Lay down your sweet and weary head Night has fallen, you've come to journey's end From tent-toting patriarchs greeting promises from afar, to vagabonds and vagrants doomed to wander in a wasteland, God's people never saw final satisfaction in the journey. Traveling is tough going. We seek the promised land, the city with foundations, whose designer and builder is God, aiding you on towards the destination. Welcome to Journey's End. You've come to Journey's End. Today we have a theme that a lot of Christians like to talk about. It's the flood. But we also have a theme that hardly anyone likes to talk about, and that's the theme of judgment. Like Noah escaping through the flood in the ark, getting to Journey's End means making it through God's judgment alive. Yet you can't really talk about the flood without talking about judgment. Because in the Bible, the flood came as an act of God's judgment on the earth. Reading from Genesis 6.13, God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy with them the earth. It isn't just Christians who say this, by the way. You find the same idea of God or the gods destroying the earth in a flood in stories from Babylon, Bolivia, Canada, China, East Africa, Egypt, Iceland, India, New Zealand, Alaska, Hawaii, and many other places. The past few weeks we focused on the wickedness of fallen angels who came down and had children with mortal women. Their children were the Nephilim, Genesis says, the giants and heroes of old. But the wickedness went very deep. Again in Genesis, the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence and God saw the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth." So today we want to talk about this judgment by the flood and think about it in light of another judgment coming sometime in the future upon the earth. It may not be a happy topic, but it's a very important one for anyone who wants to make it to journey's end. Good afternoon, I'm Doug Van Dorn. I'm the pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church in northern Colorado. And with me is my usual host, Tony Jackson, pastor of Reformation Baptist Church. So Tony, let's get right into this. We should probably talk first, I would think, about the historical fact of the flood. How did people in our day view the flood? There were many Christians, and Christians who are scientists, who view this differently. There are some, Doug, who view the flood as being a complete myth. It never happened, and usually that would not be those who call themselves Christians who believe the Bible. There are others, however, who are Christians, who are scientists, who seem to believe that the evidence suggests that the flood was not really a global flood, that it was more like a regional flood, and what that would mean is that the people who lived on the earth at that time hadn't really spread out over the whole face of the earth, and so they wouldn't see that as being a contradiction in scripture. They would simply suggest that all flesh on the earth was destroyed. But it was just localized, it was more regional. It would be something like the flooding of the Nile, or what happens to the Mississippi, or what happened in New Orleans. You have this tremendous flood that comes in and destroys just pretty much everything, including all of the people that were there at that time. And then, of course, the traditional view, which most Christians believe, is that the flood was a universal deluge, a complete cataclysm. It covered the entire face of the Earth. and destroyed all life on the entire face of the earth. And so, I guess the question we need to ask as we consider those options are, you know, what are those options that are truly Christian options? If we call ourselves Christians, if we believe the Bible, what can we believe and what can't we believe about what happened with the flood, Doug? Yeah, so I think the first option is just out the belief that it's a myth in terms of it never happened. It's a fantasy, it's a fable, it's like a psychological, you know, something coming out of men's heads or whatever. They just made it up because they wanted to tell a story or something. That's not an option for Christians. You gave the last two as the local flood and the universal flood. Certainly Christians have disagreed on this, especially in recent years with the rise of geological sciences and things like that. It seems to me that a local flood has a couple of hurdles that it has to get past if you want to hold that view. I think the first one would be why in the world would God put all these animals on the ark You know, they had relatives just over the hill that made it through because there was no flood where they were at. And I think another hurdle is that it seems in the Genesis text that the point of the flood was to destroy all flesh. That would include animals and men. And so if all flesh isn't really being destroyed, then it kind of seems to destroy the purpose of the flood. So that would leave us with a universal flood as the Christian interpretation. It's the one that certainly historic Christianity has taken. It's the one that I lean to. Yeah, so with the localized flood, one of the other problems with that view I think is that most Christians just reading the text, if you look at the timeline from creation to the flood, most Christians have agreed that it probably is about 2,000 years. So it's pretty hard to imagine, at least in my mind. I enjoy reading history. I've studied history over the years. And one of the things that has always stood out to me is how quickly people migrate