one for a long time. All right. Well, good morning. We are going to be back in Genesis chapter 6 this morning and Genesis chapter 7 and Genesis chapter 8. And rather than having you stand for those, what, 17 slides, whatever it is, I'm going to start in Peter this morning. But my sermon title this morning is, Does Biblical History Matter? There are a lot of people who believe that the most important thing about Christianity is its utility, its effects, because there are many good effects of Christianity. When you have a social order where marriage is treasured, where husbands love their wives like Christ loved the church, where people keep their word, they keep their covenants, they do what they say they're going to do. When you have a society where you don't need locks on your doors because the people are so honest, When you have a society where you don't have to worry about walking down the street for fear of somebody killing you. When you have a society where civil magistrates see themselves as civil servants because Jesus said the greatest among you shall be your servant. When you have a society of charity that cares for the widow and the orphan and the poor And they take care of each other. These are all wonderful benefits and applications of the Word of God. There are many. And Christianity has created the most prosperous societies on earth, the most enduring. When self-government is practiced, there's less need for external control. When people do what they're supposed to do because they're constrained by the love of God and the love of man. And the love for each other, even the love of enemies. These have wonderful social benefits. Benefits that you don't see in a Hindu social order, or an atheistic social order, or a Muslim social order. The fruits of Christianity are very good, and there's some good reason to appeal to that. Because Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruits. And also we see as our society has become increasingly secular and humanistic and anti-God, the fruit of Christianity has begun to rot. Society rejected the root of Christianity, which is Christ and the gospel and the fruit of Christianity. The pleasantries of a good social order have crumbled before us. And the state is evermore encroaching upon liberties. And upon our money, our tax dollars, our freedoms, a lot of good fruits to a Christian social order. And so people will make an appeal to what's basically utilitarianism. Religion is good because it's useful. It's useful. It does good things. Makes people feel good about the future. The Bible presents itself as a historical faith based upon historical events. We have a historical faith. And my point of the sermon this morning that I want to bring home to you is that redemptive history is essential to the message of the gospel. If they didn't happen, our faith is an empty lie. If we cannot trust the Bible when it speaks of Noah's flood, and the destruction of the world that then was. Can we trust the Bible when it speaks of a man dying for our sins, being buried for three days, and rising again? Furthermore, if the flood of Genesis didn't happen, if Adam and Eve didn't happen, let's start there. If there was no literal Adam and Eve, where did sin come from? Where did death come from? And if Jesus is the last Adam who came to prevail where Adam failed, if that first one isn't historical, then does Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection matter? Can we trust it on these things? If there was no flood and Jesus clearly taught that there was a Noah, a literal Noah, a literal Jonah, a literal Moses who spoke on a literal mountain, Mount Sinai, and met with God and brought down the Ten Commandments, not as a good idea of philosophical reflection, but as the very Word of God. If that didn't happen, then Jesus himself was mistaken and could certainly not be God. Liberalism, Jay Gresham Matrim put forth, is another religion altogether. And by liberalism, I'm not talking about your politics, but that very well could be an effect of what you believe about eternal things. I mean, by liberalism, this idea that the Bible is a bunch of good myth stories. It's not history. It's a myth story. And it's just it's good for society. It's good for the children. But now that we're grown up, now that we've graduated from eighth grade, we don't believe that history anymore. But if you do that, your Christianity isn't based upon the gospel because it's essential to the message of the gospel. that Jesus was God in flesh. God himself took on true humanity without ceasing to be God. And God himself lived for 33 years without sin, being tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. And God in flesh went to the cross, not as a murder victim, not merely as a martyr, but as a sacrificial lamb on whom the wrath of God would be poured out. All the wrath that He had for our sins was poured out on the Son of God in history on a particular day, on Passover. I believe in 30 AD. It happened on a historical date. We know the date of the year. And he was buried for three days. His body was there in the tomb. But on the third day, he rose again and he was seen by many witnesses. Witnesses that were willing to die for historical truths. And as we shall see later on, Paul makes the point, if that didn't happen, we're liars and you are still in your sins. Our eternal destiny, the Bible teaches, rests upon historical events. It is not as Confucianism or the Vedas of India or as the ramblings of Karl Marx, a mere philosophy. It is the very word of God that our future, our eternal future, and the future of our children and children's children depend upon. It is essential to our faith. And any time that we surrender one book of the Bible, we're in danger of losing it all. It is the very word of God. If you'd stand with me now for the reading of God's word, we're going to start in 2 Peter. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved, and both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of the water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Oh, God, we thank you that you have condescended to reveal yourself to us creatures. You are infinite, but we are finite. As high as the heavens are above the earth, your thoughts and your ways are above our thoughts and ways. God, forgive us if we have in us a heart of scoffing towards the things of God, who are we to question you? You are the creator. We are the creature. We humble ourselves before your infinitely wise word. And we thank you, Lord, that you have revealed yourself to us. You have revealed to us our true condition as sinners, but you have also revealed yourself to us in the person of your son and your redemptive work on our behalf. And we thank you, God. that you loved us, your enemies, and you gave yourself for us, and you have promised that you will save everyone who calls upon your name in faith, believing in your death, burial, and resurrection. God, I pray that you would grant a heart of faith to the people in this room this morning. I pray that they would be saved. I pray for our children. I pray that our children would come to the knowledge of you, that it would not be merely a utilitarian, empty religion, But with hearts purified by faith, they would cry out to you for salvation, knowing the God in whom they have believed. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. So, in Peter this morning, I opened up with this. And what sticks out to me of such so clearly is it speaks of scoffers that deliberately overlook this fact. that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. They deliberately overlooked the fact that God created the heavens and the earth by the word of God and that God destroyed the world that then was with a deluge of water. They deliberately overlook it. This was not written in 1856 or whenever it was that Darwin wrote his notorious work. This was written in Peter's day. And he said people deliberately overlook this. They deliberately overlook it. Because the Bible, the account of the flood is proclaimed in nations all over the world. And they have certain things that are in common over and over again. There's a video. You can look it up for yourself. I got a few facts off of it. You can look up by Answers in Genesis called Hundreds of Worldwide Flood Legends Confirm the Bible. And I've read books on this before that speak of these different cultures all over the world, not just in the Middle East, not just in, you know, Arabia and a few little places around the Middle East, but in China. And South America, among Native Americans, among, I think the Eskimos, like hundreds of cultures worldwide, they remember the flood and their stories. Now they've been mythologized, and they don't have the degree of accuracy that the Bible does, they don't have the specific historical details that the Bible does, but they remember certain things. They remember there's certain things in common over and over again. an angry God or gods, the gods become angry with humanity because of sin. That agrees with the Bible. They have an account of the destruction of the entire earth, the whole world, not just a local flood, but the entire world. In these accounts, there will be one righteous person who is saved with their family. They all have in common that they're saved by a vessel that they build. It looks different in different ones. Sometimes it looks like a big floating biscuit. Sometimes it's a big floating cube. But they all make an account of this person making, most of them make an account of these people making a vessel that they're saved in. They take the animals aboard in all of these flood legends. And in all of these flood legends, there's a small numbers of survivors. Sometimes the account even has the account of the rainbow being mentioned in the flood legend. And this is worldwide, so it's all over. So there's a historical remembrance in cultures all over the world. But on top of that, you've got the fossil record. Everywhere you go, highest mountains on earth, you find fossils. The earth, as Ken Ham has said many times, I'll point you to Answers in Genesis. Genesis history is a great documentary that you can watch on, I think, maybe Prime for free. I don't know if it's still there. Maybe YouTube. Search it out yourself. But you've got billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth, all over the world. There's evidence that living creatures, dinosaurs, beavers, anteaters, All kinds of mammals and lizards were buried in a worldwide flood. It's all over. And sometimes you have something like the love bone bed where 90 something percent of the soil is fossilized bone. It's as if you had this huge conglomeration of animals coming together and being all swept together in some kind of vortex or something and buried and turned into stone so that you get past one fossil and here's another one fossilized. And side by side, you'll have a dinosaur and a whale and a camel. How did this come to pass? Well, we know because there was a worldwide flood of which scoffers are willfully ignorant. They come up with ludicrous theories. Perhaps you remember in school being taught the geologic column and you learned about index fossils. And if you wanna know how old the index fossil is, they'll say, well, where did you find it? And they'll date the layer by the index fossil. And they say, well, I wanna know how old this layer is. Well, what fossils are found in it? And they'll date the layer by the fossils. That's circular reasoning. And nowhere in the world can you find one example of the geologic column as they put it in the textbooks. Nowhere, nowhere. And how do you think these layers formed? Do you think interplanetary dust just gradually laid layer upon layer upon layer? No, it's ridiculous. Furthermore, you can go to the Grand Canyon and you can see where there's these huge layers and there'll be a petrified tree going up through a bunch of them all at once. Or you'll find these rock layers, like hundreds of feet, and they'll be laid down in an arch of a layer, which means that all the layers were laid down at once, and while it was still soft, it bent, because if it had already hardened, they would all be broken, but that's not what you find. This testifies to the truth of the global flood. It's remembered in history, it's remembered