Answers In Genesis - Sunday School - Week 12

Let's go ahead and pray and then we've got some good stuff to get into this morning. Appreciate Dan teaching last week. Dan was like sitting on deck in case I wasn't able to make it and sure enough, Katie had to stay in the hospital through Sunday, Sunday afternoon she came home. So I appreciate Dan jumping in and doing a great job and teaching.

But let's go ahead and pray and we'll, we'll jump into things. Lord, we thank you so much for your kindness and goodness to us. This morning. Giving us life breath and all good things.

We thank you for the gospel. We ask God that you just guide us in our study of your word. Also just guide those that are teaching our children. We just thank you that we can gather together.

Each week to worship, to hear your word preached, to process your word in Sunday school, to gather together for care groups. just be with us this whole day and, and this time, that we share now in your word, that you just, really make things clear and help us to grow and apply these things, for your glory, and we ask that your spirit would apply it for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Alrighty. we are going to. be coming back to this question, which should come first, good news or bad news. We're going to be developing today, just the concept of the gospel and where do we find the gospel?

Is the gospel just, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is it just in the New Testament? Where does the gospel begin? The concept of the good news for hell-deserving sinners to the personal work of Jesus Christ. And so, And so we're talking about what is the gospel.

Last week you guys reviewed the seven seeds of history. And we're gonna try to use the seven seeds of history to talk about the gospel. I'm gonna skip by most of this review just because we've got actually a lot that we want. To cover, And let's go ahead and open up to 1 Corinthians.

Chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I'm gonna read Versus 1 to 5. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you.

The gospel, which means the good news, which I preach to you, which you also received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. I delivered you, first of all, that which I also received from Christ, that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried, that he rose the 3rd day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen by Cepass, and then by the 12.

So, in this passage, what would you say are the 3 main elements that Paul's talking about?

What are the 3 main components of the gospel? You could pick it out starting in verse 3. Good. So, first of all, Christ died.

According to scriptures, he was buried, and he and he was raised. and so these are the three things that were preached. And, and so Paul preached these things to the Corinthians. and so this is his shorthand, his shorthand of the gospel.

this doesn't mean that that's all that he talked about because we know that Paul speaks of teaching the whole counsel of God, but when he's talking about the gospel in shorthand, it's about Jesus Christ, his death, his burial, and his resurrection and all that means to us. And we would say that the gospel is a non-negotiable, right? there, there are, when we do our membership class here at Cornerstone, we'll talk about doctrines that are major D or capital D doctrines and then little D doctrines.

There are those things that you could be a Christian and, and disagree and they're not necessarily, deal breakers.

and then, but there's other things that are so crucial to being a Christian. That it would throw into question whether, whether the Lord or, or whether you can progress in faith if you deny those things. At the same time, while we can talk about big D and little D, there are things that are, that are in the little D section that have a big impact on the big D's. There are certain ideas that might seem small at first, but after further investigation, they could actually be bigger than we first thought.

So what would you consider, here's, here's what I wanna do basically with our time this morning. I wanna answer, ask a few questions. What would you consider to be non-negotiables of the Christian faith? What teachings would you say are so essential to the core of Christianity that to lose them is to lose our faith?

The gospel would be one. What about the Trinity? If we suddenly just decided that we didn't believe in the Trinity anymore, that we believe that Jesus was just a created being, although exalted and that the Holy Spirit was just a force, would that be crucial? I would argue yes.

What about Christ's suffering, his death, burial, and resurrection? If we suddenly denied that Christ suffered as a substitute for our sins, if we deny that he was raised bodily from the dead, or that his burial has anything to do with our salvation, would that be crucial? I think so. What about justification by faith?

If we suddenly decided that we're not justified by faith alone, but actually our justification happens as a result of works and faith, would that be crucial? Probably What about baptism? Is it important for us to be baptized? If Jesus commanded us to be baptized, should we be baptized?

And if people just say baptism is totally unimportant, you don't have to obey that command. Is that, is that something we should be concerned about? What about the judgment of Christ? Is Jesus Christ promises to come back.

He's gonna come back in judgment, he's gonna separate the sheep and the goats, and there's gonna be those that enter into eternal life and those that enter into eternal damnation. Are these crucial doctrines? I wanna propose a thesis this morning, and that is that every one of the things that we've just mentioned, the Trinity. Christ's death, bear, resurrection, justification by faith, baptism, and the judgment of Christ, the return of Christ.

are not just isolated in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And we don't just see those doctrines as being important. irregardless of the Old Testament, what we have is that the New Testament juxtaposes those doctrines with very important matters in the Old Testament. And we're gonna look particularly at how the New Testament makes use of Noah.

