We're in Genesis chapter 7, and we're looking at the destruction caused by the flood.
We're going to look at five different points here today.
And I want you to notice Genesis chapter 7 in motion 1, where it says,
And the Lord said unto Noah, Come down, O my house, into the ark.
For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
And so, the first thing I want you to understand here in Genesis chapter 7, we're talking about the flood.
The first thing we can learn from the flood is actually a lesson on spiritual salvation.
Now, I want you to understand that God actually didn't flood the world,
and he destroyed and killed everyone who was there except for eight people.
But if you actually pay attention, he gives you a very detailed understanding of salvation
in the book of Genesis here with the flood.
The first thing I want you to notice here is in Genesis 7, verse 1,
where it talks about entrance through a door.
Okay, go back to Genesis 6, verse 16.
Genesis 6, verse 16.
And so, you have to ask yourself this question, how did Noah get inside the ark?
Did he climb on top of the ark and jump in?
Did he climb through a window?
No, what he did was he opened a door.
Okay, notice Genesis 6, verse 16.
A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou fashion it above.
And the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof,
with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
Notice how he says the door of the ark, okay?
I want you to understand there was one door in that ark.
There weren't two, there weren't three, there weren't four.
There was one door in that ark, okay?
Only one door. Now, turn to John 10.
John 10.
See, Jesus Christ said, I am the door, okay?
He didn't say, I am a door.
See, Jesus is not a way to heaven, he is the way to heaven.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the light.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
And see, going back to Genesis chapter 6, it talks about the door.
There is one door to that ark.
Just like there is one way to heaven, it's not through Buddha,
it's not through Muhammad, it's not through the Pope,
it is through Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the door.
John 10 verse 7.
Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not hear them.
See, a lot of people came before Jesus Christ
and there's a lot in the world today
that would claim to be a door to heaven, wouldn't they?
They'd say, you know, I'm the door to get to heaven.
You know, Jesus said, they're all forties, they're all false.
He said, they're all thieves and robbers.
He says, I am the door.
He's the only way to heaven.
See, if anybody comes up here and says, you know what,
I'm a way to heaven, that's garbage.
They're lying to you.
They're a fraud.
They're a phony.
There is only one door on that ark.
Only one way inside that ark.
And that's through Jesus Christ when it comes to salvation.
It's giving you a picture of salvation.
Verse 9, I am the door by me.
If any man enter in, he shall be saved.
He shall go in and out and find pasture.
So he uses an analogy that he is the door.
He's helping us understand salvation.
How hard is it to open a door?
Is that difficult?
It's pretty easy.
I mean, he gives the analogies that it's like
drinking a glass of water going to heaven.
Like eating a slice of bread.
He's the bread of life.
Like opening a door.
I am the door.
It's pretty easy to open a door.
I mean, you could even have, you know, cats or dogs.
And they can see what you're doing.
And they can try to open it.
Because it's not hard.
All you do is turn and open.
It's pretty easy to open a door.
Salvation's pretty easy.
It's just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
You don't have to reform your life.
You don't have to quit drinking.
You don't have to repent of your sins.
You don't have to change anything.
All you got to do is just open that door.
Go back to Genesis 7.
Genesis 7.
So the Bible says that Jesus is the door.
And when it comes to the ark in Genesis 6, verse 16,
we see that there is one door to the ark.
Because it's a picture of salvation.
Okay?
It's a picture of spiritual salvation.
And I want you to notice also in Genesis 7, verse 1,
something else is said.
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.
Notice how he says, Come now.
The word come.
Every word in the Bible's there for a reason.
Okay?
Now I want you to think about this for a second.
Tell me if this makes sense.
Okay?
If I said, Brother Marlon, come to the pulpit.
That makes sense, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Right?
Let's say I said this.
Brother Marlon, come to the pulpit.
Does that make sense?
No, it doesn't.
I would say go to the pulpit.
Why?
I'm not at the pulpit.
If I'm saying come, what am I saying?
I'm saying I'm already here.
The other way would make sense is if I said,
Brother Marlon, come to the pulpit.
Because I'm going in that direction.
If you're going to use the word come,
it means you're already there.
See, when the Lord said,
Come now in all thy house into the ark,
where was the Lord?
He was inside the ark.
That's why he said come.
He doesn't say, hey, go into the ark.
No, he says, come into the ark.
You see, when we open up the door of salvation,
the Lord's there inside with us.
Say, why can't you lose your salvation?
Because you have eternal life.
The Lord's indwelling you.
The Lord's there with you.
That's why he says,
Come now in all thy house into the ark.
He doesn't say, go in there.
If we had to go into the ark,
yeah, we could lose our salvation.
Because we're in there by ourselves.
And think of the picture he's giving you.
Think about if there was a tsunami or a massive flood.
You're inside a boat, and here's the truth.
We're going to have storms in life.
You're inside the ark.
You're going to go crashing into some waves sometimes.
There's going to be times you don't feel like reading the Bible.
There's going to be times you don't feel like praying.
There's going to be times where life gets tough.
But you know, if the Lord's in there with you,
you're going to be okay.
He's going to keep you safe.
There's going to be times where we backslide.
