Answers in Genesis - Sunday School - Spring: Lesson 4

Let's go ahead and, and, have a word of prayer, and then we'll get into this morning's session. Father, you are the God of Of all things, you're the Maker of heaven and earth. You're the one before whom we come and the one that we want to know. And Lord, I pray that you would just bless our time this morning, open up our minds to your word, to the things that we need to know.

And I pray that you just fill us, with understanding, with knowledge of you, that we may be changed people, transformed into your image, and that we may not be just static, always the same, but moving ever closer to being like you. Lord, I ask for your presence to be among us today in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, good morning, everyone.

It's different being down here. I like it better. Now if we just get everybody right here. but, it's really good to be with you today and we'll be going to, into a topic of just looking at the ark.

How big it was and, and was it actually, adequate for what the Bible tells us it was for, which was to rescue a family. And representatives of the, of the animal kinds of the earth so that God could start over. things needed to, to start over. And so, we have this question up there, it says, what do pictures of Noah's Ark typically look like?

you've probably seen lots of different, pictures like that. Even, people will decorate their home nurseries with Noah's Ark themes. they have all these colorful animals and, and different things. This is a a, a representative of, of what many of those, those pictures look like.

And, and for many people, that is their, their view of what the ark was like and so they look at it and say, well, it's pretty crowded. Pretty full. I don't know if that's big enough to, to, carry people on it and, and do all the things, with all the animals and, how could it be? this, this looks like a fairy tale.

And I looked at this picture and it reminded me of something from a long time ago. There's a song. I'm not gonna sing it, but I'm gonna do some of the words. You can see, you can see the green alligators, the long neck geese, the humptyback camels and the chimpanzees, cats and rats and elephants, but wouldn't, There's no room for a unicorn.

That now we know why there's no unicorns, right? Because it's too crowded and, I had to leave somebody behind. And so, the unicorn got left behind. Poor unicorn.

Well, what we're gonna be looking at today is gonna give us actually a different picture, I think, than what we see there of what the arc actually was like. So that's our topic and it's fitting in within this series of studies, we've looked at the actual flood, what it was about, why God brought the flood upon the earth, that God chose to save Noah. And we talked last time about the flood being global. We're gonna review some of that material today.

next week, we'll be into reshaping the Earth. I'm looking forward to that one. And we have several more, lessons taking us through Genesis. to get through this.

This curriculum that we're using comes from Answers in Genesis. This is called the Answers Bible Curriculum that we're using throughout all of our Sunday school classes. this is part of our prayer family ministry to equip all of us, from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Christ. We're in the in the middle of the seven seas of history.

Right now, we're in catastrophe. And that is the flood. So we have certain principles that we've used to guide us through this class. we can trust all of God's word beginning in Genesis, that God's attributes are on display throughout the Bible.

And the, the Bible presents to us true history. And when we read the Book of Genesis, It is written to be presented as historical. We believe that, that Moses is the writer of Genesis, that Genesis that Moses was, was giving to the people of Israel, real history to help them have understanding of, of who they were and the purposes of God and what God has done before in the history of mankind and what God is doing now in a very dramatic way with them as a people group and taking them to a new land.

that, that this is historical information and something that they, need to know to, to have a, a frame of reference for their future relationship with this God, the creator of, of, of, humanity and the one who's now rescued them from, Egypt and from this, the bondage there.

We believe that we must carefully and accurately interpret the Bible, that God's plan of redemption is woven throughout the scriptures, and we must be ready to give a defense for what we believe we are to live in light of what the Bible teaches. And let me pause here and, and, relate something I think is really important for us as far as perspective goes when it comes to our understanding and study of God's word. Because it can be very tempting to our natures. I know, I, I, at least I struggle with this.

It's, there's this part of me that, that wants to study to find answers. I want to know answers. I want to know the truth because I'm confronted in a, in a world that's, that has different information. It's contrary information and I want to be able to, to make determinations of, of what's right.

