Welcome to the Plenteous Redemption podcast, where the cross and the culture are on a collision course for discussion. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God. By the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. For the Jews require signs, and Greeks seek after wisdom, and we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, here's your host, Thomas Ervin. All right, we had a great service this morning and a good time at lunch together. It was a blessing that James' brother stayed and had lunch with us. Adrian's excited about the afternoon service. So don't let him down. And a couple of quick announcements. I'm going to schedule a, what I hope to be a regular thing for us in probably in March, as it gets a little warmer, we'll have a church work day. Amen. There we go. It's not the same if I have to beg for it. But well, I'll pick a day probably towards the end of March and I'll make a list of things. If you know of things that need to be fixed or addressed or looked at or cleaned or whatever, then send those my way and we'll make a list and we'll come early one Saturday and we'll just spend the day working and doing what needs to be done at the church to get it in good shape and order. And we will try not to overwork Ms. Phyllis's OCD. ADHD. So I'll make a list of things that need to be done and we will address those things and we will do as much as we can together. If you're able to be here, great. If you're not, it's okay. Some of you, I'm afraid, will come and work yourselves to death and then not be here for a month because you're home recovering. So, you know, don't overdo it. We'll do what we can and get it done. Next month, we'll likely have the brother from Rock of Ages here. I talked to him on the phone the other day. Oh, I got something else I need to tell you all to be excited about. I completely forgot. Yes, he sent me some dates for March. I have not got back to him yet. I'm going to try and do that by this evening. So he will likely be here with us sometime in March. Jacob Rutledge will be here in May. Pray for him. I spoke with him on the phone yesterday. I think it was yesterday, Friday or Saturday, one of those days. They all kind of blend together. I told you before that he has a big decision to make. He's got some things coming up, some big decisions to make. And he's, in light of that, doing some traveling, actually yesterday and today. And so he may have some answers to some of the decisions he has to make by the end of this week or into next week. So if you would keep praying for them. You know, he's a big-time preacher, so we might be too small scale for him by the end of next week, but we'll see. When he comes here, everybody has to call him that. Just call him big-time Rutledge. His wife will... Oh, his wife. So I called Jacob, and his wife answers the phone. She does that sometimes, and I just pretend like it's Jacob. It's like, brother, what happened? Everything okay? And she was telling me that I don't know if she told you, but she backed her van into those yellow posts outside of a store. So she said her van looks like she hit Big Bird. So pray for them. Now, there's a couple of things, a couple of possibilities that One possibility and then the other one is something that you guys will be excited about. I spoke with a friend of mine who's down in the land from the church that we came from on Saturday. This was Saturday. I know that for sure this time. He does a ministry down there that Walmart will allow you if you'll open a a not-for-profit organization or if you're part of a not-for-profit organization, they will allow you to schedule 14 times per year to sit in front of Walmart and give away Bibles for free and talk to people and engage people and witness to people. And our church down in Florida has been doing that for about maybe six months and around 60 people have either visited or joined the church as a result of it. And it's given them a lot of good opportunities to talk to people and engage people and give away Bibles, obviously, getting the word of God out to the world. And they've seen a lot of incredible fruit from it. And so he's going to tell me the process to get all that started. And so we may try and implement that here. I think this place, something like that, it's a good possible ministry for somewhere like here. Honestly, this Walmart is the only Walmart we have ever been to in our lives where it doesn't look like a freak show every time you walk through there. They look like normal people. You go to any other Walmart anywhere else, that's okay. That's all right. I won't go there. I'll just keep going the times that I go. If you've seen what Walmart looks like in Central Florida, you would agree. because you walk in there and you can't believe what you have just set your eyes upon and it's like that you walked out of the house like that and and and they wear it proudly and so yeah that's that's that's pretty bad too so so it'd be an interesting ministry to get started so I'm gonna get with him and get the information on how to get it going and then you just have to schedule it with the Walmart it is up to them where they allow us or not they may have things or events or whatever going on so we'll see if we could get it going and set some sort of consistency, if possible, that way we could just be there and do it. Then, of course, we've got to make sure we have Bibles on hand and things like that. And so they've given away hundreds of Bibles for free and been able to talk to who knows how many people and a huge portion of them will either visit the church or many of them have visited and they stay there and it's gone really well. So, it's been a blessing. Now, the last announcement. I got a call from a church in Missouri who's seeking a pastor. And I had been listed as a reference for Brother Desmond. And they are very interested in him. So they called me and they said, could you tell us a little about him? I said, well, other than that axe murder he committed a few years ago, he's pretty good. So, no, I told them that the Lord called my family and I here to be part of this ministry, and if it wasn't for his help, we would have been in a really, really difficult situation. And that he faithfully helped us. I believe he has the heart of a pastor, and I believe that is the right place for him. Not that church, I don't know anything about the church, but I believe that position, I think he's the He has cut out for it, so I told them that I thought they'd be making a very good choice, and so we'll see how that goes. I spoke with him yesterday as well, and he was very excited and said that he has tried to come back here to visit with us, but since he left, he's been in his home church four times. He's just been out preaching all over the place. So he's had lots of good opportunity. It's been a blessing. Brother Desmond was a huge blessing to us. He was faithful to, he told me when you called me to