the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female;
of fowls also of the air by seven, the male and the female; keep seed alive upon the face
of all the earth.
For yet seven days, and I will cause a terrain upon the earth, forty days and forty nights;
and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
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.
Clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creeps
upon the earth.
They went in two, and two, unto Noah, into the ark, the male and the female, as God had
commanded Noah.
And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
The six hundredth year of Noah's life, the second month, the seventeenth day of the month,
same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven
were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
The self same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Jaboth sons of Noah, and Noah's
wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark.
They and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, and every
bird of every sort.
And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath
of life.
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and
the Lord shut him in.
And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and bore up the
ark, and it was lifted up above the earth, and the waters prevailed, and were increased
greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed
exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were
covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered, and all flesh
died out and moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and of beasts and of every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man, all in whose nostrils was the
breath of the life of all that was in the dry land died, and every living substance
was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the creeping
thing and fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained
alive and they that were with him in the ark, and the waters prevailed upon the earth in
a hundred and fifty days.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you dear Lord for your wonderful salvation you've given us to your
Lord.
Thank you for the King James Bible.
We thank you for our church.
Thank you for our pastor dear Lord.
Please bless him as he preaches your word.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Okay, we're in Genesis chapter seven this evening as we continue our Bible study in
the book of Genesis.
Of course, this is a very pivotal chapter here talking about the flood, the fact that
God wiped out all of humanity save eight, which is known as family.
And of course, he's wiping out the humanity because of their sin.
And specifically, as we saw in Genesis chapter six, is because of violence.
And this was a major global catastrophic flood that destroyed not only people, but just every
aspect of creation, all the animals died, everything was wiped out because God wanted
to essentially start all over.
And this is a very important chapter because it really gives us a glimpse into the wrath
of God.
It shows us how far God is willing to go in order to bring justice to this world for
their crimes and for their sin, for their violence.
If you look at chapter six again, go to chapter six.
It says here in verse number five, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
It goes on to say in verse number 11, the earth also was corrupt before God and the
earth was filled with violence.
So what we have here is the fact that, you know, or should I say the principle that we
could learn here is the fact that, you know, a society can reach a height of just moral
decay to the point where God just says, I'm just going to wipe it out.
And we see this with the entire earth.
But the New Testament not only uses the example of knowing the flood, but it also uses the
example of Sodom and Gomorrah because it's essentially showing us that a society, a city,
a nation can get to a point where it's so morally depraved.
It is so destroyed morally, so far away from God, that God just basically says, "I'm just
going to wipe it out from the face of the earth."
And although these are two great examples that we have in the Old Testament, it's not
the only time it's going to happen because we have this taking place in the New Testament
where God will rain down fire and brimstone and judgment upon the world in excess to essentially
judge humanity, judge the world for their rejection, blasphemy against Jesus Christ
and their wickedness.
And so, you know, lest you should think, well, you know, God is only like that in the Old
Testament.
You know, God is very vengeful.
He's very angry.
He's very wrathful in the Old Testament.
He was very mean in the Old Testament.
Well, actually, you know, according to those standards, he's worse in the new because when
you read the book of Revelation, we see God killing millions and millions of people through
supernatural means.
He does it through catastrophic events and so forth.
And so, you know, the Old Testament is not the only time where God does this.
And in fact, when you look at the Old Testament, obviously, the majority of judgments that
God's poured out in this world is centered around Israel, whereas in the book of Revelation,
it is the entire world.
Right.
And of course, we see here in chapter seven and chapter six that he's addressing the world.
He's going to wipe out the world.
Now, this is an important chapter again, because of the fact that it demonstrates how wrathful
God can be.
But it's also an important chapter because it shows us that one man can be spared because
of his righteousness.
Right.
Verse number one says the Lord said unto Noah, come down and all thy house into the ark for
thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
I mentioned this last week, but you know, part of Noah's righteousness, aside from the
fact that we know that he saved, he's obviously a righteous person because he saved, but he's
righteous because in what he does as well, right?
He's a preacher of righteousness, the Bible says.
And I don't believe God just selected him at random because he was saved.
I think it's probably because, you know, he was doing right.
He was actually serving God.
The Bible tells us in the New Testament that he was actually a righteous person.
He was a preacher of righteousness.
The implication here is that he's preaching the gospel.
He's converting people.
And obviously he was not able to help them to be spared from the from the wrath of the
flood, but ultimately I'm sure he was able to spare people from the wrath of eternal
damnation because of the fact that the preaching of the gospel, you know, is powerful.
It can save people.
And I'm not of this type that believes that he was just preaching to multitudes and no
one got saved.
Obviously the whole world died.
But as far as from a spiritual perspective, I'm sure many people came to the saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ.
And obviously they didn't know the name of Jesus, but they came to the saving knowledge
of the Lord through the preaching of Noah.
Now let's go to the New Testament real quick.
Go to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11, if you would, we're going to come back
to Genesis chapter seven in just a bit.
So the Lord says to Noah, come down and all thy house into the ark for thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation.
This is echoed in Hebrews chapter 11 when talking about Noah in verse number seven.
This is famously referred to as the faith chapter, the hall of faith.
It says in verse seven, by faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he would condemn the
world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith.
So we see that Noah is a righteous person because of the fact that he obeyed God.
He moved with fear when God told him to construct the ark.
And you know, this kind of reminds me of the fact that when we go out and preach the gospel,
the Bible tells us that we should give an answer with meekness and fear, right?
We should, you know, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men and keep
in mind that the declaration of the flood and when the flood actually came, the time
between those times is about 120 years.
That's what the Bible specifically tells us in Genesis chapter six.
So you have Noah preaching for about 120 years, you understand?
So from, you know, as he's constructing the ark, as he's building the ark with this family,
he simultaneously moving with fear, you know, he's building the ark, but he's also preaching
the word of God.
And I'm sure he's describing the wrath to come.
And you know what?
That's what we do when we're going out there and preaching the gospel.
We are talking about the wrath to come and in fact, that's a major element of our gospel
presentation.
It's important for us to talk about the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ, that
he died on the cross, that he resurrected on the third day.
But it's always in light of the bad news, right?
It's in light of the fact that, you know, there's wrath to come, that those who are
not safe have the wrath of God abiding on them, the fact that hell exists, right?