How does the New Testament make use of the ark in its own gospel presentation? Is it important for us to consider the, the historical happenings of the Old Testament when it comes to our New Testament understanding and proclamation of the gospel? if you do a, a search online or on your computer programs, your Bible programs. And you look for mentions of various Old Testament characters in the New Testament.

Let's say a character like Daniel. How many times do you think Daniel is mentioned in the New Testament? 2 times, 2 verses. How many times do you think Esther's mentioned in the New Testament?

0 times. How about Ezra or Nehemiah? 0 times. How about Samuel, Pretty important prophet, right?

How many times do you think Samuel's mentioned the New Testament? 3 times. Jeremiah, big, very important prophet. How many times do you think he's mentioned by name in the New Testament?

3 times Zechariah 2 times. What about Noah? How many times do you think Noah is mentioned by name in the New Testament? 8 times 8 times, Noah is mentioned in the New Testament in 6 independent passages.

Adam, who's a really important character, right? We'd all agree that Adam's important. He's mentioned 9 times, only 1 more time than Noah in the New Testament. And so, the New Testament picks up Noah and the ark several times, and we're actually gonna look at how the Noah and the ark it's juxtaposed to several important doctrines.

Before we do that, I want to read a very interesting quote. From Doctor Robert Cargill, from UCLA. And here's what Doctor Cargill has to say. And he seems to be a person who would express some, some semblance of faith.

but here's what he has to say about the Bible and about stories that we read in the Bible. He says it is time for Christians to admit that some of the stories in Israel's primordial history are not historical. It is OK to concede that these stories were crafted in a pre-scientific period and were designed to offer ethical answers to questions of why and not how. Christians and Jews must concede that the Bible can still be inspired without being historical or scientifically inerrant.

That's basically what the articles that I'm the article I'm quoting from, he's arguing that the Bible can be inspired in a sense without being inerrant. That we, that we don't have to demand scientific accuracy to believe the Bible. As the early church father origin explained regarding the preservation of empirical truth within problematic documents edited by human hands, Origin says, the spiritual truth was often preserved, as one might say, in material falsehood. Well, first of all, I wouldn't quote from origin.

This guy was, I don't know if anything about origin. He was a pretty wacky dude, taught a lot of wacky doctrines. one of which is that you can have spiritual truth and material falsehood. Simply because a factual error exists in the text of the Bible does not mean that an ethical truth or principle cannot still be conveyed.

So we can have textual errors but still convey spiritual truth. It is time for Christians to concede that inspiration does not equal inerrancy and that biblical does not equal historical or even factual. Let me read that again. Biblical does not equal historical or even factual.

Some claims, listen to the claims that he's gonna cite here. Some claims like the flood, the six-day creation are neither historical nor factual. They were written to communicate it in a pre-scientific literary form that God is responsible for the earth. It is time Christians conceded that there was no flood.

This is Robert Cargill, a professing Christian who's arguing that inspiration is not important. We can still maintain or inerrancy is not important. We can still maintain some semblance of inspiration by and, and deny inerrancy, and we just need to face the cold hard facts. There was no flood.

And that does not necessarily threaten the fact that we can find spiritual truth in the Bible. As we've talked about in this class in the past, what Cargill is arguing for is Gshika, not history, that you can find stories in the Bible that give us spiritual meaning, and it really doesn't matter if these things are historically true or not. Well, does the New Testament avoid the controversial topic of historical Noah and the worldwide flood in order to get to the more essential matters of the gospel?

Does the New Testament just kinda say, what, let's not talk about Noah.

Let's not talk about the flood. Let's just talk about the gospel because we know that the flood and, and that stuff that may not necessarily be history. Or let's just talk about the story of the flood but not make a real big deal about the history of the flood. What can be learned from the New Testament about Noah and the flood?

How does the New Testament teach us to handle this material in Genesis? Now what I wanna do is I wanna go over 6 links between Christ and Noah. And you guys should have picked up a 1-page handout. You have a packet and then a 1 page handout that was right there next to that packet.

Did you guys get it? And that, and there's 70 of them, so if you didn't get one, there's still some back there. The pack, the top of the, of the sheet with the little fill-ins, it says 6 links between Christ and Noah, right? Is that what it says?

OK, 6 links between Christ and Noah. the, the other material that you have, the packet, I'm gonna ask you to read that on your own. we've covered that last year, and I'll email it back out to you guys. It's excellent material.

It's how to share the gospel through the seven seas. if I have time, we'll, we'll go back to that material. What I wanna do in this class is I wanna demonstrate that there is a significant link between Christ and the ark, or Christ and Noah. And that the link attaches that the flood is attached to significant doctrines on the page of the New Testament.

So much so that if we deny the flood, or if we deny the historicity of Noah and the ark, we're putting major doctrines in jeopardy. That's my thesis. And you guys can agree or disagree as we get through this message. But let's start with number 1, and I want you to open up to Luke chapter 3.

Starting at verse 22, Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3, starting in verse 22. And my first point is this, the first link between Christ and Noah is this, that the New Testament. Links Noah to the Trinity's inauguration of Christ's earthly ministry.

The New Testament links Noah to the Trinity's inauguration of Christ's earthly ministries. Let's look at verse 22. Actually, let's start in verse 21. When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus was also baptized.

And while he prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, You are my beloved Son, and you I'm well pleased. Now, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how that this is one of the passages that demonstrates distinction in the persons of the Trinity, right? In this narrative passage, we see the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all together at the exact same time.

It doesn't prove the whole doctrine of Trinity, but it does prove distinction of the persons that the Father, Son, Holy Spirit exists apart from one another. Go back to the other message to demonstrate the deity of each person and so on and so forth. But notice the, the, the narrative moves forward. So Jesus is baptized.

Verse 23 moves on. Now Jesus himself began his ministry after his baptism, after this Trinitarian baptism, now he begins his ministry at 30 years of age, being as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Helle, the son of Mattat, the son of Levi, the son of Melkchi, the son of Jannah, the son of Joseph, the son of son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nehum, the son of Elsie. And so on, look down to verse 32, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, son of Boaz, the son of Salmon.

Look down to verse 34, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, Abraham, son of Terra, Nehor.

Look down to verse 37, 36, the son of Canaan. The son of Afisad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lemek, and all the way back to Adam. As soon as Jesus is baptized with this Trinitarian, or the show of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Luke underneath the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells us then his ministry began. And then add some very what Luke sees is very important historical information, is that right after this baptism that establishes Jesus Christ is having the authority to go out and have this ministry.

Luke gives us his pedigree. Not just a make-believe pedigree, not just a geshika pedigree, but this, this had to demonstrate something to his readers that Jesus descended from a line. He, he didn't just show up. He was supposed, so people suppose that he was from Joseph.

What Luke is demonstrating is that you can trace Jesus lying all the way back to Adam, to a historical Adam and a historical Noah. Now, while this is somewhat implicational, and this isn't, I'm not suggesting that there is a a real super strong, hard and fast tie between Noah and verse 21-22. It is within the overall theological context. We have the Trinity, we have the baptism of Christ, the, with the, with the display of the Trinity, and then we have a listing of historical characters.

right after the Trinity is mentioned that Christ baptism. Every one of these characters, it's assumed in this type of of a genealogy that the readers would see these people as historical characters. Noah is mentioned in the list. And so if Noah is just some make-believe guy that was just there to give us a special story, then maybe Adam was a make-believe guy, which believe it or not, there are evangelicals that are suggesting today that Adam is not necessarily historical.

He's just a figure to teach us spiritual truth. Then you have to track your way back up. Is David a historical guy? Is Abraham a historical guy?

And if we're gonna deny this genealogy, then why should we believe the Trinitarian baptism of Jesus Christ at the top of the whole context? Why are we gonna believe in Father, Son, Holy Spirit? Why are we gonna believe that what the Father supposedly said from heaven? See, people like the professor I just read to you, he wants to hold on to verse 21 and 22.

He wants to say, yes, we can still believe that Jesus Christ is the savior. We can still believe that he began his earthly ministry in verse 23. We can still believe that there's a Father who spoke from heaven, said, this is my beloved Son whom I'm well pleased, and the Spirit descended as a dove. But we're gonna deny what is said a few verses later.

And that is that Noah really existed, and so did Adam. And so our first point is that there is a link, it seems, to the Trinity's inauguration of Christ's earthly ministry and Noah because it's right here in the same context. One of the important roles of hermeneutics. is you can't just suddenly drop into a narrative text and say, this is historical and this isn't.

If it's narrative, then you have to read it all as historical narrative. You can't just suddenly start chopping things up and say, this is historical, this is not. Let's look at the second link, number 2, the New Testament links Noah and the flood to Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection. Are Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection pretty important?

Yes, they are. And they are linked in the New Testament to Noah. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3. As you guys are turning there, I've had some very good friends.

And I say this with all respect because they're my friends and they love the Lord and they love Jesus and they wanna see him exalted. But I've had friends tell me. That That they believe in the gospel. But they just don't know about Genesis and Revelation.

We don't know, we don't know if we can really take Genesis at face value. We don't know if we can take revelation at face value, but I believe everything else between those two books very strongly. this message I'm giving to you is unapologetic to that type of thought process that, that we can take the gospel and, and not take the outer edges of, of, of the gospel which I'm, I'm trying to convince you, I'm hoping to convince you are not the outer edges but actually much more closer to the center than it might appear at 1st.

1st Peter chapter 3, verse 14.

