Before we turn to the reading of God's word, I failed to mention a couple things. First, thanks to all those who ministered to me and my family as we've been sick with the flu. You may catch a lingering amount of sickness in my voice. I feel much better, but I do pray for the Lord's strength to preach with clarity, and I'd ask you to pray on my behalf as well. The other thing I failed to mention, I sent an email out late this week that partly because of the outbreak of flu in our midst, that touched even to our treasurer who has had a difficult time this week, Casey, we have postponed the annual meeting to the following week, and so we will not be having our annual meeting following this service. As the email noted, we will have it next week, when not only Casey will be able to present, but also hopefully Mike Kelly will be able to join us as well from Neon. I failed to make that announcement. Let's turn now to the reading of God's word, the pure and unfiltered proclamation of his word, standing to hear it read. Our New Testament lesson comes from the apostle Peter, his first epistle, chapter three. First Peter three. Here the apostle gives us what we could call baptismal typology as he reads the Noah's flood account in light of the sacrament of baptism. First Peter three, verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us, baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him. This is the word of the Lord. We'll turn now to our Old Testament lesson and sermon text, Genesis chapter seven. I'm going to do something I've never done before in this Genesis series, and that is to attempt to preach just one sermon on one chapter. We'll see if we're successful next week. But for now, Genesis chapter seven, verse one. And the Lord said to Noah, come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female, two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female, also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights. And I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood, of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth two by two. They went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. On the very same day, Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. They and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort, and they went into the ark to Noah, two by two of all flesh, in which is the breath of life. So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in." And the flood was on the earth 40 days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed 15 cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died. So he destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground, both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. May the Lord bless the reading and proclamation of his holy word to our souls. Amen. You may be seated. Does anyone remember the Left Behind series? Don't be ashamed. Be honest. The Left Behind series were a really big deal when I was growing up. And just to be clear, I do not recommend them. They have lots of theological and exegetical problems, but I'll mention just one problem with that series this morning. In those books, in those films that purported to describe the last days of earth, in those works, the believer's hope, the believer's consolation, The believer's expectation is to be raptured out of the great tribulation. That when the time of Jacob's trouble comes, when tribulation rises up, when there's difficulty on the horizon, the believer's hope is, before things get really bad, we will be excised, raptured, saved out of the judgment. And I say it's a problem. for one simple reason, and that is that ordinarily, that is not the picture the Bible gives us. Oh no, ordinarily, God does not save his people out of the judgment. What does he do? God saves his people through the judgment. Even when he uses language of being saved out of judgment, Ordinarily, the significance is that God is going to uphold his people and bring them through the judgment and out the other side. And that is the case as early as the flood in Noah's day. Here again, the words of Peter when he says, when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved. through water. They weren't saved out of the water, they were saved through the water. They were saved through judgment. It reminds me of a children's board book that I have somewhere at home which says, we can't go over it, we can't go under it, oh no, we've gotta go through it. Well, even so, God ordinarily works this way. He saves his people not out of, but through the judgments. And we're gonna consider this theme under three headings this morning. First, saved through water in the ark. Second, saved through judgment in the Bible. And then third, saved through water in baptism. First, Noah's family was saved through water in the ark. Look at Genesis 7. It's interesting, you get similar material three times in verses 1 to 6, 7 to 12, and 13 to 16. It's like he moves the clock forward and then rewinds to where he left off, moves it forward, and then rewinds again, and then takes it all the way through the flood. So three times he does this, and it puzzled me at first. Why does the Bible almost like get a half start and then return back? And then I was reading Meredith Klein, and he showed that this repetition mirrors the phenomenon of the mounting flood. As we narratively, visually begin our journey, come back, and then move again, come back, and then in verse 13 we take off. It's like a image of a mounting flood flood water. It's going to swallow up the earth. Once again, in this passage we saw last week, there is an emphasis on God giving commands. He does that in verses 1 to 4. And then of Noah's covenant response, he does that in verse 5. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. It sounds like 622, thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did. Congregation in chapter seven, we reach the climax of Noah's long obedience in the same direction. We're gonna explore this passage using a series of questions. First, who was included on the ark? Who made it aboard? Look at verse one. And the Lord said to Noah, Come into the ark, you and all your households, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Notice, not just Noah, but his entire household climb aboard the ark. We're gonna see later on that this has implications for infant baptism. That God makes covenant not only with believers, but with their children, with their seed. You say, well, in this case, it was only adult children, and that is true, but there is still an emphasis in this passage on household solidarity. And there's a focus on Noah's faith as the head of the household. And you say, well, later, Ham rebelled. and Canaan was cursed. That's true because not all those who are in the covenant are of the covenant. Not all those in the sphere of the visible church belong to the invisible church. Our hope is there would be a remarkable alignment of those things, but sadly that is not always the case in this age. Well, here we get a picture. of the gathering of God's elect for an end time harvest. We have the gathering of God's visible people into the ark. Now why was Noah, alone in his generation, permitted to enter the ark? Look again at verse one, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. And here we have to remember the very first thing that was said of Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Well, here he's righteous before the Lord. That by God's grace, Noah was accounted righteous and truly was a righteous man. God declared him righteous and then his Holy Spirit worked the fruits of righteousness in him. Indeed, Noah, Peter tells us, was a preacher of righteousness. He was a herald of righteousness. Instead of a pulpit, he had an ark. as he showed and he told a righteous message. Again, Ezekiel 14, we looked at that passage before, but Noah, Daniel, and Job are marked out as paragons of righteousness. In this way, Noah points forward to a truly righteous son of God, even Jesus Christ. Here Noah stands in the place of his family. There's a sense of representation, but also of covenant succession, that Noah is passing the torch to those in his home. There's a righteous remnant here, not 7,000 who haven't bowed the knee to Baal in Elijah's day, but in this case, Only eight souls, but eight souls that were precious in God's sights. Here Noah demonstrates his faith by a long obedience in the same direction. But of course, it's not just Noah and his family. Who else is aboard the ark? Animals. That's right, lots of animals. And just as a side note, this should tell us something about God's heart for all of his creation, the higher and the lower. God cares about the animal kingdom. I just watched a documentary on Joel Salatin, the organic farmer, and in that, as a Christian farmer, he, I think, helps us have a good corrective on some of these things. That stewardship of the environment is important. Conservation of the environment as a good gift from God is important. You should treat animals, even those you're preparing for slaughter, with the dignity proper to the lower creation. God cares about the animals. He said to Jonah, I have much cattle in the city as a reason for his compassion on that city. And even here, God brings the animals aboard the ark. How many different kinds of animals? Well, we saw last time two of every kind, two by two. male and female, again, that primal, binary pair that whatever Supreme Court justices cannot define, God has made it evidently clear that he has divided the human race and even the animal kingdom into male and female. We get a taxonomy of various kinds of animals in verse 14 where it says, they and every beast after its kind, those are wild animals, all cattle after their kind, those are domesticated animals, every creeping thing that creeps, possibly insects and or reptiles, and then every bird of every sorts. Two by two. But then interestingly, we get a little additional information in chapter seven in verse two. You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female, two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female. Now last time, I said seven of every clean animal was also brought aboard the ark. Now technically, it could be either seven clean animals or seven pairs of clean animals, which would actually be 14. Literally, the Hebrew reads seven, seven, a male and his female. And so there's a