(Hebrews) 6-Noah — Leonard Ravenhill

Remember the old saying, if you don't trust and obey, you'll rust and decay. Okay, Hebrews chapter 11. Since we've got more fresh men than old men here tonight, let's just say one or two things, recap as you smart people say, recapitulate, go over the thing.

Hebrews 11 as the Catalogue of Faith

Hebrews 11 is obviously the faith chapter. In the epistle to the Hebrews, faith is mentioned 32 times and it's mentioned more than 20 times in this one chapter alone. It's usually called the faith chapter.

But if you look in that wonderful little book, very practical book of James, you'll discover that he too runs most of the chapter on faith. He mentions faith there about 15 times. Now the theologians, and I'm not a theologian, have discussed and argued long ago about the first verse here in Hebrews 11.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Another addition is that faith is a conviction of the reality of the unseen. A conviction or an assurance of the things that are unseen.

Now this is a remarkable chapter. I call it the heroes of faith. It's being called the arena of faith, my definition is best. It's a catalogue of faithful men and women. If I had written it, I would not have put the characters that are in.

I wouldn't have put Moses there, he's a murderer. I wouldn't have put Noah there, he got drunk. I sure wouldn't have put Rahab there, she's a harlot. You know, it's dangerous to accept what preachers say.

Don't accept what I say, though I'm always right, but apart from that. Don't accept it until you check it up with the Word of God. It's God's Word. I don't care how big the man's head is, or how old he is, or what experience he has.

What he says must tally again with the Word of God. I remember 60 years ago reading a book by one of the best of English preachers, F .B. Meyer. F .B. Meyer was preaching at the same time that Spurgeon was preaching.

They were preaching in two Baptist churches in different parts of London. Further over on the east end, the rough end, William Boole was preaching hellfire every week. Cameron Liden, I believe, was preaching in St. Paul's Cathedral, Church of England.

But he packed the place every Sunday afternoon with Bible teachings, and it holds 3 ,000 people. There were other great celebrities at that time, before I was born, but anyhow. It's very wonderful to think of what those men did and how their books are still abiding.

But it was F .B. Meyer who called this chapter, Hebrews 11, the Westminster Abbey of the Old Testament. In Westminster Abbey, England, we bury our famous people. You can walk over them now. They're buried down the main island, on the sides and everywhere.

When I mentioned this one day, a lady came to me. She said, you know, I've been listening to the Beatles today. I said, why? She said, I think they should be buried in Westminster Abbey. I said, I do today.

Of course, one or two of them are still hanging on. But you know, it makes all the difference which way you look at this. As I said last time, you know, here is, this isn't a correct copy of it. You'll never guess what that is.

It's the Empire State Building in its original condition, but anyhow. If you get up here and take photographs, which millions of people have done, you get marvelous views. You get views of, say, Staten Island.

You can see the lady with the lamp. You can see up to Martha's Vineyard. You can see into New Jersey and all over the place. But one day a man said, millions of people have taken a picture that way. So he got on his back here and he shot his camera this way, and he took a picture that way.

It was the same thing, but it looks very different, taken from top to bottom, taken from bottom to top. It's the same thing with Hebrews 11. You know, everybody in this chapter, doesn't matter how fantastic their faith was, they were all human beings.

I say this to you because I say it to myself almost every day. I see all the achievements of these people, who by one thing, not brains, not riches, not royal standing, but by faith, what did they do?

Subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Women received their dead raised to life. Others were persecuted and tortured by tradition, which is a very uncertain thing.

It's said that Isaiah was hung upside down and sewn down the middle with a wooden saw, which would be terribly painful. But they suffered unbelievable tortures and agonies and pains. And yet, you know, the amazing thing amongst others to me is this, that with all they did, and this really boils me over honestly before God.

With all their achievements, subduing kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, wrote marvelous epistles and prophecies, and yet not one of them ever had a Bible.

