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Pastor Dane discusses God's wrath and the days of Noah
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Pastor Dane discusses God's wrath and the days of Noah
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The speaker begins by thanking their friend for their prayers and sharing that they had a safe trip despite speeding. They then discuss the importance of understanding God's wrath and judgment as it keeps us in fear and aware of our history. They mention Jonathan Edwards and his sermon about sinners in the hands of an angry God, highlighting the decline of the church in the mid-1700s. They explain that God wanted to bring about a major revival during this time, which would later impact the founding of the nation. They discuss the significance of the Great Awakening and quote excerpts from Edwards' sermon, urging people to flee from the wrath of God. They then shift to the story of Noah, emphasizing his righteousness and walk with God. They talk about the corruption and evil in the world during that time and how it grieved God. They explain that Noah found favor with God and was chosen to save humanity. They define what it means to walk with God, using a visual metaphor of a balance bea We're taking turns here on vacation, so pray for his safety. We had a great trip. Thank you for all your prayers. I made record time. It might have been because I was speeding a little, but yeah, God kept us safe, and we're thankful for that, and we're thankful that you guys are out here this morning. We're gonna talk about kind of a heavier topic today. We don't often talk about the wrath of God and his discipline and his judgment, but it's an important part of our walk with him because it keeps us in fear of him, a healthy fear, but also helps us know our history. We know that God brings about destruction on sinners, and once sin takes a hold of a nation, it's hard to come back from that, and we're seeing that here in our nation right now, and the wrath of God is coming unless we change our direction. So, but before we get into that, let's go ahead and go to God in prayer this morning. So, dear God, we thank you so much that we can come here and worship you to continue in worship through listening to your word, and forgive us for our sins. Help us to stay out of the way of what you want to tell us this morning, and I just pray that you would just be with us here in a powerful way. We commit this to you in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're talking about the wrath of God and our salvation. You know, Jonathan Edwards talked about the sin of the church. He said, you know, sinners in the hands of an angry God. You might have heard that sermon. But in the mid-1700s, the church was just in bad, bad shape. It was in such bad shape that they were hiring non-Christian preachers to teach and preach. They were in a desperate situation. The church was in decline. But God, for some reason, in the middle 1700s, wanted to bring about a major, and made me think, why 1750s? Well, remember, a generation later, 1776, the kids of those parents of that revival would have been the founders of our nation. And that revival would have carried on through the 1776, around that time, and they knew the importance of sticking close to God. So we had the Great Awakening. So Jonathan Edwards said this, he just, listen, I think they're rebooting the system, but he said this in a sermon. If you listen to his sermon, he was, I guess, kind of monotone and kind of a boring preacher of a really small town like Albion, kind of like Scott is. No, he's not here, so I can dig on him. But Jonathan Edwards was not that great of a speaker from a little tiny church, but God said, I'm gonna use you to start the biggest awakening in American history. And here is one of the excerpts from his sermon. He says this, therefore, let anyone who does not know Christ awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom, run for your lives, don't look back. Escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed. So he's talking about America, talking about this congregation that was really deeply into the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Apparently, back then, we don't often think of that. But he says, run, don't look back, because destruction is coming if you do. It's really important that we run away from destruction, just like in the days of Noah. We're gonna be in Genesis 6, chapter six, verse five today. We'll start there if you guys are following along. But then he says, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent, imagine that, every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, how often? Continually. So, every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We wonder why Christians are getting destroyed in our nation right now. We think about God on Wednesday nights, Sunday mornings, maybe. You know, maybe some beyond that. They think about evil continually. They wake up in the morning, how can I do more evil? And it's so a part of the culture and the mainstream that evil is everything, and everywhere they go. Whereas our religion, that's a religion in itself, our religion is, many times, in a little square box like this room. And we contain it here, and we don't go out there and use it. But he says continually, and it just means all, completely. It consumed everything. And the message version says this, God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagine evil, evil, evil. Evil from morning to night. So, there wasn't many