Answers In Genesis - Sunday School - Week 28

Good morning. And welcome once again to Adult. training school, we are. Starting a new section today, and we'll be, looking at things, I'll be, I'll be giving you a list in just a few minutes at the different topics that we'll be starting off with the flood continuing in our study in Genesis, and that's how far we've gotten so far, so that's what we're doing, but let's start with the word of prayer.

You God are amazing and you have. Reached into our lives. You have given to us so much. You've given to us your word and And you have revealed yourself to us in, in such a clear way and help us to have understanding as we look at what your word has to say.

And may our, our minds be teachable and learn the things from your spirit. Lord, I do ask that your spirit would be moving among us and, and working in us. And helping us to not only understand but apply the things that we learned that it may change us, that we may continue to be transformed as we look at what you have to say. Jesus' name, Amen.

All right. we'll be looking at this, question in our, time today. What made Noah righteous? Among other things we'll be looking up, that's, definitely, a main item because that's part of our application.

The purpose of our adult equipping school, just as a reminder cause we're starting a new section today, but is to train our families how to know, live and speak God's word for His glory. We'll be looking at the 3rd C of the seven seas of history, and this one is catastrophe, the flood. And in this, section, today, we deal with the flood and also, next week we'll be looking at how God saves Noah. Lesson 3, when the flood, or was the flood global.

Lesson 4, how large was the ark. And, lesson 5, terraforming. We get to look at that, reshaping the earth. then the next C is confusion.

That's the 4th C, and that's the dispersion at Babel. One blood, one race. We're looking at Job's suffering, God's calling of Abraham. God's covenant with Abraham, Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham and Isaac, and the ice age.

So these 13 weeks we'll be covering these topics, God willing, nothing changes on that, but that's what we look at. These are the seven seas of history. as I said, we're in the 3rd 1, but we started with creation. went to corruption, catastrophe, confusion is the next one.

then we get, have Christ, the cross, and consummation. And so those, that's how we are seeing history laid out with these words. catastrophe is our word now. And we'll be doing is, a little bit of review of some of our principles of our study, they'll be looking into the section, the passage in Genesis 6 today, and then, at an application.

There are certain principles that have guided, the developers of the Answers in Genesis curriculum. the curriculum we use, as we've said before, does come from Answers in Genesis. They have put it together and, put together a, a very good, A cogent way of looking at our study and so we're doing this, we're doing it throughout all of our Sunday school classes. And doing it together.

One of the, the principles that we get from this is that we can trust, all of God's word beginning even in Genesis. that, that we go back to the beginning, we say, yes, this is God's word. This is trustworthy information, and we can, read it, we can understand it, and we can see how it all began. And it helps actually the whole story makes sense.

And so, we trust all of God's word. In that way. We also see that God's attributes are displayed throughout the Bible and certainly we see them displayed in Genesis. the amazing acts of creation, the, the acts of, of putting together society, and then, Destruction of the world and reshaping and starting over.

But we see God's holiness, we see God's justice, but we also see the love and the grace of God as well. and we believe that the Bible presents true history. that, that the historical, events that are recorded there are true. They, they, actually have happened.

That's the position that we've taken that we, that we believe to be right. And, and so that's where we stand on that. We, from that believe that we must carefully and accurately interpret the Bible, that we don't look at it casually or flippantly. But we come to it, carefully and, and, respectfully.

And we do interpret it literally. We take a literal interpretation of the scriptures. We see God's plan of redemption that's woven throughout scripture. And we believe that we must be ready to give a defense for what we believe.

And we are to live in light of what the Bible teaches us. So those are some of the things that we've talked about in the last, several weeks and, just as a review of, where it is, That where we're coming from, I should say, and, and, what we, will be the, the, the model of our teaching and examination of scriptures going forward. Now, looking at today's information that'll we're looking at the flood, Ken Ham, who is one of the founders of Answers in Genesis, makes this statement.

He says, 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 we actually see in the fossil record? Millions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. The point of that is that when we look at nature, we actually see validation. When we look at geology and so on, we see actual validation of what the Bible tells us.

