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[0:00] Let's get down through verse 5, 1-5, Genesis chapter 7.

[0:21] ! 1-5, Genesis chapter 7.

[0:51] And that kind of repetition of things.

[1:08] As a matter of fact, I would just point out to you that when you read, well really, starting at the very beginning of Genesis, you notice there's a lot of times repetition.

[1:21] I mean, it just repeats the same things over and over again. And we might, you know, find ourselves getting a little weary about that when we read. And there are other places in Scripture that you'll see that.

[1:34] But God's being very deliberate here and very careful. If you could use the word careful in relation to God. God doesn't have to be careful. But He's very deliberate and wants to keep this very simple.

[1:47] And the repetition of what He has said and what He's going to do and what He has commanded Noah to do and what Noah has done and the kind of character Noah has.

[1:58] The repetition there is to fortify the message. And so, there are profound lessons to be taught. Not just in this small text that I read tonight.

[2:11] We're going to learn some there. But throughout this account of the preparation for the flood. The flood itself and what is going to take place after the flood.

[2:23] I mean, let's just face it. The great judgment of all judgments is about to take place. That is, in relation to history, is about to take place on this world.

[2:37] And this is very critical. So, God's making it very simple, very careful. He's being very precise in His terms. And I think, you know, you would agree with me.

[2:49] This is disturbing history when you think about it. You know, Noah and his family and the ark and the animals, that notwithstanding.

[3:00] Because that certainly is a testimony of the grace of God. And it has great implications for us. But the event itself, the flood, is a very disturbing thing. I mean, it is the historical record of God's destruction of the entire earth and all its inhabitants.

[3:20] Except those, of course, that are on the ark. That's what this account's all about. And so, this is serious stuff. And then I would remind you again that it's now been approximately 1,650 some odd years.

[3:38] Since God created everything. Now, you know, that sounds like a long time to us. But really, that's a pretty short period of time to think about God creating all things.

[3:49] And then, just 1,600 plus years later, sin has so permeated and polluted all of creation that God has no other choice but to destroy it.

[4:02] And, like I said last time, when the Bible says the earth was filled with violence, it means literally it was so full there was no room for it anymore.

[4:13] And so, God took care of it. Now, so he destroyed his entire creation. And we have the tendency, and I guess we come by it honestly, to think, well, how terrible.

[4:27] How awful, you know, that this beautiful world. And trust me, what this world looked like prior to the flood was probably much more grand and beautiful than it is for us today.

[4:49] And how terrible that all of that beauty has been destroyed. And all of those wonderful creatures had to be destroyed. And all that, just think about it, how awful that is.

[5:02] And yet, I'm making this point and emphasizing this because we need to understand that the physical world is not God's primary concern.

[5:15] It's not. It's the spiritual. That's his primary concern. Or, to put it another way, righteousness is God's concern. Holiness is his concern.

[5:26] And so, God once destroyed this world that we call earth and love. And then he remade it, in a sense of remaking it. And we did endure and go on.

[5:37] And it was kind of remade after that. And that's what we have recorded here in Genesis. And listen, he's going to do that again one day. Going to destroy this world. One day out in the future.

[5:49] And that is somewhat recorded for us, if not just barely mentioned, in the book of Revelation. God's going to do that again.

[6:00] And so, I guess we could say that the Bible begins and ends with the destruction of this earth. Isn't that interesting when you think about that? And I guess then you would have to say that God is not an environmentalist.

[6:15] You know, we kind of are saturated by that idea, that concept. You know, environmentalism. And though we all kind of share different views about environmentalism as it exists today.

[6:34] But God was not an environmentalist. Not in that sense. Because his concern is not the material. Not the physical. As beautiful as his creation was.

[6:45] That was not his chief concern. It was spiritual. It is spiritual still. And so, contrary to the evolutionists, our planet, planet earth, we call it, is destined, it seems, for short life.

[7:00] I mean, really, in relation to how we might want to mark time. God created it. And then 1,600 years plus he wiped it clean with the flood to let it all start over again.

