Good evening and welcome to our evening service. It really is good to have you with us here. Can I remind you that we would ask that you keep your masks on through the whole service. And then at the end of the service, one of the deacons will let you out row by row. And this is our trying to be responsible during the current situation. Hopefully, we won't have to do this for very much longer. So we can just pray. Now, Tuesday we have our prayer meeting at half past seven. You're invited to come along and pray for the work of the church. and all the things that are on your heart. And that's at half past seven in the hall. You don't need to book for that. Connect have their meeting on Thursday evening at half past seven. Then next Sunday, we have the services at the usual times of 11 in the morning and six in the evening. Andrew Cuthbert will be preaching in the morning service. And then in the evening service, Matthew Cuthbert will be preaching and Liz will be giving a report on the work that they're doing with new tribes. Again, can I remind you to book in for next week if you want socially distanced. We are, as I said this morning, we have the children now in the church hall for the heat, because the sports hall where they were meeting was getting very cold. So if you book in for two meters distance, you will either be in the minor hall or the prayer room. So just to let you know what's happening there. The annual reports are being compiled at the minute, so if you are the treasurer of an organisation, will you get your accounts to the church treasurer, Tommy McLernan, and then if you get the typed up accounts and reports to me, it would be very helpful. Still some copies of the ACRI newsletter on the display board, please take those as you leave the service, they're free. You can pray for the work of ACRI. And then Stevie Barr made an appeal this morning for leaders for the youth club. If that's upon your heart and you think this is something that you might be able to do, or in fact, let me put it this way, is there any reason why you can't do it? Then please speak to any of the deacons or Stevie himself and he would welcome you with open arms. These are all the announcements, and of course they're all made God willing. Our last song that we're gonna sing at this point, just before Philip comes to speak to us tonight, is I Will Offer Up My Life. And if you've been to the cross, just as we've been reminded in our last hymn, and you've been thinking about what Christ did for you, well then the only response is to go all out for him, and to offer up your life, and to give him your all. I will offer up my life in spirit and truth, pouring out the honor of God as my worship to you. Jesus, what can I give? What can I bring to so faithful a friend, to so loving a King? Jesus, what can I say? What can be sung as a praise of Him be? Oh Oh I see Jesus what can we say Forgive me for sitting down. Some of you have been asking about the foot problem that has caused me to have a cast on my left foot. It's something which has recurred since 2007. And I remember whenever I had this when we were ministering up in Coleraine, our young people thought of a nickname for me. They called me the Hopalong Rev. I like to think that they still respected me, but nevertheless I can assure that it's not painful, but it is a bit of a pain to have to be in this position each and every day. restricted my getting about, but nevertheless pleased to have the opportunity of sharing with you this evening. I never regard it as anything less than a privilege to be able to come and share here in our own fellowship, so thanks so much for that. Billy was mentioning a few weeks ago about the roof project and I couldn't help thinking about a particular church who had a problem like that. They wanted to get a new roof and they arranged to have a time of prayer. about the whole situation. And as they gathered together, there was a man who came to the prayer meeting who could have paid for the whole thing himself and never missed any of the money. And he got up in the prayer meeting to pray, and he was praying quite piously when a roof tile from the ceiling came and hit him on the head. And immediately the tone of his prayer changed. He said, Lord, I'll give 1,000 pounds. Somebody prayed, Lord, hit him again. So I'm sure we'll all give what we can to that particular project. I want to take just a couple of minutes to, as Peter said, stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. Billy mentioned one or two things in the literature rack. I hope that you have an eye on those things. which are there to help you, to prompt you to pray, to give you information. Please do keep on using that. The church prayer calendar is there. I hope that you find that helpful in remembering all the different aspects of the church's work. Also in the literature rack there are these bookmark prayer cards which are for the Congregational Union of Ireland, there's just the names of the ministers of the churches so that you can pray for them on a regular basis. I also want to remind you about the church website which is something which you should visit. If there's a particular service that you miss then you can log on there and you can dip into that particular service and listen through to the word as it comes. And mentioning the internet, which really has been a godsend during the time of lockdown, hasn't it? One of the things that we were prompted to do is to put on one or two Bible meditations per week, which is what we do on a Monday and on a Friday. The title is Treasuring Jesus, and my YouTube channel can be accessed, and you can check in there for just a few minutes on a Monday and a Friday, and there's a wee card down there that you can pick up if you want to be reminded of that. And if those meditations are a blessing to you, then tell other people, and if they're not, tell nobody. But all of the information is there. Please do make use of it and continue to uphold not only this church in prayer, but other works, missionary causes, the work of the Lord across the world. Please do not let your prayers stop there, at that wall. Lift your vision to what God is doing elsewhere. Now, we're going to come to the Lord in prayer, so let's do that right now. Let's bow together as we pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do want to come into your presence with thanksgiving. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege and opportunity of being here. We thank you, Lord, for the wonderful joy that it is to be in church with the fellowship of your people. We know, dear Father, that recent months have been difficult with the pandemic having such an impact, not only here in Northern Ireland, but across the world. And Father, we do pray again that you'll give our leaders wisdom and guidance as they decide whether or not restrictions should be released or reimposed. We pray, Father, that your wisdom might be given to them because, Father, we do want to stay well in order that we might be able to worship together and to share together and, of course, to give the gospel to those who need to hear it. So, Father, we pray for our guidance for our leaders at this time. And Father, we want to come and ask for those parts of the world where there are difficulties and perhaps even potential problems. We thank Lord of this face-off between Russia and Ukraine. And we ask, Father, that you will again bring about a peaceful resolution. And Father, we pray again that wise and cool heads will prevail. And Father, for our own country, where sometimes we are disturbed by laws that are created, disturbed by events which take place, Father, again, we want to ask, Lord, that you will give godly wisdom to those at Westminster and those at Stormont. And Father, we pray that your plan and your purpose will be the thing which takes precedence here in our land. Father, we do pray for our own fellowship. We thank you, Lord, for the ministry of Trevor and for Andrew this morning. And Father, we do want to ask, Lord, that you'll continue to bless the gospel as it's preached from week to week. We pray, Lord, that you'll not only minister to our hearts here, but we pray that people who will tune in, people who will listen in, perhaps by DVD or online, we pray, Lord, that your speaking voice might be heard, and the men and women, young people, and boys and girls might come to find Christ as Lord and Saviour. So, Father, we look to you for the message this evening. We're looking to you to speak to our hearts. You know our need. You know the things that we've had to face over this past week. You know what's coming this week. And, Father, we simply pray that you'll minister to us according to our need. Let your speaking voice be heard. We bring this, our prayer, in Jesus' name and for his sake and glory. Amen. Amen. It was a few years ago in the state of Kentucky in the United States of America that there was a theme park that was opened. This particular theme park must have been of some interest to people because the television cameras were there. Some of them perhaps were covering the opening itself. Others were covering the protest outside the gates. a theme park with a protest outside the gates? It just doesn't seem credible. Why should such a thing happen? Well, this particular theme park was centered on a story from the Bible, the story of Noah and the floods. Theme park was called the Ark Encounter. The Ark Encounter. And this year, Christmas, I was bought a book which is all about the Ark Encounter. Now, I looked through it very, very carefully and I didn't find any tickets for entrance or plane tickets to get there. But nevertheless, it's a lovely book and a very interesting experience to know exactly what this theme park is all about. It seems as if some folk do not wish for folk to understand and know that the Bible is true, especially there are some people who don't want children to be taught that the Bible is true. I suggest that we make no apology for teaching folks that the Bible is true. I always remember years ago when our Paul was much younger, he said to me one day, he said, Dad, what kind of lights did Noah have on the ark? I said, I don't know, son. He said floodlights. Now we don't make any apology for teaching boys and girls and young people that the Bible really is true because sometimes opposition to the Christian faith and to the truths of Scripture can come from different sources. I remember listening to a radio discussion where a particular politician was being asked a question and then he put to him was the views of another politician. And this is what he said. He said, this man we can't take seriously because he believes that the earth is only 6,000 years old. Well, sometimes I don't let things like that go. And so I wrote to this politician. gently reprimanding him for what he had done and also enclosing a little booklet which shows some of the scientific evidence consistent with a young earth. And I sent that off to him and do you know what he said in reply? Nothing. didn't hear from him from that day to this. So folks we shouldn't be intimidated to try and continue to uphold the truth of Scripture and let's make sure that we do that. But is there evidence? Do we have any evidence that the flood took place? Can we look at it and be able to present it to somebody who may be a bit skeptical? Let's think about that. And first of all, there is the evidence of the Bible, the Bible itself. We believe that the story of the flood actually happened because of where the information is given. It is given in the Bible. And we have every reason to believe that the Bible is no ordinary book, but is what it claims to be the word of God. So we believe it because of the Bible. And it's at this point I'm going to suggest that we remind ourselves of the story. So turn, if you would, to the book of Genesis and to chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. And we're going to be reading from Genesis 6, Genesis 8, and also from Matthew chapter 24, just a few verses in each. And in order to help you change your position, I'm gonna stay seated if you don't mind, but shall we stand together as we read God's word? Genesis chapter 6, and we're going to look first of all from verse 5. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved at his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy a man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I'm sorry that I've made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Verse 17. And behold, I myself am bringing up floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life. Everything that's on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. Now every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female, birds after their kind, animals after their kind, every creeping thing of the earth after its kind. Two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all the food that's eaten, and you will gather it to yourself, and it shall be food for you and for them. Now over to chapter 8, Genesis chapter 8 and verse 15. Genesis 8 15. Then God spoke to Noah saying, Go out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that's with you. birds, cattle, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to the families, and went out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offering burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. And the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake. Although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Now please put a marker in that part of the Bible. We're just gonna read a few verses from Matthew 24. Matthew's gospel chapter 24. And we're going to read from verse 35. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 35. The words of the Lord Jesus. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall by no means pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah had entered the ark, and did not know till the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Please be seated. Please be seated. So we're thinking about the evidence that there is for the floods that we can point to, especially to those who are sceptical about the whole issue. We thought about the Bible. You may be interested to know that across the world, there are some 200 and more cultures that have a story about a great flood. Some of them add different things into it. But nevertheless, the basis of the story is there, that there was this great worldwide flood. We might also point to the evidence of the fossils, the fossil record. As Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis frequently puts it, billions of dead things buried in rock layers and laid down by water all over the earth. That's what we would expect to find if there'd been a great flood. And what do we find? We find billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth. There are parts of the world where there are what are called fossil graveyards. All of these fossils together, there's a fossil of an ichthyosaur that has been frozen in time while giving birth. It's obviously something that happened very, very suddenly. I believe that there's a mammoth enclosed in ice with food still in its mouth. Something happened very, very suddenly. The fossil record points to the truth of the flood. Well, then we might think about the ark. What about the ark and how it came into the story? Well, the fact is that some of our pictures of the ark are a little bit fairytale-like, aren't they? I mean, you see books which have the picture of the ark as a kind of a bathtub-shaped boat with the animals all around the deck. and one or two are looking through a porthole, and of course the giraffe's neck is sticking out the top. Was the ark really like that? Well, sometimes maybe we do our children a disservice by giving them that kind of idea. Certainly we're right to remind them that the story is true, but that kind of a boat would not survive for very long. There's a picture here, there's a larger one inside, of the ark that's been made of the Ark Encounter. And it is absolutely huge. Something like 500 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high. And the ark could contain something like 500 containers, I think of which you see down at the docks in Belfast. 500 of those would fit inside the ark. So there's plenty of room there for many, many animals. So let's not think to ourselves that this is some kind of fairy tale. Really, it's something that happens. And of course, there are other evidences of the flood around the world. I want to mention a couple of rock formations that are particularly interesting. One is the Grand Canyon over in Arizona, the world's biggest hole. And the rock layers there indicate the great flood which took place. You can look at the Grand Canyon from an evolutionary perspective. They would say a little water and a lot of time. You and I with a Bible in our hands would say a lot of water in a little time. So the Grand Canyon is one, and of course our own Giant's Causeway, which certainly is an evidence of the flood and the trauma that took place with the rocks in the flood. We might think also about the animals themselves. People will ask about this. We've already said that the ark was a very good size to contain all of the animals. Of course, remember that all of the species that we see these days weren't on the ark. It was the kinds from which the modern species developed. We can take more time to go into that, but let me encourage you, if you are interested in this subject, to go to a book such as The Genesis Flood by Dr. Henry Morris and John Whitcomb, and there are other resource materials available for you to help you get a handle on this important subject. But look, folks, make no mistake about it. The flood really happened. It did, it did. We've seen some of the evidence, we know that it's in the Bible, but here's the point. I want to put it to you this evening that this global flood has got a global message. This global flood has a global message. There's a message which is applicable from all the way across the world. Things that we don't need to miss and we shouldn't miss that God is trying to say to us through this important event that took place many years ago. And I want you to think about these lessons that we're gonna learn. The first one is this, that the story of Noah and the flood reminds us how serious sin is. It reminds us how serious sin is. Genesis chapter six, verses five and 11 tell of the fact that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and every thought of his heart was only evil continually. It was wickedness that was rampant across the world that prompted God to bring about the flood. Sin in thought, sin in word, sin in deed, until God said, I've had enough. Many years ago, there was a young guy who kept on attacking Christianity in a vitriolic way, especially in the press. I remember seeing him. He had an argument with John Greer of the Evangelical Bookshop one time. Then he turned up at our open air that we had down in the center of Belfast. He was giving off like stink. How could God do this? How could He do that? And I said to him, I said, have you ever thought how serious sin is? Answer that! Have you ever thought of that? How serious sin is? We need to recognize that sin is serious and God knows how serious sin is. Although sometimes we don't seem to do it. We give sin different names. We don't call it thieving, we call it shoplifting. We don't refer to it as adultery, it's having an affair. We don't say it's perverting sex, it's being gay. And when we come to the gospel, we don't like to think that we're rejecting Christ, we're doing the best we can. See how we can minimize what sin is all about? Proverbs 14.34 says, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, said something remarkable a number of years ago. She said, if God does not judge America, he's gonna have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. If God doesn't judge America, she said, he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Because sin impacts our province, it impacts our nation, and some folk don't want to take it seriously at all. But we should. But not only from a national or provincial point of view, we need to take it personally, because sin has its impact on our own lives. Norman Warren, who wrote the little booklet, Journey Into Life, in that booklet he pointed out that sin spoils, sin spreads. and sin separates. It spoils our lives, it impacts others, and it separates us from God. I wonder if you would be happy if all of your sins were taken and projected onto the screen. You wouldn't show your face here again, would you? Neither would I, if it was done for me. Because they're all things that we've thought or said or done. We wouldn't want other people to know about our personal sin. We need to take it seriously. Never mind pointing our finger at other people. There's three pointing back at ourselves. In a circus years ago, there was a man who was a kind of a snake charmer. And he went into the center of the ring to do his snake-charming act. And the climax of the act, when he let a huge snake wind its way all the way around him. And as it wound its way around him, he would click his fingers, and the snake would drop to the floor. And the audience would erupt with applause. One night, just as usual, he let the snake wind its way around him, except this time when he clicked his fingers, it didn't drop to the floor. It kept on crushing him more and more tightly until eventually, before the gaze of that audience, that snake charmer was crushed to death. Thought he controlled it. Thought he controlled it. But he didn't. He didn't. It destroyed him. And folks, we need to remember that sin is not something to be trifled with. We need to make sure that we turn to the one and only Savior who can deal with it. Jesus Christ who took our sin on the cross and who asks us, therefore, to repent and to trust in him. It's in the book of Proverbs that we read, he who covers his sin shall not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes it shall have mercy. The story of Noah and the flood reminds us how serious sin is. But there's a second thing. The story of Noah and the flood reminds us about how wrong people can be. How wrong people can be. Proverbs 14 and verse 12 says that there's a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The way that seems right. I mean, can you imagine what they must have been saying about Noah? If there's been a tabloid press back then, they would have had a field day making fun of this eccentric boat building preacher. I can imagine that their attitude to Noah probably went through different stages. Probably they were starting off by being curious. What's this guy up to? What's he trying to do here? And then as he began to tell them about the boat he was instructed to build, there'd be mockery. And from day to day, they would come along to make fun of him. But after a while, if Noah kept on building and he kept on preaching, eventually there was just apathy. They would just ignore him. You know, he's at it again, let's just go about our lives. that the attitude to Noah went through all of these things. But they were all wrong. They didn't believe what Noah was telling them. But it was true. It was true. And finally, their attitude became one of amazement as they saw the animals coming along after those 120 years that it took Noah to build the ark. The animals came and they went into the ark. And then, from amazement to alarm, as the door was shut, and the rain came, and there was no way of safety for them after that. You see, folks, we need to remember, even in our own day and generation, the majority are not always right. Let's make sure that the majority are not always right. I mean, the majority once said, this was a scientific consensus, that the earth was flat. The scientific consensus was that the sun went