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All right, Genesis chapter 7, it seems fitting that we have a bit of rain this morning. Okay, as we cover the story of what I believe is to be the first rain that came upon the earth here. In Genesis chapter 7, look at verse 13, the Bible says, In 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. The title of the sermon this morning is, Into the Ark. Now that phrase, into the ark, in this chapter, you're going to find it four times in the Bible. As we're reading through the chapter, I just want you to pay attention to the times you notice the phrase, into the ark, and we'll cover that a bit later on as we get through the sermon. But look at verse number 1, Genesis chapter 7, verse 1, the Bible says, And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. There's the title again, right? Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Now the first thing I want you to notice here is that, you know, obviously, Noah has completed building the ark, and now it's time, we saw in the previous chapter, that it was time for the Lord to destroy all flesh. And that's a reality that we need to understand about our Lord God. Is he a loving God? Yes. Does he want to save us? Does he want to save our lives? Yes. Does he want us to find joy and success in this life? Yes, he does. But at the same time, we worship a God who looks at wickedness, and says it's time to destroy the wicked. It's time to pour out my wrath and my judgment, which is righteous. His judgment is just as righteous as his love is righteous. And there comes a time, and this is a reality of God, you need to understand that if you want to follow in your sin, you just want to live a sinful life, you just want to cave into the flesh every time, and look, we're all sinners, we're going to sin till the day we die, but look, you can't get comfortable in your sin. There's going to come a time when the Lord says, enough's enough. I'm going to take that rod of chastisement upon you, and bring, you know, some real chastisement into life, some real issues to get you back on the straight and narrow, to bring you back into my ways. And so we need to see the reality. Sometimes we sin and we think we're just getting away with it. No one can see it, no one's seen my sin, we know the Lord can see it, but how come he's holding back? Or maybe he's just being merciful the way he was. Hey, he waited 120 years from the time he decided to destroy the earth to the time he did it. But he did it, eventually it came down. And let me just tell you now, if you're comfortable in your sin, just continue without trying to make the effort of overcoming that sin, and you don't go to the Lord and confess those sins to him, there's going to come a time when he brings that chastisement upon you. Now, the thing I want you to notice there in verse number one, when he tells Noah to go into the ark, well he doesn't say, go into the ark, does he? He says, come thou and thy house into the ark. Now, people have mentioned this and I think it's a great reality of this verse, but where was God if he could say these words, come thou into the ark? You know, if you're going to invite someone into your house and you're in the house, what are you going to say to them? Say, come inside, all right, come inside. And so what we see when God calls Noah and his family into the ark, you know who was in the ark already? It was the Lord God, okay? And when the Lord calls you to go somewhere, to do something for him, he's going to be there with you, okay? The Lord will never ask something from you, he will never ask you to go somewhere unless he is there first, okay? The Lord will be there first and you see he's there in the ark with Noah and his family, okay? So one thing, the first thing, I mean, when we think of the ark, you know, you immediately think of the animals. But you know, remember, the Lord was in the ark, okay? The time while Noah was in the ark with his family, they could fellowship with the Lord, okay? So that becomes a reality of what was inside the ark, it was the Lord God there, okay? And then look at verse number two. Of every clean beast, thou shall make of thee by sevens. So before I keep reading, there is a misconception about Noah's ark and a lot of people believe that God or Noah took two of every creature, okay? A lot of people believe that, a lot of Christians believe it was two of every creature. And yes, there is a reality, but there's also here, what we notice is that God differentiates. This is before the law of Moses. Remember the law of Moses, they could not eat, the Israelites could not eat of unclean animals. They were permitted to eat of clean animals. But many years before that came into place, we see the Lord already directing Noah and teaching him about the clean and the unclean. I assume Noah probably already knew about the differences between clean and unclean here because he says in verse number two, of every clean beast, thou shall 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 there were some animals that were two of every animal, but they were the unclean animals and then the animals that are considered clean, they went in by sevens. Let's keep reading, verse number three, of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. All right, so there's basically two views. What does this mean that the clean animals went by sevens? There's two opinions here. I'll tell you the first opinion, then I'll give you my opinion. The first opinion is that instead of two of every animal, for the clean animals it was seven. Seven individual animals of the clean animals that went onto the ark. So that would be three pairs, male and female, and then one extra of that clean animal. Now, if you guys can just turn to Genesis chapter eight, just the next chapter over, Genesis chapter eight, verse 20, Genesis chapter eight, verse 20, the reason for taking extra of the clean animals, there's definitely one reason that we can think of here, okay? In Genesis chapter eight, verse 20, it says, and Noah, this is after the flood, after Noah gets off and is on dry land, it says here, and Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. So you see, when Noah comes off the ark, he offers of every, I mean, this would have taken a while, this would have been a huge sacrifice, okay? Of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, Noah made burnt offerings unto the Lord, okay? So the idea there