And therefore we move with fear as well.
We go to the door in hopes that the person would be receptive to the gospel and that
they would recognize that they're sinners, deserving of hell, and that they would flee
from the wrath to come.
And you know, it's sometimes, you know, as Christians, as those who consistently go out
sowning, you know, it can become like a chore sometimes, and it can become a little redundant
for us, especially if we do it consistently.
And we just got to make sure that, you know, no matter how often we do it, that we don't
grow cold towards those who are unsaved, right?
But we got to check our hearts, make sure that we love the people we're talking to,
and be patient with them.
Move with fear.
You know, it makes me think of this last week when we were preaching the gospel, we were
out soulening.
I was preaching the gospel to this lady, and I don't know, she's probably in her 60s.
She was a Hispanic lady, and I was preaching in Spanish, and, you know, it was just kind
of going over her head.
It was going over her head, and I just kept kind of reiterating the same truth, trying
to explain to her what the Bible says, and when I would say, "Do you understand that?"
She would say, "Yes," but then later on when I would ask her to repeat it, she'd just
give me a complete different answer, and it's just like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do you understand it's my faith?
Yeah, yeah, yeah."
But then later on, "So what do you have to do to be saved?"
"Oh, you have to do good works.
Got to make sure that you're baptized.
You got to make sure."
And you know what?
A part of me, the fleshly side of me, was getting frustrated, right?
But then the new man is grieved.
The new man is moving with fear, because at the end of the day, you know, it just demonstrates
that this woman is blind spiritually and that she's not going to be able to avoid the wrath
of God to come.
And so it takes discipline to kind of put ourselves in that state of mind.
And you know, we have to make sure that when we're speaking to these unregenerated people
on a weekly basis, that we move with fear, recognize that their souls hang in the balance.
Okay.
So Noah, by faith, he's warned of God, of things not seen as of yet.
What does that refer to?
You know, possibly what it's addressing is the fact that rain has never really been seen
up until this point, or at least at this magnitude, right?
So he's warning them about the fact that there's going to be this massive global judgment,
but that's never happened before.
So Noah has to believe by faith that that's going to happen.
Just like us, we've never seen hell, we've never seen heaven, but we move by faith believing
that it's true.
You know, we essentially center our lives around these eternal truths that we've never
seen physically with our eyes.
It requires faith.
Right?
It says we move with fear.
He prepared an ark for the saving of his house by the way she condemned the world and became
the heir of righteousness, which is by faith.
Go to second Peter chapter two, second Peter chapter two.
So we see that Noah was a man of great faith because for 120 years, he spoke of judgment
to come that was not yet seen.
And you know, after about 20 years, you think you'd just be like, all right, you know, maybe
I misheard or something, you know, I don't know.
Is this really going to happen?
And, you know, maybe we don't know the kind of thoughts that came into Noah's mind, but
obviously he was faithful for 120 years.
And you know, again, he's doing two tasks.
One is he's preaching, but the other one, he's building the ark.
He's building the ark in faith that it's going to be used to save him and his household
from the wrath to come.
But he's also preaching by faith because aside from the physical flood that's going to come,
there is the flood of God's wrath, eternal damnation that awaits people who don't get
saved.
And so he's doing both.
Look at second Peter chapter two and verse number five, it says, God referring to God
here, it says, and spared not the old world.
And the old world is referring to the world prior to the flood.
That's just another way of saying that.
Spare not the old world, but save Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
Again, I do want to reiterate the fact that I do believe that Noah got a lot of people
saved, even though none of them came into the ark other than his family.
And obviously, we know for a fact that not everyone in his family was saved, but obviously
they listened to their dad regarding the physical flood to come, which is why they went into
the ark with them.
But the vast majority, pretty much everyone else, whether they got saved or not, stayed
outside the ark.
You know what this tells me?
It tells me that not everyone who gets saved is going to come to church, right?
I mean, we can go out there and preach the gospel and help people to flee from the wrath
to come, but we can't necessarily force them to flee from temporal wrath, from the actions,
from the consequences of their actions, from their sin.
Now our desire would be that when people get saved, they come right to church, they get
baptized, they start reading the word of God, they get into the ark, right?
The ark could also picture the local New Testament church that helps people to be spared from
the consequences of actions to the preaching of God's word and so forth.
But you know, I tell you that so that you're not discouraged, okay?
Because you know, a lot of times people criticize our manner of evangelism, our manner of soul
winning.
Well, how many of those people came to church?
Well, how many of the people that Noah preached to went into the ark?
How about that?
You know what I mean?
If you're basing success off of how many people come to church, well, I guess Noah was just
an absolute failure because he basically, you know, only converted eight people into
the ark or something, you know, himself included, right?
You know, at the end of the day, we obviously determine our success in so many based upon
the confessions, the professions of faith that we get.
And yeah, do we invite people to church?
Of course we do.
Do we want people to come and grow in grace and then in knowledge?
Absolutely.
Well, we can't force anybody into the ark.
People have to choose to come to church, right?
Now we can, you know, you catch more flies with honey.
You can be as kind as possible and follow up with people and, you know, establish relationships.
But at the end of the day, people have to choose to come into the ark, right?
And obviously, even when people come to church, we do our best as a church to follow up with
people and to establish relationships, get them into a team and help them to be motivated
to go soul winning and to come to church and to serve God.
But at the end of the day, it's their choice.
They have to choose to essentially, you know, get into the ark, so to speak.
The point that I'm making here is that Noah was probably a very powerful preacher.
He's obviously a preacher of righteousness, righteousness in the sense that he's talking
about the imputation of righteousness that someone receives at the moment of salvation,
but he's probably also preaching against the violence of his day as well.
You think Noah is just preaching the gospel and that's it?
No, he's living in a very corrupt world where there's idolatry.
There is an excessive amount of violence that's taking place.
That's the reason God is destroying the world.
I'm sure that he's preaching against that as well.
The moral decay of his world and unfortunately, you know, everyone suffered the consequences
of that.
Go to Matthew 24, Matthew chapter 24, Matthew chapter 24.
We're going to come back to second Peter in just a bit.
Go to Matthew chapter 24, if you would.
Now what are some of the reasons why, you know, if I were to guess, what are some of
the reasons why people refuse to get on the ark?