Hey, you better calm down a bit on your Bible knowledge. I know you know almost everything in the first six weeks you've been here, but apart from that, there are other things to learn, believe me. But you know, the more you boast, the more God will hold you responsible at the end of the track.

You know, there's a final checkout counter. Call it the judgment seat if you like. Call it what an American cowboy called it, the last round-up. We're all going to meet there, no matter who you are. The Pope's going to be there.

At the judgment of sinners he'll be, not the saints. But anyhow, there's going to be a judgment for everyone. We're going to finally end up there. And God has nothing to say. I like that hymn, Our Firmer Foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord.

Do you remember? There's a clause in it that says, What more can he say than to you he has said? Now, if the world goes on another million years, God has nothing to say to mankind. He's said it all here.

There's not another word to add to it. It's no good saying, Oh, I wish I had lived in the year 2080. What revelation will there be? Forget it, there won't be. I don't think the world will be here anyhow.

The Supremacy of Jesus Christ in Hebrews

But by the same token, God has given us everything that we need to know in this amazing chapter, book I mean, for our faith and our confidence. What is the epistle to the Hebrews? It's a commentary, a commentary if you like, on the first five books of the Bible, on the five books of Psalms, because the book of Psalms is five, in the Hebrew, five books, it's so divided.

It's a commentary, commentary, I always forget which word to say there, commentary on the wilderness journeys of the children of Israel. That, essentially, oh, you can say, well, of course, the tabernacle is unveiled there, and all the altars and sacrifices and priests and so forth, yes.

But the supreme task of the Holy Spirit here in Hebrews is to show us the majesty of Jesus Christ. That very first chapter, let's look at it just a minute here, because I want to get further on. Just look at the first chapter for a moment there.

Here's the thing, stick it in your mind forever and ever. There is not one word in the whole epistle to the Hebrews to unsaved people. Oh, you say my daddy's a preacher, well, you tell him that, what I said.

But my daddy has one of his best sermons on Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We ought to the thing we have heard, lest we let them slip.

Who's he talking to? You see, it doesn't start like the epistle to the Romans, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, to the Thessalonians and the Romans. It has no address. It does. The address is in the third chapter, verse 1.

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Now, if you're born again, you're in that classification. This is addressed to you. Partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ.

Step back into the first chapter a minute. God, who at so many times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets. I'm quoting now from King James Version, the Living Bible. It's the best version still.

God, who at so many times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets. Hath in what? In what? These last days? And that was written 2 ,000 years ago? Where do you think we are today? How does the book of the Revelation begin?

It says about the things which will shortly come to pass. And they were written 2 ,000 years ago. You know, if God has a clock, he doesn't. But if God had a timepiece, put it like this. This is 12. And you've got a big hand and a little one.

I think it's about one minute to midnight in the affairs of man. We're deteriorating so much. You see, these things are written for our learning upon whom the ends of the earth has come. Verse 2 in chapter 1 says, He hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world.

Verse 3 says that when he had by himself, that cuts out the Virgin Mary, doesn't it? The modern church, Roman church, says that Mary is co-redemptrix with Jesus Christ. That's blasphemy. The scripture here says he had by himself purged our sins.

You see, these people are having a real bad time, these Hebrews. They just stepped out of their traditional religion. They were still good Jews. They were in a hostile country because they were in captivity.

But, they were having trouble. They were being converted in huge quantities, numbers we'll say, to the Christian faith. Somebody going down the street says, Hey Isaac, I hear you join that folk that are worshipping up in that back street there.

Are you worshipping with the Christians? Yes. You poor soul. Why am I a poor soul? Well look, there's the high priest just going into the temple with his garments of glory and beauty as they're mentioned in the Bible.

He has a breastplate with twelve precious stones. Each of those stones has the name of a tribe. He walked into the Holy of Holies with the breastplate on and made intercession for the twelve tribes. There he is going into the Holy of Holies.

You don't have a high priest. Oh well, just a minute. You don't even have a temple. You don't have a sacrifice. You're in bad shape. And the Christian's face lights up like these hot lamps here. And he says, What do you mean we have no temple?