There's going to be times where we turn against God
and commit sins and do what's wrong and act foolish.
But if the Lord's inside the ark with you,
you're fine.
You're safe.
You're secure.
I have no doubts where I'm going to spend eternity today.
You know why?
Because when I opened up the door of salvation
by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord is in there with me.
Amen.
And so when you screw up,
look, you're not going to lose your salvation.
Why?
Because the Lord's in there with you.
Now I want you to notice also verse 16.
So once we see that salvation is like a door,
opening a door,
we see that the Lord said,
come into the ark as he's in there with you.
And once you're saved, you're in dwell with the Holy Ghost.
You have eternal life in dwell in you.
But I want you to notice verse 16.
Genesis 7 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.
Okay, now look at Revelation 3.
Revelation 3.
So I want you to understand something that
if I were to shut a door,
it wouldn't be too hard to open, would it?
Yeah.
I mean, you could still open it up.
But I want you to realize something
that when God shuts a door,
that terminology means it's shut.
Unless he's opening it,
you're not getting it open, okay?
I shut a door,
it's not too hard to just, you know,
unlock it or whatever and open the door.
But see, when the Lord shuts the door, it's done.
Genesis 3 verse, or Revelation 3.
Revelation 3 verse 7.
And the angel of the church in Philadelphia write,
these things say,
if he that is holy, he that is true,
he that hath the key of David,
he that openeth and no man shut it,
and shutteth and no man openeth.
You see, when God shuts the door, it's done.
So this is the picture of salvation.
You open up the door,
the Lord's in there with you,
and he shuts you in.
So look, you couldn't get outside the ark
if you wanted to.
The door is shut.
He was there secure and saved his family.
They were going to stay inside that ark
no matter what sort of waves they went crashing through.
Why?
Because God shut the door on it.
And see, that's the way salvation is.
It's as easy as opening a door.
You open it, the Lord's inside there with you.
And once you're inside there,
God shuts the door.
Now doesn't that make salvation seem pretty easy?
That's pretty easy, isn't it?
But isn't it true that you go to churches,
and you know, people have no clue
if they're going to heaven or not.
Why?
Because they make salvation very confusing.
We're going back to the book of Genesis,
and it says, hey, salvation's like opening a door,
and God's in there with you,
and then you're permanently shut in there.
That's salvation by grace through faith,
and you're eternally secure.
It's very plain and simple.
God wants it to be very simple and understandable,
how to get to heaven.
You just open the door.
You just believe on Jesus Christ.
Turn back to Genesis, Genesis 6.
And so for people to have this idea that,
well, in the Old Testament it was different.
You know, you had to work your way to heaven,
and live a good life,
and do these sacrifices.
Well, I don't know about you,
but very early in Bible I see salvation
being pretty plain and simple.
That it's opening a door.
You know, maybe these pastors
should read the Bible a little bit more,
maybe cross-reference some things,
and realize that, oh, actually,
it's teaching salvation very simple,
which, you know, it makes sense.
Why?
Because God wants us in heaven.
Right.
I mean, He doesn't want to make it hard to get to heaven.
Obviously, He loves us.
He wants it to be very easy and simple to get to heaven,
and it is.
You open that door.
He's in there with you,
and He shuts the door and sets it away.
And, you know, honestly,
if you have any questions about that,
if you are not 100% for sure that you're going to heaven,
please talk to one of us after the service,
because our church would love to tell you how to get to heaven.
That's what we do every single week.
We go out there, we knock the doors,
and we talk to people.
We explain how they can go to heaven.
Why?
Because God wants you in heaven.
He wants to make it simple and understandable.
And, honestly, that's the big goal of our church,
is for people to understand they're on their way to heaven.
We would love to talk to you about it after the service.
Now, look at Genesis 6, verse 7.
And it says,
And the Lord said,
I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,
both man-beast and the creeping thing in the bowels of the air,
for it repented me that I have made.
Now, obviously, we saw a picture of salvation,
but we actually see the physical destruction of the entire world,
except for eight people.
Last week, we talked about how wicked the world was.
The Bible's very discreet.
It's not graphic,
but it explains very clearly what was going on in the world at that time.
What you have to understand is,
God didn't just decide to destroy the world in no time.
He was actually very long-suffering, okay?
That is our second point.
Look at verse 5.
Genesis 6, verse 5.
Now, God allows the world to get extremely wicked before He destroys it.
One reason why is because He's very long-suffering.
That's a pattern we see throughout the Bible.
It's funny because whenever God lays down the hammer,
people look at it and say,
Wow, you know, He was quick to judgment and everything like that.
No, He was actually very long-suffering.
So you have to understand,
when you have churches that end up kicking somebody out of church,
there actually were very long-suffering before they kicked them out.
They didn't want to kick them out.
They wanted to help them.
They wanted them to grow,
but they actually had to get reached that point where it got so bad,
they had to kick them out.
God is long-suffering.
We ought to be long-suffering as people.
Why was God long-suffering?
Why didn't He destroy the world earlier?
We'll turn to 2 Peter 3.
2 Peter 3.
I would say one reason why God was so long-suffering is
you have to realize that every single person that was unsaved
during the time of the flood,
when that flood came,
He died and went to hell forever.