And also, if, if need be, want to be able to stand against the information that's coming to me. So there's this, this part of me that's, that's like preparing for, for struggle or preparing for battle, and, and you want to, to prepare yourself for that. And, and that's not altogether wrong. That's actually a good thing as long as it comes underneath something else.

And that something else is, is, something that it, it, it actually comes from a, a verse of scripture, that I act I read through yesterday. I was reading in Jeremiah, prophet Jeremiah, and I wanna share this with you, as before we really get too far into this today. Because There is something more than just discovering of truth that's important for us. There's something of higher importance to us, and when we have that in place, it helps keep the, the discovery of truth in its right place and helps us to be centered, as a, as a human being.

Jeremiah in chapter 9. He's Jeremiah is, is recording Most of this is a recording of, of God's indictments against the nation of Israel. some of, of the prophet Jeremiah is his response to these indictments and his, his back and forth with God, through this. That God is making this indictment against his people Israel, because these people Israel have, they have deliberately chosen to go a different direction away from truth, away from light.

And they've gone into darkness with, with their idolatry. And so, they have, they have built idols, even in the city of Jerusalem, even in the, the temple areas, and, God is so offended by this that he's declaring, that there's going to be judgment, and that judgment will include destruction. Of the nation. They will be taken into bondage.

Some of them will go into bondage by another country, by another people. The rest will be killed. And so, God is, is giving this indictment. That in the middle of this, God said, makes a statement.

That, that really speaks to what it is we're where we're supposed to be centered as people. In Jeremiah 9:23 and 24, he says, thus says the Lord. Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. And let not the mighty man boast of his might.

Let not a rich man boast of his riches. But let, let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows me. That I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord.

You see, our Our focus on truth needs to be from the standpoint Of knowing God. That's what we need to be going after. It's not just more data, more information, not superior arguments. Because it's really not about The world that's around us.

What God wants us to do. In the very basic sense, is get to know him. And then let him use us to do whatever he wants to do in the world around us. But our focus, our drive, needs to be pushing toward the idea that I can know God, that I can know.

God wants that personal relationship with us. He wants us to seek after him, and he actually knows that if we will do that, then everything around us is not going to sway us. Or is, is not going to confuse us, but we stay centered, we stay rock solid on that. Paul spoke about this in, in Philippians, in his letter to, to, to the Philippians where he said, the, the most powerful thing I can do is that I could know him.

That I could know him and he, and he says later in the letter. I press toward that mark. That's the thing, that's my singular focus. And so, that is what we need to be doing to, to seek the truth.

is really, just the manner of getting to know God. That is our goal, to, to know God. And so when we study, for instance, this morning, we're gonna be studying about, the deliverance of, of the animals and the people in the ark. That's, that is great information and it's something I, I'm very curious about.

I want to know about. But the, the thing beyond that is to know God. how God provided this deliverance and what is in the mind of God in providing this deliverance. And so how can I know God more by knowing this information?

That is, is, What should be our, our ultimate purpose in learning this information. The opposite side of that, and this is what's natural humanity. later on in chapter 10 of Jeremiah verse 8, God's pretty blunt, in his language. He says, this is about the idolatry.

He says they are altogether stupid. And foolish In their discipline of delusion. Their idol is wood. When we as human beings go in a different direction than seeking after God, That we, we go to darkness, intellectual darkness.

And God sees that even though we think we're so smart as human beings, God sees that as being altogether stupid and foolish. That their discipline. is delusion And so, that's, that's what we can as human beings tend toward. And in fact, that's what we will go forward if we're not seeking after God.

And so we need to be careful not to be trapped by the humanity and human thinking that not only is out there, it's even the seeds of it are in our own heart. And so we need to be focused and, and, and so I, I just wanna help us as we go through these points. we, we've talked about these points and, I was, I was reviewing these again yesterday and, and thinking, we've, we've said this a lot of times. We reviewed these, these points a lot of times.

Why do we keep going over? Why do we keep, affirming and, and stating these, these, and reviewing these points? And it's because it's taking us into a direction. But it's not just so that we can have all the right answers, but it's so that we can know God.

