Genesis 7

Genesis 7: Noah Enters the Ark

All right, so tonight we're gonna be looking at Genesis chapter 7 this is when Noah and his family enter into the ark. So we'll play the video. Listen along and then we'll come back and go through verse by verse.

Then the Lord said to Noah come.

Into the ark You and all your household Because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal a male and his female to each of Animals that are unclean a male and his female also seven each of birds of the air male and female To keep the species alive on the face of all the earth.

For after seven more days, I will cause it to rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights And I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things.

And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. So Noah with his sons his wife and his sons wives went into the ark because of the waters of the flood of Clean animals of animals that are unclean of birds and of everything that creeps on the air.

Two by two they went into the ark to Noah Male and female as God had commanded. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.

In the.

600th year of Noah's life in the second month the 17th day of the month on That day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven Were open and the rain was on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.

On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons Shem ham and Japheth and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. They and every beast after its kind all cattle after their kind Every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind and every bird after its kind every bird of every sort.

And They went into the ark to know two-by-two of all flesh in which is the breath of life. So those that entered male and female of all flesh Went in as God commanded him and the Lord shut him in.

Now what the flood was on the earth 40 days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and Greatly increased on the earth and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters.

And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed 15 cubits upward and the mountains were covered and all flesh died that moved on the earth birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every man All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life.

All.

That was on the dry land.

Died.

So he destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground both man and cat creeping thing and bird of the air.

They were destroyed from the earth those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

All right, like I said, this is Genesis 7 this is when Noah enters into the ark. There's a lot of questions that surround this story. Like where did all the water come from a bigger question? Maybe where did all the water go afterwards?

Were there dinosaurs on the ark? These are kind of the the fun questions people ask. Maybe we'll get to some of these but just to review up until this point. We've covered verses or chapters 1 through 6.

So chapter 1 we know gave us the six days of creation.

So.

If you just read the Bible at face value You get the idea that the earth was created about 6 ,000 years ago or what's. Bishop Usher Calculated a date that was like what six thousand three hundred and something years.

Something like that. So we got the six days of creation in chapter 1. Chapter 2 tells us about day 7 when God rested. It also gave us more details about Adam and Eve. Chapter 3 covered the fall of man into sin.

Chapter 4 gave us the story of Cain and Abel. Also at the end of that chapter Seth was born and then it says. When Seth was born and he had descendants then men began to call on the name of the Lord and we talked about the two Lines.

The ungodly line of Cain. The godly line of Seth. Chapter 5 is a genealogy of Seth, you know back to Adam to Seth to his descendants. These are the godly people on earth and that's where Noah is introduced in chapter 5 and then in chapter 6.

Last week we talked about the two different theories about the sons of God. Are they fallen angels? Procreating with Human women to produce a race called the Nephilim of half demon half man. That's what a lot of people believe.

And then the other point of view is that The sons of God are descendants of Seth. Either way the earth became totally corrupt In chapter 6 and that's what caused God to judge the earth with the flood.

So if you look at chapter 6 verses and verses 7 and 8 you see that The Lord says I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Both man and beast creeping thing and birds of the air for I am sorry that I have made them.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So that brings us To chapter 7 any questions about anything up until this point? I Think we have a handle on what's going on, but Marcus.

Sort of a question. This year and the Jewish calendar is 57 84. Yes, really close to 6 ,000. That was determined by some.

57 57 84, okay. Yeah, I'm not familiar with the Jewish calendar of how they come up with that. Are they saying that's how old the earth is.

Mammonitis. Well, I assume so. Yeah.

But what about. But what about the time period from Adam from the time God created everything up until the day? The flood came. How long is that? Roughly it's about 1 ,600 years. So from Adam to Noah and of course Noah is 600 years old once the flood starts.

It's about 16 16 45. So if you look at it that way God actually has been very very patient because man has been rebelling really since you know Chapter 3 it might have been a week after they were created.

We don't know. But it took this long for God to actually send judgment. 1 ,600 years. That's more patience than I would have. I don't know about you. Yeah.

What struck me was it said Noah was a righteous man, right? But we have Christ's righteousness this was before the law this is before Moses and so forth. I Guess my question and then I'll venture a guess is what made Noah Righteous other than he.

I guess it was faith. It was still faith wasn't it. And obedience.