of, well, maybe he took seven of the clean animals would be there were three pairs and there was one extra for the purpose of sacrifice. I can understand that view, but that's not my position, that's not what I believe. Let's look at it again in verse number two. Of every clean beast, thou shalt take to thee by sevens. What I believe it's saying here is it's seven pairs of clean beasts. So why do you think that? Because then it says the male and his female, okay? So it looks like that these sevens to me, based on the following part of that sentence, is that of the sevens there had to be a male and a female, okay? And so the second view of this passage, which is my view, is that there were seven pairs of clean animals, male and female, then you could have the balance. And of course, you'd still have plenty of clean animals to offer a sacrifice of as well, okay? Not that it matters so much, but I thought I'd let you know that there is a bit of debate amongst Christians as to what it really means by coming in sevens. I think there's another view which is very fringe, is like it was seven times seven. So that would have been a lot of animals. I don't think many people believe that, but there is that opinion out there as well. So we see the reason for it. We see why, because when it came to sacrificing on the altar to the Lord, it had to be of every clean animal, okay? And what's that a picture of? That's a picture of Jesus Christ. You know, when he came and offered himself, you know, and he was our sacrifice, he was that clean creature, okay? He was clean. He was without sin. You know, he was perfect. He was righteous. And of course, he took on our sin upon himself, became sin for us. All right, verse number four, verse number four. And yet seven days, so it looks like here, seven days, God has given Noah a week's notice, okay? So he's completed the ark. He says now in seven days in a week, he's going to destroy the earth. He says, yet in seven days, I will cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights, and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. So everything, I mean, totally, the only thing that's going to survive is whatever is on that ark, okay? And actually, there's going to be sea creatures that survive as well. I'll get into that a bit later. But it's like God has given Noah here a week's notice. I don't know exactly if it took, I can't really work out with the Bible if it took that whole week to get the animals on the ark, or if it's just a week's notice and then sort of on the last day of the week, all the animals came onto the ark. I'm not really that clear about it. If you have some thoughts, let me know. But let's keep reading, verse number five. And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And if you remember back in Genesis chapter six, look at the last verse in Genesis chapter six. Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. And I was speaking to you on Wednesday about the need that we ought to be like Noah, that we ought to do everything that the Lord commands of us, okay? We see just how special Noah was, okay? God would ask him something so unusual, so unusual, right? Build an ark, take off every animal, take off the food. And Noah did it. It seems to me, as best as I understand it, I can't be too dogmatic. It seems to me that there's never been rain on the earth before this, okay? There's never been rain. It's something that's never been seen. God has asked such an unusual request of Noah, and yet he followed through. This is why the Lord twice tells us here so far that Noah obeyed every command, did everything that God had asked of him. You know, what a great testimony for Noah. What a great testimony that he was truly a man of God. And then verse number six, we see the age of Noah here, and Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth, okay? So remember, the first time we get a mention of Noah and his age, he was 500 years old. You know, and I believe that the reason that the Bible's given us that age is to tell us that Noah was building that ark for 100 years, 100 years. Now I don't want you to get the idea that it took Noah 100 years to build the ark. Like he was just working, you know, six days a week, whatever, you know, 24 hour days building that ark, and it took 100 years to build that ark. Noah was doing other things, and we're going to look at that shortly. But if you guys can hold your finger there, hold your finger there. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, please. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7. Hebrews chapter 11. As you've probably noticed, as we go through the book of Genesis, and we see these great men of God, we're then going to Hebrews and seeing what the book of Hebrews says about these men, okay? So Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7, the Bible says, By faith Noah, being warned of God, look at this, of things not seen as yet. God warned Noah about things that Noah has never seen in his life, okay? It's never been seen on this world, and this is why I believe this is probably the first time it's rained, okay? Probably the first time there's been a flood of any kind of sorts, you know, and rain like this. But he's being warned of God of these things. By faith Noah receives these things. It says here, moved with fear. Did he have a fear of God? Absolutely. Okay? Absolutely. We too ought to have a healthy fear of God. And when you have that fear of God in you, when you have faith in the Lord, it's also going to cause us to be moved, okay? Us to be moved by faith, to do the works that God has asked us to do. And it says here, prepare an ark to the saving of his house. And I already spoke about this, touched upon this in Genesis chapter 5. Just once again, fathers, mothers, you know, are you preparing that ark for your children? You know, are your children aware of the gospel? Are they aware of salvation? Are they aware of the sinful state? You know, if they're saved, do they have confidence and assurance that it's eternal life or they can never lose it? Okay? We see that Noah did this also for his family, for his house, to save his house in a physical sense that was saved by the flood waters, okay? But we also have that responsibility as parents to save our children, okay? Yes, salvation. But what about, you know, the wickedness of this world? Are we saving our children from the wickedness of this world? Or are we allowing this world