Main idea: God saves and destroys by His Word, so repent and believe!
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good to see all of you, it's good to gather together and so thankful for God's grace in each of our lives. As we look to look to Christ, he's so good to us. We sent we prayed for a couple weeks ago. Dave and Louis belch, they're global partners that went to Venezuela and then 10 refa, they're spending about five weeks in Spain right now ministering. So we're gonna pray for them in a minute. Keep praying for them. Troy Caselli and Terry, Joe Caselli, they're with them. And Troy taught a seminar yesterday at the church for the churches in San RIFA there, which went really well. And they're gonna do that again next Saturday. So Saturday. So we keep praying for joy and Terry Joe too, while they're there, and for Denise, who's already where she is going in a undisclosed location that you know about if you heard her talk about last time. So we're gonna pray for her too. But right now, we're gonna read Genesis seven, verse one through eight, verse 19. If you're able to stand up for a long time, then stand with me and grab your copy of Scripture. It'll be about six minutes or so, probably between reading it and praying. So if that's too much standing, then you can stay seated. It's okay. So Genesis seven continue what Dan started last week about the flood, seeing that God saves and God destroys by his word. God saves and he destroys by his word. So read with me, Genesis seven, starting in verse one. 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 in 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 40 days and 40 nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground. And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth, 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 were not clean, and of birds and of 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 water of the flood came upon the earth in the 600th year of Noah 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 40 days and 40 nights. On the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem ham Japheth and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. They and every beast according to its kind, and all the 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 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, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep, and all flesh died and moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all 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 in the earth 150 days. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. 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, and the waters continued to abate until the 10th month. And the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. And at the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark that had that he had made and sent forth the Raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a 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. 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. He plucked olive leaf so Noah knew that the Waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. In the 600 in first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters had dried, 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 in the second month. On the 27th day of the month, the earth, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, go out from the Ark you and your wife and your sons and your sons wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you, of all flesh, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So Noah went out and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him, every beast, every creeping thing and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together, God. We praise you. You are a holy God. By your word, you have created by your word, you saved Noah and those with him on the ark. By your very word, you have destroyed all those who rebelling against you at that time. We trust you by your word to save us, to fulfill your word, to judge all of your enemies, to renew the earth and make a new heavens and new earth. One day we trust you. You are a powerful, holy God. We bow before you and worship you today. I pray you'd strengthen each one of us today and our love for you, our worship of you, our dependence on your word, our dedication to know you through your word. I pray that you would grow our trust in You. Jesus, lift up your name today among us spirit. We pray You'd work, Father, help us to know you. We pray for anyone among us who doesn't know you that you would open their eyes to see the foolishness of rebellion against you, give them a heart of repentance to turn from their sin and turn to you Jesus and believe your word. When you say to come to you and live God, I pray for those suffering today, those being tempted with sin, help us to believe your word. God. We pray that you would glorify yourself. We pray for churches around our city, and we pray especially today, for Trinity Church in Spokane Valley, for Paul funchess, Jeremy Kuhn, Dan Ferguson, and our many other brothers and sisters there, that You would bless them, that they would hear Your word today and be built up by it, that they would bear much fruit according to you, that you would be glorified in their midst, and you would save many through them, through their testimony. We pray also for Grace Christian Fellowship in the valley, for Jeff Brinkman and Brian DeBoer and others there that you would use them to glorify Your name, strengthen them to be faithful God. We pray for the churches in 10 repay that Dave and Troy taught yesterday. Thank you for using them to equip them. And I pray that you'd administer through Dave and Lois, through Troy and Terry Joe this whole week and the whole time that Dave and Lewis are there. We pray for Denise and the team with her, that you would minister through them. Through them, help them to to know your grace and to make your grace known in the place where they are, God, we pray right now that you would speak to us by your Spirit. Amen may be seated in the beginning. What did God do? He spoke right by God's word. He separates the light in the dark by God's word. He separates the water above from the water below by God's word. He separates the dry land from the water by God's word, as he speaks, animals, creeping things and crawling things, birds, fish are all over the earth. He creates by his word. He creates humans in his image. By His Word, God speaks, and the world is created. The universe is created, the sun, the moon, the stars, everything by His Word. Can we do that? Can you speak and even make your kid do what you want? Can you speak and create something like we don't have the power, but God is powerful. His Word is glorious. He is glorious. And we see in this passage that by God's Word, He saves Noah and all those in the ark with him, and by God's word, he destroys all of his enemies. God works by his word. Do we tremble? Do you tremble at God's word? Do you listen to God's word? Do we realize what we have in our hands. Who it is that's revealing Himself to us and making himself known, speaking to us by His Spirit, through His Word, God is wanting us to see him, to know Him, and to experience Him through His Word, may we repent of rejecting Him and His word. May we look to Him in faith. His wrath is a coming. Is coming against all who reject Him, but He saves and gives new life by his word. What situation are you facing today, where you need to look to God? Are you rebelling against God right now, living life in your own strength, living for yourself? Do you need to repent and trust in Jesus today? He calls out, come to me.