in geology, and furthermore it's written about in God's Word. But of this they are deliberately ignorant. They choose rather articles of faith, like uniformitarianism, that the present is the key to the past. which ignores the fact that the Bible teaches that the present isn't the key to the past because the past has in it cataclysmic events, world changing events. It hasn't just been the same wind and erosion patterns for billions of years. God has interacted with history and he brought a global flood upon the earth, but of this they are willfully ignorant. Because that kind of God is scary. That kind of God hates sin. That kind of God is holy. That kind of God is not okay with violence and sexual immorality and lying and deception and murder and bloodshed. That kind of God is appointed a day when he will judge every man, every woman, and every child by one man, Christ Jesus. And we will stand before him. And he's not an all-loving God. He is a holy God. At times, burning with wrath. That's the God of the Bible. A God who hates sin. But they deliberately overlook this fact because such a God is not convenient to doing what we want to do. But if we cannot believe what the Bible says about Genesis, If we cannot believe it, then can we believe Jesus who testified to the truthfulness of these things is actually God in flesh who came to bear our sins? No, it is essential that we have a historical faith. We trust scripture. Now, I'm not a scientist. And you could argue with me and say, well, how do you explain this? How do you explain this? I'm not the answer man. I don't have all those answers. I may have a few answers and I may not. because I've had an interest in this for a very long time. When I was in high school, I was kind of going through a bit of a faith crisis because who doesn't like science? Science is wonderful. Science gives us microwave ovens and the internal combustion engine and satellites and now cell phones and all kinds of technologies that we enjoy. Who can't like science? And I've got my science teacher up there telling me, well, you know, it's okay to believe in God, because you still need a God to get it started, was what I think my eighth grade teacher taught me. It's like, you can still believe in God. It's okay to believe in God. You know, kind of like if you want to be one of those silly people, you can hold on to your myth story if you want to. God just used evolution. That's called theistic evolution, this idea that God guided evolution. that God and she told me how marvelous it was that life started in the seas. We know that life started in the seas and in a salty environment and in our bloodstream there's salt and therefore life started in the seas and she's laying out all this stuff to me and I'm like well I don't want to be anti-science. And they speak with such authority that, you know, so many billions of years ago, this happened and this evolved and this happened. And it's just undermining my faith in the word of God. And I had a history teacher. No, I didn't have it. It wasn't a history teacher. I had a gym teacher. And gave me a book by Dr. Duane T. Gish. And it's called Evolution, The Fossil Record Says No. It was a very intimidating book at that time. I didn't read books that big. I kind of glanced through it. I'm like, wow, I can't believe people still believe that God created the earth in six days. I want to believe that's true because, you know, I grew up hearing testimonies of miraculous interventions in people's lives. And I thought, you know, I don't know how I thought I came up with my own not ever having heard theistic evolution or the day age theory or some of these things that people believe in. I kind of came to those same humanistic conclusions. And now here I am being challenged by a book that says the fossil record says no. If life evolved over the billions of years, then we should see all kinds of transitional species in the fossil record. And it just it isn't there. It's not there. There's no evidence for it. Every skeleton we have is either totally human or is totally something else. There's no evidence that we evolved from fishes. There's just not. Where's the millions of transitional species? between the frog and the prince. They're not there. They don't exist. It's a lie. It's a lie that is put forth to excuse our autonomy, our individualism, our rebellion against God is all it is. It's a big lie. I didn't read that book by Dr. Duane T. Gish, but I got myself another book in the library. It was thinner. And I read through it in an afternoon. I think I was a sophomore in high school. I read through it in an afternoon. And in that book, it gave me so much logic and so much rationality and reason and so many facts. And I was liberated. The truth set me free. What I was being taught in school was it was it was nonsense. Those of you who are some of you are in I.T. some years ago, I was working in a company in the I.T. department. And it amazed me, amazed me this atheist coworker is in IT, he's working right next to me, he's an intelligent guy. And he knows that you don't get new functionality in a program without an intelligent programmer writing in new code and adding functionality. And I was a tester. So I was always trying to figure out how to break it. and then send it back to the developer. And then the developer would send it back to me, and I would test it, and I'd send it back to him. And it would go back and forth, day after day, a whole team testing the software, finding ways to break it so that it wouldn't break on the user in the end. It's very hard to write new software, to develop software. It takes intelligence. And yet these people believe. that DNA code just writes itself, and somehow it works out. You don't get new functionality by losing things. It doesn't work. Back in Darwin's day, he believed that the cell was very simple, like a little blob of jelly, and it's like building blocks. You put them together, and cells make tissues, and tissues make organs, and you can just go from, but now we know that there's irreducible complexity, that cells are not simple. They're incredibly complex. DNA is a language, a language of four letters that every DNA code is like a whole encyclopedia of information in every cell of your body. It did not write itself. It was written by God. But of this they are willfully ignorant. They're willfully ignorant, deliberately willfully ignorant, Peter says. So now having said that, I'm going to go through Genesis 6, 7 and 8, starting in Genesis 6 verse 9. And I'm briefly going to comment on a few things, but what I want to do is I just want to read the whole passage for the most part. And I want you to take note, and I'll comment on a few of them and pause here and there. I want you to take note of the details that are so different than the myth story. Like the myth story I learned when I was in school of how the Greek gods were angry and they were going to destroy all of earth, but there was one couple that went to the top of a mountain and as the floodwaters receded, they threw rocks behind them and they became people. It doesn't have near the elements that many do. That's not the way the Genesis account is. It gives you details, days of the year, numbers of days. You can calculate days and months, gives months, days, gives dimensions, gives measurements, gives specific details that Grandpa wouldn't make up around a fire in ancient times. They're the details of historical accuracy. Starting in chapter 6, verse 9, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God, and Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And this is what the flood legends say. Small number of people, earth is corrupt, one person finds grace. in the eyes of God. It's Noah. And by the way, many of the flood legends has a name of very, very similar to Noah. I think like the Mayan one, maybe, on different continents. Noah, Nui. Various names, very similar. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits. Its breadth, 50 cubits. And its height, 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower and second and third decks. Now, that's unnecessary details for a fireside story. A cubit being about 18 inches is what they calculate, about 18 inches. We have the dimensions of it. We have that it has a door in the side of it. We have that it had second and third decks, lower second and third decks. We have that it had animal cages, rooms in it for different things. And he says to make it of gopher wood. It's interesting he says to make it of gopher wood. Nobody knows what gopher wood was. The word gopher is just a transliteration from the Hebrew. People hypothesize about it, but if it was oak, I mean, there's lots of places to talk about Abraham under the oaks of Mamre, all kinds of trees of the Bible. Myrtle tree, the cedar tree, many trees of the Bible are mentioned, and we know what these trees are, but we don't know what this tree was. Perhaps it's an extinct tree that no longer exists. Perhaps it's a tree that no longer existed in the Middle East at that time. Maybe it still exists in a rainforest somewhere. Maybe there's an environment where gopher trees are growing. You know, I don't know. Some people hypothesize that it's probably not, it might not be a tree at all, but rather a process like making a laminated beam or plywood or something of that nature. You know, I don't know. But the fact that it mentions gopher wood, and it's a tree that nobody's known about for thousands of years, to me is more evidence that it's a historical reference. It was known at the time, but it certainly wasn't written way later. Gopher wood. Second and third decks. Also pitched within, or I like the word atoned, it's that word kippur. By the way, we're going on our camping trip here a couple of weeks and our Sunday service we'll have out in the wilderness on what falls on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Kippur was the day of covering. It was a day of mourning over their sins. And they would cry out to God and do certain sacrifices. And the high priest would sprinkle blood upon the mercy seat. And on that day of mourning and repentance, God said that he would forgive their sins if they repented truly. And they believed in the Lamb, so to speak. And that's that word kapur. Well, what he tells him to do here is to cover the ark inside and out, literally like atone the ark inside and out. It's the same word with pitch to make it watertight. Historical detail. We don't know what kind of pitch it was. Some translations say bitumen, you know, maybe it was some sort of sap. Maybe it was some kind of tar. Fossil fuel like what we call fossil fuels. Maybe it was something similar. I don't know but he said cover it in and out It's gonna be water sealed. It's a historical detail So cubits about 18 inches. So it was 450 feet long. It was 75 feet wide 45 feet tall and it's estimated it could carry 40 million tons of weight and You know, these pictures, I think, you know, be very careful what pictures you show your children from the Bible. Usually the picture, the guy who's an artist isn't a theologian or hasn't done great hermeneutics. And even if he is, it's hard to accurately. Make a picture that truly represents the scripture. I love the movie when I was a kid, The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. But when you start reading through Exodus, you're like, well, that's wrong. They got that wrong. They got that wrong. And all these details. But picture books make the ark look ridiculous. It looks like some kind of houseboat. And they've always got a giraffe head hanging out the end of it. And they, and for some strange reasons, ourselves included, we put, you know, when one of our firstborn was born in nursery, actually somebody I think made it for us. I think my mother made it for us, made us a Noah themed thing. So we put it is on the wall, the bedding and everything had Noah stuff on it. It's funny that we take this passage that speaks of the wrath of God and killing everything that breathes and put it on the baby walls, you know. But you got a little pudgy Noah and his pet giraffe on a houseboat. Well, that's not accurate. It was a huge line. People say, well, how did all the animals, how did it fit all the animals? Well, as we'll see, it's two of every kind. We're about