Hebrews 11:7 | Faith

If you will turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11,

we will consider verse 7, 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.

Amen.

All right, so I know last week I mis

-wrote in my outline that what I was going to do, verse 7, last week, that was not my

intention, and so we're doing verse 7 today.

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.

So that's one of them.

I want to point that out.

My apologies.

Our theme has been faith, and we're looking at the obedience of faith, 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.

That's basically what we're looking at, and in our context for

us, and we've been hitting on this, so I don't think that we can escape it, shows that our

obedience, we see the three let us, the let us draw near with a

heart full of assurance of faith, let us hold fast to

the confession of our hope, and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and

good work.

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.

We hold fast to our confession, right?

We believe this.

I believe that Jesus exists.

I hope you can imagine holding on to that.

That's what we're holding fast to, our confession and hope, and that we are to

consider how to stir one another up to love and good works.

This is our living example, and it tells us how to do this, how to live out this faith, and it's

by not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some.

So at this time, you have a persecution has taken place on the

Hebrew Christians.

Even at this time, you know, persecution has taken place on Jewish people.

You know, the Jewish revolt has probably taken place.

So no matter what, if you are a 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, 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 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, and

there's some that followed those that were holding on to Christ,

but they were still looking back to their guardian.

We see that take place in Exodus after the

exodus from their slavery.

There's times when they would have rather have gone back and been slaves than to be in the wilderness.

The God -making -it -rain manna wasn't good enough,

right?

That they wanted something else.

And so even by doing that, even by their mind being somewhere else, they were neglecting to meet

together.

So Hebrews chapter 10, verse 37 and 39.

Let's look at that real quick.

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.

We saw this is speaking about the final coming, the resurrection of the dead.

He says, but my righteous one shall live by faith.

Not by the law.

My righteous one shall live by faith.

And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

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.

But he assures him that we are not of those who shrink back and who are destroyed, but

those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Our living by faith is our not shrinking back.

You're here today, it's a proclamation that you are not shrinking back.

But it is our, it is a pursuit of faith.

Your being here is a pursuit of faith, hope, and love.

That you're coming to God, believing that he exists.

You're drawing near to Christ by faith.

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.

In the last two weeks, we saw that our living by faith is the evidence of our faith,

which points to God.

That you're living by faith is the evidence of what you say you

believe with your mouth.

So the life that you live is the evidence of what you profess with your mouth.

That's, that's what this is speaking on as we walk through and we

see the evidence of faith.

That it is the substance, the things that are seen, that is our faith

that gives evidence to the things that are unseen.

And we pointed out that it's the same with creation.

That creation is evidence of a creator.

We, again, Hebrews 11, verse six, without faith,

it is impossible to please him.

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.

How do we know if God exists?

Creation declares the glory of God.

What is seen declares what is unseen.

And we gather together today to draw near and we are doing so believing that he

exists, but also you can come together.

Remember the, what we looked at last week with the sacrifice of

Abel and Cain, how both brought a sacrifice, an

uncommanded sacrifice.

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.

And guess what?

It's not accepted.

It's like what Cain did.

We draw near when to do so, you must believe that he

exists.

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.

Does this make sense?

Last week, we looked at the events of Cain, Abel and Enoch.

So both Cain and Abel made a sacrifice to God.

Only Abel's was a sacrifice of faith.

And we saw that Enoch was a prophet and walked with God for 300 years.

And he was not because God took him.

So we have Abel offered a sacrifice in faith.

Enoch walked with God in faith.

And today we will look at Noah and how he obeyed God in faith.

Abraham, I mean, Abel sacrificed in faith.

Enoch walked with God in faith.

And Noah obeys the word of God in faith.

Before we get to our main text, let's look at this encounter that takes place

in Genesis.

So we will look at chapter six and we will read

verse nine through 22.

These are the generations of Noah.

Listen, ladies and gentlemen, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his

generation.

Noah walked with God.

And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence.

And God saw and behold, it was corrupt.

For all flesh had corrupted their ways on the earth.

And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh.

For the earth is filled with violence through them.

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

Make the rooms of the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you are to make it.

It's length of the ark, 300 cubits.