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Do you have a situation you're facing where you're being tempted by sin, where you're suffering? What situations are you facing today, where you need God in the power of His Word to work in your life? Trust Him. Listen to Psalm 3415 and 16. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against. Those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. This is our God. Do you fear him? Do you trust him? God saves and God destroys by his word. So repent and believe. Repent and believe in His Word. Remember the story from last week, the scene from Genesis six. We have humans multiplying on the earth, and they're so corrupt that the thoughts and intentions of men and women were only evil. Continually remember, as Dan described last week, so much wickedness, so much murder, pillaging, violence, abuse, horrible things, and what is God's response? He has offended, he has grieved, and he promises to wipe them out to blot out the earth, and yet one man found favor with God, Noah. One man had faith. He was righteous. He obeyed God. So God told Noah to build an ark. Dan described it last week. How God had Noah build this massive ark. God gave him the ingenuity, the creativity, the technology God brings, helps them, bring the animals, gather the food, and then the time comes for Noah and his family to go into the ark. And I want us to walk through chapter seven, and then we'll look at our first two points. So look with me at Genesis seven, and we see God saving by his word. It is by his very word that he saves Noah and all these people and animals with Noah. God says to Noah in verse chapter seven, verse one of Genesis, go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation, we see that God is God who sees, he sees the wickedness of all of humanity, and he sees that Noah is righteous. And he sees today none of us can hide from him. God sees the intentions and the thoughts of your heart. He knows everything about you and I. He sees us. He's not fooled by any of the things, the pretensions, the things we put on. He's not he's not fooled at all. God sees everything. And what does he see about Noah? He sees that Noah is righteous before him. It's not about Noah's standard. It's not about the culture standard. It's about God's standard before God, Noah is found to be righteous. God is the one who judges and decides who is righteous and who is not. What does Romans four verse three say? For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted him as righteousness. How is Noah righteous? He heard the word of God. He believed. He obeyed His righteousness. Came by faith, by hearing God's word, by hearing what God had told him, I'm gonna send a flood, build this ark. And Noah did. He obeyed for a long time, like Dan said last week, 100 years, obeying God because He's righteous. He hears the Word of God and he believes. Now we see God saving him the fruit of his faith. He obeys. He builds the ark, and now at the word of the Lord, by the command of the Lord, he enters the ark, and no one else does. Look at this first paragraph here starts out with God telling Noah, commanding him going to the ark. Look at verse five. Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. He obeyed what God had told him to do. He commanded. God commanded it, and no obeyed everyone that God commanded to go in the ark. Went in the ark by God's command, by His Word, to go in. Who is it that God tells him to take in? Besides Noah's wife, his three sons and his three sons wives, all these animals, seven pairs of the clean animals. So remember the Jews sitting in the wilderness with Moses would have understood clean animals and unclean animals, because God was teaching them through Moses all about that. But perhaps Noah also knew about that. Either God explained it to him here, or he already knew, because maybe God told Adam and Eve, these are the animals you can sacrifice when you want to say thank you to me, when you want to say, I'm sorry for my sins, when you want to do these sacrifices, kill these animals. These are the ones you can kill. These are the animals that are clean. So I think Noah understood what kind of animals were allowed to be sacrificed. And so God says, take seven pairs of all the clean animals, and then a pair of all the unclean animals, and then seven pairs of the birds. Because I guess birds are more fragile. They die easy. I don't know they're or maybe they needed more of them, right, to to do the different things God wanted them to do. So the entire animal kingdom, minus the fish, because they don't need to be saved from the flood, get taken onto the ark. They get commanded to go onto the Ark by kind. So maybe not every single species, but all the kinds, right? All the, all the genus, all the, those broader categories of animals get taken onto the ark. Now, as we talk more in a minute about what happened to the flood, I think that a lot of animals probably did. A lot of fish probably did die, because the way that the waters come out of the deeps of the Earth, it probably was pretty bad for the fish as well. But he didn't take them to take fish on the ark. There were no aquariums on the ark. So then we look at verse four. Why is God committing them to go on the ark? God says, in seven days, I will send rain on the earth 40 days and days and 40 nights, and every living thing that I have made, I will blot out from the face of the ground every living thing blot out. What is blot out? It's like when you hit backspace on your on your phone or your computer, you know, wipe out. Blot out for them was wiping out. God's gonna wipe out every living thing that he has made we see here. God is the Creator. He made these animals. He made these humans who are rebelling against Him. He has the right to judge them. He has the right to see what they're doing and to say, that's enough. I'm going to wipe you out. And that's what God tells Noah he's going to do. Because he is the judge. He is the king. He. He is the righteous one. And so we see in verse five, Noah obeys as the Lord commanded. Verse one, Noah obeys. And then we see in verses six through 10, this emphasis that what God told Noah to do, that's what Noah did. He was righteous. He obeyed. Seven, six, we see the waters of the flood, the flood of water. 