This is how we get to know God. This is what is going to make a powerful impact upon our lives. And so, this is what we need to know. We, we believe that the scripture is sufficient.

we believe that, or we use a literal historical and grammatical hermeneutic. That means that we interpret it, as it's meant, as it was written to be interpreted. we don't just try to read into it our own cultural understandings. We do exegesis.

We take out of it what it's saying, we let it speak to us. We affirm the inerrancy of scripture. We believe that, that God gave it to us exactly the way he wanted it to be and that it is inerrant. It is reasonable for God to swear by Himself because he is the final authority.

There is no authority higher than Him. We believe that the Bible is authoritative, that it, it has the authority to, to declare itself to be true. We affirm the preservation of scripture, that it is, that God has overseen the preservation of it, that it does exist for us today as it's supposed to be, that there, and that there is no neutral ground on this argument. There is no place between those who believe and those who don't believe.

Say, well, let's find neutral ground. There is no neutral ground here. We either, we either believe these, these things or we don't, that there isn't a neutral place that God hasn't given to us that. How does the Bible go about proving the existence of God?

It doesn't, does it? It assumes the existence of God. it, the very beginning of it. It says, in the beginning, God.

And it just starts with that. There, there is no argument to say, why we, we should believe that there is a God. It just assumes that there is. And then the, the last question is why is clear evidence not always clear?

We've talked about that, that, that mankind has always biased and there's always, they're looking through the lenses of their bias and, and, and trying to understand and interpret information. And so, that's why clear evidence is not always clear. What we have tried to affirm is that we need to have our lenses cleaned by the scripture. We need the lenses of, of, the gospel to help us to understand what it is that we see.

as we get into the issues of the flood, we've, we've talked about in the past how that there are There is historical information to support these things in the Bible. And so, the Bible is giving us historical information, but this historical information Actually does have support in, in, other areas. And so one of the, the evidences that, that we find that are very interesting is Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. if you Google him, you'll find some, some pretty interesting information on him.

He actually was, a government official. And he had spent a lot of time with Native American tribes. and so anyway, he, in, in one of his reports, he was actually a minister, a government minister over, tribal Indian, Indian Affairs, I think it was called, something like that. anyway, there's one particular, thing, as he wrote about in which the tribes identify themselves with the general traditions of mankind.

It is in relation to a general deluge by which the races of men were destroyed. The event itself is variously related by the Algonquin and Iroquois, Cherokee, Muscogee, and Chickasaw, but all coincide in the statement that there was a general cataclysm and that a few persons were saved. that's tribal people here on this continent. There are, are, legends, stories from different parts of the world.

In fact, one of the handouts is still back on the, the table back there is, is of, some of the Asian areas, some in the, Pacific Islands, and other areas. Where there are these stories handed down of, of how there was at some point in time, a great flood. And as we, can see from the, the, the passages following the flood in Genesis, where after the people came off the ark, they had children, those people ended up being dispersed throughout the world. And it is very reasonable that they would take with them stories about their history, about what had happened in the past.

Some Christians have, been either uncomfortable with the literal interpretation, or just can't see it as, as necessary to interpret it that way. So they come up with different ideas. they believe that it's a local flood that killed everyone on Earth except those in New York, but that their belief is that everyone lived in one locality. according to the historical data in Genesis, how many years after the creation of the flood occur?

Anybody remember? Right, around 1650 years. And so, that's enough time for people to have, actually Traveled and dispersed and gone beyond just a singular plain for a local flood to exist. And we've talked about in the past, that many Christians believe the flood was only a local event.

That geologists have other attributions for the rock layers, And so they believe it's just in the Mesopotamian area. It may have wiped out all the people and animals in that given area, but it was not global. Perhaps the passage Genesis is simply an exaggeration of a smaller event that was altered to provide a religious moral story about obeying God. But there are some problems with that.

first of all, if the flood was A simply a local event, why an arc? Is that also just to, to teach a, a spiritual lesson? Because really, migration would be much simpler, right? if it's just gonna be a local event, then Noah can just get his family and, and go over the hills and go to another, another valley.

