Good afternoon. Here we are back to Genesis in our Bible overview series or children's study, something that's good for all ages, but which parents can certainly use to teach God's Word to their children. So we're going to do an overview a bit of the flood, which we've talked about. Noah and so forth and And see what else we can learn from all right, let's let's do that. Let's pray father. We ask your blessing on our study of your word now Thank you that you have revealed these truths to us about yourself, about man's sin, giving us pictures here with Noah and his family and the ark and that evil world and pictures of how your salvation in Christ delivers us from the wrath to come. And so we give you thanks for this and ask that you would bless our time in your word. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well yes, we already mentioned as we looked in chapter 6 about how God's wrath had come to its fill in respect to those earlier generations of people, how the earth was filled with violence and corruption, and so that only Noah and his family were left, the only godly ones, and God had instructed Noah to build the ark, how Noah did that by faith over a very long period of time, and as he did so was, you'd say, preaching by his actions, probably from his words as well, to the rest of mankind there to repent of their sin, that God's judgment and this flood was coming. But of course all they would have done is mocked him and not listened and They all perished, and when the flood started to come, God had sealed the entry to the ark, and that was it. And that tells us that there's always a time coming. for individual people, right? Individual people, people like that rich fool that said that he's got many days to come and many goods laid up in store for himself, you know, eat, drink, and be merry, and so on. And then the Lord tells him, you fool, tonight your soul is required of you. And so this happened to individuals. It can happen to nations. We've seen that in Daniel, the book of Daniel, where the Babylonian kingdom and king Belteshazzar came to an end that very night, that very night after the handwriting on the wall. And so it is today. That's why the Bible tells us that if we hear his voice, Do not harden your heart. Today is the day of repentance and salvation. So Noah is instructed here by the Lord in chapter 7, verse 1. Then the Lord said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I've seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." And then he instructs him to take the animals with him and so forth, and he did it. The Lord did all that the Lord had commanded him. He and his family, the animals, they will be in the ark for, what, something like over a year or whatever, and everything in which was the breath of life died in the in the entire world. We made reference last time to Peter, especially 2 Peter, where he tells us that the ark is a picture of salvation in Christ and how we are saved by being in Christ and saved from, not a flood, but a, well, I guess you might call it a kind of a flood, the wrath to come when Christ returns and judges the world in righteousness. So here's this flood, worldwide flood. Of course, the world for the most part thinks this is just mythology and so forth, but you remember we looked in the New Testament, the Gospels, we found out that, well, not just the Gospels, but in the Epistles as well, that it's clear that the Lord Jesus and the apostles They all recognized that the book of Genesis and all these events were historical fact, that they really did happen. I was watching recently a documentary on how, I don't know, I guess you wouldn't call them archaeologists, kind of a way, archaeologists, scientists, whatever, have found in Alaska and in Siberia in the permafrost, right, that lasts for permafrost, it's permanent frost, right, goes on for centuries and centuries and centuries. They have found there, keep in mind, in Alaska, in Siberia, animals, and it's undeniable, right, animals that not only don't live in those regions anymore. They don't live on the earth anymore, right? So they've found these woolly mammoths, mastodons, with these huge, huge tusks. And they've actually pulled the remains of those animals, their skeletons, sometimes with some flesh still attached, out of that permafrost. some giant oxen and, you know, animals that don't walk the earth anymore. Now science, of course, scientists, they tend to attribute these kinds of things to, at minimum, tens of thousands of years ago. And when they find fossils, why, they attribute those. Well, you know how evolutionary theory goes. You just keep going back and back and back and back. whatever periods of time is supposedly needed for these things to fossilize or whatever. But it is without doubt that those animals like the mastodon and so forth existed. There's no question about that. And that something happened to them so that they don't exist anymore. Remains of dinosaurs, right, all these things. Well, there's certainly indication, right, that we have here in Genesis as to what happened to them. that they got wiped out in the flood. And that's why they're under all that soil and so forth and whatever. But I'm just using that as an illustration. Something happened to those mastodons and those giant oxen and all those other animals. What have they found? Have they found tigers that don't exist anymore? Giant ones? All kinds of creatures that without question existed. Now, you can take the secular science methodology and say, what's the explanation of these things? Well, you know, the dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago. A comet wiped them out or who knows what, right? But it would seem that You just get the impression from reading this Bible that those things weren't nearly as long ago as millions of years. And if you think about it, it's one thing to try to read that into a fossil and say it took millions of years to become fossilized. But these aren't fossils. that they found in the permafrost, right? And yet there are these animals that simply don't exist anymore and definitely not in those regions and really not at all. You're not going to find a mastodon anywhere walking around today. So it's interesting. It's not people, if you say, you know, I believe the Bible, I believe this is literal. I believe when Jesus believed that Noah was a real person, existed. Apostle Peter mentions the flood in detail and so forth as history. I'm going with the Bible on this, you see. I think I don't think that these things are as old as millions and millions and millions and billions of years ago. But anyway, we have it here. Certainly a great explanation that, you know, think about