710, we see the waters of the flood. This is now the scene where the flood is coming, and we see Noah is obeying all the animals that God had commanded, all the people God commanded are going onto the ark. Look at verse nine, as God had commanded Noah. Everybody went in the ark. They're obeying His command. So we've seen 75 as God commanded, Noah obeys. 79 as God commanded, Noah obeys because the waters of the flood are coming. God is saving them by his word and by His Command, they are being saved. And we get to verse 11 in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month,
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on the 17th day of the month. On that day, the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. This is when the flood begins. The waters are pouring out. Now some people helped me with some research. Howard Hamlin and Rocky COVID sent me information. And I'm not an expert on this. You should go research on your own with some reliable creation sciences kind of people to figure out this stuff. But the flood, we know that the Earth has plates, tectonic plates, right? When there's an earthquake, those tectonic plates are moving. We kind of think of the ground, the earth lowest, the continents and the tectonic plates as, like, really solid, but it's actually more it's actually more like a unstable thing that's moving around, right? It's actually moving so it seems like what happened was God opens up the fountains of the deep. There's these gaps in these, these tectonic plates, even under the ocean, and then hot lava and waters gushing out and filling the earth with water from under the earth. And that, that lava, I could be wrong, but my understanding from some of the things that people sent me was the oceans floor is kind of rising from all this lava, creating new stuff. And the continents are moving. So even some of what was high, because bringing brought low, like God is just like moving around the whole earth. When God wants to destroy stuff, like he has power, read Revelation, what is God going to do in the end, to destroy the Earth? I mean, this is God. Is able to wipe out the earth. Everything he created, he spoke by his word, and made it a perfect place for humans and animals to flourish. When he decides to uncreate, to decrea, to destroy, he can do it by his word. The scientists that don't believe the Bible, they say, Well, how is this possible? How could so much water fill up the earth, to cover the mountains to this height and then be taken back. How is it possible that God spoke and created the universe? Is anything too hard for God? Does he need us to understand how exactly it happened? In order for it to happen, no God can do what he wants to do. He flooded the earth, and then the water above the Earth, if there was a layer of water around the earth that got the plug, got pulled and that got draining down the earth, or maybe it was just regular water above and it just rained. But either way, there was a lot of water coming down and coming up, so much water, so God is flooding the earth. And for what period of time, for 40 days and 40 nights, 40 days seems like a significant amount of time, right? There's 40 days that the spies spied out the land. 40 days that Moses was up on the mountain receiving the law. For 40 years, they were stuck in the wilderness because they didn't obey God's Word. For 40 days, Jesus was tempted. So for 40 days, the rain comes down and the water goes up, all right, and it's flooding. God is decreasing. He's destroying by his word. And at the same time, we see now for the third time in this in this passage, verses 13 through 16. What is described here? Everyone God commanded got on the ark. Why is Moses making such a big deal about this? He wants the people of Israel to understand it is by the command of the Lord we enter in to what he gives us. By the command of the Lord, we enter into the ark. By the command of the Lord, we go into the Promised Land. By the word of the Lord, we go into Christ and are saved. God is commanding them, and everyone who he commands. And here he names Shem Ham and Japheth his sons. For the first time in this passage, they all go into the ark to be saved. Everything that has the breath of life that God commanded, what goes in, all the animals, all the people. And then verse 16, it says that they did it as God had commanded again, so same as we saw in verse five, verse nine, as God commanded. And then what happens in verse 16, the Lord shuts them in like, what happens if you leave the door open on the boat and the floods come, that thing is going to be all going around in circles and drowning, and if you open up the hatch on the side of your submarine or your ship, it's going to sink right, like you gotta, gotta close that thing. Well, somehow God had the plan of him closing it. I don't know if God would not have nailed it, or if he just, you know, used his powers and just, I don't know, somehow God got it to stay shut, and the Ark is shut, and everyone in the ark is ready to be saved by the ark that God commanded them to build. So there they are, Noah, and everyone that God commanded in the boat, in the ark. And then verse 17 and 18, we see the flood coming. For those 40 days, the water is increasing. If you look at verses 17 through 24 how many times does it say the water increased? The water prevailed. It increased. It increased. And when people thought surely, there's no more water coming, it keeps increasing. It keeps. Increasing, and then it prevails. It's winning. And then, beside the water increasing, you see twice mentioned the ark. The Ark is born up high