And that would be much simpler. And migration is not something that God's never thought of. Migration is something that God had people do all the time. even later on, Abraham is called to migrate from the, the land of the Chalde to a land that he has never seen before.

If the flood was local. Then has God kept His promise to never again send another flood to destroy the Earth. We've had many floods. in fact, you probably saw on the news just a couple of weeks ago the, the, the rain that they had down in, in, the Houston area.

And, it was 16 inches in 24 hours or something like that. An amazing amount of water and made a big mess. So They had a flood. Well, we do, we have local floods.

frequently. every year we have local floods in different parts of the world. So, What's that rainbow all about then? Could the highest hills be covered by water by 20 ft in a local flood?

That's a depiction of what it would have to look like, if you're gonna have it 20 ft up. And so, that's, that's one of the issues or some of the issues with the local flood idea. If we simply allow the word of God to speak to us in plain sense as it was given, we cannot accept this flood was anything but a global event. And, as we said before, most cultures around the world have legends about A global flood The language used in Genesis 7:17-24 describes the flood as global.

All the high hills underneath the heavens were covered. All flesh died, that, moved on the earth. Jesus talked about the flood. And, Peter as well referred to the flood as being a global catastrophe and, and, that, in fact, Peter uses it to talk about the coming destruction.

Of, of the, of the whole world. it's not gonna be just a local destruction but a global destruction that will be of a different kind as he describes. The depth and duration of the flood, 15 cubits above the mountains. 375 or 71 days total.

Then there was the rainbow covenant that we've talked about, where God said, with the rainbow, I will never again destroy the earth with a flood. Psalm 104 describes the flood. It says, thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment. The waters were standing above the mountain.

At thy rebuke they fled. At the sound of thy thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which thou didst establish for them. And so, the psalmist wrote in description of it.

Nicholas Steno. wrote, he's the father of stratigraphy, was, In the 1600s, but his ideas were developed with a firm belief in the Bible as the authoritative word of God. And, and science was back in those days like that. theology was considered the queen of sciences and every other scientific endeavor fell underneath that.

So that was what he, that was his starting point. Those were the glasses he was looking through. As he was studying geology. But he reasoned that the worldwide flood of Noah's day would have had a tremendous impact on the land's surface.

In fact, if the flood described in Genesis 6 actually occurred, the science of stratigraphy would demand the formation of stratified rock layers all over the earth, filled with the fossilized remains of the plants and animals that lived in the antediluvian world. And that word antediluvian means pre-flood, just in case. You're not familiar with that word. so, what do we find all over the world?

It's pretty much exactly what we find and that's what Ken Ham refers to this, where he said if Noah's flood were true, you would expect to find millions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth, and what do we actually see in the fossil record? That's what we see. Millions of dead things buried in rock layers all over the earth. another, approach to this is, looking at how science really goes through, it, it seems like distortions or contortions, I should say, trying to get around us, and they come up with other ideas, but they really don't like the, the idea of a global flood.

in 2013, There was a, a guy by the name of Jeffrey Kluger who wrote this, The Red Planet, that's Mars. May be home to a vast ocean of water and it's straining to break free. that's, there's this, this idea that, that some time in history past, I'm sure it was millions of years ago, but, but, Mars was covered with water. And, and so, even though there's no water there now, James Perloff, who's written on this, this idea, says Mars is dry.

It has no known water save tiny traces of water vapor in its atmosphere and it has polar caps of undetermined composition. Nevertheless, scientists say it once had a great flood, more than On the other side of that, more than 70% of the earth, on the other hand, is covered with water. But a great flood here, not impossible. After all, that would agree with the Bible.

And isn't it real reality with human nature that That we are born with this struggle with God, we push back against God, and if we can find any answer that does away with God, we'll go there first. if we can come up with an idea, some way to do it without God, that's what we, what we want. That's our human nature. And Yet the truth keeps staring us back in the face.

And, it's, it's much more reasonable to think that our planet could have at one time been covered completely with water since it already has, is covered by 70% of water. Brian? But these are But it's This could not. These Yeah, and the scientists aren't in, in agreement on all those things.

You're right. And, and so they have different ideas about these things, but the, the bent always seems to be to, to go a, a different direction from God. Not all scientists do though. There are some scientists who leave that open at least.

All right. Genesis 6. I want to take a look at what is said there about the actual ark, the building of the ark. So if you have your Bible with you, turn to Genesis 6, and we'll read 13 to 16.

Then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. And behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an arc of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you shall make it. The length of the arc is 300 cubits. Its breadth 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top and set the door of the ark in the side of it.

You shall make it with lower, 2nd, and 3rd decks. And we'll stop there for right now. that's the dimensions that God gives to Noah. Now, it's very possible and probably likely that God gave Noah.

more specificity. In fact, it's even possible that God actually gave to Noah something like blueprints, that, that would give him structure because for, for all we know, This is the first boat that's ever been built. Maybe not. They did have water around.

They had seas and so on to traverse and they may have built boats before, but, he very possibly was given much more description that and will be, that will be alluded to in a, in a video, I think we're gonna be watching here in just a minute, but, we, we see here some, some things. First of all, we see measurement of measurements of cubits. Cubits are a measurement from, from the ancient world. Anywhere from 18 to 21 inches.

And what it was, was a measurement from the elbow to the tip of the fingers, to the very end. So, yeah, I went out to my garage, got my tape measure out and measured from there to there and it was 18 inches. So I have the shorter arm apparently. I don't know if it's alligator arms, but I have the shorter arm.

other people, their length goes up to 21 inches, and so that's the cubit. And so you can imagine, if you're before the, the time of tape measures that That, you say, OK, give me, give me, 10 cubits and so you put your arm down and you, you mark it, you go to the next one, you mark it and that's, that's your measurement. And that was a standardized system. And For different periods of time, different, cultures, they had, either longer or shorter from the 18 to the 21 variability, and they've, they've seen this through the different writings and so on that they've discovered of different people groups.

But that is the basic thing. It's made of gopher wood. gopher wood is, comes from the gopher tree. Everybody knows that, right?

except we don't know what that is. So there's speculation that it, that it's, it could have been, now what's called a cypress, tree or a, Cedar. that's, that's a couple of the speculations, of what it could be. we really don't know, but whatever it was, it was strong enough to be used for, building an ark.

It was to be covered with pitch, both on the inside and outside. And what was the pitch for? Sealing it. That's right.

Sealing it. And then also what pitch does is it acts as a water preservative. so you don't, they're gonna be a year. In the water, floating on the water, and so it's gonna need to be able to handle being in the water for that, that long a period of time.

And so, So the pitch was for that, was to cover it. It was to have a window at the top. And that's gonna serve as, as light during the day. It's also gonna serve as ventilation because what?

They're gonna need ventilation with all those animals and, and all that, so it's gonna serve as ventilation. It's gonna have 3 decks. So you have this, this, arch structure that's, at least 1.5 football fields long. And as wide.

as a football field and, and it's gonna have 3 decks. That's a lot of space. It's a lot of space. And I'd encourage you, if you haven't done it yet, go to arcEncounter.com.

And if you go on that website, there's The people from Answers in Genesis actually have taken on a new project. They started about a year and a half ago, and they're finishing it up this summer, building an ark in Kentucky. It's gonna be an exhibit. It's gonna be a place for people to go and, and see all these things, but it's gonna be actual size.

And so they have some, some videos you can watch on their website there and of the construction of how it looks. It's amazing. So I encourage you to, to, to go and take a look at it. it's, it's just a lot of fun just to see the, the structure, the, the pillars, the beams, the, of the inside, how big the decks are.