faithful during this time, God said. In fact, just one, Noah. Noah was able to stand out because the culture and the people were consumed with evil. But he was consumed with God. And we're gonna find out he wasn't perfect. But he still pursued a walk with God. How long did it take for corruption of the world to take over from Adam and Eve? Well, we don't really know how long Adam and Eve lived on the earth until the fall. But we do know that he lived during the time of Methuselah, and Methuselah would have known Noah. But he really missed knowing Adam himself by about 120 some years. So, they were only one generation away from talking to Adam. Hey, how was that creation thing? How was that fruit that you tasted? I hope it was worth it, because now we're gonna die. I hope it was worth it, because now God's gonna bring destruction on the world. And we see that the flood would have happened about 1656. Well, we know that specific date, because remember those boring genealogies that got put in there in scripture had a purpose, to tell us how long it took for the world to fall. Two generations, that was it. That does not take very long for evil to take over. This greatly disappointed God, he never intended for it to be this way. He never intended for us to be involved with evil and Satan, and being separated from him, it was never natural. You feel like you're never at home here. Sometimes you feel depressed sometimes. That's because this isn't our home. We don't feel comfortable here, because it's not our place, it's not our home. Things were so bad that God was sorry. In Genesis 6, it says, "'The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, "'and he was grieved in his heart.'" The King James Version even uses the word repentance. It says, "'And it repented the Lord "'that he made man on the earth, "'and it grieved him in his heart.'" Oftentimes we think of this word, nakum, which is repent, as changing your direction. In this sense, did God change his mind that he made? He's like, oh, I really regret making those guys. Well, nakum also means comfort. He's comforting himself. He created us in his image. He feels, he loves, he has emotions. So he's sitting there, oh, it just kills you. Kind of like you raise your kid your whole life, and then all of a sudden they turn away from you or rebel against you. And you're like, oh, that just hurts. And he consoled himself. He felt sorry that he had made him, not in a way that he regretted having a relationship with man, but he just felt so sad because it hurt. God grieves. We don't often think of that. But Noah found favor and saved all of humanity, fortunately. He says, "'But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.'" How? Because he was a righteous man. It says in verse nine, "'These are the records of the generations of Noah. "'Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time.'" And here's the key, Noah walked with God. Was he perfect? Did he, was he walking with God? And then he'd be like, distracted off the path and go do something bad? Yes, we all do that. But he always remembers God's over there on that path. I need to default back to that path. Same for David, same for all these characters in the Bible. Yeah, you're gonna stray, but you always have that default path you need to run back to. So this time, that generation, during his time, or generation, a generation typically was 20 years. Later on, God would limit the ages to 120 years. So there's a debate on what a generation actually is in the scripture. And it probably changes depending on the context. But here he says he was blameless and perfect. It comes from the word tzaddik, which just means integrity. He had integrity. And he wasn't perfect because of what he did. To walk comes from the Hebrew word halak. It means come near, accompany. So he was coming near God, he was accompanying God. He was walking with God, just like Enoch walked with God. Well, and then he was no more, right? God took him. And then Seth also walked with God. There was all kinds of pre-flood people that walked with God. But you could see the generation was getting worse and worse. And all of a sudden, all you have is Noah left. What does this closeness mean? What does it mean to walk with God? Francis Chan, I showed him, I think, on Wednesday a couple weeks ago. But he also has a good one called the balance beam. Now this is an older video. It's a little grainy, but you can still see the purpose of it. So we're gonna go ahead and see if this will work for you. We get a little scared. And this is what Christians do. You know, they try to serve God, but then things get a little rocky. And things get a little unstable. And so we go, okay, that was nuts. I don't wanna live like that. Let me hold on. And this is your routine. This is what so many people do. They go, you know what? I'm not gonna try anything crazy. I'm just gonna sit here. And I'm just gonna hold on. And this is what you look like. You just go, this is what people do. You know, I'm just gonna have my nice little family. We're just gonna, you know, we're just gonna keep to ourselves. We're gonna live in a gated community. You know, homeschool my kids. Make them wear helmets everywhere. I'm gonna, you know, I'm not gonna let them outside because the sun has bad rays. I'm gonna, you know, just on and on and on. And you just live your life in a safety. If I don't wanna do anything crazy for God, I just wanna, you know, go to church on Sundays and maybe give like 2% and maybe serve, help in our church because I feel guilty. And then you do this your