighbor as you love yourself." 07:52 Sin hurts the Lord, hurts your neighbor. 07:56 It hurts yourself. 07:57 People cannot sin and think, "Well, this is just between me, 08:00 myself, and I." 08:01 Whenever you sin it engages others, and no sooner had she 08:04 sinned than she wanted to commiserate with the experience 08:09 with her husband. 08:10 She gave it to him. 08:12 And all of us are witnesses one way or the other. 08:15 We're either witnessing for God or we're witnessing for the 08:17 devil, but you are going to be a witness one way or the other. 08:22 So, you can see right away through disobedience that God 08:25 promised--He said that "in the day that you eat thereof, you 08:28 will surely die." 08:29 Did Adam and Eve fall over and drop dead the day they 08:31 ate the forbidden fruit? 08:34 No. 08:35 Physically, you didn't see them fall over and die, but in the 08:40 original, when it says, "In the day that you eat thereof you 08:42 will die," it really says "in dying, you will die," or we 08:45 would say in English "you will begin to experience death." 08:50 And as soon as they sinned, I think that they died 08:54 spiritually, something happened. 08:55 See, up until the point when Adam and Eve sinned, God created 08:59 man in His own image, right? 09:02 If I was to define God in three words, 09:05 you could say God is love. 09:08 So, if man was made in His image, what was the motive in 09:11 man's heart? 09:13 Before sin, man was full of love. 09:17 After sin, the compass broke. 09:20 And instead of the needle pointing a way to others unto 09:23 God, the needle now pointed to self, and now the first thought 09:27 that everyone thinks is, "What's in it for me?" 09:29 WIIFM. 09:31 You've heard that expression before, WIIFM. 09:32 "What's in it for me?" 09:34 And man began to think selfishly. 09:37 Adam loved Eve, and Eve loved Adam, but after sin they start 09:40 to blame each other for everything. 09:43 So, man began to die spiritually. 09:46 Something was damaged, for lack of a better term, in our DNA, 09:51 and then that selfish nature was passed on to everybody else 09:57 following Adam and Eve. 09:59 And, you know, that's why we're all born 10:01 with these sinful tendencies. 10:05 And another way, that it says, "In the day that you eat 10:07 thereof, you will surely die." 10:09 You read in Psalms 90 and you read in 2 Peter chapter 3 a day 10:14 with the Lord is as what? 10:16 Thousand years. 10:18 How long did Adam live? 10:21 Nine hundred and thirty years. 10:23 How long did Eve live? 10:26 Bible doesn't say. 10:28 We don't know. 10:29 We believe that she died before Adam, but you look 10:32 at the early patriarchs. 10:34 Did any of them live beyond a thousand years? 10:38 Only Enoch, who went to heaven, but in their mortal bodies none 10:42 of them lived in that first millennial day--"In the day you 10:46 eat thereof you will surely die," so that whole first 10:48 generation, they all died before 10:51 that first thousand years went by. 10:52 So, it was literally fulfilled, and they literally began to 10:55 experience death. 10:58 Their light went out. 11:00 They suddenly became painfully aware of their nakedness. 11:03 You go to Genesis 3, verse 10, and it says, "So he said, 'I 11:08 heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was 11:12 naked; and I hid myself.'" 11:16 Now, were Adam and Eve streaking 11:19 around the garden in the beginning oblivious to their 11:23 nudity, and then after they eat the forbidden fruit suddenly 11:27 they became more perceptive? 11:30 Well, what happened when Jesus was 11:34 on the mountain talking to God? 11:35 What happened to His clothing? 11:38 Began to glow. 11:40 When Moses was up on the mountain talking with God, what 11:42 happened to his face? 11:45 It was shining so much he had to veil his face. 11:48 When man was in Holy Communion with God, he had these robes of 11:52 righteousness, He would glow. 11:54 But when they sinned what happened to their glowing robes? 11:58 The light went out and all of a sudden they became painfully 12:02 aware of a cool breeze, and they felt this need. 12:08 They had this kind of natural idea to cover themselves, and 12:13 they felt shame. 12:15 So, what else does sin do? 12:16 We learned sin spreads. 12:19 Sin causes shame. 12:21 Go back to that sin spreads. 12:23 You know, in the introduction to your lesson it talks about how a 12:26 bacterium--once a single solitary bacterium is introduced 12:30 into a favorable host, it can multiply to the point where 12:34 there's about 42 million in 24 hours. 12:37 Going from 1 to 42 million in 24 hours. 12:41 We've seen how a virus never -- 12:45 They're trying to back study and figure out where 12:48 the coronavirus first originated. 12:50 I'm not going to get into any of the conspiracies and, yeah, you 12:53 know, I'm not trying to blame anybody. 12:55 I'm just saying they know that it originated somewhere, but, 12:58 boy, look at how it spread. 13:01 And the immunologists and people who specialize in the 13:04 transmission of disease, they said, "We'll stop all the 13:07 airplanes and everything." 13:08 And they said, "You can't stop it." 13:10 They said, "It is going to spread, 13:12 and it is going to go global." 13:13 And you watched in those first few months. 13:15 They said, "Well, it's gone here, and it's gone there, and 13:17 it's gone there, and it's gone there." 13:18 We thought, well, maybe South America will be safe. 13:20 Maybe Africa. 13:21 Maybe India. 13:23 And I think there's a couple of islands in the Pacific that 13:25 still don't have any cases, but you basically have 13:28 to live on an island. 13:30 But it just choo. 13:31 It spread. 13:32 That's what sin does. 13:34 Why can't we go and visit other unfallen worlds? 13:41 Because sin is contagious, and this world is infected. 13:45 And you might say that, you know, we've got this disease 13:51 that is contagious and God has quarantined our planet. 13:55 After we are cleansed from sin, will we be able to soar 13:58 to worlds unknown? 14:00 Sure. 14:01 Right now, we can't see God and the angels face to face. 14:04 That just the very glory of it would destroy us, but after sin 14:07 is dealt with that will be resolved. 14:11 So, sin spreads. 14:12 We see sin causes shame. 14:14 Now, you go to Genesis 3, verse 11, and I'll read verse 13. 14:19 "And God said, 'Who told you, you were naked? 14:22 Have you--'" now, did God ever ask a question because He 14:24 doesn't know? 14:27 Does God know all things? 14:28 Yeah. 14:30 So, when God said to Adam, "Where are you?" 14:31 was that for God because God really was wanting Adam to say, 14:36 you know, "Olly, olly, all come free. 14:38 Here I am"? 