[7:12] And now it's been approximately 4,500 years. Give or take a few years here and there. And I know there's much debate about that. But I really believe this is correct.

[7:23] About 4,500 years since the flood. And I don't know about you, but it's difficult to see how this world could continue on much longer. I mean, when we consider what the Bible said about this world prior to the flood and how it was filled with violence, it's very difficult to see, or to miss, rather, the similarity of our world as it exists today and how it was described there just before the flood.

[7:51] And so, you know, it seems like God is going to be doing this again sometime soon. Now, we shouldn't worry about that because we're not going to be here when that happens.

[8:05] But, of course, the second time he's not going to destroy it with a flood, is he? It'll be with fire. And someone has said, and I think this is pretty important, said that it is a brief theater, that is, this world, this earth, a brief theater in the midst of eternity on which the drama of redemption is played out for the purpose that God might display his grace and his glory and gain a bride for his son.

[8:38] That's what God's doing. That's what he's interested. Now, interested, not that he didn't think his creation was good. He said it was good.

[8:49] And when he was done creating man, he said it's very good. Not that God doesn't recognize the goodness and greatness of his creation. I'm not saying that. But his chief concern is not physical.

[9:00] It's spiritual. And this brief time that our world exists is the time that God chose to not only display his grace and glory, but to find for his son a bride.

[9:13] And that's us. Amen to that. All right. So let's just walk through these verses that I read a moment ago here in chapter 7, verse 1. Read it again. And no, I don't have any notes for you tonight.

[9:27] Did you notice that? Okay. This is kind of walking through the text, and it just really wasn't in a form that I thought was really worth that much for notes.

[9:38] Maybe I'll rethink that and give you some of that next week. But first one, then the Lord said to Noah, come into the ark. Come into the ark. And I have already mentioned in some weeks past, I think, the significance of that invitation, that come.

[9:55] That meant that God was already in there. And I think there's a glimpse of, if the ark is symbolic of salvation, it certainly is.

[10:07] Then there is then this glimpse of the security of our salvation. Because God said, come into the ark. And I know some translations render that differently.

[10:19] Go or whatever. But it really is the word come that's translated. And so that means God's already there. And if the ark goes down, he goes down. And we're securing him, see, because we're in him in salvation.

[10:35] I don't want to go back into that. But here, verse 1. You and all your household. This is what God's saying. He's coming to the ark. You and all your household. Because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

[10:50] All right. So, now 120 years have now passed. It's time to get on board the ark. 120 years since God said to Noah, in chapter 6, verse 13, you might remember.

[11:07] He said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me. For the earth is filled with violence through them, man. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. And then when you get to verse 14, God tells Noah to build an ark.

[11:21] And then verse 15, God gives Noah all the specifications for the ark. And we've covered all of that ground. And so for 120 years, Noah built the ark.

[11:33] But not just that. He preached for 120 years. The New Testament tells us that. He's a preacher of righteousness. What was he preaching? Judgment's coming.

[11:45] Time to repent. And that was his message. And he preached it for 120 years. But now the day has come that God says to Noah it's time to get on board.

[11:58] And not just you, but your family, your whole household, come into the ark. Now, you might remember, especially if you were here last week, that the ark was essentially a rectangular box.

[12:15] Really what it was. An oblong, rectangular box. Essentially an enclosed barge. The ark was not a ship in the sense of a ship.

[12:30] A ship is built to go places. To navigate here and there. To slice through the water and so forth. Whether it's propelled by sails or propelled by, in our day, of course, motors and such.

[12:46] The ark was not that. It was not built to be a ship. And it had no sails, of course. You don't read anything in the Bible about that. No sails, no oars, you know.

[12:59] And no rudder. No need for a navigator because God did not build into the ark any navigation equipment. And no steering wheel, you know, in that sense.

[13:15] Because God is going to pilot this craft. And he is going to do that. Because it is going to rest right where he wanted it to rest.

[13:27] But the important thing to get is that the ark was not built to go anywhere. It was built to save people. And to preserve them and the creation for the new world that God is going to, in a sense, remake.