above the earth. The Ark is rising on the floating on the face of the waters. And so at the same time that God's wrath is destroying the earth, decreasing with water, the water is bearing up the ark. So we have Moses, Noah, and everyone in the boat with Noah in the ark with Noah being saved, and then everyone else being destroyed by the same water, the same water that's destroying is carrying up the ark. When we get to verse 19 and 20, we see that the water wins. The water prevails. No animals rushing up higher and higher, no humans running higher and higher, could beat it. The water won. It prevailed. How much So over all the mountains, 22 plus feet over the highest mountain, I don't know if the continent is shifting in the ocean bed coming up if all that kind of made it lower so it didn't take as much water to cover it all. But either way, the highest mountains were covered by 22 plus feet. So if they were as high as they are now, that's five and a half miles up Mount Everest, if you have 22 feet, more than five and a half miles up surrounding the entire Earth, that's 800 800 million cubic miles of water. That's two and a half times more water than we have now in the entire Earth. There's another thing that scientists who don't believe the Bible say, How is that possible? How is anything possible with God? Right? God can do anything, right? So there's so much water that the entire Earth is covered in water. Everyone is being covered in water, except those who are in the ark. The water wins. Now we see in verse 22 verse 21 all flesh died that moved on the earth, all the birds, livestock, beasts, swarming creatures and all mankind, they all died, all the men, all the women, all the children. They died. Everything in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. God blotted out every living thing. Only Noah was left and those with him in the ark, you might say. But God, why everybody? God is just. He is the judge. He's the King, he's the ruler. All of those people had rebelled against Him. All of them were guilty of being sinners, and so God, justly and righteously blots all of them out, and yet has mercy and saves Noah and those with him on the ark. God rules by his word. He rules by his word. He sends the flood by his word. He destroys by his word, he saves. Listen to Psalm 29 when we read the whole Psalm, it's about the power of the voice of the Lord. Psalm 29 Ascribe to the LORD O heavenly beings. Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders the lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of Majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bear, and in his temple, all cry glory. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king. Forever, May the Lord give strength to His people. May the Lord bless His people with peace. Our God is powerful, his voice, his word, is powerful. Do you tremble at his word? Do you trust His Word we get now to our application points from this chapter. The first is, believe and be saved by the word of God. Believe and be saved by the word of God. Hear God's word and believe. Noah and everybody with him is saved by the command of the Lord, by hearing the word of the Lord and believing they are saved. Noah was righteous in his generation, right? Romans, 117 says that the righteous live by faith. What does Romans 1017 say faith comes from hearing, hearing the Word of God. Noah and his family and the animals obeyed the command of the Lord, entered the ark and were saved. Moses and his generation, they heard the word of the Lord, and they made the Passover sacrifice. They killed that lamb, put the blood on their doorpost, and by obeying, by having faith, the death angel passes over them, and they're saved. They hear the word of the Lord. They pass through the Red Sea and they're saved. They don't believe the Word of the Lord, and they don't go into the Promised Land. And then they perish in the wilderness. They don't enter in. And then the next generation, led by Joshua, does enter in. They believe the Word of the Lord, and the same is true. Now we are saved by hearing the word of the Lord and believing. Turn over to John one, what does it mean that we need to believe and be saved by the word of the Lord? John? Chapter one, turn over in your Bible to you'll see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John in the New Testament, the. Fourth gospel, John. We're gonna look at a few, a few verses there. So if you have a Bible, turn over to John. Verse 14. We see that Jesus is the Word who we need to believe. John one, verse 14, and the Word became flesh, the same word who created the entire universe with the Father and the Spirit. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. We must believe in Jesus, the Word, believe his words, the words of God to us in the scriptures. We need to believe him as he's revealed to us in Scripture. Turn over to John 524,
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we must believe the Word of God. John Five, Verse 24 truly, truly. I say to you, this is Jesus talking. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. This is the word you need to hear. Jesus speaks to us in the scriptures, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but really in all, in all the Bible, all 66 books of the Bible. And he says, if you hear My Word and believe, you don't pass you don't get judged, you have eternal life. Hear the Word of Jesus and believe. What does he say to us? He says, Come to me. Look at John seven. Verse 37 through 39 turn over to John seven. Verse 37 of John seven, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And this he said about the Spirit whom those who have believed, who believed in him, were to receive. For as yet, the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus is saying, Come, come to me. If you're thirsty, come if you know you're a sinner. You know that you've rebel against the Holy God, and you've done your own things, your own way. You've broken