And so even though you can imagine in your mind, how big this thing is, A picture tells you so much. And just to see it in comparison to the, the, the heavy, equipment, the different things that, that are on the outside, and just get a sense of proportion, it is, it's amazing. And so I encourage you to take a look at that arc Encounter.com. you'll enjoy it.

And, get, get a sense of it and, And you'll be able to see actually the size of it. And another thing that the arc was they have rooms. it says in there, build the ark with rooms. And so it's gonna have particular areas for, for the different animals, but also for the people.

And so this ark very likely had, sleeping quarters for each couple. they all had their own apartment. they all had, like a cooking area for, for preparing their meals. so they had their living quarters all, I'm sure on the top deck., they probably had a library.

They probably, where they would have, because they lived in, in, in a, in a time. Where there's lots of Of technology and so on, 1600 years of, of human history up to this point. Can develop a lot of technology. Just think about how much technology has been developed in the last 100 years.

That we've lived in just in 100 years. it doesn't take that long to develop significant technology, so they would have had probably, some significant Pieces of information that they would want to take with them to, to start over again. They're gonna have to start over again. They're gonna have storage rooms for seed, cause they gotta plant crops when they come, get off the ark.

So they would have storage rooms for that. They would have, things for taking care of the animals, storage places for the food for the animals, and so on because that's one of the things they have to do is, is, load in food for all those animals for the last a year. And the room, the animals have to be separated. Yeah, the, the, the rats don't want to be in the same compartment as the cats.

They, they, they want their own space. And so, that's, that's part of what's going on with this ark. And so it's, it's an interesting thing to think about and it's, and it's really interesting too that the people at Answers in Genesis have really thought through a lot of those things and as I've read their, their, articles over the last year or two, In their, their process of developing this project. they brought up a lot of things I'd never thought of before, of, of, of what it, what, goes into building this arc, and some of this is gonna come out in this video that Is coming up.

So we have here, what, what the possibilities are, and, and that is pretty much the model that's being built in Kentucky in, for that exhibit, the way it looks. But One of the things that, that I think is also important to grasp is, well, how would they be intelligent enough to To, to build such a thing. And the assumptions are, and, and, and, I, I think we get filled with this, because it gets stated. I hear it, occasionally, on, on the radio.

It's like, today's generation is smarter than the generations of the past. And, in every generation, because of the gaining of knowledge. there's, there's just like this new information that always is gained and so on. It's probably the opposite is true.

Because in, in, in our actual active life, we only use a certain amount of information. And the more distractions we have, the less we actually use. And it's, it's actually because of, of the world today with so many distractions, distractions that we actually use our intellectual faculties less than, than man did 3 or 4 1000 years ago. we don't have to, work so hard at survival.

Because, we have storehouses of food. We have the things that we need and so we're not everyday working on that. what, what instead we are working on is, trying to keep our weight down, trying to To keep from, from killing each other on the freeways, trying to, live in a, in a society. So, so most of our angst comes from relational issues that we have, right?

It's not from just trying to, to figure out, well, how am I gonna make my crops grow so I can feed my family for the next year. and, and developing technologies and working on things and inventing things and so on. Most of us are not like that. but, but humanity has been intelligent from the Garden of Eden.

God made man to be intelligent, and to, to build things, to develop things, to, to research, to, to explore, to discover. That's what God made men for, to do. God is pleased with that, with man's exploration, with man's discovery, with man's risk taking to try to find answers. God is pleased with that.

God made us to be that way, and they were that way. In that period of time. So, so 1600 years is, is, ample time to develop technologies to, to, to be able to, devise. how do you build an ark?

And so they would have had to be able to do that. Now, another issue that comes up, with this is, well, what about the animals on the ark? how do you fit them all in? there's, there's so many species of animals and, and getting them all in there.

And one of the things that we need to look at is, is the Bible doesn't use the word species, it uses the word kinds. And the kinds of animals actually takes that number down a lot. And so this next video we're gonna look at, gets into that and, and actually the idea of rapid speciation, goes into, this is a much shorter video, but it does give us some explanation here as to the animals on the ark, how many it would, they would need to take and so on. And so there's, there's a lot for us to learn just about as we, is, if, if we have that, that curiosity to, to actually get into, the different kinds of animals, the plants and so on.

