Genesis 5:21-24; 6:1-13

A cloud of darkness is covering the earth. When Jesus was looking down at Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. His disciples asked him about the signs of the end times. Jesus’ answer was that, first, “people will be deceived.” Chang-ho Ahn said that "Chosun (Korea) will crumble because of lies. Lies? Go away from Chosun.” It is a world in which there is deception between man and wife, children and parents, and adults and children. When our lives are full of lies, there is no hope.
Second, people will be bewitched and seduced. They will be possessed as if by demons. One of the reasons for the flood judgment during Noah’s time was that the sons of God saw the beauty of the daughters of men and married them. In the New American Standard Bible it says, “that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.” That is why God said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” in Genesis 6:2-3.
It is the same situation today. Having an ungodly marrage is a sin. Relations between man and wife should not be like those of beasts. Even onanism is “not without sin.” The congregation must be holy. This is all written in the Bible. Things must be taught according to the Bible. Fearing of God’s word, the congregation must have marriages that are upright and faithful without the slightest deceit. Parental supervision is needed to select sons and daughters-in-law through faith. God commands this in Deuteronomy 7. If you do not marry correctly, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Marriages must not be based on finding partners from “prestigious universities” or “good families.”

Noah Who Prepared for the End Times With All His Being and Strength
The flood judgment of Noah's time took place 4,500 years ago. However, Jesus stated that in the end times, it will be “just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt 24:37-39). People did not realize until the flood water had entered their nostrils. For this reason, Jesus encouraged us “be alert” and also that we must be ready (Matt 24:42-44).
During Noah’s time the earth was corrupt before God and was full of violence. It was a broken world that was decaying. People were as ferocious, wild, and obstinate as animals. In the NASB, it says that “the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Men had become sexually immoral as had their sons who looked for the same type of women - there were relations between men and their mothers-in-law, sons and their father’s concubines. It was a time rampant with stealing, deception, murder, robbery, rape and violence. The entire earth was full of sin and humans were evil since childhood. God could not stand it any longer and planned his judgment in which he would sweep away the sinful world entirely. “The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the LORD said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created.and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground.for I regret that I have made them.’” (Gen 6:6-7). To ‘wipe away’ is ‘maha’ in Hebrew. It means to take away from the Book of Life and to obliterate.
However, in that evil world, there was one person who believed in God. It was Noah. From his ancestors, he learned about Adam and the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the covenant that God initiated with mankind. Noah’s father Lamech lived contemporaneously with Adam for 56 years. Even amidst the fallen world, God’s mind came to rest when He was with Noah. He was an upright, righteous being of his time, and a person who walked with God. God accepted Noah, telling him, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time” (Gen 7:1). Then, he gave Noah the command to build the ark. The construction of the ark couldn't have been as easy as we often think it to be. It was a time when metal tools did not exist. Noah chopped down large trees, trimmed each and every branch and constructed the ark on the top of the mountain - all without saws or iron planes. Everyone ridiculed him. The only people helping him were his wife, three sons and their respective wives. Even the in-laws of his children turned away from Noah and criticized him.
Building the ark was such arduous work that Noah’s sons did not have any children until after the judgment. The moment they woke up, they went out to work on the ark. Also, as they had to keep animals in the ark for a year, Noah’s family must have had to raise crops in order to gather the food supply. They must have cleared the animal’ waste as well as fed animals. We must peruse the Bible carefully. Therefore, we cannot simply say that “Noah built the ark and was saved.”
Noah’s family spread the news of the imminent judgment and evangelized. However, no one believed them. Then 7 days before the flood, when Noah was 600 years old, on the 10th day of the second month, God told him, “Noah, you have waited long. In 7 days from now, I will judge the earth with water. Get into the Ark.” When Noah’s family had all entered the ark, God himself shut the doors (Gen 7:6). Then for 40 days and nights, the rain came down. The water in the earth broke out and rain came down from the sky. People did not believe even until the moment of their death.

Enoch Who Already Saw the End Times and Walked with God
Noah was a person who was given the revelation of the end times beforehand. Being the 7th descendant of Adam, Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah. Enoch had Methuselah at 65 and walked with God for 300 years until he was 365 when he ascended to heaven alive. Although all his ancestors and descendants died, Enoch lived and he was taken away by God. Enoch lived 308 years contemporaneously with his ancestor Adam and received the teaching of faith. Then, within 65 years, he repented for all the sins of the first 65 years of his life. God even showed him Jesus’ second coming.
“It was also about these men that Enoch prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him’” (Jude 1:14-15).
In the end times, people will be judged for the words they spoke rashly. The congregation in these end times must be careful of what they say. Jesus said, "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:36-37).
In 1 Peter 3:10, it says “For the one who desires life, to love and see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.” Those who go around spreading lies then slander and criticise others bring destruction to their children’s generation.
How astounded must Enoch have been at seeing the revelation of judgement in the end times? After the revelation, Enoch lived 300 years carefully and under restraint. He passed on his faith to his son Methuselah. He lived his life in God, believing only in His Word. He ate and drank before God. God must have been distressed when He looked at the world, but when He saw Enoch and his faith, He was happy. Enoch was a man who was accredited for pleasing God (Heb 11:5).
There is a person in the New Testament who, like Enoch, walked with God. It was Paul. He confessed that he lived with a perfectly good conscience before God (Acts 23:1). He did not get married even at the age of seventy, but he devoted himself to God and was later martyred. He was a person who was pleasing to God. Regarding David, God testified “the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” People who walk with God are those after His heart and are the ones who please Him. People, it is not too late.
Methuselah, who Enoch had at the age of 65, has a redemptive historical meaning to his name. "Methuselah" in Hebrew means “when he dies, it will come.” It is a frightening name. At that time, every village had a patron deity and the patron deity's name was Methuselah. If the patron deity dies, it means that the village has come to an end. So Methuselah was a name that meant “the world that he resides in will sustain and when he dies, the world will end.” Surprisingly, Methuselah, at the age of 969, died in the year that the flood came. When Methuselah was 187, he had Lamech who had Noah at age 182. The flood judgement took place when Noah was 600. It makes sense when you calculate it.
The reason why Enoch gave his son such a frightening name is because he received a special revelation about the end of the world. He named his son in that manner to prepare for and to spread the faith of the end times. However, people just ignored the warning.
Jesus saw, in advance, the horrific scenes of the starved people of Jerusalem who were feeding on their children in AD 70 in the time of the Roman General Titus. He lamented tearfully, “The world is rotten. How did such things come to be? Why do they not believe? How much more of this should I endure?” We are in a world without faith. God told us that if we pray, He will answer us and reveal to us the secret. He said that he will not turn away from giving us what we seek (Jer 33:3).