to get that. And like all the dog species, for example, would have come from one pair. You had the genetic diversity, just like you had the genetic diversity in Noah and his wife and sons and three wives. You had enough genetic diversity to make every kindred of man, every color of skin, every shape of eye, every height there was in that original wolf-like creature. the genetic potential for Bichon Frise. But you, Ken Ham points out, you can go from a wolf to a Bichon, but you can't go from a Bichon to a wolf, because a Bichon is less genetic information. It's filtered out many gene combinations. Very interesting things you can study about and how they did this, but there really wasn't as many species as you might think, because a lot of these animals, like foxes, are of the dog kind. So that would have come from that original pair. But it was huge. And because there was representative kinds with a lot of genetic diversity in them, all the different kinds come from them. Now, there are some people, by the way, that, even people that I respect, that'll say, well, it could have been a local flood. Why would you put, why would you build an ark and put animals on it if it's a local flood? Why would that even be necessary? Maybe just a boat and enough food for you. You know, if you had a life raft and you're trying to get off an island, you wouldn't try to take two of every kind with you. You know, that doesn't make any sense. It wasn't a local flood. It was a flood that covered the entire earth and had two of every kind of creature. It's very clear from these passages that it was not a local flood. All right, let's move on. I have New Testament scriptures to get to at some point. Verse 17, for behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, and which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives with you. It's interesting that law and gospel First the bad news, then the good news. The bad news is, I'm angry with mankind because of their sin, and I'm gonna destroy everything that breathes. The good news, I've made a way for you. That translates over to us and the new covenant. He says, I'm gonna make my covenant with you. Well, God makes a covenant with us. The bad news is, God is not okay with sin. God is not a passive observer watching the sin of humanity, watching mankind redefine Everything that he teaches, redefining marriage, redefining gender, redefining when life begins, playing this redefinition game where we make ourselves into God declaring for ourselves what is good and evil. God's not okay with that. And God has appointed a day when he's going to judge all of mankind. But God provides an ark of safety in the person of Christ. And everyone who is in the ark of Christ will be saved. And everything outside of the ark of Christ will be destroyed. So this is a gospel picture. He says, you make an ark, you get in the ark, I'm going to make a covenant with you. God makes a covenant with us. God is a covenant making and covenant keeping God. Have you ever heard people say you can't put God in a box? Usually what they mean is that I don't believe what God reveals about himself. Because God puts himself in a box. He chooses to condescend to us and reveal himself to us and say, this is who I am. This is who you are. And if you want to be right with me, this is the way. God reveals himself. There's not many ways that lead to God. God made one arc. There weren't some people that climbed up a mountain somewhere. He made one arc of safety. Christ alone. There's not many religions. There's not many ways. There's one arc. God declares his judgment against sinful mankind. And he says, but for you, I've made a way of escape. If you trust me, get in the atonement. Get in the arc. Come to Me for safety. Believe and enter and you shall be saved. Verse 19. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female of the birds according to their kinds and the animals according to their kinds and of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind. Two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. God gave him the dimensions. God brought the animals to him. God gave him specifically what he gave him, a message to be believed and appropriated. I talked some weeks ago when I went through Genesis 6 back in early August. I did the whole chapter of Genesis chapter 6, kind of gave an overview of the chapter. And made this point about get in the arc of safety. Trust God and get in the arc of safety. Noah is required to do something, but it's God's preserving power that keeps him and his family alive. This wasn't just good foresight and planning. This took God doing it, but he appropriated. He believed what God said and it moved him to action. He did what was commanded. And Peter brings out that Noah's Ark is a picture of baptism. He says, not the putting away the filth of the flesh. In other words, it's not taking a bath. It's not the water that saves you, but the answer of a clean conscience towards God. How do we have a clean conscience towards God? Well, we believe in the message of the gospel. We believe that what Jesus did on that cross was on our behalf, and we trust him. And if you trust him, you will follow it up with baptism. By the way, for years now, we've had baptisms on our camping trip. I don't know that we're having one this year. Nobody's talked to me about being baptized. But baptism is this outward picture of something that God does in our heart. We put our faith in Christ. And just like Noah got in the ark, we put our faith. I'm trusting that Christ alone is my salvation. And then in obedience, we're baptized as a fruit of our faith. Just like Noah believed God and it moved him to action, our faith in what Christ has done for us moves us to repentance and faith in Him. We put our trust in Him. just like Noah trusted God. Noah could have just said, well, you know, I'm going to miss out on a lot of profitable things over the next 120 years if I do what God tells me. And by the way, I didn't bring this in, but earlier in the chapter, God saw the wickedness of man. He says, my spirit will not strive with man forever, yet his day shall be 120 years. I don't believe that means that mankind is given 120 years lifespan. After the flood, they live longer than that, and most of us don't live to 120 years, obviously. But rather, what he was saying is, you know what? Man's become very wicked. I'm setting the timer. 