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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and mama… and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach is told free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calbryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want to share a few things with you. First of all, turn in your Bible to the book of Genesis, the book of Genesis and chapter five. Genesis chapter five. Jesus Christ says when asked when He was coming back to the earth. He gave this in several places in Matthew, also in the book of Luke, talking about as it was in the days of Noah. Genesis chapter 5 and the first verse that makes this statement, that these are the generations, the book of the generations of Adam and the day that God created him.

And male and female in verse 2, verse 3, made in his likeness in God’s image. And he had a son named Seth. But the Bible says that there was about a hundred and something years before Seth was born and then he lived and then he died. And you’ll notice in verse 8, and all the days of Seth were 912 years in, he died. And down in verse 11, and all the days of Enos were 905 years in, he died.

And verse 14, and all the days of Canaan were 910 years and he died. Boy, this year lived a long time. Down in verse 20, the Bible makes this statement. It says, in all the days that Jared were 962 years and he died in Enoch, lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. Now sometimes you’ll hear people say he’s as old as Methuselah. Well because Methuselah was 969 years. That’s a long time for a man to live. And it makes the statement down in verse 29, 7, and all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died.

But many believe that because of his name, Methuselah in the Hebrew, meaning that when he is dead, judgment will come. And they believe that the year he died was the year of the flood. But there was another man that was born here in verse 22, and Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah 300 years and begot sons and daughters. And And all the days of Enoch were 360 in five years. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him.

So this man did not have to die. So what we have here, as the Bible says, they are types in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament God told stories. These stories that were told illustrate different periods of time. the feast that are mentioned. There’s seven feasts mentioned in the book of Leviticus, especially chapter 23, and it lays them out. And all of these feasts refer to various points in time because they are types, just like Joseph going down into Egypt.

And the Bible says that is also that is a type, it’s the type of Christ, and getting a Gentile bride and so forth. But what we have, have, when you talk about before the flood, Enoch was taken out of the world before he saw death. He is a type of the rapture. In other words, God says that he took this man out of this world and he never saw physical death. And he was taken before the flood. This is a type of the flood upon the earth.

It’s a judgment upon the earth. God brought the flood, and he says, as it was in the days of Noah, even so shall it be again before the Lord comes back to the earth. So before he comes back, this is a type of the flood, and the type of the flood is the type here of the rapture concerning Enoch. So it lays it out. The Bible is very systematic. God knows what he’s doing. We can know the future just like we can know the past.

The center of all human history is His story. That’s why it’s called history. His story. It’s God’s story before Christ and His story after Christ. And that’s why even all the dates that we put on everything is always A.D. or B.C. It’s always either before Christ after Christ. Christ is the central point in human history. Everything deals with Him. So now what we have is the rapture is going to take place next. This is what happened to Enoch. We are going to be translated in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 and around verse 6 it says that he had this testimony that he pleased God and he was translated.

He would mean he was changed in a moment. The twinkling of an eye caught up out of this world so his physical body was changed. He never saw physical death. Wouldn’t that be nice if that would happen in our lifetime? Now the older I get the more problems I’m starting to have and it didn’t just start yesterday but it started never my angle and tell you all of them but we all have problems as we get older and we know that regardless we’re not going to live, no, six and seven, eight hundred years.

But regardless of how long you live, you die. And so the key thing is when Christ comes in the air for us, He doesn’t come to the earth. This is the next thing to happen according to God’s timetable. There’s about 2,000 years from here to here. It’s been almost 2,000 years because our date that we have is from the birth of Christ, but the cross was about 33 A.D. afterwards. So it’ll be actually 2000 years than about another 20 years or so.

So the rapture will take place and will be out of this world. Now God’s going to take us out before He brings the judgment upon the earth. But the judgment is true, it will come. And then Christ will return to the earth just like He promised. But when He makes the statement, as it was in the days of Noah, well just how was it in the days of no one. I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Peter.

1 Peter and there’s a scripture there, several of them that I want us to look at. And it makes the statement about the judgments that God has brought upon the earth. First of all, look there in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18. And understand that when Jesus Christ came to the earth, he died, paid for sin, came back from the dead. So in verse 18 it says, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins.