And one of the things we've talked about in the past is, as we look at the Bible, actually as we look at any information. the glasses that we wear affects our interpretation, and the glasses really is, is a, a word for bias. It's, it's, it's a word for our preconceived notions. And so what we already think about things will impact our interpretation of the data that we receive.

And so, A, a, a person who, who takes a literal view of interpretation of scripture and reads Genesis and then goes out. says either an archaeologist or a paleontologist or a geologist and looks at the information that's out there. They can see confirmation of what we read in Genesis. and so that, that's, that's impacting it.

but if you have different glasses, you can look at the same data and come to different conclusions. And so that's the, the story of humanity and especially in, in our 21st century as we wrestle with, with the data that we have is what's really true and what's the right interpretation. Excuse me. We'll start with a timeline, just as a reminder, we've looked at this timeline before.

We see in this timeline, we see from the beginning, Adam, it, the date of creation, we look at, we call it year zero, and you can see the lifespans of his descendants and, see how they fit in, in, in a, a timeline there and you can see all, working your way all the way down and you can see where the flood. the date of the flood comes right here at the, the year that Methuselah dies. and Noah, it's right in about 2/3 of his lifespan has taken place and that's where the flood comes in.

So we see how, Noah or Adam's descendants, fit in in this timeline.

And where the flood comes in. Another way of Of, of seeing it is in a chart. like this where you have this list of Adam's descendants down to Noah. And the age that that each person was when they had their first born son as listed in Genesis there, and it comes down to Noah.

And And so According to this calculation, the flood occurred 1,656 years after Creation Week. So that's, that's where that falls in line there. And then another simpler way of seeing it is we have year zero, is creation. Noah is born in 1056.

The proclamation of judgment by God is 1536. Noah enters the ark, shuts the door 1656, and then a year later, they get off the ark. Now, by the way, that's that's how the Jewish calendar, in case you don't know, that's the way the Jewish calendar is calculated from year zero is creation and it just moves on forward and, and I brought up several weeks ago where they are in the 5 to 6000 range now, where their year is. I I forget where that is, but that's how the, how their years are calculated.

All right. Genesis chapter 6. We're gonna read that passage, so if you'd open up your Bible to Genesis 6. And we'll pick it up in verse 5 and read through 7:1.

So Moses wrote this, he said, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. The Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 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 ark 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, 300 cubits.

Its breadth, 50 cubits, 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. 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 the 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 and your son's' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh ye shall bring two of every kind into the ark. You shall keep them alive with you.

You shall be. They shall be male and female of the birds after their kind and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. Two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself 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. Then the Lord said to Noah, enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. So we have here. A world that's filled with violence and lawlessness.

And in that, violence and lawlessness of all of humanity. Noah finds grace in the eyes of the Lord and is seen as righteous before God. And we'll be commenting a little bit more on that particular issue, but Noah. Obviously is a standout.

He's unique amongst the population of the world. And so God comes to him. And with this, this plan, this plan of starting over. As we've said before, as we look at this passage, we see, that, this is written.

As a historical narrative and that it's meant to be interpreted literally, not figuratively or allegorically. this isn't meant to be some mystical message or anything. It's just point blank. Just a matter of fact.

This is what happened. And so as, as we look at it, we're to see it and, and I think as we read it, we can, we can begin to see because we know our own human nature and we know the, the nature of, of, of humanity. We can see how possible this is. The people of the earth are described as being greatly wicked and that every intent was only evil continually.

That the people of the earth had gotten to a point where God said that's enough, no more. And when, when God says that's enough, that's a terrifying thing for mankind. And God is grieved over mankind's corruption. He says, I am sorry that I made them.

I'm sorry that it's come to this point. And so he has a plan to destroy all land dwelling, air-breathing creatures on the face of the earth. And so that's where the issue is. But in the middle of that, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Now, if we remember, Pastor Milton preached on this, a few months ago, and, one of the things that, that really pops out at you as you read this as you read from Genesis chapter 4 through this passage, you see, the, the, building of the cultures, the, the, the spreading out of the, of the, the descendants of Adam. That Adam had two primary sons after Abel was killed and that was, there was Cain who killed Abel and then he left that area, went and, and, and took his wife and they, and they had descendants in, in another part of the of the region.

But then God gave Adam and Eve another son. His name was Seth.

