The Flood, Part 2

Somebody this past week or two weeks ago gave me a videotape that was taken from the television concerning Noah's Ark. Quite interesting. It proved the existence not only of Noah's Ark today on Mount Ararat, but it proved the existence of a global flood from a secular perspective.

I thought it was rather interesting. I don't know how many people watched that, but that was on a few years ago. The Bible is very clear.

Even if science did not prove a global disaster, Scripture does. And Scripture is the ultimate authority. Therefore, we base what we believe on the Word of God and what it states.

And so we need to understand at the very outset that there was this world at one time totally covered with water because God judged that age and destroyed it because of their wickedness. Genesis chapter 6 teaches about their wickedness, what had taken place, and we have spent time studying Genesis chapter 6. But now we're in Genesis chapter 7, and we want to move from the question that we need to grasp to the salvation of the godly. That's in verses 1 to 4. We're going to move from there to look at the annihilation of the godless and then some invocations for our generation today.

Genesis chapter 7 verse number 1, Then the Lord said to Noah, Come into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. We looked last time at the call to Noah. God invited Noah to come into the ark.

He didn't say go into the ark, but, Noah, I want you to come into the ark, almost as if He was saying, this is where I am going to be. If you are going to be preserved, if you are going to be protected, then you need to be in this place with me. And the ark provides for us a wonderful type of salvation.

As there was one door into the ark, there is only one way into glory. Jesus Christ is that door. And in Genesis chapter 7 verse number 16, God would close the door on the ark, because there would be no one else who would be able to enter in because of their unwillingness to repent of their wickedness.

And so God provided that one avenue for Noah and his family to be preserved. He extended the call to Noah. You come, Noah.

You come in here. I will provide for you. I will protect you.

Is it not true that when we come to Jesus Christ in salvation, that our life is hid in Christ with God, as Colossians teaches? It's God's power that keeps us and protects us from this evil age. And now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we praise God for that.

But Noah would respond to the call of God in his life. We talked about that last week. But we want to move on now from the call to Noah to the commission of Noah.

God commissioned Noah. In verse number 2, look what it says in Genesis chapter 7. It says, "'Ye shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female, and of the animals that are not clean, two, a male and his female, also of the birds of the sky by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days I will send rain on the earth.

Forty days and forty nights I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.'" God said, Noah, this is what I want you to do. This is how I want you to do it. And with that comes a lot of questions.

For instance, how did all these animals get to Noah? Did he, for 120 years, have to go around and round them up to get them to come into the ark? How did he get all these animals to come to him? Another question that we need to ask is, how did all these animals survive in the ark? I mean, they were there for a year. I mean, who would do the cleaning up of all the animals? There were no windows in the ark. The stench had to be incredibly enormous.

I mean, who would clean all that up? What would they do with all the excrement? There was only one window in the ark. The door was shut by God. You couldn't open it.

What do they do with all that stuff? And thirdly, you need to ask the question, is that ark big enough to hold what scientists say are the millions of species in our world today? And what is this about the sevens coming? These pairs of sevens, three pairs plus one, what do they have to do with this whole ark situation? And there are probably more questions, but hopefully as we look at this, we can begin to answer some of those questions for you. Dr. Henry Morris says this about the pairs of sevens. He says, immediately after telling Noah the time had come, God instructed him to take seven of each clean animal along with the pairs of all the others into the ark to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

The stated purpose was of course valid if the flood was to be universal, but irrelevant if the flood were local. The clean animals included a few beasts and birds, but apparently no creeping things. It seems likely that the clean animals were those adjudged suitable for domestication and a form of fellowship with man, and thus also suitable for sacrificial offerings and atonement for man.

Since no previous categorization of animals as clean or unclean is given in Genesis, it is perhaps most reasonable to believe that God allowed Noah to use His own judgment on this. That three pairs were to encourage the relatively greater numerical proliferation of the clean animals after the flood on par with man, with his three surviving families. And perhaps also to allow for a greater variety of genetic factors so that more varieties could be developed later as needed.

The seventh animal in each group clearly was intended for sacrificial purposes, and we will see that in Genesis 8, verse number 20. You have to realize that after the flood, and after the land was now dry, God gave the command that for the very first time man could eat meat. And so the pairs of seven would allow them to not only eat meat but allow them to accomplish the legitimate sacrifices that God would demand of them, and we'll study more about that in Genesis chapter 8. But the question naturally arises, as in how did all these animals fit unto the ark? This is not a big deal at all when you sit down and you understand exactly what the scriptures do teach.

1.4 million cubic feet of space is equivalent to 522 regular-sized railway boxcars. That's a lot of space. There was ample room for Moses—excuse me, Noah, not Moses—Noah to make sure that all these animals were taken care of.

And then, of course, you've got to ask the question and answer the question, how do all these animals survive on the ark? Let's say there are 72,000 of them there. How do they all survive? Well, let's just say God, who is supernatural, decided to work in the realm of the natural. Let's just say he decided to do that.

There is a system and there is a truth of hibernation and estivation, that is, lying dormant in the winter, lying dormant in the summertime. So it could be possible for some of the animals on the ark to sleep all winter and others to sleep all summer, if God decided to do it in the natural way. But if God brought all these animals to Noah and Noah brought them all on to the ark, God bringing them all to Noah would be a supernatural act anyway.

And if our God is a God of miracles, taking care of them on the ark is not a problem at all. Maybe they slept for the entire year. Maybe God put them to sleep.

I don't know. But this is no big deal for a God of miracles. That's how God operates anyway.

Why would we thank him to do less during the flood? Which leads us to ask, how did all these animals get there? Well, over in Genesis chapter six, verse number 20, it says this, of the birds after their kind and of the animals after their kind and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive. No, you don't have to round them up. They're going to come to you.

Chapter seven, verse number nine, there went into the ark by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. Then down in verse number 15 of chapter seven, so they went into the ark to Noah by twos of all flesh, in which was the breath of life. God brought them to Noah.

That's how they got there. Now listen very carefully. Some of you out there probably saying, yeah, right.

This is ridiculous. This can't happen. Well, you know what? There are many people who say that Jonah wasn't swallowed by a big fish either, but the Bible says it happened.

The Bible also says that God would shut the mouths of lions when Daniel was thrown into the lion's den. I believe that happened. Do you believe that happened? There was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were thrown into a fiery furnace, and those who threw them into the furnace were burned up.

Yet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would walk around inside that fiery furnace, and when they came out, when the king called them out, there was not even the smell of smoke on their clothes. That's because God is a God of miracles. There is the parting of the Red Sea.

The Bible teaches that, and I do believe that. There is the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000, and I do believe that. And there is the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, and I do believe that.

I believe what the word of God says. Some of the Christians today who don't believe in a global flood and don't believe that what actually happened in Noah's Ark could have happened, I really got a question, whether or not they really believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. If they doubt the Bible in one area, I bank on the fact that they're going to doubt the Bible in another area, and the most important area is that if Jesus Christ be not raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain.

God's word speaks very clear, my friends. You either live by faith or you live by sight. If you live by sight, you're not living by faith, and if you don't live by faith, you're probably not a true child of God.

That's what the word of God teaches, and it's high time we as Christians begin to be dogmatic and authoritative on what the word of God teaches and stop fooling around with all these people who want to come up with all these highfalutin ideas as to what they think really happened back in Genesis chapter 7. Take them to the text and say, this is what the word of the Lord says, this is what I believe. Which leads me to this third point about the salvation of the godly, not only the call to Noah and the commission to Noah, but the compliance of Noah. Verse number 5, And Noah did according to what? All that the Lord had commended him.

He did it all according to what God had commended him. Verse number 6, now Noah was 600 years old when the flood of water came upon the earth, then Noah and his son, his wife, and his son's wives with him entered the ark, because of the water, the flood of clean animals and animals that are not clean, and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and females, God had commanded Noah. And it came about after the seven days that the water of the flood came upon the earth.

Verse number 7, Noah was extremely compliant. Whatever you say, Lord, whatever you want me to do, Lord, that's what I will do. I could spend the rest of our time this morning just on that one point, and Noah did all that God commanded him to do.

Listen very carefully, you are here today because God and His sovereignty brought you. And I want to let you know something, there are some of you who are listening today who are not willing to do all that God has commanded you to do. You're willing to do some things, but not all things.

And that's the difference between your life and the life of Noah. I'll say it to you again, I've said it to you a hundred times. 1 Samuel tells us that he who honors me, I will honor.

Are you honoring God with your life? Are you obeying all that God has commanded you to obey? Or are you picking and choosing that which you want to obey? I trust that you've obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that as you grow and you walk with the Lord, you understand more of what it means to be obedient to Him in your daily living, that you might serve Him with all your heart as Noah himself did. That leads us to point number three, the annihilation of the godless.

The annihilation of the godless, that's in verses 10 down through verse number 24. Three things you see, the depth of the flood, the duration of the flood, and the destruction of the flood. Those three things together completely destroyed all those who lived on the earth.

It says in verse number 19 of chapter seven, and the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed 15 cubits higher and the mountains were covered. 15 cubits is 22 feet above the highest mountain on the face of the earth.

The waters prevailed. That's pretty deep. That's the depth of the flood.

You can't get around it. It was all mountains on all the face of the earth were covered with at least 22 feet of water. Now, that leads us to the duration of the flood.

How did all those mountains get covered with that water? It says in verse number 24, and the water prevailed upon the earth 150 days. The water gushed upon the earth for 150 days. We know from verse number 12 that the rain fell upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

That's all it rained. But it was another 110 days that the water would prevail upon the earth. Where did all that water come from? It tells us in verse number 11, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on the same day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

Two avenues by which this water came from, the floodgates in the sky, and there was a great eruption in the earth. Scientists tell us that there is over 200 million cubic miles of water stored underneath the earth's surface. There was more than enough water to cover this earth.

And that water gushed out and continued to gush out for 150 days. This was a torrential downpour from above and tremendous upheaval from below. There was absolutely no escaping the floodwaters.

And we know that the most destructive force on the face of the earth is water. It can destroy anything in its path. And so for 150 days, this water continued to gush up out of the earth, so as to cover even the highest mountain on the face of the earth.

The floodwaters did not disappear from the earth until 317 days after they began. And it wasn't until 375 days, according to Genesis chapter 8, verse number 14, that the earth was completely dry. It took 225 days for the earth to dry after the water prevailed for 150 days.

There's no way that a local flood would take that long to dry. This was a global disaster. The duration of the flood would cause every living thing on the face of the earth to perish.

Which leads us to the destruction from the flood. It says in verse number 21, and all flesh that moved on the earth perish, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth and all mankind. Of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life died.

Thus he blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and the birds of the sky. And they were blotted out from the earth and only Noah was left together with those that were with him in the ark. God destroyed everything because God is not someone you fool around with.

Which leads us to the implications for our generation. There are three of them. The first is this, the power and the patience of God.

The power and the patience of God. How is it that the flood helps us see God's power? Simply by this. Psalm 148 tells us that God causes the snow and the rain and the hail and the fire.

God causes it all. God is so powerful that he controls everything. But not only the power of God, but the patience of God.

The Bible tells us that God is long-suffering, 2 Peter 3.9, not willing that any should perish. The Bible tells us in the book of Peter, as well as in the book of Genesis, he waited 120 years. God was long-suffering.

God was patient with mankind. And since that time, he has waited 2,000 years for man to repent and to give his life to him. God has been waiting a long time for man to come to him.

He's waited a much longer time to destroy the world this time than he did the first time. The patience of Almighty God. That's what the flood teaches us, the power and patience of God.

The second thing it teaches us deals with the punishment of the godless. God will not let the guilty go unpunished. But, point number three, there is the protection of the godly.

The protection of the godly. God knows how to protect you. God knows how to deliver you from your temptation.

Do you know, listen very carefully, that there are people sitting in this auditorium who have been delivered from all kinds of temptation. They've been delivered from sexual addiction. They've been delivered from drug addiction.

They've been delivered from smoking addiction. They've been delivered from alcohol addiction. People in this very room have been delivered from those things.

So don't say it can't happen because God wants to do it. And it's not God who's at fault here. Because God wants to deliver you from any kind of temptation, any kind of difficulty that you have.

He wants to rescue your life. He is the one who protects the godly and delivers the godly and rescues the godly. Have you been rescued by Him? Have you been delivered by Him? I trust that you have.

It says in Proverbs chapter 18, verse number 10, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it and is safe. The righteous man knows that the Lord God is a strong tower and runs to Him, flees to Him, pursues Him and finds safety in the arms of God.

Nowhere else can you find that protection. Nowhere else can you find what you need. But in the arms of God, the strong tower, that's where you need to go.

The implications for our generation of the flood, the power and the patience of God, the punishment of the godless, the protection of the godly, and fourthly, the purpose of the gospel. The purpose of the gospel. Listen to what Paul said in Galatians chapter 1, verse number 4, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore.

Amen. Do you know why God came? To deliver us out of this evil age, please. Don't leave today without knowing for certain that if you died tonight, you'd spend eternity with God.

Let's pray.