14:40 Or does God know everything? 14:42 So, when He said, "What have you done?" 14:44 did God know? 14:45 He's running out of it to think about, 14:47 "Where am I now that I've sinned? 14:48 Where has it brought me?" 14:50 Sometimes, you need to evaluate, "What has this done to me?" 14:54 And why did you do it? 14:56 What did you do? 14:57 Why did you do it? 14:59 So, God is asking these questions. 15:02 Jesus asked questions. 15:03 He asked the disciples, "What were you 15:05 arguing about on the road?" 15:08 Did He know what they were arguing about? 15:10 He asked blind Bartimaeus, "What do you want Me to do for you?" 15:14 He knew what he wanted Him to do, but He said, 15:15 "I want you to ask." 15:17 Does God know what things you have need of before you pray? 15:21 So, why pray? 15:23 He wants you to ask. 15:27 "Who told you, you were naked? 15:29 Have you eaten the tree that I commanded you, 15:31 you should not eat?" 15:33 And the man says, "The woman who You gave me--" 15:37 "I was having a beautiful nap. 15:38 I woke up and all of a sudden I'm married, God. 15:40 It's all Your fault. 15:42 You didn't ask. 15:43 You opened up my side and You took out a wife, and now look at 15:46 all the trouble she's caused. 15:47 Well, it's her fault, and it's Your fault." 15:50 Notice how blame comes into it. 15:53 You got shame, and you got blame. 15:57 "'The woman that You gave me to be with me, she gave me of the 15:59 tree, and I ate.' 16:01 And the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is 16:03 this you have done?'" 16:04 Again, another rhetorical question. 16:05 He knows. 16:07 "The woman said, 'Lord, who made the serpent? 16:10 Whoever made the serpent, it's the serpent that beguiled me." 16:13 So, what's she doing? 16:15 Adam blames God, and he blames the woman. 16:18 The woman blames God and blames the serpent. 16:21 And then, God turns to the serpent and suddenly he doesn't 16:23 have a leg to stand on. 16:26 That's a joke. 16:27 I can't resist. I'm sorry. 16:30 Serpent then gets cursed, says--and he, of course, 16:32 serpent, you know, he just was possessed by the devil. 16:37 So then, you see sin causes blame. 16:39 Genesis 4, verse 5, and it says--and this is now the 16:44 conflict between Cain and Abel. 16:46 You see it also goes off into their family and their 16:49 posterity, and said, "He did not respect Cain and his offering. 16:54 And Cain was angry, and his countenance fell." 16:57 His pride was offended, and he became angry at his brother. 17:02 Now, the story that you see here at the beginning with Cain and 17:04 Abel plays itself out to the end of time. 17:07 You've got two brothers, one who is truly surrendered to God, 17:12 and one who is not. 17:14 One who wants to do it his own way, one who wants to do it 17:16 God's way. 17:18 The one who is worshiping the way God prescribes is persecuted 17:23 by the one who's manufacturing his own worship. 17:27 And when God shows approval to Abel, 17:30 Cain wants to kill his brother. 17:32 You get to the end of time, and you have the same situation. 17:34 There's two groups. 17:36 They both claim to worship God. 17:38 One worships the true way, one worships the false way. 17:41 The beast power is compelling everyone 17:43 to worship the way he says. 17:44 If you don't, you'll be killed. 17:46 And they both claim to worship the same God. 17:49 That's what a lot of people don't understand. 17:51 They think in the last days the beast power is going to be some 17:54 green-horned monster, and everyone's going to be 17:56 encouraged to worship the devil. 17:58 They'll think they are serving God. 18:00 Jesus said in John 16, "Those who kill you will think they're 18:03 offering God service," just like Paul thought that he was serving 18:07 God when he was killing Christians. 18:10 And so, because of his anger and his pride he--his brother tried 18:17 to reason with him, and he rose up, and he slew his brother. 18:21 He became filled with the devil. 18:24 And, by the way, when you lose your temper, that's typically 18:26 what's behind it, is you've surrendered to demons 18:29 that control your behavior. 18:32 "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 18:34 Then, Cain says he was--his countenance fell. 18:39 And you go to Genesis 4:19. 18:42 Then, of course, Cain takes his sister. 18:44 Says he took his wife. 18:46 No doubt took one of his sisters, and I know everyone 18:49 thinks that's really odd, but keep in mind that Adam and Eve 18:52 were technically sister and brother. 18:54 I mean, God made them both, and before there were any defects in 19:01 the genetics there was nothing wrong with 19:03 a person marrying his direct sister. 19:07 I'm sure that's what Seth did and all the other patriarchs, 19:10 and then they started marrying cousins. 19:13 Yeah, first cousins. 19:15 Jacob married a first cousin. 19:18 Isn't that right? 19:19 Isaac married a first cousin, and so it was 19:22 not considered a sin. 19:23 It wasn't until the time of Moses that He--you know, God 19:26 instructed him this could cause genetic problems. 19:29 "Do not marry close to the family tree." 19:32 And I think there are even some states in North America where 19:35 you are allowed to marry your cousin. 19:37 There are different laws, have different states about this. 19:41 But so, he took his wife, and he went off, and he began to build 19:45 in a city and populated it. 19:48 And then, you read in Genesis 4:19 one of the descendants of 19:51 Cain, Lamech, he took for himself two wives. 19:57 The name of one was Adah, the name of the second was Zillah, 20:01 and so now you have bigamy, technically, and that it ends up 20:06 going on into polygamy, many wives. 20:11 And then, you have ignomy that comes after that. 20:16 All this, and it says you know what happened? 20:19 It says then Lamech killed a man, but maybe because there was 20:23 a fight over a woman. 20:25 And so, you now see that there is the violence, polygamy, 20:30 selfishness, Genesis 6, and this is where you really 20:36 see the tables turning. 20:37 Genesis 6, chapter 1. 20:39 I'm sorry. 20:40 Genesis 6, verse 1, "And it came to pass, when men began to 20:43 multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born 20:46 to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that 20:51 they were fair; and they took them wives of all they chose." 20:57 Now, you know, some of you probably have a Bible right 21:01 here, some of you sitting here today. 21:03 And depending on what your translation is, some of those 21:05 Bibles, if you've got, like, a Good News Bible or something, it 21:09 will say that these fallen angels married 21:12 the daughters of men. 21:14 And it makes it seem like angels, demons intermarried with 21:21 humans and were able to procreate. 