question among expositors on precisely what is being talked about, but regardless, there's a seven-fold pattern here, six plus one. I lean toward the view just in the flow of the text and the emphasis on male and female. This is actually possibly 14 of every clean animal kind, seven pairs of animals, but regardless, Why more of the clean animals? Well, only clean animals in the Old Testament were fit for sacrifice. And even before the Mosaic law was put in place, at least during this period of human history, God already distinguished between clean and unclean animals. Remember, Cain and Abel at the doorway of the garden sanctuary appeared to continue to be offering God's sacrifices there at that ancient site of offerings. On the other side of the flood, Noah is going to take of this surplus to offer sacrifices to God. Lots of preparation. When did the flood actually come? Verse 11 tells us, in the 600th year of Noah's life, In the second month, the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. I won't spend too much time on this, but some creation scientists, especially in bygone years, used to argue that there was a kind of canopy. It's called the canopy theory, a water vapor canopy that produced a kind of greenhouse effect prior to the flood. And what we see here is the destruction of that water vapor canopy. And they'll point out, and it's true, that there is evidence of tropical conditions in earlier days. at both of the poles, north and south. Now this theory has been critiqued even by creationists as being scientifically unsound. And others have also pointed out that a heavenly sea of crystal remains. John saw that sea when he entered into the third heaven. I'm not sure, it's above my pay grade to speak to the scientific merits of a water vapor canopy before the flood, but regardless, the theology is quite plain. What Moses is describing in this chapter is a reversal of creation. This is decreation. In creation, God put boundaries in place. In the flood, he removes those boundaries. On day two of creation week, he put a firmament in the sky. Waters above, waters below. Well here, he's gonna reverse all of that. As waters come pouring down from above, as the windows of heaven are opened, and as they come surging up from the deep, as the fountains of the deep are opened. Just notice in passing, the household imagery, that the world is a kind of cosmic temple. Heaven, earth, and sea. It has windows, it has fountains, and God is letting it all loose. In this great destruction, windows above, fountains below. What about Noah and his family? What happens to them? Is there a barrier between them and the floodwaters? After all, we learned that the ark, as a 3D floating model of the cosmos, also has a door and it also has a window. Well, apparently Noah closed the window. We know he opened it himself in chapter eight. But interestingly, God himself shut the door. Look at verse 16. So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. There's lots of parallels with other flood stories in the ancient Near East, but this is one place where the Bible's account is starkly different from the pagan flood stories. Bruce Waltke says, in the pagan stories, the hero shuts the hatch himself. The great human hero shuts the door as the final capstone before the flood comes. But notice here, that's not what happens. Noah doesn't shut the door. God shuts the door. This speaks to us of the sovereignty of God's grace, that God slew the Egyptians and God's people had only but to wait upon him and to be still. God filled the temple. God crushed Christ on the cross. Well, even so, Jehovah shut him in. And just imagine the sound of the door closing, the definitive moment when anyone who's outside is outside and anyone who's inside is inside. No one can come in, no one can come out. The door is shut. It's like Isaiah 22. He shall shut and no one shall open. Your fate is sealed at this point. Those who heard Noah's message for 120 years, the time of salvation was over. The opportunity to repent was closed off because the door was shut by God himself. And then the waters start to come. In fact, the waters had already begun to pour. And now the waters are rising. higher and higher, covering the land, animals perhaps scurrying to high places, trying to find dry ground, only to realize this is now compromised by water, I gotta get higher, I gotta get further up, I've gotta find somewhere where I'm safe, and yet it's rising. with more rapidity. How high is the water getting? Well, look at verse 17. Now, the flood was on the earth 40 days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters, and the waters prevailed. The waters triumphed exceedingly on the earth and all the high hills. All the mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed 15 cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. Congregation, for those of you who try to tell you this was just a localized flood, it doesn't do justice to the language of the passage. It's clearly a world-wide deluge. If you look at the mountains in that day, the water is 22.5 feet above them, and you have the ark above the mountains moving about. I'm not sure if Moses intended it or not, but it seems to be the similar visual image to the glory spirit hovering over the face of the waters in creation. Well, now you have an ark hovering above the mountains, lifted high above the earth. What was the aftermath of this worldwide flood? Verse 21 tells us, and all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died. As we destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground, with man and cattle, creeping things and bird of the air, they were destroyed from the earth. And in case we had any doubts about the universality of this flood, only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. Catastrophic. catastrophic worldwide flood, all that have the spirit of life in the flesh. It goes back to really chapter six, verse three, and the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, but his days shall be 120 years. Well, now the clock has struck midnight. The 120 years are up. and all of life on the land is wiped out. Now you might wonder, why did the animals die? Animals didn't do anything wrong, did they? Well God does punish the ox that gores the man, and so God does in some measure hold animals responsible for what they do. But just thinking about all of the species of animals were wiped out, obviously preserved in the form of the binary pairs aboard the ark. Do they really deserve to die? And why, what about the fish? What about the fish? Why were they allowed to live? And only the land animals get targeted. Well, there's actually a theological reason for this congregation. In Genesis 3, what does the Bible say? It says that the ground was cursed for Adam's sake. And later, when Cain slays his brother Abel, the blood of Abel cries out from the ground. The ground has been defiled. The ground has been cursed. And it's because of man. Man is a representative king. who is called to exercise dominion over the earth. The lower serves the higher, and that means that when someone in a higher position fails, those underneath get the trickle-down effect. When they succeed, those beneath them are blessed, and when they fail, those beneath them are cursed. This is part of the covenantal reality of how God has made the world, that when fathers sin, their children suffer. When husbands sin, Wives suffer when politicians sin. Their citizens suffer when leaders in the church fail and sin. Congregants suffer. This is a sobering reality and that is why the land animals die because the ground was cursed for Adam's sake. And some of you are tracking with everything I've said, but you have a lingering question, and that is, did this really happen the way the Bible describes it? Now, some of you might say, well, it doesn't really matter. As long as our theology is intact, it doesn't really matter if this was historical fact. And if someone tries to sell you that bill of goods, congregation, realize that if it didn't really happen, it doesn't really matter. Paul tells us, however articulate your theology of the resurrection, if you don't believe Jesus really rose again in time and space and history, then you're still in your sins and your faith is futile. It is vain. No, we must not, we dare not pit theology against history. As Machen says, it's doctrine and history. It really happened, and it really matters. Besides the Bible's own self-witness, we actually do have scientific confirmation. Noah's flood makes sense of the fossil record. Sedimentary rock layers laid down by massive amounts of water. The contours of the Grand Canyon, coal from buried plants, oil from buried animals. If we put all the pieces together, Noah's flood has remarkable explanatory power. There's also cultural confirmation. Some version of this story survives in countless cultures around the world. We find Sumerian, Akkadian, Greek, and even Chinese flood accounts. Even from people who are separated by language, by culture, and even by geographic formations, we find the same story pop up around the world. J.R.R. Tolkien called this a dim memory. of some ancient history. Somehow all humanity remembers the flood, and you know why? Because it really happened. Now if you read pagan accounts, they get garbled. That's what happens when you play the telephone game. Plus, you have demonic deception and distortion among the nations. It's even worse if you try to watch a movie in pop culture about Noah's flood. But here in Genesis 7, we find the unfiltered, uncorrupted, bona fide, perfect version of what really happened. This is not pagan mythology, this is covenant history. The flood really happened, and the flood really matters. It's part of who we are as a human race. It's where we come from. This is our story. Now before we move on, I do want to deal with a question that puzzled me at first, and that is why are there so many numbers listed in this passage? You have seven days or one week, 40 days and 40 nights, and then you have 150 days or five months. Well, anytime you find numbers, you should get excited. It's like when you find genealogies. It's actually fraught with significance. Well, seven days to board the ark. Where did we first find seven in the Bible? Seven is the number of creation week. Seven is the number of perfection or fullness. It's also often in the Bible linked to judgments. John was in the spirit on the Lord's day. The Lord comes in the spirit of the day to bring judgment, and judgment begins at the house of God. How many days did Joshua and his army encircle Jericho? Seven days. And they went around the city seven times on that seventh day before the walls came crumbling down. And this imagery of seven days to judgment comes to a climax in the book of Revelation where we find seven churches. seven seals, seven signs, seven trumpets, seven bowls, seven spirits, seven lampstands, seven stars, seven thunders, seven horns, seven eyes. When you see seven, realize this is not just perfection and fullness, this is a precursor to judgment. Indeed, 40 days and 40 nights, That's often in the Bible a period of judgment. And here, the waters well up from the deep and they pour out from the sky for 40 days and 40 nights. When Jonah, the reluctant prophet, gets out of the belly of the fish and he washes up beside Nineveh, what's his message? 40 days, and then judgment is coming. Israel. When they came into the promised lands, the 12 spies explored the land for 40 days. And then they didn't believe God, and so God says, I'm going to give you one year for every day that you spied out the land. I'm gonna give you 40 years, one generation in the wilderness. Later, Jesus is gonna be tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. Moses and Elijah spent 40 days atop Mount Sinai. And then Jesus, after he rose again from the dead, spent 40 days teaching his disciples before his ascension into heaven. Now what about 150 days or five months that the waters prevailed? We often focus on the 40 days and 40 nights, but those waters prevailed, they triumphed over the earth for about five months. This is the same length of time that Elizabeth withdrew as she was carrying a baby before her birth. She hid herself away for five months and then she brought forth a child. Well, here, Noah and his family are hid away in the ark, a kind of womb, for five months, and then they depart into a new world. Also, this was a length of time between the Feast of Pentecost and the Day of Atonement. The Day of Pentecost commemorated the giving of the law, and then the Day of Atonement was a day of judgment. Well, they're in the ark the same amount of time. And likewise, the fifth trumpet in Revelation 9 released a smoky locust army from the bottomless pit who were given authority to torment unbelievers for five months or 150 days. Well, here, God unleashes the water from the abyss to torment the earth for five months or 150 days. This is significant, whether 7, 40, or 150. God is telling a story through these numbers, and it gets even more interesting. We don't have time to talk about it this morning, but in chapter eight, we're gonna see that this sequence of numbers is part of an elaborate literary structure, where God works in and out. Seven, seven, 40, 150. And then, in chapter eight, he goes 150, 40, seven, seven. And smack dab in the middle is chapter eight, verse one, which says, then God remembered Noah. And that's the key to the whole story. And it's bracketed by parallel numbers on every side. God is an artisan. His Holy Spirit never wastes his breath. Now, why did God do it this way? Why did God do it this way in face of the violence and the corruption and the defilement of humanity? Why did God choose this man and his family aboard this ark surrounded by animals? Well, he did this in part to show us a picture of what salvation is like in every generation, that God saved them through water. Didn't rapture them out. He didn't teleport them into the third heaven, though he could have done that. He did take Enoch and Elijah early, but his ordinary manner of operating is to save his people through judgment, and the salvation of Noah and his household through water establishes a pattern. We're going to find a time and time again in the Bible, and that brings us to our second point. Having looked at the text, Noah saved through water. Second, God's people are saved through judgment in the Bible. The Bible, in some ways, you could say, is a series of tests, of judgment ordeals, where God's people come under trial. Faith on trial, trial by water, trial by fire, trial by knife. trial by sword. And each time when a trial comes, it's going to separate believers from unbelievers. And the reason it does that is because the covenant is a two-edged sword of promise to those who believe and of threatening to those who do not believe. There are dual sanctions here. That the same waters, the same fire, the same knife is either going to destroy you or it's going to purify you. Either you will be destroyed by the flood or God will save you through it. Judgment begins at the house of God. We can't go over it, we can't go under it. Oh no, we've gotta go through it. Well congregation, this all begins with Noah. Noah saved through water. Noah's family were saved through the same water that drowned the wicked. Noah's family, we could say, were sprinkled with the same water from above that immersed the wicked from below, saved through water, saved through judgment. Lot, righteous Lot, whatever his failings, the Bible calls him righteous, was saved through fire. And if he turned around, like his