whole life. And then you go through your greatest prayers. Like, God, you know what? I would love to die in my sleep and not even feel it. And then just go up to heaven. And so you wanna die like this, just in your sleep over in the middle of a dream, the dream you're going to heaven and you don't even feel it. And then suddenly you wake up, you stand before the judge and you go. Now, if, could you imagine, could you imagine watching the Olympics, you know? And some girls does that. And just gets up there and starts straddling the thing and then just steps off and goes. What is the judge supposed to do on the card? You see, and to me, I go, man, that's the routine that so many Christians are headed for. That's the routine of boring. I do nothing crazy because I don't wanna fall. That's the routine that they're gonna look and then one day it's gonna be a shock because they're gonna step off that balance beam and realize they're standing before the judge. They're standing before the judge and you think he's gonna look at that routine and go, wow, well done, well done. You lived the safest life possible. You didn't slip, you didn't fall. See, that's not the life that God's called us to. That's where the majority will head, but I don't wanna go where the majority goes. I like how he used the word judge because that is who we're gonna stand before. We don't often think of a judging God that we're gonna, yeah, loving. We love to think about Him as loving and absolutely is 100% love, but He's also the judge. And that should give us a little fear, you know, fire under us to walk with Him. And that's what walking with Him is. We'll take risks. It will be difficult. We'll be putting ourselves out there. We're gonna get made fun of many times. Maybe even go to jail. There was a lady at the Capitol on January 6th that was praying over the situation. She was in the Capitol. This grandma was praying and they just arrested her this week, literally just praying in the Capitol. You're like, whoa. But yeah, they don't mess around. So taking risks will get us in trouble, but it's doing God's will that's more important. So Noah had the world against him, but he still walked with God. He still trusted God, even though, you know, in Noah's day, he's told to build this boat. It's like, you're gonna have to cross across that balance beam. Even when this is a far-fetched thing, you're gonna get made fun of. You're gonna think it's impossible, but God told him to do it and he trusted God. And you know, there's nothing greater than just trusting God in everything. That's where salvation begins. Do you think trusting God ends just with our salvation? The most powerful thing that occurs in our life is trusting God with our faith. But the second most powerful thing is trusting God with that next step forward. Yeah, we may think we're gonna fall off that beam. If we do, God will be there to catch us, not that it's not gonna hurt. But even though he was made fun of, he was trusted. How do we trust God? Always, you know, when we're broke. Don't have much money left. We know that right now in this economy. When we experience pain, when we suffer, when all goes wrong, do we still trust God? We need to have faith like Noah did. He built this boat on dry land and there's many say that it, Kent Hovind was studying him, but he thinks it didn't even rain because there was that canopy over the earth. The humidity alone and the dew would actually water the earth enough. So there may not have even been rain. And God says, hey, there's gonna be this new thing called rain and a flood, which they didn't even know could happen. Was this blind faith? No, he was convinced to believe and convinced to trust. There is a convincing that occurs. But we're gonna have mockers. We're gonna have obstacles come along. Kind of like this guy, Richard Dawkins. He says, faith is the great cop out. He's an atheist. The great excuse to evade the thing, need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of the lack of evidence. Wow, imagine how blind you have to be to not wake up in the morning, see the sunrise, see the complexity of this world and say that it lacks evidence of God, of a creator, of an intelligence designer. He probably wrote that on a computer design by somebody. And that's a pretty simple mechanism compared to who we are and how this world works. This next guy too, another mocker, just like you would see in Noah's day, exactly the same spirit almost. Says religion because thinking is hard. They just think we're uneducated. But the more educated they get, the more dumb they get many times learning the things of the world and not the things of God. And then moral relativism takes over in this next picture. She is her own Bible. This is a great example, a great picture of the ideology behind this movement that's destroyed worlds. So she is her own Bible. She decides right from wrong. A great picture of the mentality of these people. They define what is right and wrong and that's called moral relativism. Rather than getting it from God's word, they define it for themselves, which is very scary. Because if you define right and wrong, you can just go murder that person you don't like very much. You know, or your kid gives you a hard time one day. Yeah, go ahead and do it. Off him or whatever. You know, there's no morality, but they know there's morality. They know there's a moral law giver. Francis Schaeffer said this, a Christian theologian, lived about 100 plus years ago. Modern man has both feet firmly planted in midair. Why does he use that word