It's breadth, 50 cubits and it's height, 30 cubits.

Make a roof for the ark.

Finish it to a cubit above and set the

door of the ark in its side.

Make with lower, second and third decks.

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy

all flesh in which is the breadth of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die.

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.

And of everything living that is all flesh, you shall bring two of

every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.

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, okay?

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.

Of every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind,

two of every sort shall come into you to

keep them alive.

Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up.

It shall be food for you and for them.

Noah did this.

He did all that God commanded him.

Noah, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of James chapter two, verse 17.

We looked at last week.

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is

dead.

You believe what God has said, act upon it.

That's what we see taking place with Noah.

Noah believed that God was going to destroy the world.

He was told what to do and he acted upon it.

Now there's a lot of details.

We're just not gonna go in for the sake of time.

You see, this would have been at a time before rain, right?

Like it has at this point in time, waters from clouds have never fell to touch the earth.

It has never rained.

Noah and the people of his time never seen, nor have they ever heard of

rain.

Genesis chapter two, you can turn there if you want, verse five and six, but I'll quickly read them.

Genesis two, verse five and verse six.

When no brush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant

of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused

it to rain on the land.

And there was no man to work the ground.

Here's how verse six tells you how it functioned.

A mist was going up from the land.

So imagine a mist was going up from the land and was watering the face

of the ground.

So that's how the ground was water.

A mist was coming up from the ground to water the ground.

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.

Now, Noah would have been in a desert, meaning that he was probably nowhere near an ocean,

right?

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.

It was to be 300 cubits in height, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in, I

mean, 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height.

So 300 cubits would have been 510 feet length, 50 cubits is

75 feet in breadth, and 30 cubits is

45 feet in height.

And just to kind of put that in kind of a perspective, according to the

Genesis,

answers in Genesis, they're claiming it's a football, one football and a half

fields long.

Like just kind of, what is it?

A half, two and a half?

I read one and a half.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's huge, right?

I mean, just to put it in perspective,.

Like this, this is huge, right?

This is a big old boat.

I mean, it's art, it's huge.

And so Noah, and I pointed out last week that we know from scripture,

that the story of, from the story of Abraham, that the only way anyone can be counted as righteous is by faith.

And so when you read verse nine, let's read verse nine again.

And it says, these are the generations of Noah, and Noah was a righteous

man, blameless in his generation, Noah walked with God.

So we know from Abraham, the only way that anyone can be counted as righteous is by faith.

We read Romans chapter four, Paul breaks this down.

Well, if you look in verse 22, we see Noah act on his faith.

And Noah did this.

He did all that God commanded him.

So Noah believed God, Noah acted upon it.

And then Paul says, right?

The same for you and me.

We believe God, we believe that Christ Jesus rose from the dead.

We believe that He has changed us, that we're not the same, and we live our

lives according to that.

Not according to a law, but according to what Christ has done for us.

The law of liberty, Paul explains.

So let's go to our text, and let's read our text.

Hebrews 11, verse seven.

And this is gonna get us in deep waters, not flood waters of Noah, but it's pretty deep, right?

The deep waters of the flood, right?

Verse seven, by faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning

events, listen, yet unseen.

That's important.

And reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the

righteousness that comes by faith.

So the events that was yet unseen was rain,

right?

It was the heavens bursting forth and the oceans bursting

forth.

The construction of the ark from him and the construction

of the ark for him and his family would have been the evidence of the unseen.

What was the unseen?

Rain.

Water.

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.

Him acting in faith, building the ark is the evidence of the unseen destruction that was

going to come for God is going to destroy the whole world with a flood.

This is what I believe the scripture means when it calls him a preacher of righteousness.

First, second Peter, excuse me, second Peter chapter two, verses four and five.

Now we're gonna get into some controversy.

Second Peter chapter, well, this whole message is controversy, okay?

Second Peter chapter two, verses four and five.

Listen to this.

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.

For he did not spare the ancient world, but preserve Noah, a

herald of righteousness with seven others

when he brought a flood upon the world of the

ungodly.

This text tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.

Turn to Matthew chapter 24.

Y 'all know I love this chapter.

Matthew chapter 24.