to entertain, to indoctrinate our children? You know, be careful about the things that your children watch on television. In fact, get rid of that television, I think it would be better, right? Or the things that they listen on the radio or the kinds of friends that they make. Be careful, okay? Because our children also need to be saved in a physical sense from this world. This world has an amazing influence, okay? It can bring a lot of pressure onto our children. We may think, well, our children know the gospel, they know the Bible, they're just going to live for the Lord for the rest of their lives. But you know as well as I do, when we went through those years, you know, as teenagers, as young people, we were influenced by the world, okay? We did things that we knew was wrong, and we did them anyway, okay? And you think your kids are going to be any better than you? No, your kids are going to go through the same struggles, okay, in life. And you need to make sure that you prepare an ark, and we'll cover this later on, okay? I'd say your house, your family ought to be an ark, a place of refuge away from this world, all right? Let's keep reading. Prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Now, I don't want you to get the idea or misconception here that Noah was saved because he built the ark, okay? We already saw in Genesis chapter six verse eight, long before Noah built the ark, the Bible said, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And of course, salvation is by grace, okay, through faith, okay? So we already know that Noah was already saved, okay? But we also, you know, what we've been teaching is church importance of going from faith to faith, okay? Walking in faith. And what we see, because Noah was a man of faith, he was able to also walk in that faith, and when the Lord commanded, he was obedient, okay? And again, in order for you to be obedient to the Lord, you must have faith in the Lord. You must have faith the Lord will help you accomplish the things you need to accomplish in your life, okay? Yes, faith is important for salvation, but it's also important for you to build your ark, okay? To protect you from this world. And if you guys, let's have a look. Let's go back to Genesis chapter seven, please. Genesis chapter seven verse seven. Genesis chapter seven verse seven. The Bible says, and Noah went in, where? The ark, right? He went in and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Now, I don't know, that phrase that because of the waters of the flood is just to go in because they know the flood's coming, or is it to go in because the waters are coming out? Like, is it starting to rain? Is it starting to sprinkle and they're getting the idea? I'm not sure, you know. Verse number eight. Of clean beasts and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls and of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. This is another reason why I believe there were seven pairs of clean animals because it says they went in two and two, okay? So, obviously, there would have been the unclean animals going in two by two, and then you had the clean animals, I believe, seven pairs going in two by two, okay? So, that's how they entered into the ark. Sorry, Cindy, can you? Yeah, yeah, just grab them. They're a bit distracting. So, one thing I just want you to notice here, it said here of clean beasts and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. You know what that would include? That'd include the dinosaurs. That'd include the dinosaurs. Now, I'm not, I used to love, as a child, I used to love dinosaurs. I used to read a lot of books about dinosaurs and even back then when I was a kid, I used to read all these books and, you know, these books would talk about millions of years, you know, billions of years ago, millions of years ago. But even as a child, I knew my Bible. I knew God created everything in six days. I knew it was only a few thousand years old. I used to read those things and kind of be like, what in the world? How are they coming up with that? But, you know, the Bible tells us here that it must have been dinosaurs, you know? Now, I don't know if all the species of dinosaurs that they talk about, I don't know if they're all real, okay? Now, I'm not saying that they're totally fake. There's definitely real dinosaurs out there, okay? But they come up with dinosaurs, like they find like a tooth or they find a piece of tail and they come up with a brand new dinosaur, okay? Because you get famous as an archaeologist. If you can find some bones and come up with a brand new dinosaur, you might be able to name it after yourself or something, right? You become famous when you come up with new creatures. So, I don't know. I mean, I see a lot of dinosaurs that look very similar, but they all have different, they're all like different dinosaurs. I'm like, God, they look exactly the same to me, right? You know, but I don't know how many of those were real. But here's the thing, you know, people talk about how did Noah take dinosaurs on the ark, especially the large ones? Now, most dinosaurs, from what I remember, were like small, like the size of a dog or the size of a chicken. That's what most dinosaurs were. But of course, you had your big dinosaurs as well. And you know, it's just simple. I've heard this from Kent Hovind. And I think it's just common sense that, you know, well, Noah would have taken the small ones, you know? Noah would have taken the little ones, the little babies, you know? They would have grown up and been able to eventually then have, you know, be able to reproduce and things like that. Why would you take the largest of every creature? And I believe that's true, you know? Even rhinoceroses and giraffes, why would you take the biggest one? You know, you take the small ones, you take the juvenile animals onto the ark. And so, you know, I'm not going to go through like a creation science lesson here. We'll just take the lessons that we can here. Let's keep going. Verse number 10, verse number 10. And it came to pass after seven days, so this is the week's notice, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. And in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventh day of the month, the same day where all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. Now, we have a hymn that goes, the windows of heaven are opened, I think the blessings are falling tonight, you know? So, you know, we see these windows of heaven being opened and sometimes we sing, I'm sure it's in our hymn book, and we sing about the blessings of God, you know, falling from heaven. But here we have the judgment of God falling from heaven. The waters coming and destroying the wicked world. And one thing you'll notice as we go through this chapter, and as you start to think about the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, the same vehicle of love, of mercy, is the same vehicle of destruction, okay? And it's these waters that fall upon the earth. You'll notice here in verse number, where are we? Sorry, where are we? We're up to verse number 12. And the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. So again, just repeated there, that it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. In 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. So the same day they enter into the ark, it begins to rain, okay? The same day, verse 14. 