around the earth. But the consensus, as we know, was wrong. It used to be scientifically put forward that matter could neither be created nor destroyed. And then along came Einstein with his famous equation, E equals MC squared. And man learned how to split the atom. And we had Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The majority were wrong. And the majority of the folk may think that the Bible is not true. But I would say to you, and I would suggest if you don't believe this, you should look at the evidence and examine it. The Bible is true because of the fact it's the word of God and evidence substantiates that. The majority, if they reject the scriptures, are wrong. Folks, let's make sure that we don't get our values and standards from the majority but we get them from the Bible. Don't trust yourself to the court of public opinion because public opinion vacillates and goes back and forth and back and forth and sometimes the public don't know what they think at all. The fact of the matter is, whenever you think about it, it was the crowd who crucified Christ. It was the crowd who rejected the one who was the Son of God. We can't trust to the opinions of people. And the story of Noah reminds us how wrong people can be. But there's something else that I want to show you. Because the story of Noah reminds us how much God loves you. How much God loves you. There's an interesting verse in 1 Peter 2 and verse 20. 1 Peter 2, 20 talks about the long suffering of God waiting in the days when the ark was being prepared. The long suffering of God. You see, God was planning to judge the world. But in love, he did three things before that judgment took place. First of all, he put a preacher in front of the people. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and he declared the righteousness of God to the people before the judgment of the flood came. Secondly, he provided a place of safety, the ark, which was available for those who would get on board, those who would repent, those who would recognize the judgment of God was coming. Thirdly, he gave people time to repent. 120 years he gave to them, and yet they didn't. So God in his love extended those three things, but I want to suggest to you that there was something else. If you have your Bible open at Genesis chapter six, turn back to Genesis chapter five for a moment. I want to show this to you for you to recognize that there was another factor in play. Genesis chapter five is one of those chapters that you probably would skip over if you were reading your Bible. It's a list of names. It's the first genealogy in the Bible, all the way from Adam down to Noah. But in the middle of that genealogy, you find the name Enoch. Enoch. Verse 21, Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. So what? Well, you see, Enoch was a godly man. We're later told that Enoch walked with God, verse 24, and he was not for God took him. So Enoch was an unusually godly man. And so you might think that when he gave his son a name, there would be special significance to it. It's been suggested that the name Methuselah means, when he dies, it shall be sent. When he dies, it shall be sent. Methuselah. Does that name ring bells? You've heard the expression, as old as... Methuselah, and Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, the longest recorded life in the Bible. Was there any significance to that? Well, I believe that there was. Because you'll see that Methuselah, whenever he had a son, his son was called Lamech, verse 21, verse 25. Methuselah lived 187 years and begat Lamech, okay? So Lamech is born when Methuselah is 187. When Lamech lived 182 years, verse 28, he had a son and he called his name Noah. Do a simple mathematical calculation and you'll see that Noah was born when Methuselah was 369 years of age. And if you take 369 from 969, what do you get? 600. You didn't want to say it, did you? 600. So Methuselah died when Noah was 600. Was there anything significant that happened when Noah was 600? If you turn over to Genesis chapter 7, here's what you discover. Verse 11, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, on that day, the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. You see, God was showing his mercy and his patience, not only in the preaching of Noah, not only in the visual aid of the ark that he was building, not only in his patience of 120 years, but in the person of an old, old man. Nobody could tell when he hadn't been there. And then one day they look, and Methuselah's not there, and Noah's voice is silent, and the animals are in the ark, and the door is shut, and their opportunity is gone. God was being merciful to the world at that time by showing these different ways of his love and his kindness, but they ignored it. Time ran out. The opportunity was gone. And as God's servant, I have to say that there's a day coming whenever your opportunity to be saved will be over. Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he will be saved. Jesus Christ is the only way, but you and I need to take that opportunity to go through that door of salvation, that way of escape that God has provided for you and me by the cross. You need to take that opportunity while you can. Someone has said the patience of God is lasting, but it is not everlasting. If God is speaking to your heart, Whether here in the church or listening to a recording or tuning in at home, God is speaking to you and he wants you to turn from your sin. He wants you to trust in Christ as your savior. His intention is not to judge people. He doesn't want that. That's not the way he works. But God's holiness is such that he must judge if we do not take his way of escape. The story of Noah and the flood reminds us how much God loves us. But there's one last thing that I have to point out to you, and that is that the story of Noah and the flood reminds us how certain Christ's coming is. Not just how serious sin is, not just how wrong people can be, not just how much God loves you, but how certain Christ's coming is. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus pointed to Noah's day and he said, before I come back, things will be like that. And if you study the scriptures, you'll see there were different things that were happening in Noah's day. They're mentioned there in Matthew chapter 24. The days of Noah. Dr. M. R. D. Hahn, who founded the Radio Bible Class many years ago, from which we get the little booklet, Our Daily Bread, he wrote a book called The Days of Noah, and he listed the different factors which would be happening at that time, and pointed to the coming of Jesus. He pointed to apostasy. He pointed to the frequency and ease of travel. Sexual immorality. There was violence. I've mentioned a few of them. He mentioned eight of them all together in particular. But when you think about those things and you think about how things were back then, it's a bit like today, isn't it? You look around at our own world, in our own lives, in our own land, and you think, well, Maybe the coming of the Lord is not so far away. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. Make no mistake about it folks, the second coming of Jesus is very clear in the Bible. All eight New Testament writers talk about his coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, Jude. They all speak about the second coming. It's been estimated that one verse in every 25 speaks about the return of Jesus in the New Testament. He's coming. He's coming. The Bible says so. And I wonder if we're ready for his coming. Have you made preparation by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ? The global flood gives us the global message that you need to heed. I want to finish by telling you about Ernest Shackleton. Maybe it's a name that you don't recognize. But Ernest Shackleton was actually born in Ireland. And he was listed in the top 100 Britons. And he was number 11. What made him such a great man? Well, Shackleton became an explorer, an Arctic explorer, and he was someone who went on expeditions in very, very tough conditions. Someone described Ernest Shackleton by comparing him with other explorers. They said that if you wanted scientific method, you went for Scott. Remember, Scott of the Antarctic. If you wanted speed and efficiency, you went for Roald Amundsen. Remember, he beat Scott to the pole. But he said, if disaster struck, you should pray for Shackleton. He was the one who would get you out of a hole. Well, Ernest Shackleton went on an Antarctic expedition between 1914 and 1917. And his ship, the Endurance, got caught in the pack ice. And it was being crushed. And so the crew had to disembark. And they were living on the ice in their tents after that. Eventually, the ship was crushed. And Shackleton took stock of the situation and realised there was nothing more to be done except that he would need to send for help. And so he left many of the crew living there on the ice while he and five others, no doubt they were the five fittest and strongest, he took them to go for help. They went over 800 miles of stormy sea and eventually over the mountainous island of South Georgia till they reached a whaling station and he was able to sound the alarm. And Ernest Shackleton made sure that he was on a boat that was going back to Elephant Island where he'd left his men. He promised he would return. And it took a number of months, but eventually he did return. And as he returned and he got to the men just before the pack ice was coming in beside the boat that he was on, his crew grabbed their gear and their tents and they got onto the boat and they were rescued. Not one. of Ernest Shackleton's expedition team was lost, not one, not one. If you're to hold, if disaster is looming, send for Shackleton. But you know something? Ernest Shackleton promised his men that he would come back to rescue them, and he kept his promise. Men and women, Jesus Christ has promised that he will return, and he's coming, he's coming. And you know something? Not one of those who belong to him is gonna be lost, not one. You among them? Shall we bow together in prayer? If the Lord has spoken to your heart through his word this evening, let me encourage you to lift your heart to him. If you've never trusted in Christ, if you're not truly saved, the Bible says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Call upon him, turn from your sin, trust in what he did for you on that cross, and your life will be completely changed. The Bible says, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Father in heaven, we do want to thank you for your precious word. We want to praise you for the fact that these are not just stories which teach us about what happened in time long gone by. but they teach us your ways. They teach us truth about God and about salvation. And so, Father, we pray that we might be those who take heed to what the Word of God teaches us, that we may call upon the name of the Lord, ere it be too late, that we might trust in him as Lord and Savior. And, Father, we do want to thank you that Your word reminds us that if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. All things have become new. Father, perhaps you will do that for someone who is listening this evening, someone here in our church building, someone listening at home. Father, do your work, we pray, and grant, Lord, that lives might be changed because of the good news of Jesus. this evening. We bring this, our prayer, in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Amen. Now Stephen and Valerie are coming to lead us in our final song. It's a sound on the wind like a victory song. Listen now, let it rest on your soul. It expresses the anticipation that those of us who are believers have as we look forward to the second coming of Christ. I know because of the masks, you can't sing it out as well as you would like to. Nevertheless, if you can't sing it out with your voice, then make sure you're singing it from your heart.