120 years. 120 years, I'm going to destroy humanity for their sin. He gave them a time clock. And so, Noah could have said, man, 120 years. If God doesn't come through for me, it's going to be a wasted project. building an ark with all these specifications. But he believed God and it changed the way he lived. Whatever Noah was before, now he's a carpenter. Now he's getting ready to take on animals and he's a gatherer. It changed the way you live. If you believe the gospel, it's going to change the way you live. What you believe determines what you do. If your life, if you live just like the Canaanite next door and the Hittite and the Prizite and every other ite, then you haven't trusted in Christ. If you believe in Christ, it's going to change the way you live. It's going to change the way you think. It's going to change the way you view the world. It won't leave you the same. Trusting in Christ brings about a change. Chapter 7. Better start moving here. Then the Lord said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me and this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth, forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground." So he says two of every unclean animal. So two camels, male and female. and seven of every clean. So, you know, seven pairs of buffalo and seven pairs of cows and goats and sheep and everything that you would eat in the farmyard. So there's going to be meat for them after the flood that they can eat because he's taken in seven. Also, seven because it would be appropriate to offer sacrifices, which is the first thing when Noah gets off the ark. And by the way, many flood stories around the world include sacrifice after coming through the flood. An interesting detail in many flood legends around the world. Also notice he says, 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Not 40 days and 40 nights of the flood, 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Now people say, oh, can't rain. There's not enough water. Where did all the water come from? I'm going to read about that in a second. But same rain over and over again. You have warm seas. rapid evaporation, water going up. hitting cold areas, coming down as rain. Over here, it's evaporating. Over here, it's falling. And it's just like a perpetual fall. But that's not where all the water... There's a couple of different things about that. One is the earth was different in those days. The mountains weren't as high. I forget which psalm teaches that. But the world before the flood was a little flatter world. The moving of tectonic plates and everything during the flood caused the mountains to rise up out of the waters. But there was like perpetual rainstorms and look at it. There's more relevance here to that. Verse five. And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. That's very specific. Six hundred years old. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood of clean animals and of animals that are not clean and of birds and everything that creeps on the ground. Two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days, the waters of the flood came upon the earth." They were in the ark for seven days before the flood came in the 600th year of his life. Very specific details. Verse 11, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened, and rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. So notice it says that the great fountains of the deep burst forth. Water's not just coming from clouds. Water's coming from inside the earth. Volcanic activity. Every time a volcano erupts, it puts out enormous amounts of steam. It's called, I think it's called infant water. Water that's never been to earth's surface before. It's called infant water. And today they measure it. They believe that about a cubic mile of water is added to the Earth's surface every single year. Water that hasn't been here before from deep in the Earth. I don't know how they know all that, but they say about a cubic mile per year, something I read in one book, which is very interesting because if you multiply backwards, you find out over the last 10,000 years or so, that's no big deal. But if you believe the Earth's been here for millions of years at a uniform rate of a cubic mile per year, you'd have dry ocean, there'd be no ocean About the time they say fish was evolving. That's a real problem for the uniformitarian, for the evolutionists. But the earth burst forth. So there's volcanic activities. Also, we open the window of heaven may be a reference to meteor showers. So you've got these craters that are hitting the moon or hitting the earth, various places where there's these huge craters. It may be a reference to that. It seems to be what's referred to when Sodom and Gomorrah, when the windows of heaven are opened and God rains down fire. also vindicates that you've got multiple things going on here. You've got volcanic activity. You've got asteroids coming into the atmosphere. You've got basically warm seas and some places warm, some places cold, perpetual storms, hurricanes, hyper hurricanes all over the world taking place so that there's constant rain going on for 40 days and 40 nights. On the very same day, Noah and his son, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. They and every beast according to its kind, and all livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two, of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female, of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in." Now that's interesting. The Lord shut him in. He made the door, but God shut the door. God sealed the door. And I think that's a great gospel picture. You know, we come to faith in Christ, but it's the Holy Spirit that seals us until the day of redemption, Ephesians 1 says. He does the work. He draws us to himself. He gives us a new heart. He seals us in Christ. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that draws us. Just like God drew every kind of animal and insect to the ark, no one didn't have to go out there and look for them. The Bible says that God drew them to the ark. In the same way, Jesus said, no man can come to me unless the Father draws him. If you've come to faith in Christ, it's the work of God in your heart. No man would. The natural man cannot receive the things of God, neither can he know them. Cannot come. So if you've come, that's the work of God drawing you to the ark of safety to Christ. And it's God that seals you in to Christ. It's God that says, now you're in here, now you are safe. And nothing will pluck you out of His hand. It's a beautiful thing. Verse 17, the flood continued 40 days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth. The ark floated on the face of the waters and the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth and on the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep, which is about 22.5 feet above the highest mountain. At the time, like I said, all this volcanic activity, the tectonic plates crushing up. I mean, we know, we know looking today that there's been movement of tectonic plates and it buckled the earth and that's where your high mountains come from. Well, before the flood, there were smaller mountains. After the flood, there's higher mountains and the mountains that were then were covered by 22.5 feet of water. That destroys any serious hermeneutic idea of a local flood story. It just obliterates it. Because the highest mountain was covered by 22.5 feet. Water seeks its own level. It's not just going to hang out in the Middle East. That doesn't make any sense. I think it also, in my opinion, obliterates any idea of a flat Earth that some people have. I don't believe in a flat Earth at all. I don't believe the Bible teaches it's a flat Earth. It doesn't hurt my faith at all that the Earth is a sphere. Because if it was a flat Earth and you've got Antarctica hedging in, on a big plate or disc or something like that. The water just run right over and I don't, you know, it doesn't make sense to me. But anyway, verse 21. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all mankind, everything on the dry land and whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left and those who were with him in the ark and the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. So you've got 150 days beyond the 40 that they just stayed right where they were. Anybody that had the idea to get on a life raft or hold on to a log and eat sea turtles is gone after 150 days. It's over. Genesis 8. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to blow over the earth and the water subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were close. He knows that fountains of the deep and windows of heaven. No more asteroid showers, volcanic eruptions have ceased. The rain from the heavens was restrained and the waters receded from the earth continually. And at the end of 150 days, the waters had abated. And in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Now, this is the part where grandpa and his story says, and they jumped out of the ark and lived happily ever after. But it's not what happens. They stay in the ark. Look at this. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month. And the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him." I won't go into details about this this morning, but I love this passage. So I'll probably do a whole sermon on this passage. And not all of this will I repeat, but you have this account, you have the number of days, he sends out the raven, he sends out the dove, first dove comes back, the second one comes back with an olive leaf, et cetera. Got all these details. And by the way, many flood legends around the world include some animal being sent out as a test. That's another common element in flood legends around the world. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark, and the dove came back to him, In the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth a dove, and she did not return to him anymore. In the six hundred and first year and the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. And the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. That is, again, more dates, more years. You can add up the days of the year that we've covered from the first seven days that he was in the ark before the rain came, then 40 days, and then I think it was 150 days the water prevailed, and then so many days that the water subsided, and then so many days that they just sat in the ark. It adds up to be 371 days, just over a year, just over a year. Quite a picture, I think, of the resurrection. I've heard at least one scholar, don't know that I can verify this, don't know that I believe this, but it's very interesting. It's fascinated me for years that there are some scholars that believe that the flood came on what is now remembered as October 31st, and that cultures around the world have a day of the dead around the time that the flood came. So you have these cultures that perhaps they were aligning themselves with the rebels before the flood. That's all conjecture. I don't know. Numbers and dates and years are given, and we know that it was 171 days by the way that you added up, very close to 365 days. Kind of an interesting thing that you've got about a year, you got a day of death, and you got a picture of the resurrection in the sense that new life, a new world. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold, all things will become new. 2 Corinthians 5.17. But the specifics, the details, not the kinds of things that grandpa puts in his story. The details matter. The witness matters. Jesus spoke of Noah in Matthew 24, but I won't read it for time's sake. I want to look at one more passage in the New Testament. Very important passage. And this is Paul talking about the gospel. And I want to tie it in the sense that history matters to us. Redemptive history matters. And 1 Corinthians 15 says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and which you stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. There is a type of faith that's a shallow, noncommittal faith that says, Yeah, I think that's probably true. But there's no commitment there. Verse 3 says, for I delivered to you as a first importance, this is a first importance, a lot of things in the Bible are important, this is a first importance, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried That he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Meaning it was prophesied, it was typified, it was told ahead of time what he would do. Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, a variety of passages. He died, he was buried, he rose again in fulfillment of the types and the shadows and the prophecies of scripture. And then it happened. Verse four, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Now, Paul is saying, listen, Jesus was witnessed, his resurrected body is witnessed by over 500 people. And you Corinthians, if you want to do it, you can still search them out and find them. You can cross examine them. Paul goes on to say, I'm not going to read that part, Paul goes on to say that, last of all, He appeared to me also as like a child born late. I've seen Christ. I've seen the resurrected Christ. Paul wants you to know that this is not just prophesied, not just a beautiful myth story. This is historical fact that has witnesses. When we went through the epistles of 1st John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, John also wanted you to know, listen, I witnessed these things. Peter also says, we didn't follow cleverly devised tales. These things happened. Our faith is rooted in historical events. It's not a philosophy. It's not just a religious idea. It's rooted in historical events. Skipping down to verse 14. Look at the emphasis Paul puts on the death, burial, and resurrection. He says, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. So liberal Christianity is vain. The liberal Christianity that denies the virgin birth, that denies the resurrection, that denies the inspiration of scripture, that denies the second coming is vain. Utilitarian religion is vain. Verse 15, we are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. Paul was not big on utilitarian religion. He said if Christ didn't rise from the dead, I'm a liar because I swear to you it's true. and you're still in your sins and you are without hope in the world. Our faith rests upon a historical Jesus who lived a perfect life, who died for our sins according and fulfillment of the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again. And it's only that Christ that is worth committing your life to. But I want you to consider something. I hear a lot of voices on social media saying, yeah, we need religion. When our society was more religious, we were so much better off. You know, we've come a long way from the 1950s or some other golden era in their eyes. And it's like we were better off, family was more intact. We got the breakdown of the family and all these horrendous consequences. But just in the way they talk, I'm like, but you don't really believe it, do you? You think it's a good idea. You think it has good, Christianity has good fruit. Paul was like, you know what? If Christ isn't raised, we're of all people, most of Israel, I'm wasting my time. Why am I fighting with the beast of Ephesus? Why have I been beaten? Why have I been stoned? Why am I fighting with the Roman government? Why do I allow people to backbite me? Why don't I just go on with my tent making scholarly career? I'm wasting my time. You know what? If Christ is risen, he's worth dying for. If Christ is risen, he's worth living for. If Christ is risen, he's worth suffering economic loss. He's worth talking about. He's worth sharing with your neighbors. He's worth praying to. Why not sleep in? No, get up early, pray. It's worth reading his word. It's worth getting fired. It's worth getting martyred. It's worth not missing church, getting out of bed on Sunday morning. It's worth tithing. It's worth making financial sacrifices in order to disciple your children in the Christian faith. If Christ is risen, there's nothing more relevant than Christ. There's nothing more important than Christ. Noah made that decision. If there's really going to be a worldwide flood in which everything that breathes is going to be wiped out, I better preach righteousness. I better invest my time and my money and my kid's time, my kid's money, our effort into building an ark of safety so that my household is saved. If Christ is risen, he's worth 100% commitment from your life. If you believe it, it will change you. It will not leave you a mere pew warmer. It will motivate you to faith and good works. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But what are we saved for? We're created in Christ Jesus for good works. If you believe it, it'll change the way you live. Let's pray, God, we thank you, Father, for your grace and your mercy. We thank you, Lord, that you have provided for us an arc of safety. God, I pray for the not fully persuaded this morning. I pray, Lord, that they would prioritize settling these issues. That you would lead them to seek you, that they might find you. For you are not far from any of us. For in you we live and move and have our being. You are here. You are close to every one of us who comes to you on your terms and humbles themselves and cries out to you. Lord, I pray, too, for our children and our children's children that, Lord, you would convert our little ones, that they would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, that they would bow the knee and confess that you are Lord. with saving faith in your death, burial, and resurrection on their behalf. Thank you, God, for the revelation of your word. Thank you, Lord, that you are not a man that you should lie. You always speak the truth. Give us a heart to trust you and to live in accordance with what we say we believe. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we're going to take communion now. And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who is trusted in Christ, maybe you're visiting this morning. I see visitors out there. If you've already trusted in Christ and you've been obedient. you