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I ask you to bless this time, I ask you to fill me with your spirit, give me boldness and clarity to deliver your message and help us to be attentive and learn some things here tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We're in Genesis chapter 7 and we're going to finish the whole chapter and you could probably break this chapter down to a literal interpretation and a figurative, but I'm kind of mixing them all together because there's a lot of sermons and chapters we've already done like two sermons and I don't want to be in Genesis for a hundred weeks. But we'll look at some various things and notice what it says in Genesis 1 to start off. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come now and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. And so you notice here in verse number 1, the first point we have is God's protection that we see here. The Lord says to Noah, Come now and all thy house into the ark. Now, every word in the Bible is there for a reason and he does not say go into the ark. Right. Like, for example, you know, if we were both standing here, I would say, you know, go to wherever and do something. Right. I would say come if I'm already in the ark. Right. For example, you're outside this building. I say, hey, come in. Right. If I was outside, I'd say go in. And so the indication is the Lord is in the ark with them. Now, I'm not sitting here saying that literally, you know, he was there. The Son of God was just there's nine people in the ark. But what I'm saying is that God is with us everywhere we go. And, you know, God is going to, you know, bless you and protect you in dangerous situations if you're right with him. And, you know, when he had them come to the ark, he's like, hey, you know what? I'm already in here. Come into the ark. And it's sort of like the stamp of protection that he's going to provide for them. Right. He doesn't say go into the ark. He says, Come now and all thy house into the ark, indicating he was already in the ark. And the reason why he told them to come in, he said, For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Now, you see the word thee there. He does not say ye. Ye would be plural. But what God's telling Noah is you're coming in the ark and your entire family because you specifically, Noah, are righteous. Now, when it's saying righteous, it's not saying, well, you're the only one that's saved in your family. You know, I'm sure most of them were saved in his family. But what he's saying is not just that you're saved, but you're actually wanting to serve God and see the difference between Noah and every other saved person that lived 4000 years ago is Noah was actually trying to do what was right and Noah was perfect in his generation, the Bible says. And God looked down and said, For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. One thing we can take away is this, that if you're someone who loves God and your family, you can basically have a hedge of protection for your whole family based on the fact that you're living for God because God could look down at you and say, You know what? I'm not just going to spare you. I'm going to spare your entire family because of the fact you're right with God and you're doing what's right. Go to Genesis 39 real quickly. Genesis 39. Let me give you a couple examples of God protecting through difficult situations. Because, you know, you hear this story so much in the floods, one of the most famous stories, one of the most famous events in the history of the world. I mean, even to this day, I mean, every society has some sort of flood legend of something that took place, which I believe it was, you know, basically these these cultures. The original story is kind of been messed up a little bit in various cultures, but they have a lot of the fragments of that the original story. Correct. Even in heathen cultures, they'll talk about eight people were on a ship or something like that. They'll say there's a worldwide flood. This is a very famous story. But when you really think about it, obviously, this is a very dangerous situation. Imagine being inside of an arc and you've got this major storm going on and everybody's being killed and everything like that. If God was not protecting them, then they probably would have been destroyed as well. Right. So let's let's look at another example. Joseph in the Bible, Genesis 39. And Joseph's another man who basically, you know, what he was serving God and doing right. But he got himself into some bad situations. Not his fault. But God was there to protect him. Genesis 39 verse one. This is after Joseph has been sold into slavery by his brothers. And Joseph was brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard in Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord was with Joseph. Right now, when it's saying the Lord was with Joseph, I don't think that Joseph was just looking to his side and he can literally see, you know, the Son of God beside him. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I think what the Bible is saying, though, is that in a spiritual sense, that he was with him. Right. You know, we use the expression, you know, hey, are you going to stop by tomorrow? You know, I'm having a lot of people over. Well, I'm not going to be there in body, but I'm going to be there in spirit. Right. And there's actually truth to that in the Bible, because when the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph, I believe he was right there with him, even though Joseph probably didn't see him. Right. Because obviously God is everywhere. But it's trying to tell us that God was there to protect Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Go down to verse 19. Verse 19. And the key is that Joseph, like Moses, was right with God. Then, of course, you know, Potiphar's wife lies about Joseph. And it says here in verse 19, And it came to pass when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake on to him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me, that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in prison. In the prison. Now, you could debate about this and discuss it, and you could have different opinions about whether or not Joseph made a foolish decision to go in the house where Potiphar's wife was, or whether or not he had no other choice. Because, you know, if you have a job, he might have had no other choice. That's kind of the way I look at it. I don't think he really put himself in a bad situation. I think he really had no other choice because he had to get the job done or whatever. But obviously, Potiphar's wife lies about it, and he runs out and everything, and then she, you know, tears the garment, and then she makes up the story. He tried to force me and everything like that. He gets thrown in prison, and notice what it says in verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison, and whatsoever they did there. He was a doer. Verse 23. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him. And now what he did, the Lord made him to prosper. So we're seeing this come up over and over again, that the Lord is with Joseph. The Lord is with Joseph. One reason why I think it keeps mentioning this, because it could have just said it one time, right? I mean, if the Lord was with Joseph, unless the Bible tells you the Lord's no longer with Joseph, then you would assume the Lord's still with Joseph. But it keeps mentioning it. You say, why? Well, because here's the thing. When you're going through difficult times, you don't feel like the Lord is with you, right? I mean, the Lord is with Joseph every step of the way. But look, think about when you go through trials in your life, sometimes you feel like you're at it alone, right? Now, here's the thing. If you're in a major trial because you've committed some major sin, well, that's something a little bit different. What I'm saying is, if you're serving God and doing right, you're going to have down times. And when you have a down time, you feel like you're alone. You feel like God's not there for you. You feel like, man, what did I do? What sin did I commit? Anyway, it's kind of the natural response people have, because think of Job's friends. Well, if things aren't going well, you must have done something wrong, right? That's kind of the normal thing that we think, but that's not necessarily true, right? And when we're in our darkest times, we feel like we're alone, but the Lord is with Joseph. The Lord is with Joseph. The Lord is with Joseph. The Lord is with Joseph. What he said to Noah and his family was, come now and all thy house into the ark. Right? So come in with me. I'm going to be here to protect you. Now, turn in your Bible back to Genesis 7. Genesis 7. Genesis 7. What could be some examples of this? Well, you know, you've got these Pentecostals and these religions that preach the health and wealth gospel that if you're right with God, you're going to be healthy. You're going to be wealthy and everything's going to be great in your life, right? Isn't that what they teach? And, you know, other churches kind of teach something pretty similar. A lot of Baptist churches around here say, well, you know what? If you've just given, you know, your first fruits offering, you know, things might be going better for you, right? They're basically teaching a health and wealth prosperity sort of gospel. And you know, that comes from the Pentecostals, you know, mainly from, you know, it's the Pentecostals that teach that sort of thing. But it's not a biblical thing. And here's the thing. You say, well, brother, what if I'm starting to have health problems? Well, when you start to have health problems, you might get the feeling like God's rejecting you. And the sad reality is people might think that about you automatically just because you have health problems. They shouldn't think that, but that's just the way it is. That's the way people are. If somebody has major health problems, even in a church setting, people at church are going to think, well, he must have done something, right? I mean, that's what Job's friends did, right? Well, here's the thing. When you're actually going through major health problems, it's pretty important to understand that God is actually there with you, if you're right with him. Now, as I said, it is possible, it is possible you committed a major sin and God is cursing you, right? David had a lot of curses on his life for the actions he decided to take. But you know what? Job was perfectly right with God. So just because you're going through a health problem doesn't mean that God's rejected you. Or how about, you know, people start serving God and what do they see happen? Their family rejects them. Their friends reject them. They're so excited to share the things they know, right? It's like, man, you know, I just learned salvation's a gift. They assume their Catholic family is going to be so excited, just like they were, and then they get mad at you. And it's like, I'm sharing good news. Like, it's surprising when you go through that, right? I mean, I think we've all probably been through that. But you assume, I assumed, man, I got this