firmly? Because they think they're firmly planted. But we can see, and we are on the ground, grounded in Christ and the truth. We can look up and see that they're not firmly planted. But yet they try to convince us to believe that we are not firmly planted. If Christianity's so dumb and not a threat, why wake up every morning scheming ways to attack it? Why devote your whole life to attacking God's word? We have obvious proof throughout scripture. There's just a few things that just barely scratch the surface. We would take weeks and months to go over all the proof that God is who he is and the Bible is his inspired word. We have proof of Sodom and Gomorrah. We have proof of God's wrath. We found the sulfur bowls in Sodom and Gomorrah. Probably have that next picture there. The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah have been found. And you can kind of see the city structure, what's remaining of it. It's turned to ash now. But if you go and watch videos of the guys, it just flakes off, kind of like after you burn a thick book or something, it turns to ash. It's still there. God preserved it. He didn't have to preserve it, but he preserved it to prove his word. But you literally find sulfur bowls. It says millions of high purity, 98% pure sulfur bowls with burn rings, like they had been caught on fire, were there embedded in what looks like the ashen remains of cities. So the picture of the bottom here is Gomorrah. Ron Wyatt was the one that discovered that area. Now they don't want us to discover any of these things. So they work like crazy to keep it out of the news. We also have proof of the Red Sea crossing. There's this place called Neweba Beach. And if you go back, you can see a path through the mountains that the Israelites would have really been forced to take because otherwise you're going up and over mountains over and over. But there's this nice, gentle path going through, and then this big land mass there where, I don't know, some people say up to a million Israelites were there on this Neweba Beach. And then right at the end of the beach, there's a natural land bridge underneath. They actually say it's shallower now than it was before, so the miracle was even greater back then. But they found these wheels, these chariot wheels underneath the ocean. Some of them were gold, so they were preserved very well. And you know, King Solomon even recognized this. You remember King Solomon was the one that built the temple? He recognized this Red Sea crossing, so he put pillars here. It says in Phoenician letters it contained the words Mizraim, Egypt, Solomon, Edom, Death. These are written on the pillars. Pharaoh, Moses, and Yahweh, indicating that King Solomon had set up these columns as a memorial to the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea. Guess what? Saudi Arabia does not admit tourists. You probably don't want to be a tourist there anyway, especially right now. And perhaps fearing unauthorized visitors, the Saudi authorities have since removed this column and replaced it with a flag marker where it once stood. So they were there for thousands of years and now the Saudi Arabians are like, oh, they caught onto it. Those are Solomon's pillars proving the crossing of the Red Sea. And here's one of the most convincing things of the flood itself is marine life was found on Mount Everest. So do you know which mountain is the highest mountain in the world? I already gave you the answer. It's the tallest elevation in the world, Mount Everest. And we see that we found marine life on the top of that mountain. How else could marine life be on the top of a mountain, the highest one in the world? Why would it be there? Well, I think God put it there. He's like, where's my highest mountain? I wanna make sure there's evidence of that flood. So he put it there. There's one of the fish that they found up there on the top of the mountain. Just a few basic quick things that prove that the Bible is real, but the denial and defiance against God's obvious truth is at an all-time high. It's like as in the days of Noah. You know, you might've heard that about the future or maybe about the present. Second Peter 3.3 says, know this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, see that, following after their own lusts. And another way God compares Noah's flood to the second coming is that it will come out of nowhere. For these people, it came out of nowhere. They didn't even know what rain was. And now it came out of nowhere and it came unexpectedly. Matthew 24.36 starts this way. But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven or the sun, but the Father alone. Remember, this was Matthew writing about Jesus on earth. Now Jesus obviously is all-knowing. He knows the day and the hour. And he also talked about the signs and that we can know the season even. But it says, for the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Until that day, Noah entered the ark and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. So will the coming of the Son of Man be. Did Noah know when it was gonna happen? Noah walked with God. God told him that there would be a flood. He had just over 100 years to build it. He had a over 100 year warning. Yes, Noah knew. So can we know about the time range of the second coming? Absolutely. We have different signs and things that were put in scripture. And God even told the Jews, you guys are an adulterous generation because you asked for a sign and here I am right in front of you. We have all the signs in scripture. We don't wanna be that adulterous