You see, Christ does not come down tomorrow and pay for what I did today, and then next year he’ll come down and pay for what I did this year and so forth. Now Christ came into the world one time, died on the cross, one time to pay for all the sins of the world one time never has to do it again. So he hath once suffered for sins, so he doesn’t do it again. That means either Christ paid for all my sins when he died or he didn’t do me any favors.

If he paid for 99 I might send the left one sin unpaid, he didn’t help me, cause it only takes one sin for a man to go to hell. And for all have sinned and come short of God’s perfection. Now get what he says here. The just for the unjust, who’s the just, that’s God, that’s Christ. He is just. He’s justified. He has no sin. Doesn’t have to worry about it. We are the ones that were sinful. We were unjust.

So the just for the unjust. He was perfect and he died for the imperfect. So this is what the scripture says. And why did he do this? Look at that verse. Why did he do this? He says that he might bring us to God. See, there’s no other way for a man to get to God. God. You don’t get to God by going to church and keeping the commandments and doing all the good stuff and paying money to pay for Him.

All of it is boiled down to what He did, that He might bring us to God, get this, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit. Now Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was buried. But the Bible says the Holy Spirit of God quickened his body and he became alive and was raised from the dead. That’s why he says, I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it up.

In other scripture says, God has raised him from the dead. Other scripture talks about Jesus said, the Spirit have done this. So Christ, God, the Father and the Holy Spirit all had power to raise him from the dead. But he was totally committed to the yielding of himself to his father and so the father through the Spirit Quickened his body and raised him from the dead now get this There’s a scripture here and is sometimes very confusing It’s very difficult sometimes to be able to explain all scripture.

I have not yet been able to do that So I want to look at this verse in two different ways One, it says here in verse 19, by which also he went, and he preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. Now we know that Noah preached approximately 120 years. Now think about that. 120 years in the building of the ark. Now whether it took all that time or not, I do not know.

I don’t know how long it took them to build it. But the Bible says that God would give them 120 years. This is also called with some theologians. This is a grace period where God was bestowing grace upon the earth, where they could, whoever wanted to, could go into the ark. But as time went on, the Bible says they mocked, they made fun, they would not, and they lived their lives and the Bible says they married, they gave in marriage, and they bought and they sold, they planted, in other words, they lived life, just lived life.

And so what God said carried no weight whatsoever. They didn’t heed the warning. They didn’t believe there was going to be a flood. As far as we know, it never rained upon the earth because God said that He’s watered the ground by the dew. So as we know, it may never have rained upon the earth before this, before the flood. And they have never seen a flood. But I’ve been on top of the Rocky Mountains and there are seashells all over the Rocky Mountains on the very top of them.

Some people say, well, the flood could have been a little local flood. You have no local flood. If it’s going to be a little local flood, is the next time going to be a little local fire? Now is he going to burn the whole earth? And I believe that the whole earth was under water. I believe in Genesis chapter 1, it was all under water at one time. And then God said, let the dry land appear. So when God says it was under water, I believe it was under water.

When He said, let the dry land appear, I believe that’s what happened. And when God says He flooded the whole earth, I believe that’s exactly what He did. And so God says that He has done these things, but He went in verse 19 and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, where the ark was preparing, where in feud. So we believe that during that 120 years, Noah had preached, he was a preach of righteousness, and because of that, he had his sons and they built the ark, and while it was preparing, that says that few eight souls were saved.

And get what he says. That is eight souls were saved by water. And like figure, we’re unto even baptism to also now save us. Not they put it away at the field of the flesh, but they answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now these verses, no doubt, are very difficult because you can take them several different ways, but I want us to look at a couple of them. Number one, when the Bible tells us that when Christ died on the cross, and the Bible says that He went to the place of Paradise because He told the thief on the cross.

Today, shout out, be with me in Paradise, which is in the heart of the earth. This total place here in the Old Testament is called Shiel, that’s Hebrew. In the New Testament, it is called Hades, but it’s both referring to the exact same place. And so this is called hell in many places. It’s the place of the departed dead. And there’s a goth between those that were in paradise and those that are in place called torment. So a person could go to the place of paradise those who believed on the Lord up until the cross.

But they couldn’t go to heaven because their sins had not yet been paid. Christ had not yet died. The sins had been paid, but they were there like on credit, an escrow account. Christ died on the cross, made a payment for sin. The Bible says then, and then He went to the place of paradise that very same day. And He preached to the spirits in prison. So the question comes is, did He preach to the people that were here?