See, God was long-suffering.
Why?
He wanted to give those people a chance to get saved,
okay?
Now, a lot of churches preach things kind of differently sometimes,
and I've heard this preached before,
and this is completely false,
but they will say that the only eight people
that were spiritually saved during the time of the flood
were Noah and his family.
That's ridiculous.
You say, why is it ridiculous?
Because preaching the Word of God is effective.
The Word of God is powerful.
And it suggests that Noah preached the Gospel
because nobody's going to be greatly used by God
unless they're a soldier, okay?
That's the truth.
It says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
To suggest that Noah preached the Gospel for a hundred years
and nobody got saved,
man, he's a pretty bad soul-winner, man.
I don't care how bad your techniques are.
I mean, if you preach the Gospel every week for a hundred years,
that's over 5,000 weeks
and you've got nobody saved?
Even the lame missionaries in the world
get somebody saved after like 10 years.
I mean, he won a hundred years,
one of the greatest men of all time,
and never led a single person to the Lord.
Now here what you have to understand is this,
that being inside the ark
was not just that you're saved
in terms of being spared from God's judgment upon the world,
but it was also that you were living righteously.
Now see, going to heaven,
the example he's giving is salvation is very simple.
We saw that.
But in terms of actually being able to live through the flood,
it wasn't just that you were saved.
The truth is, most people that were saved,
they died in that flood.
I don't know how many people were saved,
but I promise you it was a lot more than 80.
I've heard Baptist pastors say
that Jeremiah was the weeping prophet.
Because they said, you know,
he preached the Gospel for decades and had zero commerce.
It's like, what Bible are you reading?
I mean, you can go decades
without leading a single person to the Lord.
No, Noah led lots of people to the Lord.
It doesn't mean they got inside the ark.
Look, we got seven people saved yesterday,
even in between our time of cleaning around here.
It doesn't mean that they're going to be inside church today.
Why?
Because being inside church doesn't mean you're saved.
Look at 2 Peter 3, verse 5.
For this they willingly are ignorant of,
that by the word of God the heavens were old,
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water,
whereby the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished.
But the heavens and the earth,
which are now by the same word are kept in store,
reserved under fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,
that one day is when the Lord is a thousand years,
and a thousand years is his one day.
Notice what it says in verse 9.
It's talking about the flood.
The Lord is not slack in serving his promise,
and some in count slackness,
but is longsuffering to us.
We are not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
And so he talks about the flood
and transitions to the end of the world.
But he says he's not willing that any should perish.
And what is God trying to tell you?
God did not want those people to die in the flood
and go to hell, the people that are unsaid.
God was longsuffering. Why?
Because he's giving us a chance
to reach these people with the gospel.
That's why he's longsuffering.
Look, the world is pretty wicked today.
I don't know if you noticed it,
but it's not a righteous place in the world.
People don't love the Lord.
They don't follow God's rules.
You say, why does God allow it to get so bad,
where you've got all these pedophile priests
in this wicked world we live in?
You know why he lets it get so bad?
He's giving us an opportunity to reach them with the gospel
before they die and go to hell.
That's the reason why.
Because the vast majority of Metro Manila
or past Savior of the world or the Philippines
or anywhere is unsaved.
And if they die, they're going to spend forever in hell
and they have no hope after that.
And so why was God so longsuffering
when he came to the flood?
Probably because he was giving us,
believers, a chance to reach people with the gospel.
Turn to Jonah 4.
Jonah 4.
And so this is a pattern you see throughout the Bible.
This is not just with the flood,
but you can see this in the Minor Prophets as well
when you look at the Assyrian Empire and Nineveh.
Because the Assyrian Empire was the United States
of the world at the time.
If you look at the world power right now,
there's just no question it's the United States of America.
There's no question about it.
But there was a day when the Assyrian Empire
was the power in the world.
And the Assyrian Empire was really
typified by their biggest city, Nineveh.
This was a very powerful country as you look in the Bible.
It was a powerful empire, one of the biggest of all time.
But that's what it said in Jonah 4 verses 1 and 2.
This is after Jonah preaches.
And they do turn from the wicked ways, verse 1.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly.
And he was very angry.
And he prayed unto the Lord and said,
I pray to you, O Lord, was not this my saying
when I was yet in my country?
Therefore, I fled before a notorious,
for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and repent of the evil.
What is he saying?
He's saying God's very long-suffering.
He's gracious.
He's merciful.
Our God is a long-suffering God.
But I want you to turn just a few books later on
to the book of Nahum.
The book of Nahum is actually the book about Nineveh.
A lot of times, people think of Jonah.
The book of Jonah talks about Nineveh.
But it's really more about Jonah than it is about Nineveh.
But the book of Nahum is all about Nineveh.
Just three chapters later, it's all about the Assyrian Empire.
It's all about Nineveh.
And in Jonah, just two books earlier, Jonah preaches to them.
They turn from their wickedness.
They turn back to God.
But then two books later, guess what?
God destroys them.
You say, why?
Well, God is very long-suffering.
But eventually, it's going to run out.
Like we said in our quotes, God's like a ticking time bomb.
