We really enjoyed your singing today. It was good to hear you. In fact, you're so hot that I turned on the air conditioning. I noticed the temperature went up a couple of degrees.
So, good singing. Thanks for putting all that carbon dioxide into the room for the plants down at the front to enjoy. So, just so you know, carbon dioxide is not a bad thing. It feeds plants.
If we had no carbon dioxide, we'd have no trees. And we'd have no grass and we'd have no flowers. So, it is not a bad and evil thing. There.
That's a science lesson for today. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you have your Bible with you, to Genesis 7. Now, I am going to do two chapters this morning. Yes, that's what it says.
Genesis 7 and Genesis 8. So, don't worry. You'll get home for supper. The last time we were together, and I don't normally do reviews of previous messages, but it was January was the last time we looked in Genesis.
And to bring you up to speed as to where we are, we looked at the creation of the world, we looked at the creation of man, we looked at the wonderful garden in which man was placed, we looked at the first sin. And the sin that the Bible says has passed to all men and women and children. If you wonder sometime if you're at a funeral, why am I here? It's because of the first sin.
It goes back to then. And then we saw the children of Adam and Eve and there were two brothers, Cain and Abel. And that sin turned into a murder, and then continued on and continued on. Until we got up to the point where the population of the earth had grown to almost a billion people, and the description of the people on earth was that the imagination of their heart was only evil continually.
So, can you imagine, in a short period of time, that it went from one act of disobedience against God to the point of the heart of man was only evil continually. And at that point in time, this is the last message we looked at, we met a man named Noah, and God had come to Noah, he had found favor in the eyes of God, he was not acting like the wickedness around him, but he needed salvation and so did his family. And God said, Noah, build an ark, you have 120 years to get ready for this. And so build a big massive boat, and anybody who wants to go in this boat can go, really, and take the animals.
And this will be for the saving of you and your family, and Noah did. And the last verse that we looked at, the last time, was in Genesis chapter 6 verse 22, it says, Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him to do, so he did. So, Noah has built this big massive boat. There's kind of what it looked like.
You may hear. First, he apologizes to the young people for having to be up here, and now. Okay. Anyway, this is Joe Biden saying, anyway.
Totally throwing off now. So he built this massive boat. And one of the things that we have to look at before we get into this account, that I fully believe is a historical account of something that happened. I can give you my reasons why I say that in a few minutes, but how do we understand the scriptures when we look at them?
Northbrook Bible Chapel is Northbrook Bible Chapel. We teach the Bible here. That's what we're all about. People ask me all the time.
So what church do you have? We teach the Bible. Yeah, but are you like Baptist? We baptize.
Are you Presbyterian? We do have a kind of a government within the church. Are you independent Baptist? We're kind of independent, but we're very dependent on the Lord.
Oh, like what? I said, well, we just teach the Bible. We're a Bible church. We teach the Bible.
That's what we're about. So we take three approaches to the scriptures. First of all, we take a literal approach. Oh, you really need glasses now?
Okay, good. You're good with fine prints. You're an engineer. So we take a literal approach, a straightforward approach.
If the Bible says this, that's what it's saying. It doesn't say anything else. For God to love the world that he gave his only begotten son. You don't read anything more into that other than God said his son.
He loved the world. So let's use the plain common language of the Bible. We use several different translations, some of us. I've just actually moved to my old age.
I've moved to my preferred translation. I use the ESV now. I just like the way it's so plain. It's so clear.
For many, many years, I used another version. I still love that version. But we want to get the most plain teaching that the Bible can give us. So that we understand when it says something, what it says.
Now, people say, yeah, but the Bible is full of figurative things and metaphors. Well, you know what? You kind of know what's a metaphor. You know it's figurative when you're reading it.
And what I really like about it is you go through the book of Revelation that everybody, not everybody, I should use big, superlative words of that. But many people say, oh, Revelation is so hard to understand because it's got so much imagery in it. What you'll find is it often explains what the imagery is. Candlesticks and those candlesticks are this.
They're the churches and so on. So we try to take it literally unless there's figurative speech and then that's interpreted within the literal language of the Bible. Grammatical. The sentence structure.
Oftentimes we'll get in and look at the sentence structure. Look at what the words mean. Is there a meaning to the Greek word that we're missing here? We had a discussion yesterday on Ananias and Sephira.