over the face of the earth. It doesn't take very long. It only takes sometimes dozens of years or even less than that. for migrations to take place. It's hard to imagine that there was not more of a migration in the first 2,000 years on the face of the earth because there was conceivably a tremendous population explosion with as long as people were living and the conditions under which they lived. They had a lot of children. It's not hard to imagine at all that the earth was filled up Not to the level that it is today, population-wise, to be sure, but nevertheless, people were spread out far and wide. There's also a lot of historical evidence that supports that, and you've done a lot of studies in that. What are some of the things you've seen? Yeah, one of my kind of weird hobbies is looking at books on Atlantis, of all things. It's fascinated me for a long time. It's a weird thing, but what I found interesting is that there's a lot of really completely non-believing, they're not Christians at all, guys that have been writing books on the ancient world as they would see it before the time of a great cataclysm. Now they might not call it, you know, the flood, although they usually will reference the biblical story as well as other stories. There's underwater cities that they've been finding all around the world that are in water sometimes up to 30 meters, 90 feet deep. And sometimes I've heard even much deeper than that. These cities are off the coast of Japan and India and Cuba and other places like that. You see these remnants of cities. high up in Bolivia and Peru at 14,000 feet. They're not just cities, they're like, you know, these huge complexes of ancient buildings that stretch for a hundred miles in all directions, you know, at this place where nobody lives today. There's historical reports of this, you know, there's the idea of mass extinctions with woolly mammoths, for example, where these mammoths were you know, frozen instantly with the food still digesting in their stomach. So, it seems to me there's a lot of powerful evidence that you find that fits exactly the story of a universal flood. So, that's the view that I take. You know, really looking at the flood historically is very important and, you know, trying to figure out, you know, whether it was a universal flood or a localized flood. I think those are important topics, but Beyond that, the flood in Scripture is a much bigger theme than just how big the flood was geographically or physically. In fact, water in Scripture is a very important theme. Water is seen throughout Scripture. We're going to talk more about this in the next week when we talk about baptism and really looking at the flood as a picture in Scripture, if you will, of baptism, but water in Scripture is used to portray God's judgment, and we see that very clearly, very literally or woodenly with the flood, Noah's flood. And let's talk about that for a minute, water as judgment. What are some of the things that we see in Scripture and also just in terms of symbols that indicate that water is a symbol of God's judgment? Okay, so let's think about different reasons that there could be of why God might use water for a minute. I think of just the geological reason. There's a lot of water on the earth. You know, the story tells us that the fountains of the deep opened up. People like to think that the earth is just filled with molten lava, but if you go to Yellowstone as a good example, you see there's all sorts of water under the earth. We live in Denver, right? And there's this huge aquifer of water. That's where we get our main source of water in the city of Denver is under the ground. So there's a lot of water and that's one of the reasons I think why God would use water for judgment. But there's other reasons that I think are a lot more important. You think about what water does to a body. It cleanses it. It washes it. So there's like a spiritual reason or a symbolic reason for using water, which is to cleanse the earth, and Genesis uses that language. Can you think of any other reasons? Well, yes. In fact, if you go back to Genesis chapter 1, when God was busy about the work of creating the earth, you know, in the very first two verses of Genesis chapter 1, we see that water was covering the earth and that there was chaos. So you have this picture of chaos of a watery earth before land was even created. And with the flood, it's almost as though God is starting over. He's using water again. So it's almost as if what we're looking at in the flood is a new creation event. We've talked about this before. That certainly fits with the language of Genesis. Because in Genesis, in the creation event, God speaks to Adam and Eve. and gives them dominion over the earth. And then after the flood, God speaks to Noah and uses almost exactly the same language and gives him dominion over the earth. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. So it's really a picture in scripture of almost a new creation. And we're going to get into that when we talk about baptism. It also points to a greater judgment, which is a judgment by fire in the future. So there's a prophetic picture going on there as well. Yeah, so you could think about the flood as a type, typology, where something in the Old Testament anticipates something in the New Testament. And it's not water in this case, but it's the judgment part of our show that is being revealed to us. God, you know, remember God gives this promise to Moses at the end, never again will I judge or destroy the earth, all living things with water. Now that's another reason for a universal flood, by the way, because there's been a lot of flooding that has taken place since the flood. But the promise was, never again will I do what I did to all flesh. So, you know, that's one of the things that keeps me going that direction. But anyway, it kind of gets off the point. Let's move on to an idea of other water judgments in the scripture. Because, like we just said, that never again will God do what he did with the flood, in terms of destroying all flesh. Yet there are more water judgments throughout the scripture, aren't there? Yeah, so beyond the creation that we just mentioned, and the earth being formed out of water in the first place, there are several other parts of scripture which give us the idea of a flood, or a flood, not just the idea of a flood, but a flood itself, or the watery depths, if you will, as being figurative, of judgment. For example, the Red Sea in Exodus chapter 15. I will sing to the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise Him. My Father is God and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host He cast into the sea, and His chosen officers were sun in the Red Sea. Now we're going to come back and talk about this with baptism, but in this picture we have A picture of judgment going on. God is judging the nation of Egypt and he's delivering his people Israel through the same flood. Another picture we have is Jonah and the whale. Remember they picked up Jonah and they hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. We read in Jonah chapter 1. What are some other figures in scripture that we read where we see water as judgment? But there's the kind of figurative aspect of it. In several Psalms you read David talking about the trials in his life as if it's a flood. So for example, Psalm 69, he says, My throat is parched, my eyes grow dim with waiting for God. The prophets use the flood as a metaphor for the judgment that's coming on Israel in the Old Testament when they're going to be taken over by the foreign countries and brought into exile. So it can be a figure. for trials in our lives. That's not to say that the flood and the Red Sea and Jonah and the whale were figurative. They're literal historic events. We've already talked about that with the flood, at least with Noah's flood. But it can be used figuratively. And I think also the theme that we do want to come back to next week, the theme of baptism, is picturing the flood for us in our own death and resurrection. So, for example, you read in Romans 6-4, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. So in all of these you see kind of death, judgment, war, that's the language that's going on. Yeah, it's hard to imagine that the worldwide flood was a sprinkling, isn't it Doug? Right, it was very much an immersion. okay we are baptists and so far reform brother and out there listening to us we love you but uh... we believe very much that the flood is a picture of what's going on in baptism in romans chapter six and it's a very powerful picture that god has given us of this judgment that he uses to cleanse the earth remember we go back we've been talking about this for several weeks the war between the seeds and how important that is for understanding the flood because it's not just that men were evil but rather they were corrupt. They had mixed the kinds on the face of the earth. And because there was a mixture of kinds, Because there was a corruption of God's creation, it was necessary to cleanse God's creation. That's why it says of Noah that he was pure or righteous in his generations. He uses the plural word, their generations. And the idea is that Noah was pure as a human being. And that's why he was able to escape the floodwaters. One of the reasons. The other reason, of course, is he was saved by God's grace. But that is such a wonderful picture in Scripture. of God's judgment and God's deliverance as we'll look at next time. Let's talk a little bit about the future judgment in 2 Peter chapter 3. Why don't you comment on that because Peter there is looking at the future judgment in which God will once again judge the whole and he uses some language there that is very reminiscent of what we're seeing in the flood. Okay, so this is in 2 Peter 3, which by the way obviously comes after 2 Peter 2, but in 2 Peter 2 he has mentioned this event with the angels being thrown into Tartarus because of what they did in the days of Noah, which we talked about in the weeks before this. But now he starts talking about the flood and this is what he says, And now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved, both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. And then he says, For they deliberately overlooked this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water and by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 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. So a couple of things here. One that really strikes me when I read this is how there's nothing new under the sun. People have been scoffing at the flood in our own day saying it never really happened. Well, they were doing the same thing in Peter's day. And Peter makes a connection here between their scoffing at the flood and really their sin. And that's his point, saying that people have forgotten about the flood because they don't want to remember that God destroyed the earth, that it was Him that destroyed it, and that it was Him that destroyed it because of our sin. So they forget it, or they suppress that truth, or they come up with all sorts of reasons to say that