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 in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. This is a picture for us of salvation. The Lord tells us to come. Come and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as they went into the ark, the Bible says the Lord shut them in. The Lord closed the door. And this is a picture of our salvation. God says, come in. We come in by faith, and the Lord shuts the door. This is the teaching of eternal security. Salvation is provided by the Lord, the ark. We enter in, and the Lord shuts it. You know, it shuts. You think if the Lord shut the door, you think Noah's going to be able to open it? I mean, who do you think is going to be stronger there, right? The Lord shutting the door, or Noah trying to get out of the ark. Of course, once the Lord has shut it, it's done. It's a done deal. Salvation has been settled for he and his family from the waters. The same thing for us, guys. Salvation's offered by the Lord. We have an ark in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord shuts the deal. It's dealt with, okay? And we'll see other pictures of eternal security as we go on. But what I want to pause right now and talk about, guys, is the other arks that are in the Bible, okay? This is the first ark that we read about in the Bible, you know, Noah's ark. And, you know, what was contained in the ark? What's in the ark, okay? We have Noah's family, all right? We have God's creation, you know, of the animals. And we have food, food that was, you know, needed for the animals and for Noah's family. And as we confirmed already, the Lord himself was in that ark, okay? So think about what is being contained in the ark. And the word ark, all it means is a container. Did you know that? The word ark, you know, some people think, oh, ark means boat, but not really. I mean, the ark was a boat. Noah's ark was a boat, but ark really means container. And it's kind of like a box-shaped container. And the purpose for it is to keep the things inside the container safe, okay? To keep it from being lost, to keep it from being corrupted, okay? That's why you put things into a container. You want to keep it safe, all right? And that's all the ark was. When Noah went in, the Lord kept everything in that ark safe. That would mean what's the contents that's in that ark are very important, obviously. Very important. Noah's family would have been very important there for Noah. The second ark that we know about is Jochebed's ark. Jochebed's ark. You know who Jochebed is? That's Moses' mother, okay? And if you remember the story of Moses, she hid Moses as a little baby because the Egyptians wanted all the Hebrew children to be killed, all right? And she hid her child because she wanted to save his life. And then you know Moses was three months old, you know, but by then the baby's making a lot more noise and the only thing she could think of was to put him into an ark. The Bible calls it an ark, all right? And, you know, it's put onto the river and it's found by Pharaoh's daughter. That's the second ark that we see in the Bible, but once again we see that it contains something very precious, at least the Jochebed, right? It contained her baby Moses, okay? Something very precious that she was trying to protect. And the third ark that we read about in the Bible is the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant, which God commanded Israel to construct. And I'm just going to read to you from Hebrews chapter 9 verse 3. It says, And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that had budded, and the tables of the covenant. So the Ark of the Covenant, that golden box, what did it contain? It contained a golden pot with manna. All right, that's interesting. The manna that fell from heaven, you know, to feed the Israelites. There was a sample of that in the ark. There was Aaron's rod, which budded. You know, we were going into that story another day, but a miracle took place where Aaron's rod actually produced, I think it was like nuts or something from memory, and it budded. So that was in the ark. And what else was it? It had the Ten Commandments on the tables of stone that God had given Moses. So once again, some things that are very precious. This time we have scripture. You know, we have the rod, which shows the authority that Aaron had, you know, as the high priest, and it had some manna, okay? And of course, we know that manna in the New Testament pictured the body of Christ. Again, we see some very important holy things being protected in that Ark of the Covenant. And the final ark that we see in the Bible, if you guys want to turn there, it's kind of interesting. You guys can go to Revelation chapter 11. Revelation chapter 11, verse 19. Revelation chapter 11, verse 19. Maybe you've not heard of this before, but just to show you here, Revelation chapter 11, verse 19. It says, And the temple of God was opened in heaven. I'll just stop there for a moment. In heaven, the temple of God was opened in heaven. In heaven, there is a temple, okay? There is a temple. And what you'll find in the Bible, many things that were done in the Old Testament, even things that God instructed to be constructed, that was just a type, okay, of things that are actually in heaven. And so we see that there is a temple in heaven, and it says here, And there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament. Okay, the ark of his testament. So what's another way of saying testament? Covenant. Same