come here, he told me I will stay there and I will be at the church until you get here. And he did exactly what he said he would do. I am thankful for that. And he was here the first day and he got to teach Sunday school for us and all that. It was a blessing. So I'll be praying about that, praying for him and his wife. They are a blessing. I think they'd be a blessing to that church. Church seems very interested in him. So they're going to have him come and go through whatever their process is. So praise the Lord. All right, brother, you ready? All right. Come along. No problem. No, it's a blessing. It's great to have Blake and Haley here and Sabina. And it's a blessing to have them here singing and being part of the service and preaching. And this afternoon, Brother Blake is, I believe they're going to sing again. Is that right? And then he's going to preach for us. And at some point, either before, after, during, however he wants to do it, he's going to tell us a little bit about his ministry. It's a very unique ministry that he's a part of. He goes into the ports in Norfolk, right? Not Virginia Beach, but Norfolk, because there's such a big difference, which there might be. I've only been to Virginia Beach. I've never been to Norfolk. Actually, this is an interesting back story about how the Lord works. So I got saved in Saudi Arabia in October of 2010. I remember the month and the year, so that means I'm saved. If you don't remember the date, then apparent to many brethren, that means you're not saved. I forget my birthday half the time. Does that mean I'm not born? I don't know, it's my birthday till my children come up, like, happy birthday, daddy. I'm like, oh, thanks for reminding me. And so I got saved October of 2010 in Saudi Arabia watching Adrian Rogers on YouTube. I mean, just where else would you go for good solid preaching other than? YouTube and so but he's the only preacher I knew of being from Memphis, Tennessee. So I got saved. Now at the time I was heavily involved in professional fighting and I was a defense contractor and all those things and so I just wanted to go home and go to church and if I went back home as well my motivation was to go back home to go to church but I had an opportunity to fight for a professional contract which would have I would have had to go up to New York, Long Island, New York for my training camp and all that stuff. And so I got saved. I went back home to Memphis for a little while. Then I moved up to New York and I got into an independent Bible believing church, a Baptist church in Long Island, New York. You might not think those exist up there, but they do. And it was actually a really good church. The pastor there was a huge blessing to me and helped me in many ways. Through being in that church and learning more of the Bible and getting grounded a little bit, fighting became a conflict. It just wasn't going to work out. And I couldn't reconcile beating somebody's face in and then thanking Jesus afterwards while sponsored by Bud Light. You know, it just didn't, I couldn't. put all that together. And I really wanted to take the Lord serious. And so I just I couldn't see how that was going to work. So I ended up I quit fighting. When I quit fighting, the money I had saved up was running out quickly and the sponsorship was gone. You know, you're not fighting anymore, so they're not going to sponsor you. And so I had to find a job and I couldn't find my background at that time was loading missiles on fighter jets. not a lot of jobs in Long Island, New York for that. So I really struggled to find a job. So finally, I did get a job in Egypt. But I told the company, the company I worked for in Saudi Arabia hired me to start a new program in Egypt. But I told them before I left that I can't go unless there's somebody there I can fellowship with. And I'm a new Christian now, and they didn't really care about all that. They said, just work it out and let us know. I ended up finding a Christian, a missionary in Egypt, and I said, okay, I'm going to Egypt. Well, from there, before I went to Egypt, this long story is going somewhere. There's a connection here. We'll get there. Before I went to Egypt, I had to go for training for two weeks, and that training was in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That's hard to say, Virginia Beach, Virginia. And so the church that they are working with right now in Virginia Beach is the church that I went to while I was in Virginia Beach. And the pastor there at the time, he stayed with me after church one night, and we talked for two or three hours. And I was just hungry to learn the Bible. So he gave me a book and a CD by a man named James Knox. I ended up going to Egypt, listening to the CD. The CD was how to study and teach the Bible. I fell in love with the Bible teaching. Looked the guy up, found out he had a Bible school. When I left Egypt, I moved to DeLand, Florida, and went to Bible school, met my wife, got married, ended up taking off to Africa, and met Blake and Haley there. And so Blake and Haley ended up going up to take over this ministry in Norfolk, Virginia, and then they're working out of the church that I went to when I found out about the man who ended up teaching both of us the Bible. Interesting how all that works out. Sorry, that was a long story. In my mind, I was like, this will be quick. It'll be interesting. They can see some connections, and it just kept going on and on and on. But the Lord has been good to me. I'm thankful for Brother Blake and Miss Haley and their friendship. They have been very good to us in hard times and in good. They have stood beside us and been a friend to us, and I'm really thankful for that. While we were in Bible school in Dilan, a group of young men came through the church who just excellent young men who don't know how good they are. They don't even have a concept because they grew up right, they came from good godly heritages, and then went straight into a good church, and then came to a good Bible school, and then just kept doing good. And so Brother Blake is one of those young men. Now Miss Haley, I don't know about that. Actually, her father is a pastor in Central Florida. And her father, they notified us the other day that they're going to continue to support us for a little while. I don't know how long, but that is a blessing. So she comes from a great background. And so the two of them have just, it's a blessing to meet people who didn't destroy their lives with sin and go out into the world and ruin their lives and then have to come back and clean up the mess. They just, grew up right, stayed right, and they might have wings. They might take off a mask and start glowing and all that good stuff. So anyways, all right. Brother Blake, come do something spiritual that will help the situation and get this moving in a good direction. So thank you, brother. Well, my name is Blake Muscott. I hope we haven't disturbed you