The Secret Behind the Congregation’s Victory in the End Times
The price we must pay as sinful humans is death (Rom 6:23). The sins we have committed, the words we have said and the way we have acted will all be revealed before God like a bare body (Rev 20:12, 1 Cor 3:12-13). We cannot conceal our sins. All humans will stand in God’s presence. Who will not go through death? People deceive others and even kill each other to gain money or possessions but they cannot take even one penny with them when they die (1 Tim 6:7). People will be judged only according to good and evil, in the presence of God. Even at fifty or sixty years of age, this truth does not hit home. But over the age of seventy, people begin to reflect back on their lives and repent. You ferrently pray for forgiveness for the times you have sinned and lied before God. You start praying for the less privileged and prayers of mercy and sympathy as taught by God.
We are living in a time of peace. However, peace is momentary for the Lord said that silence is for only about half an hour (Rev 8:1). We must become alert. We must think of our country, its people and have patriotic mindsets. Communism cannot co-exist with faith in God. In Communist societies, even murdering your parents for benefits or pay would not be considered as a crime. There is no freedom of religion. Even to this day, North Korea is claiming that the Cheonan Incident was caused by the South.
We must put all our strength into finding that one lost soul. An entire family would go out to search for one lost cow. In order to find the lost soul, God devised plans and even sent His Son down to earth. Jesus suffered, became an atoning sacrifice and died a tragic death on the cross because of us. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). It was in order to restore us as His people in the original world that was created before Adam sinned. God would climb the mountains, cross the rivers and walk the tides, whether they be big or small, all to find just one of his 100 sheep.
There are people who turn on the lamp and sweep the floors just to find one of their ten coins. God is the one who waits day by day outside the door, waiting for His son who left home and squandered away his inheritance. There was another son who was indignant at seeing his father heart-warmingly receiving the prodigal son when he returned home. The prodigal who stayed within the house must be feared more than the ones who left home.
People, the way to please God is to be thankful to Him. Even in human relations, people must express their thankfulness when someone does them a favor. Do not just appear thankful on the outside. Genuinely be thankful with your heart. Be thankful even for a glass of water. It is said that faith pleases God, giving him joy, and that joy is derived from thanksgiving (Heb 11:6). Minds turn to humanistic thoughts when you cannot give thanks to God or glorify Him, despite claiming that you know Him (Rom 1:21). We must offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Ps 50:14). We must give thanks when we meet friends, when we eat. Those who offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorify God. He will show them His salvation (Eph 5:20, Col 2:7).
I am interested in cameras. Old cameras require adjustment of distance, composition, and the speed of light and the shutter. If they are not adjusted properly, the photos turn out blurry. Every morning when I wake up I pray that “I may adjust to the mindsets of those who I meet today.” People are always discriminating others. People tend to hold those who
graduated from foreign universities in high regard, yet look past those who do not seem to have much to offer. This is a great sin. If you hold this kind of sin, you cannot live long. Please treat others with uprightness and sincerity. Do not be two-faced. In the end, presidents and beggars are all equal. The Bible says that if you ignore a poor man, you are
ignoring God who created him. Whenever I see people in the street, although I do not know them, I pray for them to believe in God, live upright lives and for this country to become a blessed welfare state. Do not deceive. Pray endlessly for others.
People, in the last days, if you live upright lives, you have no reason to worry because God will help you regardless of your status. He will give you the ability to gather necessities (Ps 84:11; Deut 8:18). I hope that you will trust in this.
After seeing the revelation, Enoch repented. After having repented, the fundamental Biblical principles that show the end of the world were truly profound and mysterious. Let us all repent, in Jesus’ name, for all the lies we have told and the sins we have committed up to this point and live upright lives from now on.

Let us pray.
Enoch walked with God and through his strong faith he pleased God, which resulted in him ascending to heaven without facing death. The righteous are granted salvation through faith. It is recorded in Habakkuk 2:4 that the righteous people live because they receive salvation through faith.
Our living God, amidst this unbelieving world, rampant with darkness and deceit, allow trust between people, starting from our Pyungkang Cheil Church. Please bless us so that we may have fellowship with you, live according to Your Words and walk with You each day. Let us pray for those who are in need. Please remember those who sigh in distress. Please bless the families with illnesses and bring them healing. Through sturdy families, let us serve you and, in your glory, be a nation in which the people are upright and faithful. I pray in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

March 20, 2011. Main Service.