We're gonna start, yeah, we'll start at 14 and we'll go down to chapter 4. So, starting at 14, but even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, Peter says, you are blessed. So, Peter's talking to some believers who have been going through a lot of suffering. If you suffer for righteousness' sake, you're blessed.

Do not be afraid of their threats nor their troubles. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So be ready to, this is our main apologetics verse, right? Be ready to give an answer.

Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for evil. So go ahead and, stay encouraged. It's blessed to suffer, be ready to give an answer.

Don't suffer as evildoers. but just recognize that, that we are gonna suffer. 4 verse 18, Christ also suffered. You're suffering.

Your Lord suffered once for sins. The just for the unjust that he might bring to God, bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. So Christ suffered, he died, and he was raised, right? There's the, the core of the gospel.

By whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. Whom formerly were disobedient when once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is 8 souls were saved through water. There is also an anti-type, which now saves us, baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of God, of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of the angels, authorities and powers, having been subject to Him.

Now, this is a fairly complicated passage that would require a sermon or two to really unravel.

But what I want, what I want to draw your attention to is that verse 18. is right within this whole context that moves right in Noah the flood. And there's some connection definitely of type anti-type. this is a hermeneutical principle that a lot of times there are things historically that happened in the Old Testament, that the New Testament will pick up and say, this is the anti-type.

there's, there's things that, that are mentioned. that are historical things that the New Testament comes along and says, there is a deeper meaning here. In other words, God, who is the Lord of all history, has allowed this history to occur, and not just for the historical event that took place, but there are also some other reasons for this historical event. We call this type anti-type.

So for instance, you have, the Aaronic priesthood, right? Historically, the priesthood, according to Aaron was a historical priesthood. It, it served a function in the Old Testament, but Christ comes along and the book of Hebrews says we no longer need the Aaronic priesthood because now we have a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus Christ is the anti-type.

You have the type. type of Melchizedek. And so we have a historical Melchizedek, we have a historical Aaronic priesthood. Christ comes along, we no longer need the Aaronic priesthood.

We have sacrifices that historically happened in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is the one sacrifice. We no longer need those sacrifices. That doesn't mean the sacrificial system never existed.

It just means that they pointed to something else, right? Paul is picking up the same type of motif with Noah and the ark. That Noah, that the ark was a type of Christ, that 8 souls were saved through water, through the ark, just as we're saved through Christ. there's more complexities in this passage, but I just want you to see the connection between Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

And the connection between Noah going into the ark with his family and coming out of the ark with his family. There's a connection that's being made, not to something that's all historical, but to something that is historical. If Christ's death bear and resurrection was historical, then Noah's and the flood must be historical. Otherwise, this whole analogy totally breaks down.

Does that make sense? There's no way that Paul's referring to just some myth to establish the fact of Christ's death, bri, and resurrection as an encouragement to those that are suffering. Does this make sense? Now, if you want to read more about this particular passage, I love Grudom's treatment, in a systematic theology.

He develops this passage very well and how it connects to, what we call the Nicene Creed. and what does it really mean that Christ was preaching? I'll just give you a short cliff notes version. You guys can go back and research it on your own.

Basically, what Gruden and others argue is that Christ was preaching through the Spirit, through Noah to people in the days of Noah, who then died and then their souls went to hell. And then, so they had been preached to by Christ through the, through Noah. Does that make sense to you? Anyway, if I had more time, I could, I could develop that.

Go, go read Gruden's chapter. I can't remember which chapter it is, but it's basically where he's talking about the Nicene Creed, in a systematic theology. So basically you have Christ preaching through Noah in the days of Noah, those people die, they go to hell, and so they had already heard the gospel through Noah, and they were in chains waiting for the day of judgment. OK, so that's the second link.

The first link is that, is the New Testament. Does the New Testament avoid the, the flood in the ark? Does the new, how does the New Testament treat the flood in the ark? We're arguing that Noah is linked to the Trinity or Noah, the New Testament links Noah to the Trinity, Trinity's inauguration of Christ's earthly ministry.

Number 2, the New Testament links Noah and the flood to Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, pretty important. Number 3, The New Testament links Noah and the flood to the doctrine of righteousness by faith. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. It's like what we've tried to establish at this point is that the New Testament does pick up Noah the flood as important and links them to Christ's baptism.

Links them to Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection. And now is going to link Noah and the flood to justification by faith. Let's start in verse one. Of Hebrews 11.

Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, for by it, the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. OK, so how do we know according to this passage that the things that are made were made from things that are not visible? By faith, right?

Nobody was there. You can't use the scientific method. Nobody can use the scientific method to establish this. But by faith, we understand, faith is something that's been granted to us by the Lord.