nation. We wanna say yes. All those signs are locked into place now. Now we just wait for his return. It will come unexpectedly especially and obviously to those people that aren't watching, that aren't looking for the signs. Although Noah was warned, they wouldn't listen. Had 120 years of warning. Destruction of evil is coming. And unfortunately there's gonna be a lot of decent people that are gonna be destroyed in God's judgment. But God has a plan and God has a way out just like he did for Noah. Well, our way out is the rapture and we're looking forward to that. We see the signs of his coming. We see that they're all ready to build the temple. There's nothing holding them back. We know the temple has to be there for the Antichrist to go into the temple, obvious, and set up his position there. We're right on the edge. 14 says, make for yourself an ark of gopher wood and you shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. Thus Noah did. According to all that God had commanded him, so he did. Genesis 7-1 goes on. Then the Lord said to Noah, enter the ark, you and all your household for you alone I have seen to be righteous. And I have seen to be perfect before me in this time. So here, he's reminding him that, hey, you guys are the only ones that I find righteous or blameless or innocent is what that word means. How could this be if Noah wasn't perfect? Here, we're gonna have a little dirt on Noah here in Genesis 9-20. It says, then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. Then he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. So he got drunk and naked. That's not a positive image. You know, that would kind of ruin the ministry of anybody, right? But our perfection, fortunately, doesn't come from ourself. It doesn't come from what we define as righteousness. It comes from what Jesus imparts onto us as righteousness. So here, we're gonna have a little dirt on Noah. It says, then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. Then he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Here, we're gonna have a little dirt on Noah. It says, then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. Then he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Here, we're gonna have a little dirt on Noah. It says, then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. Then he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. So what saved Noah? Trust. He said he walked and talked with God. He knew God. He was convinced to believe. David, same way. What saved him? Trusting God. Knowing God was on that path. Yeah, I'm going off the path. We know he sinned. We know he murdered one of his good friends. If I murdered one of my good friends, I think I'd lose my ministry. But he trusted God. Peter denied Jesus three times, but he was one of the 12 disciples that helped establish his church because he trusted God still, even though he messed up. We have Abraham, whose willingness to sacrifice his son, the trust that God had a plan for this situation, even though God says, go kill your son. That doesn't seem like much of a godly plan, but he still trusted God. So it all goes back to trusting. And then Joseph 7, 4 goes on. After seven more days, I will send rain on the earth, 40 days and 40 nights, and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made. Do you think that hurt God? I think so. You know, you just think of your kids. I mean, imagine if your kid got so out of control. You know he'd never come back. You know he's only gonna do destruction. And then you blot him out. That has to hurt to see that betrayal. So we see that 40 days and 40 nights is the time range of the flood. Now we see this 40-day period many times over in scripture. It became kind of another sacred number. God is mathematical. Everything in nature and around us is all mathematical. And he uses 40 days during his fast. Remember, 40 days in the desert fasting, and he was tempted by Satan. We know Elijah, after he fled Jezebel, he took a 40-day trip to Mount Horeb. We know that Moses spent 40 days on Mount Horeb before the Ten Commandments were given to him. So that was a really important separation time in God's eyes. Not sure exactly why, but God had a plan and he likes to tie his scripture together. But it shows also how God is our sustainer in seemingly impossible circumstances. If God tells you to fast for 40 days, you better have a miracle because we can't survive 40 days without food and water. There better be some miracle involved in that. And that was God's point. He says, yeah, you're gonna have to go do this for 40 days, but I will sustain you. Even though it seems insurmountable. Kind of like I was talking to a guy the other day about we have this procedure, when I was a manager at a bank, if we were to get locked in the vault, you know, we'd be locked in there for 12 hours because there's a timer and if they would turn that lock, it would lock for 12 hours. So we were prepared, I had a bucket and I even got some snacks and water. But my boss's boss came in and saw those snacks and water and she got kind of mad at me for that. And I'm like, we got to live for 12 hours, come on, we got to survive this 12 hour period. But that's nothing, you know, we can't sustain anything even for attention span, even more than 10 minutes. It's very difficult. So we need God to sustain us through those long haul trials. Genesis continuing on here in verse 11. In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month on the 17th day of the month, the earth fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the