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[0:00] All right, so, eight souls. That's it.

[0:16] Out of all the people who lived on this planet, only eight were righteous.! And that's what the Bible says. In fact, it's confirmed in the New Testament too. 1 Peter 3. I think it's verse 20, somewhere around in there.

[0:32] Confirmed it. Only eight souls got on board the ark. Eight souls were saved from God's judgment. Eight souls were righteous before Him.

[0:44] All right, so then, as we get on into chapter 7, God eventually says to Noah, then it's time to get on board the ark. And He says in verse 4, and this is kind of setting us up so we can go a little bit further.

[1:01] God says in verse 4, For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.

[1:14] God's judgment, the flood of judgment, is about to come. And then you get into verse 5, and I closed with this last time. In fact, I just really read it and mentioned it. We didn't get into it.

[1:25] But it says at the close of verse 5, by the way, an oft-repeated statement concerning Noah, and I believe a statement that is the proof of Noah's righteousness, his saving relationship with God.

[1:43] And here's the statement, And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. All right, so that's the end of that section. That means Noah obeyed God, and that's what saved people do.

[1:57] Right? Always? Well, not always. But the pattern of our life as a born-again follower of Christ is that we obey him.

[2:13] And this is what Noah did, and that's the statement made about him. And in a sense, though there's other information that we get in the verses that follow, in a sense, though, verses 6 through 9 really stand as, really give us the details of his righteousness.

[2:31] The details of his obedience, that is. And so, it starts in verse 6, and this is, we'll take up our study there. Noah, it says Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.

[2:47] 600 years old. We were talking about, a moment ago, about the average lifespan of the day, and, you know, probably 600, 700, somewhere in that ballpark.

[3:00] And now here is Noah. He's to the average. And he lived, what, I think, 800 years in total.

[3:11] And so, he's just kind of middle-aged at this point. 600 years old. But what I want to point out here is, God gives us, through Moses, Moses is the author of Genesis.

[3:28] Moses wrote the first five books. And what he is writing to us here in Genesis, he got by divine revelation. And so, Moses is telling us that, on the day when Noah and his family got on the ark, Noah was 600 years old.

[3:50] Now, the question is, why did Moses give us that information? I mean, why include that here? That Moses was 600 years old.

[4:04] Well, he did that for the same reason that he provides the date for the beginning of the flood in verse 11. Look at verse 11. In the 600th year of Noah's life, so that's repeated again, 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.

[4:31] Pretty specific information. He gave us these details for the same reason that he gave us exact information concerning the duration of the rain on the earth.

[4:47] He gives that to us a couple of times. Verse 4, 40 days and 40 nights. Very specific. Not 41 days, not 39. 40 days and 40 nights.

[5:01] Moses gave these details for the same reason that he provided the specific dates when the floodwaters receded and the dry ground appeared.

[5:13] And we have that in verse 13. Look at that. And it came to pass in the 601st year, so he gives Noah's age again. He's aged a year.

[5:25] In the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.

[5:36] And then in verse 14 it says, and in the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dried. This is all very specific information, isn't it?

[5:48] Very detailed. Why these details, these numbers and dates? So we can get out our calendars and find out exactly when all this happened?

[6:01] Not really, because we don't know what kind of calendar he used. The dates are given, and all these specific details are given, because this is historical.

[6:15] That's what we ought to learn if we don't learn anything else from this, and of course, learning that doesn't really change anything for those of us in this room, because I would hope that I'm looking at a group of people who believe that Genesis is history, that it's not myth, that there are a lot of people who believe it's just a mythical kind of story, certainly has some moral things to teach, you know, but it's just simply myth, that it's not real, not historical, but when you write mythical things, you don't give details like a person's age, and the day of the month, and the day of the month, and so forth.

[7:03] When you write those kind of details, you're writing down history, and this is what Moses is doing. The flood is not a metaphor of judgment.

[7:13] Did you know there are a number of scholars who believe that? And would have us believe that? That yeah, the lesson taught here is the judgment of God on sin.

[7:25] Or they would agree with us about that. But that this was an actual event that took place, well, that's not true. It's just, it's an allegory.

[7:36] There would be another way. Or it's symbolic. Symbolic of God's judgment. And they would say to us, you know, you don't have to be so dogmatic about this. I mean, we both believe the same thing.

[7:50] God judges sin. And so, what does it matter, really, if we find out that this account here in chapter 7 about the flood is not historical, it's just kind of myth.

[8:05] what's the big deal anyway? Well, the big deal is the Bible speaks of it, writes it, Moses wrote it down as if it were history.

[8:17] And it is referred to in the New Testament as a real event that took place. And so, if the Bible is wrong about this, then maybe it's wrong about the resurrection.

[8:32] Maybe that is not history. maybe Jesus himself. Though there may have been a man named Jesus. And maybe this man did some good things and moral things and was a good teacher.

[8:46] Maybe some of those things are true, but many of the things that he said and claimed, those were just made up by the church to teach some kind of moral lesson.

[8:56] And this is the way liberalism will take you, you see. I'm talking about theological liberalism. as long as you come to the same moral conclusion, they would say, then what does it matter if you believe the Bible is literal, without error?

[9:16] What does it really matter if you believe that or if you just believe that it's, you know, just teaches some moral lessons that we should learn? sin. And that's just a step away from saying that the cross was not to atone for sin, but just as a demonstration of self-sacrifice.

[9:37] It had a moral lesson and not any kind of real spiritual lesson there. Well, this is a true story. And Moses wrote it as if it were true.

[9:49] He gave us details to let us know that this is not an allegory, not symbolic, it's not a metaphor of anything. This is history. History. And so we have all of these dates here.

[10:04] All right, verse 7. So, Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.

[10:17] All right, so Noah and his family got on the ark first. didn't they? That's how we read it here. They got on the ark and they waited.

[10:28] Not for very long because all this took place the same day. They waited and then the animals came. And they got on the ark too.

[10:39] Verse 8. Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth. Two by two, they went into the ark, and then what does it say right there? Noah.

[10:50] To Noah. I think if there's anything that we should learn, especially our study here tonight, really any time we're studying God's word, is that we ought to pay attention to the details.

[11:09] This is an incredible miracle. And we don't normally see it that way. We don't see it. We miss it. These animals came to Noah. Now, the implication is that Noah did not devise some kind of sophisticated trap, you know, and didn't travel around the globe.

[11:32] I understand that there's a lot we don't know about where these animals lived prior to them coming to the flood, and maybe they weren't all that far away. I, for one, have the opinion that they were spread out on the globe, living wherever there was land for them to live on.

[11:52] And so Noah didn't, and his sons didn't travel out and set up these traps and trap these animals because they're all wild animals. You know, maybe some of them would be docile, but some of them would be ferocious, and some of them would be hard to trap, and we don't have the idea that for 120 years Noah got out there and tried to gather up all these animals.

[12:15] The Bible doesn't say anything like that. It says that they came to him. And so how did that work? Well, God did it.

[12:28] Is it hard for us to believe that? Probably not for us here tonight. I mean, if God could create them, he could certainly cause them to go where he wants them to go and come when he wanted them to come.

[12:43] and God just did that, and God brought them to the ark. He brought them there. And you might remember, though you might not have remembered, that God did the same thing for Adam in Genesis chapter 2, verse 19.

[13:02] Do you remember? Well, let me read it to you. Out of the ground of the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam.

[13:13] He brought them to Adam. For what reason? To name them. And it goes on to say, whatever name he picked, that was their name. That was his responsibility.

[13:25] Noah didn't have to go out. Now, you know, they were all there in the garden. But Noah, or Adam rather, didn't have to go out and find them and catch them and bring them to them. God brought them.

[13:37] I can just picture it one by one. I think it would be a similar picture of Noah there at the door of the ark. And the animals are coming in two by two.

[13:49] Now, Noah doesn't have to name them. I don't think he cared about counting them. He didn't have to count them. His sons and family were responsible, apparently, to get them housed and caged and bedded down and put them in their various compartments and such.

[14:09] I'm sure they had to do something. They didn't just sit there and God did it all. All it says is that God brought the animals to Noah, to him. And I say again that this is a tremendous miracle.