This isn't like some blind faith. We're just like, I just have no idea and I'm so weak. I just believe. No, it's, it's knowledge that has been granted to us by the Holy Spirit, it's been imparted into our hearts.

And then we express it by faith, we understand, we're not just like, oh, I have no idea. No, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So the Holy Spirit bears witness of the truth of what the written word of God says. And by faith, we know that the worlds were framed by God's own words.

He spoke everything into being. So that the things which are seen are not made of things which are visible. This was would have been totally radical, or was totally radical at the time of writing. The Greco-Roman world would have totally scoffed at this.

scoffed at this idea. Verse 4. By faith, Abel offered God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness, but that he was righteous, God testifying, of his gifts, and through it being dead, he still speaks. So here we have justification by faith in the life of Abel.

Verse 5, by faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this, this testimony that he pleased God. Verse 6, but without faith, it's impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Verse 7, by faith, Noah, being divinely warned, Of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Righteousness, which is according to faith. What does that sound like? That's the same type of terminology that you get from the apostle Paul. This is a righteousness that's not according to works.

It's a righteousness that's according to faith. This is what Martin Luther, and this is what Paul, this is what Augustine was arguing. We're talking about justification by faith alone. And so, the writer of Hebrews is arguing.

That the historical Noah demonstrated a righteousness by faith alone through the works of building an ark. His belief was expressed in this particular work. He's not saved by the work, but it demonstrated his righteousness by faith. Let's read the verse again.

By faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen. So Noah receives a vision from the Lord or not a vision, he, he's spoken to by the Lord. And the Lord says, here's what I'm gonna do. Moved with godly fear, so he's a worshiper of God.

He's moved by his worship and reverence for God. Prepared an ark for the saving of his household. He begins to build an ark. To save his household, by which he condemned the world.

His act of building an ark was a condemnation to the world of his time. Just like you and I are spoken of as being a fragrance or either an aroma of life to some or an aroma of death to others. Noah was an aroma of death to everybody else who didn't get on that ark. Every, every time Every piece of wood that went into the ark throughout the whole building, he's just establishing the condemnation of the world.

He's an aroma of death to them. and he became an heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith. He passes the baton of justification by faith. Is justification by faith pretty important?

Pretty important. And this passage establishes that justification by faith is linked to a historical setting, and that is Noah, a historical Noah, building an ark, and him building the ark didn't just condemn people that lived in the Mesopotamian Valley, it condemned people that were on the world and the whole globe. And so, the Bible, the New Testament, if I'm correct in my interpretation, is linking Noah and the flood to the doctrine of righteousness by faith. I think that's pretty important.

Let's look at number 4. The New Testament links Noah the flood to the significance of Christian baptism, of Christian baptism. Let's turn back, we are, we looked at this a moment ago, but let's, let's turn back to 1 Peter 3:20. 1 Peter 3:20.

You and I are commanded as, part of the gospel as Jesus says to go out and make disciples of all nations, right? We're all called to go out and make disciples of all nations, and how do we do that? What's the first thing we make disciples of all nations by? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Teach them all the things I have, taught you, even in the early age, right? So baptism is a, is a big deal and we understand as, as we develop that systematically the doctrine of baptism that we're not saved by the physical act of going under the water, but it's, it's not removing some dirt from our flesh, but it's an appeal of God for a clean conscience. We're expressing our faith in baptism. That we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he is washed away from our, our sins.

We've been, we've been buried and raised with him, right? But, but baptism is a very important expression of that faith. And we see that, we see the connection between baptism and the flood, starting in verse 20 of 1 Peter 3:20. so, first Peter 3:20, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.

So, Noah's preparing this ark. You have these other souls that are being disobedient. They're the ones that are smelling the aroma of death. These are the ones that are being condemned by Noah's act of faith.

in which a few that is 8 souls were saved through water. That's the historical happening. 8 souls were saved as they got on the ark and went through water. Here's the anti-type verse 29.

This is also an anti-type which now saves baptism. Now, now Peter wants to remind us, what, what does he mean by this? Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's a mouthful.

But just to summarize what seems like Peter is saying here is that the ark is a type that points in the New Testament to our own baptism, which is where we express our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As we are baptized, it's similar or it's, it's, it's an anti-type to Noah taking his family onto the ark, going through the waters, and surviving and getting through the other side by grace. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we get in the waters of baptism, we're buried in the waters, but we come out raised with Christ.

It says the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And so there's a direct connection between what Noah went through historically and what we go through in our own baptism. All that to say, if there was no historical Noah in the flood, if there was no ark, then what does baptism even really mean? I would argue Is, is Paul just trying to point to some fairy tale? Is he trying to point, Peter, is Peter trying to point to some myth and just trying to connect a myth to make a spiritual message?

That's not the concept of type anti-type. There are no other type anti-types that point to something mythological to make a New Testament, spiritual significance. Anti-types always point back to something historical, Aaronic priesthood, sacrificial system, Day of Atonement. These are all historical events that point to an anti-type, which is also a historical event.

You don't have mythical pointing to historical. Does that make sense? OK. So that's the 4th, the 4th point.

5th. And we'll be able to take questions here in a few minutes. The New Testament links Noah and the flood to the encouragement of persecuted believers, the encouragement of persecuted believers. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2.

This is really an amazing passage. both of these books that Peter's writing, he's writing to, to Christians, they're just getting beat up, killed, right? Family, friends are dying, they're losing property. these are, these aren't people that are just being laughed at for their faith.

These are people that are losing all for their faith. And so Peter's writing in both of these epistles to encourage them. And I believe that Peter wants to encourage them with historical facts, not just with myths and fairy tales. And so, 1 and 2 Peter, excuse me, 2 Peter chapter 2, starting in verse 4, let's, let's track Peter's argument here.

Actually, what, let's go back to verse one because we really got to get the context. Let's see here. Now, let's start in verse 4. for if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment.

OK. So there's angels that said, different views on this, but we'll just for now, say that the, those that followed Satan, there were some of those that were thrown into hell and put into chains. In verse 5, did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of 8 people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. OK, so two things have been mentioned.

we've got demons or angels who were punished, right? And now you've got the ungodly that were punished. Noahh saved. and his family.

Verse 6, he continues on and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them in destruction, making them an example to those afterward who would live ungodly. So now you got 3 things. And delivered righteous Lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, for the righteous man dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day, seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. OK, so that's the if statement.

This is an if then statement. The if is, if, if God knows how to punish ungodly angels or rebellious angels, he knows how to punish the ungodly world and save Noah. He knows how to punish Sodom and Gomorrah and save Lot, then verse 9, then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. And especially those who walk according to the flesh and the lust of uncleanness, despising authority, so on and so forth.

So you see the, the argument here? This is actually a fairly common argument in the pages of the New Testament to try to encourage persecuted Christians. It's easy for us, I, it's definitely we see, we're seeing somewhat of a turn in the United States, but still, relatively, it's easy for us to sit home and, we get laughed at once in a while or maybe somebody makes fun of our faith, but we're not getting our heads chopped off, right? at least in, in this area of the world.

Yeah, yeah, we're not going through what a number of other Christians are going through around the world. And so, it can be somewhat, this is a distant passage to us that aren't in the midst of suffering. But if you were living in Uganda and you're expressing faith in Christ and all of a sudden people who hate Christ come into your village and they cut off the hands of all of the men, they steal the, the, the male children to put them into forced warfare, and they cut the breasts all of all of the women so they can't feed their children, and they burn your homes and leave.

And then you're just left in the dust crying out to the Lord and you read a passage like this, let me tell you, it's gonna give you some comfort.

That if God knows how to punish these people in the past, He knows how to punish your persecutors. And those that come will not get away with this thing. The Lord knows how to deliver the the godly out of temptation to reserve unjust, under punishment for the Day of Judgment. Those people that came in and cut off the hands of all of your men, cut off the breast of your women, took your children away.

Into to be warfare slaves, they will not get away with that. God has historically shown how that he is just and he pours his just wrath out on the ungodly just like Noah and the myth of the flood. Does that make any sense? At all.

Does that comfort you to know that God gave us a mythical story about Noah and the flood when your husband's hands were just cut off? It it it gives no comfort whatsoever. Unless this is historical stuff, we're talking about God punishing real demons. We're talking about God punishing real ancient peoples who, who were evil, evil people that God flooded the whole world and rescued only 8 souls.

And Sodom and Gomorrah, fire and brimstone came down and destroyed them and God delivered Lot. If you've read much about Lot, he was the righteous one, right? This only gives me comfort if this is historical stuff. And, and, and this is, this is a consistent tale.

Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter one, where we're told, we're comforted. The Thessalonians are comforted with the idea that you're getting persecuted, but guess what? Jesus Christ is coming and flaming fire, taking vengeance upon those who do not obey the gospel, and it is just for God to do that because they persecute you. In other words, those who pick on God's kids, God will get them.

Right? That's, it's difficult in our tame environment to sometimes handle that, but I'll tell you, there's many people around the world today right now that embrace that and hold that close to their hearts. I remember just as a, a young child, this is not a This is not, you can't take this analogy 100%, but I remember just as a little kid, I was in Bakersfield out playing with my baseball and some big bullies came through and stole my baseball and just took off. They punched me, took my baseball and took, and took off.

And my uncle Tom from Oklahoma happened to be in town at that time and he found out what happened. I come home, I'm crying. Somebody took my baseball. He said, get in the car.

And we went driving around the neighborhood and he just asked me to point out the boys. And I was just sitting there in the driver's seat and all of a sudden I saw the boys that took away my baseball and I said, that's the Uncle Tom. And he stopped the car and he got up and I don't know what he said to those boys, but the fear of God came over those boys and they gave him the baseball and he brought the baseball back and drove me home. You think I had an appreciation and love for Uncle Tom?

I sure did. and the Lord feels that way about his children. And he feels the same intensity of wrath towards the devil who seeks to kill and destroy. And those that are ultimately those that will follow the devil and be part of his plan.

The Bible indicates, and this is, it's God that shows the justice. We're, we're not supposed to take it in our hands. He's the one that does it, is it is a good thing that God will write all the records in the end. And so we see this connection.

Here's the, and we'll go to the final one. The New Testament does not shy away from the historical narrative of Genesis. The New Testament is free to link the Trinity's inauguration of Christ's earthly ministry with Noah, to link Noah the flood to Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection, to link Noah the flood with the doctrine of righteousness by faith, to link Noah the flood to the significance of Christian baptism, and to link Noah the flood and the encouragement of persecuted believers.

But finally, the New Testament links Noah the flood to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Let's turn, to Luke. We could see it in both passages, but we'll look at Luke chapter 17. Luke 17. Starting at verse 26.

So in this whole section, Jesus is, is, is foretelling his second coming. In verse 26, Jesus Christ says, And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them. All This is coming from the lips of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ himself is connecting his own return to the historical happenings of the flood. And Jesus Christ said the flood destroyed them. Oh Now I, I think contextually. The way that this has to be read.

A Jew who knows his Old Testament. Who's been raised to know the Torah. Genesis 1 Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy and has been raised to know the Old Testament and is listening to Jesus Christ preach, in no way is gonna come up with the idea that what he means by all is the Mesopotamian Valley. Just those people who happen to be in this local flood area.

What Jesus must mean by all is everybody who lived on the earth. That's the way the rest of the Old Testament understands this. That's the way the New Testament understands this. That's what's coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

They ate, they drank, as in the days of Noah, so it'll be in the Son of Man. Until the days of Noah, he entered the ark, the flood came and destroyed them all. So here's what some of my friends do with this. And I say these, these are friends, these are people who who love Christ, believe in the Lord.

They'll basically argue that Jesus Christ is just accommodating himself to the understanding of the times. That his listeners would have understood, they would have believed that Noah the flood was historical. So in order to make a point about his resurrection, he accommodates their understanding to his message. It's called the theory of accommodation.

It's very common hermeneutical practice today. Jesus would have known, assuming that Jesus is God and, and Jesus is all knowing, he would have known that this didn't literally happen because science now proves to us that the world was not completely flooded. And so Jesus would have known that, but he's just accommodating his message to their understanding to get his point across about how that when he comes back, it's gonna be the same as the time of this. Fanciful Noah, who we don't even know if he was a historical figure or not.

I don't know. To me, that just doesn't have any bite. For Jesus Christ to make a point to his disciples about his return, it would seem to me that this would, of necessity need to be a historical occurrence. And there's no other reason in the text to take it otherwise.

And so, the New Testament links Noah the flood to Christ's own teaching about his return. And so here's, here's brass tacks. If we're going to deny Noah, Noah's historicity, if we're gonna deny the ark and the worldwide flood, Then brothers and sisters, I don't see how we can get away. From at least questioning the veracity of the return of Jesus Christ.

In questioning the veracity of Christ's own words because he said it. And this is really where this ends up is people start denying certain things that kick them out of the intellectual clubs. once, once you start denying certain things that you think are peripheral, because if you believe that nobody will accept you into their academic club anymore. It almost always gets back to the central area and you end up where Thomas Jefferson and up.

Jeff Thomas Jefferson just basically denied all miracles and when he did his translation of the New Testament, he just took every miracle out of there because he's an empiricist. So you just get rid of the resurrection. You just get rid of all miracles, and you just end up with this quasi-historical Jesus. And so, the end game here that I wanna present to you and you guys can wrestle with this on your own, you can go research it on your own.

This is part of what we're doing in this course. Let me just give you an article, This, article is called Evangelism. Today Must Begin with Genesis 1. I'll, I'll point it, I'll put it on the website, send you guys an email, but you could write it down real quick.

if you just Google evangelism today must begin with Genesis 1. It's from CFN The Voice, CFN The Voice.com. again, evangelism today must begin with Genesis one. I'm becoming more and more convinced in our culture today that in evangelism, we need to follow the practice of the New Testament.

We need to not avoid these topics. We need to push these topics. We need to push creation. We need to push the flood.

I, I find that a lot of my evangelism that people will bring up the flood and things like that on their own anyway. I start trying to talk to them about Jesus Christ. And his death and, and their sin. And what a, a real common response I get?