And we got into it. I looked and sure enough, when we looked at one of the words, it made the whole account seem make much more sense when you looked at the one word. It was, I think it was held back, wasn't it? Something like that.
And then when you go back and you realize that the Greek word meant it was a malicious act. It was thievery. So we do that and we also look at it as a historical document. We believe that the Bible is a historical document.
It is not a book of fiction, it's not a book of fables and not a book of traditions and mythological teachings. It is a literal historical account. The Bible itself, the Bible itself with its timelines backs up its historicity. So if you're looking through the timelines make sense with history and with other historical documents.
So how do we interpret Genesis 1-11? We interpret it literally, grammatically and historically. The same as the rest of the Bible. Genesis chapter 1-11 is not some kind of children's story that's different from the rest of the Bible.
It's a historical account of the creation of man, of the flooding of the earth, of the judgment of God upon the earth. It uses language to indicate that there was a worldwide flood. People have difficulty with this because of their worldview, not because of the text, not because of what the Bible says, because they have a mindset. I'm going to look at this as Ken Han calls it your biblical glosses.
When you're looking at the scriptures, if you were looking at it through your own lens, you're going to say, I'm going to dismiss this. This is a fairytale. No, no, Genesis 1-11, that's fairytale. If you take that mindset, you're wrong.
It is as much scripture as the rest of scripture. I'm spending a lot of time on a slide that was going to be 30 seconds. Anyway, I once went to, I have to tell the story, I once went to one of my professors. I sat in his classes and he talked about millions of years and all the changes and all of this and so on and so on.
And then I was at my Christian fellowship one night. And who was the guest speaker that night? It was my professor. And he came in, he was the guest speaker.
And he talked about when he was teaching somewhere else in another part of the world that all the things that they did for evangelism and all the things that they did for outreach and how they taught the Bible in a land where the Bible was not taught. And I thought, this is amazing. It must be for the paycheck that he's saying that in the classroom. It's got to be because he's afraid he's going to lose his job or something.
I'm a brand new Christian, by the way. Brand new. I'm talking a month, two months. And I had so many things going on in my head.
So I walked up to him after he was finished and I said, I didn't know you were a Christian. He said, oh, yes, I've been a Christian a long time. And he is. And I said, I'm very confused tonight with what?
Well, I sit in your classes and hear about millions of years and billions of years and processes and so on and so on and so on. And I said, but I read my Bible and my Bible says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And it doesn't seem to match up with what I've just spent tens of thousands of dollars to learn in university. And I get in your class.
What's the story? And his answer to me was astounding. He said, yeah, I really don't know what Moses had in mind when he wrote those first 11 chapters of Genesis. That was his answer to me.
And it almost crippled a brand new Christian. I didn't know what to do with that. I didn't know where I was going to turn. I was now, I was more lost.
I was almost back to where I was before I was a believer. I thought, is this like made up? Can this be true? Thankfully, I found another professor a few years later.
He taught at UPEI. And he used to teach a class and he'd teach in the class and hit permission. Believe it or not, from the university, to teach creationism in his class. And I went to his office.
He was an eccentric man, but a wonderful Christian. And he'd say, ah, yeah, you need some equipment. And he'd go over to his bookshelf and he'd pull out a book. And then he'd pull out another book.
And behind that there was a third row of books. He said, here, take this. Take this. Take this.
And start reading. Start with that one. And I read through many of these people who were PhDs who believed that the Bible was literally true. People who were biologists, who were microbiologists, who were biophysicists, who were engineers, who were geologists, who were chemists.
And they all clearly indicated from what they studied in their research that all of this can be backed up. And this is true. The next time I'm standing out in the field and I'm looking, I'm studying geology by the way, and I'm looking at a column of rocks up in joggins and I'm looking at it thinking, huh, with biblical glasses, this makes sense. But my prof can't make sense of it.
So I'm telling you this to start this off because what I'm going to tell you sounds like a fanciful story. Little types makes a little arc with little animals that you can put on top of for children. But they make it in such a way that it looks like it's a myth. The account of the arc and the great flood is completely accurate.
And you can see it in nature. Someday maybe we'll go do a field trip and we'll talk about it. There's my eight point outline that's going to be narrowed down to three because I spent too much time on that first page on the first page. On defending the scriptures.
You're going to cover climate change. So I would ask that you read seven and eight on your own as well. I'm going to read it here. Just chapter seven.