And it is remarked upon about them that In, in verse 426, that, that the line of Seth one of their distinctives was that, that they called upon the Lord. And that distinguished them from the line of Cain apparently. And so their, their line was different and they called upon the Lord, they followed through with their, their worship of God and they kept that sacred. In, in their relationship.

Whereas Cain had, had been resentful against God, he, his sacrifice was not accepted by God and, and consequently, Cain just, it, it, it seems completely walked away and said, I'm done with this. And I'm going my own way. And, and the, some of the comments that are made there in, in Genesis 4 about the descendants of Cain point to the idea there being a general standoffishness against God, that they, they don't want really anything to do with God. They want to go their own way.

And of course, that's a very common human trait and it's easy to understand. but Seth. His descendants took a different direction. And so we see, for instance, one of his later descendants was Enoch and Enoch was so, so different and so, particular in his relationship with God that it describes instead of, of dying like the others did, it just says that he was not because God took him and his, because his relationship was so close to God.

And so, there's, there are these, these particular people in this line of, Noah's ancestry that is being passed down to him. And so as Noah is coming down to this point, however, we do notice in the first part of, of chapter six that there's a, a blending. Of ideology. And there seems to be even in the line of Seth, a compromise and, and a move toward what the rest of the world population is, the descendants of Cain, and that is to seek their own way, to seek their own path, and it resulted in, in violence, lawlessness, and before God.

It was so bad, the guy says, I, I have to end it. And there are particular things, details that we're not told about the, the general condition. We're just told these overarching themes of violence and wickedness that, that every intent of the heart is evil continually. from that we can imagine a lot and we probably should just leave it at that.

But we, we do need to understand that when God said that's enough, it's, it's because there was a reason for that. It, it had gotten that bad and only Noah was left. Of even of the descendants of Seth, Noah was the only one that God would, would be able to use to rescue humanity, to be a representative for the, for the future. I don't know.

it was Enoch, and yeah, we don't know how that happened. OK. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time, talks about that in verse 9, that he walked with God. And so we do see him having a close relationship.

It's not just cows or God just pulling him out of nowhere, that Noah was deliberate in his relationship with God. And then we see that Noah, by faith obeyed God. by building the ark. And when you read Hebrews 11 and you see the examples of, of many of these Old Testament characters, by faith, they did this, by faith, they did that, What we are seeing is that faith results in obedience.

It always does. Faith is, is the component that creates obedience. And so, with, if there is no obedience, that means the faith is empty, as James wrote. And so, faith is, is that saying that by faith, Noah obeyed God and built the ark.

And so he did it, prepared it for his family and for the animals. All those creatures that, that would be taken through the flood and would be used to repopulate the world afterwards. One of the things that's, that's good to note in this is that Noah's righteousness before God was not from his own merit. no is like us.

Just a guy like us, the same, the same, problems, the same nature that we have. And so he wasn't like this, superstar. God follower from the pre-flood era. He was like us, wrestled with the same things that we wrestle with.

And so when, when God shows him, him favor, it's described there as grace. The same thing with us. we don't deserve the favor of God. We don't deserve that, that, there was, there's nothing that we have done, that, that merits God's attention and, and favor toward us.

The same with Noah and So his, his, finding grace and actually being the person God chose to, to carry on the human race is not because he was, had, had done something to earn that favor. But his lifestyle to that point was such that That it shows as an example of God working in his life, continuing to help him to be strong, and in that relationship that Noah had with God, God built to him a strength to help him persevere through the time that, that, he would be building this ark and in building this ark be a testimony to the world around him.

But this is a gift of faith and it, and it's a good reminder that of, because some people have a misconception about people in the Old Testament, how they, were, were, saved and, and as compared to people after Christ. And it's the same thing.

It's just a different perspective. One's looking forward to the cross, the other one's looking after and looking back to the cross. And, and it all generates from that. promises in Genesis 3, the seed of the woman shall, shall crush the head of the serpent, and, and, in that there will be a rescue of mankind, a savior, and that is our hope that's been the promise that's been throughout, human history from, from that, that time of the fall, that, that we would have.

And so Noah responded in obedience to God through his faith. but his obedience was the result of God's grace working him just like us, just like us, Brian. Back Says, Well, it's throughout scripture. It's, it's throughout, it's all of scripture.

OK. Not sure I understood, so I'm gonna look it up. Tobakkuk 24. But the righteous will live by his faith.

OK. And then that is a theme throughout the Old Testament. And, and we see it expressed here as well in, in back in Genesis with Noah. We see it earlier, we see it with Abel, Abel, by faith, Abel, Hebrews, Hebrews talks about him.

By faith, Abel offered the sacrifice that was acceptable to God. So Noah's responding through with obedience from his faith. There are some New Testament references I want us to look at, To, to Noah, to the flood, and that, that give us some, some, important light, for our own understanding and actually application of, of this section of scripture. Matthew 24.

Jesus is describing his coming, his second coming. He says, for the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. There are a couple of things that jump out at me in this passage.

One is that The condition of humanity was not prepared. For the, for the flood. They were just going on and they were told about it. In fact, they had 120 years to prepare.

And Noah had to endure this, giving this message and being, being, rejected for all this time as he's building the ark and, people just don't get it. They, they refuse to repent. They refuse to bow down before God. They refuse to humble themselves.

Which again a very common human trait. but they were just carrying on and they did not know until the flood came. The second thing that that jumps out at me and probably is the bigger thing to me is that Jesus, in talking about his second coming, doesn't seem to be presenting it as some allegorical thing, but rather is literal. He's talking about his second coming as literal, and he uses a literal event.

As a parallel. To, to compare it to, so for the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah, that Jesus very apparently is seeing these events in Genesis 6 as literal, historical events. This really happened. And as As destructive as it was, this really happened.

If the second coming of Christ is literal, Then, it would be right for us to interpret Genesis 6 as being literal, that this is a literal event. that happens. Peter on his writings. Actually mentions the flood 3 times, twice in 2 Peter, once in the 1st Peter.

but in, in, 2 Peter 2:5, which by the way, is our memory verse for this section, of, lessons. But he says, That Noah did not, or that God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with 7 others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. And so Peter's writing about judgments and he's, he's listing 4 different judgments there in that section and this is one of them. And that, that he lists and, and describes that, that judgment's coming.

Judgment is coming and that, that's the point that Peter is making that, that there is a judgment coming, and, and that we shouldn't be surprised at it because God's done it before. And it, it is gonna, it's gonna happen again. And so he, he goes back and he talks about that. One of the things that, that I think is and the reason why I underlined it up there for you is Noah, a preacher of righteousness.

Is that this, this, phrase or this description of Noah is, is one that says to us how common It is in human history for the preacher of righteousness to pretty much be alone. that, that, the, the preacher of righteousness is not always gonna have the results that, that, that he wants to have. a preacher of righteousness would like to be able to stand up and have, have people respond with a, with an affirmation, with affirmative, with changed hearts, to listen to the message. that's, that wasn't the case with Noah.

When, when Noah preached, and he preached through his lifestyle by building the ark. He's building the ark. He's, he's, he's a, he's a faithful worshiper of God. but we see that, that.

The, the results don't come and we see this as, as being actually this isn't the only time. I just started reading, I was in Jeremiah chapter 2 yesterday, reading about, his ministry and, and, and really knowing, what, what he was going to face and God tells him right up front. That they're not going to respond to you in a positive way. but you have to go and warn them anyway.

And that was going to be Jeremiah's ministry, a ministry of frustration. Why? Because human nature. without the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, we're all blockheads.

we're stubborn. We, we, we want our own way, and we resist God. By nature, we resist God. And, and, it's only through the Holy Spirit working in our hearts that we actually begin to have a turnaround and actually can see light.

Because without the Holy Spirit, we're just dead men. And dead men don't respond to God. When I was very young, I was during my elementary years, actually 1st grade through 6th grade, my dad, who was a pastor, we lived in a, in a A small town in Idaho. And my dad pastored this small church.

And. And so it's a church of, we would, the attendance would be between 25 and 35. That's a small church that, that my dad pastor, and we were there for 6 years. My dad worked hard.

as a pastor, reaching out to people and stuff, but see, in a, in a culture there. Where people are either LDS. Or, they're nature worshippers. And, nature worshippers are the ones who, have speedboats.