[13:43] And so that was its purpose. Now, those who know a thing or two about ships or, you know, that kind of a vessel, they tell us that because it was rectangular, that it was more stable than if it had been like a boat.

[14:03] If it had a narrow bow, it was much more stable. In fact, it was virtually no way it could ever capsize because of the dimensions of it and the way it was built.

[14:16] And they also say that because it was rectangular, it had 30% more capacity than if it had been a regular kind of ship, you know, with sloped sides.

[14:28] A third more. It could hold a third more than a boat its same size in the way the boats are manufactured today. And also because it was rectangular then and it could hold a third more, it likely, based upon its dimensions, it had the capacity of 1.5 million cubic feet.

[14:53] You say, is that a lot? Well, it has a lot to me. They say that's a lot. Or 100,000 square feet of space inside the ark.

[15:07] And we'll talk about this here in a little bit. But it had plenty of room for every species of animal known to exist on the earth, even counting some that have become extinct since then.

[15:23] So plenty of room for all the animals to be on board. Now, the important thing, though, to see in this verse, in verse 1, is Noah.

[15:35] Because he's the subject here. And what about Noah? The important thing to see is his faith here. Noah's faith.

[15:47] And we could describe it in a number of ways. Not different ways. There are a number of things about his faith that are clearly observable here from Scripture.

[16:00] In the first place, Noah believed God. He believed him. When God told him that he was going to destroy the world with something he called a flood. Something that had not yet happened on the earth.

[16:14] Noah believed him. All right, we're talking about his faith here. He believed God. It's clear from Scripture that it had never even rained on the earth prior to this time.

[16:25] And I'll say more about this here a little bit later. And now God's going to send a rain that's going to flood the entire earth.

[16:36] And it would have been totally bizarre out of even the imagination that anything like that could happen. And yet Noah believed it.

[16:47] Noah believed God. Noah didn't just believe him. He obeyed him. We're talking about his faith. This is important to understand because this is a perfect description of what faith really is.

[17:03] Noah believed God. Noah obeyed God. This was an obedient faith. That's what faith is. And so Noah obeyed God when he told him to build an ark.

[17:15] A what? An ark. An ark. An ark. Even though I think, well, it's clear that no one has ever built anything like that before.

[17:28] As a matter of fact, given the size of the ark, man has not built any ship that large. Well, didn't until the 19th century.

[17:43] Noah took off the ark, man has no one has built anything like that. And here is Noah building something like that and God told him to do it and Noah is obeying him. And if they did build ships in that day, you know, we don't have anything from Scripture about that, but if they did, small boats or crafts or whatever, water craft, then it certainly was obvious that what God told him to build wasn't anything like that.

[18:09] and yet Noah obeyed him. Noah also kept his faith in God. He persevered in that faith.

[18:21] And he did so for 120 years. From the time God told him what he was going to do and what he wanted Noah to do, for 120 years Noah continued to believe God.

[18:35] He did not doubt God's word even though he didn't see anything happen because of it for 120 years. God said he was going to flood the entire world.

[18:48] And not only had it never rained before, but in the 120 years it didn't rain. And I think maybe most of us would kind of begin to... Wait a minute, did I hear God write on this?

[19:02] And yet Noah continued to believe God. And by the way, there's no indication from Scripture that God said anything else to Noah for 120 years. Nothing recorded in Scripture about that.

[19:16] You know, it'd be great and maybe we could assume that Noah had a kind of relationship with God that God talked to him every other day or so. Maybe just drop by and see how things are going on the ark and, you know, kind of spur him on, encourage him on.

[19:33] But there's nothing in Scripture that indicates he had any other conversation like the one he had with God. And that didn't happen for 120 years. And then Noah served God.

[19:45] Served him for that 120 years. Not only building the ark, but also warning the people. The people of the earth of God's imminent judgment.

[19:56] All right, so the point I'm trying to make is that it's clear from Scripture, not only here, but supported by other passages in the Bible that Noah, first of all, was saved by grace.

[20:09] He was saved by grace. Chapter 6, verse 8 makes that clear. Noah found grace or favor in the eyes of the Lord. God favored him, graced him.