Or did He preach to the people that were here? Now, let’s just pretend that maybe he preached to those that were in both places. If he preached to those that were believers, then the Bible says he led captivity captive and he took those people to heaven, and so now paradise is in heaven. Now whenever a man dies, he doesn’t go here because now to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in heaven. So when I die, my body goes to the grave, but I don’t live in my body.

I’m absent from my body. That’s what death is. Death is absent from the body. So now I don’t go to this place. I go immediately to be with the Lord in heaven. So therefore all these people that were saved up until the time across, when he died, he took those people and took them to heaven. Now another thing. What about the other people? You see, there’s another possibility that doing the flood, Many believe that there were angels that also sinned back at that time and that’s where the giants in the land came from because these angels took upon human form and they mated with the women of that day and was corrupting the human line.

But the Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So God took Noah and his wife, three sons, and their three wives, and they were placed into the ark. Now the same water that destroyed the people upon the earth, the water also saved a few that were in the ark because the water floated the ark that had the people inside of it. So the ark is a type of Jesus Christ. All those that were in the Ark of safety in Christ, which that is a type of, totally provided for, and they were in the Ark, and the Bible says that, I believe God shut the door.

Those people were safe from the judgment of the world. And so when the flood was over with, there was only eight people left upon the earth. And after they came out of the Ark on the top of Mount Ararach, and the Bible says they begin to multiply, and they grew and there was a man named Nimrod who was against God, and he got all the people together. They only had one language upon the earth. I believe there’s also a possibility that the landmass upon the earth was only one solid landmass.

We didn’t have the continents like we have today. And now there are even scientists who are saying that there used to be maybe just one landmass. in that. In other words, all the land was together. And then after the flood, when God told him, he says, I want you to lay off this building of this power of Babel and this call Babel because you can’t understand what somebody else is saying, like a little child, Babylon. And they, God gave them different languages, different races, it happened all at the same Do you realize how difficult it is to learn someone’s language?

Unless God gave them the language, where did all the languages come from? And each one would have a separate writing. Isn’t it wonderful that there’s Japanese language? There’s French, there’s Spanish, and you’ve got English, and you’ve got German, and you think of how many languages in the world? There are no new languages being started. Nobody’s developing new languages. Well, how did all these languages start? God did it. And also gave them a way of writing their language. But I believe that the flood answers many things.

Now, if this happened the way God says it did, and when you read the New Testament, Jesus Christ talked about Noah and the flood. And he says, as it was in the days of Noah. Then he also talks about, in other scriptures, concerning Noah and we just read a scripture about the flood and scripture about the yard and about Noah and the few that were in it, eight. It still says exactly the same thing. So either the story of Noah is true or it’s not true.

But what if it is true? If it is true and God did exactly what he said was going to do. Is it possible that what God said is going to happen next is going to happen just like he said? Well, if all that happened and it’s only a type, a shadow of that which is really going to take place, that was one man taken out of this world. God says this when it happens is going to take every Christian.

And regardless of who they may be, wherever they may be, on the whole face of the earth, at that moment, every one of them will be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, and will be caught up to make the Lord in the air, because you will not physically die. And then there will be this judgment upon the earth. You see, while the judgment is gone upon the earth, see we are safe with the Lord in heaven.

This judgment cannot affect us. Those that were in the art, were not reflected by the flood. They were safe and secure in the art. Wherein few, they were saved. Now in the same scripture, it talks about a baptism. Now if you’ll notice up there, it says in verse 21, the like figure, we’re unto even baptism that also now save us. So there’s many people think, well, you have to be baptized in water in order to be saved. But the very next part of the verse says, not the put in the way of the filth of the flesh.

In other words, that baptism does not deliver. You will wash the sins away. It doesn’t take away the filth of the flesh. Water will not wash the dirt off your neck if you don’t use soap with it and it’s a water cannot baptize or take away your sins. But it says the answer of a good conscience toward God. Let’s say you have trusted Christ as your Savior. Well understand how this works. Let’s say for example if I had Leon standing out up here and Leon was perfect and we’re not.

Leon is going to die and pay for my sins. Isn’t that wonderful? So Leon dies and pays for my sin. If I believe he did it for me, whatever Leon did was for me. So it put to my account like I did it, but I didn’t really do it. So Leon dies on the cross. It would be like me dying on the cross because he’d doing it for me. And when he’s buried, that would be like me being buried, but I’m not really being buried, but he’s doing it for me like I did it, but I didn’t really do it.