They, they go, hunting in the fall. They, they go fishing all throughout the summer. They're, they're always out there, because that's what's attractive, to the human heart is to be involved in nature and so on. And, and of course, it's beautiful and it's, it's, it's a great thing, but it distracts people from caring about God.

And, and, and there's this belligerence that goes with it of, witnessing to, to a person and I don't want to hear it. And so My father was a, was pastoring this church for, for those years and see some growth and then some fall away, but it's just this general intractableness, stubbornness, that's against the gospel. And, so in, in reading this passage yesterday in, in, in preparing, I, I, I started reflecting back on that time and, and how, my dad being this preacher, Really working hard, trying to be a, a, a witness, a testimony, when he was my Little League baseball coach and, and, and, and, dealing with the other dads and the, and the other people.

And, and yet there's this, just like this door that you just can't get through.

You just can't get through it. And, and the reason why is, is not because the message isn't good. It's because the heart isn't open. The Holy Spirit has to prepare that heart, has to open that heart.

And God chooses and God does his own business in the way he chooses to do it. But my father was faithful in, in, in, in proclaiming the truth in, in, in, in trying to be that light as Noah, and Noah's a, a much more extreme case. but we see this is, this is very common in human history. Of, of the preacher of righteousness in a sense, being alone, not, not generating the following that a message like this should, you would think, generate, especially when you're a believer.

When you're a believer and, and you have heard the gospel. You, you see the light, you see it and you, you can't understand why everybody doesn't see it. why, and you go to your, your family members, your neighbors, the, the people you care about, and you share the gospel with them and, and you grab their shirt and say, why can't you see it? at least that's, I hope we don't do that, but that's what we wanted to do inside.

That's what we're thinking because if we could see it, anybody should be able to see it. But God is the one who has to open up our hearts. And, and so, God's intention was to destroy the world and save one family. At this time, even though He preached for 120 years, but his family was preserved through it.

And then, Hebrews 11. Verse 7, Says by faith, Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared in ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. And so there is an amazing Idea here that I think is important to point out. And, and, and when Pastor Milton, in fact, I would, I would recommend going back and review this section of Pastor Milton's sermons because there's a lot of profound ideas and so on here that really do, help us to have understanding about human nature, about who we are, and, and so on.

But the ark is an instrument of salvation and condemnation. Both at the same time. And when Noah built that ark, The writer of Hebrews is saying it was to the salvation of his family. But what it also did.

Was condemn the world. So, so the same, same implement, this same block of wood. Is salvation And condemnation. It's deliverance and damnation.

The same thing. It's a place of hope or a place of ruin. And what makes the difference? It's which side of the door you're on, right?

Switch side of the door that you're on. Genesis chapter 7 talks about the entry into the ark, and, and God is the one who closed the door. They got into the ark with all the animals and got shut the door. They're safely inside.

Every living creature. is outside and facing death. And It matters which side of the door you're on. And isn't that true with our salvation?, the cross, the cross is, is our place of, of salvation.

That's where we go because that's our, our place of hope. And we go to that, that, that, place for, forgiveness. We go to that place for acceptance by God. But that same place.

That some go to for acceptance by God. will be the, the place that damns the rest. Why? Because they did not accept it.

They did not receive the, the, by faith, the salvation of God. And so it's with God, there, there's, there's one side or the other side. And there's so many people want to think that, well, God just, lets everybody in. God just, he, he makes a way and somehow love wins in the end.

We, we see here another illustration of how God is definite in what he does. He's definite in his declarations. And, and so God doesn't just provide a, a way that's a, a blanket for everyone. Here is the way to God.

Here is the way to righteousness. Here is the way. Jesus said, I am the way. Jesus described himself as the door by me, if any man enters.

He will find life. But anyone who comes in any other way is a thief and a robber, he says. It's not accepted. And so, the ark is that instrument of salvation and condemnation.

All right. Application. We should remember that we have the same source of righteousness that Noah had. Noah was found to be a righteous man on the earth.

We also can be righteous men and women on the earth. because it's all by God's grace. And it's God's grace that draws us to Himself. you see, without God's grace, Noah would have been ruined by the same culture that was ruining everybody else.