[20:22] All right, so he was saved by grace, just like we are. Noah was saved through faith. There was faith, and it was required, just as it's required for us.

[20:35] Saved by grace through faith. Chapter 6, verse 22, Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did. So he places faith in God.

[20:47] He was saved by grace, saved through faith. And so Noah was justified before God by grace through faith. And so was his entire family.

[20:58] And then we have chapter 7, verse 1, and God says, I have seen that you are righteous before me. Are righteous before me. All right, verses 2 and 3, very quickly.

[21:11] You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female, two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female, also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, and then for what purpose?

[21:27] The purpose is stated there, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. That's the purpose. Now, a little quiz. How many of each clean animal did God tell Moses to bring onto the ark?

[21:44] How many? No, he didn't tell Moses to take any onto the ark. He told Noah. I caught you. Well, just to, you know, let you know that, let you know that anybody can do that.

[22:05] I was, when I pastored a church in Arkansas, and I was going to seminary at the time, and I guess I just really thought I knew everything.

[22:16] And I had a lady in my church pull that on me, and I went into this great dissertation about seven clean animals and so forth, and she said, Brother Don, it wasn't Moses, it was Noah.

[22:30] At least it was just us. And I wasn't in a large group. Sorry that I embarrassed some of you, but I just had to do that. All right, now, this is the first time the Bible mentions anything about clean and unclean animals.

[22:48] It's the first time in Scripture that it mentions that. Later, of course, you'll have the Mosaic Law detailed in Scripture, and that deals with clean and unclean animals, identifies them, you know, and so forth.

[23:04] And God is going to give Moses the ceremonial law, or has given it to him. There in Leviticus. And he also gave Moses the details concerning offerings and animal sacrifices.

[23:19] And really, we could just lump all that under this word worship. That is the only acceptable worship to God. And God gave Moses all the details for that.

[23:32] And so, what is this here? Then, long before Moses, we have this reference to clean and unclean animals. Well, the point is that these things, the proper sacrifices and offerings, they existed before Moses.

[23:49] I didn't start there. We have all the details given there, and some other things. But the Mosaic Law, before the Mosaic Law, you have sacrifices.

[24:06] You have Cain killing his brother Abel because he's jealous that Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God. What were those two guys doing? They were offering up sacrifices to the Lord.

[24:20] And Abel brought, of course, a lamb, and it was acceptable, and Cain's was not accepted, and Cain got all bent out of shape and jealous and killed his brother. So, you already have it there.

[24:31] You have the sacrifice. After the flood, you find Noah coming out of the ark, he and his family, and they're now safe on the ground, and they've made it through the flood, and the first thing they do, build an altar, and they sacrifice unto the Lord not just one burnt offering, but a burnt offering for every clean animal.

[24:56] I mean, there was some major offerings, burnt sacrifices going on there. So, there was already the sacrificial system in that sense of what God expected and required in worship.

[25:09] And also, don't forget that God himself made the first sacrifice, animal sacrifice. He did that in the garden when he killed the animal, whatever that animal was.

[25:21] I think it was a lamb. He took the skins and covered Adam and Eve. All right? So, from the very beginning, God, here's the point. The point is not about the sacrificial system because we're not, we're not, God does not require that of us anymore.

[25:37] The point is that it was from the very beginning that God communicated to us, to man, that only by the death of an innocent substitute will our sins be atoned for.

[25:53] And so, he taught that from the very beginning. And, of course, even these things, like the sacrifices Cain and Abel offered and Noah and so forth, even all throughout the sacrificial system after the Mosaic Law was established, all of these things were just shadows, just pictures of the once and for all final, ultimate sacrifice that, of course, would be offered by Jesus.

[26:20] And it was the offering of himself, which was done at the cross. Now, we're not told what kind of animals were clean and unclean. And so, I can't trick you on that and ask you, well, just what were they?

[26:34] We don't know. Nothing in the Bible here. Now, later it's spelled out in the Mosaic Law, but not here. We can assume that God told Adam and Eve what animals were clean and which ones were unclean.