Even though many of them probably didn't get saved.
Why is that?
Well, look at Matthew 24 verse 37, it says, "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be."
So the story of the flood and Noah plays an important role in helping us to understand
end times prophecy.
And more specifically, the mindset of humanity that will be present in the end times was
also present in those in Noah's day.
He says, just as the days of Noah, the same thing is going to be in the days of the Son
of Man.
It says in verse 38, "For as in the days of Noah that were before the flood, they were
eating and drinking and marrying and given in marriage until the day that Noah entered
into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be."
So what we see here, we see that people during Noah's day were involved with the things that
people in the end times are going to be involved with.
They're just kind of living life.
And it's not like they're doing anything sinful.
Obviously, we know that violence was prevalent during this time.
But what Jesus Christ is highlighting is that a lot of people are just eating, they're drinking,
they're getting married, they're giving away their daughters in marriage, their sons, and
they're just kind of living a normal life, going about their normal life.
But then what happens?
Judgment comes.
And what this tells me is that, you know, people often forget that eternity exists.
They kind of just live for the temporal.
They live for their careers.
They live for, you know, the here and now, but they forget like judgment is coming though.
And you know what?
I'm guilty of the same thing.
We are temporal beings.
We live in this world.
We live the day to day lives.
We, you know, we just do things that normal people do on a day to day basis.
But sometimes that can often distract us from the fact that there is eternity awaiting us.
But thankfully, because we're saved, we're going to go to heaven.
But as I mentioned on Sunday night, though, you know, are you ready for that, right?
Are you ready for the judgment seat of Christ?
Are you ready for the fact that, you know, all this will come to an end one day?
You know, and it was very impactful what the my old church member said to me at the funeral
from last Saturday.
You know, I went to a funeral, as I mentioned, and, you know, this man was a godly man.
He was a soul winner.
And as I was about to leave, a member of the church came up to me.
She kind of just grabbed me by the arm and she has cancer.
She's dying.
She's going to die.
And she kind of came up to me.
She says, you know, I'm next, I'm next.
And I remember thinking, you know, I thought to myself like, you know, my natural inclination
was to tell her like, no, you're not.
But that would be stupid for me to say that because she is going to die.
And so instead, I just said, are you ready?
And she said, oh, I'm ready.
I'm ready to go.
You know, point that I'm making here is the fact that what it seems to indicate or the
point that Jesus is making in Matthew 24 is that people are just kind of, you know, overcome
by the day to day tasks, the temporal things that we do, the eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, not that those things are bad, but don't allow that to distract
you from the fact that judgment is coming, that hell exists, that heaven is real.
You know, sometimes we will joke about maybe someone, they don't go soul winning or something
like, Oh, I guess we'll just let people go to hell then, huh?
You know, we just kind of exaggerate like that.
And it's a funny joke because we're just kind of being intentionally hyper spiritual
because it's funny.
But there is some truth to that, is it not?
Because the reality is this is that, you know, hell doesn't take a day off.
People are still dying.
And you know what?
In the end times, people are going to be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
and then judgment is just going to come.
That's what Jesus Christ is saying is just in a moment, it's just going to happen.
Go back to second Peter chapter three.
These are all passages that address Noah and the flood impending judgment that came upon
the world and how it relates to us in the New Testament.
And of course, in the end times, verse one of second Peter chapter three says this, this
second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance that you may that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken
before by the holy prophets and of the commandments, commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord
and Savior, knowing this first, that there should come in the last day scoffers walking
after their own lust and saying, where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Now it's
very important to know, to understand here what Peter is talking about. He's saying that
in the end times, there's going to be people who scoff and mock the Bible and specifically
they mock the promises of God, the judgment of God. Okay. We have people like that today,
atheists and agnostics who mock Jesus Christ. They mock the Bible, you know, they mock judgments.
And obviously one of the reasons they do that is because you have all these fake Christians
out there who are constantly putting out, you know, these false, they're, they're a
bunch of false date setters. And so it causes people to kind of lose faith in the Bible
and it caused me to say like, where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continues to work from the beginning of the creation. So obviously
people's faith is thrown off overthrown when you have these false predictions given by
these false prophets, right? But the context says this, that people are going to be saying
this and keep in mind, what are they saying? Everything's going to continue as it was from
the beginning of the creation. But is that really accurate? No, because you have the
creation and then what do you have thereafter? The flood. And this is why it says in verse
five, for this, they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God, the heavens of
old and earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then
was being overflowed with water perished. So it's just like, you guys are being dishonest.
You know that all things are not continuing as they were from the beginning of the creation
because there's an old world that perished with the flood, which is indicative of the
fact that God judged the world. But it says here that they're willingly ignorant of that
meaning they don't want to see that. I don't want to talk about that. It was a local flood.
That didn't really happen. God didn't really judge a city called Sodom and Gomorrah. God
wouldn't do anything. You're just willingly ignorant of God's judgment. And it's crazy
to think that God can literally destroy an entire world, drown everybody, drown all the
dogs, all the dinosaurs. Nothing lives. And you still have people thousands of years later
saying, "Nah, that didn't really happen." It's like such a mockery of the judgment
of God. It shows you that it doesn't matter how severe judgment can be, you're still
going to have people who deny the truth. So, you know, don't become discouraged, disillusioned,
or angry with people. It's just like, "I can't believe they just don't see the truth." No,
hold on a second. Sometimes people just don't want to see the truth. It says that they're
willingly ignorant, meaning they're just stupid on purpose. Willingly ignorant is just like
they're just dumb on purpose. They don't want to see the truth. They don't want to believe
in the flood. Are you trying to tell me that God actually flooded the entire world and
everything died? Yeah. And yeah, you know what? He's not going to do it again with water.
The Bible says he's going to do it again with fire. Okay. He's going to baptize the world
in fire. And so you have scoffers. Oh no, everything continued as it was from the beginning
of the creation. And by the way, to a certain degree, preterists kind of believe this way.
It's just like, no, everything's going to continue as it was. It's just, you know, we're
just, this is the new heaven. This is the new earth. This is basically end times prophecy.