He would have compromised, but God's grace helped him to stand strong against that, against the culture, and It's God's grace that helps us to stand strong against our culture, that wants to draw us away, that wants us to draw us into defiance against God. That's what our culture right now is calling us to, defiance against God. And it's God's grace that helps us to be strong against that. And so we come to accept that grace.

By faith, no, obeyed, by faith we obey as well, and faith is what generates that obedience within us. Condemnation. can seem cruel until we take a hard look at our own sinful dispositions. See, our nature is to be defiant against God, continually resisting his love.

that is our human nature. Since the beginning, since the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve are hiding. That's, that's been our nature ever since, hiding against God, resisting God. That is our bent.

That's what we're born with. And when our bents are, are allowed to just go and flourish and, and flower and bring forth fruit, It brings about the violence and the cruelty. That God was seeing. And, and I've probably mentioned this before, but, you read the, the newspaper.

I take a, a daily newspaper. I read it and, and, I guess cause I, I need the punishment because you read about these stories that, of things that are going on in, in just in, in our inland empire. Every day The, the, the, the terrible stories, they're happening every day. And sometimes I think, God, what do you think?

because God doesn't just see the empire, because this is just a sliver of, of humanity. This is, it's this way all over the world. Everywhere because of human nature. flowering and bearing fruit.

And and it. It is, it is before God all the time. And what he must think. he's barraged with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

He's hit with it. And God has been gracious and kind to, to human, humanity, giving man a chance, and that is one of Peter's points. About the coming judgment. That he makes and he does refer to the flood because people, he says, some people think, well, God's never gonna destroy the earth, God's no coming judgment, and Peter says they don't remember.

That God has already done it once with a flood of water. But there is coming one of fire, where it will all be destroyed. And he says, but God is not slow concerning his promises, that some men count slowness, but his long suffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And God wants, God's heart is for men to repent, for men to come to Him and to, to give up their defiance, to walk away from that and surrender.

To his goodness, to who he is, and become that, that person. So,. God is merciful to save one family. even though he knew that.

Their descendants would, would be corrupted and, and there would be more violence, more horrible human history that we can read about. yet God had our faces in his mind. He saved Noah Because he loves us and he, he wants to have that relationship with us. And so, We come then in our place is to surrender to his love.

To give in to that. And then one final application point. Noah was surrounded by a world that was resistant to his message, yet he was faithful to the saving of his family. Our message that Jesus is the ark of salvation continues to be rejected by the masses.

But by faith we continue to reach for those God is bringing to repentance. And face and And so our, our message is, our, our attitude is not to give up, but to be hopeful because God is working. God continues to work. God continues to, to transform lives.

God continues to work even in our own lives, and we, we can see God working within us, and we can see God working outside of us. So we continue to to, by faith. Live our lives in a way that is a light to the world. the people that we work with, the people that we, are related to, our neighborhood, all those people that God has put into our path, that we live our lives with the hope that God does His work and understanding that it is God that does his work.

OK. as I said before, 2 Peter 2:5 is the memory verse. And for this section of lessons, and if you have any questions or comments, you can direct them to Pastor Mike and, and he will answer all your hard questions. All right, let's close in prayer.

Thank you, Lord, for the hope that you give to us, that you have not left us alone. That you've given to us a way. To you. Lord, you could have left us in darkness, in our own violence, in our own hatefulness.

In our own life of just serving ourselves, but God, you have sent a way for us that rescues us. And changes us. And so, Lord, I thank you for that. I thank you that, that we can come before you and, and, and not have to be filled with ourselves.

That we can come to you and be filled with you. And Lord, I ask that you would fill us and, and help us as we continue to change, continue to grow in, in that relationship with you. And that we remember that it's by grace, that we have it, that That it's by grace that we can have peace. And help us, Father, to then be preachers of righteousness in the world that you put us in.

To be faithful to that, living out our lives. In a very honorable way, in a righteous way. And giving testimony. To what you have done and what you can do for them as well.

May we be faithful that even though the darkness is hard and pushes hard against us, Lord, we want to be people of the light because we know that greater are you. That's in us than the one who's in the world. In Jesus' name, Amen.