Right obey. Well, see he he answered his own question. He's pretty good at this. No, we're gonna cover that because yes, we think of what the Apostle Paul said Romans 3 There's none righteous. No, not one and then we say Jesus is the exception.

He never sinned. But yeah, it does call it does call Noah righteous. So what does that mean? We'll deal with that one second. But the attributes of God one of the attributes we covered several weeks ago.

God is long-suffering and Like I said, it's it's over 1 ,600 years but finally there does come a time where God's patience if you want to put it that way runs out and The earth mankind is very very evil at this point.

People are violent and God is going to step in. So look at Genesis 7 verse 1 Says then the Lord said to Noah come into the ark you and all your household. Because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

So we've already established that Noah is not without. It's not that he's without sin, but he's righteous before God in this generation. So of all the people on earth Noah stands out he's living a godly set-apart life and that's just not the case with anybody else, so What was it that justified Noah was it his works.

It's gonna say in a few verses that Noah did all that God commanded him. So Noah is Obedient, but why is he obedient because he has faith he believes everything that God tells him. It's never rained. No one has seen Any type of flood never not even rain never mind a flood and yet Noah believes God and I that is why he's Righteous, I believe so the Hebrew word translated righteous refers to the fact that Noah is living a just life and he's Justified in the eyes of God.

Romans 2 talks about even before the law or people that don't have God's law. They still have God's law written on their hearts. So he knows what's right and wrong and he's obeying God because he has Faith and God wants to preserve this godly line.

So God is going to Essentially start over but he's going to preserve the line of Seth through through this man Noah and then Through Shem eventually that line will bring the Messiah into the world. In verse 2 we see that Noah is Instructed to take we always think of the animals coming on two by two, right?

And if you ask people that's what they'll tell you. Yeah, two of each male and female, but that's not actually the case with all the animals. We see that with some animals the clean animals. How many did he take on?

Seven now, why is it that he would take seven of the clean animals? Okay for sacrifices. What about food? Well, I think based on I guess I can't be certain of this. It doesn't look like they ate animals until after the flood.

Maybe they ate before but Certainly the clean animals are for sacrifice. Remember as soon as he gets off the ark, that's the first thing he does. He offers a sacrifice. But then they'll start eating animals.

After.

After the flood. Yeah.

Right.

That you know that could be we see that the main purpose of the animals being on the ark According to verse 3 was to keep the species alive. So that verse in and of itself Absolutely proves. This was a worldwide flood.

I know I don't need to Convince you because we've touched on this many times, but there's still a lot of people even within Evangelical Christianity. They they don't believe in the worldwide flood. But here it says God tells him bring the animals on to keep these species alive.

So obviously if there was a regional flood That wouldn't have been necessary because the animals would have been living all over the world everywhere other than that region, so I'll say it again the people who believe in a local flood or advanced this localized flood theory.

I Really do see this as just a denial of the Bible. Okay, the Bible teaches the worldwide flood and if you don't believe that That's a denial of scripture. There was another church in the area that held a conference I think was two weeks ago and they had a Guy come in a well-known Fairly well-known speaker among Baptist churches anyways, and he said something.

He said that you know evangelicals because he's a fundamental Fundamental Baptist so he's seeing apostasy everywhere in the mainline Denominations and the cults. Here's what he said about evangelical Christians he said evangelicals say they believe the Bible but they really don't and His examples was they a lot of evangelicals don't believe the earth is 6 ,000 years old he said a lot of evangelicals don't believe in a worldwide flood and according to him he saw that as a denial of Scripture and you know, I I tend to agree with that so I Clearly the worldwide flood.

I wouldn't say it's a matter of a person's salvation. But you know once you start compromising on these issues you tend to compromise on other issues and then where where does it end?

All right.

So Any questions so far? We're in verse 3. Okay. So let's just skip ahead. Verse 5 it says. And Noah did all That the Lord Commanded him. So whatever God told him to do he did it. We see that he was obedient.

So Noah and his family they get on the ark. Remember, he's 600 years old. And we see in verse 11.

In the.

600th year of Noah's life in the second month in the 17th day of the month on that day all the Fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were open. So the question of where did all the water come from remember the water is coming from both Both sides there's coming from from above.

Okay, the the canopy that is above the earth. We believe the earth's atmosphere was probably a lot different. Remember on day two of creation God separated the waters remember the waters below from the waters above so there's a lot of water Above in the atmosphere and that's all broken up and it comes down and then the fountains of the deep.