Do you have a temple? Yeah, where? He says you're looking at it. What? Well isn't that what Paul says? Know ye not your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? You're not a Christian because you believe in the virgin birth and the physical resurrection of Jesus.

The devil believes that. Demons believe it but they do more than most Christians. They tremble. And I don't know most of our folk except out of time into eternity. But there is the temple. This is the temple of God.

Where's your high priest? Where's your high priest? Oh, he died three months ago. We're installing a new one. Oh, he says, Well, you know, my high priest never dies. You have to shed blood every day on the day of atonement.

Jesus, my Lord, once at the end of the age he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. We don't have to build altars. We don't have to shed blood.

Come on, let me ask you. When you prayed, I hope you all prayed today. I won't ask you. I should start right here and see how long you prayed. But I'd better not. You might go home tomorrow. But anyhow.

Say, when you knelt in prayer today, did you believe that the God who heard the prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel heard your prayer? Did you believe that? Or is prayer just tossing words in the air and angels grab them and take them somewhere?

Do I believe when I kneel and pray that a man that was down in the belly of hell he said at the bottom of the Mediterranean his name was Jonah in a fish? From the belly of hell I cried and the Lord heard me.

Do I believe that same God hears me and I feel I'm in the belly of hell sometimes in circumstances, darkness, difficulties, bondage through certain things? Do I believe that same God hears me? People call me from many parts of America sometimes all over the world.

Would you put me on your prayer list? I say no. You won't? No. If I put everybody on my prayer list that calls or writes I'd never go to bed, I'd never eat, I'd never sleep. I'd be praying from morning till night.

Oh, I thought if I were on your prayer list. I say no. Sorry. I'll tell you somebody who has a remarkable prayer list who has a continuous ministry of intercession. Who's that? Jesus Christ. I'd feel better if you prayed for me every day.

Well, maybe you would. I don't know. But isn't it enough that you have him? I mean, what do you sing blessed assurance for if you've no confidence? There he is at the right hand of the Father. He made one.

He is the altar. And he is the sacrifice. His is the blood. And he is the priest. It's all contained in him. That's why this epistle, you see, shows us that Jesus Christ is the center and the circumference, the first and the last, the beginning and the ending of the Christian faith.

That's what the whole business is about here. If you get lost in this epistle, and not many people do, if I were a young preacher, do you know what I'd do? Well, I'd learn to handle the Word of God for sure.

But I would make it my business to become the master of one book in the New Testament, and that book would be the epistle to the Hebrews. I've been to conferences all over the world. Mr. Brown is coming.

Not Dale, but another Mr. Brown is coming. And he's going to speak on Romans. Oh, Jack Smith will be here Thursday, and he is going to speak on Ephesians. I've never heard anyone yet preach on the minor prophets, and I've never heard anyone yet take a whole series of meetings on Hebrews.

It's a most astounding book. I think the devil wants to drive us off from it because it's so full of majesty and full of glory. Faith is the substance of things. Faith is a conviction of the reality of the unseen.

Faith is a conviction of the reality of the unseen. Okay. There are three things that faith does. Faith reckons. You see, the key verse for the book, and I think for your life and mine too, is verse 6.

Faith and the Knowledge of God

Without faith. It doesn't say without doctrine. It doesn't say without a ministry. It doesn't say without prosperity. It says without faith it is impossible to believe God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is.

That he is what? Well, let me suggest that between now and next Tuesday, because you may not come next Tuesday, but for this coming week, that every day, morning and night, you read the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah.

Or as Martin Luther called it, the gospel according to Isaiah, because you have a perfect portrait of Jesus in Isaiah 53. Read the 40th chapter that shows you the magic. You can't trust somebody you don't know.

That's why our faith is so willy-nilly. The greatest tragedy of the church of Jesus Christ today is that we don't know God. You came to Bible school to learn the word of God. Well, I hope you'll learn it.