[26:50] And we can assume, I think, that God told, or Adam and Eve told their sons, first Cain and Abel, because Abel got it and Cain didn't, apparently.

[27:02] And so, then, that would be passed on. And certain, assume that it was passed on through the godly line from Seth and ultimately to Noah.

[27:14] So, Noah knew which was which. Unclean, clean and unclean. Now, someone might be wondering or question about the purpose for these clean animals.

[27:29] And there are various ideas out there. really, they really come down to two things. That either of these clean animals were brought on the ark in sevens, seven pairs, because, for dietary purposes.

[27:47] So, there would be plenty of these kind of clean animals for man to eat because they would be clean and so forth. That's really not, not it.

[27:57] the reason, obviously, and I really have already said this, the purpose was for worship, for animal sacrifice.

[28:09] And, chapter 8, verse 20, I've already mentioned this passage, but let me read it again, I think makes this pretty clear. Because, just right after the flood, waters go down and the ark rests upon dry ground and after a certain period of time when God allowed them to exit the ark, then the Bible says, then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings unto the Lord.

[28:45] Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that all the clean ones, he burned them all. it's a representative in each one was burnt.

[28:56] But, but, but the point is the idea here is not dietary and, and there's another reason why I think it's not bad is because, and I mentioned this last week, I believe that Noah and his family were vegetarians and they were all all vegetarians prior to the flood.

[29:16] And the reason I say that and I mentioned one of these verses last time in chapter 1, Genesis chapter 1 verse 29, it says, and God said, see, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food.

[29:38] So, God set the menu for man and it was a vegetarian menu. Say, well then, we ought to be vegetarians today then, right? well, chapter 9 and verse 3, God is setting a new diet for the post-flood people.

[30:00] He said, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things even as the green herbs. So, in the sense, I gave you the green herbs to begin with, now I'm also adding to your diet meat.

[30:13] so, you know, go ahead and pig out on the beef if you want to. You're going to anyway. But, so, what was my point?

[30:28] My point is, the idea of these seven clean animals, or pairs, seven pairs of the clean animals, however many there were, was not for dietary purposes.

[30:41] In fact, the dietary laws had not even yet been given. The point was for worship through the sacrificial offerings, and that's why they needed extras.

[30:53] Because, you know, if they only had a pair, and they offered them to the Lord, then that would extinct the species from then on. There would be no more. No more clean animals.

[31:03] And so, that's why God had the extras put on board. And I would add to this, that this, to me, is another evidence of a universal flood.

[31:14] That is, the animals that were brought on board, and being very specific about it. It's an evidence of a universal flood as opposed to a localized flood, which some over the years have argued for.

[31:27] Let me just ask you, why, why Noah and his wife on the ark? Well, that might be an obvious thing to answer. well, leave his wife behind, let her die in the flood.

[31:42] But listen to me, let me make the point here. Why Noah's sons and their wives? Or maybe more significantly, why two and seven pairs of every animal, male and female?

[31:57] Well, the answer is simple. God knows, and we know, don't we, that if Noah got on board without his wife, and his sons got on board without their wives, and if there were no pairs of animals, male and female, on the ark, then there would not be anything left, animal-wise, on this planet after the flood.

[32:23] You say, well, that's obvious. Well, the clear implication is that the flood was a worldwide event. That's why God wanted all those animals to be on there.

[32:35] It was a worldwide event. It was universal. I mean, why tell Noah to bring on the arch male and female representatives of, he said, quote, every animal to, quote, keep them alive on the face of the earth.

[32:51] Why do that if the flood was simply going to be a local event? That's pretty logical, isn't it? I would add to that, why tell Noah to build this enormous floating barge if the flood was going to be just a local catastrophe?

[33:07] I mean, why not just give him a cane and some directions and say, go this way and up this way and you can just walk out, you know, and bring some animals along with you if you want to, some livestock.

[33:19] Why not just do it that way if it's just a local event? And I would add another one. How could this flood cover the highest mountains?

[33:31] The Bible says in chapter 7, verse 19, under the whole heaven, the highest mountains, because some would argue, well, it just covered the hills.

[33:42] In fact, I think the New King James uses the word hill, but the word is more than just a hill. Some would argue that, well, it's just the hills in that area. But it says, under the whole heaven, that means every mountain.

[33:59] Now, I don't know what the mountains looked like in that day because obviously after the flood, the entire face of the planet was dramatically changed. And I think some of our very tallest mountains are as they are today because of the flood.

[34:14] And the upheaval and the pressure down, the pressure up and these things. But I think clearly there were tall mountains in that day. Maybe not 20,000 feet.

[34:25] But the Bible says all the mountains, the flood covered all the mountains under the heaven. Now, why or how could that happen if the flood was just a local event?

[34:37] So it's universal. Some argue that the flood was a local event or it was just simply a myth on the basis that the ark could not possibly hold every species of animal on the planet?

[34:54] And that's a major argument. And if you don't think about it a while, you might think, well, you know that, it got something there. How could you get, I mean, you've been to the zoo, you've watched animal planet, you've watched, you know, there are a lot of animals on this, a lot of different animals on the planet.

[35:14] How could the ark hold all of them? Well, it did and could easily do it. Now, I won't get into a big, long thing about this, but for example, God did not have to put every variety of dog on the ark.

[35:36] He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to do that in order to preserve the species dog. all he needed were two, just two. Two dogs.

[35:47] You say, now wait a minute, there are a lot, a lot of different kinds of dogs, some big ones and little ones and you know, spotted and short hair, long hair and all these, I mean, they're just, I don't know how many there are, it might be hundreds, different, different kinds of dogs.

[36:04] And, and so you're saying, Brother Dom, that all he needed was two? Yeah, just two. Because you see, all the genetic material for all the dogs that have ever lived, even those that are now extinct, all that genetic material was present in those two dogs.

[36:26] You say, no. How could that be? Really? Well, every human being in all of our varieties was present there in Noah and his wife and their sons and wives.

[36:48] God did not bring on board a male and female from Africa, didn't bring on board a male and female from the Orient, some Orientals.

[36:58] God didn't have to bring on board a male and female Indian or any other quote nationality. Sometimes we call them races. that's really not the correct way to state it.

[37:12] God didn't have to do that. All were present right there in Noah and his wife. And by the way, there's really only one race.

[37:27] We talk a lot about race relations. There's only one. Mankind. Not many races, just one race. And all the genetic varieties were there in Noah.

[37:40] From the darkest to the lightest, tall, short. In fact, one creation scientist explained it this way. He said, Mr. and Mrs. Noah produced everybody from pygmies and dwarfs to seven-foot NBA players.

[37:58] And Zulus and everybody in between. From Mr. and Mrs. Noah came all skin colors, all physical characteristics, all body types, all eye shapes, all noses, all eye colors, all hair colors.

[38:14] All the genetic coding was in those two people and the combinations multiplied by each new union without women. Scientists have estimated that in theory, if just two human parents could produce more children than there are atoms in the universe, no two would be alike.

[38:36] And so, just explain to you, in fact, Acts 17, 26, the Bible says, Paul is speaking, he says, and he that God has made from one blood or one DNA every nation of men.

[38:54] And by the way, that every nation of men is the word ethnos. race, we get a word ethnic from it. Not race, it's ethnos or people groups would be the best way for us to define it today.

[39:10] He made every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and all that came out of Noah and his wife. All of that. And then they will, anyway.

[39:24] All right, verse five, 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.

[39:36] And so, here's why Noah and his family and all the animals needed to get on board the ark. Very clear. And it's, I think, interesting, I'll just throw this in, interesting, that God gave Noah seven days.

[39:51] Seven days before he was going to start bringing the rain and the judgment. And you can just take this for what it might be worth to you.

[40:04] I think that is symbolic of the seven years of tribulation. If you read Daniel 9 and Daniel's 70 weeks, which is prophetic, really, 69 weeks leading us all the way up to really the death of Christ, sacrifice, and then there's a break.

[40:27] God kind of puts his prophetic history on hold until the 70th week, the last week, and that will not happen until the tribulation.