But I would encourage you to read it. There are details that I'm going to not be able to do. I can do a whole series on the flood. I seriously could do a ten part series on the flood.
There's so much there. But we're going to do it all in half an hour. Then the Lord said to Noah, go into the arc and all your household, for I have seen that you were righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, male and his mate.
And seven pairs of the birds of heaven also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. And every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground. And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons wives went with him. Or with him went into the arc to escape the waters of the flood. Of the clean animals and the animals that are not clean and the birds and everything that creeps on the ground, two and two male and female went into the arc as Noah had commanded.
And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. And in the six hundredth year of Noah's life on the second month and the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep, the earth and the windows of the heavens were opened and rained fell upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. On that very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and J. Feth and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the earth.
They and every beast according to its kind. And all the livestock according to their kinds and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the arc with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And in those that entered male and female, all flesh went in as God commanded him.
And the Lord shot him in. The flood continued 40 days on the earth and the waters increased and bore up the arc and it rose high above the earth. And the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth and the earth floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all of the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.
The waters prevailed above the mountains covering them 15 cubic deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all mankind. Everything on the land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heaven.
They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left with those who were with him in the arc. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. One of the interesting things, if you read the New King James Version of the first verse here, it says, then the Lord said to Noah, come into the arc, you and all your household, because I've seen that you were righteous before me in this generation.
It's the first mention of the word come as an invitation in the Bible. Now, the other versions that I've read say go. And then one version says enter. Which one's right?
Well, they all are. Because the word bow, or bah, however you're supposed to say it, means go, come, enter. It means the same thing. So whether God was in the ark inviting him in or whether God was outside saying get in there, it doesn't really matter.
God was involved in getting Noah in the ark. It was God's call to get Noah into the ark. So Noah was invited by God to enter the ark. And throughout the Bible, what I find interesting is God invites mankind to come to him.
We read this many times in the Bible. I'm going to name three of them. In Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, I love this verse. It says, come now.
Let us reason together says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. What a wonderful invitation.
What a wonderful invitation for sinners. If you know you're a sinner, and if you're struggling with that, and you're thinking, is there any hope for me? Where's there is hope? Where's the hope?
Well, God says, come to me. Come to me with that black blot of sin that you've got on your life. And I will clean you. I will clean you.
Though your sins are like scarlet, red, stained. I once, I tell the story sometimes. I once went to visit my cousins down in Massachusetts. And they were next to the campus, University of Massachusetts.
And I have to pick up a sweatshirt while I was there. And their colors are crimson and white, or scarlet and white. I don't know what crimson, scarlet. It's probably scarlet.
It's just like this deep, deep red. And I took it home and I took this sinful scarlet, my shirt. And I threw it in the wash at the last minute. And you know what it did?
Just like sin? It ruined everything in the wash. Because it just spread through the washer. And my mom went down and she pulled out the stuff and she goes, oh no.
Who put this in here? What did she do? But it ruined everything in the wash because it was red. It was scarlet.
Doesn't sin do that? One sin. We're all in the big washing machine. And it ruined us all.
We're all stained with it. But God says, come now, let us reason together. Even though your sins are like scarlets, they'll be white as snow. They're red like crimson.
They'll become like wool. In Matthew 11, verse 28, Jesus Christ Himself says, come to me, all you who are laboring in the heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You'll find rest for your souls. And then finally, the very last chapter of the Bible, the very last chapter, is written in the Spirit and the bride say, come, an invitation.
Let the one who hears, say, come. Let the one who is thirsty, come. You go with little tracks. Are you still thirsty?
There's a lot of people trying to drown their sin, trying to drown their life, trying to drown their sorrows. And they come out of it thirsty. They're still thirsty. If you're still thirsty, even in your sin, come.
Let the one who desires to take the water of life, come is without price. You know, the wonderful thing about the Ark, God provided salvation to Noah. The earth was, the world was so deep into sin that there was no hope. And maybe you feel today that I'm so deep into this, like I've done stuff, that how can this be forgiven?
It can be forgiven. There is hope. There is salvation. I call this message the great flood, but the great salvation.
I want to emphasize the great salvation, the great salvation in the Ark. You see, when they were in the Ark, Noah and his family, they were safe. They were sheltered. They were removed from the judgment of God.
They were given salvation from the coming judgment, from the cataclysm. You see, there was nothing, this is the greatest cataclysm ever to hit the earth since the creation. And they were going to go through this terrible time of judgment on the earth, but they were going to be completely safe. And they were going to be together.