thing, testament, covenant. That's an ark of the covenant, okay? And there was lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail. So the real ark of the covenant, or the real ark of his testament is actually in heaven, and the one that was on the earth was just a type of the real thing in heaven, okay? God had instructed the Israelites to build things in accordance to as things were in heaven, all right? So that's the four arks that you'll find in the Bible, okay? Noah's ark, Jochebed's ark, the ark of the covenant as a type, and then the ark of his testament in heaven as the anti-type, all right? Now, the things I just want to cover there, guys, is that each ark also had a covering. And if you remember when Noah built the ark, it said that he laid it with pitch, okay? Remember that? He used pitch to cover the ark, and the whole purpose behind using pitch, and Jochebed did the same thing with the ark she created for Moses. She covered it with pitch, and the purpose behind that is to make it watertight, okay? To make it, for the arks to be able to float on the river and for water not to enter into the ark. Once again, it was for protection. It was for protection, okay? And what about the ark of the covenant? Remember what that was laid with? Well, the ark of the covenant was made from wood, but then it was overlaid with gold, and gold, of course, is a metal that doesn't corrode. It doesn't rust. You know, it preserves that which is on the inside. The pitch and the gold both doing the same task, protecting, making sure it doesn't get corrupted. It's used. It's able to be used for the purpose it was created. You know, and once again, this just pictures eternal security, you know, eternal security, that once you've entered into that ark of Jesus Christ, the salvation that he has offered, it's watertight, okay? There's nothing. There's no corruption that can enter inside that ark, okay? And that is our salvation, guys. Once you're saved, you're always saved, okay? It's incorruptible. It's watertight. There's nothing that can corrupt the inside of that ark, all right? Eternal security being pictured by the ark. And what I want to leave you with before we keep going into the rest of the chapter, but what I want you to really think about, guys, is, you know, God is never going to ask you to build an ark and fill it with animals, all right? That's not going to happen. But you know what? We have arks in our life, okay? We have arks that God wants us to put things in and keep it protected from the world, keep it protected from destruction, things that are important, things that are holy, you know, things that we need to protect in our lives, you know? And your family, you need to see your family as an ark, okay? You really need to see your family as an ark, a place that is separate from the world, a place that is not being corrupted by the influences of this world, okay? Your children are important, okay? Your children are important, just as important as Noah's family was for him. That's another reason that drove him to build that ark was to protect his house. You know, you need to look at your family, your wife, your children, as people that you need to save, you need to protect from this world, okay, from the destruction of sin, from the influences of sin that can come into your house, you know? And you need to cover it, you need to overlay it with gold, you need to overlay it with pitch, you need to make sure your house is watertight, all right? What are you talking about? I'm talking about the influences of this world, all right? How much has this world influenced your house? You know, I don't know, you guys know. You know, how much, you know, has the, you know, the Hollywood movies influenced your house? How much has the, you know, the top songs, Billboard, whatever, top 50 songs influenced your house? How well do your children know the world's music, you know, and the lyrics of this world, which is just disgusting, disgusting lyrics, you know? It just, you know, if you feed that into your heart, it's going to cause you to live the way the music wants you to live, you know, going from boyfriend to boyfriend, from girlfriend to girlfriend. No, you know, living in fornication, you should be influencing our children. You know, how watertight is your family from this world? You know, what's in that arc? You know, is it the Ten Commandments? Is that what's being taught to your children? Or your children learning, you know, the philosophies of this world? You know, are they learning how to live according to Sesame Street, you know, or some other influences that are in this world, you know? They're not teaching your kids the Ten Commandments, let me tell you that. You know, the influences that you sometimes might think, well, this seems like an innocent program. I think if you paid attention to it, you'll find things that are very contrary to the word of God, you know? How watertight is your family? You know, that's not the only arc you've got. This church, New Life Baptist Church, should be an arc. You know, this church ought to be a refuge from this world, you know? You go to work and I don't blame you if you work in an office and you've got to put up with the world's music and, you know, you hear, you know, your unsaved colleagues speak things that you probably would rather not know about, not hear, and you've got to face that every day for, you know, at least five days a week, you know, coming to church or to be a place where you're being, you know, saved from the world, a place of refuge where you feel refreshed when you hear the word of God and you know that the church you're going to is not worldly. You know, I don't understand why people want to go to these fun center churches, these worldly churches, you know? You know, my first experience of a, what do you call them? A dance club, is that what you call them? What do you call them? Those places where people just go and dance and listen to rave music, what do you call them? Huh? Nightclub. Yeah, let's call it a nightclub. My first experience of a nightclub, guys, was at my church's youth group. All right? The leaders at the youth group said, at my church, at my Baptist church's youth group, was, well, we're going out tonight, guys. It's like, okay, where are we going? Oh, I've got some friends. I've got a party going on. It was just, you know, it was like an under-18s, you know, so there's no alcohol or anything like that. I'm like, what in the world? You know, I've come, I wanted to be in church. You know, I want to hear the word of God. I want to get away from this world. I don't want to be told. Look, it was worse than the world, you know? My worldly friends weren't trying to get me into a dance club or nightclub, but my church was. What in the world? What's happened? You know, church ought to be an ark, a refuge from this world. Now, we need to make sure that we don't allow ungodly worldly influences to come and creep into this church, okay? Let's make sure this place is a sanctuary, a place where we keep our loved ones safe, okay? And, you know, that we can be with the Lord. The Lord was in Noah's ark, and the Lord is in his house. The Lord is here right now in our midst, you know, as we preach his word, as we sing praises to him. Always keep that in mind when you come to church. I'm going to a place where the Lord is, you know? And let's go back to Genesis chapter 7, please. Genesis chapter 7. Genesis chapter 7. Actually, there was one question I wanted to ask you, you know? Hypothetically, if the Lord did ask you to build an ark, hypothetically, if the waters were going to fall down and destroy everything, you know, what would you put in that ark? What would be in there? I'll put that with my family for sure, my Bible, yeah, you know? I'll make sure of those things. But what if, you know, because it was a God that actually brought the animals to Noah, huh? It was God that directed Noah what to put into the ark. What if he said to God, what if you use these words? He said, God, you know, I'm not sure what I should bring into the ark, but I want you to put into the ark the things that I love the most, the things that I spend most of my time on, the things that I really love. That's what I want to have in the ark. Can you take care of that for me, you know? And I just think hypothetically, you know, what if you enter that ark expecting to see your family, expecting to see your wife and your kids, and instead you see people, but the people you've never met. These are my Facebook friends that I've never met, you know? Because you ask the Lord, can you put in there the things that I love, the things that I spend most time on, you know? What is it that you spend most of your time on? Is it on your family? Is it your wife and your children? Or is it the Facebook friends you've got on Facebook that you've never met in person? You don't know what they're like, besides the things that they post online. What if you find that, you know? What if you go, you know, you want to get a bit of music, you go, you expect to find your hymn book there, and then you find, you know, the 80s greatest hits, you know, in the ark. I wanted to sing some hymn. Well, there it is. The Lord's given you the things that you love to be protective in the ark. You know, what would happen there, you know? You go to find your Bible. I got my, you know, you go and, well, you got your YouTube account, right? Your YouTube account is good. You know, that's been brought into the ark. There are the things that you love the most. You know, I don't know. I'm sure if the Lord asks us to put things into an ark, I'm sure we would bring our families in the Bible. Okay, I'm sure that would be our desire. But hey, if that's going to be our desire to save, then those are the things that we need to be spending our time on the most today. Today, our family, our wives, our children, the Bible, singing hymns, these are the things that we ought to be spending our time on. I'm not against your hobbies. I'm not against the little things that you like to do for a bit of entertainment, to blow off a bit of steam. But make sure you've got everything measured, the things that are most important, the things that you would take on an ark if you wouldn't know ark. Those are the things you need to be spending your time on. Those are the things that are precious. Those are the things that are important. Back to verse 17, please, Genesis 7, verse 17. And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth, and the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters. So what I want you to notice there, guys, is that verse 17, it says that the waters increased and bare up the ark, and was lift up above the earth. It was the waters that saved Noah and his family, that it saved them because they were safely in the ark. It was the waters that lifted them up, but it was the same waters that destroyed the rest of the world. That's what I'm trying to say to you guys. The same vehicle of blessing that God gives us is the same vehicle which he's going to use to destroy the earth. Now, keep your finger there and go to verse 17. Now, keep your finger there and go to 1 Peter, please. 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. I'm going to read a passage to you that I've struggled with a bit in the past, but I believe I have the answer now. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. The Bible says, Alright, let's stop there for a moment. This is a verse that I've always struggled with as a young person, but now that I've understood a bit more of the context and compared other scriptures, I believe I have an answer here. But a lot of people struggle with that verse, right? It says that Jesus, speaking of Jesus, we know it's speaking of him, because he suffered for sins, it says there, and it says that Jesus went and preached unto the spirits in prison. What is that about? Preaching the spirits of prison? Some people teach, or obviously some people believe in Abraham's bosom as a location in hell, and so when Christ died, those three days and three nights, he went to Abraham's bosom and preached to the spirits in prison. That's never made sense to me. Why would you call paradise, prison? It doesn't make any sense to me. Alright, but anyway, let's keep going, let's keep going. Verse number, because you'll notice that there's a semicolon after prison there. The sentence has not finished. Okay, verse number 20. So he went to preach the spirits in prison, and it says in verse 20, which some time were disobedient. So these prisoners were at some time, now this time you'll know it's the time of the flood, or Noah's time, were disobedient. When once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, and we already discussed how long his long suffering was. A hundred and twenty years. Okay, God had long suffering for a hundred and twenty years. It says, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few that his eight souls were saved by water. Those eight souls is Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three wives. They're the eight souls that were saved by water. Remember, it was the water that eventually, that did save them. It lifted them up from the earth. But then it says this in verse 21. The like figure, whereunto even baptism doth also now save us. Now some people will use this verse and teach baptismal regeneration. Okay, that is, in order for you to be saved, you must be baptised. And this is one of the verses they turn to, okay. But that's not what it's teaching. Look at verse 21 again. It says, the like figure, whereunto even baptism. The Bible says here that baptism is a figure. You know, it's just an illustration of something else. And of course, baptism, water baptism, represents death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, okay. And that is a figure of what our faith is placed on. You know, the literal death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay. So it's not teaching that baptism is required for salvation, but it's saying that it's a figure of that which saved us. And as we keep going, we'll notice this. It says, not the putting away of the field for the flesh, but a good answer, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what saves us, okay. Ultimately the resurrection of Christ. So I just want you to stop there for a moment and notice that when it says here that Christ preached to the spirits in prison, it took us to those that were disobedient during the time of Noah. Those that were drowned in the flood, okay. Then what is that about? How did Jesus preach during the time of Noah, okay. Now remember, I mentioned to you guys, when you're looking for an answer, okay, in the Bible, always try to find the answer in that same book or by the same writer. First of all, I'm not saying don't use other books of the Bible. That's fine, but try to first start either with the same book or the same writer. And in this case, to find the answer to this, we're going to stick to the same writer, Peter, but this time we're going to turn to 2 Peter, okay. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 5. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 5. Because surely Peter's writing this, he knows what he's referring to. So he mentions this again in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 5. It says here, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. What is Noah called here? A preacher of righteousness. What did it say in the previous book? That Christ preached to the spirits in prison. So what do we then gather there? Is that through Noah, as a preacher, Christ was preached. When we preach, when God's people preach righteousness, when we go out and we preach the gospel, it is essentially Christ preaching the gospel to them. We're being used as a vehicle for the Lord Jesus Christ to get his gospel message out there. And the same thing was happening with Noah. Not only was he building the ark for a hundred years, but he was preaching righteousness. What is righteousness? Well we know the righteousness of Christ. And the fact that by his righteousness, by his imputed righteousness, we are saved. But we also know that the judgment of God is righteous. So no doubt, Noah knowing that God would judge this earth, that God would destroy this earth, no doubt Noah once again, just like his predecessor Enoch, is preaching the judgment of God. He's preaching the wrath of God that will surely come to pass. So that's how we understand that challenging verse. How did Christ preach to the spirit in prison? Well he used Noah. Noah was his preacher. Noah was his man during this time. And that's how Christ was preached during this time. Go back to Genesis chapter seven, please. Genesis chapter seven verse 19. Genesis chapter seven verse 19. And the reason I bring up the same vehicle that is used for salvation, the same vehicle that was used for destruction, is because what is our savior? Who is our savior? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? When we're taken up in the rapture, the Bible says that the wrath of the Lamb is come. The same one who saves us will be the same one that destroys the earth. Is the same one that will come and bring his wrath upon this earth later on after the tribulation. But let's keep reading. Verse number 19. Genesis chapter seven verse 19. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. So everything was covered here. Every high hill was covered. And then it says verse number 20, 15 cubits upward. So 15 cubits is about seven meters. Upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered. So every part of the earth was covered at least seven meters, you know, underwater. So major destruction. Verse number 21. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both the fowl and of the 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 for all that was in the dry land died. And I really appreciate verses 21 and 22 here because it gives us a little bit more detail of the kind of animals that Noah would have had to take on the ark, okay? Was it every single animal? You know, did he have to take the goldfish? Did he have to take a shark? Did he have to take the whales? You know, what's he gonna do about those animals? No, it says here in verse 21, and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, okay? All the earth-based animals, all the birds as well, both the fowl and of the cattle and the beasts and says that creepeth upon the earth. Notice how many times it says that. You know, upon the earth, creepeth upon the earth. And then verse 22, of all that was in the dry land died, okay? So water-based creatures did not have to go on the ark, of course. You know, the whole earth is covered by water. They're gonna be fine, okay? They're gonna be fine. But notice also in verse 22, it says, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life. So the animals that perished in the flood were animals with nostrils, okay? So that would also, that would include, that would say, that would be then that Noah did not have to take insects or earthworms onto the ark, okay? Why? Because insects and worms and stuff like that, they don't have nostrils, okay? The way they take in oxygen is through the skin, okay? Through the skin. And obviously fish, fish don't have nostrils, you know? Have they taken oxygen through their