It slowly ticks.
He's long-suffering.
But eventually, he decides to just destroy them.
Nahum chapter 1, verse 1.
The burning of Nineveh.
The book of the vision of Nahum the Elvishite.
God is jealous in the Lord revengeant.
The Lord revengeant and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries.
And he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
Verse 3.
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power
and will not at all wake the wicked.
Notice in verse 3, it says God's slow to anger.
He's long-suffering.
But then the verse before, he's also furious.
So the nature of God is this.
God is long-suffering.
But eventually, once he basically gets to his end,
he gets very angry.
He's long-suffering.
He'll give him a shot.
But then eventually, guess what?
It just destroys Nineveh.
I mean, Nineveh is no more at this time.
Assyria is done.
They were destroyed.
He destroyed them completely.
Because once God decides to lay down the hammer,
he lays down the hammer.
And this is something we need to realize in our lives.
Because look, God is long-suffering with the sins
that you commit.
Probably all of us have certain sins or certain things
we struggle with.
But we need to understand that God might be long-suffering
for a while, but you do not want it
to get to the point where God lays down the hammer.
Because if he lays down the hammer on you,
you know, you're going to be in big trouble.
You say, but wait a minute.
If I'm a believer, God would never do that.
I mean, have you read the Bible?
God does judge his people.
Look, there's a lot of people in the flood that were saved
and they died and went to heaven.
Why?
Because just because you're saved
doesn't mean you're going to be spared
for God's judgment in your life.
You're going to reap what you sow, the Bible says.
So look, you know, if you have certain things
that you keep sinning with,
and you have this attitude,
well, you know, I haven't been judged yet.
Obviously, God's just going to pass over this transgression.
I'd be careful if I were you.
Because you don't want it to get to the point
where God decides to lay down the hammer.
Because look, in Nahum chapter 1,
verse 3, he's slow to anger.
But then in verse 2, he does revenge,
and he is furious,
and he will pour out his judgment upon you,
even as a believer.
Now turn back to Genesis 6.
Genesis 6.
So the first thing we saw here today was,
we see a lesson on spiritual salvation.
We see that God is long-suffering.
But I want you to notice here in Genesis 6,
starting in verse 11,
the earth also was corrupt before God,
and the earth was filled with violence.
And God looked upon the earth,
and behold, it was corrupt,
for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah,
the end of all flesh is performing.
For the earth is filled with violence through them,
and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
God actually destroyed the world with the earth.
And I want you to see that this is actually
a common theme in the Bible,
that oftentimes God uses natural disasters.
He uses the earth to actually destroy the earth.
Okay?
Now turn back to Nahum chapter 1.
I should have had you keep your hand there.
And so that's what we saw when it came to the flood.
The Bible says that the windows of heaven were open,
so water came from above,
it came from in the crust of the earth.
God actually used natural means to destroy the earth.
He used water to flood the earth.
And He does this throughout the Bible.
Look at Nahum chapter 1 verse 3,
towards the second half there.
The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
and the clouds of the dust of his feet.
Nahum chapter 1 verse 3.
When he talks about the whirlwind and the storm,
he's talking about typhoons,
he's talking about hurricanes,
he's talking about tornadoes.
You know, if you look at the world today,
oftentimes there will be a natural disaster,
a tsunami, a hurricane or whatever,
that kills a lot of people.
He uses the earth to destroy the earth very often.
Verse 4,
He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry,
and drieth up all the rivers.
Mation languisheth in Carmel,
and the flower of Lebanon languisheth in it.
The mountains quake in him,
and the hills melt,
and the earth is burned in his presence.
Yea, the world and all that dwells in it.
So when it says the mountains quake in him,
what are we talking about?
We're talking about an earthquake, right?
The hills melt,
we're basically talking about a volcano,
because the hills literally melt.
And so notice verse 6,
Who can stand before his indignation,
and who can abide in the pierceness of his anger?
His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him.
The Lord is good, a strong will in the day of trouble,
and he knoweth them that trust in him.
But with an overrunning flood,
he will make an utter end to the place thereof,
and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
So he says,
With an overrunning flood,
he will make an utter end to the place thereof.
That's what he did in the book of Genesis.
He used a flood to destroy the world.
Now, I want you to understand that in verse number 8,
when it says an overrunning flood,
it's not actually really talking about a literal flood of water.
There's kind of a transition,
because he's talking about natural disasters,
and he talks about a water,
a flood that would destroy the world,
like we saw in the book of Genesis,
but at the same time,
Assyria was not destroyed by a flood of water.
Okay, you say,
Why does it say flood if it wasn't a flood of water?
Turn to Daniel 9, Daniel 9.
And so oftentimes, God will use symbolism,
He'll use certain things to explain the spiritual,
to explain various things.
And so yes, God does have the power
to destroy the world with a flood.
We saw that.
But when he talks about a flood here,
what he's actually talking about
is a flood of people or an army, okay?
The Bible uses that terminology,
because when you think about an army
of, let's say, a hundred thousand people,
just packed together.
Think about the Feast of the Black Nazarene.
Think of that as an army.
It's like a flood of people,
because everywhere, all you see is people, okay?