where all the petroleum and so forth, oil deposits buried in the earth. How did that all get there and so forth? Well, there's people that are more expert on that than me, and I'm sure you can learn a lot more about that if you were to ever go Back to, where is it, Kentucky, Creation Science. Back there where they have that, they've built that replica of the Ark and so forth. But at any rate. The Bible tells us that, in fact, the flood really did happen. And that it was only Noah and his family, eight people, that were preserved. I'm just gonna skim down through here. There's a couple more points I just wanna want to highlight here. This is, we're trying to do a walk through the Bible, an overview of the Bible, and so needless to say, we're gonna not be able to stop at every single verse then in detail, as we are doing in the other midweek Bible studies, like in Ephesians and Romans and so forth. But I did want to show you here, You know, another thing that we run into nowadays is this whole business of climate change, global warming, all these kinds of things. And these kinds of theories, they call them science, but it really is more of ideology than anything, that try to tell us all kinds of crazy things and they even press things upon us, laws and so forth, and regulations and environmental things and so forth, you know, man is basically a blight on the earth. We have to do away with dairy farming and we have to, oh, there's all kinds of issues about carbon into the atmosphere and On and on and on and on the thing goes, you know, gotta get rid of oil and gasoline, petroleum, and be done with, you gotta have government edicts about gasoline-powered, diesel-powered cars, and we're gonna go all electric, and all this crazy stuff that ruins the economy and quality of life and it puts man, who is God's highest creation, last. There's a couple of things here in these early chapters of Genesis that help us along these lines. The idea of global warming and what I believe is invented data to try to prove that. is the idea is that, boy, if we don't do something, and I mean, in the universities and so on, they've so long put, pressed this propaganda onto young people and young minds that you kind of feel sorry for the young people and so forth. Those generations have gone through that because they're actually, a lot of them are genuinely scared. I mean, that's why they're so radical. They're actually scared. They have been convinced, brainwashed. They've been convinced that if we don't do something, the world's going to end. I mean, it's going to, this, you know, we're going to, global warming is going to happen so much that we're all going to be toast. and then throw in the worship of the creation, the trees and so on, the animals, rather than man. And, you know, it's been all in the news, especially lately, since Southern California is burning up. And the widespread nature of those fires is due to this kind of crazy climate inane ideology and so forth that just lets the forests go as they are and burn and so on. What's this got to do with Genesis? We know how this world's going to end. And yes, there is going to be one final great global warming. a global conflagration, or I guess that's the word, that this world, yeah, this world is going to go up in flames. But not the way the climate control people, global warming type people, are telling us. First of all, what do we know? We know this from scripture. Chapter 8, verse 21. when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma of Noah's sacrifice and offering after the flood. The Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man. For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Now there it is, that's God's promise. The seasons are not going to stop. Summer and winter, day and night, the rotation of the earth and the revolution of the planets, it's not going to cease. The day will come when the Lord comes in judgment, right? But in the meantime, we can even say this. This present world is not going to be destroyed by man. It's going to be destroyed one day by God, and then replaced with a new heavens and a new earth. But it's not going to be destroyed by man. Man can do his damage here and there, but there is not going to be some kind of a huge worldwide nuclear war that wipes out all of mankind and all the animals and that's the end and there's nothing left. Could somebody set off a nuclear bomb? Well, it's happened before, right? But as far as the end of the world and the end of humanity, That's going to happen at God's hand. It won't actually be the end of humanity because even now he's calling out a new humanity for himself in Christ. But you see the picture. Now there's more here. Let's see what was the other one. Let's go to the next chapter here. Chapter 9, verse 8. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you. and with every living creature that's with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is a sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that's with you for all future generations. I've set my bow in the cloud, right? The rainbow. And it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant. that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it." And remember, the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant. that i have established between me and all flesh that's that's on the earth all right so here's this point it's interesting that this sign to remind us of this is you know when do you see the rainbow we see when it's raining it's like people are like uh especially probably in noah's day in those earlier generations after the flood it's like hey it's raining again today it's a man Are we gonna get wiped out again? No. No, there's the rainbow. There's the rainbow God's the sign of God's covenant He's promised when you see that once again God wants us to know that He's not going to destroy the world again. He's not going to bring another flood that wipes out Everybody, except a handful of people. And I think it's correct to apply this thing more broadly than just a flood. That there's not going to be a giant comet hit the world and that's the end of it, right? That's the end of humanity and everything else. These things are not going to happen, but there is something that everybody needs to fear. Now you don't need to fear it if you're in Christ. We don't need to fear the wrath to come. But, well, let's check this out here in Peter. We looked at it last time, but I think it's important to look at it again here in 2 Peter 3 then. Here, remember, we looked at this last time, that scoffers will come in the last days, scoffing, following their own desires. They'll say, where's the promise of his coming, of Christ's coming again? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Now this is interesting because in our day, people in the world, they will mock the idea of Christ coming again in judgment. And say, you know, what a myth, you know, you guys, you Christians are stupid to believe something like that. But at the same time, as they're saying, everything's continuing on just as it always been. At the same time, they're self-contradictory because out of the other side of their mouth they're saying, we better get rid of the cows, we better get rid of the cars, we better do this and that because the whole world's going to be destroyed then and so on if we don't. Climate change, global warming, all of these kinds of things. So on the one hand, When it comes to the idea of Christ coming again in judgment, then they want to say phooey to that. But then on the other hand, they have this apocalyptic idea and notion. Well, Peter goes on to say, people that say all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation, well, what about the flood? That's his point here. They deliberately, he says, they deliberately overlooked the fact. I don't want to think about that. We're going to try to explain that away as a myth. But things have not gone on without interruption. There was a flood, a worldwide flood, you see. But then, anyway, and here's our point. Peter goes on to say, but by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. Now there's the global warming to be feared if you don't know Christ. That's it. The world is going, and there's another aspect to this. There is a way in which man is the culprit, that he is responsible for this. But it's not because he drives a car. It's not because of those kinds of things. It's because of sin. It's because of sin. That's why the whole creation is in bondage now, right? Romans chapter 8. So man, why is this final destruction of the world by fire at God's hands happening? Well, it's because of sin. The creation is being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. You also find it back over here in 1 John chapter 2. There we go here, new commandment, do not love the world. All right, verse 15, do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that's in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires, the eyes and pride of life is not from the father, but it's from the world. And here it is now. And the world is passing away. along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." So this world is passing away, and it will be entirely done when Christ comes again. And the elements will melt with fire and so on. That's how Peter puts it. But But the end of this fallen world is going to come at the hands of God. It's not going to come about as a result of man's doings, all right? So there are some things then to keep in mind. I should, I guess, just put in a footnote here, a little addendum, and that would be that yes, there certainly is an aspect and some truth here in regard to the fact that we, especially as Christians, man in general, but especially as Christians, God has entrusted us with this creation. And we are to, but the trees, the animals, the oceans, the fish, the seasons, the grass and vegetation, it's all here for man. It's a gift from God for man. and we're supposed to use it, give thanks to him for it, use it as intended for us. We're not to abuse it and destroy it. If there is some, what do we want to say, some big factory of some kind, and just for the love of profit, that factory is dumping harmful chemicals into a river nearby, that's sin. That's abusing the creation that God has entrusted us with. So there certainly is, I guess you could find certainly in the Bible, what do you want to call it, a theology of good stewardship. of the creation, call it environmental care if you want, but it can never be, see Romans chapter 1 on this, it can never be the worship of the creation. These things, God has given us this world and the things in it as a blessing to us. And we're to use those as such and give him and to give him thanks, all right? But whenever man turns things topsy-turvy, and remember, he, well I'll show you, here's a verse that's right at the heart of things here that I've been referring to, Romans chapter 1. This is the fundamental sin of man. This is the basic foundational cause of God's wrath against man. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them. Man knows God exists, that he is the creator and they are creatures. God's shown it to them. His invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since, what, the creation of the world. That is to say, you look at the things that have been made, and man is without excuse in the fact that he knows that there's a creator. God exists, and he knows certain basic things about God and himself, that he's a, He's a creature, a created being, and he's accountable to God. But what happens? Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And then it gets into how man is an idolater and so forth. But look at verse 25. Because they exchanged the truth about God, they exchanged the living and true God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature created things. They worship and serve created things instead of the Creator. There it is, right there. That's at the heart of this modern radical environmentalism, which is, it's worshiping the creature, the created order, things, turning trees into God's, fish into God's, nothing new. Idolatry has been with us ever since the fall out of Eden. An exchange of truth about God. And so, His wrath is upon us. So you see the balance. Good stewardship of what God has blessed us with. but we don't worship the things that God has blessed us with. That is wicked sin, and it's the common sin then of man. Well, what we want to do next time then, well, to sum up, so you see the point. No, the end of the world is going to come when? When Christ comes again. That's when it's going to happen. And if anyone is outside of Christ, still dead in their sins, that's the great day of global warming that they should, that they must, should fear. Well, next time we're going to look at Genesis chapter 11. And there we find the Tower of Babel. And we want to look at that and what happened there and the implications that has for us today then as well. Father, we thank you for these truths. Thank you for the blessings that you've given to us. We pray that we would always give you thanks, that we would not be guilty of living as if you are irrelevant, but we would acknowledge you in all things. Thank you that we can look forward to the day when Christ comes again. And we pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen.