All right, good morning. Welcome to Liberty Baptist Church for the morning service. If you can, let's stand. We're going to sing, Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies. There you go. Oh beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties, Above the fruited plain. America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea. O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress Our fertile fair for freedom beat America! America! God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law. O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life. America! America! America, may God thy gold refine, Till all success, nobleness, and heav'n regain divine. Good to see you this morning. Let's go to the Lord in word of prayer. Father, we ask for your blessing now upon the service. Speak through preacher to us this morning, especially if there's one lost this morning, help them to hear the word of God and get saved. I pray, Lord, you'd also be in children's church out back for the same reason. Thank you for letting us have another day. And Father, for this Veterans Day, in Jesus name, amen. You may be seated. We ready, Charlie? Average age of the young American serving in uniform today is 20 and a half years of age, making him about 10 months older than his grandfather, who would have served in my war. He's a high school graduate. He's a volunteer. He is brighter, better educated, better trained, led, and equipped than any soldier, sailor, airman, guardsman, or marine of any country in history. He goes to work wearing an eight-pound Kevlar helmet, a 45-pound flak jacket, He's been taught chemistry and physics and ballistics and avionics and electronics to operate and maintain the most sophisticated weapons and equipment ever designed by the hand and mind of man. He can use his body like a weapon and his weapon like part of his body. And he can take a life or save one because he has been so remarkably well trained. The images of the young Marines and soldiers and sailors and airmen going to Bible studies and religious services aren't staged. They're all real. They're all spontaneous, and nearly all of them are initiated by those young Americans in harm's way. When they gather in prayer circles and huddle up before a mission, they're not going out to play football. They are going into mortal combat, and they know that some of them are liable not to come back. and they do it because they have faith. Just for the grins, how many of you raised a teenage boy? I used to do this when Betsy wasn't there, because she eventually told me, I saw you raise your hand. I did that. Think about getting a teenage boy to clean up his own room, do his own laundry, fix his own meals, clean up everything without a size 10 in the backside. And yet that same youngster today washes and mends his own clothing, feeds himself, takes care of cleaning his weapon, cleaning himself. He's totally self-sufficient. The kid who once wouldn't share a candy bar with his little brother now gives away his last drop of water to a wounded comrade, his only MRE to a hungry Afghan kid, and splits his ammo with a mate in a firefight. I always save this one for last when I'm explaining it to young people about who they are. Because so few of them know the truth of these youngsters. This is a frame taken from my footage on the 6th of April 2003. Baghdad is the smoke pole you see in the background. The Marine unit I'm with embedded is the van, the lead element of the attack on the Eastern Corridor. We're about 15 miles outside of Baghdad and a Republican Guards regiment ambushes this marine rifle company. They spin their Humvees around and there is a gunfight that occurs between this regiment and this rifle company. And in the midst of the beaten zone, the area where the intersecting bullets are crossing, a United States Navy corpsman I had first met in Kandahar in 2001 rushes into the battlefield right through the fire, drags two wounded Marines out, and carries them on his shoulder to a helicopter that's landed in the roadway. And in this footage right here, I am standing on the ramp of that helicopter. And this corpsman, who's rushed now twice before and brought these two wounded back, now has a third one. And off to the right-hand side, as you look at the screen, a Reuters news crew sets up their tripod, and they're videotaping him going in and out. And as this guy staggers back into the gunfight, one of them shouts out, hey, mate, what did you do that for? Didn't you notice? In other words, you stupid American. Didn't you notice that wasn't a Marine? If you look carefully at that photograph, you'll see that the wounded warrior who's already been bandaged up by that United States Navy medical corpsman isn't a Marine. It's a wounded Iraqi soldier. And this U.S. Navy corpsman has rushed into the battlefield to save his life. And so, because it's polite company, Wayne, I can only put it this way. In response to the Reuters news crew, the Navy corpsman gives them a gesture. You're not supposed to get that part. He gives them a gesture, he says, didn't you notice? He was wounded. That's what we do. We're Americans. We try to teach young folks, and it doesn't matter what your age is, you should, anytime you see a military person, you should always tell them thank you for your service. We do the same thing for police officers and firemen. Today, we want to recognize those who are in our church, and I know we have a bunch. We'll go, and there's no special order in this, we'll go first, if you have served in the Air Force, would you please stand? Air Force. Let's give them a hand. Thank you, you may be seated. Those of you that served in the Navy. Thank you, you may be seated. How about the Army? Yeah. Anyone fight with the real soldiers in the Marine Corps? Brother Hart's not here. I know he isn't. I believe he's a Marine. He's not here this morning. Anyone in the Coast Guard? Oh, there's one of our Marines. I wasn't sure if he was here. Anyone serving the Coast Guard? I know the folks in the military say they're not part of the service, but I can tell you they are as well. So we appreciate all of you that serve in the military. And by the way, we also applaud the husbands and wives to these folks, because those of you in the military, or if you are not in the military, you realize that they also serve. And they pay a price as well, the kids and the I don't think we have any space force here. Yes, we do. No one around me will take it back. We haven't had a family fight in a long time. But a couple of my cherubs and their wives did not appreciate who won the election. I was excited. I can tell you that night I cried, I prayed, I cried, I prayed in each state that went in our direction. And then when we got the Senate, I'm still praying for the House of Representatives, but the truth is I was excited. No one had to bring me any cookies. And I already have a dog, so they didn't need to bring me a dog. I have no Legos. I gave those to the grandkids. We do have some folks here that served, that go to college, and some of the college students were crying. And again, that's because they believed all the lies the media tells you. And if you believe the main line video, you would realize, you would think that after the election, our world's going to go crazy and fall apart. That is actually my... Yeah. My son, who's in the military, said, Dad, you know, as soon as he got elected, the folks that had been fighting Israel, some of them said, I think we need to negotiate. And that happened immediately after the election, because they realized there's someone that's going to be in the White House soon that won't take any of their crap. So they decided they might not fight anymore. You ought to always pray for our country. We're told by God to pray for those in leadership. So we still should pray for the next two months until these folks are there now. And then when they leave, we can say hallelujah and be excited about the next group. But you ought to pray every day for their safety. Yep. So as far as the prayer list, now we have several folks that we've already had on the prayer list that we always pray for. Preacher, ascend yourself. If you have someone that needs to go on the prayer list, let me know that as well. As far as other announcements, this week is a fairly normal week until we get to Saturday. But back in your place tonight, 6 o'clock for the evening service and then Wednesday night prayer meeting. here at the church at 7.30, so when in 6.45 on Thursday night, then bus visitation on Saturday and so when in service visitation on Saturday at 10.45, then back in place for Sunday school and church next Sunday morning. As far as this Saturday, Christina Bays is they're having a bridal shower for Christina Bays. Mrs. Sells said to tell you you can still sign up, but she does not. They have plenty of food. So you don't have to ask about food. They have plenty of food. That is this coming Saturday. The following Saturday – now this Saturday is 2 p.m. for Christina's shower. The following Saturday is the piano recital. We have several folks in our church that take piano lessons, and then some from other churches. But they'll be hosting that on Saturday at what time? 3 p.m. on Saturday. Also, the ladies' luncheon is coming up. They always have a big Christmas dinner. That is coming up on December the 3rd. Now, I know that sounds like that's in December, but it's not too far away. There's a sign-up sheet in the church office. And again, that will be Tuesday night, December the 3rd at 6 p.m. sign-up sheet in the office. The next big event on the church calendar, we are having Brother Owens on a Wednesday night, which is the 4th of December, and then 6th and 7th, which is a Friday night and a Saturday during the morning and early afternoon, we're having Brother Owens at a youth conference. Wednesday night will be here. Friday night will be at Texas Baptist and Saturday service will be at Texas Baptist. They have a gymnasium, so we share the youth conference with them and we'll be using the gym on Saturday, but everybody's invited to that. Wednesday night will be our regular 730 service. Friday night at Texas Baptist will be at 6 p.m. Then Saturday starts at 10 a.m. Also, I was We'll post one of these out on the board, but this is for Thanksgiving pre-orders. You can get a 10-pound smoked turkey for $45, a 20-pound smoked turkey for $65, 5 pounds of smoked turkey breast for $35, 5 pounds of smoked ham for $30, and it says that the The proceeds will be used for the Fiesta booth for next year, and those are being, you can get them either on November the 17th or November the 24th. So again, if you'll see Brother Rita wave at us, see Brother Rita, that'll be the guy to see, because he is the guy that does all the smoking. Now I know some of you smoke, but you don't smoke turkeys and hams, and so we're not interested in that kind of smoke. Again, if you want to get that, see Brother Reeder about that, and we'll take care of that. Good to have all of you here today, but I forgot to greet the visitors because of the fact that I got into the Veterans Day. Anyone here for the first time or the first time in a long time? Don't want to miss anyone. Nope, they've been here before. You just were asleep. They only sat behind you. Oh, the young lady in the back, that's who they're pointing to. I thought she was pointing to, good to have you, ma'am. If you'll fill out that green card, put that in the offering a little bit, we'd appreciate it. Keep the rest of that as a gift from Liberty Baptist Church. And it's good to see our brother back here again. I told him, I said, I need your address so I can come visit you. He said, it's a long ways away. He drives all the way from New Braunfels to come over here because he said it's hard to find a good church. So I'm glad he, him and the family come over this way. But again, make sure you keep all of our folks on the prayer list in prayer. And then again, pray for our nation, especially our soldiers. All right, if you can, let's stand. We're going to sing the battle hymn of the Republic. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword His truth is marching on Glory, glory, hallelujah His truth is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea With the glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free While God is marching on Hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. While God is marching on. Brother Hart, I was correct. It was the Marine Corps, correct? We already clapped for you, but we're glad. We honor all the folks in the military. Appreciate you coming in there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're just thankful once again for this opportunity to be here this morning, Lord. And as always, we're just so grateful for the blessings that you give to us and pray this offering might help meet the need of our church. In Jesus name. Amen. you All right, Am I a Soldier of the Cross? Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cross, or blush to speak His name? Must I be carried to the skies Of flowery beds of these While others fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stand the flood Is this my world a friend to grace To help me unto God? Sure, I must fight if I would reign Increase my courage, Lord I'll bear the torment and the pain Supported by Thy Word My brother Wallace is coming. I know that some of you were in the service, because we noticed you stood up today, but the fellows upstairs did not have your information. So if you'll get that to me, I'll get that to the fellows. That way they can take care of that next time. Because I know Mark Treach was in the, is it Air Force? Navy. They got married yesterday, so it was a blessing. And I know, brother, I don't think we have your information. If there's anyone else that we didn't have, if they didn't put you up on the screen, it's because we don't have a picture of you and we don't know what service you was in and what you did there. So if you'll get that to us, we'll get that taken care of. And I just noticed these two. I don't know if there was anyone else we missed, but we didn't miss you on purpose. We just didn't have your information. So get that to us. In honor of Veterans Day, this is a song the Lord gave me back in 2018. It's called Remember. It talks about the men who died and the men that are still around. So it can be used either for Veterans Day or Memorial Day. But I like to sing it any chance I get because we like to remember all those guys. Remember the men who went on to war. Many will never return. And of those that did, some will never stay. For the things that they'd seen and heard Yes, remember this, for I will never forget my Savior. For if we forget Him, of the freedom He brought, we don't deserve even one. Remember our Savior who died for the freedom Put off his crown, blessed glory of God, And became the scapegoat for me. Yes, remember the Savior who died for us, Never forget what He's done. How can we forget how salvation was bought? Remember the dude who gave all this up? He was never all set to flee. His son died and we could live free. He's the one who died on Calvary. Yes, remember the able who suffered corruption? Men gave their lives, our freedom all to keep, Jesus our soul to save. Men gave their lives, our freedom all to keep, Jesus our soul to save. Thank you, I just taught Douglas not to do that and now you're gonna join in? But that is a good idea to shut your phone off. Yeah, I was expecting Douglas to tell you that. fell down on the job this time. Let me give you a little bit of the history of Veterans Day. It didn't, November the 11th, it didn't start out as Veterans Day. It started out, they called it Armistice Day. And what it was talking about It was the fact that the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, was when the armistice stopped World War I. And so they turned that into, they called it Armistice Day, and then a little later somebody figured, Maybe it'd be a good day to honor all the veterans who have served in our nation's military. And so that's what changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. And thank you for your service. Thank you that you were willing to go to the military so that I could be free. and the rest of us, thank you. All right, Genesis chapter five this morning. By the way, when they were showing those pictures, I'm glad they put the name there, because I don't think I would have recognized, you know, one or two of them I would have recognized, but the rest of them I thought, who in the world? And then they had the name, so I was able to figure it out on that basis. Genesis chapter five, Beginning in verse 21, we'll read down through verse 27. The scripture says, and Enoch lived 60 and five years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 360 and five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. And Methuselah lived 180 and seven years, and begat Lamech. And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 780 and two years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Methuselah were 960 and nine years, and he died. I'm going to speak to you for a bit this morning very simply on the subject Methuselah. Now, Lord, thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you that we can have church this morning. Thank you for the results of the election. And Lord, we pray now that you'll bless us, help us this morning. Lord, I want to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray that you would Make it so, I pray, that you'll be honored and uplifted by what we save this morning. If anyone's with us who's never had a time in their life when they personally trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, I pray that you'll draw them to Jesus this morning and help them to have the courage, grace, and conviction to come to Him and receive Him as their Savior and then bless the Word of God to those who are saved and please I have your will and your way and help me now as I try to preach for you in Jesus' name. Amen. Methuselah. Genesis chapter 5 is one of those types of chapters which is often overlooked and if it's read at all it's usually read very quickly and without much thought for it's one of those chapters that every Bible reader, every Bible student dreads coming to, a chapter of genealogies. But the fact of the matter is that Genesis chapter 5 is an important chapter for a couple of reasons. Number one, because it serves as the connecting link from Adam to Noah. Adam is the first father of mankind. Noah is the second. and every person who's alive today, everybody in this room, everybody you'll ever see on the face of this earth, every person who's alive today is descended from first Adam and second Noah. And Genesis chapter five gives us the family tree which connects Adam to Noah. And then secondly, this chapter is important because it shows sin coming to its ultimate conclusion in death. Back in Genesis chapter two, God had warned Adam that if he partook of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then death would enter the human race. In Genesis chapter 3 Adam and Eve his wife partook of the fruit and God pronounced the death sentence. Here in Genesis chapter 5 this sentence begins to be carried out. These people lived to astronomical ages, and I'll try to explain a bit about why in a few minutes. But as you read Genesis chapter five, the thing that you notice about each person, with the exception of Enoch, who I'll say a word about in a few minutes, but every person in this chapter, with the exception of Enoch, Their story ends the same way with these words, and he died. He lived this long, longer than you and I will live, but he died. You see it in verse five, verse eight, verse 11, verse 14, verse 17, verse 20, verse 27, and verse 31. of those times in this chapter the Word of God tells us about some guy but it closes like this in every case except Enoch and he died. Now that is what will one day be put at the end of my story and your story unless the rapture happens before then and if you are saved you don't have to worry about that. But Aside from that, if the rapture doesn't happen, the conclusion of my story and of your story is gonna be, and he died, and she died. That's gonna be the conclusion of all of our stories, unless the Lord comes first and takes us out without dying. Now, as I mentioned, and as you notice, from simply reading the chapter, the people in that time lived hundreds of years. Several in this chapter lived to be over 900 years old. Now the question comes up, why did people live so long back in those days? And incidentally, let me say that it means exactly what it says. When it says that they lived 900 years, you know what it means? It means that they lived 900 years. Some people, the crowd who always tries to accommodate man and tries to fit God's word into man's thought processes, have said, well, it says they lived 900 years, but it really means 900 months. No, it doesn't. It means 900 years. If years means months, then verse 15 says that Mahalaleel had a son named Jared when he was 65 years old. Well, if years means months, that means this fella had a son when he was five years old. I mean, these, These Bible deniers that try to fit the Bible into man's thoughts, they always end up with something that makes it worse than it already was. No, just take the Bible for what it says instead of trying to make it fit what you think it ought to say. Well then preacher, why did they live so long back then? Well, there are at least two reasons. Number one, sin had not had time to have the cumulative effect of thousands of years upon the human race in those early days like it has now and like it has had for the last two or three thousand years. See, the longer sin goes on, the worse it wears on people. Now, this is true of people individually. You find a fella who's an alcoholic. Well, if he's been an alcoholic for a year, he's not probably gonna be in as bad condition physically, generally, as a fellow who's been an alcoholic for 25 years. You see what I'm saying? Sin has a cumulative effect that adds up with time. Now that's true of individuals, It's also true of mankind as a race of people. In those early days before Noah's flood, man had not been around a real long time, so sin had not had the cumulative effect on the human race that it has had in these last few thousand years. So thus the men back before the Flood lived greater ages than do men today. And the second thing, and this is probably the most important, is this, before Noah's Flood the ecosystems of the earth were different from what they are now and what they have been since the Flood. Before the flood, the earth was enveloped by a water vapor canopy, which filtered out age-producing rays of the sun, and this led to people living much longer. This is why, as you study the Bible, you'll find that immediately after Noah's flood, when the water vapor canopy collapsed, the ages to which men lived were reduced very drastically until it finally leveled out around the 70 year mark where it is today. And so then, men lived to astronomical ages in those pre-flood days, but there was one man who lived longer than all the others. and that man's name was Methuselah. He lived to be 969 years old. Now, everybody here, if you've heard of Methuselah at all, the one thing that you know about him is that he lived to be older than anybody else ever did. In fact, His name has become synonymous with age. People use the expression about something that's exceptionally old, that it's old as Methuselah. And so Methuselah, now he was a significant man in the Word of God, though he's only mentioned in this passage that we read. So what's so significant about that? That's what I'm gonna tell you. But, He was a significant man in the word of God. He was in the line of descendants which started with Adam and ended in Noah. This was basically a line of godly people. Seth was in this line, Enoch was in this line, and Methuselah was in this line for a reason. And Methuselah lived 969 years, longer than anybody else ever did, for a reason. And this is what I want to think about. for a few minutes this morning as we consider this man Methuselah. Three things about Methuselah. First of all, let's talk about his father. Verse 21 says, and Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah. So we see here that Methuselah's father was a man named Enoch. Now Enoch is a very significant man in the word of God because he's one of only two men who went to heaven without dying, the other being Elijah the prophet. Enoch was a man who, if you wanted to summarize his life, you could summarize it in this way, he walked with God. We're told this both in verse 22 and in verse 24. And the Bible also tells us in Hebrews 11 verses five and six that Enoch pleased God. And so then Methuselah had a great father in Enoch. Let me say three things about Enoch. Number one, Enoch was a prophet of judgment. Jude verses 14 and 15 tell us this, hear what it says. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Enoch prophesied that God was gonna bring judgment upon the ungodly. In fact, most ungodly verse in the Bible is that verse that is quoted. Well, I didn't really quote it, I read it off my notes, but Enoch prophesied that God was gonna bring judgment upon the ungodly. Now, I find this to be very interesting. See, in this day and age in which we live, preachers are never supposed to mention judgment and hell and the wrath of God or anything like that. Oh no, preachers today are told that we're supposed to only preach positive sermons that will strengthen and edify and give people a strong sense of self-esteem so that they'll have a healthy psyche. Pardon me while I go vomit. That's all a bunch of garbage. You read the Bible, that's what we're supposed to go by, the Bible. You read the Bible, And you'll find the true prophets of God were the ones who, yes, they preached God's love, but it