That's not this is a legitimate thing. All that stuff has already passed. Everything
will continue as it was from the beginning of the creation. Wrong. There's major intervals
of judgment throughout biblical history and just world history. But if you deny that you're
just being willingly ignorant of the truth. Okay. You say, look, you know, the world that
then was being overflowed with water perished. Verse seven says, but the heavens and earth,
which are now being the same, excuse me, by the same word are kept in store, reserved
unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So God is reserving
the judgment of fire, just as he reserved water and flood to destroy the world in like
man is going to do the same thing with flames. Verse eight says, but beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing that one day is what the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years
as one day, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. Where is the promise of his coming?
They're mocking God saying, Oh, you say you're going to judge the world. You say you're going
to burn the world. You have all this talk about, you know, the, the, the vials of God's
wrath, the trumpets of God's wrath, but yet nothing's happened. Well, hold on a second.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promises. And let me just for, for you hobby lobbyists
out there, this is not something that you should be using. It's like, Oh God will provide
for me. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises. This promise is actually referring
to like judgment. Okay. So get it in its context. Talk about killing the world and destroying
the world. Okay. It's about wrath. And obviously the Bible is filled with good promises to
us as Christians, provision, protection, so forth. This isn't just one of them. Okay.
The Lord is not slack. It's just like, Oh, he's so slack. Where's the promise? He's not,
it's not like he's being, you know, it's not God's not going soft in the new Testament.
He's not like, Oh, I guess I won't destroy them or something. You know, I guess, you
know, I just won't do this to them. I'm not going to destroy the world. I already did
it once. It didn't work and they're still evil and wicked. I'm just going to, the Lord
is not slack concerning his promises. And I want you to notice this as some men count
slackness, you know, as these atheists and people who hate God mock God saying that he
is slack. What does he say? He says, but is long suffering to usward, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So the reason God just hasn't
destroyed the world is because he wants people to be saved, which is why he waited for about
120 years before he flooded the world because he wanted Noah not only to build the arc,
but he wanted people to be saved because once you die, it's done. It's over with. There
is no pernatory. There is no second chance. And people don't realize that at death is
just, it's over with. It's done. There is no other opportunity. Once you've died and
your soul descends, descends into hell, it's over with. So that's why God is like, he's
long suffering towards the world because he doesn't want anybody to perish. Now he obviously
knows that people are going to perish. And in fact, in his foreknowledge, he knows who
is going to perish. He's not selecting people to perish. He just has the foreknowledge of
who's going to reject the gospel. But despite that, he's still being long suffering towards
people, right? And obviously we could apply this on a global scale, but we could also
apply it on an individual scale as well. You say, man, how come this person hasn't gotten
right? How come this person doesn't get saved? I just know this person. I just don't understand.
I'll tell you why, because God's long suffering towards that individual. He wants that person
to be saved. You know, he wants them to come to repentance. And of course this repentance
is not referring to a repentance of sins, referring to just a repentance, not trusting
their works and trusting Jesus Christ. Okay. It says in verse 10, but the day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night in the, which the heavens shall pass away with the
great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also in the works
that are therein shall be burned up. Seen then that all these things shall be dissolved.
What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness. So what
is God doing? He's given us a glimpse of what he's going to do in the end times. He is
going to burn this world down, going to burn it all down. And if you know anything about
end times prophecy, you know that that happens at the second half of Daniel's 70th week.
The last three and a half years of that seven year period, God is just burning a bunch of
stuff. He's burning the trees, you know, he's killing the marine life. You know, people
are just being burned. He even sends these supernatural horsemen to just breathe fire
and brimstone and just burn, burn, burn. He's just burning everything. He's burning
your cars, burning your houses, burning your possessions. He's like, why? Well,
it says here, knowing, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,
meaning, you know, knowing that your stuff is just going to all like melt.
You're not going to have all your nice things anymore. What manner of persons
ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness? So he's like,
knowing that you're not always going to keep your stuff to ten common, all your
gold, silver, precious stones, all of your, you know,
toys and possessions,
knowing that you're not going to have it because God will eventually burn it one
day. And in fact, you know, you're going to die before it even burns by the way.
Okay. But eventually all your possessions are going to burn. You go,
what kind of Christian should you be? Well,
it's basically implying you should like live for eternity is what you should do.
You should loosely hold the things of this world,
not hold them too tightly because you will lose them eventually. Okay.
He says, looking for and hasting until the coming of the day of God,
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise,
look for new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
So he's basically saying, look,
just the way God flooded the world and Noah's day and destroyed everything,
one like man, he's going to do it again.
So knowing the judgment that already came on this world and having knowledge of
the judgment that will come upon this world, you know,
that should kind of influence the way that you live today.
That should cause you to live a righteous life, to put righteous things first,
to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you know,
to center your life around the things of God. You like turn on the AC.
I'm burning up over here. Talk about all this fire. You know,
that should influence the way that you live. And again, you know,
we have to eat, we got to drink. Some of you got to get married.
There are those of us that have to give away our daughters and our sons in
marriage. These, this is just part of life, right?
But don't let your hearts be overcharged with these things.
So that they come upon you and aware as you're just,
you're just living for the temporal,
not recognizing that you are pilgrims and sojourners in this world.
You're not always going to be here.
You need to make sure that you make provisions for the world to come. Okay.
That's what basically what it's saying. You know,
Noah wasn't eating and drinking and given in marriage necessarily.
And if he was, it wasn't his priority. What was his priority?
The Ark and preaching righteousness.
And I don't think he was like some hyper spiritual holier than now or whatever.
You know, obviously he ate meals. He probably enjoyed his family.
He spent time with his wife,
but what is the major thing that the Bible highlights what he did for the Lord?
Okay. And so that's important. Go back to Genesis chapter seven.
That's the length of every verse, by the way. I'm going to get it.
No, I'm just kidding. That was verse one. Okay. Look at verse two.
It says of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens,
the male and his female and of beasts that are not clean by two,
the male and his female of fouls also of the air by sevens,
the male and the female to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
Now I do want to mention here,
and this is all educational information here.
What I'm about to mention is the fact that, you know,
a lot of times when we hear about the story of Noah and the flood, we,
we always have this picture of, you know,
he's collecting all these animals in pairs, right? Two by two.
But here we see in verse two that God commands them to get every clean
beast by sevens. Okay. And why is that? Well,
there's a couple of reasons why people surmise maybe why that's the case.
Obviously one of the reasons why is because of the fact that when they get off
the ark after the flood, you know,
the clean beasts are the ones that are being used to make sacrifices.
So if they're eating clean beast, which by the way,
they're also eating unclean beast, but if they're eating clean and unclean,
but they also need the clean beast to do sacrifices where you got to take a
little extra animals to do so. Right. And so obviously he's taken two and two,
but there are certain clean beasts that he's taking by sevens,
the male and his female. And so that's important to note, go with me,
if you would to Genesis chapter eight, Genesis chapter eight,
we see this here in Genesis eight and then we're going to go to Genesis nine,
Genesis chapter eight and verse 20 says,
and Noah building an altar unto the Lord and took up every clean beast and of
every clean foul and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
So obviously we see there that he's using the clean beast.
So he obviously has to have a little bit of a surplus of clean animals in order
to perform these sacrifices. Go to chapter nine, if you would chapter nine.
So he's taking extra clean animals for sacrifices.
But also the most logical conclusion is for continued reproduction.
They have to replenish the earth with animals.
You got to take a little extra to have more clean animals than unclean.
Now you're in chapter nine, but let me also mention here because, you know,
the question is like, man, how did he get all these animals on the Ark?
Is he like hunting them down? Is he capturing them? Well,
the Bible seems to imply that did just supernaturally came to him. Okay.
And I'm not saying that because of the stupid Noah movie either. Okay.
I'm just saying that based upon Genesis six,
let me read you from Genesis six here. It says in Genesis six verse 18,
but with thee will I establish my covenant.
Thou shalt come into the Ark thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons,
wives with thee and of every living thing of all flesh,
two of every source shall thou bring into the Ark to keep them alive with thee.
They shall be male and female of fouls after their kind and of cattle after
their kind of creeping thing of the earth after his kind two of every
source shall shall come unto thee to keep them alive.
So it seems to indicate that God's kind of just supernaturally put within him to
just get in the Ark to just migrate into the Ark. Okay. He said,
I don't know about that. Well, here's the thing. You know,
you got to have some level of imagination here and recognize there's a lot of
supernatural things that are taking place here. Okay. So, you know,
the miracle is not necessarily that they are getting into the Ark.
You know, under their own volition.
How about the fact that they're not attacking each other.
They're not attacking knowing his family.
Obviously God is just kind of moving something in their bodies and in their
brain not to be that way. And so they can survive it. Look at chapter nine.
And verse two, it says, and the fear of you,
this is after they get off the Ark,
it says the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the
earth and upon every foul of the air and upon all that move it upon the earth,
and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand. Are they delivered?
Now this would possibly explain why the animals are not attacking Noah and his
family because Genesis nine verse two seems to imply that prior to this,
you know, the, the, they were just kind of docile.
They're not necessarily attacking Noah,
but now the fear of them and the dread of them is upon the animals,
meaning that there's like a separation between man and the animal,
as far as the relationship is concerned.
Now they're fleeing from man.
Now there's like aggression between man and beast.
And it says in verse three,
"Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you."
Okay.
"Even as the green herb have I given you all things."
Now I want to explain something here because obviously Genesis 7 talks about the fact that he's collecting clean and unclean animals.
But Genesis 9 verse 3 says that both are basically game to eat.
Okay. They can eat both.
So they can eat, you know, pork.
They can eat, you know, what's another unclean animal that people like to eat today?
Shrimp. I don't know. What else?
Oh, we got a bunch of kosher people here. What?
What's an unclean animal that people eat today?
Huh? Camel? Eugh.
All right. You guys just say camel.
Adam, what do they eat in your side of the world? Like unclean animals, you know?
What? Does anybody?
Camels. Is camel like a big thing?
Bats? You know, some sort of rodent.
Okay. Point that I'm making here is like obviously the Bible has already classified them as clean and unclean,
but God is sanctioning them and allowing them, giving them the permission to eat both.
Now, why is that?
Well, because we're still in the beginning stages of civilization and the Mosaic law has not yet been instituted.
Okay. Even though they've been categorized as clean and unclean, the prohibition to eat the unclean animals has not yet been given.
Now, what does that tell us?
It tells us that eating unclean animals is not a sin in the very beginning.
It was temporarily considered sinful during the Mosaic law because it's picturing a spiritual truth.
And once God imposed that law, yes, it became sinful to do during that particular era of the Mosaic law.
But obviously now they're in the New Testament and the spiritual symbolic representation has been fulfilled in Christ.
Now you can eat pork again. So you know what? Yeah, it was wrong to eat pork, wrong to eat swine during the Mosaic law.
But it wasn't wrong prior to that. How do you know? Because he says every moving thing and guess what? Pigs move.
Okay, every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. This is God saying, hey, eat anything you want.
Anything that moves, you can eat it. You're not doing wrong by doing so. He's basically giving them permission to do so.
Okay. And, you know, that's important because a lot of people today, they're like, oh, no, you know, we still need to adhere to the dietary laws.
And you shouldn't eat bacon. You shouldn't eat, you know, pork. You shouldn't eat these things.
And then, you know, when you show them that the Bible says that, you know, every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused.
If it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer, then they're just like, yeah, but it's just it's still unhealthy to eat though, you know.
Or they'll say, yeah, but, you know, then why did he say the Mosaic Law? Because the Mosaic Law was a temporary era.
People don't realize that literally the Mosaic Law is just like a tiny piece of of history in this world that God was using for the nation of Israel in order to kind of build up this symbology of New Testament spiritual truths.
The proof of that is the fact that murder was wrong prior to the Mosaic Law.
And obviously once the Mosaic Law is instituted now the punishment on these capital crimes can be instituted by a functioning government.
Because now you have the nation of Israel functioning together as a nation under a theocracy where they can impose these laws.
But you know what? This doesn't mean that dietary laws should also be imposed in the New Testament because the Bible clearly tells us in the New Testament that those laws have been repealed.
OK. Meats, drinks, diverse washings, carnal ordinances. And so, you know, if anybody ever comes to you and says, oh, it's always been wrong to eat pork.
Well, Genesis nine three says that every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.
And that includes includes bats, too. I'm not trying to eat a bat or anything like that.
I'm just saying that according to the Bible, that's what it says.
And anybody who teaches otherwise, listen to me, anybody who teaches otherwise, according to First Timothy, Chapter four, is teaching the doctrine of devils, commanding to abstain from meats.
And look, when you read Acts, Chapter 10, you have God taking Peter to the woodshed on this, right?
He gives them the vision of the sheet knit at the four corners, and it has clean and unclean animals.
What does he say? Rise, Peter, kill and eat.
And then Peter, because he's just done sometimes, he's like, not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has entered into my mouth.
He's like, dude, the guy just the Lord just said to rise, kill and eat. Don't disobey the Lord.
Like he's literally telling you think he's just going to tempt you in that way and make you sin by doing that.
So you have to do it three times. And obviously, the implication there is that God was trying to communicate to Peter.
Hey, go to the Gentiles, the people that you think are unclean and common.
They're not common. They're not unclean. They've been sanctified, meaning that God has allowed them through the grace of God to be saved as well.
And obviously, we know Gentiles in the Old Testament are being saved.
Don't have this prejudice against Gentiles. Don't have this racist disposition towards Gentiles.
Don't think that they're common or unclean. God has sanctified them. They're seeking me out.
You can try to go get them saved as well. So obviously, we know that that's the spiritual truth,
but it also applies physically as well. You can eat the unclean animals. Shrimp, good to go.
Catfish, good to go. Not that I'm into that, but I'm just saying. Probably my favorite unclean animal is pork.
Pork chops taste good. Bacon is great. Pork chops are great. And so forth.
But Genesis 9, we see there, he says, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you."
So go back to Genesis 7. He says in verse 4, "For yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
And every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth."
What do we see here? We see that, you know, God is gracious, but there's always a deadline to his grace, right?
Because he's saying, look, seven days and I will cause the terrain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
And every living substance that I've made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
What is he saying? It's like there's a deadline to this.
You know, there comes a point where God just says no more.
Okay. And he's going to judge. Verse five says, "And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him.
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
And Noah went in and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood.
Of clean beasts and of beasts that are not clean and of fouls and of everything that creepeth upon the earth.
There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark the male and the female as God had commanded Noah.
Verse 10. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
And in the 600th year of Noah's life in the second month the 17th day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up.
And the windows of heaven were open and the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
So you actually have water coming from two sources from the bottom which is the fountains of the deep where there's water stored beneath the earth's crust is allowed to come out and flood the world.
But it's also raining from the from top as well. So you have it from both sides and it's doing this for 40 days and 40 nights.
Now, the number 40, just like the number seven, for example, is a number of completion, right?
So once the seven days are complete, like, you know, God created the earth in six days and on the seventh he rested.
It's a number of completion. Well, 40 days and 40 nights is somewhat of a number of temptation.
So we have here God judging the world. He is destroying the world. He's allowing the rain to come upon the world.
Verse 13 says in the self same day entered Noah and Shem and him and Japheth the sons of Noah and Noah's wife
and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark. Now, I do want to mention that, you know, obviously
Noah did a good job in saving his family from the flood. Right. Like he got them into the ark.
But this does not mean that Noah's family or all of Noah's family was saved. Okay.
Because as we're going to see later on, one of his sons ends up committing a grievous sin against him
that would, you know, essentially show us that his salvation was questionable.
We're going to get into that later on. I'm not going to talk about that in this particular chapter.
Verse 14 says, "They and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind,
and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind,
every bird of every sort, they went into Noah, into the ark, two and two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life."
So one thing I want you to notice here is that, you know, when it comes to this particular story,
in avoiding the wrath of the flood, there's only one door, only one ark, there's only one method of salvation.
There's not multiple ways of avoiding the flood.
People can climb to the peak of whatever mountain they want, eventually that person died.
They can go to the highest peak of whatever structure, mountain or hill,
and they can try to reach into heaven by themselves, but at the end of the day, they drowned.
Because at the end of the day, there's only one way of salvation.
There's only one ark that exists during this particular time.
And obviously, the spiritual truth there is that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life,
and that no man cometh unto the Father but by Him.
Go to Matthew chapter 7, if you would.
Matthew chapter 7, there's only one door, one ark, and one method of salvation.
Now, what else could be said of Noah, the ark, and the flood?
Well, we see here that Noah, because he obeyed the word of the Lord, was not destroyed in the flood.
And what can we learn from that?
Well, look at Matthew chapter 7, verse 24.
It says here, "Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them,"
you know, he moved with fear, "I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock."
And we can say that Noah built the ark upon the rock as well, right?
He obeyed the Lord and constructed the ark.
He had faith that what he was saying is true, and therefore he was wise.
He says in verse 25, "And the rain descended, like it did in the days of Noah.
And the floods came, like it did in the days of Noah.
And the winds blew," and I'm sure there was winds as well.
"And beat upon that house, and beat upon the ark.
And it fell not, for it was founded upon the rock."
You see the parallels there, okay?
And what's the spiritual truth that we can learn from that?
Well, you know, we need to make sure that we in like manner also build our lives upon the Word of God,
build our lives into the ark, right?
Build our lives upon the rock.
Why? Because, you know, obviously God's not going to flood the world again,
but we individually will experience floods in our lives as well, okay?
And what is a flood representative of?
A flood is representative of just trials, representative of evil, judgment,
the evil that can come upon us in this world.
And, you know, if you don't build your life upon what the Word of God says,
and how do you do that? By obeying what the Bible says.
If you don't build up spiritual convictions when the flood comes,
it's just going to take you away.
And in fact, if you're not building your life upon the rock,
by default, you're building your life upon the shifting sands.
There's only two places you can build your life upon--
the sand or the rock, OK?
He says in verse 26, "And everyone that hear these sayings of mine
and do with them not shall be likened unto a foolish man,
which built his house upon the sand.
The rain descended, the floods came, winds blew,
beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."
So we see here that Noah can be likened unto the wise man
that listened to God when he told him to start building the ark
and to come into the ark because judgment was coming.
And let me just remind you that we as Noah
are also commissioned, so to speak, to build this ark, right?
Why? Because we need to make sure that we are on a consistent basis
building up this ark of convictions within ourselves,
the ark of beliefs and convictions.
Why? Because there is going to come a time when floods come into our lives.