There's one thing greater than knowing the word of God. That is to know the God of the word. You can know the word of God intellectually. You can study Hebrew and Greek and get to definitions and derivations of words.

And they're certainly very profitable. But they're no substitute for a personal walk with God. He that cometh to God must believe that he is. He is what? He's everything that Isaiah 40 says he is. You know what Isaiah 40 says?

It says you look up to the stars. And this God I worship knows the name of every star. Do you know how many stars there are? Forty sextillions. Do you know what a sextillion is? It's a one with 23 zeros behind it.

That's in America. In England it's better. It's a one with 36 zeros behind it. So you put a one with 36 zeros behind it and multiply it by 40 and that's the number of stars. Of course they may have missed one or two, but anyhow.

That's what science says. But Isaiah says he counts them and he calls them all by name. Come on, don't look so forlorn. Are you all orphans? You look like it tonight. You've got a heavenly father. He knows you by name.

He sits on the circle of the earth. Isaiah 57 inhabits eternity. Another scripture says the earth is his footstool. Pretty big footstool. And the clouds are the dust of his feet. Do you know what this generation needs?

It needs a new concept of the majesty of God followed by a new concept of the holiness of God. Because when you see the holiness of God you see the corruption of men. Who's the first character here? In verse 4, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.

Worship, Abel, and Walking with God

Well, if he offered a sacrifice, he came to worship. I love to talk, think, pray, sing about worship. There's a lovely hymn, Oh, worship the King all glorious above. I love that hymn. His robe is the light and his canopy is space.

Isn't that majesty? His robe is light, space is his canopy, the earth is his footstool, the clouds are the dust of his feet. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. You see the prototype, God had already shed blood.

He had shed blood to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. They tried to cover their nakedness with what? With leaves. What did the leaves do? They crumbled up. They were left naked again. But God made a permanent covering for them by sacrificing blood, a beast, and taking those skins and making garments for them.

Now this man follows in the same type. By which? By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. By which he obtained Cain. By which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts.

Now if you go back into Genesis and read that, you'll discover that he offered, what is it saying? The firstlings of the flock. So he offered a lamb. In Hebrew it means either Greek, it means either a lamb or a goat.

We believe as a prototype, it was a type of the Lord Jesus, that it was a lamb that was slain. Cain brought the labor of the earth, but the ground had been cursed. How can you offer to God that which is cursed?

And therefore God rejected it. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. Let's go down here to what we had last week partly. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and he was found, and was not found because God translated him.

Before this translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. Now Abel is remembered for worship. Enoch is remembered in this list of the heroes of faith, not for an offering, not for worship, but for walking.

But you can't walk with God until you worship him. What is worship? Speechless adoration. To say a thing that always stirs me when I say, one day I walked in Dr. Tozer's office, he said, Len, you see that rug?

Yes. And he just said this. He said, well, he said, I lay on that rug often from eight o 'clock in the morning till twelve or even one o 'clock. That's four or five hours without saying one word of prayer or without saying a word of worship.

I am just saying a word of prayer without saying a word of prayer or a word of praise. I am just worshiped. God says, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. How do you do it? Gazing upon his majesty, gazing on his attributes, gazing on his love one day, on his mercy another day, on his compassion another day, on his redemptive work in Jesus Christ.

He said, I caught favor often, Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day. Burn, burn within me, love of God, burn fiercely night and day till all the dross of earthly love is burned and burned away.

How beautiful, how beautiful the sight. Do you ever get stunned when you pray the beauty? Do you rush straight in with the prayer? We need this and we need money at home and they're bringing a new, building a new wing on the church and I promise Joe Smith, I pray for him, he's going to New Zealand.

Do you stay and worship him, adore him? How beautiful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be. Thine endless wisdom, boundless power and awful purity. Oh Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day.

Thine endless wisdom, boundless power, thine awful purity. They're all stunning. You could spend hours meditating on them, at least I can. If you learn to worship God, you'll walk with God. We're told that Enoch walked with God.