21:23 That is totally ludicrous and unbiblical. 21:26 Angels do not marry even other angels. 21:29 Angels are not wired that way. 21:30 The Bible says they are ministering spirits. 21:32 They are not flesh and blood. 21:34 They do not procreate. 21:36 Angels do not have babies. 21:38 They do not nurse babies. 21:39 Jesus said they neither marry nor are they given in marriage. 21:42 Angels are not born. 21:43 They are created. 21:45 Every one of them is an original, and so this whole 21:50 idea--and I've just have heard pastors preach about it. 21:52 One reason that God destroyed the world is because you had 21:55 these half-human half-demons running around the world. 21:58 No, no, no. 21:59 It's not what it's talking about. 22:02 You've got two groups. 22:04 After Cain killed Abel, God gave Adam and Eve another son. 22:09 His name was Seth, and he was born in the image of his father, 22:14 and he loved the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord. 22:15 And he and his posterity, they were the godly line. 22:18 They were called the sons of God. 22:20 You can read in 1 John chapter 1, verse 3, "Behold what manner 22:25 of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should 22:28 be called sons of God!" 22:30 We are adopted into the family of God. 22:33 "As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become 22:35 sons of God," and so the Bible is really clear. 22:38 And even in the Old Testament Isaiah says we will be sons and 22:41 daughters of God. 22:43 Seth and his posterity were the sons of God. 22:45 Now, I need to say this in fairness. 22:47 There are a couple of places that it talks about the sons of 22:49 God shouted for joy, and it's talking about unfallen angels 22:52 when the world was created. 22:54 But here in Genesis it's talking about the--in the classical 22:57 sense, it's talking about the believers, and it says they saw 23:00 the daughters of men. 23:02 See, Cain and his family didn't have eternal life. 23:06 The word there is--I think it's "enos," and it means mortal man. 23:09 They're dying, and they were supposed to maintain separation. 23:15 You know, the Bible says, 23:16 "Do not be unequally yoked together." 23:18 And when the sons of Gods said--you know, they had to 23:21 every now and then go to the valley, and they would get 23:22 involved in trade with the children of Cain. 23:25 And this may be hundreds of years after creation, you know? 23:29 People multiplied very quickly. 23:30 They lived a long time. 23:32 Adam and Eve were probably bearing children for nearly 200 23:34 years, or longer. 23:36 We don't know. 23:37 And so, they had enormous families. 23:41 I heard there's one Orthodox family, Jewish family, in 23:47 Israel, and there's one--the father is dead now, but the one 23:50 grandmother has 900 living descendants. 23:56 They all had, like, big, big families, because in their 24:00 faith, you know, they believe be fruitful and multiply. 24:03 And they did. 24:04 They got married very young. 24:05 Can you imagine that? 24:07 And that's in our time, so can you imagine how quickly humans 24:11 populated in the days of Adam and Eve? 24:17 And so, the sons of God, the children of Seth saw the 24:20 daughters of Cain, that they were fair, and they said, "Oh, 24:25 well, let's get married," kind of like Samson said, "I'd like a 24:28 Philistine wife." 24:29 And his parents said, "No, no. 24:31 You need to marry a Jewish girl, you know, even if she's from 24:35 another tribe." 24:37 And Samson said, "Oh, but she pleases me well. 24:40 Get her for me," and they gave into the complaining 24:43 of their son. 24:44 And he married a Philistine, and it ended badly, didn't it? 24:48 Do you know when you read in the Bible one of the most glorious 24:51 time was the time of Solomon, when the Queen of Sheba came? 24:54 And everything was gold, and God's people were godly. 24:57 They built the temple and--but then it says Solomon loved many 25:01 foreign women and made marriages with them. 25:05 And spiritually, right after that statement, 25:07 the kingdom goes down. 25:09 When we begin to compromise our faith with the world, it ends up 25:15 spreading that disease of sin. 25:17 And after that happened you can read where God says in verse 3, 25:21 "My Spirit will not always strive with man, for he is 25:24 indeed flesh; yet his days will be one hundred 25:27 and twenty years." 25:29 That's why it says that God then goes to Noah. 25:31 Noah builds the ark 120 years. 25:34 He preaches 120 years. 25:35 That's where that time period comes. 25:37 By the way, don't ever forget God says, "My Spirit will not 25:40 always strive with man." 25:42 Every person in their life, there's a period of time God's 25:45 Spirit will strive with you. 25:47 He wants to save you. 25:48 If we continue to put off and resist the Spirit of God, the 25:52 volume goes down. 25:54 It's very dangerous. 25:55 You can get to the point where you grieve away the Holy Spirit. 25:58 And God is extremely patient and compassionate, but you don't 26:01 ever want to temper with His mercy. 26:04 Don't ever presume on His mercy. 26:06 His Spirit will not always strive. 26:09 Sometimes, He will give us up to our choices. 26:13 And then, it goes on to say--oh, by the way, some of you are 26:16 going to ask in verse 4, "If the children of Seth married the 26:19 children of Cain and they were just humans, then why does it 26:22 say in verse 4 there were giants on the earth in those days? 26:26 And also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the 26:29 daughters of men, they bore children to them. 26:31 They were mighty men who were of old, men of renown." 26:34 They say, "Well, if they're just human, why are they giants? 26:36 Why are they men of renown?" 26:38 That is a very simple principle called genetic vitality. 26:42 Do you know if you cross a lion with a tiger, 26:44 you know what you get? 26:46 A liger. 26:48 Do you know that it will be bigger than a lion or a tiger? 26:52 It's called genetic vitality. 26:53 If you cross a zebra and a donkey, 26:56 do you know what you get? 26:58 A zonkey. 27:00 It's true, and it will be bigger than a donkey. 27:05 If you cross--and you know you can cross a donkey and a horse, 27:08 and you get a mule. 27:10 And you can cross a dolphin and a whale, and you get a wholphin. 27:15 They've done it. 27:17 This is true, and there are certain people--that in America 27:20 you've got a lot of examples of what they call genetic vitality, 27:23 because people that have, kind of, married within particular 27:25 races and then come to America, and there's more commingling 27:28 here from different parts of the world. 