wife, he would have been turned to a pillar of salt. Isaac, the promised seed, the seed of Abraham, the one we've been waiting for, so that our descendants will be like the stars of heaven, and like the sand on the seashore, God says, to test Abraham, I want you to give me your son, your only son, whom you love. And so Isaac came under the trial of fire and of knife, and God said, stop. Take instead the ram, saved through knife and fire. Moses. The only other place in the Bible we get the word ark. Moses, as a little baby under the threat of Pharaoh, passes through the waters of the Nile aboard an ark of bullrushes. God saved him through water. Moses' son, Later, God goes possibly to kill Moses, or to kill the son, or to kill them both, but the death angel is there, and Zipporah circumcises their son, and says, you become a bridegroom of blood to me. Gershom and Moses passed through and were saved through the trial by knife and blood. Israel, interestingly enough, when God goes to his people in bondage, in slavery, he could have simply removed them from Egypt and then hammered the Egyptians with the plagues. He didn't do that. God saved his people through the plagues, not removed. Rather, God eventually made a distinction, but he saved them through judgments. That comes to a climax on Passover night. where the death angel is gonna come, and it won't matter who you are. It doesn't matter who your parents are. It doesn't matter if you have Abraham's blood flowing through your veins. God demands the firstborn, and if you don't have blood, by faith, put on the doorpost of your home, the death angel is going to kill every single firstborn there, and the Israelites, by faith, put the blood on the doorpost, and they are saved through the Passover, through the judgment. Later they come to the Red Sea and they pass through the waters on dry ground. They pass through the same water on dry ground that will later destroy and drown the Egyptians. Possibly, if we put together the imagery of Psalm 77, they were sprinkled with the same water from above that later immersed the Egyptians from below. Joshua saved through the Jordan. Elijah saved through the Jordan. Naaman saved through the Jordan. Jonah saved through the sea in the ark of a fish. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. God doesn't save them out of the fiery furnace. He saves them through the fiery furnace. He sends His Son, one like unto the Son of Man, to be with them, the fourth man in the fire. Daniel, saved, not out of the lion's den. No, he spends all night in the lion's den. He is saved through the lion's den. And time would fail me to tell of all the stories in which God took his people up to the point of absolute destruction. when he took them, not out of the judgment, but through the judgment. And all of this comes, as it invariably does, to a climax in the person and work of Jesus Christ, with the commencement of his ministry, was baptized with water. And later he says, I'm going to be baptized with a death that you are not prepared for. You can't drink the cup that I drink. What happened with Jesus? He was obedient unto death. He was righteous in God's eyes like Noah could never be. He was absolutely perfect, the God-man, the eternal Son of God, who took on flesh, obedient unto death. even the death of the cross. And what happened to Jesus on the cross? God did not take him from that tree. He did not call legions of angels to remove him from the trial that his soul faced. But rather, what did Jesus do? Jesus passed through death and out the other side. not taken out of death, but passed through death. And out the other side, the third day, he rose again from the dead. After 40 days, he ascended into heaven. And then at Pentecost, he poured out his Holy Spirit, a Holy Spirit of fire upon his people. As a token, that you will either be purified with fire or you will be destroyed with fire. Believers were delivered to the great tribulation of Nero's persecutions prior to A.D. 70, and believers will be saved, not out of. but through the final judgment. You realize God's people are not spared the judgments. We pass through the judgment in union with Jesus Christ. In fact, when you appear before the judgment seat of Christ, you will appear as those who are already justified. already declared righteous and publicly vindicated in your resurrection, and then when you appear before the judgment seat of God, openly acknowledged and acquitted, rewarded for spirit-wrought good works in your life, God will deliver you through the judgment. We've seen that Noah was saved through water and that God's people are saved through judgment. How does this story and this pattern have practical application today? Well, third and final point. We are saved, in a manner of speaking, through water in baptism. Last time, we saw that among other things, Noah represents Christ and the ark represents Christ and his church. What does the water represent? Well, the waters of the flood are also a picture of the waters of baptism, waters of death and of life, of judgment and salvation. Congregation, water baptism is a sign and a seal of being saved through judgment, saved through water. If you don't believe me, Again, what