But the biology of it is, is, amazing and, and all that information that God has, has put into it, makes it possible. For, for, the, the account that we read in Genesis chapter 6, which I do want to, to read the rest of that, that chapter, and, and, we can see what, what Noah was to do. He says, behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish.

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife, your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. They should be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, 2 of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.

As for you, take for yourselves some of all food which is edible and gather it to yourself. And it shall be food for you and for them. Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. So that was, the, the scope and the purpose of the ark.

the size of it was to, to house and, and preserve. representatives of the creation of life that God had made from it in the beginning. To start over. But this, this arc, was this capsule that was going to hold them for a year and make it possible for them to begin again.

Now, This is a, a picture and, actually, there's a handout that's in the back that, that also shows this if you care about it. but the different types of, of, What do they call it? Cerratopsia. there's a different, species that have been discovered in, in fossils that they all are related to the Triceratops which we are more comfortable with.

So you can read all those names, the, Ankarratops, the Centrosaurus. I, I was reading those yesterday and it was reminding me of my 10th grade biology class where I had to, to memorize all the steps of mitosis and I decided, I don't even know these, but, anyway, those are all come from the same kind. They are all related and come from the same kind. And you can look at at other animals, and that's just an example.

But animals we have today that are related to each other but have wide variety. one of the examples in, in that video was of dogs and, and of course, dogs come in all shapes and sizes. and so, everything from the Great Dane to the dachshund, it's, some look like rodents, like, chihuahuas. at least that's how they look to me.

but anyway, some look like horses, so they're so big. but all these, but they're all the same kind. They're all, canine. Some are very wild and have a very wild streak to them.

Others are very calm. but that's the way that they are made. All right. Application.

How, how can we connect the flood to the gospel? We've talked about this before and this is, this, where we, we want to leave this is The the flood is a, is a clear description of, of what we need to know for the gospel. The judgment is, is directed against mankind. The judgment is directed and that God has within this plan of judgment also has made a way of escape.

And that way of escape is through Christ. John 3:16. that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world.

That the world through him might be saved. Why did he not come to condemn the world? Because that's already happened. He that believes in him is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And so, the condemnation is already passed. It's already directed toward mankind. But Jesus is that ark for us. That arc is a symbol of Jesus Christ and of his sacrifice on the cross for us.

And so as we think about the, the, the flood and, and the judgment that came against the world, we remember that there was deliverance that was available. And even today as, as judgment has been passed and is directed against the world, against mankind. That the deliverance is possible, that we do have a rescuer. And so, this, passages that tells us about the gospel, it directs us to that.

And, in, in throughout the scriptures we read it, we should be able to see the, the deliverance that God has made available for us, that God is a gracious God, that God is a just God, and so God must punish sin. And so these things are all together as part of the package of the gospel. OK. memorize, 2 Peter 2:5 and any questions, you can, direct to, Mike.

Pastor Mike. And so, with that, we will close. Thank you, Lord, for the deliverance that you offered to us and giving to us. Redemption, forgiveness of sins.

You give to us a new future, a new destiny, and a hope. That we are not stuck in our condemnation. But we get new life. We get life in you, everlasting life.

And we get a new destiny, a new direction, a new plan for our life. Cause you have made a way out for us. So Lord, we rejoice in that, and we want to continue to learn in that, and we want to continue to, to grow in our relationship and knowledge of you, that we would know you and that this would be a deep-rooted passion for us, that we seek after you, that we come to you, and develop that, that wholeness and that, that healthiness that we can have that's found. In knowing you.

So Lord, we ask for your blessing in that, and, and, and even now prepare our hearts for the rest of our, our service together, our fellowship, the communion that we have together. May it be rich and pleasing in your sight, in Jesus' name. Amen.