He did it for me. When Leon comes back from the dead, it wasn’t that I came back from the dead, it was that, well, he did it for me. It was put to my account. So everything that Leon did, he was put to my account. So the Bible says, this is what Jesus Christ did for us. So whenever you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, that he was buried, and that he rose again and he did it for you, then God wants every one of us to be baptized.

Being baptized in water is a picture of you going under the water, that’s a picture of your burial, coming up out of the water, it’s a picture of your resurrection. God says he wants us to be baptized in water because it is a picture of what Christ did for us. You see, I didn’t really down the cross. I didn’t really get buried. I didn’t really come back from the dead. But it’s put to my account like I did it.

Like I paid for all my sins. But I really didn’t pay for any of my sins. He did it for me. And God accepted what He did. The only alternative is for me to accept what He did. God accepts the payment Christ made for the sins of the world. God will accept it. God was satisfied. And by that he raised him from the dead as the proof that the payment was made and it’s called propitiation. He is the propitiation for our sin.

I mean, he is the satisfaction. God is satisfied with the payment he made. God is not satisfied with you trying to earn your salvation. He’s not satisfied with you doing a church. He’s not satisfied with you giving money. He’s not satisfied with you trying to get anything to please God except through this. It’s the only way. So when you accept Christ, he did it for you. Therefore, it is a sign of a good conscience. Your conscience is clear because you obeyed God and did what God says to him.

So if you have trusted Christ as your savior, you know you have eternal life. You believe he did this for you. Should you be baptized? Yes, does it get you to heaven? No. Does it wash away your sin? No. But it is a good conscience toward God because God says, this is what I want you to do and it’s a step of obedience. If you will not obey God in this, in baptism, you won’t obey God in a lot of things because you’ll pick and choose what you will and will not do.

But if you can do this, then you can do anything else. God asks you to do. So don’t be rebatious. If you trust the Lord, you should be baptized in water, not to be saved, but because you are saved. Now, right now in verse 22, He has gone into heaven. He’s at the right hand of God. And guess what? He is coming back again. Take your Bible now and look there in the book of 2 Peter. Second Peter, and look in verse 5.

When God talks about that He did not spare the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person. See there God sent it again. It says in the Old Testament, says it in the New Testament, spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness. So He didn’t just build a boat. He didn’t just build the art. He was a preacher. He preached to the people. He warned the people, but they would not listen. They would not heed.

They rebelled and then whenever the water began to come, I can picture those people banging on the door and hollering and crying and screaming and so forth and the flood came. The Bible says and the windows of heaven were opened and the fountains of the deep came up. The water came from both directions and they could not get in. In other words, there was a time when they could have and then there was a time when they couldn’t have.

a time when you can trust Christ as your Savior and there’s a time when you cannot trust the Lord it’s too late. While you live in this world you have a chance you can trust Christ as your Savior but the moment you die or it’s too late. I was talking to a lady not long ago about two weeks ago God says do you know where you go on when you die she says no not really I really don’t care I said well can I explain it to you just in case you do care later and I won’t be around me to tell you.

It’s kind of smiled. Anyway, I went ahead and I explained how she could have eternal life. When I got through, she, I said, Will you trust Christ as your savior? I thought she was really right there. She says, No, no. I appreciate you talking to me, but no, not interested. Just walked away. Well, she came back later and gave me some coffee and I says, Would you just do me a favor. She said, what’s that? I says, in the main time between now and this time when you find out all your answers, I says, don’t die.

Just don’t die. She smiles. She’s like, well, I can’t control that. I says, I know. Don’t it sound a little foolish to gamble? I says, you know that if if I’m wrong, it doesn’t bother me when I order. If there’s no hell and I’m if I’m wrong, what if I’m right? What I’m saying is true. What if it is true? I says, and you’re wrong.

I said, what about that? Good point. It’s a turn I walked off. Noah had preachers, people that would not believe. And yet he preached to the people. And whether or not there were many of these people at this time where they were warned and told that they could believe and trust the Lord. and whether or not whenever Jesus died, that he preached to people on both sides. I don’t know, but there’s a good possibility that he did. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10.30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.