His law, you haven't obeyed your parents, you haven't loved your neighbor as yourself. You haven't loved God with all of your heart, soul and mind. Come to Him. Jesus says, Come to me, and I'll give you rivers of living water. He'll forgive you. Come to him. Believe His Word. Jesus wants us to believe him and be saved. Believe in Him. Come to him. There's nobody else who can save you. How many ARKS were there for the for the people of Noah's generation to choose from one ark? Only those who heard the command of the Lord and entered that ark were saved. How many ways are there to be saved from the wrath of God that will come one day? Only one Jesus says in John 14, verse six, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He is the one into whom we must enter. In order to be saved, we must hear His word and believe him. Turn over to John 10. John 10, verse seven, Jesus again, said to them truly, truly. I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, Jesus is the door. You can enter into the people of God through Jesus. He's saying, Come to me. I'm the door. He's the one that you have to enter into in order to be in God's family, to be part of God's people, we need to repent. Believe in Jesus. Come to Him, trust in Him, enter into him. And if you have believed in Christ, celebrate you are in him. He's the Good Shepherd. He laid down His life for you. He gave His life on the cross. He died. He took the full wrath of God and rose again. How can you come to him? Trust in Him. Stop trusting in yourself. Trust that Jesus alone died for our sins. He alone can pay the price that we need to pay for our sins. He died, he died, he rose again, showing that he paid the full price. And now he's coming back, and he will save all who have trusted in him, all who have come to him. Look at John 10, verse 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hands. I and the Father are one. Jesus says, Whoever hears my voice and comes, they're in my hand, just like no way. All the animals in his family were in the ark. Nothing could rip them out of the ark, right? They were in that ark. They were safe from the wrath of God coming in the flood. If you have come to Jesus and believed in him, trusted that he died for your sins and rose again. You've submitted your life to Him. You are in his hand. No current can rip you out of his hand. You can't rip yourself out of his hand. He will give you that faith that keeps on trusting Him, that stays in him. You're in him. Trust in Him. He is a good savior. And then once you're in him, what does John 15 say we should do? John 15 verse seven, Jesus describes himself as the vine, and where are the branches? Have you ever seen a grapevine that has to stay in the vine so the branches can make grapes? Right? Jesus says, If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it'll be done for you by this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit and show proof to me on my side. Souls. Now, if you've come to Christ already, here's the thing. Keep coming to him. Keep believing His Word. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. His Word in you. Christ in you, right? If you abide in Me, we abide in Christ, and Christ is in us, and His word is in us. He wants to bear fruit through us. He wants to do things children. How can you obey your parents? Hear the Word of the Lord. Children, obey your parents. If you've trusted in Jesus, he helps you to do that. Young people, how can you live a life that's honoring the god, that's that's pure, that's holy, that pleases Him? Hear what he says. He says, Flee youthful us. Flee unrighteousness, pursue peace and love. He he makes that happen. As you trust His word and hear him. Believe His Word, believe him, husbands and wives, how can we be faithful to the end loving your spouse? How can you be faithful to work hard as unto the Lord? How can we be faithful to love God will love our heart. Hear his command. He gives you the command. He enables you to do it. He empowers you. He gives you his spirit that takes his word and works in you to help you to do what he wants you to do. Believe His word, just like Noah entered the ark by the command of the Lord, you and I can walk each day with Christ by his word. Meditate on scripture, memorize it, study it. Why not? Just so you can check that box off and say, I did a good job today. I'm a good Christian. I read the Bible today. No, because His Word is alive and active and powerful. He wants to change us and will do mighty things in us through His Word. Look over at Galatians. Galatians. Go to the right. Pass the three long books, Romans, Corinthians and Corinthians, and then you get to Galatians. Galatians, chapter two, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you, it was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted him as righteousness, the way God works is the same. Noah, he's made righteous by hearing the Word of God, believing, obeying, and he's saved. Abraham, Moses, it's always the same, hear God's word and be saved. And now Paul is telling the Galatians, if you started, if you were saved by hearing the Word of God and having faith, are you now going to continue in the power of the flesh, brother and sister, how often do we try to live our Christian life in our own strength? I'm going to try harder to have a good attitude when someone cuts me off when I'm driving. I'm going to try harder to have self control with my money or my food. I'm going to try harder to love God and remember him, and then we don't do it. What is the secret? Hear the Word of the Lord. Meditate on the Word of God. Let the word of Christ dwell us richly, and he by His power as we have faith in Jesus, living in us and living through us. That's how we live life. That's what he's saying here. You started by the Spirit with faith. You continue now in the same way, believing, trusting in God's word, trusting in Christ, in the spirit, works mightily in you, the same spirit that was