wasn't a one-sided message. They also preached God's judgment. You'd think with all these positive, possibility-thinking, psychoanalytical, self-esteem preachers around today, you'd think that we'd have the answer to all of our problems and society would be better and more healthy than it ever has been before. I feel a lot better about America this Sunday than I did last Sunday because of the election on Tuesday and the fact that the Marxist-Communist female didn't win. Do you see these stinking idiot guys crying? I mean, for stinking sissies. I look at the old film footage of World War II and those guys, 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, storming the beaches of Normandy and falling one after the other. And then I compare that group to this bunch because their communist hero, Kamala, lost the election. And they're, oh, what am I going to do? It's so awful. Makes me think, why can't we trade that bunch for the folks that were at Normandy? But anyway, with all the self-esteem going around today, all the preachers focusing on that, you'd think everything would be great. Wouldn't be a problem left. But the fact is, there's a lot of problems. And I'm gonna tell you something else. I voted for Trump. I've been for Trump ever since whatever it was when he came down the escalator. Because I thought, by the way, I thank God Ted Cruz won too, in spite of George Soros. Maybe I should call him God. I heard him say he was God. I heard George Soros say that. And Well, God put over $200 million into the fight against Head Cruz so that this egghead, I forgot his name already. I didn't really want to know his name. I've tried to forget a lot of these people. Not Head, that sounds about right. Anyway, despite this $200 million that George Soros put in to trying to get all red, or whatever this guy's name was, elected over Ted Cruz, he wasted his $200 million. Now, he don't have to worry about it. He's got hundreds of millions more. But I just kind of like to see a guy like that lose a lot of money. And he did. And so, but, What I'm getting at is that you'd think everything would be great and there'd be no problems left for anybody to deal with. And the hope for America is not Donald Trump, though I thank God he won. I mean, at least we won't have an idiot like we've had for the last four years in there taking as much freedom away from us as he can while taxing us as much as he can. I think some of that's gonna change come January 20th. In fact, a lot of it's already started to change just from him getting elected. Now Kamala can go back to being an Indian again. That's how she promoted herself for years as an Indian, and then suddenly she turned black. Well, whatever she is, I'm glad she didn't get elected. I mean, according to the left-wingers, you women failed. I mean, they just couldn't believe that women wouldn't vote for the one that would help them murder their unborn babies. I mean, they thought that was the only issue. You know you you gals that that are murderers and want to kill your unborn baby You probably voted for Kamala. I'm sure But there are some women that still Love their babies like a woman is supposed to and don't want to kill him just cause she couldn't keep her legs closed You're welcome But what I'm saying to you is that the men of God in the Bible and the men of God today are men, yes, they preach God's love, but it wasn't a one-sided message. They also preach God's judgment. And we're in bad shape in our country today, though better than it was a week ago. But the reason is because people do not have a fear of God anymore. Romans 3, I think it's verse 18 says, there's no fear of God before their eyes. boy, God hit that one nail on the head like he always does. But people don't have a fear of God because preachers have stopped preaching the judgment of God. One preacher was at the doctor's office and before he left, this doctor said to him, you know, I believe preachers have done a real disservice to people by making them feel guilty. And this preacher said back to him, doctor, people don't feel guilty because of preachers. People feel guilty because they are guilty. And he was right. Now I'm not just talking about you and not me, I'm talking about me too. It's when a person realizes that he's a guilty sinner in danger of the judgment of God that he starts to look for refuge in Jesus Christ. We need a generation of men of God like Enoch who will once again cry out that God will bring judgment on the ungodly. Ladies and gentlemen, we all better understand that God is a God of love, so much so that he did something I would never do, he gave his only begotten son to die so that you and me could be saved. I wouldn't give one of my children so you could be saved, but God gave not only his son, but his only, his unique begotten son. Now it didn't say he was his only son. Some other kind of Bible besides the authorized King James Bible will say that Jesus was God's only son. Jesus wasn't God's only son. If you're saved, you're a son of God too. but he was God's only begotten son. He's the only one physically begotten in the womb of a virgin and came to us like that. He's the only one that ever did that. The only begotten