27:30 And people end up getting taller. 27:32 I remember my father saying--you know, my father was my height, 27:35 and he said, "When I was a man," said, "and I was in the 27:37 Service," he says, "I was considered tall." 27:40 He said, "Then all these kids came along eating nuclear 27:43 cereal, and I don't know what happened." 27:44 He said, "They all got bigger." 27:50 Three out of our four boys taller than me. 27:53 One's the same size, and so just genetic vitality. 27:56 That's all that's saying. 27:57 They weren't aliens. 27:59 They weren't half-demon. 28:02 Anyway, and so it says then, "Afterward, after the sons of 28:08 God came in to the daughters of men," verse 5, "the Lord saw 28:11 that wickedness of man was great in the earth." 28:14 You know what happens after the intermarriage? 28:16 They lose their distinctness. 28:19 Now, the balance for a Christian is you want to be holy--the 28:22 Bible says come out and be separate. 28:24 He wants us to maintain our holiness, but don't be so 28:26 separate you can't be a witness. 28:28 We must be in the world as witnesses without 28:31 the world being in us. 28:32 And if you're parents, boy, it's really delicate to know how to 28:36 raise your children in an environment where they're 28:39 shielded from a lot of the evil in the world, but you also need 28:42 to prepare them spiritually because they're going to get hit 28:45 with it someday. 28:46 They'll be out in it, and you need to know how to help them 28:49 fortify their own faith. 28:50 But there's a lot of ways you should try to insulate them and 28:54 maintain that holiness and beat it into your kids--I don't mean 28:57 that literally--when they're young. 29:01 "You're going to marry a Christian, and you're going to 29:04 go to Christian school." 29:05 You want to prepare them to know that "you know, this is 29:09 something--this is God's plan." 29:11 If they start thinking, "Oh, you know, I'll marry them, and I'll 29:14 convert them later," that's where all the trouble comes in. 29:17 All right, so they began to compromise, so sin 29:19 brings in--sin spreads. 29:22 It brings shame. 29:23 It brings blame, pride, anger, polygamy, compromise, and 29:27 ultimately corruption. 29:29 God says man is violent, corruption filled the world, and 29:33 now He must destroy it. 29:35 All right, we'll get on to the next section here. 29:37 Says "the man Noah," but Genesis chapter 6, verse 8, "Noah found 29:44 grace in the eyes of the Lord." 29:47 Here, it introduces this hero. 29:49 "This is the genealogy of Noah. 29:52 Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. 29:55 Noah walked with God. 29:58 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth." 30:01 Now, it never really tells us what years those sons were born, 30:05 but I don't think they were triplets. 30:08 And Shem was probably the oldest. 30:10 Now, here's a question for you. 30:13 Did Noah--notice it says he was blameless. 30:17 He walked with God. 30:19 He was righteous. 30:21 Was Noah righteous, blameless, and walking with God because he 30:23 found grace, or did Noah find grace because he was blameless, 30:28 righteous, and walking with God? 30:33 It's a very--that's--this is a deep theological question. 30:37 It tells us that Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, 30:40 walked with God. 30:41 He found grace in the Lord. 30:44 Did he find grace because God said, "Here's somebody that 30:47 trusts me," or did God suddenly give this person grace to be all 30:51 those good things and then that's why he did it? 30:55 I'll suggest to you that God's Spirit moved on Noah's heart 31:01 like everybody. 31:02 Didn't we just read, "My Spirit will strive with man"? 31:04 Noah responded to the striving of God's Spirit. 31:08 He chose to walk with God. 31:10 He chose to commune with God. 31:11 He chose to do what was just and walk meekly and humbly with his 31:15 God, and so God said, "Here's someone who is responding to me. 31:19 I'm going to extend further grace to him, that through him 31:23 the whole world will be saved and repopulated." 31:27 And so, it's, sort of, a mix. 31:28 It's like what comes first, the chicken or the egg? 31:30 I think Noah responded to the goodness of God and the Spirit 31:33 of God, and because he responded he found grace above the others 31:36 around him. 31:38 He was willing to obey. 31:39 God needed someone who was willing to obey to fulfill these 31:41 very important requirements of building a boat on dry land in a 31:45 wicked, violent world. 31:48 He was going to be persecuted for that, and to do it for 120 31:50 years he needed someone that was going to trust Him. 31:55 2 Peter 2, verse 5 says, "God did not spare the ancient world, 31:59 but he saved Noah, one of eight people, 32:03 a preacher of righteousness." 32:06 Now, when we think of Noah, we think of him as a carpenter. 32:08 By the way, Noah is a type of Christ. 32:10 Was Christ a carpenter? 32:14 But it says Noah was also a preacher, so Noah was preaching. 32:18 He was telling the world to turn from their wickedness. 32:20 God was going to destroy the world. 32:22 He said, "I'm building a boat, and all that want to get on 32:24 board, there'll be room. 32:25 Everybody can get on board." 32:27 Noah not only preached with his mouth, 32:29 he preached with his hammer. 32:32 You know, there's a lot of preachers that preach with their 32:34 mouth but they don't preach with their life, and you want your 32:39 life to match what you're preaching. 32:44 You know, it's like some of the televangelists. 32:45 They're asking everybody to make tremendous sacrifices for their 32:50 ministry, and they're driving Bentleys, and you wonder, "How 32:54 are they preaching with their life the same they're preaching 32:56 with their mouth," you know what I'm saying? 33:00 And so, Noah was preaching with his hammer, and he took the 33:03 persecution, and he was consistently building this boat. 33:06 And I think a lot of people believed Noah, but when they 33:09 finally came time to get on board, they gave in to the 33:12 mocking of the crowd, because there 33:13 was not a cloud in the sky. 33:15 They waited until they had physical evidence. 33:17 And you had to get on board by faith, in the Word. 33:20 They waited until they said, "I want to see signs and wonders. 33:23 I want to see some rain." 33:25 They did have one sign: all the animals came to the ark. 33:28 That should have been a clue, but there's no rain yet. 33:31 They said, "It's never rained." 33:34 Some people are going to wait until they see Christ coming in 33:36 the clouds before they repent. 