gills? You know, God's given them gills to absorb oxygen through water, okay? The question comes up, well, what about whales and dolphins, you know? Whales and dolphins, they're mammals. They've got lungs. They breathe in air like us, you know? And the idea behind that is it says, you know, the whales and the dolphins, they've got a blowhole. You guys know your animals very well? They've got a blowhole, and that's what they breathe from in the air. So, you know, that's kind of like a nostril, isn't it? Like the blow has a nostril. Even if we did consider that a nostril, the Bible said here, in whose nostrils, plural, okay, nostrils, okay, was the breath of life. So did they have to take the whales and the dolphins? No, okay? The whales and dolphins don't have nostrils. Maybe a nostril, if you really want to argue that point that a blowhole is a nostril, okay? And the other question is, well, what about sea lions and seals? And I have to look this up a little bit, because sea lions and seals, they've got nostrils, okay? They look like a little sea dog, you know, when you see them or something like that. They've got nostrils. What about those animals? Well, again, it said there in verse 22, that's what I like with the rest of it. It says, and all that was in the dry land died, okay? And these creatures, yes, they get on the dry land, but they're hunting. Most of the activity that they do is in the sea, you know, eating things. It all occurs in the sea. They're adapted to be more efficient, to be faster and more agile in water than they are on dry land, okay? So these are creatures that don't need dry land but operate best in water, okay? So there, God's given us some boundaries, all right? It's not every single creature, and I love it when God gives us these little details so then we can start thinking about it, and it all makes sense. Why would he need to take these sea-dwelling animals? Okay, there's plenty of water on the earth, okay? Verse 23, verse 23, Genesis chapter seven, verse 23. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground. Once again, again, God just wants to keep telling us the animals, the men, the people on the ground, on the earth, they're the ones that were destroyed. It says both man and cattle and the creeping thing and the fowl of heaven, they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. Now keep your finger there, turn to Luke chapter 17, please. Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17, verse 26. Luke chapter 17, verse 26. And this seems really amazing, really like a miraculous thing that God did, okay? But we could be in times like this as Noah, okay? Luke 17, verse 26. The Bible says, Jesus says, Jesus says these words. And as it was in the day of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. Okay? In what way? You know, God is telling us that when he destroys this earth, okay, with his wrath, with his judgment, we're looking forward to the rapture, aren't we? Okay? He says those days are going to be like the days of Noah. And those days were filled with violence, the Bible says. And we read, we learned last chapter that the sons of God, that believers were taking non-believing lives unto themselves. Okay? I mean, people's hearts, you know, are going to be turned away from the Lord. Even believers, even believers will start to compromise on things, okay? But not only that, Bible gives a bit more detail here, verse 27. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Okay? So just verse 27, they're going about life as usual. They're eating, they're drinking, they're getting married. And by the way, this is another reason why it was the sons of God, people, literal people, believers that got married, that took wives, okay? This is where we get confirmation here that people are just getting married, okay? I mean, Jesus is speaking like it's just an everyday thing. They're drinking, they're eating, they're getting married. You know, if getting married in those days was like demons marrying women or something like that, I think Jesus would point that out in this verse. But he's talking about like business as usual. Life is going on as per usual. People eating, drinking, getting married. In other words, they've got no idea, they've got no idea that God's destruction is going to come. But we know that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, okay? That would tell me if they heard Noah, they just disregarded him, okay? Same thing with you. You go out door knocking, you go preach the gospel. You're teaching them about the incoming judgment of God, okay? And they disregard you. They're going about eating, drinking, getting married, going about life as per usual, being totally blindsided. And then it says, until the day that Noah entered into the earth and the flood came and destroyed them all. And that's a picture now of the rapture, okay? The day that we're raptured or the final generation of the rapture, or the final generation of believers are raptured, will be the same day that God will destroy them all, okay? God's wrath will come upon the earth there. And then back in Genesis 7, verse 24. We're almost done now. Genesis 7, verse 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth in 150 days, okay? So, just to get your thoughts, just for you to have the information here. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights, but that's not how long the flood was, okay? It says here, the waters prevailed upon the earth in 150 days. Now, that's still not as long as the flood was. The flood was longer than that. But it's saying here, basically what it means by here, what it says here is that basically, the whole earth was covered there for 150 days before the flood starts to come down, before the things, before dry land starts to appear, okay? 150 days. So, this was a long time on the ark, a long time. In fact, it didn't get back onto dry ground until a year after the flood started, okay? We'll look at that in the next chapter, all right? But I just want to leave you with a thought there, guys. You know, we see the importance of the ark. We see that it provides protection from the world, from destruction. I just want you to really think about the arks that God has given you, okay? Your family, that should be an ark. Your church, that should be an ark, okay? And if it's not watertight, you need to tighten it up, guys. You need to make sure that they're not being influenced by this world. Let's pray.