[40:39] And weeks are equivalent to years. In fact, when Daniel describes the 70th week, he speaks of a peacemaker, the peace on the earth, and then halfway through that week, there will be the abomination that brings desolation.

[40:58] And it's clearly, I think, the tribulation period. And so I think it's interesting that here God gives Noah seven days. There's seven more days, and he's got seven more days to preach.

[41:12] And I think the ark is ready, but there's seven more days. and then he's going to send the judgment. Now, here in verse four, we also have the word rain instead of flood, which is somewhat significant.

[41:30] I do not believe that it had ever rained on the earth before this. I've mentioned that a couple of times. Noah and the people of the earth, I don't believe it had ever seen rain.

[41:41] According to scripture, we know that from Genesis chapter two, verse five and six, the Bible says in the Lord, God had not caused it to rain on the earth, but a mist or literally a spring or water gushing up from the ground.

[42:02] That went out, he says, from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. That's how the earth was watered. There was no rain. And so rain did not come from the top, as it does today.

[42:15] It just came from underneath, from the ground. In fact, it watered everything that way. I mean, there are some golf courses today, some of the more sophisticated ones, that have underground watering systems.

[42:29] I'm not talking about sprinklers, underground watering systems. They water the roots rather than the water being sprayed and coming down on the top of the ground and making it soggy and softening the surface and so forth, so it just waters it from underneath.

[42:42] And that's exactly the way the original world was watered. But something is about to change, of course, and the original hydrologic patterns before the flood were different from the way they are today.

[43:02] We know how it works today. You know, water in the ocean evaporates and makes clouds and the wind blows the clouds over the land and the clouds rain and the rain goes down the rivers back out to the ocean and that's the cycle.

[43:15] Well, that's not the way it worked prior to the flood. In pre-flood days, the water resided in two places. I've already mentioned the ground in chapter 7, verse 11, the fountains of the great deep.

[43:30] This is when the flood starts to really take on this deluge kind of thing. It's the fountains of the great deep. And that's the water underneath the ground that from the very beginning was water in all plant life.

[43:46] And then in chapter 1, verse 7, and we've studied this a long time ago, you have the waters above the firmament. So you have those two sources of water. The waters above the firmament is the canopy of water that enveloped this planet and kind of made our planet kind of like a greenhouse.

[44:09] And that's why plant life grew so well. That's why we have oil today, I think primarily because we just cannot begin to fathom the foliage on this planet prior to the flood.

[44:24] And then when the flood brought the upheaval and most of that foliage was covered over very rapidly and so we have coal and other kind of minerals and such that were instantaneously fossilized in that sense.

[44:41] Alright, so those are the two and God then released both of these water sources at the same time and essentially drowned the planet for 40 days and 40 nights and for that period of time the rain came from above and water gushed up from beneath.

[45:01] And then I mentioned the word rain in verse 4 and we're about done. God says I will cause it to rain, he said. There's the first time we have the word rain. And it's a certain Hebrew word there that means, really just refers to a normal rain.

[45:18] And not a torrential kind of rain but just a normal kind of rain. But then when you get down to verse 12 here in the chapter you have and the rain was on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.

[45:31] That's a different word in the Hebrew and it is a word that means torrential rain. So here's the idea. It started out as a rain and quickly becomes a deluge and covered this entire planet even above all the high peaks, all those under the heavens.

[45:54] Now I'll just end with this. God said there in verse 4, I will cause the terrain. I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things I've made.

[46:07] This is God's judgment. You know, it's interesting how we sometimes try to go to great lengths to let God off the hook on things.

[46:20] Try to come up with some kind of natural kind of cause or phenomenon. And there are even scholars who would go back into scripture and say, well, this was just kind of a religious way of looking at things.

[46:34] Actually, God did not do this, but he did. He said, I will do it. I will destroy. And this is the judgment of God.

[46:46] And it's judgment all the same. If God judged sin then, then he will again. He will again. And eternally for all those who do not trust in his son Jesus.

[47:00] He will to to to to to to to Thank you.