I really can't believe all the Bible and that nonsense about a flood and Noah and the animals on the ark. That's a very common response. And so, a lot of times these days, what people are trained to do is they say, well, what, we'll talk about that another day. Let's set that over here.

Let me continue to talk to you about Jesus Christ. They don't want to hear about Jesus Christ. They've already decided the Bible's nonsense full of just myths. What I've actually started to do more recently.

I'll go back and I'll start with Adam and Eve. I'll say, hey, let me tell you a little story about a man, God created a man named Adam and Eve put him in the garden, said, you can eat of anything you want, just don't eat of this tree. God says, if you eat of that tree, you'll surely die, but everything else you can have at it. And I'll just start with that story.

And talk about how God had told them that they would surely die, but then they ate of the fruit and they didn't surely die, but something did die. It was an animal, and God wrapped them in the animal skins, and then I began to point them to Christ. I'm starting more and more with Genesis and also starting with Noah. You, I'll, I'll tell him, the, the Bible indicates that the whole world at one point was flooded because of how wicked it was.

But God in His mercy saved 8 people. And I'll talk about how the, that only the people that got on the ark were saved from this terrible wrath that came down on the earth. But God saved 8 people and that, and that kickstarted the whole human race again. And when Noah and his, and his family got off the ark, there was only one true religion, and that was the religion of Yahweh.

They worshiped the one true God. And I'll, I'll ask them today, we've got the same choice before us. Are we going to come to the one way, Noah had one way to get on the ark to be saved? Are we gonna come and come into Christ just like Noah went on the ark?

Are we gonna believe in Christ? Are we're gonna try to do it our own way and have to face the acid rain of God's, judgment that's coming? And if people wanna ask me various apologetic questions about how the whole world could be flooded and so on and so forth, I'll get into that. But I'm finding more and more that, that, that actually kickstarts my evangelism then rather than becomes a roadblock to evangelism.

And I'm thinking that the New Testament had something figured out. Maybe the New Testament writers knew what they were doing when they mentioned Noah and the ark 8 times. And when they connect and link the gospel to things like Christ's baptism. suffering, burial, resurrection, righteousness by faith, our own Christian baptism, encouragement for Christians, second coming of Christ, the whole gospel, you could preach the whole gospel from the New Testament in Noah and the ark passages.

Pretty, pretty important stuff. We are over time, but I'll take any, maybe a couple of questions if you guys have, some questions for me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's great. So 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter also links the destruction of the world to Noah and the flood. That's a good point. Yeah, Mitch.

Yeah, what is that? Hm. That's great. That's a great connection.

Yeah, yeah, if we're, if we're not gonna believe Moses and the prophets, then Yeah, so somebody raises from the dead. And we, we see that, right, with Lazarus, right? She just raises Lazarus from the dead. A bunch of people now want to kill him.

Any other thoughts on that? OK, let me, let me give one little final caveat and then we'll pray. I you, you guys can obviously tell this is stuff I'm pretty passionate about. and I, I think, I'm open to correction.

I, I think there's a pretty good argument here for the connection between the New Testament and the flood and arguing for the New Testament's assuming the historicity of these events. However, I, I do think that we need to be patient with our friends and family who are believers, who have been schooled in a different vein of thought, who, who haven't been exposed to what you guys have been exposed to yet. And so as, as we're coming alongside of our Christian brothers and sisters, we need to be very patient, just like first Peter says, teaching with all humility and meekness, allowing the Lord to use his word.

To help people understand these things.

We're living in an age where a lot of even Christians have just grown up, just assuming there's certain things in the Bible that we just have to give up. And we can come alongside and be an encouragement to them and say, no, no, let's, let's look at the New Testament together and realize the New Testament doesn't give these things up. They're not giving up this ground. They're establishing ground on these principles, on these historical events.

So with that, let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the clarity of your word. We ask God that you help us to be bold in our evangelism, but to be meek, help us to be patient as we teach. we thank you, Lord, just for the encouragement that it gives us when we think of, of your mercy and your wrath.

Lord, you are so kind and merciful to Noah and his family and, and warning them and, and, and, and causing, giving him that command, we, and, we thank you for saving them. And at the same time, we're thankful for your judgment. You are a righteous God. And when we look out at the wickedness across the world, we know that there is coming a day when you will right all wrongs and we will all, rejoice in your justice.

Until then, we ask God that you'd have compassion on many, that we'd be able to open up our mouths for the gospel. We pray that more and more we'd be in aroma of life, but we also acknowledge the role that we have to be an aroma of death, and we leave that in your sovereign hands. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.

All right, I'll be up here just to chat if you guys are, wanna chat a little bit and I look forward to seeing you guys next week.