does Peter say? Eight souls were saved through water. There is also an anti-type which now saves us. Baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here, he's not saying that all those who have water applied to them in baptism are automatically or mechanically born again. What he is saying is that baptism is a sign and a seal of the promise of salvation. That in baptism, God delivers us from the elementary principles of this world and he formally admits us into the ark of the visible church. And once we're there, Just like Noah's sons, we must embrace the promise signed and sealed to us in baptism. Three applications as we close. First, if Noah's flood is a signpost to baptism and of the greater work of salvation that Christ has accomplished, first application is repent. and be baptized. Repent and be baptized. That was Peter's message at Pentecost. He said repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is a day of judgment coming. And in that day of judgment, the fires of God's judgment will either destroy you or they will purify you. And the key question is this, are you trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation? Have you turned from your sins and are you looking to Jesus? Are you reckoned righteous in Christ? There is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved. There is no other place, no other sanctuary, no other ark of salvation than Jesus. So come to Christ. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near, before the door is shut. before the door is shut forever. When you die or Christ returns, if you're not looking to him, it will be too late. The door will be shut. And so in love, I call each person here to repent, believe in Christ. If you have not yet already, Be baptized and be formally admitted to Christ's church. Second application, and that is present your children for baptism. Peter goes on to say, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Well, the first example of household baptism in the Bible is Noah and his family. If the waters of the flood are an antitype to Christian baptism, then as far as that baptismal typology goes, Noah and his household got baptized. It fits the book of Acts. Lydia and her household were baptized. The Philippian jailer and his household were baptized. In this passage, we get the first mention of the doctrine of household or covenant baptism. So come into the ark. You and all your households. This is the beauty of family salvation. Just as God shut the door, baptism is something that God does. Salvation is something that God does. Pray for your baptized children to be born again. to appropriate for themselves the blessings of the covenants, that not just the sign of water, but the reality of the Holy Spirit would be evident in their lives. Third and final application, improve your baptism. That's an old way of speaking, Westminster Divines. Westminster theologians use language of improving your baptism really to mean apply your baptism, make use of your baptism. And here we get an emphasis on human responsibility. Yes, God shuts the door, God baptizes us into his church, but then by his grace he wants us to respond in faith, in repentance, love, and new obedience. Those of you who are baptized but are not yet coming to the table, consider the day when you would profess faith in Christ publicly and come to the Lord's Supper. Those of you who have been baptized, are you walking with God? Are you confessing sins? Heads of households, are you leading your family in the ways of righteousness? Are you encouraging those under your roof, as Noah did to his sons, to own Christ for themselves? There's a warning here, but there's also great encouragement. Some of you, and I know what this is like, when trials come, And when the water starts to pour down from the heavens and the fountains of the deep start to break up, you think that something has gone terribly wrong. And the apostles tell us, don't count it a strange thing when the fire comes. Don't count it a strange thing when troubles afflict you. They're going to come in this life. We are pilgrims trudging to Zion, and there's a lot of trials along the way. And Satan will try to tempt you. He's wicked. God, as a heavenly Father, will test you. He will bring your faith under the trial of fire, and of water, and of knife, so to speak. But here's what's encouraging. Here's what's encouraging. We can't go over the trials God sends us. We can't go under them. No, we have to go through them, but here's the encouraging thing. Whatever trial or temptation you face this morning, all will be well if you are trusting in Christ. If you enter the judgment, if you enter the trial, covered in his blood and his righteousness. You can go through the fiery furnace, you can go through the lion's den, but if there is a fourth man with you, if the son of God is with you, God gives more grace. So that Isaiah could say, now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, fear not, For I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel. your Savior. If you're trusting in Christ, you will be saved through water, through fire, through judgment. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Amen. Let us pray.