We're told in Matthew chapter 24 that the people were unaware of the

flood until the day Noah entered the ark.

24 verses 37 and 39, through 39.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the son of man.

For as in the days of Noah before the flood, they were eating and drinking and

marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark.

And they were unaware until the flood came.

And swept them all away.

Did they know or did they not know?

I've gotten to some heated debates over these two passages

because it sounds like there's a contradiction.

But from reading these two passages together and what we see in Hebrews take place, I

believe it's safe to say that his building the ark in faith was the message

of righteousness.

Every nail, every swing from the hammer or whatever kind of hammer that might've been,

I'm thinking some Flintstone type stuff, right?

Every swing was repentance.

God is coming to judge the world.

Again, look back at second Peter.

For God did not spare angels when they sin, but cast them into hell

and committed them to chains and gloom and darkness to be kept until the coming judgment.

For he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald

of righteousness.

Imagine the hammer coming down, putting the boat together.

Imagine the pitch being rubbed on the ark.

That's him being a preacher of righteousness, living out his faith.

With seven others who were brought, with seven others when he brought a

flood upon the world of the ungodly.

Now this raises another question that we see taking place in Genesis.

And this one will really get you in trouble.

Who were those angels, right?

So we looked at the book of Jude last week.

And last week we looked and we saw verses 14 and 15.

And we saw that Enoch was a prophet who was prophesying a coming judgment.

And I believe this coming judgment was the worldwide flood that we see take place in Noah.

So when Enoch dies, Noah is a part

of Enoch's lineage.

Right?

Enoch is prophesying that a coming judgment is going to be upon this people.

A judgment is coming, repentance.

God is going to judge your evil deeds.

And then in Noah's day, he brings the flood.

But in Jude, it also speaks about these angels.

Jude verse six and seven.

So I believe, this is why 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.

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.

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.

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.

So he's talking about in Sodom and Gomorrah, we have homosexuality taking place,

men were after men.

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?

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 morality.

So turn to Genesis chapter six.

This is where we'll get our feet wet.

Look at verses one and two only for a minute.

Genesis chapter six, verses one and two.

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.

So who are the sons of God?

Now, listen to me.

I really hate to go against the reformed interpretation here.

I really do.

I have no choice.

And I'm gonna show you why, right?

This reformed interpretation originates from Augustine of Hippo, which a book that

he wrote called The City of God.

But I have to here, in order for me to hold to the reformed principle of hermeneutics,

scripture interpreting scripture, I have to abandon what Augustine says and what most

reformed people hold to.

I have to, and so do you.

I must abandon that interpretation that the sons of God here in verse two are speaking about the sons of Seth.

The interpretation goes like this.

The sons of Seth equals the sons of God and the daughters of men equal the sons of

Cain.

Seth versus Cain.

Seth had faith offering his sacrifice.

Cain did not have faith in offering his sacrifice.

Faith versus no faith.

Seth, I mean, not Seth offering his sacrifice, but Cain offering, Abel offering his sacrifice.

But Abel is the next in line that's believed to be a man of faith.

Okay, I got a little tongue tied there, a little twisted, okay.

So faith, Abel offered in faith, Cain did not offer in faith.

Seth is the other brother of Cain who is a man of faith.

And so it's believed that faith for Seth versus no

faith for Cain.

So the sons of God are the sons of Seth, which would be the sons of

faith.

And the daughters of men would be after the daughters of Cain, which would be the daughters

of a man that did not have faith.

Now the Old Testament seems to refer to the sons of God as

angels.

Okay, so we're just looking at the Old Testament right now.

The sons of God seems to refer to the, the Old Testament seems to refer to the sons of

God as angels.

And there's several places, we'll only look at two for the sake of time.

First, we'll look at Job chapter one.

Job chapter one, verse six.

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 Lord, before Yohei Vahei.

And Satan also came with them.

So it's widely believed that this is speaking about angels.

Psalm 29, verse one says this in the ESV.

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings.

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 Yahweh's and, you know, like it says things that the ESV

doesn't, it kind of brings it into a proper terminology, but it has a rough reading.

It's a little rougher just to read.

It says this.

Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of God.

Ascribe to Yahweh, glory and strength.