guys too much by being with you. But we just appreciate the family of God. Everywhere my wife and I have been in the world, we just feel at home every time we're with the people of God. And in most cases, like today, it's people we've never met before and just feel like part of the family. And it's incredible. There's nothing like that in the world. There's just nothing like it. And so we're really thankful for that. So both my wife and I, we were raised in good godly homes, and we're very thankful for that. Grew up in different churches, but we grew up in the same county. Her dad was a youth pastor and then the pastor of her church. My grandfather was the pastor of my church. And I was actually just thinking while we were singing those hymns in the back, the church that I grew up in was the exact same size as your church right here. And it was called Freedom Baptist Church in a little no-name town in central Florida. And I was just thinking just a moment ago, it's just the grace of God that I'm still here. And that's not at all bragging on me, it's just, seriously, it is the grace of the Lord, because there are so many young people that grow up in a church like this, and they leave because it's not cool, and they leave because it's for old people. No offense, but that's what my generation thinks. God is for old people. And they don't want to be in a place like this, and they don't want to sing the old hymns. And I'm just thankful that God's allowed my wife and I to stay and just be faithful. And that's all a testimony to God's grace, not ours. So we grew up on separate sides of the county. We didn't really know each other. We knew each other's families. We crossed paths at youth rallies and Bible conferences, different events. She is a couple of years older than myself. And that's all I'm going to say about that, because I want to have a happy marriage when I leave here. But my wife robbed the cradle. But when you're in high school, when the girl is older than the boy, there is absolutely no interest whatsoever. And we were not interested in each other. And I didn't realize how much she was not interested in me until later on. She was not at all interested. God, I got saved at a young age, kind of drifted in my heart from the Lord. And then at 16, 15, almost 16 years old, just resurrendered my life to the Lord. Just growing up had a very timid personality. And I preached my first message at 13 years old in a pulpit this same size, the same color. And I remember after I finished preaching the sermon that my mom helped me write. And I never once looked up from the pulpit, and I never once said anything that wasn't written down on the paper in front of me. I just read my notes. And after I finished, I finished in about two and a half minutes, and I sat down right where Adrian is right there, and I just cried. And I told God, I'm never doing that again. And the Lord had different plans. When I surrendered my life to the Lord at 15, God very early on gave me a burden for foreign missions and people around the world who haven't had the opportunity to hear the gospel. My wife has this similar testimony, with the exception of she didn't preach at 13. She started at 11. She got saved. And after she got saved, she immediately began to grow in a burden for foreign missions. And all of this was just separate. We had no idea what God was doing in our hearts. So she graduated from high school, went off to Bible college in California, and I graduated and went off to Bible college on the other side of Florida. We never thought of each other ever again. At the end of my time in Bible college, I was planning on moving to South America as a missionary. I'd already taken many trips there, and God began to close the doors. And so I began to ask the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to do now? And that's the question God was looking for all along. Lord, what do you want from my life? Even serving the Lord, it's not really up to me what I want to do. God does give you the desires of your heart when you're serving him, but you have to allow God to direct that. So the doors were closing for me to go to South America. And at the same time, I got a phone call from a pastor in my hometown. He said, hey, brother, I know you're going to graduate in six months. And I just wanted to see if you're interested in going to Virginia and visiting a ministry there. And we'll support you for the whole summer. And I said, what ministry is it? I'm really interested in foreign missions. He's like, well, this is foreign missions. That's like, well, explain that to me. So basically what happens is Norfolk, Virginia is home to the largest port on the East Coast, not just for the Navy, but also for merchant seafarers. And so what happens is these seafarers come into this port from all over the world, and we get to step onto their ship. We offer them free transportation to and from the pier, which gives us the access to go through all of that security. And then we get to give them Bibles and gospel tracts in their heart language. And we get to talk to them in English about the Lord because English is the world trade language. So it is literally like the miracle of Acts chapter two, where all these nations from the world come to Jerusalem for the worship, and they're speaking different languages, but that was not a problem for God. So God said, I want you to go and preach the gospel. And the Holy Spirit of God opened up a door for those people to hear in their own language, and then go back to their home countries with that. And that's the opportunity we have. So the pastor in my hometown explained me the ministry. He said, all right, just go up and visit for one summer, and if you will agree, to go up and visit the ministry for one summer, I'll let you marry my oldest daughter." And I said, deal. And we were married today, some of you are wondering. That is my wife's father. And he set us up, literally he set us up. He said, hey man, I think you and my daughter would make a good team and it wouldn't hurt to talk. And so we did. And for me, it was a love at first email. And for her, she had no idea who was sending her a message. It took a while. So finally her father convinced her to marry me, and we're happy. So thankful for what God's allowed us to do and what we are doing. If you have any questions about the ministry, we'll be here after the service today. And if you have any questions, we'd love to answer those for you. Let's go ahead and sing, and then we'll get into the message this evening. If you'd like, you can go ahead and turn to Hebrews 11. Majestic, sweet, he sits enthroned Upon the Saviour's brow. His head with ravens' glories cloud No mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men. Fairer is He than all the fair who fill the heavenly tray. train. He saw me plunged in deep distress and flew to my relief. For me, he bore the shameful cross and carried all my grief. and carried all