33:37 It's too late then. 33:39 Matthew chapter 24. 33:41 Some other lessons Jesus gives us about Noah. 33:44 Verse 37, "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the 33:48 coming of the Son of Man be. 33:50 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and 33:53 drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that 33:56 Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood 33:59 came and took them all away." 34:01 Now, is there anything--so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 34:05 Is there anything wrong with planting and building and eating 34:08 and drinking and marrying? 34:10 Is it okay to plant and build and eat and drink? 34:13 They were preoccupied with these things. 34:16 They were preoccupied. 34:18 Jesus said, "Do not be overwhelmed with the cares of 34:20 this life so that the day comes upon you unaware." 34:23 Something else about that. 34:25 Do you plant if you think you have no future? 34:30 What good is planting if you have no--do you marry if you 34:32 think you have no future? 34:34 Isn't married--marriage predicated on the idea you're 34:36 going to have time together with the person you're marrying? 34:38 What about building? 34:39 Do you build if you don't think you're going to have time to 34:41 live in what you're building? 34:43 So, everything they were doing back then, it's basically they 34:45 were saying, "Oh, we got plenty of time. 34:47 Noah, you just keep on preaching." 34:50 And they really didn't never make any realistic preparation. 34:54 Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah--" And, you know, I 34:57 might add He not only said as it was in the days of Noah. 35:01 He said as it was in the days of Lot. 35:04 You know what? 35:06 The days of Lot have arrived, friends, 35:07 if you didn't know it, amen? 35:10 I know you can't say that or you're going to get canceled, 35:15 but you know it's true. 35:16 And I've got to preach the truth. 35:19 That's right. 35:20 I was flying back from somewhere couple weeks ago. 35:23 Oh, it's Mexico. 35:24 And I read an email somebody sent me where now it's not just 35:30 men marrying men and women marrying women, but now they've 35:34 got three people getting married and adopting children. 35:40 I just said, "We knew this was coming." 35:43 And, you know, the thoughts of men's hearts 35:45 are only evil continually. 35:49 And who would have thought, 40 years ago, 35:51 this could happen so quickly? 35:53 That a 5,000-year-old institution of marriage would 35:57 just vaporize, and churches, some churches, would support it. 36:04 That's the shocking thing. 36:05 We are living in the days of Noah and the days of Lot. 36:08 Can you say amen? 36:10 So, because wickedness filled the earth, God was going 36:12 to save the world. 36:14 He's going to destroy the world. 36:15 He destroyed it by water back then. 36:17 Peter tells us when He comes the next time He's going to destroy 36:20 it by fire, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 36:24 Now we're looking at the covenant with Noah. 36:25 Look at verse 16. 36:27 I'm sorry, verse 17 of Genesis 6. 36:30 "And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the 36:33 earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh that is on the 36:37 breath--that has the breath of life; 36:38 everything that is on the earth will die. 36:41 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you will go into 36:46 the ark--you and your sons and your wife 36:49 and your sons' wives with you." 36:52 It's pretty clear about God's arrangement about sons 36:54 and wives back then, right? 36:57 This was a covenant that was made based on grace, 37:01 but it was established by action. 37:04 So, when God makes this covenant with Noah, and Noah says, 37:06 "Praise the Lord. I'm saved. 37:08 God's going to save me. He's going to save my son. 37:10 He's going to save their wives, and I guess everything's okay 37:12 and I don't have to worry." 37:13 Is that the attitude Noah had? 37:15 Or Noah said, "Lord, I believe Your Word," and then he started 37:18 building a boat? 37:20 So, Noah was saved by grace, but he showed that he was saved by 37:24 grace by getting out his hammer and his saw. 37:27 See what I'm saying? 37:29 And so, when David killed Goliath, he said, "I come 37:33 against you in the name of the Lord." 37:34 He was trusting in God, but he also had a sling. 37:37 So, some people just believe the grace part. 37:39 They don't believe the practical aspects of grace. 37:43 If you really believed--it's like James says, "You can show 37:46 me your faith without your works, and I will show you my 37:49 faith by my works." 37:51 This is exactly what Noah did, and it mentions this in Hebrews, 37:55 as well, Hebrews 11. 37:58 So, God's grace kept Noah from the wrath of man. 38:03 He preserved him that 120 years. 38:04 The world was full of violence and, let's admit it, Noah was 38:09 doing something very odd and different 38:10 from the rest of the world. 38:12 He was going against the tide of wickedness. 38:15 God protected Noah from the wrath of beast and from the 38:19 storm, and so these are some ways we see 38:22 God showed him grace. 38:25 Now, are we saved based on a covenant with Jews? 38:30 Was Noah saved because he was Jewish? 38:33 I'll just check here real quick. 38:35 How many of you have had your ancestry DNA done? 38:38 I have. My kids did it for me. 38:40 Okay, we see some. 38:41 How many of you were related to Noah? 38:43 Did it show? 38:46 It didn't show up? 38:47 It really ought to, because, you know, all of us are here 38:51 because of Noah. 38:53 The whole world was saved. 38:54 Anyone alive in the world today is because of the grace and the 38:57 covenant of Noah, all flesh, 39:00 because of the faith of that man. 39:02 All right, the sign of the rainbow. 39:05 Boy, I see--I thought--my time went so quickly. 39:09 Let's talk about this. 39:11 Genesis 9:12. 39:13 After the flood, of course, he preserved them from that 39:15 terrible deluge, the flood. 39:19 By the way, you know, I think it's interesting all the 39:23 paleontologists, they look at the fossil record around the 39:27 world, and they say, "All of these bones we see are the 39:31 result of a cataclysmic flood on almost a global scale 39:38 caused by an asteroid." 39:42 They can tell from the evidence in the fossils there was a 39:45 cataclysmic flood that altered the surface of the earth, and 39:49 all these things died very suddenly, but they can't accept 39:53 that it was God-caused. 39:54 They say it was from an asteroid, 39:56 and they're only speculating. 