[14:22] And really, we rarely, if at all, think of it as a miracle. And yet, generally, when we see paintings of Noah and the ark and the animals, animals, and even kind of whimsical toys that might be in a baby's nursery or kids' rooms, it's usually portrayed that way.

[14:48] Here's Noah. Sometimes his wife is standing there with him. In fact, we have a little wooden kind of set somebody gave us years ago. And it's got Noah.

[15:00] He kind of looks more like a grandfather. He's got a long beard and this robe. And there's his wife. And then you've got two of the animals. A little ramp comes up to the ark.

[15:10] We've all seen that, haven't we? It was pictures of Noah there at the doorway. And here come the animals, two by two, coming up. And we look at those and we fail to see that this is a miracle.

[15:24] Incredible miracle. In fact, of epic proportion, God supernaturally compelled some, I don't know, best estimates, 30,000 animals compelled them to come to the ark at that time.

[15:41] Now, obviously, some could get there quicker because they were birds. You know, they flew in. Others were not far off and so it didn't take them long to get there.

[15:54] Others may have been miles, hundreds of miles, maybe more away. God had to get them moving before the others and God timed all this thing and they all got there and got on board the ark that day because it says the same day.

[16:11] Got them all on the ark. This is a miracle. Someone has tried to maybe speculate what might have been going on around that time with Noah's neighbors.

[16:26] You know, and here in first place, you know, he's been building this big boat or barge or whatever it is, this ark. And, you know, that's one strange thing that his neighbors watched every day.

[16:41] And now here come the animals and there's this long parade of animals coming up and getting on board the ark. And, you know, we wonder what Noah's close neighbors were thinking when they saw all that.

[16:59] Saw all these animals coming. And getting on board the ark. And yet, we should realize that Noah told them this was going to happen.

[17:13] He'd been telling them for 120 years. He explained, I'm sure, in what he told them. It wasn't a secret that God told him to build this thing, build it just this way.

[17:27] And God was going to save them and two of every species of animal on the planet because God is sending his judgment. God told them all about that.

[17:40] And now, here it is. It's happening right before their eyes. And they're seeing this happen. Two by two, they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

[17:53] And so, what were they thinking? Noah's neighbors. I don't have any idea. But I do know this. They still didn't believe it.

[18:06] How sad. How idiotic from our perspective. They still didn't believe it because none of them got on board the ark. now, I believe they could have.

[18:22] I believe that the ark was large enough that there was room for others to get on board. But they didn't. None of them, not any of them believed the preaching of God's word.

[18:35] Not a single one of them. And they heard it for 120 years and then they started seeing something that was a miracle. here come the animals.

[18:47] Alright, so the animals are coming, two by two, two of every species of animal, seven pair of clean animals. And the question is, how did they all get there in time?

[19:01] Well, I've already answered that, really, or dealt with that. God just timed their journeys so they get there in time. So that's an easy answer to come up with.

[19:12] Then another question might be, how did some of them get there at all? I mean, you know, how did they get there?

[19:26] We, you know, in the first place, that question assumes that we are picturing the earth as it is today, with the various continents planets, and a number of them not connected.

[19:46] And so how in the world could these animals get from some of these other places? And so the very question assumes that the earth was the same then as it is now, and yet that's not the case.

[19:59] The configuration generation of this planet drastically changed after the flood. And in second place, because of God's way of watering the planet prior to the flood, I think it's likely that there were no deep, deep oceans in that day.

[20:23] Very likely that there weren't. And it could be, and some have made a pretty good argument, that there was just simply one large land mass in that day.

[20:36] And it was not until after the flood and the trauma on this planet that those land masses were split up and we have the continents as they are today, and the deep oceans, and the highest of mountains, as a result of the flood.

[20:55] And so then the answer to how the animals got there to the ark is simple. They walked. They just walked. Well, some flew. Some flew.

[21:07] But now wait a minute. You know, somebody, there's always plenty of objections out there. Yeah, all right, all right, let's say I buy into that, Brother Dodd, prior to the flood, but what about after the flood?

[21:20] I mean, after the flood, how did they get to where they are today? That's probably the more pertinent question. Well, I mean, in light of the fact that we believe God's word, I guess the question is still impertinent.

[21:35] But it's a valid question, all right, I'll put it in those terms. Well, my answer is the same. They walked or they flew. Now, wait a minute.

[21:49] After the flood, we have the continents, you know, that are kind of spread out on the planet, and some of them are completely separated from any other land masses.

[22:00] How did the animals get there? You know, you can kind of think in your mind about some of those places, and not just continents, but islands and such, where if you go to those islands, you find animals there.

[22:14] How did that happen? Well, they got there. They got there, and at least two of some of those animals got there and populated those land masses, and you say, well, how did that happen?

[22:28] And I just say they walked. Land bridges that are not in existence today. Ice bridges, that would be a major answer.

[22:41] You can see where animals could get, and later, of course, people also would get to the continents of our day by way of ice bridges.

[22:54] It's very likely that because of the massive amount of water on this planet that all the caps, the poles froze, obviously, the wood, and there would be much, much more water and ice there than there is today.

[23:12] And so, it's, I think, pretty reasonable to think that the oceans were not as full of water as they are today. And as we've had that ice evaporate, and that water go to other places where it's warmer, and we have the glaciers that have moved, and they move into warmer climates, and they melt, and there's water.

[23:41] And so, we have land bridges between land masses that are not here today, and maybe not even land there might have been, probably were some very shallow water bridges in a sense, that is, you know, animals could walk across even though it was not dry land, whatever.

[24:05] And we don't really have to come up with an explanation, do we? We feel like we do, you know, we've just got to somehow explain this, but the fact is that they got there, and all the animals got to their places.

[24:23] All right, so I'm getting back to prior to the flood now, all the animals got to the ark in time that day, and of course, someone will ask, the dinosaurs too?

[24:34] Yeah, the dinosaurs too. The big ones? Well, probably not the big ones. In fact, I was reading an article not long ago about the dinosaurs, and that reason why prior to the flood we had reptiles that were so large, is because they lived so long, and that apparently scientists say that reptiles never stop growing, and so if they lived longer, they grew larger, and it was after the flood that we don't have these reptiles living as long.

[25:20] In fact, nothing on the planet lived as long now from the flood on as it did prior to the flood, and I think mostly explained by the change in environment, and so it could be that all of the quote dinosaurs that we find bones for, strange enough, washed into large deposits and such when that happened, but those dinosaurs were large ones, they were just small lizards, small infants of the various species, so that I think is a good enough answer for the dinosaurs.

[26:02] Alright, verse 10, we move on, and it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth, and I read this a moment ago, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventh day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, or literally burst, in fact, the word suggests an explosion, kind of an explosive bursting, and the windows of heaven were opened, and I mentioned a moment ago what calendar, we don't know what calendar they were using, or they were going by, you know, someone could argue, since Moses wrote this book, wrote this account, that maybe he interjected the Jewish calendar into what he wrote, and if that be the case, then this all happened in May, in our day, that's when it happened, but does that matter?

[27:13] The point here is to understand that this is history, and not some allegory, or some myth, some story. Verse 11 says, the fountains of the great deep were broken up.

[27:27] As I said a moment ago, the word broken up could mean exploded, burst with great power, great energy, and so what's going on here?

[27:44] I think I did mention last week, and we kind of looked at the two passages that tell us water sources were prior to the flood.

[27:55] It didn't rain in that day. That didn't happen until here, when the flood comes. The water sources, the first one was underground water sources that watered the earth from underneath, and then there was the canopy of water, and it didn't rain, but there was very likely a mist that would be produced from that, and so those were the two water sources.

[28:19] And so here we have, now the flood is coming, the judgment is full swing, and it's the fountains of the deep, the great deep, that are mentioned first, and they burst, and then second, and I think the order is important, the windows of heaven were open.

[28:40] Now, I put this in here, just a quote, the earth prior to the flood had this tremendous amount of water contained in it.

[28:52] It also had, at its core, fire, as it still does today. Volcanic eruptions apparently started to happen all over the planet.

[29:05] The fire in the middle of the earth began to heat the water, and by God's design, that water, which at once watered the entire planet, was heated up, and as it became heated and hotter, there was pressure built up that literally blew the surface of the earth open, creating the continents, moving the ground, pushing the mountains up, causing the seabeds to drop into chasms where water once was.