my grief. To Him I owe my life and breath and all the joys I have. He makes me trust And saves me from the grave. And saves me from the grave. He saves me from the grave. Arise my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. Before the throne my shorty stands. Before the throne my shorty stands. My name is written on his hands. All right, Hebrews, when you get to Hebrews 11, turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, I'm gonna give you just a quick, I was actually planning for months or weeks, however long it's been, praying about what to preach. And I was actually planning on preaching from Psalm chapter 133 on unity. And it seems like the Lord's actually directed away from that, not that we don't need it, but I would like just to give you something. This actually wasn't even part of the message that I was planning. But I want to give you something I think God's laid on my heart, and it's not the message. The message that God has put on my heart, I believe, will be somewhat short, as independent Baptist preachers always say. The Bible says that God cannot lie, and He's just about the only one that doesn't. But preachers are really good at it. But look at this with me. I would at least like for, I think the Lord's impressed upon my heart just to bring this verse up. If we're not gonna preach a whole message on unity and just being one together as a body, I would like us just to look at one thing right here. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 14. Follow peace with all men, not just with the people you like. Follow peace with all men, with all men. Okay, then he says, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Verse 15, looking diligently. If you're driving at night and you don't wanna hit a deer, you've gotta be on the lookout. They're not gonna jump out of the way. In fact, they're probably gonna jump in the way. You gotta look. So what is the Lord telling us to look diligently for? Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Here's all I wanna say. I'm friends with your pastor, but I'm not saying this because I'm his friend. I'm saying this because I know the danger that lies here. At some point, Brother Irvin is going to say something that you don't like. And he might make a decision that you don't like. And he might just need room to grow. It could be that he's absolutely right and you've never heard it before. That's possible. It could also be that he needs time to grow and God's been gracious with you and given you time. And so all I'm trying to say here is God didn't tell us to look for the bitterness in other people because you couldn't find that. And even if you could, you couldn't fix that. So the warning of this verse is you had better be careful that you don't allow the root of bitterness, you know what a root is? It starts beneath the surface completely undetected. And if you let that root of bitterness spring up in your heart, at some point, it's gonna get to the plate. I don't know anything about plants or farming, but I do know this, when you try to rip up plants that have been there for a long time, it takes a long time to get rid of. That's the truth. And you allow bitterness, not even just towards the pastor, towards anyone in this church. You allow bitterness to go in your heart unrepented of. What does the verse say? Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, thereby many be defiled. Your bitterness harbored in your heart undetected doesn't hurt anybody. but one day it sprouts into gossip or slander or an attitude. And the Bible doesn't just say you're affected. The Bible says many are defiled and it ruins our fellowship with the Lord as a church. So I just want to encourage you today, do not allow bitterness to spring up in your heart. You've got to get rid of that. You can't fix the pastor. You can't fix anyone else in the church. You can pray for them. You can try to encourage them, but you can't fix them, so you're gonna have to fix you. And that's the encouragement, okay? Is that fair? All right, so let's start our message, all right? I'm going to start my watch and see what time we end. All right, look at Hebrews 11 very quickly. I'll talk fast if you'll listen fast. Can we do that? Okay, Hebrews 11 and verse number 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by the which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Verse number 5, By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Verse number 6, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Now verse number 7, By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became the heir of righteousness, which is by faith. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we need you at this hour. We need you this moment. God, we believe that anytime there's a time set aside for your body to assemble, that Lord, you have something that you want your people to hear. And God, I just pray that you'll use me as your instrument. God, I don't wanna get in the way of anything that you would desire to do today, but God, I pray that we'd be attentive to your word for the next few moments. Help us, Lord, to get something that would be a benefit and a help to our lives, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. We looked at a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning about the ark, and it's a beautiful picture when you see it in scripture. But today I would like to focus just for the next few minutes on Noah's faith. Noah's faith. Noah is an incredible character in the Bible. In fact, in the book of Ezekiel, in chapter number 14, God is saying, listen, if you don't repent, I'm gonna destroy you. He's talking to God's people, and he said, I'm gonna destroy you even though Noah was a part of this line, even though Daniel was a part of this line, and even though Job. So what God does is he holds Noah up to the nation of Israel as being one of the greatest men that ever lived in the lineage from Adam all the way to Jesus Christ. He's a great man, great man of faith. And we're not preaching this. What I love about Hebrews 11 is when we think of Noah, we think of the ark, we think of the flood. But if you remember in your minds, there's also a little story at the end of the story where Noah begins to be a husbandman and he makes a vineyard and then he makes wine and then he gets drunk and then it just goes downhill from there. And God never brought that up again. We're really good at bringing stuff up when people have done something to us, aren't we? We're good at holding onto things, but that's not what God did. Just let it go. Let it go, and I love that. But Noah's faith. First of all, I see faith in his preparation. Faith in his preparation. We see here in Hebrews 11, verse number seven. By faith. Noah, it doesn't say by logic. It doesn't say because this was the obvious thing to do. It wasn't obvious. By faith, that means he heard the word of God and he acted upon the word of God as if it was