son of God. But so, yes, God is a God of love, but we better understand he's also a God of judgment. And the person who rejects God's love given in his son, Jesus Christ, will be judged by God and will go to hell forever and forever, according to the Bible. God's a God of judgment. Sometimes he sends judgment quickly. Dr. J. Harold Smith's in heaven now, but he preached in the 20th century, the one sermon that resulted in more people coming to Christ than any other sermon by anybody that I know of, the title of his sermon was God's Three Deadlines. And I'm not gonna get into, I heard him preach it, and there was power on it. But, by the way, he fasted 40 days for that sermon. But he was preaching in New Orleans, probably back in the 60s, and there were three men sitting up in the top of the seating section, and they spent the whole sermon making fun, laughing, And when people started going down the aisle to get saved, they'd say real loud, there she goes, there's that woman you slept with last night. And that kind of stuff. Well, the Lord touched Dr. Smith's heart and he went and told, he said, I don't know who you three fellows are, but you'll be dead within 24 hours. And he was right. All three of them died. not together in different places, but they all three died within 24 hours. I guess they're in hell today. And one day, every Christ rejecter will join them there. So Enoch prophesied of judgment. Now the judgment that lay immediately ahead for the people of Enoch's day was the judgment of Noah's flood. Methuselah was Noah's granddaddy, so Enoch was Noah's great granddaddy. Second thing about Enoch, Enoch was a picture of the rapture. Verse 24 of Genesis 5 says, and Enoch walked with God, and it says this, and he was not, for God took him. He was not, for God took him, God took Enoch to heaven without dying, is what that's talking about. Hebrews 11 verse five puts it this way, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Worldwide judgment was gonna come to the earth by means of Noah's flood, but Before God sent that judgment, he took Enoch out of the world without Enoch having to go through the valley of the shadow of death. Now, the Bible teaches that God's wrath is gonna be poured out on this old world yet again and in a greater way than ever before. Matthew 24, 21, Jesus referred to this time as great tribulation. Revelation 6, 17 refers to it as the great day of His wrath. It's going to be a time of judgment like no other. But hear me now, just as God took Enoch out without dying before the judgment of the flood, even so, Jesus will come into the clouds and take his people out of this earth before the judgment of the tribulation in the event that we call the rapture. You can, I'm not gonna take time to read it now, but you can read about it in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18. The Christian dead will be raised and the Christian living will be caught up and snatched away. And Enoch going to heaven without dying before the judgment of the flood is a type of Christians who go to heaven without dying in the rapture before the judgment of the tribulation. Third thing, Enoch had a purpose in naming his son. You need to realize that in the Bible, names had significance. A name in the Bible wasn't just a handle to call somebody by. In fact, sometimes they'd wait several years until they named them or until they changed their name. People named their children certain names for a reason. For example, in Matthew chapter one, the angel said to Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, Jesus didn't have an earthly father, God was his father, but his adopted father, we'll call him Joseph, the angel said to Joseph, in Matthew 1.21 in telling him that Mary, his fiance, was gonna have a baby, but he didn't need to worry about it because it was the Messiah that was put in her womb by the Lord. But the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1.21, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Why? For he shall save his people from their sins. the New Testament name Jesus is the same as the Old Testament name Joshua. They both mean Savior or Jehovah saves. When Enoch named his son Methuselah And you consider and remember that Enoch was a prophet of judgment and was aware that judgment was coming and that he himself was taken out before judgment as a type of the rapture. And then you consider the meaning of the name Methuselah. And when he died, it became obvious why Enoch named him Methuselah. Now that brings me to the second thing, which we talked about Methuselah's father, Enoch. Secondly, Methuselah's name. Enoch named his son Methuselah. Okay, now, the book of Genesis was originally written in the Hebrew language. And don't, become a nitwit about that. We've got a perfect English Bible in the 1611 authorized King James Version. If you just learn to go by that, you'll be fine. You don't have to know Hebrew, you don't have to know Greek. Now, I've got the books that have the Hebrew words and the Greek, I don't know how to pronounce them half the time, but I've got the books. But you don't need books. If you master this book, you'll be fine. Now, Hebrew scholars tell us that the name Methuselah means, don't miss this, When he is dead, it shall be sent. When he is dead, it shall be sent. You know, I've often thought goodnight looks to me like any time old Methuselah got a little bit sick, everybody around would come around and try to help him get better, you know. When he is dead, it shall be sent. Now, why would Enoch name his son such an odd name? Now keep in mind that Enoch was a prophet who prophesied of judgment to come. Now he names his son Methuselah. When he is dead, it shall be sent. Okay, let's see if we can figure out what was sent when Methuselah died. Okay, Methuselah was 969 years old when he died. Okay, something is supposed to happen, something's supposed to be sent when he dies. Are you following me here? Okay, now stay right with me. Genesis 5.25 tells us that Methuselah was 187 years old when his son Lamech was born. That's pretty old to have a child in 187, but that's what it says. Okay, now keep up with me here. Genesis 5.28 tells us that Lamech, Methuselah's son, was 182 years old when his son Noah was born, meaning that Methuselah was 369 years old when his grandson Noah was born. You with me? Okay, 369 when Noah was born. Then Genesis chapter seven and verse six tells us that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. Okay, so Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born. Then Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. So you add the 600 to 369, what do you come up with? 969, wow, isn't that marvelous? 969, and that's when Methuselah died. Enoch named his son Methuselah as a warning of God's coming judgment in the flood. When he is dead, it shall be sent. And when Methuselah died, the flood came. I'm not talking about a little local flood. You know, people act like flood, no big deal. Have you never seen the effect that floodwaters have? And I'm not talking about a worldwide, I'm talking about a local flood. Water does a lot of damage. And when you talk about a flood that covered the entire earth, and was 15 feet higher than the mountains, trust me, it did a lot of damage, did so much damage that it killed everybody and everything except those who were on the ark. When he is dead, it shall be sent. And I'm gonna tell you something, I think this explains something in the Bible that I used to wonder about. you should be in Genesis chapter five. If you'll just look to chapter seven, notice two verses. Chapter seven, verse seven. And Noah went in and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. So Noah and his family, it says there in verse seven, they went into the ark. Then look at verse 10. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. I mean, Noah and his family went in the ark, and then they just sat there for seven days. And then God sent the flood after seven days. Now, why did God wait seven days after Noah entered the ark for the flood? What I think is, he was waiting for Methuselah to die. When he is dead, it shall be sent. Methuselah, his very name, warned people that judgment is coming and when he died, it came. My opinion is he died on that seventh day and that's when the water vapor canopy collapsed and the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the water started issuing forth from the earth. Judgment came. And so, thirdly, let's talk about, for just a minute, his age. Methuselah, this one whose name spoke of judgment and meant when he is dead it shall be sent, lived longer than any other person ever lived. Now why did he live so long? Okay, listen to me. Because of the mercy of God. God wanted it to be obvious that he only sent judgment after his mercy had been extended for the longest time possible. May I say to you that that's the same reason Jesus has not returned. You've heard people say, oh, people have been saying for years, Jesus is coming again. He ain't here yet. No, he ain't here yet, but he'll get here when the time's right. But why has he waited so long? The Bible tells us. First Peter chapter three in verse nine, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Jesus hasn't come back yet because he's given you a chance to be saved. And so, the Lord wants to save you. He wants to give you freely a home in heaven through the death, burial, and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ. And so Jesus holds off on coming back, hoping that you'll repent and come to him and trust him and be saved. Now, I'm a long way from being like Jesus. But in that sense, I do have the same desire that he has. I want you to be saved. And the only way you can be saved is through Jesus. He's the only door to heaven. He said in John 10, nine, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Only way to get to heaven is through the door, and the door is Jesus. And if you've never had a time in your life when you personally consciously, deliberately, purposely, sincerely called upon the Lord Jesus and trusted him in his death, burial, and resurrection as the payment for your sin and trust him as the one who can save you. It's what his name meant, Savior. He can save you and take you to heaven. And if you don't know him, I hope you'll come to him today. You can be saved. You can be saved today if you come to Him, and I hope you will.