So where the ESV would say heavenly beings, the

LEB would say sons of God, pointing to this being angels.

Now the New Testament seems to refer to the sons of God as those that are in Christ.

Still not Seth, but those that are in Christ or as peacemakers.

Again, we'll look at two verses, Genesis chapter three, I mean, Galatians chapter three, forgive me.

Galatians three, verse 25 and 26.

Galatians three, verses 25 and 26.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

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.

Now that's not angels, right?

That's not angels, that's Christians.

That's not angels.

Also, Matthew chapter five, verse nine says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall

be called sons of God.

So the question is, is which interpretation is true?

Is it the sons of Seth or is it angels?

Now, despite what I just read, the Old Testament seems to say that it's angels.

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.

Like that's just not in the Bible, period.

It's not in there.

Because of second Peter two in the book of Jude speaks about angels in the time of

Noah, it doesn't say sons of God, it says angels.

The New Testament says angels.

New Testament interprets it as angels in the

time of judgment and not Seth.

New Testament does not interpret it as Seth.

I believe the interpretation has to be angels.

Please turn back to second Peter chapter two, verses four and five.

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.

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.

Now to Genesis chapter six.

So with that in mind, we'll read verse one through eight.

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.

And the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide with man forever for he is flesh

and his days shall be 120 years.

The Nephilim, we're not going to get into the Nephilim, so don't freak out, okay?

We're on the earth in those days.

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 man of renown.

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.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and he had grieved him to his heart.

So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man

and animals and creepy things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that

I have made them.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So this judgment that Noah was warned about and

in faith acted upon the word of the Lord was the prophetic word,

prophetic, I'm saying that right, prophetic word spoken by the

prophet Enoch.

That we saw last week.

And what did Enoch prophesy?

A judgment was coming.

Why?

Because angels have left their position.

Now there's so much that I could say about this portion of scripture, but again, if we do, we will be weeks out.

Like it would literally, we'd have to get into the Nephilim.

We'd have to get into the man of renown, right?

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.

Listen, ladies and gentlemen, it's angels, despite what Augustine of Hippo said.

The question is, and I'm not gonna get weird with it.

I'm just gonna, it's gonna be straightforward, straightforward answer.

How is it that an angelic being is able to have children with a human being?

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.

And our answer is simple.

It's found in Jude chapter one, verse six.

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.

What does that look like?

I don't know.

I have no clue.

And I'm not even trying to speculate.

All I know is the scripture says they left their position of authority.

They left them being angels.

They left their proper dwelling and they disobeyed and somehow came

and took wives, human wives and had children.

And because of that, they were right here.

They're kept in eternal chains of gloomy darkness until the day of the great day of judgment.

That's all the Bible tells us.

That's all I'm giving you, right?

Combine, this combined with the evilness of man's heart.

You wanna know if man's heart's evil?

Look at your own heart, right?

Right, we're depraved.

This combined with the heart of man, God judges the world, leaving only eight survivors.

Now, what do we do with this?

All right, like explaining it's one thing, but what do we do with it?

The Bible gives us an application.

1 Peter, not 2 Peter, 1 Peter 3 .8.

Again, it's gonna be dealing with this time, 1 Peter 3 .8.

I mean, 1 Peter 3, verses 18 through 21.

I'll read it real quick and we'll go back and kind of break it down.

I won't go too deep into it.

We'll save that for,.

For Pastor Cal when he preaches through the book of Peter.

I am a judge.

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 spirit, in which he

went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they did not obey when

God's patient waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

Imagine the hammer that him preaching this message by building this boat,

in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water.

Verse 21, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.

Corresponds to this ark being built, water coming, this destruction.

Baptism corresponds to this, now saves you.

Like that's what it seems to be saying, right?

Not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God

for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus.

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 reformed Baptists and

Presbyterians and Orthodox Christians, we know

that baptism, the act of being dipped underwater does not save you.

But this verse says baptism saves you.

It does not save you.

And notice it actually says it's not the removal of dirt.

What happens when you're dunked underwater if you're dirty?

It removes dirt.

Water, when you are in water, water removes dirt.

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.

The one baptism for us is the us being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

That's the one baptism for us, but the Bible speaks of several different baptisms.