And so in Daniel 9, verse 26,
there's an example of this,
how it represents an army.
It says in verse 26, Daniel 9, verse 26,
When it says the end thereof shall be with a flood,
look, it's not a flood of water during the end times.
It's talking about a flood of people.
It's talking about an army of men.
That's something you see throughout the Bible.
Now, when it comes to what we were talking about, though,
God did use water to destroy the world,
so he uses the earth to destroy the earth at times.
But I want you to think of a modern example
in our country of these last two points.
We saw that God was long-suffering,
but eventually, once that runs out,
he will use the earth to destroy the earth.
A modern-day example of this is with Mount Pinatubo.
It was in 1991 that Mount Pinatubo blew.
My wife, her family lived near Mount Pinatubo when it blew,
and they were out of their home.
It was half-covered with ash.
They were gone from their home for a long time.
Obviously, God used it as a pretty massive volcano.
It was one of the most massive of the 20th century.
But I want you to understand something,
that God was actually very long-suffering
before that volcano erupted.
On July 16, 1990,
the 1990 Luzon earthquake of magnitude 7.7
struck northern-central Luzon in the Cordilleras.
So in 1990, in July,
this is less than a year before Mount Pinatubo,
I think it was in June when Mount Pinatubo erupted,
there was a massive earthquake, okay?
See, oftentimes you're going to see something,
even in modern days,
God will kind of give you a warning about stuff
before he actually causes the destruction.
You can honestly just go on Wikipedia
and they'll talk about this,
that maybe people should have seen the signs
that Mount Pinatubo was going to erupt
because there was a lot of signs leading up to it
that would tell you,
you say, why were there a lot of signs?
Well, God was warning you.
I believe that's the reason why.
On March 15, 1991,
a succession of earthquakes was felt by villagers
on the northwestern side of the volcano.
Just a few months before,
it's all these minor little earthquakes, okay?
On April 2, the volcano awoke
with phreatic eruptions occurring near the summit
along a 1.5-kilometer-long fissure,
and then it says volcanic activity
had increased throughout May.
Now, look, when did God allow that to erupt?
In June?
But it's the year prior he's giving warnings about it.
Now, you say, why did God choose to erupt the volcano?
You know, I don't really know.
I don't know the mind of God,
but if you haven't noticed,
this is a pretty idolatrous country.
I mean, have you noticed that?
That everywhere you go, there's idolatry.
If you haven't noticed, I love Pampanga,
but if you haven't noticed this,
Pampanga is filled with idolatry, is it not?
I mean, every time I visit there,
there's some massive statue of Mary or Jesus
or one of the saints or whatever.
It's like, man, everywhere you go,
there's idolatry ever.
If you haven't noticed, God actually eats idolatry.
I mean, look at the Ten Commandments.
It's right in the beginning.
Have no other gods before me
and not make any grave in him.
Look, God does not like idolatry.
If you haven't noticed something,
the Catholic Church is filled with idolatry.
Now, honestly, this is still kind of like me
getting used to this because in America,
there really isn't much idolatry
in terms of actual statues that people worship.
Look, here in the Philippines,
there's a problem with people worshiping statues
in graven images in real idolatry.
I mean, it's all over the place in the Philippines.
Look, maybe God was just saying,
hey, I'm mad about it.
Why don't you wake up and quit doing that?
I don't really know the mind of God,
but I want you to realize that God was very long-suffering
before he decided to destroy with Mount Nonduo.
And so God's nature has not changed here in the New Testament.
In modern times in our country,
we see an example where God was very long-suffering.
Massive earthquake, all of a sudden,
all these mini-earthquakes,
all this little volcanic activity.
And then, look, you can go back to what they said,
and I watched a documentary on it,
and people were talking about,
I really don't think it's going to erupt.
It's like, are you kidding me?
I mean, there's like earthquakes all the time.
There's all this volcanic activity.
They're like, you know, I'm not really sure.
You know, they're lucky that there weren't a ton of people
that were killed during that volcano,
because not a lot of people died during that.
They evacuated at the right time.
Look, before God decided to destroy that area of this country,
he gave a lot of warnings. Why?
God's very long-suffering.
Now you say, what would have happened
if all of a sudden there was this mass revival
where everybody in the area
just started preaching the gospel?
You know, honestly, it could be possible
the volcano would have never happened.
Maybe it would have never exploded,
because God says, look, the people turned back to God.
Isn't that what we saw with the Assyrian Empire?
Look, God was going to destroy Nineveh,
and they turned back to God,
and look, he didn't destroy them.
If people had gotten the warning
and the wake-up call during that time period,
maybe the volcano would have never happened.
But you know what God was long-suffering?
Nothing changed.
Guess what?
It exploded upon Earth,
turned back to Genesis 6.
Genesis 6.
And so the first thing we saw
was a lesson on spiritual salvation.
The next thing we saw is that God's very long-suffering.
We also see that oftentimes God uses the Earth
to destroy the Earth.
And the fourth thing I want to look at is this,
that oftentimes when God decides to pour out his judgment,
it's a complete destruction, okay?
Notice Genesis 6, verse 17.
Now, there's weird people that will say that,
well, the flood was only kind of contained to a small area.
You know, it wasn't a full global flood.
It just flooded the area that Noah lived in.
Well, for one, if that's the case,
why does he say he's going to destroy all flesh in verse 17?
Why does he say that everything that is in the Earth shall die?
And here's a better question.
If God's going to destroy the area Noah lived in,
instead of building an ark for 100 years,
why don't you just move, Noah?
I mean, if he's always going to flood the area you live in...
Look, if God told us that, hey, you know, in passage,
you know, he is going to flood this place in a couple months,
guess what?
We moved the church to another location.
Why?
We don't want to get flooded.
He's going to destroy all the passage.
We would just move to caisson, savior, wherever.
I mean, it's just common sense.
Instead of building a flood for so long,
all you have to do is move.
But see, when God destroys, he often destroys everything.
That's what we see in the flood.
Turn to Genesis 7.
Genesis 7, let's look at verse number 21.
You say, why would people question whether the flood destroyed everything?
Well, because they believe in science, falsely so called.
They want to believe in evolution, the big bang,
and the earth that's billions of years old.
Now, I don't understand how you can look out here
and not see the signs of the flood that took place.
Now, I've been to the Grand Canyon a few times.
And look, common sense says something massive destroyed that.
So what those of us say, wow, it took millions of years.
I mean, do you realize how long millions of years is?
That's a really long time.
The earth, they say, is 4.5 billion years old?
Well, my question is this.
Our government and politicians and things like that,
they're so worried that this earth is going to be destroyed.
Look, if we were able to destroy the earth within 100 years,
don't you think in 4.5 billion years it would have destroyed itself?
Like, if the earth is just like, you know,
we have to be so careful not to destroy it, that's ridiculous.
If I were to teach the earth is a little bit more than 6,000 years old,
people wouldn't believe the Bible.
Genesis 7, verse 21,
And all flesh died and moved upon the earth,
both the fowl and the cattle and the beasts,
and of every creeping thing that creeped upon the earth,
and every man.
All that knew his 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,
with man and cattle and the creeping things,
and the 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.
Turn to Exodus 32, Exodus 32.
So the only people that remained physically alive were Noah and his family.
It doesn't change the fact, though, that there were safe people that died in the flood.
In fact, the granddad of Noah, if you look up the ages,
died in the year of the flood.
Okay, the oldest man who ever lived.
Now, my assumption is he just didn't get inside the ark,
because he died in the year of the flood,
and he lived, I think it was 969 years, I'd have to double check on that,
but he died, you know, the year of the flood,
I think he probably just didn't get inside the ark.
And you know what, just because people are saved
doesn't mean that they're going to believe everything that the Bible says
or follow everything the Bible says.
We show people things in the Bible,
people that are saved, we show them the wickedness of drinking alcohol or various things,
but they don't take heed to those warnings,
and they choose to live the same sinful lifestyle.
It was the same thing in the day of Noah's flood.
Exodus 32, verse 7.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go, give thee down, for thy people,
which thou broadest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.
They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it,
and have sacrificed their urn to and said,
These be thy gods of Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiff-necked people.
God reaches the point where He's willing to destroy all of His people,
which would include both saved and unsaved people in that group that left Egypt,
but He's willing to destroy them all and start over with Moses.
See, when God's willing to destroy, He's willing to make a complete destruction.
And, you know, that's kind of a lesson for us as a church.
We have a lot of people here today.
This, by far, arrests and intends, which is great.
But, you know, we're not a massive church by any means.
But, you know, what's more important to God
is the fact that the people that He has are living holy and righteous and love the Lord,
rather than having this massive congregation of people that don't love the Lord.
Look, you can go to plenty of churches around here
that have ten times as many people that don't really love the Lord.
But, you know, God's more concerned with a small group of people that love the Lord.
Why?
Because He can use a small group of people to do something really major.
And the truth is, we're not a major church at this time.
We're not a massive church by any means.
But, look, God can do mighty things for us,
because as long as we're living righteously,
we're reading the Bible, we're going soul-winning,
we're preaching what the Bible says,
God can use us in a big way.
He doesn't need this massive congregation.
I do want you to understand something else about this, though.
And if you notice this complexion, let's look at verse number 10 first.
Now, therefore, let me it alone that my wrath may wax hot against them,
that I may consume them, and I will make out of thee a great nation.
And Moses besought the Lord his God and said,
Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people,
which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with mighty hand?
So we see that Moses steps in in order to protect those people.
God was willing to destroy them, and Moses, he beseeches the Lord.
And that shows us that when we pray, God can answer our prayers.
If we pray and ask God to be merciful to certain people, He might be merciful.
Obviously, there's certain people God tells us not to pray for.
But, look, you know, God won't answer our prayers and believers.
And Moses beseeches God.
He gets a hold of God, and God actually answers what Moses says.
Verse 12.
Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say,
For mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains,
and he consumed them from the face of the earth.
Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people.
Remember, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants,
whom God swears by thy known self, and saidest unto them,
I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven.
And all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed,
and they shall inherit forever.
And the Lord repented of the evil, which He thought to do unto His people.
Now, a couple things we can learn from verse 14.