You see, we read about Noah, and it says in verse 1 that, You are righteous before me in this generation. How was he righteous? Well, Noah walked with God. Noah worked with God.
Noah worshiped God. It was difficult for Noah. I'm sure it was very, very hard. 120 years building an ark on dry land in a place that had never seen rain.
Had never seen rain, had never seen a flood. And he's out there. And people go, you're foolish old man. What are you doing?
Are you crazy? When are you going to finish this? There's a house in P.E.I. that we drive by.
I kind of say that every time we go by, we drive by for 40 years and go, when are they ever going to finish that? The answer on that one is never. But Noah had a project here. He knew it was going to be 120 years.
He had the time. He had the three boys to help him, but it was a massive, so they made a replica of the Ark down in Kentucky. And John Wells was showing me some pictures of it last week, or a couple weeks ago. And I'm looking at it and go, wow.
And I'm trying to think of how a man and his two sons, because his two sons are doing this. I'm thinking, how in the world, even in 120 years, could you build something that big? I can't get the floor finished in my office. So I look at it and think, yeah, yeah, it makes sense.
I gave him a lot of time. And he built this ark. But Noah, the other thing about Noah, he didn't conform to the world around him. He stood out.
When God looked at him, he thought, you are a righteous man. You do not want part of this world that's around us. His only imagination of the heart of man is only evil continually. So here we hit the final week.
Noah and the family and the animals arrive at the ark, as instructed. Probably through migration, God did that, brought them all in, and to go in. Alright, question. I didn't put it up there, but here's my question.
Why seven of the clean animals? Can anybody tell me? Why seven? Sacrifice.
So you have, that's part of the answer, actually. That's the main part of it. That's why the seventh one was there. The seventh one was for sacrifice.
Sacrifice. Thank you. Tell me. Don't you worry, son.
We'll be finished soon. That's true. That's what you thought was the one you were going to eat. So that's food.
That is a good answer. Sacrifice is another good answer. They also, I believe God would want more clean animals on the earth when this was all over than unclean animals. So he brought in seven, and he brought in two of the unclean ones, one pair.
Chapter seven verse five. Now six hundred years old, and he did exactly what the Lord had commanded him to do. He did everything. Now it says in verse 16, it's a very important verse.
Then God came and shut the door. God shut the door. He shut them in. We're told that God did it, and then the judgment came, and the flood came.
You notice that Noah didn't shut the door? I mean, we live in a day where, well, Jesus is our ark of salvation. He is the door. He says, I am the door.
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture. And right now we have an open door. It's a good thing it's not up to me because there's days that in my own self-righteousness, I'd look at it and talk to shut the door on this. And have everybody just set aside for judgment.
But God was long suffering. God wanted to prolong it as long as possible. And then God said enough, I'm shutting the door. Now that is, you know, right now we have had an open door for salvation.
We have had, it's as if we're, we have the ark with the door wide open. And we have those who beg and plead with sinners to come. Come, invite them. Come in.
Be saved from the judgment that's coming. Be saved from all of this. And that's gone on for 2,000 years. And it seems like a long time to us, but it's not a long time to God.
In 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 8 and 9 says, do not overlook this one fact we love it, that with the Lord, one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. God was patient in the day of Noah. He's been very patient in our day.
When I look at the sin that's around us, when I look at what goes on in our world, God is a very patient God. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 20, it says, because they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons were brought safely through the water. A billion people on earth and eight would enter the ark. God will shut the door again.
People shut the door through death. It's appointed to man once to die. Man, woman, mankind, a person once to die, and after this the judgment says in Hebrews chapter 9. When Jesus comes again and returns through the earth and the universe through fire and created a new heaven and a new earth, it's too late then.
Go in while the door is open. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 7 says, but by the same word the heaven and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire and being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the young godly. I should be advancing these things, sorry. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night or come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved.
And the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed since all these things are to be dissolved. What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for the, and hastening the day of the coming day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved. And the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to the promise we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Warren and I were just talking about that a little while ago. It would be okay if that happened this afternoon actually. But you want to talk about global warming. There is a warning here that there is coming a day when the earth will be destroyed by fire.
We live on a disposable planet, not a planet that's looking to be worshipped, but a planet that we'll be disposed of at some point in time. And I'm not saying we try to hasten that day. But just be aware that the judgment of God is coming to this world. I want to talk now about the actual flood, the deluge.
We haven't got too much time to go through. In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heaven were open, and the rain fell upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights, and the waters prevailed on the earth, 150 days. What is very, very interesting here? It says in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day.
Hmm. That sounds like this is a historical document. Doesn't it? It gives you the exact day.
It tells you the exact day when we can go back and find the exact day when the flood happened in Noah's life. To me, it just testifies to the accuracy of scripture. A seven day warning is given, and then the flood. God said it would happen, and it was catastrophic.
The fountains of the great deep open up and rain falls on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights nonstop. Now this was a rain unlike any rain we've ever experienced. Kingsley here got his welcome to the Nova Scotia last year when we had that flood. And it was incredible.
But in moments, you had everything you owned, wiped out, came in through the door, down the stairs, flooded their apartment to the rafters. In moments. I mean, that was what you would think would be a deluge. This was even greater than that.
There possibly was a canopy of vapor around the earth or something that created a greenhouse. It's believed that perhaps that collapsed. All the water in the interstellar areas was perhaps sent towards the earth. And then I was reading an article, a science article, in a science magazine, not a Christian publication, that there is more water tied up in the crust of the earth.
And in the layers of the earth right now, then there is in all of the oceans combined. So the fountains of the great deep bursts. It's not hard to believe from science that the earth was completely deluged in 40 days. You've got a hyper-rain.
You've got all of this water coming up. You're just doubling up the oceans. Now the mountains weren't anywhere where they were now, but it says, I love the language of the scriptures. It says all the mountains under heaven.
This was not a local flood. You see, if it was a local flood, they would have said, hey, no, 120 years from now, I'm sending it. You might want to find some higher land. It's only going to be local.
Why don't you head to Canada? The Rockies are beautiful this time of the year. It was not that. Every mountain was going to be covered.
Every mountain peak. The geological change and environmental change to the earth would be incredible. Another thing that you don't think of, but when you think of the science of all of this, the moon would continue to circle the earth. Every day.
It would circle the earth. And what does the moon cause? Tides. And what stops the tide from coming in here?
The shoreline. The shorelines are removed. The tide keeps coming. The tide keeps coming.
And it keeps coming. And it keeps coming. And the tsunami gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Just think of all that it would churn up.
So I have no problems to stand at a place like Joggins and look at 300 feet of sediment and say, yeah, that seems about right. The earth is being churned up. And all this is deposited. It was an amazing, amazing event.
Water from the sky. Water from the earth. But here's the thing that you don't want to miss in all of this. What was the purpose of it?
Not to create fossils. The purpose was not to create fossils or debate in science. The purpose was God judges sin. Man's heart had gotten so dark and so black and so evil that God said, I can't allow this to go on anymore.
Why? Because man is just going to kill themselves off. They're just going to continue to destroy and destroy each other. All the people outside the ark died.
They chose to disbelieve because they don't want a God who judges. They were warned every time Noah swung that hammer. They were warned that judgment is coming. And then I can't imagine what it would be like.
Noah and his family go into the ark. It's maybe seven days and they're in there. And the crowd is outside. They're all walking in there and saying, every day they walk by, Noah, you fool.
What are you doing? You're sitting in a boat with all these animals. And then the rain starts. What's this?
What's this? Noah, please open it up, man. Please. I didn't shut it.
God did. I can't open it. And they're begging him and they're pounding on the side of the thing for a short time. And the whole earth is deluged and they all die in this flood.
I often thought of this and I've said it to Warren. I've walked around downtown with him and I thought, there are people that we are going to offer attract, offer the gospel to. And they're going to say, no, I'm okay. And they're going to walk by and not take it.
One second, one second into eternity. They're going to beg for that moment that they could have talked to the preacher on the street. It's terrifying to think of that. It's terrifying just like it's terrifying to think of the people pounding on the side of the yard saying, Noah, let me in.
I can't. It's too late. Don't be one of those people. Don't put this off.
If you don't know Jesus Christ, the door will close. You could die today. The Lord could come back today. The opportunity could end today.
And you can pound all you want on the side of the yard. You will not get in. Do not be caught under the judgment of God. A billion people die because they say, I choose not to believe this.
Don't do it. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You will enter the ark. You will be saved from your sin.
You will be saved from judgment to come. You do not want to be there. So Noah is in this ark. The floods are there.