with God, the Father and the Son, creating the same spirit that was there at the flood, making those waters go back. He is working in you by his word. He uses his word to powerfully change us. That's why Paul says, in Ephesians, 518, he says, Be filled with the Spirit. And then in Colossians, 316, he tells you how to be filled with the Spirit. Right? He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Those two passages are parallel. How are you filled with God's Spirit? You let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. You meditate on this. You think about it, you look at Christ. And then God moves in us and changes us, and he does mighty things by His power to glorify Christ. How is it that you can live a life that is knowing God and loving him and pleasing Him. It's through trusting in Christ, that's how you start. That's how you continue. It's by the word of the Lord that He saves, that He changes us, that he he saves us. He gives us righteousness by by His Word, through faith. He grows us and sanctifies us by His Word, through faith, and then He glorifies us one day by faith, acting through His Word. The second thing we see in this passage in Genesis seven, not only does God save Noah by His Command, and so we need to believe and be saved by God's word as well. We need to repent of rebelling against God. His wrath is coming. Repent of rebelling against God, His wrath is coming. Those people in the days of Noah, what were they doing, when, when, that day than when the flood came. They were marrying they were getting up and getting firewood. They were making bread. They were acting like life was gonna go on as it always had. They didn't expect that that day the tectonic plates were gonna shift and water was gonna gush out of everywhere and come down from the heavens, and they were all gonna be drowned. They didn't know that was happening. Nine. And Jesus likewise says in Matthew 24 Look at Matthew 24 verse 36
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which, by the way, this is, how do we know that the flood really happened? Like a lot of people might debate, Was there really a worldwide flood? And you can look at the scientific evidence that the creation scientists, the good scientists, do with all the sediment stuff. I mean, there's so much evidence. I'm not going to try to try to prove it to you right now. Explain all that stuff. You can look it up. There's a lot of evidence that the flood really happened over the whole world. But the biggest evidence, to me is Jesus. Jesus is not a liar. Jesus is not crazy. He's Lord. And if he said there was a flood, if Peter says the same thing, we can trust Jesus that he's telling us the truth. So look at Matthew 24 verse 36 concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For, as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark and they were unaware, until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Jesus is coming back. The Son of Man is coming. And if you are still rebelling against God, you need to repent. The wrath of God is coming. It's like you're going 70, heading for a cliff. You're about to shoot over that cliff and die in an inferno of fire, a blaze of flames. Repent. Jesus is coming back. Like it says here. They didn't expect the flood to come that day. The people of Noah's day didn't. They didn't know it was coming. In the same way, the Lord Jesus is going to return on the clouds from heaven, and he's going to judge all of his enemies, not with water this time, but with fire. He's going to wipe them out. They will be thrown in the lake of fire after the great judgment. Repent, friend. If you're sitting here thinking, I've got time, I can figure this out. Like Dan said a few weeks ago, we're all gonna die, maybe not today, but the day of your death, the day of my death, is coming. Are you ready? Have you repented? Are you still thinking I don't need to submit to God? He's the kind of king, like a grandpa, like old Santa Claus on the throne. Oh, it's okay. You guys are nice kids. It's all right. That's not who God is? God is holy. He's a righteous judge. You see what he does here in Genesis seven and eight. Do you think he's messing around? He's not messing around. God is holy. So I beg you, if you're not taking this seriously, please consider what you see in Genesis seven, the fact that the flood came. God is righteous, and he judges and destroys by his word. And consider your own life. Are you living for Christ? Are you trusting in Christ? Are you trusting in yourself? Being religious is not good enough. Doing some nice deeds is not good enough. You can't try to outweigh your good stuff with the bad stuff or the bad stuff with the good stuff. You can't do that. That's not enough. You have to trust in Jesus. He is the one who God, who became flesh, who lived a perfect life. He got 100% of his test. He died in your place and rose again. You can trust in him. He's able to save nobody else can. You can't save yourself. I mean, the people outside of the ark, they're like, I'm gonna I'm gonna swim. I don't need to get on the ark. They didn't make it. The people that thought it's not happening, they didn't make it. Only the ones who believed God's word and got in the ark were saved. Only those who trust in Jesus and believe His word and enter into him are going to be saved. That's the only way look at Second Peter. Turn over to the end of your Bible. You hit revelation and go back to the left a little bit. First Peter, then second Peter. Chapter Three, Peter says a similar thing as Jesus says in Matthew 24 Second Peter, three, verse four, 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 overlooked 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 there with the Lord one day is as 1000 years and 1000 years as one day, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with the roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up with burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed.