true because it was true. You just couldn't see it yet. By faith, Noah being warned of God, listen, of things not seen as yet. Up until Noah's day, it had never rained. God caused a mist to come up out of, almost like dew, to come up out of the earth and water the ground. There was never rain before this. And God says, it's gonna rain. Well, it's rain. Well, it's water falling from the sky. Well, that's never happened before. Well, it's gonna happen. Really? Okay, I believe you. And he believed God, even though it has never been seen before. He didn't make decisions on his logic. Listen, he didn't make decisions based on his feelings. You can be on both sides of the ditch. He based his decisions on what God said. And you're always safe when you do that. And so what does he do? And Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. Fear of what? Something that had never happened before. He just believed God. Moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness, which is by faith. Now, I don't believe that he was out there saying, you people are going to hell. I don't think that's what it means. The world was condemned, not by his preaching, but by his preparation. He condemned the world because, listen, the world had a way of salvation, they just refused it. That's why they're condemned. You know what John chapter three says? Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world. Why? The world is already condemned. Why? Because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. God could not condemn us. Well, he could do anything he wanted to, but God does not condemn us because we're sinners. We're all sinners. We're born with a sin nature. But we're condemned because we have not believed in his son, Jesus. They were only condemned because they didn't get on the ark. Okay, so that's what he's saying here. But faith in his preparation. Now, look at 1 Peter 3. Moving quickly, 1 Peter 3. And look what the scripture says here, faith in his preparation. He prepared for something that God says was coming, and his feelings and his logic didn't tell him that it was going to happen, but he just trusted God. And he prepared as if God was telling the truth. 1 Peter chapter number 3 and verse number 14. Now the context of 1 Peter is continuing through tribulation, through suffering, through persecution. Verse 14, but and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye. Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Brother Thomas will preach about that, I'll leave that to him. Verse 20, would sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing. wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water." Now, we're not going to get into that water part, OK? I'll leave that for Brother Thomas as well. But here's what happened. God was long-suffering to those people. And all the while that God told Noah, there's going to be judgment. I'm done with this world. If they want to repent, they've got to get on the ark. Otherwise, I'm destroying the whole thing. And Noah believed God and said, you know what, God, I've never seen rain. I've never seen a flood. But if you say it's coming, I'll believe you. What do you want me to do? And God gave him the instructions. You know what the Bible says? He was preparing. He was making decisions based on the word of God. And you know where we get in trouble? When we begin to make decisions based on our feelings, or based on logic, or even as husband and wife, the man wants to do things logically, and the woman wants to do things based on how she feels. And both of those can be wrong if they go against what God said. Okay, so he began to prepare. We see his faith in preparation. Why is that passage in 1 Peter? Because as we see as we go through this, everyone else didn't believe God. So what are they doing? They're mocking. They're persecuting. They're laughing. They're cutting down trees. For what? You're going to build a house? No, I'm going to build a boat. What's a boat? Well, there's rain coming. What's rain? Noah, you're a fool. Why are you wasting all this time? Why are you storing up all of this food? Why are you gathering all this water and preparing? For what? Noah didn't care. He said, listen, this is what God said, and I've got to do it because it's what God said. You know, only his children and his wife were saved on that ark, you know what that means? All of his other living relatives sided with the world and mocked him. You know what the best hope, listen, what if he gave in to his uncles? His children would have been lost. What if you give into your family? What if you give into the world that's trying to tell you, well, you know, that King James Bible, it's old English. Well, you know, those standards, you know, it's just a little, it's a little old school. What does God say? That's where we need to build our life. So we see his faith in his preparation. Secondly, we see his faith in his preaching. Look at second Peter, we're close by. 2 Peter 2, verse 1. 2 Peter 2, verse 1. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privileged shall bring indamnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and, look at verse 5, spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a what? A preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. So here's what the Bible says. Not only was Noah preparing, not only was he building his life as though what God said is true and though God's judgment was coming, but Noah was preaching to those who had not yet heard. Your testimony is vital. Your testimony is absolutely important. But so is your words. Your words are important. And so here's what the Bible says, as he was preparing, he was also preaching. He was also letting the people know, hey, listen, there's judgment coming and God is tired of our sin and God's had enough. But God is preparing a way of escape and is through this arc. And if you will come, we've got a place for you. And if you'll come, you can be saved. And if you'll come, you don't have to face the destruction that you deserve. Just turn to the Lord. He was a preacher of righteousness. He did that by faith. You know what it's gonna take for us to go and tell people there's a hell? It takes faith. You can't prove that there's a hell. Okay, you can't prove that there's air. You still believe it and you depend on it. A preacher of righteousness. And he was mocked and made fun of because of it. You know what I believe? Look what the Bible says here. Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness. Now come back to Genesis chapter six. The eighth person. Here's what I wonder. I wonder if when God told Noah after the preparation was done, and God told Noah, come, come into the ark. And of course, after he and his family came in, then the animals came in after that, and then God shut the door. But you know what the Bible says, that Noah was the eighth person. I wonder if he was not the last one on board because he was trying one more time to witness to his family. He was trying one more time to tell his coworkers about the Lord. He was trying, listen, because there's limited time. We like to think, well, if I just live an example in front of them, maybe eventually they come to the Lord. Maybe eventually they'll die and go to hell. And maybe it might be sooner than we think. So we've got to do both. And it looks to me like Noah was hanging on to that gangway saying, please, there's one more chance. And he along with the Lord is saying, come. And I believe he was the last person on board because of that. But God said, come. When God shut the door, now it's too late. You know why we need to be concerned about souls? Because one day it'll be too late. You know why we need to go to Walmart and pass out Bibles? Because for those people, one day it'll be too late. Somebody needs to care. Somebody needs to say, come. And Noah cared. So we see Noah's faith in his preparation. We see Noah's faith in his preaching. But then we see Noah's faith in his patience. And this is the last point. But to me, this is so helpful, so helpful. So we know in Genesis chapter six, God saw the wickedness of man and it repented the Lord that he'd made man. He said, I'm gonna destroy man from upon the earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and Noah walked with God. I'm just paraphrasing. So then God tells Noah to build an ark. So he does that. Look what the Bible says at the end of chapter six, look at verse 22. What does it say? Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. He prepared by faith, he preached by faith. Chapter seven and verse one. And the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. And he gives them his final instruction. So listen, this is wonderful. Noah, is living in a world that is wicked, but he's living right. Do you know that's what we're supposed to do? We're supposed to live a righteous life in this ungodly world, this wicked world. Noah did that. So God, because he was living right and doing right and walking with God, when you walk with God, God can speak to you. If you harbor iniquity in your heart, the Bible says God will not hear you. So here's an amazing thing. All throughout this preparation time, God was speaking and God was giving him direction. As Noah, literally, what does it mean to walk with God? In a most basic sense, here's what this means. When God gives you the next thing to do, you do it. Romans chapter number one tells us that the just shall live by faith. What does that mean? The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Now you could take that the faith of the saved person to the faith of a lost person, that's how people get saved. But here's what I think. When you have enough faith, the faith that God has already given you as a gift, and you place that faith in what God said, you're taking the next step in your walk with God. And then God speaks to you again and God gives you the next step You got to take your faith and say, you know what, Lord, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to obey. And then God gives you the next step and the next step. And listen, here's what we independent Baptists are good at doing. We want to sit back and listen to a sermon, and we don't want to pick out the things that we like. And we want God to send us to be a missionary. We want God to use us to do some great thing. But we don't want God to help us become the men and women we need to be in our home. or the church members we need to be in here. We want God to let us do something down the road, and we don't wanna walk with God. You know as well as I do, the Bible's for everybody, the whole Bible is for everybody, but God will give you the next step if you're willing. So he's walking with God, and the Lord gives him the next step, and the next step, and the next step. And then God tells him, okay, it's done. Everything's ready. What does he say? Come. And when he comes, he gives him the final instructions. And the Bible says, look at it with me. Look at chapter seven in verse number five. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. You know what we read about? God shut the door and then, In fact, I was doing some research in this passage, just in the Bible, trying to tie things together. And you can find the whole calendar of events of everything that happened. Listen, and here's, I'm gonna try to piece this together in the next few minutes, and this is the only point I wanna leave you with. God said, come, and he gives the final instructions. He says, yes, Lord, I've been following you all the way up until this day. I'm gonna follow you now. And he gets in that ark, just like God said. The Bible says he did everything that God told him to do. God shuts the door for a whole week, nothing happens. Seven days, no rain. You know what I wonder? The Bible doesn't tell us, but you know what I wonder? If people aren't laughing, if people aren't making fun, if people aren't looking up into that one window and saying, hey, where's the rain? Where's that flood you told us was gonna come? That's why the Bible holds him up in his example of people who suffer through tribulation. He didn't care. He said, you know what? We're going to stay. Why? Why? God hasn't spoken yet. And until God gives us something else to do, we're just going to stay with what God told us last. So one week passes. Drip. Drip. Drip. And then the rains come. and the floods come and the earth is broken up. And now all those people who used to mock and used to make fun and used to laugh, they're all saying, what is this? Oh no, what he said was true. Listen, God knows my heart. I don't want to preach the truth for a little while and then run out of faith in God and say, after five days of being made fun of on that ark, I'm getting off. And then showing them that I'm just as condemned as they are. I want to be somebody that when they know they're not right with God, they know they can come back to and say that, I know that's true. So for 40 days, it begins to flood and rain and the wind and the waves and the earth. And the Bible says that the whole earth was filled with water even above the tops of the highest mountain. And in fact, the Bible says it was above the highest mountain. And it tells us exactly how much. You know what that would be? Right about the draft of that ship or the ark. As much as that ark was down in the water, the Bible promised that there wasn't a single mountain that would scrape the bottom of that thing. It's interesting. So after the end of 40 days, the rain stopped. Look what the Bible says in chapter seven and verse number 23. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven. And they were destroyed from the earth. Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days. So after 40 days, the rain stops. But then a total of 150 days, the waters begin to go down. Chapter 8, verse 1. God remembered Noah. Listen, when you're in the middle of the storm, when you've done everything God's told you to do up until this point, and you don't know where God is now, just remember God hasn't forgotten about you. He's not forgotten. But I haven't heard from him. It's been 150, almost half a year, and I haven't heard from God. He hasn't forgotten about you. Now, now watch this. God remembered Noah, verse number one of chapter eight, and every living thing. God even remembered about the bunnies. and all the cattle that was with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from the heaven was restrained, and the waters returned from off the earth continually. And after the end of the 150 days, the waters were abated, and the ark rested in the seventh month on the 17th day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the 10th month, and the 10th month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen." Listen. God remembered Noah and God began working. We don't have any record that God spoke again. Listen, if God has brought you this far and God has your right where you know that he wants you, when things get troublesome and when for the first seven days people are persecuting and then for the next 150 days, you're in the middle of a storm and there's no help anywhere to be found and you're floating around. Listen, Noah is responsible not just for the animals that are on board, but he's responsible for his wife and for his children and for their wives. And they only had a limited amount of supply. They're watching those go down quickly. You don't think Noah began to doubt? God did not tell him exactly how many days he would be on that ark. God just said, get in. And he followed by faith. And when he was in the middle of that trial, in the middle of that storm, wasn't sure what was gonna happen, hadn't heard from God in a long time, he didn't doubt that he was still where God told him to be. Don't begin to question God when he hasn't spoken to you yet. Just keep going with what he told you last. So here's what happens. 150 days are over. Then the Bible says, the ark rested on the top of the mountains of Ararat. In fact, you can keep record of it on the calendar. It's pretty interesting when you look at it. But then they wait another month and 11 days. One month and 11 days and still nothing. Listen, they're sitting on the top of a mountain watching the waters go down and watching the mountains rise. They still haven't heard from God. So what happens? One month and 11 days later, the Bible tells us in chapter eight and verse number six, and it came to pass that the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. And he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark. So he does this on the 11th. Then he does this a week later on the 18th. And then he does this again one week later on the 25th. You know what he's doing? Lord, are we still where you want us to be? Listen, that's not wrong. It's not wrong to pray and ask God, Lord, please just give me some confirmation that we're still where you want us to be. And listen, this is amazing, I'm finished. At the end of their time on the ark, they had been on the ark past the one year anniversary when God shut the door. It was 366 days. that they were on that ark. Listen, not one word from God, not one word. Listen, chapter eight and verse 14. And in the second month on the seventh and 20th day of the month was the earth dried and God spake unto Noah saying, go forth. When you're in that season of silence, don't doubt God. If you have been following Him this far, He will continue to lead you in His time. Don't leave church because things are getting difficult. Listen, here's what people do. Here's what men do. Well, God's leading us to go to a different church. And I believe that's, we have a sister right here. Absolutely possible. God might lead you right back. There are some people that are just looking for an excuse to leave and then say it's God's will. Don't do that to God. Follow the Lord, follow his leading, walk with God by faith, and in the silence, don't question what God's doing. When God's ready, when you're ready, when the world is ready, God will speak to you again and he'll give you the next orders. Look at Job, I'm gonna show you one verse. Job chapter 23, I'm gonna finish right here. Thank you for listening intently, thank you for your time. Job chapter 23, here's a man who suffered a lot. Here's a man that God held up to the nation of Israel with Noah. says Job is one of the best men you could ever look up to. Job chapter 23, and look what the Bible says in verse number eight. Job said this, behold, I go forward, but he is not there. And backward, but I cannot perceive him. Listen, what Job just said is, I'm trying to serve God. I'm trying to go forward. I'm trying to lead my family. I'm trying to do what's right, but I can't see God working. The nation of Israel, they go down into Egypt during a famine. They stay there. God provides for them through Joseph. 430 years later, they find themselves in slavery and in bondage to Egypt. God takes Moses and brings him out and uses Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of bondage by the blood of a lamb, where? To the Red Sea. And then God stops. And now they're trapped. The Red Sea is in front of them, the Egyptians are behind them, and they're approaching quickly, and they haven't heard anything from God. And so they begin to say, Maybe we can swim across. No, we can't bring our families. Maybe we can build a raft. No, it won't carry all of our stuff. Maybe we can go upstream. Well, there is no upstream in Egypt, is there? Maybe we can go downstream. No, there's nowhere to go down there. Maybe we can, we should just go back to Egypt. That's what they told him. You know what they were doing? They were trying to make a move without God. You know what Moses had to do? Hey, wait, let's stand still, see the salvation of the Lord. God brought us this far, and he's not gonna leave us now. God has brought you this far, and he's not gonna leave you now. Listen, if they went back to Egypt, what would that life have been like? Worse than it was before. If they tried to swim across, do you think they would have made it? When God was ready, do you think Listen, when the wind came and when God rolled back the sea and made dry land through the middle of that sea, do you think anybody had any question which direction God wanted them to go? Not one doubt in their mind, this had to be God. They had to wait. When God was ready, then he said, let's go forward. Go forth, Baptist Church. You've been in that waiting period for a while. Now it's time to go forward. You've been praying for the man that God wants you to have, and I believe that miraculously, God has given you what you need, and now it's time to go forward. So look what Job says. Job says here, chapter 23, verse number nine, on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand and I cannot see him." Listen, God was working. Job just couldn't see it yet. When Noah and his family are on that ark and that food is running out quickly, I wonder, listen, I wonder if they ate their last meal on board the ark that they even had on the same day when God spoke. I wonder. Oh, but listen to this. I cannot see him, verse 10, but he knoweth. God knows. God knows. He knoweth the way that I take, and when he hath tried me, I shall what? Come forth. That's gold. When God was done with Noah, he said, all right, here's the next orders. Go forth. Go forth. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the truth that you revealed to us. God, I pray that you will help us, Lord, to walk by faith, not by sight. Lord, help us not to follow you when it's clear and easy, and then begin to doubt you when you're silent. Lord, help us to obey what you tell us to obey and take the steps you tell us to take. And God, if it's our season and our turn to wait, God, I pray that you'd find us faithful in our patience. Help us, Lord, not to doubt you when you're silent. Help us, God, just to have faith in the last words that you revealed to us the last time you spoke to us. and wait again till you speak to us again. Help us not to make decisions on our own and decisions out of desperation, decisions out of feeling or logic. Father, help us to wait upon the Lord. We know that you'll renew our strength and you'll give us the direction that we need in your time. God, please help us to be faithful. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, brother. Thank you. I appreciate it, Brother Blake. You know, this morning, this morning we had the Lord's Supper. And, you know, the Lord, the Lord was in that upper room with the twelve. And it says he break that bread and gave it to them. And he said, this cup is the blood of the New Testament. And he gave it to them. And then I think it's in Luke 22. He said, the hand of him that betrayeth me is on the table with me. Then he got up, walked out of that room, and he went to the Garden of Gethsemane. And three times he fell on his face, and he prayed, and he asked his father, is there some other way we can do this? Can this cup please pass from me? Can we save the souls of men some other way? And we've talked about it before. What was the response? There wasn't one. He got no response from his father in heaven. So you know what he did? He got up and he did what was written. And that's it. And he went to the cross and he died there. Now, I try to study the complexities of human behavior and the difficulties that people have following the Lord. And I try to get into the details as to why that might be. And I'm pretty convinced it always comes back to a very simple answer. We want to see something miraculous. We want God to write it in the sky or drop a rock out of the sky. We want something incredible to happen. We don't want to just do something as simple as the Lord said two or three times there, Noah just did what was commanded. And that's it. And so when it comes to living by faith, that's it. And when you get to a point, you're like, should I, am I going the right direction? Reread it again. And if you're doing what God said, you are moving in the right direction. And you just got to be faithful to do it and don't quit and don't give up and stick it out. And eventually the Lord will finally at some point in his timing, remind you you're doing right, reward you, help you, pick you up. If something will come along that will be a help to you. I really would like you to consider what Brother Blake preached this evening and if there's anything about your walk with God that you need to get right with God, we're going to sing together and give you an opportunity to come down to the altar and talk to the Lord and repent of something get something right, pray about something, whatever it is in your heart and mind that needs to be, that you need to talk to God about between you and the Lord while we sing this hymn, it's your opportunity to come and to do that. Number 383, how firm a foundation. 383. If you don't mind standing, please stand, get the blood flowing, snap out of it. Get that banana pudding coma over. Firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can he say than to you he hath said, to you who for refuge Jesus hath fled? Fear not, I am with thee. O be not dismayed. ♪ For I am thy God and will still give thee aid ♪ ♪ I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand ♪ ♪ Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand ♪ When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee. I only design thy draws to consume and thy goal to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose I will not, I will not desert. Amen. That is a wonderful song in light of what we just heard tonight. Please take some time to thank Brother Blake and Miss Haley. Say hello, introduce yourself. And we sure thank them for coming here and being here. There's one more thing we would like to take care of before we leave. So Miss Phyllis can write in her book one last time. We never officially, as you know, you are probably getting to know that I don't follow a lot of Baptist trends. I could care less about that garbage. If you want letters, write the letter Q. That's a letter. That works. And all those things. But I do, I know that the church enjoys somewhat of a formal opportunity to greet people who are joining the church. And while Miss Holly and Brother Nathan were, Miss Holly recently got saved and both of them were baptized, we didn't formally introduce them as members of the church. So we would like to take the time this evening and do that. And then we can make note of it and put it in the history books forever and know that you are here. So please greet them as well. Please make sure to get by and see Brother Blake and Miss Haley. Thank them for being with us and taking the time to preach to us and minister to us. They have a very busy schedule. He goes on a number of ships and preaches in other places, and people like him, so they invite him to weddings and stuff. And so, I mean, they got a lot going on and get around a lot. So it's a blessing that they came here. My wife and I have wanted to see these two for a while, so I am thankful he had the opportunity to come here and be with us. And he sure helped me today, blessed me today. As the pastor, sometimes it's good to be ministered to. And so it was a great opportunity today to hear some good preaching and be reminded of some good fundamental realities from the Word of God. So, Brother Nathan, would you pray for us? And then we will be dismissed. We hope you enjoyed this podcast. You can learn more about our ministry by visiting www.plenteusredemption.com. You can hear more Plenteous Redemption podcast audio at www.plenteusredemption.media. Please comment below if this podcast has been a help to you. Also, inform us of future topics that would interest you. Thank you again for listening to the Plenteous Redemption podcast.