He walked with him. He didn't walk before him. He didn't walk after him. He walked with him. Isn't it Amos 3 that says how can two walk together except they be agreed? Oh, this may sound facetious. It's not really.

I would like to walk behind Enoch and God and got a tape recording of what they were talking about, wouldn't you? I'm sure they didn't talk about sports. What did they talk about? Well, I'll tell you in a few minutes.

Noah’s Faith and the Coming Judgment

Let's come to the next character here in Hebrews 11 tonight. Verse 7. Now let me step back into verse 6, the end of it. Let me quote it all. It'll do you good anyhow. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Remember the woman that lost a piece of silver and she sought for it? No, she didn't. She sought diligently for it.

She missed it out of that band of things she wore around her forehead. It was precious to her. And she'd lost it there. She'd had it since her wedding day and she filters through the dirt and at last she finds it and runs away rejoicing because she found the piece that was lost.

Not that it was only one piece that was lost, not the whole bunch of things. It was only one sheep that was lost. It was only one man that was lost. One sheep, one coin, one prodigal. Sheethee Stud said, I think he was right too, that God would have sent Jesus to die for sinners if there was only one sinner in the whole world.

The old hymn says, we used to sing in England, never heard in America, tell me the old, old story that I may take it in that wonderful redemption God's remedy for sin. Tell me the story always. You're valuable to God.

Your church may have forgotten you were there now you're at school. Somebody else may have, but God never forgets. We're precious to him and he is a rewarder of those who seek him earnestly, those who diligently seek him.

By faith, know of being warned of God of things as not seen as yet. Moved with fear. The exact translation there is moved with godly fear. He's not moved with terror. He's not moved with threats. He's moved with the fear of love.

The fear that is almost terrified of disappointing someone. Moved with fear. Prepared an ark to the saving of his soul. He's warned of God of things not seen. What were the things not seen? Go back to Genesis chapter 6 a minute.

Genesis 6. He's warned of things not seen. What were the things not seen? They were the things not unveiled. What are they? Well, look at verse 3. The Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man.

Verse 7. The Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created. Verse 13. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me. For the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them in all the earth.

Now let's go back a minute a bit further up into the fifth chapter. Chapter 5 and verse 22. Enoch walked with God. Now, do you remember? Can you carry over in your mind where it says in Jude, Enoch the seventh from Adam.

What's interesting about that? Look at the last verse of chapter 4. Or verse 17. Pardon, no, it's not the last verse. Look at verse 16 in chapter 4. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

Cain knew his wife. She conceived and bare Enoch and he built a city. And called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. But that's not the same Enoch. Enoch the seventh from Adam, which is quoted again in Jude, is a man who walked with God.

So verse 22 of chapter 5 in Genesis says, Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah. You know, every Hebrew name has a meaning. And the meaning of Methuselah is, when he is dead it shall be sent.

And immediately after he died the flood came. But Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 365. Now some of these fellows walked with God, lived 600, 700.

Enoch walked, what, 365 years. Methuselah lived 969. Wouldn't that be good going down the street and you meet the old fellow coming up and say, Hey, is this your cousin? Cousin? My younger brother. He's courting a girl.

He's 145 years old. He's courting a girl, 76. My mother doesn't like it. Says she's too young. But anyhow. Wouldn't it be amazing that all these old people toddling around six, 700 years of age, 900 years of age.

Now don't laugh in class tomorrow. You'll get me into trouble. But here's the clincher about this. Verse 22 of chapter 5. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and he begat sons and daughters.

Now hold on to that a minute. Verse 26. Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 782 years and he begat sons and daughters. Where did they all go? Where did they all go? Come on now. You've read it many times.

Ever stop to ask where they went? Hundreds and hundreds of sons, daughters, sons and daughters and grandchildren. Now there's an interesting verse in chapter 6 here. It's all interesting for that matter.

Do you have to go before midnight or what? Okay. Verse 3. The Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred. And there were giants in the earth in those days.