39:57 They think, well, maybe it landed in the Gulf of Mexico. 40:00 They don't know where it landed. 40:01 That part they haven't quite found yet, because they can't 40:05 believe that God sent a flood. 40:07 Anyway. 40:08 All right. 40:10 After that he preserves them, and God then puts this bow in 40:13 the heavens. 40:14 Now, it had never rained before, so they'd never seen this 40:16 phenomenon that you and I take for granted. 40:18 You know, we see a rainbow. 40:19 We get our cameras out, say, "Isn't it pretty?" 40:21 and we send it to our friends. 40:22 But it is so pretty, but it's--they'd never seen that. 40:27 It'd never rained. 40:30 "This is the sign of the covenant that I'll make between 40:32 Me and you, and every living creature," so this is a 40:34 covenant, another covenant God makes not just with Noah, but 40:37 even the animals. 40:39 "A perpetual covenant for generations: I set My rainbow in 40:43 the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between 40:46 Me and the earth. 40:47 And it will be that when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the 40:50 rainbow will be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My 40:53 covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of 40:57 all flesh; the waters will never again become a flood 41:00 to destroy all flesh." 41:02 Are there still floods that destroy? 41:05 But they're not global floods, is what He's saying. 41:07 "The rainbow will be in the cloud, and I'll look for it to 41:11 remember the everlasting covenant--" Now, does God need 41:13 to look at the rainbow and go, "Oh, yeah. 41:15 I promised I wouldn't wipe them out"? 41:17 It's just a sign, this, sort of, poetic way of God saying, "I'm 41:20 going to see that. 41:21 I'll remember the covenant." 41:23 God never forgets anything. 41:25 "'Between you--God and every living creature and all flesh 41:28 that is on the earth.' 41:29 And God said to Noah, 'This is the sign 41:30 of the covenant that I've established between Me and all 41:34 flesh that is on the earth.'" 41:35 So, God gave us that sign, and 41:37 every time we see a rainbow, even if it's just the sun-shower 41:40 on a nice day, whenever you see a rainbow we're reminded 41:43 of the mercy of God. 41:44 Every day of life is because of the mercy of God He extends. 41:49 The rainbow also reminds us He did destroy the world once with 41:52 water, and He will do it again with fire. 41:54 It's what 2 Peter chapter 3 tells us. 41:58 Now, you know a rainbow is just an interesting scientific 42:01 phenomenon of the light hits those droplets of water and it 42:06 refracts and bounces off the dense material, and it has that 42:10 prism effect where it separates the different wavelengths into 42:14 those colors of a rainbow. 42:16 And it's really phenomenal. 42:17 Some of you probably played with a prism before, and you can see 42:20 how a prism will break down the different spectrum of light, and 42:25 it is really fascinating how that happens. 42:28 You know, rainbows appear other times in the Bible. 42:31 Look in Ezekiel 1:26. 42:33 It's talking about the throne of God. 42:35 "And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of 42:38 a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness 42:42 of the throne was a likeness of--with the appearance of a man 42:46 high above it. 42:48 Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it 42:51 were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all 42:54 around within it; and from the appearance of His waist downward 42:57 I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with 42:59 brightness all around. 43:01 Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so 43:05 was the appearance of the brightness all around it. 43:08 This was the appearance, 43:09 the likeness of the glory of the Lord. 43:12 So when I saw it, I fell down on my face, and I heard the voice 43:15 of One speaking." 43:17 You can also look here in Revelation 4, verse 3. 43:21 "He who sat there was like jasper and a sardius stone in 43:25 appearance; and there was a rainbow all around the throne, 43:29 in appearance like an emerald," speaking of the throne of God. 43:32 So, this is a symbol. 43:34 Now, I don't know how you feel, but I--I'm sometime saddened 43:38 when I see that this beautiful biblical symbol of God's grace 43:41 and holiness has been hijacked by, you know, militant 43:46 homosexuals to be a symbol for them, and I, kind of, wish that 43:52 Christians would, sort of, take it back again. 43:54 I can promise you if Christians started putting rainbows all out 43:57 in front of their churches, the militant homosexuals would stop 44:02 using it, because they wouldn't want that association. 44:07 You didn't know I was going to say things that were so plain. 44:11 It's interesting. 44:13 If you read in Sumerian myths--now, the Sumerian myths, 44:17 you know, there is some similarity between biblical 44:19 truth, and they've got this story about a Sumerian hero. 44:24 His name was Gilgamesh and in the "Epic of Gilgamesh" talks 44:27 about this great flood that wiped out the whole world. 44:30 And he was to build a boat and bring the animals on board, very 44:32 much like the story of Noah. 44:34 He even sends out ravens and doves at the end of the story, 44:37 and it says, "The god Ishtar created the rainbow and placed 44:41 it in the sky as a reminder to the gods and a pledge to mankind 44:45 there would be no more floods." 44:47 Isn't it interesting that some of these ancient myths mirror 44:51 aspects--they're drawn from the truth of the Bible? 44:55 All right. 44:56 Then you finally get to the last section here. 44:58 It says, "Only Noah was left," meaning Noah, 45:00 his house, his family. 45:02 Genesis 7, verse 23, "So He," God, "destroyed all living 45:07 things that were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, 45:10 creeping things and birds of the air. 45:12 They were destroyed from the earth. 45:14 Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark 45:17 remained alive." 45:18 What does that teach us about the last days? 45:21 Only those in the ark survived in the last days. 45:24 Only those in Christ will survive. 45:28 There was a--side of Jesus was pierced. 45:32 There was an opening from which came blood and water. 45:35 There was only one door in the ark. 45:37 I think I mentioned these things last week. 45:38 Christ said, "I am the door. 45:40 Anyone who goes around any other way is a thief and a robber. 45:43 I am the way. I am the truth. 45:45 I am life." There's only one way. 45:47 One of the favorite phrases of the apostle Paul 45:49 was to say "in Christ." 