Hebrews 11:7 | Faith

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church iconCovenant Reformed Baptist Church

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July 3, 2022 Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11, we will consider verse 7,
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Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7. Father, please in Jesus' name, as I stand here again, use me, speak through me to your people for the sake of their growth and for the sake of salvation.
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Amen. All right, so I know last week,
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I mis -wrote in my outline that what
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I was going to do, verse 7 last week, that was not my intention. And so we're doing verse 7 today.
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I know last week I said 1 through 7. It should have been 1 through 6. You know how I'll be messing up all the time?
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So that's one of them. I want to point that out. My apologies. Our theme has always been, as I've said, has been faith, and we're looking at the obedience of faith.
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And we're able to see in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 this great cloud of witnesses that's laid before us and their obedience in their faith.
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And it's basically what we're looking at. And in our context for us, and we've been hitting on this,
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I don't think that we can escape it, but it shows that our obedience, we see the three let us.
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The let us draw near with a heart full of assurance of faith.
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Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope, and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works.
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So we are to draw near to God with a full assurance. We are to have full assurance of our faith when we draw near, believing that he exists.
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We hold fast to our confession, right? We believe this. I believe that Jesus exists.
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I hope you can imagine holding on to that. That's what we're holding fast to, our confession and hope.
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We are to consider how to stir one another up to love and good works.
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This is our living example. And it tells us how to do this, how to live out this faith.
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And it's by not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.
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So at this time, you have a persecution has taken place on the
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Hebrew Christians. Even at this time, persecution has taken place on Jewish people.
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The Jewish revolt has probably taken place. No matter what, if you are a
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Hebrew, you're getting it left and right. But the Hebrew Christians here, they have a desire to go back to the temple, go back to what they know.
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And those that are going back, they're neglecting to gather together, to meet together. And so it's kind of pointing at it that, again, like we're speaking about in our
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Sunday school, that the Mosaic covenant system was their guardian. They were to leave their guardian and cling to Christ, but some held on to their guardian.
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And there's some that followed those that were holding on to Christ, but they were still looking back to their guardian.
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We see that take place in Exodus after the
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Exodus from their slavery. There's times when they would have rather have gone back and been slaves than to be in the wilderness.
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The God -making -it -rain manna wasn't good enough, right?
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That they wanted something else. And so even by doing that, even by their mind being somewhere else, they were neglecting to meet together.
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So Hebrews chapter 10, verse 37 and 39. Let's look at that real quick.
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Chapter 10, verses 37 and 39. The writer is writing. He says, for yet, in a little while, the coming one will come and will not delay.
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We saw this is speaking about the final coming, the resurrection of the dead. He says, but my righteous one shall live by faith.
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Not by the law, my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
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So someone who claims to be righteous, if they shrink back, if they're looking back, he's saying my soul has no pleasure in him.
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But he assures them that we are not of those who shrink back and who are destroyed, but those who have faith and preserve their souls.
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Our living by faith is our not shrinking back. You're here today.
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It's a proclamation that you are not shrinking back. But it is our, it is a pursuit of faith.
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Your being here is a pursuit of faith, hope, and love.
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You're coming to God believing that he exists. You're drawing near to Christ by faith.
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You're holding on to the hope of your confession. And you're here today considering how to stir one another up to love and good works.
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In the last two weeks, we saw that our living by faith is the evidence of our faith, which points to God.
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That you're living by faith is the evidence of what you say you believe with your mouth.
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So the life that you live is the evidence of what you profess with your mouth. That's what this is speaking on as we walk through and we see the evidence of faith.
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That it is the substance, the things that are seen, that is our faith that gives evidence to the things that are unseen.
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And we pointed out that it's the same with creation. That creation is evidence of a creator.
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We, again, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, without faith it is impossible to please him.
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How do you please God? Faith, without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near, remember we're talking about drawing near to him with a heart full of assurance, must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him.
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How do we know if God exists? Creation declares the glory of God. What is seen declares what is unseen.
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And we gather together today to draw near. And we are doing so believing that he exists.
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But also you can come together. Remember what we looked at last week with the sacrifice of Abel and Cain, how both brought a sacrifice, an uncommended sacrifice.