Giants in the earth. Turn over to, let me see, where is it? Numbers. You know where that is. Now you're in Bible school. Numbers. Chapter 13. Excuse me. Chapter 13 and verse 33. This is the search party that went out, you know, looking for the new country.

And there were the good spies and the bad spies. Sounds like the good guys and the bad guys, doesn't it? But it was good spies and bad spies. Verse 33 of Numbers 13. And we saw their giants, the son of Anak, which come of the giants.

And we were like grasshoppers. In other words, we're looking up at these awesome characters, these huge men here. Fallen angels, it seems, that cohabited with the women of the earth. Notice how often it mentions first, when you come down to looking at the pedigree of these folk, it mentions the daughters first.

It does in chapter 6 here. It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and took them wives of all they chose.

The Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man. Now let's jump down the chapter, because the clock's going too fast. What verse do I want here? Verse 13. God said unto Noah. Now notice, this is direct communication.

A brother said to me today, he said, I had such an experience recently, God spoke to me about something. And he said, I ran out of one room in the house to the other, in and out, all the time just saying, well, God has finally spoken to me, and he's confirmed something in my mind, and now I feel so sure.

You know, what we say, people say, get a promise, you know, and when the devil comes, throw it at him. I think that's pretty good. After all, when the devil came to Jesus, what did he do? Threw the book at him.

Didn't he? It is written, it is written, it is written. You know, people say, you know what the devil said to me? I say, no, you're very fortunate. What? Very fortunate? The devil spoke to you? All I know, he ever spoke to three people, he spoke in the Garden of Eden, he accused God before man, and then he spoke to God about Job, he accused Job before God, and then he spoke Jesus in the 30 days of temptation.

I don't find the apostle Paul ever said the devil spoke to him. So if he spoke to you, you get ready for something, you're going to be a superstar. No, you're going to go through the mill. Excuse me, I got it wrong.

God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come up before me, the earth is filled with violence, and through them, and through them and behold, I'm sorry, God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Now God has spoken to Enoch. Just stepping back a moment here. You know, it doesn't say about his wife that God spoke to her. It doesn't say about his children God spoke to them. You know, if you're going to walk with God, you're going to walk alone.

You'll only have a crowd around you for so long. Enjoy the fellowship. What if you get stuck up the Amazon there where there's no radio? You take your radio and the batteries go out the first week. Eh?

You don't see a white face maybe for months. Nothing nice to eat. Everything's against you. Climate's rotten. People are terrible. The food's terrible. The atmosphere's terrible. You feel terrible. Then what do you do?

What? Tune into XKG and get blessings, showers of blessing? No, no, no. If you don't learn to live on God here, you'll never make it out there. No possibility. God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me.

Building the Ark by Faith

Okay. Now, verse 14, make the Anarchic go for wood. That doesn't matter too much what kind of wood it was. Thou shalt line it within, pitch within, and pitch without. That's that black substance, you know, like, you see, that black tar we have?

The same word is used for redemption, by the way, that is used for that pitch. It was lined within and without with faith. Do you remember what James says? Show me your faith. Well, Noah could show you his faith.

Remember he's a pioneer. All the people in the first book of Genesis there are pioneers. Pioneers. He said in verse 15, and this is the fashion which thou shalt make of it, the length of the ark shall be 300 cubits.

Now, if you say, which is usually accepted, a cubit is 25 inches long, it's 300 cubits, then the ark was 625 feet long. That's pretty good. The beam, or the center, was 104 feet across. The height of it was 62 1⁄2 feet.

Do you know that until the... I was going to give you the date, I think I can... Until the year 1880, from the time that this boat was made, remember it has no motor, it has no sails, it isn't made to sail.

Well, you say, it isn't made to sink. No, it isn't. It didn't. What's it made to do? Float. That's all it has to do, float. It's 650 feet long. It's 104 feet... wide. 62 1⁄2 feet high. Even until 1932, which is 50 years ago, only 1 of the ships in the world ever exceeded the size of Noah's ark.