sky were open. Now another Kent Hovind theory is the earth was covered in land, there was no separate land masses. There was still rivers and lakes and streams and things like that. But he's saying that it was all together and kind of just, it broke through kind of like that little thin layer on an egg. The floodgates broke through that and shattered that layer and made it crumble. But the rain fell upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. Salvation came for Noah. And what was the salvation? Well, he trusted God and God told him to build the ark. He wouldn't have survived with one last thing, one last thing God had to do. He had to close the door. Noah built this huge door and how in the world is he gonna close this door? Well, God himself intended to close this door in Genesis 7, 16, it says, the Lord himself shut him in. Why did he do that? Because he wanted to be known as the door. Jesus calls himself the door when he's here on earth. Referring back to Genesis and Noah, the Jews would have recognized that too, that connection. But that door is huge, impossible to close. That was their salvation, that one door and God shut it for them. But now the doors are closed. But it was seven days actually until the floods swept the boat away. So what kept thousands of people from panicking and coming up to the boat and starting to freak out when they saw this new thing called rain? Well, there's a book called the Book of Jasher and there is some credibility to it. I mean, we've quoted it a couple of times here. But the Book of Jasher is mentioned in Joshua 10, if you're taking notes, Joshua 10, 12 through 13, when the Lord, this is a little appropriate, the Lord stopped the sun in the middle of the day during the battle of Beth Horan, remember, to help Joshua? And tomorrow we're gonna have that eclipse. God uses the sun and the moon and the stars to tell us things. And you know, maybe there is a lot to what's happening tomorrow to get our attention because of where our nation is right now. So make sure you're paying attention to that. But God also mentioned the Book of Jasher in 2 Samuel 1, 18 as containing the song or the lament of the boat it was called. It was a mournful funeral song, which David composed at the time of the death of Saul and Jonathan. So you hear this, they have this battle and this death, and then you have the flood mentioned in the Book of Jasher. There's a lot of dark things that are expanded upon in the Book of Jasher. But the problem is that we have older manuscripts that quote the Book of Jasher, but we don't have the oldest known copies from the 1600s. So we don't take this as scripture. Most of the book does not change your doctrine, but it expands on the stories that already exist. So really interesting. So we're gonna see this backstory of how God protected this ark in Jasher 6, verse 1. Imagine being these people. God shut the door. Noah's all safe inside. Noah preached for 120 years to try to convince them to turn their direction. Once that door is shut, the time is over. Once the door is shut in death, your time is over to turn to God. Do you not think that non-Christians who die, God haters who die, will know instantly because their spirit is going somewhere, and they're gonna know instantly, wow, I was wrong. Do you not think that they're gonna try to turn to God at that time, just like here at the ark? Jasher 6, verse 1 says, at that time after the death of Methuselah, the Lord said to Noah, go thou with thy household into the ark. Behold, I will gather to thee all the animals of the earth, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and they shall come and surround the ark. So the door is closed. He's already taken the two by two, and now these animals are surrounding the ark, but why? To protect them from these people that are gonna rush it. Verse 11 goes on, and on that day the Lord caused the whole earth to shake, and the sun darkened, and the foundation of the world raged, and the whole earth was moved violently, and lightning flashed, and thunder roared, and all the fountains on the earth were broken up, such as was not known to the inhabitants before. And God did this mighty act in order to terrify the sons of man, that there will be no more evil upon the earth. You know, in the end, God's not gonna ever destroy the world again through a flood because he gave the rainbow as that promise. But ironically enough, the rainbow movement is gonna bring on this end once again, but it's not gonna be destroyed with a flood. It's gonna be destroyed with fire. And yeah, he's gonna use nature too. We know that the roaring of the winds and the waves are gonna happen. There's gonna be earthquakes. And we even know that men, people are gonna have heart attacks because of what they see coming on the earth. They're probably gonna be looking at their phones and seeing thousand foot tsunamis, or who knows what it's gonna be. They're gonna see the nuclear weapons probably is what God's gonna use. And they're gonna see this terrible thing that is coming upon them, much in the same way these people are seeing this terrible thing coming upon them. So they're desperate. And so the sons of men would not return from the evil ways and they increased the anger of the Lord at that time and did not even direct their hearts to all this. So even when the destruction was coming, they still didn't turn to God. They still tried to explain it away as something different. And all the fountains of the deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were open and the rain was upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. And all the sons of men that were left upon the earth became exhausted through the evil on account of the rain. So the waters were coming more violently upon the earth and the animals and beasts were still surrounding the ark, holding these people back. And the sons of men assembled together about 700,000 men and women that's interesting, 700,000 came to the ark. And they called to Noah saying, open for us that we may come in the ark and wherefore shall we die? And Noah with a loud voice, this had to hurt his heart too because he's preaching for 120 years, please, please change your direction. Have you not rebelled against the Lord and said that He does not exist and therefore the Lord brought upon you this evil to destroy you and cut you off from the face of the earth. Is not this thing that I spoke to you of 120 years back and you would not hearken to the voice of the Lord. And now do you desire to live upon the earth? And they said to Noah, we are ready to return to the Lord, only open for us that we may come in the ark. Only open for us that we may live and not die. The door is already shut. After you die, the door is already shut. This makes you feel really bad for people that haven't trusted in Christ, that haven't been convinced to believe. Nature alone convinces people to believe that you don't need God's word because where would the, people in the jungles don't have God's word. But placing a trust in that creator, acknowledging the creator is what saves them. So and it says, and Noah answered them saying, behold, now that you see the trouble of your souls, you wish to return to the Lord. Why did you not return in these 120 years which the Lord granted you as a determined period? So God set out this exact 120 years to give them another chance. He gives, how many chances does He give? 70 times seven. He gives so many chances. He tries to convince people all the time. Every morning they wake up to believe in Him. Verse 23, but now you come and tell me this on account of the troubles of your souls. Now also the Lord will not listen to you and neither will He give ear to you on this day so that you will not now succeed in your wishes. And the sons of men approached in order to break into the ark to come in on account of the rain for they could not bear the rain upon them. And the Lord sent all the beasts and animals that stood around the ark. And the beasts overpowered them and drove them from that place. And every man went his way and they again scattered themselves upon the face of the earth. So again, seven days of this rain before really much happened. Judgment was falling on them. They didn't immediately turn. And they're only like, oh, maybe we should turn as it's about to sweep them away. But then it was too late. And he says, and great anxiety seized all the living creatures that were in the ark. And the ark was like to be broken. So now the ark's lifted up. And all the living creatures that were in the ark were terrified and the lions roared and the oxen lowed and the wolves howled and every living creature in the ark spoke and lamented in its own language. So their voices reached to a great distance. Imagine the turmoil in this ark. And Noah and his sons cried and wept in their troubles. They were greatly afraid that they had reached the gates of death. Wow, even after all that trust, even though that they were in, they were saved, they were in the ark. God had told them they'd be saved in the ark, yet their human nature, they still doubt. When things get too rocky, you don't even know if God's there. And Noah prayed unto the Lord and cried out unto Him on account of this. And he said, oh Lord, help us, for we have no strength to bear this evil that has encompassed us. For the waves and the waters have surrounded us. Mischievous torrents have terrified us. The stairs of death have come before us. Answer us, oh Lord, answer us. I like this last part. Light up thy countenance towards us and be gracious to us. Redeem us and deliver us. They had already been delivered, but we need to be reminded that we're delivered. And just like in this last picture, the Lord answered us, light up thy countenance towards us. That means turn your face towards us. Give us your attention. Look us in the eyes. Help us to know that you're there. And be gracious to us. Redeem us and deliver us. He can do that if you turn towards Him. His countenance is always towards you. He always wants to save us from our troubles and He's gonna end up saving us from all this destruction. It's not us bringing on the destruction. Unfortunately, Noah had to pay for all the immoral people around him. But in the meantime, he was trying to save those immoral people around him. That's all we can do. If they don't wanna hear it, we move on. But we always have our face towards God. We always know that God is walking along that path and we wanna walk with Him. When we fall, get back on the path. Pretty basic relationship that we have with God. But we also need to know, have a little fear and know that judgment is coming very soon. Let's go ahead and close in prayer today. Dear God, thank you for your word and just how it wakes us up and helps us stay on track. I just pray that you would just walk closely with us throughout this week. Help us to always know that you're near. Even when we don't feel that you're near, we know that you're near. Lord, commit the rest of this day to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
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