[29:36] I guess a very reasonable explanation about what happened there in regard to the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and then it says, and the windows of heaven were opened, and it happened in that order.

[29:54] The fountains of the deep burst, then the windows of heaven were opened, and it's reasonable to speculate that one caused the other, that the upheaval of the earth, which no doubt involved volcanic activity, that that pierced the water canopy that was, that had enveloped, was, had circled the planet, and the result was a torrential downpour.

[30:30] I mean torrential, and verse 12 says, and the rain was on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. This was a major event, on this planet, not just a lot of rain.

[30:44] See, we need to understand that the Bible is describing something more than just a lot of rain, more rain than we've ever seen in our life. You know, we've seen, you've seen in your lifetime, a lot of rain falling in a day or two or three days where we just have steady downpours, and it doesn't take very long for there to be some major problems.

[31:07] rain. But this is more than just a lot of rain. We're talking about huge volumes of water that God placed under the ground.

[31:22] It was used for watering this ground that somehow God caused to burst open. And it can't just simply come up through geysers, it just broke up the ground, broke up the earth.

[31:36] earth. And this upheaval was a full planet event that involved many other factors, and then of course the canopy that surrounded the planet and all the water that fell out of there.

[31:51] It emptied it out. And all this taking place, 40 days, 40 nights, and we have enough water covering this planet to cover the highest peak, even those peaks that were created by bursting.

[32:04] And I really believe that with that upheaval we have mountains like Mount Everest being created suddenly, jutting up to 20,000 feet because of this upheaval and pressure.

[32:20] And God all the while is protecting his family and the animals who will be a part of the new world after the flood, protecting them in this floating barge there on the water.

[32:37] And then we have verses 13 through 16 really just simply reiterate what has already been said and they all got on board the ark the same day.

[32:49] It's all happening at the same time and then God sends this flood. But before he does, and I'll end with this, verse 16 closes with these words, and the Lord shut him in.

[33:04] Don't pass over that because there's a tremendous spiritual implication or application to be made here.

[33:17] God closed the door. First God said come in and then when they were all in, God shut the door. And the idea is that he didn't just bring it to, he sealed it.

[33:32] Shut it in so that Noah and his family, his righteous children, his favored graced children, and all the animals who would be part of the new world were all inside and they were safe and they were secure in the only place that was safe and secure inside the ark.

[33:55] The only place. Inside the ark. God shut the door. God sealed them in. Now, you know, because you've been around long enough, you know that the ark is a picture of Jesus.

[34:09] That's not just simply speculation about that. It's not that some theologian just read that story and said, you know, this reminds me of Jesus.

[34:21] You know, sometimes we preachers can take stories in the Old Testament and kind of take license and say, well, you know, this, this I think is symbolic of this.

[34:35] And we have to be real careful about that. But we don't have to worry about that happening here because the New Testament makes the connection that the ark is a symbol of Jesus.

[34:48] And therefore, it is symbolic of our salvation. And so, in God's saving grace, what does He do for us?

[35:01] He shuts us up safe. I'm just using the terminology that Genesis uses. He shuts us up in Jesus.

[35:13] And we're safe. And secure. In fact, 1 Peter, and I mentioned 1 Peter a while ago, 1 Peter 3, 19.

[35:24] By whom also, and this is by Christ also, He went and preached to the spirits in prison. It's a reference to Noah preaching to those prior to the flood.

[35:35] Who formerly, these people were formerly 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, there is, or this is also, a type, an anti-type, which now saves us.

[35:55] What is? The ark is. A type of whom? Of Jesus. Who saves us? And so, as the eight souls were brought safely through the waters of judgment, when God shut them in the ark, sealed them in the ark, likewise, believers are brought safely through the judgment of God, when He seals us, shuts us by the Holy Spirit in the ark.

[36:28] And the ark is Jesus. The ark is Jesus. And so, really, our evangelism is this. We're to say to sinners, come into the ark.

[36:40]  Come into the ark and be saved from the judgment. And the ark is Jesus.