45:51 Over and over, Paul talks about being in Christ, and as we are 45:56 in Christ, we are in that ark of salvation. 46:00 You get several arks in the Bible. 46:01 You know, God's holy law was put in an ark. 46:04 It's a box. 46:07 And then, the Savior, Moses was put in an ark and preserved. 46:14 God's law, His Word was preserved, and then, of course, 46:17 Noah, the human race was preserved in this ark, and we 46:21 need to treat our brains like an ark and hide His Word in there 46:25 and have the Savior in there. 46:28 So, Noah was the remnant. 46:30 Everyone is wiped out, but He saved a remnant of humanity, a 46:33 remnant of the animals. 46:35 All of the elephants you see in the world today, probably even 46:39 the woolly mammoths and mastodons, all those derivatives 46:42 of elephants, from two elephant-like animals that Noah 46:45 took on the ark. 46:46 They were the remnants that saved everything else. 46:48 When God called Abraham out from Ur of the Chaldees, 46:53 he was the remnant. 46:55 God saved a remnant from the people that came from 46:57 Mesopotamia, and He rose up a holy nation from that remnant, 47:02 as He had done with Noah. 47:05 Now, the word "remnant," according to "Webster's 47:06 Dictionary"--and, by the way, you find it 47:09 85 times in the Bible. 47:12 It means "something that is left over," "a remainder," like a 47:16 leftover piece of a fabric after the rest has been used, "a 47:20 surviving trace or vestige." 47:22 Any remnant that you might see or use is going to have some 47:25 similarity to the original. 47:26 If you get a remnant cloth, that last piece that comes off the 47:29 bolt of cloth, it's going to look something 47:30 like the original, right? 47:32 In the last days, God is going to have a remnant that's going 47:35 to be saved, and that remnant that he calls out of Babylon is 47:40 going to be like the original, 47:42 as it was in the days of the apostles. 47:45 You can have the faith that was once delivered to the saints. 47:49 Abraham was a remnant. 47:50 Joseph. 47:52 He said in Genesis 45:7, "So God sent me before you 47:56 to preserve you a remnant in the earth, 47:58 to save your life by great deliverance." 48:02 You remember when Athaliah wanted to kill all the royal 48:04 seat of David? 48:06 And Joash was the only descendant that was saved, and 48:10 from that remnant, that one baby, 48:12 the line of David was preserved. 48:15 And, of course, Jesus comes through the line of David. 48:19 And then, you've got, of course, Jeremiah 23. 48:22 "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries 48:26 where I've driven them, and bring them back to their folds; 48:30 and they will be fruitful and increase." 48:32 In the last days, God is calling His people back to the Word. 48:35 He's going to save a remnant from the blizzard of 48:40 Christianity that is around the world right now. 48:43 Well, friends, I can see that I'm just about out of time. 48:46 I want to reserve a little time just to remind you don't forget 48:49 about the free offer, and it's called 48:51 "Satan's Confusing Counterfeits," and you can get 48:53 this by simply calling 866-788-3966. 48:58 That's 866-STUDY-MORE. 49:00 And for those of you who are watching this live next week, 49:04 which is April 2 and 3, we're going to be having a special 49:07 program called "Amazing Sanctuary" right here, and it 49:10 will be streaming for you also on AFTV. 49:13 God bless you. 49:15 We'll study His Word together again next week. 49:20 male announcer: Don't forget to request today's life-changing 49:22 free resource. 49:24 Not only can you receive this free gift in the mail, you can 49:26 download a digital copy straight to your computer 49:29 or mobile device. 49:30 To get your digital copy of today's free gift, simply text 49:33 the key word on your screen to 40544, or visit the web address 49:38 shown on your screen, and be sure to select the digital 49:41 download option on the request page. 49:43 It's now easier than ever for you to study God's Word with 49:47 Amazing Facts wherever and whenever you want and, most 49:50 important, to share it with others. 49:59 male: I'm from Armenia. 50:00 I'm Armenian, and I was born there, but I was raised in L.A. 50:03 I was a sophomore in high school, so give or take 15, 50:07 16 years old. 50:08 And I had some idea about God because I was raised in a 50:12 Christian home, but to know Him as the Bible taught, no clue. 50:16 I was really poor in math, so my mom took me to a math tutor 50:19 every Sunday morning to sharpen my skills, if you will. 50:23 And one particular Sunday morning we were watching those 50:26 Sunday-morning TV shows where the preachers are preaching, and 50:29 Doug Batchelor happened to be on. 50:31 I paid attention. 50:32 I'm like, "Mom, makes pretty good sense, though," because he 50:34 was backing up with Scripture. 50:36 So, once Doug Batchelor finished his sermon, the announcer said, 50:39 "If you're interested in Bible studies, you can go to the 50:42 Amazing Facts website, and there's a link there 50:44 for free Bible studies." 50:45 So, I said, "I got spring break next week. 50:48 Might as well just do it because I have nothing else to do." 50:51 Well, I did it for about two, three days nonstop. 50:53 I was up until 2, 3 in the morning doing the Bible study 50:56 guides, and when I was done I was like, "Wow! 50:59 I have no idea about God. 51:02 I thought I did, but I don't." 51:03 So, as I was beginning to learn all these things, my mom was 51:07 open, because she's the one who was actually watching the shows. 51:12 And so, she began to study alongside with me after my first 51:15 lessons were done, and she embraced the truth because she 51:18 was open to the truth. 51:20 But what the real problem was, was my grandmother. 51:23 Growing up in an Armenian home, if you ever go away from your 51:26 own religion, from your own Christianity, it's like you're 51:29 an heretic, so there was a war between myself and my grandma. 51:33 So, I had to study with her in her own language, in Armenian to 51:38 show from her Bible the things that I was learning was actually 51:40 from the truth. 51:41 So, as my mom and I began to attend the church, we made a 51:44 decision to get baptized as members, and so we got baptized 51:48 some months later after doing some 51:50 Bible studies with the pastor. 51:51 And then, I went to school, and I said to my friends, "I'm 51:55 officially a Seventh-day Adventist," 51:56 with a big grin on my face. 51:58 And they said to me, "What is that?" 52:01 It dawned on me I'm a teenager going to high school. 52:04 I'm not ordained. 52:05 I'm not a professor. 