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One was accepted because it was in faith. And so you can come and gather at the assembling of yourselves together and not do it in faith.
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And guess what? It's not accepted. It's like what
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Cain did. We draw near when to do so you must believe that he exists.
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And we do so by believing in what Christ has done for us, holding on to our confession, considering how to stir one another up by not neglecting to gather together.
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Does this make sense? Last week we looked at the events of Cain, Abel, and Enoch.
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So both Cain and Abel made a sacrifice to God. Only Abel's was a sacrifice of faith.
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And we saw that Enoch was a prophet and walked with God for 300 years.
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And he was not because God took him. So we have
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Abel offered a sacrifice in faith. Enoch walked with God in faith.
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And today we will look at Noah and how he obeyed God in faith.
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Abel sacrificed in faith. Enoch walked with God in faith.
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And Noah obeys the Word of God in faith.
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Before we get to our main text, let's look at this encounter that takes place in Genesis.
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So we will look at chapter 6. And we will read verse 9 through 22.
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These are the generations of Noah. Listen, ladies and gentlemen. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.
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Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
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And God saw, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their ways on the earth.
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And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh.
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For the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
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Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make the rooms of the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch.
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This is how you are to make it. Its length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.
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Make a roof for the ark. Finish it to a cubit above.
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And set the door of the ark in its side.
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Make with lower, second, and third decks. For behold,
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I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven.
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Everything that is on the earth shall die.
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But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
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And of everything living that is all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.
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I'll stop there and just say, this is speaking of two of every kind, not of every animal, kind, canine kind, not every kind of dog,
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OK? So it kind of shrinks it down a little bit. So we won't go no further than that. With you, there shall be male and female of the birds according to their kinds, and of all the animals according to their kinds.
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Of every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive.
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Also, take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up.
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It shall be food for you and for them. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him.
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Noah, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of James chapter 2, verse 17 we looked at last week.
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So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
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You believe what God has said, act upon it. That's what we see taking place with Noah.
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Noah believed that God was going to destroy the world. He was told what to do, and he acted upon it.
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Now, there's a lot of details. We're just not going to go in for the sake of time. You see, this would have been at a time before rain, right?
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Like it has at this point in time, waters from clouds have never fell to touch the earth.
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It has never rained. Noah and the people of his time never seen, nor have they ever heard of rain.
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Genesis chapter 2, you can turn there if you want, verse 5 and 6, but I'll quickly read them.
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Genesis 2, verse 5 and verse 6. When no brush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the
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Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.
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Here's how verse 6 tells you how it functioned. A mist was going up from the land.
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So imagine a mist was going up from the land and was watering the face of the ground.
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So that's how the ground was watered. A mist was coming up from the ground to water the ground.
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God comes to him, Noah, and tells him to build an ark and tells him that he is about to destroy the world, the whole world, with a flood of water.
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Now, Noah would have been in a desert, meaning that he was probably nowhere near an ocean, right?
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So him building an ark would have been very suspicious, right? But he was told to build an ark for the protection of him and his family.
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It was to be 300 cubits in height, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in,
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I mean, 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height.
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So 300 cubits would have been 510 feet length. 50 cubits is 75 feet in breadth, and 30 cubits is 45 feet in height.
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And just to kind of put that in kind of a perspective, according to the
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Genesis, the answers in Genesis, they're claiming it's a football, one football and a half fields long.
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Like, just kind of, what is it? Two and a half? I read one and a half.
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Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's huge, right?
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I mean, just to put it in perspective, this is huge, right? This is a big old boat. This ark, it's huge.
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And so Noah, and I pointed out last week that we know from Scripture, from the story of Abraham, that the only way anyone can be counted as righteous is by faith.
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And so when you read verse 9, let's read verse 9 again. And it says, these are the generations of Noah, and Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.
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Noah walked with God. So we know from Abraham, the only way that anyone can be counted as righteous is by faith.
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We read Romans chapter 4, Paul breaks this down. Well, if you look in verse 22, we see
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Noah act on his faith. And Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him.
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So Noah believed God. Noah acted upon it, right?
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The same for you and me. We believe God. We believe that Christ Jesus rose from the dead.
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We believe that he has changed us, that we're not the same, and we live our lives according to that.