The Lord is repenting, is He not?
Is the Lord a sinner, or is He perfect?
He's perfect, right?
But repenting does not mean that you're turning from your sins.
That's not what it means.
He repents of the evil.
Look, God was going to destroy them, and He decided not to.
What is repenting?
You change your mind about what you're going to do, and you do something else.
When we get saved, we repent of our unbelief.
Instead of trusting in Catholicism, we trust on Jesus Christ.
Repenting does not mean turning from your sins,
or quitting drinking, or reforming your life.
No, it just means changing your mind.
Now, it could be in context to talking about sins.
In terms of salvation, it's never in context talking about sins.
In this verse, it's not talking about sins.
He's repenting of the evil.
You say, I thought evil was a sin.
No, evil is just when you harm somebody.
Look, that's not necessarily a sin.
If somebody breaks into our house in the middle of the night
and tries to harm my wife and my son, and I kill them,
I did evil to that person, but I didn't sin.
Why? Because I'm protecting my family.
Do you understand the difference there?
Just because you do evil does not mean that you're committing a sin.
Now, oftentimes when you do evil, it is sin.
We talk about evil people that are killing people, molesting people.
Yeah, obviously that's a sin.
But just because you do evil, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a sin.
When God repents of the evil, look, he was going to kill them.
That's evil according to what the Bible says, but that's not a sin
because God looked down and they were wicked.
Now, you might ask this question,
why is it that God's willing to destroy them
and Moses doesn't want to destroy them?
Well, if you remember when he gets down from the mountain
and sees what they're doing, he gets pretty mad at himself.
So you have to understand something, that God sees everything that happens.
Now, look, I go to bed pretty early.
I usually go to bed before 10 p.m.
I'm an early riser.
I'm not out at midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m.
at the bars and the clubs and things like that.
Honestly, if we saw everything that took place in the Philippines,
because God sees everything,
if we saw all the wickedness that took place,
we might get pretty mad at ourselves.
Now, look, it's good that we don't see that.
We've got to be simple concerning evil.
You have to understand there's a reason why God wanted to pour out his judgment on them,
because he saw the wickedness.
Look, I'm sure in the days of Noah,
Noah didn't see everything that took place.
But obviously God saw the wickedness,
and he said, man, this is out of control.
He decided to kill them.
Now turn back to Genesis, Genesis 6.
And so the last thing I want you to see is this.
When it came to the flood, only the godly were spared.
Now obviously we talk about salvation at the beginning of the sermon in case you came in late,
but we talk about how salvation is like opening a door.
It's that easy.
It's just believing on Jesus Christ,
and that you're eternally secure.
I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
But in terms of the days of the flood,
the only people that were spared were those living God.
Look at Genesis 6, verse 8.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations,
and Noah walked with God.
Now when the Bible says that Noah was perfect,
it does not mean that he was without sin.
It doesn't mean that.
In the Bible, the word perfect means complete.
If you were to say somebody's a perfect Christian,
what the Bible would be saying by that is basically that they read the Bible,
they go to church, they have an active prayer life,
they go soloing, they abstain from sin,
they don't live a worldly life, they have a good attitude.
Basically they have the total package.
They're good at everything. They do everything.
God looked down at Noah and said,
you know what, he was perfect in his generations.
So compared to everybody else, he was living righteously.
He was the most godly person in the entire world at that time.
Now I want you to notice verse 18.
It says,
But with thee will I establish my covenant,
and thou shalt come to the ark,
thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons wise with thee.
We also see that not only was Noah spared,
but his whole family was spared as well.
Now turn to Genesis 7, verse 1.
And it reads in Genesis 7, verse 1,
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.
So Noah is told to come into the ark
because he was righteous.
Notice how it says,
For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
The word thee, it's singular.
So when he says,
For thee have I seen righteous,
what God is saying is,
Noah, you are righteous,
so you're going to come into the ark,
and all your family gets to go into the ark as well
because you are righteous.
You say, what is the lesson there?
The lesson is that, you know what?
If you're a godly person,
you can spare God's judgment upon your whole family
if you're living godly.
See, Noah got to go into the ark because he was righteous.
Why did his family get to go into the ark?
Because they were righteous?
Not because of the Bible,
but because Noah was righteous.
For thee have I seen righteous,
because Noah was righteous,
the whole family got into the ark.
Now, obviously, this is not talking about salvation
because when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only way for your family to be spared,
remember it says, in all thy house?
What that's saying in Acts 16, 31
is the same promises to your house as well,
that if they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
they will be saved.
They don't automatically go to heaven
because you go to heaven.
What I'm trying to tell you is this,
that if you live a godly life,
you can spare God's judgment upon your whole family.
Now, this is an encouraging message to all of us
because, you know, if you're married,
if you have a family,
let's say, for example, that you love the Lord
and your wife doesn't love the Lord.
Look, if you live a righteous and holy life,
God might spare judgment upon your entire family
because of the fact that you're living righteously.
The same thing with wives that love the Lord
and maybe their husbands don't.
Now, you know, wouldn't a god that everybody loved the Lord,
that's just not reality.
And, you know, the truth is a lot of people,
they might love the Lord and their spouse doesn't love the Lord.