52:07 I don't know much. 52:08 I just know that I did some Bible studies, I learned about 52:11 Christ, and now I'm sharing with those friends of mine, so I 52:14 began to study with some of my friends in the school bus, in 52:16 the class about the things I was learning. 52:19 And I began to share the Bible study guides from Amazing Facts 52:21 with them, and I gave them some DVDs 52:23 from Amazing Facts, as well. 52:25 And I began to read and read, because as I was sharing things 52:28 with people they asked me questions about God, to which I 52:31 said, "Let me get back to you." 52:33 So, I had to go back and purchase some more books and 52:36 study out those topics so I can give them a answer. 52:38 I probably ordered over a thousand dollars' worth of books 52:41 from Amazing Facts, books on Revelation and Daniel and 52:45 prophecy and the law and grace and all sorts of things. 52:49 And so, Amazing Facts was really crucial at that stage, where it 52:52 provided the resources I needed to know the Bible better 52:56 and to share my faith with others. 52:58 But it's funny how God works, because years later they 53:02 themselves got baptized in church. 53:04 And when they came to me, they said, "I am officially a 53:07 Seventh-day Adventist myself." 53:09 To this very day, every Sabbath morning--my mom isn't able to go 53:12 to church, but she watches Amazing Facts online every 53:15 Sabbath as her divine worship. 53:17 If it wasn't for Amazing Facts, I would have not known Christ. 53:20 I would have not had that peace that He offers, and all these 53:24 people who came to know Christ would have 53:26 not had the opportunity. 53:28 My name is Taron Hovsepyan. 53:30 I want to thank you for changing my life. 53:46 announcer: Amazing facts. Changed lives. 53:54 Josh: Our family was Christian, to begin with. 53:57 Mom and Dad were involved at the church at times. 53:59 On the inside our family wasn't really Christian, I guess. 54:02 It was just--it was a front that we put on. 54:05 My dad suffered from bipolar disorder. 54:08 Instead of taking his medication, 54:09 he turned to alcohol. 54:11 He could be mad one second and the next second he'd be happy, 54:14 and it was so confusing for us. 54:16 Most of the time, we'd be upstairs to try to avoid them. 54:21 I made good grades all the way up until high school. 54:23 High school, I started struggling because my mom was a 54:27 single parent at the time, and I had to get a job. 54:29 I was working every day after school. 54:32 I didn't have many friends to talk to, 54:33 so I was getting depressed. 54:35 I was always tired. 54:37 I started failing my assignments because I would fall asleep 54:39 during class, and I couldn't listen to the teachers. 54:41 I couldn't comprehend what they were saying. 54:44 By my 11th-grade year, I dropped out, and I tried homeschooling. 54:49 I just ended up working full-time. 54:52 I had lots of girlfriends growing up, but I was always 54:54 terrified of talking to guys. 54:56 Like, my hands would start to sweat. 54:57 I would tense up. 54:59 I couldn't talk. 55:00 I guess that's when I started developing an attraction. 55:04 Gay guys weren't scary to talk to, 55:06 so I started talking to them. 55:07 And then, I started meeting them, and then it just went from 55:09 there, and then I started having relationships with them. 55:13 I just wanted to find someone who would care. 55:16 After high school, most of my friends were gone, 55:19 but there were a few left home. 55:21 We all started getting into drugs 55:23 and smoking weed and drinking. 55:25 I was able to leave my depression behind, 55:27 and I wasn't shy anymore. 55:28 I was able to talk to anyone I wanted to. 55:30 It wasn't real, but it felt real at the time. 55:34 During this time, I felt like God had left me. 55:38 I'd hear conversations at church talking about gays and people on 55:41 drugs and stuff, and, you know, they'd talk so bad about them. 55:44 It drove me to leave church. 55:46 I eventually just left church. 55:47 I left God. 55:48 I just didn't care anymore. 55:50 I didn't care what God thought because 55:51 I didn't think He cared about me. 55:54 At the beginning of this year, I moved in with my boyfriend. 55:57 I still felt empty. 55:58 I still wasn't happy. 55:59 I thought I had what I wanted. 56:01 I had a guy that I could love, and I thought he loved me, but I 56:03 was still empty. 56:04 I still felt like if I died today I wasn't sure where I was 56:07 going to go, and I wasn't sure if I'd be 56:09 a disappointment to everyone. 56:13 My grandma texted me. 56:15 She told me that an Amazing Facts evangelist was coming to 56:18 our church to do a prophecy seminar. 56:20 I didn't really want to go because I've been to those 56:22 before, and they were normally pretty boring, 56:24 and I'd fall asleep. 56:26 I was planning on making excuses for every night, 56:27 but she was dedicated. 56:29 She really wanted me to go, and so did my mom, 56:31 so I ended up going to church. 56:32 And the evangelist that was speaking, he was speaking 56:34 on the sanctuary that morning. 56:37 It made sense to me that there was someone up in heaven 56:39 pleading my cause. 56:41 I've never heard Jesus this way before. 56:44 I went back all the nights that I could, 56:45 except the nights that I worked. 56:46 At the end of it, I ended up getting re-baptized. 56:49 I made a decision to leave this life behind. 56:51 I was still attracted to men, 56:53 but I wanted to leave the lifestyle. 56:56 I didn't want to live in it anymore, any longer, 56:58 because I knew it was wrong. 56:59 The evangelist that was at our church that did the prophecy 57:02 seminar became my mentor. 57:04 He told me about this school called AFCOE. 57:06 It stands for Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism, and I was 57:09 like, "Well, I want that, because I want to learn 57:11 how to share Jesus. 57:12 I want to learn how to be able to help others." 57:14 I prayed about it. I applied online. 57:16 They accepted my application, 57:18 but I still had the money problem left. 57:20 That night, right before I left, He provided over $3,000, and 57:24 He's been providing for me ever since. 57:26 The tools that I've learned here are tools that will stick with 57:29 me forever, and it was life-changing to be able 57:31 to come here, to AFCOE. 57:34 I would love to help other people in my situation because a 57:37 lot of people have prayed that God would take this stuff away, 57:40 and then they get discouraged when He doesn't. 57:42 But what they don't know is that Jesus is there. 57:45 He'll help you through it. 57:47 My name is Josh, and Amazing Facts helped change my life. 57:53 ♪♪ 58:03 ♪♪ 58:12 ♪♪ 58:19 ♪♪ |
Revised 2021-04-09