And let me just tell you, I've known Christians just in this church alone.
I mean, I've known Christians in various churches throughout my Christian life,
but just pastoring this church.
There's been Christians who started off great,
but they stopped building their lives upon the rock, okay?
You know what happened? A flood came, a trial came, a tribulation came,
an offense came, a major difficulty came, and you know what happened?
The flood just took them away, took them away.
Unless you should think like, oh, well, yeah, that happens to them,
but that would like never happen to me, well, take heed, lest ye fall, okay?
Take heed, lest ye fall.
And you know what? You need to make sure that although you built your life upon the rock last week,
that you're still building on the rock this week as well.
It's a lifelong process, okay?
And look, the Bible's not saying here that if you build your life upon the rock,
that no floods will come, that no winds will blow,
that no floods will come, that no rain will descend.
We will have days like that.
And you know what?
It's also not saying that you're not going to lose a couple panels or something.
You know, a couple shingles, what are those called?
The shingles, right, are going to come off the roof
and the house is going to be beat up a little bit.
But it says here that it's just not going to topple over,
no matter how strong the flood is.
And I'm telling you right now, you will have a flood that comes into your life at one time or another.
It's going to happen this year, it might happen this week, it's going to happen.
You better make sure that you make provision, that you're building the ark,
that you're spending the time preaching the word of God
and making sure that you're building your convictions
because the evil day will come upon you.
And you need to be able to withstand the floods in the evil day, having done all to stand.
And you know what, sometimes Christians are just too overly confident.
They just think, "Well, I just believe the right doctrines."
And I'm glad for that.
But you know, you need to have the right doctrines,
but you also have to have some level of endurance in the Christian life as well.
And you know, sometimes Christians are like,
"Well, I feel like if I just believe the right things, then I'll be fine."
Well, you know, the Christian life is not just about one factor though.
Of course you have to believe the right things,
but you know, that's insufficient to make it in the Christian life.
You have to have other convictions within yourself that endures into the end.
You have to have emotional fortitude in the Christian life.
You have to be able to withstand offense.
And when Satan comes and attacks you, you have to be able to resist Satan.
And look, I've known Christians who had all types of right biblical doctrines.
They had the deep truths of the Word of God.
But you know what happened? Flood came and just took them away.
Easy. They're just like a mushroom. They're just taken away.
You know why? Because of the fact that they didn't build their life upon the rock.
They didn't build endurance in the Christian life.
And therefore the rains descended upon them.
And look, I'm not saying that what you're experiencing or will experience is just like light work, no reaction.
Because I remember preaching something like this years ago.
And I'm just like, "You got to endure. You got to endure." Just saying the same things I'm saying now.
And then the evil day came upon me and I'm just like, "I think I want to quit."
Because it was just so stinking hard.
And you will have a time in the Christian life like I did, and I'm sure I will in the future,
where you're just like on the brink of quitting.
You're just like, "I think I'm just done."
And I've had instances in my Christian life where I'm just like right here
and I had to just call my friends and just like just hold on for one more day.
Because it's just the trial that I was experiencing was so severe and so hard
that it just felt like the only reasonable answer was just to quit the Christian life
because it was just too hard.
You know what that is? That's like a flood.
You know like a couple days ago we had like a storm here, right?
Didn't we have like a storm?
And we're so foreign to stuff like that, you know?
We're just like, "Let's go."
You know, I'm like walking through my house, there's like lightning.
I'm like, "What the heck is that?
Someone's taking a picture or something or what?"
You know, there's like winds blowing and then like, you know,
my screen door is just like, "Doom, doom."
And I'm just like, "Wait, Sarah, go check."
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, it's just like, man, that storm is getting crazy out there, you know?
And you know, but that's obviously very minimal compared to the spiritual winds,
the rains, the thunders, the things that will come upon us.
And you just need to make sure that, like, on a daily basis, you check your foundation,
make sure, like, okay, am I building my life upon this rock?
Or am I just being lazy and I'm not taking the Christian life serious?
And I feel like, you know, in my experience, those who are carried away of the flood
are those who just didn't take it serious.
They didn't think it applied to them.
You know, they just thought, "Yeah, that's going to happen to you, pastor,
because you're serving God, but I'm not serving God as much," or something.
You know, that's the one.
You know, Satan wants to come after you, too.
Just render you completely useless.
He wants to take you out of church.
He wants to get you to stop reading the Bible.
And he's willing to play the long game with you, okay?
That's the point that I'm making.
The point that I'm making here is that you need to make sure
that you're constantly checking below your feet and think to yourself,
like, "Is this the rock or is this the shifting sands?"
Because the storm will come, okay?
And, you know, I think Noah is a great example of this particular passage
in Matthew chapter 7, go back to Genesis,
that shows us that, you know, he was not moved.
And, you know, do you think for a second that while Noah was preaching,
people weren't just talking smack to him all the time?
Of course they were. Probably mocking him.
What judgment? Rain?
Okay, guys, you know, rain is going to come.
Some judgment from the sky is going to fall.
I'm sure people were just completely mocking him.
And, you know, after 10 years of preaching that and nothing happening,
I'm sure they're just like, "Yeah, sure, buddy."
20 years? Okay.
50 years? You're still building that stupid box?
You know, 50 years? 60? I mean, 100 years?
They're just like, "When is this thing going to be done, Noah?"
I'm sure they're just mocking him a lot.
But you know what? He just kept plowing away.
120 years, he's building the ark.
He's preaching because he knows he has faith that the judgment will come.
And I'm not trying to put words in Noah's mouth,
but if I was Noah and the floods came, I'd be like, "Who's laughing now?"
Now what? Now you know that this was the reality.
It's like what we're going to say to our pre-trip buddies during the tribulation.
"Oh, oh. Oh, yeah. Oh, you remember? Oh, now you want to watch the DVD now, huh?
Oh, now you're open to it now, huh?
Now you're not afraid to be associated with me now, huh?
I'm a little petty, I'll just be honest with you."
Look at verse 18, it says, "The waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth,
and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth,
and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered.
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth,
both of fowl and of cattle and of beasts and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,
and every man all in whose nostrils were the breath of life.
You say, "Why are you chuckling?" Because, you know, there's this theory out there that this is just like a local flood.