I don't know how much water was down there, but that the water comes up. So between the two it's enough to cover even the highest Mountain and it actually says that the mountains were covered. So again, that's just more evidence of a worldwide Flood.

Now another question that comes up. Where did the water go? I Mean if you had enough water to flood the world. Where did the water go once it started to recede. I Mean it didn't. I guess it didn't go back up into the atmosphere.

Yeah, obviously a Lot of it would have Come back and form the oceans and whatnot. But one thing we can't forget. This is a supernatural judgment. What's happening here is supernatural. So therefore It's sort of like asking how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, you know, how did he do that exactly?

Well, there's no there's no real answer. There's no scientific or natural answer. It's a miracle. So I don't really get hung up on stuff like that like I said, there's a lot of questions, but It's no problem for God and if the Bible doesn't tell us then there really is no answer, but yeah.

Right.

Right, but isn't this why people deny the worldwide flood because they say well that how does that work that's impossible. Well, yeah, it is impossible. Just like a guy Being crucified who dies and he's raised from the dead three days.

I mean, that's impossible, too. Except that with God all things are possible. So These are these questions. I think sometimes some people really want to know but other times They're called Deconstructing questions like people are asking this to plant seeds of doubt in your mind.

So just be careful when When people ask those types of questions, that's often what's behind it. All right, let's turn to second or excuse me first Peter chapter 3. First Peter chapter 3 we're gonna look at a puzzling Verse that we never really talk about but it has to deal with the flood.

So now it's a good time to look at it. As you're turning there. It says here in Genesis 7 that it rained 40 days and 40 nights that number 40 is Symbolic of a time of testing a time of trial. You remember Jesus was tempted in the wilderness 40 days and 40 nights.

So the number 40 has significance. You're you're in 1st Peter. But 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 5 tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. So we can envision Noah Building the boat and over let's say it took over a hundred years to build something like that.

He's building the boat. Some people are gonna see this and come along and say hey, what are you doing? And that gave Noah presumably it gave Noah Opportunities to tell them about God and what God was going to do.

So Noah was a preacher in some way shape or form. He was telling people warning them and in theory they could have gotten on the boat with him, but nobody believed God gave his word, but only Noah believed or Noah and His family so we know and we talked about this last week talk about it again.

Now the ark is a picture of what? Right, so the water that this is judgment and We receive salvation From judgment. Okay, we get saved by trusting in Christ. They were saved by being you know in the ark.

So the ark is a picture of Christ. We're in Christ. We're saved by being in Christ. They're saved by being in the ark. So the ark is a picture of Christ now look at first Peter 3 18 It says for Christ also suffered once for sins the just for the unjust.

That he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh. But made alive by the Spirit by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison Who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah?

While the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight souls were saved through water so this is a challenging verse to interpret and it's only going to get more difficult because in verse 21 if you look at verse 21 Quickly, it seems to say that it compares baptism to the flood and then it seems to say that we're saved Through baptism.

Does everyone see that? Okay, so I want to deal with that question, but first what's this statement about? Jesus going to preach to the spirits in prison who formerly were Disobedient in the days of Noah.

So who are these spirits in prison? Well, you remember that theory about the sons of God, right? We're going back to that How maybe they were fallen angels. Okay, and again, I I accept this as a possibility.

So the idea that some people have these these angels procreated with with women and Because of that God took these fallen angels and put them in In prison in the abyss. So they're locked up chained in the bottomless pit and that they are the spirits in prison that Peter is referring to so when Jesus died on the cross, here's the idea Jesus died on the cross and.

He.

Descended into the lower parts of the earth and he took the believers in in Hades or paradise and he brought them up to the third heaven, right? That's one thing Jesus did in those three days. But another thing he did he went and he preached To these angels that were locked up in the abyss and maybe he preached something to the effect.

This is total speculation. But he preached something to the effect that you know, you tried to corrupt the human race you tried to prevent My coming into the world and you know, basically I I defeated you I I went through the cross and your plan failed.

That's one point of view if you think that the sons of God were fallen angels. Marcus.

You mentioned that the DMT the part of Hades or Sheol called paradise also called Abraham's bosom right. This other place. Is this what they call Tartarus?

Yeah, Tartarus would be. If you think of the underworld the whole thing is Hades or Sheol. One compartment is was paradise Abraham's bosom. The other compartment was torment or hell and Based on the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

There is a great gulf fixed in between so that chasm in between we believe is the bottomless pit or the abyss.