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Do you see Jesus is coming back? God is going to judge the earth, and the only way to be saved in that judgment is through the Lord Jesus, if he is your savior, if you've submitted your life to Him and trusted in him, if you're trusting in yourself, if you're thinking there's no judgment coming, you're deceiving yourself. I beg you wake up. Look at what it says here. God wants us to come to him. Why is he being patient? Why has he not said That's enough already and ended the earth? I mean, is there really less violence and wickedness? And wickedness now than there was back in Noah's day? He is being patient, wanting you to repent, to come to Him, because He loves you and he wants to forgive you and welcome you into His family. He's already paid all of it with Jesus. It's only up to you now to turn to Him, to repent. To come to him. Let's go back to Genesis and finish the story. In Genesis eight, Genesis eight, we see something amazing that happens in verse one. So everything, the whole earth, is being crushed by water, Noah, and everyone with him is on the ark. And it says in Genesis eight, verse one, but God remembered, Noah. God remembered. Does God have Alzheimer's or dementia? Does he just forget stuff? He's like, Where'd I put my keys? How do I hold up the universe again? No, God doesn't forget. It's not that God, God had to, like, Be reminded when it says in the Bible, God remembered, like it does here or in Exodus two or Exodus six, it means God is keeping His covenant. He is calling to mind, on purpose, His covenant promises, and he is acting on them. When God remembers he is doing what he said he was going to do, he's acting on that thing which he promised to do, promised to save Noah in Genesis, 618, and God is acting on that promise. He's keeping his promise. God keeps His promises. Every promise that He has made. He keeps it through Jesus Christ. He's keeping his promises all of them. That's why you can trust if you've come to Jesus and believe in Him, God will not he will not fall into fail in keeping his promise. He doesn't change his mind, he doesn't say one thing and then do something different. God always does what he says he's gonna do. So God remembers Noah knows in the ark, he keeps his covenant with them, same as he remembers with us, if we trusted in Jesus and keeps his covenant with us. Coming with us. And so what does God do? God makes the wind to blow. That word wind is the same word for the word spirit in Hebrew. Is it talking about the spirit making either way. I mean, God's using wind. The Holy Spirit's making wind happen, kind of like in Genesis, one, two, the spirit was hovering over the waters, right? So we get the idea that God is making the he's making the waters stop. It says he closed the fountains of the deep so those tectonic plates that were all opened up and stuff is gushing out of the earth. He closes it all back. He makes everything the entirety like a surgeon stitching up the Earth, making it just like he wants it to be. He puts it all back, closes the windows of the heavens so it's not raining all the time. When he restores that water goes back, the scientists that don't believe the Bible are like, what? Where did all that water go? That water go? God has a way of taking care of stuff, right? Like, I'm sure he was able to manage it. He wasn't like, Oh, I was able to create the universe. But now, what do I do with all this water? I should have thought of that no, like, God can put it back. So it goes back into aquifers. It goes back into the ocean. He takes care of it. God evaporated. He sent it to Mars. I don't know. He took care of the water. It's all goes where it's supposed to go. And then God, You see, God here is bringing new life back to the earth. So then at the end of the 150 days, the waters had abated. That just means they'd decreased. And on the seventh month and the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. You can go to the the region of Ararat, and there's a mountain that they call mount arat now. And there's some people, there's a guy who wrote a really long book about where this ark has rested, and maybe people have seen it from an airplane. And so I don't know. There's it's possible that's out there. You could try to go find I don't know. But the point is, the ark rested on this mountain, and we can trust that that's what happened. But did Noah leave just yet? No, not yet. He sends out a raven. He flies around, he sends out a dove. She comes back, and there's nothing. And then he sends her out again. She comes back with an olive leaf. Why is that a big deal? Things are growing again. Have you watched wall e when they find that little plant and they put it in Eva, right? There's life, life again. On the earth, God is recreating. Things are growing again. This is good. We can hope that life has come back to the earth and olive olive oil. And you're making some bread, some