<TITLE>15. Par 134-147</TITLE>L-134 {24-1} And yet, the message was in the face of science, radical. How could there be rain in the skies when there was no rain up there? See? And the simple message of--of building an ark, constructing of something to get into that there's no water to float it, why, he become a fanatic. And he become a--an--a--a--a what we would call (if you'd excuse the expression of today) a "oddball."
And nearly all God's people are oddballs (See?), they are. I'm glad to be one of them. So... You know, they--they're different from the--the modern trend of civilization. So they become odd, strange. He said His people was a peculiar people (odd, strange), but a spiritual priesthood, a royal nation, offering spiritual sacrifices to God, the fruits of their lips giving praise to His Name. What a--what a people. He's got them.

L-136 {24-3} And notice now what a great thing that must've been in that day for some fanatic to come forth to the church, a fanatic, and preaching a gospel that was seemingly all out of line to their way of believing. And scientists... Why, they--it was simply crazy. How they could scientifically prove there was no rain there. But this simple sheepherder believed if God said it would rain, it would rain. See?
And so that... Just compare that with today about somebody gets healed, they say, "It's only emotion," or "I can scientifically prove to you that the cancer, or the substance, or--or the thing is still there." But to the simple believer, it's gone (See?), because he's not looking at the substance; he's looking at the promise, just the same as Noah did.

L-139 {24-5} So don't you see: "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man." Scientifically, no one... The doctor could say, "Looky here, your lump is still there. Your cancer remain. Your arm is as crippled as it ever was. You're crazy."
And remember, that's that same spirit from the days of Noah that said, "There's no rain up there. We can shoot the moon with instruments, and there's no rain there." But if God said there would be rain there... For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things that not seen. And faith takes its final resting place on the Word of God. There's where it finds its resting place. You--you understand? Its resting place is on God's Word. That's where Noah rested it: "God said so." That settles it.

L-143 {25-2} Now, if you notice again then... And now, Noah in believing such was a fanatic. And the people of today who believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit... Now, the church says, "These people are fanatics. They're nothing but a bunch of worked-up, emotional, panic-stricken people." But little do they know, that the Word of God teaches that; it's a promise.

L-145 {25-3} And to Noah, no matter how much they said the old man was off at his mind, that he was scientifically wrong, and--and mentally he was wrong; but to Noah it was the Word of the Lord. And Noah stayed with it, and the wise and prudent stumbled over the simplicity of it and lost their being. What a--a rebuke. Now, it is to that generation.
Many people say, "If I would've lived back there..." No, you'd have took the same attitude, because today in the very same thing being reproduced again today, only in another form, they stumble over it today just like they did then.

L-147 {25-5} No doubt in them days they had plenty of preachers, but Noah was inspired of God. And Noah could look out and see that what was fixing to happen and know that an adulterous and wicked generation like that, that God would not let stand. So what can we do today, but see the same thing: a modern Sodom and Gomorrah (See?), wicked, adulterous people so polished in scholarship that they stumble over the simplicity of God's manifestation of His Being and His Word, showing His Word.


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