good news. Everybody's going to be happy like I am. I felt so relieved. I was excited. I figured everybody, I was like, man, if people only knew this, they would get saved. But then a lot of people hear it and they get mad at you. Not only did they not get saved, they're not even happy with what you had to say. And so, you know, sometimes you start serving God. Family starts rejecting you. Friends start rejecting you. You know what? A lot of times happens. People end up quitting on church and quitting serving God because they just assume, man, I start serving God. I expected my life would be good. I expected everything would be great. I'd have better health. I'd be more attractive. I'd live longer. You know, I'd have to get a pay raise or whatever. Everybody would, you know, my friends and family would love this new me and everything like that. But then you find your family rejects you. Then you find your friends reject you. Or you go through a financial struggle, you can feel like, man, God's rejecting me, right? He's left me alone. But here's the thing. If you're right with God, then God is with you. And here's the thing. If you're honest with yourself, you know whether you're right with God. Now, I'm not saying you're perfect. None of us are perfect. But look, I know for myself personally on a day-to-day basis, today I'm right with God. And then other days, it's like, you know what? I'm not as right with God as I am in other days. Right? You say, how do you know? Well, what are you thinking about? Right? If all you're thinking about are godly things and spiritual things and things that are good things, then obviously you're right with God. But if during the day all you're thinking about is the things of the world, it could be an indication you're not right with God. I don't know your minds. I know my minds. Now, I'm not saying that you're going to be in a state where every single day you're perfectly living for God because I've never been in that sort of position before where I'm always 100% living for God. What I'm saying, though, is I know times where I was definitely living for God where I was like, man, I'm right with God right now. And then there's other times I'm not as right with God. So here's the thing. If you're not right with God, you don't know what's going to take place. In that fiery furnace, those three people, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were protected. But what about if they had been committing a lot of sins and worldliness in their lives? There's a good chance they would have just burned up. But, see, the reason why God protected them is because they were right with God. And so one thing we see is God's protection. And, of course, that's a major thing when you think about the ark because this is a story you hear so much that it almost goes over your head. You don't think about it. At a young age, you hear about the floods. You almost become desensitized. And Genesis 7 doesn't really seem like the most exciting chapter, but it's just because you've heard this story a million times. This is some of the most exciting parts of the Bible. We can look outside and see the mountains and see everything that's there and realize it was a lot different before the flood. We don't really know what it looked like before the flood, but a lot changed as a result of that. So one thing we see is God's protection. Another thing we see is we see a lot of links with salvation. And here's where there's a lot of symbolism with salvation, where you could really make a whole sermon about this. And I'm going to just kind of give you some of that there. The first verse in Genesis 7 said, you know, come into the ark, right? Come thou and all thy house into the ark. And it's kind of like, you know, where, you know, come unto me that are meek and lowly. Actually, actually go to Matthew 11 real quick. Let's turn there. I don't have this in my nose, but Matthew 11, Matthew 11, 28, Matthew 11, 28. This is a phrase that is linked with salvation, where it says, come unto me. And it says in Matthew 11, verse 28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest under your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And, you know, you can make various applications, but one of the major ones there is definitely in regards to salvation because we enter into the rest that's found in Jesus Christ. And it's like, you know what? Before you're saved, you're striving, doing all these works to try to get to heaven. You're trying your best. You know, you mess up and you're not sure if you're going to heaven. Then all of a sudden you just come on to Christ and it's like, wow, it's that easy. Right? It's like all you do is believe on him and he did all the work for you. And so go back to Genesis, Genesis chapter seven. And so this phrase, you know, come is basically a phrase that is linked to salvation. And here's the thing. We preach the gospel to people. They make the choice whether or not they're going to come or not. Right? I mean, obviously God's saying come. He wants us to come. But when you're using that word, there's still the indication that there's a choice that's being made. Right? He's commanding us come. But the Bible's not saying, you know, come. And then it's like, you're getting sucked in, you know, like a vacuum or a horse or a black hole or something like that. It's like, no, I mean, God's saying, you know, come on to me. He wants everyone to come on to him. Right? But it is that free will choice that we have. Okay. And once again, he is in the ark with them when he says, come on to me. Go to verse 16 real quickly. Verse 16. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded him. And notice this. And the Lord shut him in. There's a reference, a symbolic reference to eternal security where the Lord shuts him in. Because remember, he's like, come into the ark. I'm already here. They get inside and then the Lord shut them in. Basically saying, hey, you know, you can't get out. Right? You're in this ark. You're stuck in this thing. You're not getting out. And it's the same thing with salvation. Now, look, sometimes people ask stupid questions like this. Well, what if somebody wanted to give away their salvation? Right? Have you ever heard somebody say that? Well, I don't think you can lose your salvation, but I think you can just kind of give it away. Right now, whenever people say that, they're always believing in the work of salvation. And what they mean by giving it away is just, oh, you stopped coming to church, so you gave it away. That's called losing your salvation. Right? But they'll say, well, I don't think you can lose it, but I think that you can give it away. Well, let's use some common sense here. Do you think any of these eight people in the middle of the flood are like, let me get out of this ark and just dive into the water? I mean, who would... Because here's the thing. When you're saved, you understand heaven. You understand hell. You understand what gets you to heaven. You understand what sends you to hell. And guess what? Not a single person wants to burn forever. So if you're saying, well, you could choose to give it up, nobody's going to say, you know what, I just want to be on fire my whole life. Right? This is one of these vain, stupid arguments for people that want to try to say or add in, you know, a loss of salvation somewhere. But the Lord shuts them in, and it's a done deal. So, you know, honestly, if you... I mean, you're in God's hand as well. So even if you wanted to get out, you couldn't. But nobody who's saved is going to want to get out. Right? Now, of course, people can be saved and they don't want persecution. So they might start serving God and they want to get out of that. But nobody wants to say, hey, I want to burn in hell. Right? So that's a dumb argument. But the Bible says this, the Lord shut him in. Another thing is found in verse number 17. And I didn't really think about this, but actually Brother JR in Manila, we were talking about Genesis the other day. He kind of made this point. And I was like, man, I never thought about that. There's a lot of symbolism here in Genesis 17 or Genesis 7. But notice verse 17. And the flood was 40 days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bear up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And if you remember, there's a really tricky verse in the book of Peter where it talks about how salvation is symbolized with the ark and talks about Noah and everything like that. But there's also this other reference, like right when he mentioned it, about this phrase lift up, it really kind of resonated. Because he says that if he be lifted up from the earth, we'll draw all men onto him. And so he uses that same terminology of the ark, it was lift up. Just as Christ was lifted up from the earth, and then he will draw all men onto him. So there's so much symbolism in the Bible. I mean, you can read it and read it and read it. I memorized this chapter. I didn't notice that at all. So it's like there's so much to learn in the Bible. It's so exciting. And so there's another thing with salvation that you see there. So we see eternal security mentioned here in Genesis 7 in a symbolic sense where it says the Lord shot a man. Go to Isaiah 51. Isaiah 51. Let me just show you very clearly, eternal security was taught in the Old Testament. Isaiah 51 verse 5. Isaiah 51 verse 5. And the Bible reads in Isaiah 51 verse 5. My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people. The isle shall wait upon me, and on mine arms shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke. The heavens are going to vanish away, the Bible says. And the earth shall wax old like a garment. So this is similar wording from some other places in the Bible where we see this sort of terminology about how the earth and the heaven are going to wax old. They're going to vanish away. We're going to have a new heaven and a new earth. And, you know, it's interesting because you think of something like the earth, and the earth seems like something that's just going to last forever. Right? I mean, every single day, you know, the sun rises, the sun sets. You know, just like clockwork, it happens over and over and over again and everything. The Bible's saying eventually the earth is going to wax old like a garment. It's going to start to get old. It's going to be like a clothing that just gets old. The heavens are going to vanish away. Then it says, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But notice this. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. I mean, it's just very clear. My salvation shall be forever. Right? Now, I think saying, you know, everlasting life should be enough for people because that's life forever. But here mentions salvation being forever. Now, here's the thing. You know, when does a person get saved? Well, they get saved the moment they believe. The moment you believe, what you're promised is that you are saved from the future penalty of hell. Okay? And so what the Bible says is your salvation is forever. So once you get saved, you can't lose it. Harken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not their approach of men, neither be afraid of their revile. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. So even in the Old Testament, they were imputed with God's righteousness when they got saved. And so you get saved. The salvation is forever. You're imputed with God's righteousness forever. Forever, even though you still sin, you're spiritually perfect forever. So there's eternal security there in Isaiah 51. Go to Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. And I'm just showing you a few verses here in the Old Testament just to show you, salvation's always been the same. And, of course, the New Testament talks about salvation more often. Of course, when we go soul winning, I don't regularly go to Isaiah 51 when I'm preaching the Gospel. Usually I go to John 336, Romans 623. Simple, easy ways to prove eternal security. I'm just showing you it's not different than it was, you know, thousands of years ago. It's still the same. Isaiah 64 verse 6. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all do fate as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. So it says we are all as an unclean thing. And, you know, you think about us. Is anyone righteous enough to get to heaven? Well, the answer's no. We're all as an unclean thing. We commit sins. We do wrong. Right? There's none righteous, no, not one. And I always tell people, you know, when I'm preaching the Gospel that, you know what, just one lie is enough where God's going to stay guilty. Just one lie is what it says in Revelation chapter 21a, because you're not 100% clean. Right? Even if, whether it's one sin or 100 sins, it's like you're still unclean. Because if you have a white piece of paper, and you just make a small little smudge on it, it might be 99% white, but that's not 100%. It's the same thing with being clean. I mean, you could clean your hands, and you could clean your hands under soap for like 10 minutes, and do every single thing. You can spray whatever, and you get at all these stores right now, all the COVID stuff, you know, and wash them and everything like that. But then if one thing that's dirty hits it, then all of a sudden it's dirty. Or how about you got a glass of water? You're like, oh, man, this is great. I got water. And then all of a sudden you see an E-piece crawl in. Wow. It's 100% dirty now, right? All it takes is one little thing to devile something that's clean. It's the same thing with our salvation. And, you know, it doesn't matter if you've done more good than bad. I hope you've done more good than bad, right? I mean, I don't believe that just a normal, unsafe person is just committing wicked sins all the time. But even if you're trying to be a nice person and do good, you still sinned. You're not clean. So we are all as an unclean thing. Obviously, we understand that. And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And so kind of the idea is that, you know, we might do some righteous things or some good things, but it doesn't impress God. It's not going to get rid of the uncleanness, right? But you're still unclean. I mean, you could add a lot of water to this. If you got one E-piece in here and you could have a lot of water, right? A huge container, but it's still not 100% clean if there's just one thing in there, right? Now, unfortunately, we probably never drink 100% clean water. It's probably always got something. But what I'm saying is this. When it comes to our salvation, we got to be 100% clean. And God says, you know what? Your righteousnesses don't impress me. Your good works don't impress me. Because when people think that they can work their way to heaven, what they're basically saying is that their lifestyle impresses God. Where basically they do all these things and God's like, man, well done. I'm going to let you in. Right? You did such a great job. The reality is none of us are that good. We sin. We do wrong. We're guilty. All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all do fate as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Go to John chapter 3. John 3. Well, it sounds like they weren't saved by works in the Old Testament either, right? I mean, it's pretty similar to the verses we look at in Romans. Because you have these dispensationalists and they'll tell you that in the Old Testament, they were saved by doing sacrifices. They were saved by doing these works. They were saved by blood sacrifices and offerings and burn offerings and all this stuff. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that not only are we all guilty, everybody was guilty thousands of years ago as well. Okay, go to John 3, verse 5. John 3, verse 5. Jesus answered verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and now here's the sound thereof, but canst not tell when to cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? And Nicodemus doesn't understand the concept of being born again. He's like, how is this possible? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel? And no, it's not these things. He's saying as a master of Israel, as an expert at the Scriptures, you should know the very basic concept of being born again. Right? I mean, because we see being born again. I mean, in Genesis 6, we see sons of God that save people. I mean, because everybody's created by God, but you have to be born again to be a son of God. Right? And so we see the concept of being born again all the way in the book of Genesis, and he's telling Nicodemus, how do you not know this? Because salvation has always been the same by grace through faith. Go back to Genesis chapter 7. Genesis 7. So point number one, we looked at God's protection. Point two, we looked at, you know, salvation. Point three, let's look at the worldwide flood of the earth. And we're going to go through these verses because chapter 8 is more about kind of the recovery of the earth after being flooded. Chapter 7 is really the flooding that's taking place. And you know what? I think when you're reading the Bible, it's pretty clear that this flood that took place was all over planet earth, as we would call it today. Right? I mean, isn't it clear when you're reading this that God flooded everything when you're reading the wording? But not everybody believes that. There's people that say they believe the Bible. They don't believe in a universal flood. They believe in a local flood. They believe basically like God just, you know, decided to flood that one little area that Noah was living in, and everybody else was just, you know, just sitting back and watching and saying, hey, there's a flood happening over there, not affected by it. Right? And I'm going to read to you from an article here before we get into some of these verses. And this is from a Christian who is criticizing what the Bible says. And it says, the biblical and scientific evidence pertaining to the subject of a universal versus local Noahian flood are discussed in this paper. From a biblical perspective, a universal flood model is based primarily on the universal language of Genesis 6 through 8, Genesis chapter 2 verses 5 through 6, and the presumed landing of Noah's Ark on the summit of Mount Ararat, Genesis 8-4. It is argued that the universal language of Genesis 6 through 8 was meant to cover the whole known world of that time, third millennium BC, not the entire planet Earth, and that this interpretation also applies to Genesis 2, 5 through 6, the verses on which the canopy theory is based. It is also argued that the 15 cubits upward flood depth mentioned in Genesis 7-20 favors a local rather than a universal flood. From a scientific perspective, a universal flood, flood geology, and canopy theory are entirely without support. The geology of the Mount Ararat region precludes the premise of flood geologists that all the sedimentary rock on Earth formed during the time of Noah's flood. The most likely landing place of the Ark is considered to have been in the vicinity of Jabel, within the northern boundary of the Mesopotamian Hydrologic Basin rather than on 17,000 foot high Mount Ararat in northeastern Turkey. Since it would have been logistically impossible for all animal species on Earth to be gathered by Noah and contained in the Ark, so it's impossible that all the animals could have come on to Noah, is what this is saying. This is a Christian that doesn't really believe the Bible. It is concluded that the animals of the Ark were those that lived within the Mesopotamian region. The archaeological record outside of Mesopotamia also does not support a universal flood model. All of the evidence, both biblical and scientific, leads to the conclusion that the Noahian deluge was a local rather than universal flood. And so what some Christians, or always these scholars argue, these people that have studied the scriptures and they're experts and everything like that, they'll teach that the flood was just a local flood. It didn't happen worldwide. It was just in that one little area. Now, you know what? I didn't take the time every single chapter we've been reading. I mean, it's obvious leading up to this that God is mad at every man in the Earth. There's no question about that. All the way in Genesis 6, you see that because it says the heart of every man. And they said, well, one of the big arguments is the universal language. Now, when God says all and every, I believe He means it. Right? But let's just think about this logically because we'll look at a lot of verses here in a second, but let's just think about this. Noah was considered righteous. He was considered a pretty good guy, right? The ark took a long time to build. It wasn't just something where he went to Shafi and just ordered a big ark and just had to inflate it or something and then after five minutes it's like a big jump house and he's just hanging out in a jump house in the water or whatever. They spent a lot of time to build it. So here's the thing. If the flood was a local flood and God looked down at Noah and said, you're a righteous guy. I don't want you to die in this flood. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense for God to just tell Noah, hey, just move because I'm going to flood this city. Kind of like Sodom and Gomorrah. It's like, hey, I'm going to destroy this. You know, get out, right? It's just like all he would have told him was, hey, just move. Right? It's like if God came down and said, hey, you know what? I'm destroying Anhile City. It's like I'm sick of Sin City. It's going to be destroyed, right? It's like, you know, go move to Mabbalah. It's like, we just moved. Doesn't that make more sense than building a big ark and then just like floating in the water where everyone else is like looking around like what are those people doing, right? It's absurd. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know what the biblical evidence of a local flood is. But go to Genesis 7 verse 2. I think there are a lot of verses here. And it says in Genesis 7 verse 2, and you know, really what it is is they want to believe in science. And they'll say, well, there's all this proof, right? And what it mentioned here was, well, it wouldn't have been possible to get all those animals gathered into the ark. Well, first off, we don't know where all the animals were before the flood. I mean, the geography of everything has changed, right? We don't know which animals were stationed where and now things are different and certain animals are only in certain locations. We don't know what it was before the flood, right? We don't have really any idea. I mean, everything has changed so much and there's not a lot of information in those first six chapters. But to try to look at our world right now and just assume it's the exact saying, you know, before the flood, well, obviously, there's going to be a lot of changes that take place. So you can't look at it now and say, well, how did the penguins get in the ark? You know, how did this get in the ark? Therefore, it must be just out of work or symbolic or, you know, just a nice story, you know, for your children or whatever. Genesis 7, verse 2, 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. So it says of every clean beast, right? I mean, every seems to be like everything, all, right? Referring to everything. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. Well, the fowls that are in the air, I mean, birds always fly in the air, so pretty much all birds in the air. Let's get by sevens, it says, the male and the female. For he had seven days, for he had 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 be destroyed from off the face of the earth. So every living substance, every living substance that I have made will be destroyed from off the face of the earth. The biblical evidence supports a local flood. Every living substance. It's like there's nothing confusing in that. It's very clear, every single animal, every living substance that I have made will be destroyed from off the face of the earth. That's what the Bible says. It's not complicated, right? Now, one of the things that they get confused about, which is just a very basic thing if they would actually look at the Bible, they get confused on the word earth in the Bible. They look at the face of the earth and they're very confused by what it means because in our modern day when we say earth, we're talking about planet earth. When the Bible's saying earth, it's referring to the dry ground. There's the earth and the seas. Nowadays we say planet earth, but that's not what it said in the Bible. There was the earth, which is the dry ground, which it's going to say throughout this chapter of Genesis, and there was the seas. Go back to Genesis chapter one. Genesis one, I want to show this to you. Genesis one. Genesis chapter one. It's funny because people ask you questions like, there's so many Christians out there, there's so many interpretations of the Bible. How do you know your interpretation's right? There's many Christians that love God just like you do and they come to different conclusions. Well, most people just don't believe what the Bible says. I mean, the Bible's not actually that complicated. There really shouldn't be many interpretations in most discussions because most of the time the Bible's just telling you because God's not trying to confuse us. He's just trying to tell you. The Bible says that when you're writing something, make it plain that he may run that readeth it, and the symbolic understanding when it comes to the Bible is God wants his words to be plain and understandable so he can run the Christian race and serve God. He doesn't make it complicated. Genesis one, verse one. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The heaven and the earth. Drop down to verse 10. Verse 10. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called the seas, and God saw that it was good. So there in verse 10, you're saying the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called the sea. So there's a distinction being made, okay? Go back to Genesis, chapter seven. Genesis seven. Genesis, chapter seven. And we're gonna just kind of fly through the rest of these verses here. Genesis seven, verse five. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him, and Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. So when saying the flood of waters was upon the earth, it's saying there was no dry land anymore. Right? It talks about there being, like, lifted up from the earth. I mean, everything was covered. The mountains were covered. There's no more dry land, and so the flood of waters is upon the dry land. Right? Now, the seas already existed, but now the dry land is gone because the flood of waters is upon the earth. It says in verse number seven, And Noah went in, and his sons and his wife, and his sons' wives with them, into the ark because of the waters of the flood, of clean bees, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth. There went in two and two on the Noah end of 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, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month of 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 opened. You know, we sing that famous song, the windows of heaven, you know, are opened in our hymnal. But kind of the indication is before the flood, it's like there was a window in the sky blocking the water from coming down, okay. And so it seems kind of strange, but it really shouldn't seem that strange to us because clouds are filled full of water, and yet they're suspended in the air. When you look at the planet of Saturn, the rings of Saturn that surround it are mainly made up of water. And so it's very possible for water to just be suspended in midair. Now, I'm not an expert of science by any means. I don't understand how something that heavy can just hang out in midair, but that's the way it works, okay. I was more of a math guy than a science guy. But the indication the windows of heaven are open, that basically when this event took place, the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and that's referring to basically from the ground. And I've heard different things. I think there are good theories. I don't know for sure about the fault lines that are found in the earth, that basically, you know, maybe the water started coming up, and it just kind of caused this crack to kind of keep going throughout the earth as the water is bursting through. But then the windows of heaven are open, and then all the water is just coming down is kind of the indication. Then it says, And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights, the indication being that there wasn't rain before that time. And the selfsame day entered Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the 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, every bird of every sort. And they went on to Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And so the bottom line is when you're just reading this and just taking the Bible literally as it says, it's saying of every beast, all the cattle, every creeping thing, there's nothing to interpret. It's obvious it's referring to every animal. It's obvious it's not a local flood. And what they'll say is, well, it's every animal that's within that little area. Right? Once again, he would have just told Noah to move. When you're just taking this literally, it's referring to obviously the whole earth. It says in verse 16, 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 bare up the ark, and it was lived up above the earth. And the waters prevailed and were creased 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. I mean, is that confusing? All the high hills, all of them that were under the whole heaven. Well, all of them are under the whole heaven, right? I mean, there's nothing to interpret. It's obvious every single high hill, when you're just taking it literally, all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered, fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. Every mountain is covered, the Bible's saying. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth. All flesh died, right? Other than the ones that got in the ark, all flesh died, 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 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 things in the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they therewith were in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth in 150 days. Now let me just conclude by reading you from the same article, and just kind of showing you kind of the foolishness that they have. And here's what it says. The Hebrew word for earth, once again, right when they start by saying, let's go back to the Hebrew, it means they don't have an argument in the English. The Hebrew word for earth used in Genesis 6 through 8 is Eretz or Adama, both of which terms literally mean earth, ground, land, dirt, soil or country. In no way can earth be taken to mean the planet earth, as in Noah's time and place. People, including the Genesis writer, had no concept of earth as a planet, and thus had no word for it. So during the time of Genesis 7, they didn't know the planets existed, is what he's saying, right? They're just really, really, really dumb, is what he's saying. They had no knowledge whatsoever. So they wouldn't use a word. They didn't have any knowledge and everything. And what he's going to do is just kind of to go in depth and explain why the word earth is a poor translation. And he says here later on in the article, he says, land is a better translation than earth for the Hebrew Eretz because it extends to the face of the ground. We can see around us that it is within our horizon. Well, this is a dumb argument because all the way back in Genesis 1, we saw God make it a sanction, the earth and the seas. It's not complicated. The other thing he does is this. He uses words oftentimes that are interchangeable. So for example, in Genesis 7, we saw him mentioned the face of the ground. Verse 22, of all that was in the dry land, and those are synonyms for earth, right? The earth is the dry land. It's the same thing, right? And so he's using synonyms to describe the same exact thing to say, well, earth should have been translated land. Well, he defined earth as the dry land in verse 22. It's obvious what he's talking about. It's not confusing. The reason why they don't want to believe this is because they want to believe the earth is billions of years old. They want to believe in evolution. They believe in science, and they say, well, this is not scientifically possible. The ark doesn't make sense. It's a myth. It's just a story. It's not actually real. That's what they'll try to tell you, right? Look, when we're reading our Bibles, I don't have to read it and just wonder, is this just some sort of fairy tale that tells like a nice little, you know, little thing at the end to kind of teach me or whatever? And these are real stories that actually took place. Real people, real events. And when we're reading this, we can just read it literally. God is trying to just give us a recap of what took place. We can read Genesis chapter 7, and we are aware of exactly what took place, what caused the flood, the exact precise details. Let's close in word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to be in your house. Help us to apply this to our lives and help us to know all of our parts of our Bible and understand the Bible and love the Bible, God. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.