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Not according to a law, but according to what Christ has done for us.
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The law of liberty, Paul explains. So let's go to our text, and let's read our text.
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Hebrews 11, verse 7. And this is going to get us in deep waters, not floodwaters.
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I don't know about the waters of Noah, but it's pretty deep, right? The deep waters of the flood, right? Verse 7, by faith,
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Noah being warned by God concerning events, listen, yet unseen.
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That's important. And reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
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By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
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So the events that was yet unseen was rain, right?
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It was the heavens bursting forth, and the oceans bursting forth.
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The construction of the ark for him and his family would have been the evidence of the unseen.
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What was the unseen? Rain, water.
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He's building a boat in the middle of nowhere. And this is the evidence of the unseen that was yet to happen, that is yet to occur, rain.
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Him acting in faith, building the ark is the evidence of the unseen destruction that was going to come.
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For God is going to destroy the whole world with a flood. This is what
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I believe the scripture means when it calls him a preacher of righteousness. First, 2
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Peter, excuse me, 2 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5. Now we're going to get into some controversy.
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2 Peter, well, this whole message is controversy, okay? 2 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5, listen to this.
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For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.
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For he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
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This text tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
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Turn to Matthew chapter 24. Y 'all know I love this chapter.
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Matthew chapter 24. We are told in Matthew chapter 24 that the people were unaware of the flood until the day
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Noah entered the ark. 24, verses 37 and 39, through 39.
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For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the
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Son of Man. For as in the days of Noah before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and marriage, until the day when
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Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
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Did they know or did they not know? I've gotten to some heated debates over these two passages, because it sounds like there is a contradiction.
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But from reading these two passages together and what we see in Hebrews take place,
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I believe it is safe to say that his building the ark in faith was the message of righteousness.
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Every nail, every swing from the hammer, whatever kind of hammer that might have been.
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I'm thinking some Flintstone type stuff, right? Every swing was repentance.
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God is coming to judge the world. Again, look back at 2
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Peter. For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains and gloom and darkness to be kept until the coming judgment.
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For He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness.
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Imagine the hammer coming down, putting the boat together. Imagine the pitch being rubbed on the ark.
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That's Him being a preacher of righteousness, living out His faith with seven others who were brought, with seven others when
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He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Now, this raises another question that we see taking place in Genesis.
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And this one will really get you in trouble. Who were those angels, right? Right? So, we looked at the
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Book of Jude last week. And last week we looked and we saw verses 14 and 15.
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And we saw that Enoch was a prophet who was prophesying a coming judgment.
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And I believe this coming judgment was the worldwide flood that we see take place in Noah. So, when
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Enoch dies, you know, Noah is a part of Enoch's lineage, right?
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Enoch is prophesying that a coming judgment is going to be upon this people.
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A judgment is coming, repentance. God is going to judge your evil deeds.
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And then in Noah's day, he brings the flood. But in Jude, it also speaks about these angels.
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Jude, verse 6 and 7. So, I believe, this is why
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I don't want to do a series because I believe that his speaking this judgment has to do with this act of the angels.
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That everything in between is going to be pointed, it's going to be, we're going to see lives pointed back that relates to these angels.
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And it says, and the angels who did not stay in their position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah.
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So, Sodom and Gomorrah here is going to play as something pointing back, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise, like the angels, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires.
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So, he's talking about in Sodom and Gomorrah, we have homosexuality taking place, men were after men.
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He's saying, likewise, like they were doing, the angels were doing something that they were not supposed to be doing, which gets me in a lot of trouble, right?
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So, the book of Jude tells us that they were angels who left that position, their position of authority, and that they were now in chains under gloom and darkness until the day of judgment, pointing us to Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of this sexual immorality.
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So, turn to Genesis chapter 6. This is where we'll get our feet wet. Look at verses 1 and 2 only for a minute.
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Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. When men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were attractive, and they took as their wives as they chose.
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So, who are the sons of God? Now, listen to me, I really hate to go against the
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Reformed interpretation here. I really do. I have no choice, and I'm going to show you why, right?
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This Reformed interpretation originates from Augustine of Hippo, which a book that he wrote called,
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The City of God. But I have to here, in order for me to hold to the
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Reformed principle of hermeneutics, scripture, interpreting scripture, I have to abandon what
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Augustine says, and what most Reformed people hold to. I have to, and so do you.
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I must abandon that interpretation that the sons of God here in verse 2 are speaking about the sons of Seth.
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The interpretation goes like this, the sons of Seth equals the sons of God, and the daughters of men equal the sons of Cain.
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Seth versus Cain, Seth had faith offering his sacrifice, Cain did not have faith in offering his sacrifice.
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Faith versus no faith. Seth, I mean not
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Seth offering his sacrifice, but Cain offering his, Abel offering his sacrifice. But Abel is the next in line that's believed to be a man of faith.
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Okay, I got a little tongue tied there, and a little twisted.
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Okay, so faith, Abel offered in faith, Cain did not offer in faith.
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Faith, Seth is the other brother of Cain who is a man of faith.
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And so it's believed that faith for Seth versus no faith for Cain.
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So, the sons of God are the sons of Seth, which would be the sons of faith, and the daughters of men would be the, after the daughters of Cain, which would be the daughters of a man that did not have faith.
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Now, the Old Testament seems to refer to the sons of God as angels.
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Okay, so we're just looking at the Old Testament for right now. The sons of God seem to refer to the, the
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Old Testament seems to refer to the sons of God as angels. And there are several places we'll only look at two for the sake of time.
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First, we'll look at Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1, verse 6.
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Now, I'll do two verses for the other part too. So, now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the
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Lord, before Yohei Vahei, and Satan also came with them.
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So, it's widely believed that this is speaking about angels. Psalm 29, verse 1 says this in the
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ESV, Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
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Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. The LEB, which is the translation that comes with Logos, it's very, like it uses, you know, all the
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Yahweh's and, you know, like it says things that the ESV doesn't.
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It kind of brings it into a proper terminology. But it has a rough reading. It's a little rougher just to read.
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It says this, Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of God, Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.
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So, where the ESV would say heavenly beings, the
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LEB would say sons of God, pointing to this being angels.
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Now, the New Testament seems to refer to the sons of God as those that are in Christ.
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Still not Seth, but those that are in Christ, or as peacemakers.
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Again, we'll look at two verses, Genesis chapter 3, I mean Galatians chapter 3, forgive me.
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Galatians 3, verses 25 and 26. Galatians 3, verses 25 and 26.
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But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
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Remember, we looked at that earlier. I was talking about that in Sunday school. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
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Now, that's not angels, right? That's not angels, that's Christians. That's not angels.
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Also, Matthew chapter 5, verse 9 says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
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So, the question is, is which interpretation is true? Is it the sons of Seth or is it angels?
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Now, despite what I just read, the Old Testament seems to say that it's angels.
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New Testament seems to say that it's Christians and peacemakers. Still not saying it's the sons of Seth. Like there's nothing here says sons of Seth.
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Like that's just not in the Bible, period. It's not in there. Because of 2
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Peter 2, and the book of Jude speaks about angels in the time of Noah, it doesn't say sons of God.
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It says angels. The New Testament says angels. The New Testament interprets it as angels in the time of judgment.
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And not Seth, the New Testament does not interpret it as Seth. I believe the interpretation has to be angels.
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Please turn back to 2 Peter chapter 2, verses 4 and 5. For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains and glooms and darkness to be kept until the judgment.
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For he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah a herald of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
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Now to Genesis chapter 6. So with that in mind, we'll read verse 1 through 8.
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When man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God, angels, saw the daughters of man were attractive and took as their wife as many as they chose.
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And the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide with man forever, for he is flesh, and his days shall be 120 years.
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The Nephilim, we're not going to get into the Nephilim, so don't freak out, OK? We're on the earth in those days.
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We're not going to have a conference on them either. We're on the earth in those days and afterwards. When the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them, these were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
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The Lord said that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that their every intentions of their thoughts of their heart was only evil continually.
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And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
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So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, men and animals and creepy things, and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.
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But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So, this judgment that Noah was warned about and in faith acted upon, the
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Word of the Lord, was the prophetic word, prophetic,
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I'm saying that right, prophetic word spoken by the prophet Enoch that we saw last week.
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And what did Enoch prophesy? A judgment was coming. Why? Because angels have left their position.
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Now, there's so much that I could say about this portion of Scripture, but again, if we do, we will be weeks out.
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Like, it would literally, we'd have to get into the Nephilim. We'd have to get into the men of renown, right?
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But I don't think we have to. I think the Scripture is clear from the New Testament. We can just say, New Testament Scripture says it's angels.
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Listen, ladies and gentlemen, it's angels, despite what Augustine of Hippo said. The question is, and I'm not going to get weird with it.
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I'm just going to, it's going to be straightforward, straightforward answer. How is it that an angelic being is able to have children with a human being?
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And the text gives us, the text tells us that the sons of God, who are angels, came into the daughters of men and bore them children.
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And our answer is simple, it's found in Jude chapter 1, verse 6. It says that the angels who did not stay within their position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, they were able to do so because they left their position of authority.
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What does that look like? I don't know. I have no clue, and I'm not even trying to speculate.
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All I know is the Scripture says they left their position of authority, they left them being angels.
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They left their proper dwelling, and they disobeyed, and somehow came and took wives, human wives, and had children.
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And because of that they were, right here, they are kept in eternal chains of gloomy darkness until the day of the great day of judgment.
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That's all the Bible tells us. That's all I'm giving you. Right? This combined with the evilness of man's heart.
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You want to know if man's heart is evil? Look at your own heart, right, we're depraved.
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This combined with the heart of man, God judges the world, leaving only eight survivors.
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Now, what do we do with this? Right? Like explaining it is one thing, but what do we do with it?
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The Bible gives us an application. First Peter, not
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Second Peter, First Peter 3 .8. Again, it's going to be dealing with this time, First Peter 3 .8.
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I mean, First Peter chapter 3, verses 18 -21. I'll read it real quick, and we'll go back and kind of break it down.
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I won't go too deep into it. We'll save that for Pastor Cal when he preaches through the book of Peter, him and Josh.
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I'll let them handle this one. All right, so verse 18, For Christ also wants for sins, for the righteous and for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the
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Spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they did not obey when
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God's patient waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. Imagine the hammer, him preaching this message by building this boat, in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water.
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Verse 21, Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, corresponds to this ark being built, water coming, this destruction.
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Baptism corresponds to this, now saves you. That's what it seems to be saying, right?
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Not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus.
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That through the resurrection of Jesus explains it all, and we'll get to it. So, Peter here mentions that Baptism saves, but we as good
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Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians and, you know, Orthodox Christians, we know that Baptism, the act of being dipped underwater does not save you.
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But this verse says, Baptism saves you. It does not save you, and notice it actually says, it's not the removal of dirt.
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What happens when you're dunked underwater if you're dirty? It removes dirt. Water, when you are in water, water removes dirt.
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It's specifically telling us that this is not the removal of dirt. Remember in Sunday School I spoke about there's all kinds of different Baptisms in Scripture.
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The one Baptism for us is the us being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the
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Holy Spirit. That's the one Baptism for us. But the Bible speaks of several different Baptisms.
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So, verse 18 speaks about Jesus' suffering, death, and burial.
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Listen, For Christ also wants for sins, the righteous, that's
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Him, Jesus is the righteous, for the unrighteous, you and I, that He might bring us to God, By being put to death in the flesh and made alive in the
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Spirit. So, what did the Spirit do when it was made alive? We see this in verse 21,
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I mean verse 19 -20, it gives an analogy. It's telling us what took place.
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So, if you're here and you hold to the Apostles Creed, this is what's called the Doctrine of the Descent, and we will not get into it.
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The Doctrine of the Descent is where Jesus goes into hell and proclaims victory, right?
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This is what verse 19 -20 is speaking about, in which He went and proclaimed.
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So, if you hold to the Apostles Creed, you have to hold to the Doctrine of the Descent. What did
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He do there? It tells you to proclaim to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey when
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God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water.
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And verse 21 tells us that baptism corresponds to this, now saves you. But then it speaks about the resurrection of Christ.
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So, listen, let's read that again. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt.
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Remember, it's not being dunked under water from the body, but as an appeal for a good conscience concerning, a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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So, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, verse 50, Jesus says this.