olive oil on there, or you make some pasta with some olive oil. Or olive oil is a good thing, right? Anointing, it was important in the tabernacle. Olive oil was a really good thing for for the Israelites and for us too, right? And for Noah. But then he doesn't leave the ark. Yet he still waits. He takes the cover off the ark. He sees that the ground is getting dry. A lot of time is passing. All the water is going out. When does Noah leave the boat the ark? Look at verse 15. Then God said to Noah, go out from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons wives with you. That's when he leaves. He enters the ark. By the command of the Lord, He doesn't leave, even though he sees the ground dry. He stays on the boat until God says, Go out. He leaves by the word of the Lord. By the word of the Lord, he renews the earth. He goes out. God tells him to go out and be fruitful and multiply. All the animals be fruitful and multiply. God is telling them to go out and flourish on the earth, flourish. Be fruitful. God wants them to be fruitful. And we can similarly, look to God for new life. We should believe the Word of the Lord. We should repent of rejecting God and rebelling against Him. And we should Thiry, look to God for new life. Look to Him for new life. He brings new life on the earth. He renews where there was death, where there was destruction. He brings new life a new season. What does Second Corinthians 517, say, if you're in Christ, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things have passed away. The new things have come. If you're in Christ, he's bringing renewal in your life, and day by day, by his word, he renews he renews us. He's making us new creatures who love Him, who become more and more like Christ. At Colossians, 310 he's changing us into the image of Christ. What's Ephesians, 210 say we are His workmanship, created in Christ. Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so we could walk in them. He wants us to be fruitful. He doesn't make you to be a raisin or a prune all shrivel up. Right? He wants us to be fruitful, to do things for him, to glorify Him, as we believe him, as we come to Him, we look to Him to give us new life. We're not gonna read it now, but Revelation 21 you should go read later. What is the renewal that God will bring in the end, after Jesus comes back and destroys by fire and judges all of the earth and saves all of his people, everyone who he commanded, everyone who believed his word, he's gonna make it all new revelation 21 God is gonna dwell with us. We'll be His people. He'll be our God. And all things are going to be made new. He's going to make it all new. We can trust him. He renews us by His Word so that we can bear fruit. We can glorify Him. God wants us to know him. He wants us to be like him. He wants us to be fruitful as we hear His word and obey Him. He doesn't give us a command and say, good luck with that. I know it's gonna be impossible, but it's okay. I'm just gonna tell you in a way, just to frustrate you. No. God gives us commands. He wants to buy his spirit through Christ empower us to obey Him. So believe in His Word and be saved. Keep going back to Him and His Word. Repent of looking to yourself instead of him, and trust God to bring new life. Day by day. He wants us to be fruitful in Him, to make disciples, to be disciples who make disciples of Christ. And so I encourage you, brother and sister, the word of the Lord is powerful. Is anything too hard for him? I encourage you, friend, if you're sitting here hoping that none of this is real, the flood really happened. Jesus is really coming back, all of the earth will be destroyed by his fire. Have you trusted in him? Talk to somebody around you. If you haven't talked to someone who brought you, talk to your parent, talk to me, talk to Dan. We want to explain to you from Scripture how you can trust in Jesus and be with him. Be forgiven by him. Let's pray now and thank Him, Jesus. We thank You for Your Holiness, by your word, you create, by your word, you destroy, by your word, you bring new life. And we, thank You that You have given us life in Jesus. Thank you for all of us who've given faith in Christ. We trust in you. We trust in your words to continue to bear fruit in us. Help us to not look to ourselves, but to look to you, to meditate on your word, to believe what you say, and to live life by faith in you. How we need you. We pray for anyone here who's sitting and wondering about Jesus or maybe just not wondering, maybe just rebelling against you that you would have mercy on them. Grant them today faith to trust in You, Jesus, help all of us to be fruitful as we live for you, believing in your Word. Amen.
Nathan Thiry is the Growth Groups & Outreach Pastor at Faith Bible Church. He enjoys biking and outdoor activities, and has a passion to see the gospel spread throughout our community and the whole world!
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