In fact, I mean, I don't know.
There might be people in this room
where you come to church
because your wife or your husband makes you come
and you really don't want to be here.
You don't want to go soul winning.
You don't read the Bible.
But you have to understand that, you know what,
if you're the person that's living righteously,
you can spare God's judgment on your entire family.
That's what we see with Genesis.
So we see that only the godly are spared,
but at the same time,
Noah's family was spared God's judgment
because of the fact Noah was righteous.
For the singular,
for the advice of the righteous before me in this generation,
which means, let's say, for example,
you are a husband and your wife doesn't read the Bible.
Let's say, for example,
your Bible reading is basically nine chapters a day.
You know, in this month,
it's the nine chapters a day challenge.
Let's say, for example, that, you know what,
your spouse doesn't want to read the Bible.
Why don't you just read 18 chapters?
Why don't you make up the difference
for what they're not doing?
You understand what I'm saying?
You might have to up your level
if your spouse doesn't want to live for the Lord.
But you know what,
if you're at the level of nine chapters a day,
if you want God to spare his judgment,
maybe double your Bible reading.
And look, that's a tough situation to be in,
but the truth is that if your spouse doesn't love the Lord,
you might need to up the effort.
That's what we see in the Bible.
Now, turn to Galatians 6.
Galatians 6.
And so when it comes to the godly being spared,
this applies to an individual,
but it also applies to a nation as well.
Let's look at the individual here in Galatians 6, verse 7.
And it says in Galatians 6, verse 7,
See, the Bible says we should not be deceived.
Oftentimes, we get deceived about this principle
of reaping what you sow
because it doesn't happen immediately, okay?
You know, people sometimes have been really bad sins,
but they don't get judged immediately.
So then they start having the attitude,
maybe God's not gonna judge me at all.
And so they keep living a wicked lifestyle
and say, look, God might be long-suffering with you.
The judgment's gonna come.
And sometimes we think because time has passed,
nothing's happened, you know, God doesn't really care.
No, you better shake off the beast into the fire now
because before you know it,
God might be laying down a hammer on you.
You don't know what's gonna happen.
We don't want that to happen in our lives,
and the Bible says be not deceived.
Why does God say don't be deceived?
Because a lot of people get deceived.
A lot of people think that they can get away with their sin
and nothing's gonna happen.
Look, if we choose to live a sinful and wicked lifestyle,
God will pour down His judgment upon us.
You say, well, wait a minute.
You know what I'm saying?
Look, this is to save people.
Just being saved doesn't mean you're gonna be spared
from God's judgment.
You say, well, wait a minute.
I go sowing it.
Look, if you go sowing and you choose to live
a wicked lifestyle,
you have this double life you're living,
God can still judge you
and will judge you for your sins.
But you can't say,
well, I led three people to the Lord this weekend
and I killed someone.
God's gotta be merciful to me
because I led people to the Lord.
No, I mean, God's gonna judge you for that.
If you choose to live a sinful lifestyle,
He will pour out His judgment upon you in this life.
Yes, as a believer, you go to heaven.
It doesn't mean you won't be judged for your sins, though.
Now turn to 2 Peter 2, verse 5.
2 Peter 2, verse 5.
And so as an individual,
if we wanna be spared God's judgment,
we need to live a righteous life.
Now, look, all of us are sinners and we know that.
But, you know, there's obviously some sins
that are worse than us.
You know, obviously at times, you know,
I tell lies or I have a bad attitude.
All of us are like that sometimes.
But, you know, you've gotta be very careful,
especially with big sins,
because, you know what,
all sins are not equal.
If you commit some big sin,
you know what, God could very much judge you in this life.
I want you to do it in 2 Peter 2, verse 5,
because it's the last person we're gonna look at.
And it says,
And 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.
And so God destroyed an entire world
because of their sin and wickedness.
Now, as a nation, here in the Philippines,
or as a church here in this area,
Metro Manila, let's say.
But, you know what, God could choose to destroy this area
if it gets really wicked.
And he said, what should we do as a church?
This sort of sermon,
the application I want to make is this.
You know, I want God to be merciful in this area.
You say, why?
Because I would like to see lots of great churches
get started all throughout Metro Manila,
all throughout Luzon.
I would like to see that in my lifetime.
And he said, well, how is that gonna happen?
Look, the Catholics are not gonna help us with that.
You know, that church down the street
that I'm just not gonna name,
because they're pretty powerful.
Look, they're not gonna help us with that.
In fact, they're probably gonna harm us with that.
Look, these churches around this area,
they're not gonna help us with that.
And look, the Baptist churches,
look, they're the ones that are our biggest enemies.
They don't like what we're saying.
They're not fans of us.
If we're gonna spare this country and Metro Manila,
it's gonna have to be our church against the job done.
I want to live my life in a way.
I want our church to live our lives in a way
where we live very holy lives,
where we go sowing, we love the Lord,
we read the Bible quite.
We want God to spare this area.
We want to give him time.
We want him to give us time
so we can reach people in the gospel
and get great churches started.
That's closing the Word correctly.
Jeremy, the Father, thank you for the last one.
We'll be in your house this morning.