the flood never really happened, because if they do that, then they don't have to think about the sinfulness of their own hearts. The second thing that I think of in this text is how he's associating the previous judgment with the future judgment. So he says, 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. What judgment is he talking about when he talks about this judgment by fire, Tony? Well, he's speaking of the day of the final judgment when Christ returns and destroys the heavens as we know them and the earth with fire. And the idea there is also a cleansing. It's not just a destruction. We often think of fire just in terms of destruction. We had a fire in our neighborhood not too long ago, a couple of weeks ago. Every time we drive by the house, my little boys are fascinated because they can see that the entire house was gutted out by the fire. It just pretty much destroyed the whole house. It was a very sad situation. But fire is not always just destruction in that sense. It's also a purifying destruction. It purifies, and that's the idea that we see in the last day when God finally cleanses the earth. It will be a flood of fire, not just water that washes, but fire that purifies. So, it will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So, we're looking forward to this day of judgment in which God will use fire, whatever that means, and judge the world as we know it, as He recreates it. So there's a future judgment that's coming. This is one of the main themes of the Bible. And it's coming because of human beings' sin and rebellion against the Almighty God of the universe, whom they've offended. whose laws they've broken, who forget about the things that he's done in the past in order that they can continue to do the things that they want to do in the present. You just said that Christians are looking forward to this day, but that's not true of everybody on the face of the earth. If I was somebody who had come under conviction of my sin with regard to a holy God, but I didn't know this holy God. I would be terrified of a future judgment. I think about these movies that have been coming out recently with the theme of judgment, judging the world, but there's no hope. It's just kind of the end of it. I think of this movie, Knowing, with Nicolas Cage. Have you seen that movie? Oh, it's fascinating. He gets a prophecy from his son, It's just a bunch of numbers scribbled out. It turns out it's kind of like a Bible code or something and it tells all of the future destructions of humanity right down to the very last one which of course takes place in their life and it turns out that it's a It's a judgment of fire. The whole Earth is completely destroyed by the sun's rays hitting the Earth because the atmosphere's been destroyed or whatever. The hope in that movie is that a space alien is going to come and take away the children, a couple of select children, and they'll go and repopulate other planets. That's not the hope in the Bible. And it's a nice way of getting away from the fact that we've offended a holy God. So to me it comes down to the question of If somebody really wants to make it to Journey's end, what would we as Christians tell them? I mean, how can we escape the judgment? The only hope that we have, Doug, is that Christ himself took our judgment upon himself. Christ's baptism was a baptism into death. His death was like Jonah's. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, The Son of Man, Christ said, will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So Christ died and was buried on our behalf. God's judgment, the flood of God's judgment upon Himself, that we also, we who have sinned, that we might be raised up with Christ to a new life, and a new life that doesn't end here, but a new life that goes on and on. So it is Christ Himself who bears our judgment and brings us to journey's end. And it's interesting in that analogy that Jesus Himself gave about Jonah, That's one of the kind of flood motifs that we've talked about this morning. So we can really think about it as Jesus has undergone the flood for us. He's died in the waters of the flood and yet he's come out the other side alive. He's both the people that have died in the flood and Noah who made it alive through the flood, if you want to think about it that way. He died in the flood so that we might die with him. and he made it through the flood alive. He was raised from the dead so that anyone who trusts in him might escape the coming wrath of God and the judgment of the earth and fire. Well this has been an interesting show and we're going to look more at water as a baptism in the flood next week. We look forward to being with you again in that show. Journey's End is a production of the Reformed Baptist Churches serving the Front Range. Our show is dedicated to helping Christians think deeply about their faith and helping them understand that the destination is the purpose of the journey. At www.ColoradoReformation.com you will find an increasing number of helpful tools. We have local churches in the southern and northern metro areas to assist you in understanding both the journey and the journey's end. This leads to our people seeking to emulate our Savior through kindness and humility. We are rooted in the historic creeds of Christianity and our traditions arose out of the Protestant Reformation. We invite you to head to our website www.ColoradoReformation.com for more information. That's www.ColoradoReformation.com. We look forward to being with you again next week. Thanks for listening! That was a great show!