And they prevailed. And then God remembered Noah. I love that verse, but God. But God.
But God remembered Noah. It wasn't like God says, oh man, no, I forgot about him. It's not that at all. It's kind of language to make God seem personal to us.
God knew the exact day he was going to come back to Noah and say, it's time to come up. He remembered Noah in the ark. The waters are subsiding. The waters are going down.
We read that in chapter 8 verse 1. God sent a wind over the earth. And he under the covenant that he had with Noah. He read in 15 and 16 of chapter 8.
Everything around Noah was dead. So Noah says that the mountains, there's a new earth. The mountains are exposed. The ark sets down in the mountains of Ararat.
Description of this, I believe, is found in the Psalms. It's recorded in the Psalms. Psalm 104. I've put it up there.
You covered the deep. As with the garment, the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled. At the sound of your thunder they took the flight.
The mountains rose. The valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, that they might not cover. Again, cover the earth.
This is clearly written about the waters leaving the earth after the flood. The ark rested. It rested in the mountains of Ararat. This is a picture of the Lord Jesus, I believe, after he saved us.
The ark had saved Noah and his family and now it rested. Jesus is the ark. And after Jesus died on the cross, we talked about this morning at the Lord's upper. After he had died on the cross.
After he had paid for our sins. After we had been freed forever. It says he sat down at the right hand of the Father. He rested.
His work was done. There are many historical claims and records of the appearance of the ark from 275 BC through Josephus. He had been the Lord, the priest in 275 BC. The Soviet aviators claimed to have seen it in the 1900s.
There are others who have gone up looking for the ark. I'm not sure you will find it, but it rested in the mountains of Ararat. Then Noah sent out a raven. Our carnivorous bird was dead, didn't bother to come back.
He sent out a dove. He went out and went up and went up and went up and went back in. Then he sent out again and came back with an olive branch in its beak. Isn't that interesting?
What's a symbol for peace? Olive branch in the beak of a dove. You know what that is? It's a symbol of judgment when you think about it.
He finds an olive branch on a destroyed earth that's the only thing that's left. Then he sent it out a third time and didn't come back so Noah says, okay, now we can go out and go out and open the door. They came out. Following that, we have a great episode of Climate Change.
There were never seasons before. There never was rain before. There was never a snowstorm before. Now all of a sudden, all of the seasons that we enjoy, all of the things that we have in our world today started to happen after this.
I also wanted to notice that the exact day that they came out in the 600th year, the first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the earth and looked and behold, the face of the ground was dry. The second month, so they stayed another month. On the 27th day of the month, the earth had dried out. The miraculously sent the waters away very, very quickly.
He went out and built an altar. This is the first place we read of an altar in the Bible. It says in Genesis 8, verse 20 and 22, that Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered bird offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never curse the ground again because of man.
For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever strike down every living creature as I've done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. That's the beginning of seasons.
The point here too is that man's heart remained evil from this point on. You will read of the sin of Noah. You will read of the sin of his sons in the very next chapter. It doesn't take very long.
And because of that, future judgment is coming. As I said, Jesus is our ark. This ark is given as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you in the ark?
If not, get in the ark. You can get in the ark today. You can be saved today. It says, and ark.
One ark. There's only one. There's not many arks. He didn't tell Noah to build a fleet and you can pick which one.
Religion won't save you. Churches won't save you. Many different ways will not save you. There is one ark.
Enter the ark. Father, thank you this morning. As we read this account of a great flood, we read of a great salvation. Father, we thank you that you have provided us a great Savior.
As we express this morning a great high priest. One who died for us. One who's taken away our sins. If there's anybody here this morning and they don't know the safety of being saved and in the Lord Jesus Christ, may they deal with that this morning, this afternoon, early this afternoon now.
May they talk to one of us. May they be pointed to the Savior and come to him. For his name's sake we ask. Amen.
As I just said, if you've never come to Christ and you want to come to Christ, or you have questions about this, you can talk to me, but if you don't want to talk to me because, you know, what he said, you can talk to me. You can talk to Warren. Warren's right up here. You can talk to Nick right here in the front row.
Talk to Sam. Talk to praise. Talk to one of us. If this is on your mind and you want to be saved, don't leave here.
But talk to one of us. You can go into that room and just turn on the light and wait in one of us and go in and talk to you. Do you have a song? I see you.
I do if you don't.