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Jesus says that, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and oh, how great is my distress until it is accomplished.
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So, this statement of His future baptism that He's speaking about is post
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His baptism in water by John. So, He's not speaking of Him being dunked under water.
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He is speaking of a baptism that He's waiting to be over with, and He cannot wait until it's over with.
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And this baptism, I believe Romans 6 tells us, is our baptism. So, what happens to Jesus is what we're baptized in.
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So, it speaks of His death, burial, and resurrection. So, Romans 6 tells us that our baptism into water points to His death, burial, and resurrection.
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You are buried with Him in baptism and raised to the newness of life. And that that death, burial, and resurrection is
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Jesus' baptism that He was longing for. It was His death, burial, and resurrection.
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Why? Because that is our ark. Just as Noah enters the ark that protects him from the wrath of God, which was water, we enter
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Christ as our ark to protect us from the wrath of God, which is fire, this judgment that's going to come upon the whole world.
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And so, the application to them is that Noah had to enter the ark.
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He believed God, now he has to enter the ark. And if you believe in Jesus, you enter the ark.
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Jesus is our ark. His baptism saves. His baptism is the gospel.
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It's that He died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, and that on the third day,
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He rose from the dead. That's the gospel message. And we enter into that His baptism, and once we do that, that baptism saves.
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His baptism saves. His death, burial, resurrection saves. So, the question is, is have you entered the ark of Jesus Christ?
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Have you entered the ark of Jesus Christ? His, the life that He lived is that, exactly the life that He lived is our imputated righteousness.
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It's counted to those who believe. So, I mentioned this before.
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So, justification is the imputation of Christ's righteousness.
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In order to be justified, you must be declared righteous. You're justified by His blood, but without His righteousness, you're not, you do not have the imputation.
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And so, you're not really justified. So, you can't have one without the other. You can't have Christ dying for you and not have
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Christ living for you, because justification makes no sense, because justification means the imputation of righteousness.
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You have to be declared righteous. Noah was declared righteous.
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He enters the ark. You and I, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we are declared righteous, and we enter the ark, which is
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Jesus Christ, and that the life that He lives is our righteousness, and the death that He died is our payment.
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It's what we deserve, but we find favor with God through Him. So, the question is, is have you entered that ark?
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Have you become righteous in God's eyes by believing in Jesus Christ?
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It's in Jude. I said it, but I didn't really harp on it.
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When it talks about the angels in verse 6, who did not stay in their position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, that He kept in eternal chains of gloom and darkness until the judgment of the great day.
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That great day is our future. The angels were not judged in AD 70.
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The angels are still to be judged. This great day is still ahead of us.
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This great day is the judgment. This great day is something that if you are not in the ark, you will have to face.
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Now, let me tell you something. You would, if you are in this great day,
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I'm not trying to scare the hell out of you. I'm telling you straight up, if you are in this great day, you're going to wish you had the opportunity to be in the flood.
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It would have been a lot better to be in the flood. Than to be at this great day being judged.
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And the only ones that are saved are the ones that have entered the ark of Jesus Christ. That's the application of the message.
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Do you believe? Have you entered the ark? If you have not, I'd love to speak with you.
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If you want prayer, I'd love to speak with you. Let's pray. Father, thank you.
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We love you. We need you. I'm reminded of that song,
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I need you every hour. For we know that there is still coming a great day of judgment.
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And we know that you have made the way. And that way has been paved to Jesus Christ. He is the exclusivity.
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He is the way, the truth, and life. And no one can come to you unless they go through him. Lord, I pray,
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Lord, that you will save anyone who is under my voice that has not entered that ark.
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That you will grant faith to them to believe in the one and only true God. The evidence is clear, creation declares your glory.
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And that Jesus Christ has come and lived the life that we could not live and taken upon himself the punishment that we deserve.
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For those of us who are in Christ, help us to grow in Christ, Lord. Help us to live like people in the ark.
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And at this time, God, I pray over your supper. Lord, I pray that as the people prepare their hearts,
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Lord, that you will use this meal to grow them in holiness.
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We love you and we trust you. And again, Lord, we need you. Please be with us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.