So verse 18 speaks about his, Jesus' suffering, death, and burial.

Listen, for Christ also wants for sins,

the righteous, that's him, Jesus is the righteous, for the unrighteous, you and I,

that he might bring us to God.

How?

By being put to death in the flesh and made alive

in the spirit.

So what did his spirit do when it was made alive?

We see this in verse 21.

I mean, verse 19 through 20, it gives an analogy.

It's telling us what took place.

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.

The doctrine of descent is where Jesus goes into hell and proclaims victory,

right?

This is what verse 19 and 20 is speaking about, in which he went and proclaimed.

So if you hold to the Apostles' Creed, you have to hold to the doctrine of the descent.

What did he do there?

It tells you to proclaim to the spirits in prison because they formerly

did not obey when 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.

And verse 21 tells us that baptism corresponds to this, now saves you.

But then it speaks about the resurrection of Christ.

So listen, let's read that again.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt, remember it's not being dunked under water

from the body, but as an appeal for a good conscience concerning,

good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, verse 50, Jesus says

this.

Jesus says that, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and oh,

how great is my distress until it is accomplished.

So this statement of his future baptism that he's speaking about is post his

baptism in water by John.

So he's not speaking of him being dunked under water, he is speaking of a baptism that he's waiting to

be over with, and he cannot wait until it's over with.

And this baptism, I believe Romans 6 tells us is our baptism.

So what happens to Jesus is what we're baptized in.

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.

You are buried with him in baptism and raised to the newness of life.

And that that death, burial and resurrection is Jesus's baptism, that he was

longing for.

It was his death, burial and resurrection.

Why?

Because that is our ark.

Just as Noah enters the ark that protects them from the wrath of God, which was water,

we enter 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.

And so the application to them is that Noah had to enter the ark.

He believed God, now he has to enter the ark.

And if you believe in Jesus, you enter the ark.

Jesus is our ark.

His baptism saves, his baptism is the gospel.

It's that he died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried.

And then on the third day, 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.

His baptism saves.

His death, burial, resurrection saves.

So the question is, is have you entered the ark of Jesus Christ?

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.

That it's counted to those who believe.

So I mentioned this before.

So justification is the imputation of Christ's

righteousness.

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.

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 Christ living for you, because justification makes no sense.

Because justification means the imputation of righteousness.

You have to be declared righteous.

Noah was declared righteous.

He enters the ark.

You and I, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we are declared righteous and we enter the

ark, which is Jesus Christ.

And that the life that he lives is our righteousness.

And the death that he died is our payment.

It's what we deserve.

But we find favor with God through him.

And so the question is, is have you entered that ark?

Have you become righteous in God's eyes by believing in Jesus Christ?

It's in Jude.

I said it, but I didn't really harp on it.

When it talks about the angels in verse six,

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.

That great day is our future.

The angels were not judged in AD 70.

The angels are still to be judged.

This great day is still ahead of us.

This great day is the judgment.

This great day is something that if you are not in the ark, you will have to face.

And let me tell you something, if you are in this great day, 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 gonna wish you had the opportunity to be in the flood.

It would have been a lot better to be in the flood than to be at this great day

being judged.

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.

Do you believe, have you entered the ark?

If you have not, I'd love to speak with you.

If you want prayer, I'd love to speak with you.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you.

We love you.

We need you.

I'm reminded of that song, I need you every hour.

For we know that there is still coming a great day of judgment.

And we know that you have made the way and that way has been paved to Jesus Christ.

He is the exclusivity, he is the way, the truth and life and no one can come to you unless they go through him.

Lord, I pray, Lord, that you will save anyone who is under my voice that has not

entered that ark.

That you will grant faith to them to believe in the one and only true God.

The evidence is clear, creation declares your glory and that Jesus Christ

has come and lived the life that we could not live and taken upon himself the punishment that we deserve.

For those of us who are in Christ, help us to grow in Christ, Lord.

Help us to live like people in the ark.

And at this time, God, I pray over your supper.

Lord, I pray that as the people prepare their hearts, Lord, that you will use this meal

to grow them in holiness.

We love you and we trust you.

And again, Lord, we need you.

Please be with us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.