But it literally says every man.
And in case you misinterpret that, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life.
Anything that breathed died.
And of all that was in the dry land died.
So if you find dry land, you got anything living there, it died.
Every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground,
both man and cattle and the creeping things and the foul of the heaven.
And they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remained alive.
And they that were with him in the ark.
So what do we see here?
We see that, you know, it's all fun and games until the first drop comes down.
Noah's crazy until it actually starts raining.
You know, oh, Noah's just preaching all this stuff until the rain actually doesn't stop.
Let me just say this, you know, I, like Noah, am constantly telling you about the judgment
to come in your life if you remain in unrepentant sin, right?
I'm constantly, and you know, I've had people tell me like, well, that's funny, you know,
people saying that I'm going to get judged by God, but just nothing ever happens to me.
I literally had someone tell me that.
You know, someone who's railing against pastors and saying all manner of evil against them.
I'm like, aren't you afraid that like God, this is why I told the person like two years
ago, I said, aren't you afraid that like God's going to judge you?
You know, people keep saying that, but I'm just, you know, I'm just living a normal life.
God's like blessing me.
You know, yeah, it's all fun and games till the rain starts coming down though.
And you know what?
Just because a year or two has passed means nothing, means nothing.
You're just like, oh man, well, I guess I got away with it.
Are you sure about that?
Yeah, I'm sure people who were there 120 years afterwards thought the same thing.
They're just like, yeah, see nothing.
Oh, Noah, he's just saying all that stuff.
He's been preaching.
He's been building that box for years.
Old man Noah doesn't know what he's talking about.
But then it actually starts raining.
And then it doesn't stop raining.
And then the fountains of the deep break open.
And guess what?
You can't swim.
And then everyone starts relocating to higher ground.
And then you start realizing, damn, maybe Noah was right.
You know what?
Me, every preacher, every pastor like Noah is constantly telling you,
like, hey, get right with God.
Repent.
Clean up your life.
Don't continue.
Change the way you think.
Don't be this way.
You know, just constantly instructing you in the ways of the Lord.
And hopefully, the majority of you are like Noah's family,
who says, you know, not only do I believe you,
I'm going to help you build the ark, too.
But you know, there's going to be people who are like the other people,
who are just like, nothing's going to happen.
I've been doing this for years.
Nothing's ever happened.
I've been living this way.
I've been doing this particular sin.
I've been, you know, going down this path.
You always say that God's going to judge me. It just never happens.
But it will happen because the Lord does not slack concerning his promises.
And guess what? You're not the exception to the rule.
And it's just all fun and games until you see the first drop.
Go back to 1 Peter chapter 3 and we'll finish there.
We see in verse 24 that the waters prevailed upon the earth in 150 days.
And, you know, I'm sure, and obviously I'm inferring a lot into the text here just imagining how it would happen.
I'm sure, you know, after a couple days, you know, you just hear the arc, "It's your neighbor!"
You know, after a while, stuff starts getting serious, but the door's already closed, you know.
And you say, "Well, how do you know that people are probably knocking on the door?"
Because the imagery that we're getting here is like salvation, that's why.
And if you look at the parables in the book of Matthew, you know,
you always hear about the guy who didn't have oil in his lamp,
and he comes and he knocks at the door,
but it says that the door is now shut too late.
Comes a point where it's just too late, okay?
Look at 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 18.
This is also addresses the no one is fled.
It says, "For Christ also once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit.
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison,
which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."
This is a passage that people will commonly use to teach
baptismal regeneration, right?
Teaching that baptism can save you.
It says in verse 21, "The like figure were unto even baptism,
doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."
So what's the appropriate and accurate way to really read this?
If we were to remove the parentheses, it says there,
"The like figure were unto even baptism, doth also now save us."
How does it save us?
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It's important to note that Peter is using the story of Noah in the ark
to illustrate the spiritual truth, right?
And it's crazy to think like, "Oh yeah, baptism saves us."
I mean, it says it right there.
But he's using Noah in the ark as an illustration of salvation.
Ask yourself, did the water save anybody in Noah's day?
It killed everyone.
So why do you think that baptism...
Yeah, yeah, everyone was baptized in Noah's day and they all died.
That proves baptism doesn't save anybody.
You know what saved Noah? The ark.
You know what saves us? The ark.
You know who the ark is? Jesus Christ.
You know who was baptized in fire?
Jesus Christ.
So we're saved by the baptism of Jesus Christ.
We are baptized.
We're immersed in Christ.
Christ suffered for us.
He suffered the wrath of God in order to save us.
So all the way to to interpret this,
to say that this teaches you have to be baptized in water in order to be saved,
shows absolute complete ignorance of the story of Noah and the flood,
because the flood killed everyone.
Noah was saved not because he knew how to swim,
not because he was baptized in the water,
but because the art that pictures Jesus Christ was baptized in the water.
And it's through his sufferings, you know,
the Bible says that he was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification.
And so that's important to know.
The Bible tells us in Romans 6 verse 3,
knowing not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ,
were baptized into his death, Colossians 2.12 says,
"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead."
And so, that is the last portion of Scripture in the New Testament,
dealing with no one is flood.
What's something you can walk away from in this regard when it comes to this story?
Well, just know that, you know, God just does not mess around.
And yet, you know, he flooded the world in times past and basically killed everyone.
And you may think, "Oh, that's only Old Testament. That's how God was."
No, God doesn't change. He changeth not.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.
And you need to spend a little more time in the book of Revelation
if you think that God is only judgmental in the old.
He's very much a wrathful God in the new as well.
But another thing that we need to take away from this is the fact that
we need to make sure that we spend the proverbial 120 years doing spiritual things.
Obviously, we have to live in this world. We have to pay bills.
We have to take care of our responsibilities.
But be like Noah that is building the ark, and he's a preacher of righteousness as well. Amen?
Let's pray, Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for this admonition in Genesis, Chapter 7, the reality of the flood, Lord.
I pray that you help us to take it to heart and recognize, Lord, that you are worthy to be feared,
knowing full well that although in the end times the world will not be baptized with water,
it will be baptized with fire.
And Lord, knowing full well that these things shall be dissolved, everything that we possess,
may it influence the way we live here.
Bless us as we go on our way.
We love you.
We thank you.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.