Maybe where the demons that Jesus cast out of man called legion and cast it. They said don't throw us into the abyss throw us into the face. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean that would have been the same place that's the prison house for some demons. Right, right. So some demons seem to be out on the loose. Others are in in Tartarus in the bottomless pit. Got Larry.

The spirits in prison Be the spirits of the Dead people that were unbelieving.

That I mean that's the other point of view so. Like I said, I believe the sons of God were the descendants of Seth. So some people think that Jesus his spirit in a sense was preaching through Noah that Christ was.

His message was coming through Noah and the spirits in prison are actually the lost souls in Noah's day. Because sometimes unbelievers are talked about as being, you know, slaves of sin or in chains of bondage or something like that.

Bottom line is we don't really know but it's one of those verses that are Disputed and I had somebody leave a comment on. I think it was last week's YouTube video from Genesis 6 and he said that.

The.

He said that demons are actually spirits of the Nephilim. Okay, and I have heard that before. So the Nephilim are this remember the half-breed race between a half man half demon. So they were killed in the flood.

But their spirits still roam the earth and they're the unclean spirits or they are the demons and he said fallen Angels are not demons. I Believe fallen angels are demons but he said no their spirits of the Nephilim, so that that's a that's a minority position and Interesting to talk about and probably just confuses people to bring up all these different things but It is out there.

Here's the reason I wanted to talk about this though this statement in first Peter 3 21 and 22 Peter says there is also an anti type because he's talking about the flood and the days of Noah and then he says there is Also an anti type which now saves us and what is that?

Baptism. So if you just look at this just glance at it reading it for the first time. It almost sounds like Peter or some people would say this is what Peter is saying that you're saved through Baptism and I think we know that there's a lot of people in the world who believe that you're not saved until you get baptized.

The Catholic Church believes that they believe that baptism is literally the thing that washes away your sin. Churches of Christ. They also believe in baptismal regeneration. So yes, you need to believe in Jesus, but that's not enough.

You're not saved until you actually, you know get dunked in the water. So they would point to a verse like this and on the surface it it does seem to say that Marcus.

Mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, right?

Something they would point to that verse as well. So you see the washing is baptism. You need to be baptized to be saved. Here's another a few vert. Now, you know, we don't believe this. This has been emphasized and and just about every Bible believing church I know they're quick to say no baptism does not save you on the other hand.

You have verses like Mark 16 16 Jesus says he who believes and is baptized will be saved. He and he who believes not will be condemned. Acts 22 verse 16 Says now why are you waiting arise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord?

So there are verses in the Bible that do make it sound like that baptism is at least part of the gospel and salvation. So, how do we deal with this? You can either take that position or You say no. Salvation is by grace through faith and baptism is just the symbolic act act that pictures Salvation.

So yes Marcus.

The washing of regeneration. When somebody does go into the down, you know physically with their body goes down and and and is immersed under Physical water. It's just that. It's a picture. It's a representation.

So I'm just wondering if the word baptism can be me more than.

You know Right.

Well the word baptism means to immerse right and Sometimes it it doesn't always refer to water baptism. It can refer to spirit baptism. Right. Well, let's read this verse again. I think the answer is in the text.

So Verse 21 there is also an antitype which now saves us. Baptism keep reading not the removal of the filth of the flesh. But the answer of a good conscience toward God. I mean that might be a little hint that it's not actually the water washing, you know your sin away.

It's you know your heart your good conscience Toward God, so I just want to read what John MacArthur wrote about this. I think this is helpful. He said in the New Testament an antitype is an earthly expression of the spiritual reality.

And that's what baptism is, right? He says it indicates a symbol picture or pattern of some spiritual truth. Peter is teaching That the fact that eight people were in the ark and went through the whole judgment and yet were unharmed is Analogous to the Christians experience in salvation by being in Christ the ark of one salvation.

So The ark is a picture of Christ as we said he continues. Peter is not at all referring to water baptism here, but rather to a Figurative immersion into union with Christ as an ark of safety from the judgment of God.

Judgment fell on Christ. Just as the judgment of the floodwaters fell on the ark. The believer who is in Christ is thus in the ark of safety. That will sail over the waters of judgment into eternal glory.

To be sure he is not misunderstood. Peter clearly says that he is not speaking of water baptism. And of course, that's the statement about not the removal of the filth of the flesh. But the answer of a good conscience towards God now, I don't know about you, but to me that that makes sense.

But if a person is still wondering, I don't know. It really sounds like I Should be baptized. Well, yeah, you should. So how about you just get back, you know if you believe in Jesus just get baptized and then you don't have to worry about it, but You know, sometimes we were so adamant that baptism doesn't save you we almost it almost comes across like we're saying that you don't really need to be baptized and we don't want to send that message, but Salvation is still always.

It's through faith not Having someone sprinkling water over your head that in and of itself doesn't save anybody.

Baptism. When when the person is immersed they say Baptized into his death and then when they come out raised the newness of life or the issue of like that's a pretty common.

Dead.

Dead to the to yourself, right? And then raised so that Christ is your life.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's Romans 6 where you get the.

The imagery of baptism where and that's why we do it by immersion. Not only does baptize mean. It literally means to immerse. Going down under the water is a perfect picture of Christ's death coming back up perfect picture of his resurrection.

So but that's not what saves you. It's it's symbolic for The spiritual baptism. And what Christ did. Anyways, let's go back to Genesis 7. That was always a verse that puzzled me in 1st Peter. So I thought it was worth touching on.

The Flood Waters, the Worldwide Judgment, and the Problem of Local Flood Views

All right. Try to finish this up in the next few minutes. Genesis 7 verse 13. It says. On the very same day Noah and his sons That is Shem Ham and Japheth and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark.

They and every beast after its kind all cattle after their kind every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after.

Its.

Kind, why do you think he keeps bringing up after its kind after its kind after its kind? You know, nothing's in the Bible by accident. So there's a reason why he does that. Okay, Marcus. Right, so we usually see that at least back in the first Chapter, I think it is the first two chapters.

We usually see it as a refutation of evolution but One another question people ask how did he get all those animals on the ark like just the dogs and cats alone? I mean he had to bring on lions and tigers and house cats and bobcats and like no actually he didn't because.

We do believe in a form of evolution, right? We reject what is called macro evolution. So we do not believe monkeys Evolve into men so that type of evolution we reject everything reproduces after its own kind.

But we do believe in micro evolution. So Noah didn't have to bring on a Rottweiler a poodle a wolf a coyote. He didn't have to do that. He had to bring on what two dogs. Whatever they whatever state they were in back then.

They say, you know the dogs we have as pets evolved from wolves. Is that what scientists say I think. Can you can you tell it without.

But.

That's all he had to do is bring on two felines. Two canines, whatever they were back then. So they did evolve though over the next few thousand years. Yes, they evolved into all the different types of breeds and wolves and Coyotes and everything but they all came from two, you know parents the two dogs originally.

So if you look at it that way, there's actually a lot fewer animals on earth originally. Where now we just have so many different types. So I don't think it would be a problem fitting all the animals.

The other question about dinosaurs. Are there dinosaurs on the ark? First of all Dying the word dinosaur is a modern term it developed in the 1800s. And it's all part of the bigger narrative about the earth being billions of years old.

So were there large creatures like that on the ark? Yeah, did those creatures exist. I'm not doubting many of those creatures existed. But well, how could Noah fit a brontosaurus on the ark? Well, he could have brought on he probably didn't bring eggs on the ark, but he could have brought on a Baby right.

Did he bring on an elephant? Well, yeah, but he probably didn't bring on some huge, you know, woolly mammoth he probably brought on two baby elephants or something like that, so if you look at it that way and especially if they were in some sort of state of hibernation, which again is possible then.

Room in the ark really isn't a problem and I would just direct all those types of questions to Ken Ham. And answers in Genesis, and I've never heard him not have an answer for questions like this. So a Lot of the a lot of these things really aren't problems that the skeptics want to bring up.

So any questions on that?

God.

Would not put two brontosaurus on there because they're so big but babies. And when I was down visiting the ark a number of years ago um, they said that the largest dinosaur egg that they have ever been able to identify through Historical evidence has been no bigger than a football.

Yeah and so I mean that's. How big then the baby would have been right?

But I remember in elementary school we were taught all about this and of course kids love dinosaurs, right. Tyrannosaurus rex Stegosaurus brontosaurus, but I remember I think it was in high school or a little while later I remember reading some article where the scientists then said well, we don't even believe brontosaurus is existed.