Well, I want you to follow my text now and some of the Sunday night messages that have been on my heart, and these recent developments have led me to bring them up. But in Matthew 24, verse 37, But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Now, those are the words of Jesus. And if he knew what happened in the days of Noah, and he wanted us to look to those days when we get down to the days when it's time for the Lord to come. When I take a series of sermons now from Noah and all the things that are involved there, they are intended to teach us and to instruct us as to what to do with the days of Noah when they come in our time. And the coming of the days of Noah, similar days in these last days, has many, many aspects to it with people wandering here and there. And I think it's time that we got back as a church and as a people to just see what happened in the days of Noah. And that will comfort us and encourage us and seal in our hearts the fact that we're waiting for something to happen that will be stupendous. the dead in Christ are going to get up out of their graves. A stupendous thing as just before. Now you'll remember that in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul is writing, and in the 9th verse, in the 7th verse he says, By faith knoweth, being warned of God of things not seen as yet. Moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. So the Lord himself says that in these latter days they'll be like the days of Noah. And Paul tells us in the great chapter of the heroes of the faith that he puts Noah as one of these heroes of the faith. He was told of what was going to happen, of things not seen as yet. What was going to happen as a result of the flood, and even the flood itself, was something that nobody had ever seen or heard about before. And if you were going to recognize it, you had to believe that God said it was going to happen, and you believed God. And you and I know that God has said that these things are going to happen in the end time, and we're going to believe them, and we're going to act. I want my church to be filled with knowers. I want my church to be filled with young people who understand the times like Noah understood his time. And so as I start tonight, I'm going to begin with the corruption of Noah's day, and corruption of his day. And then I'll get on with the plan that God made for the ark. I want to talk to you about the kind of a fundamentalist he was. He at least got his whole family saved. He must have had prayer meetings and prayer groups and all this sort of thing, but the Lord blessed him because his three sons and their wives all got saved and they got delivered from the flood. And then I want to spend the night on the rainbow, the covenant that's in the heavens. I'm going to bring several messages on Sunday night, and I want some songs along this line. So tonight I'm going to start out with this man Noah, and this passage in Hebrew says, Be warned of God of things not seen as yet. He was told that things were going to happen that nobody had ever seen before. What in the world can you say about that? Well, I think the first thing that you must recognize is that it had never rained water out of the heaven before. That was a crazy idea anyhow to talk about water falling from the sky. Before the flood, the earth was watered by a mist that came up from the earth and watered the vegetation. Apparently, during the years before Noah, during all that long period of longevity, there was never a cloud in the sky. It must have been beautiful. Clear, nights full of stars, never a cloud in the sky, things not seen as yet. Nobody had ever lived a day without a cloud somewhere. Things not seen as yet. And this idea that somehow or other God was going to destroy them all, as Noah kept talking about it, and people just laughed at it. that was so ridiculous and absurd that nothing like this had ever heard. And Noah was telling them that the waters were going to overflow the earth and everything, every one of them was going to die because of the water that had never been seen or felt or knew anything about falling out of the heaven. Now, I am of the opinion, in my understanding of Scripture, that the whole earth before Noah was covered with human beings. That was the time when men scattered over the whole earth, we're told here, and wickedness abound throughout the whole earth. And I'm of the opinion when men lived to be 900 and 800 years of age and life was like it is now, nine months to give birth, they just multiplied more than ants or bees. I mean, the human race was all over this earth during the pre-flood period. We'll have evidences of that, I'm sure, down the road. But the human race generated from Adam and Eve, and also during that period, you see, Adam lived to be 900 years, and Methuselah was the oldest man, and there's a possibility that Adam even overlapped with Noah, or at least there was one gap between them. But the human race multiplied exceedingly rapid during that period before the flood. The whole earth, we're told, was filled with violence. Well, how could it be filled with violence if there weren't people there to commit it? So, if you'll turn now back to the Genesis account, I want to develop one or two of these things for you, but before I get too far into this Genesis account, I want to show you something else. Something very, very important, I think, in this whole story that brings us home to you and me in such a very, very way. Now notice verse 5, 6, Genesis 6. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in what? The earth. So that supports the position I hold. And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. In other words, the wickedness of man's heart covered the entire world, which as we know it today. God saw the wickedness. In verse 7 he said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. I will destroy man whom I have created. both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air, for it repented me that I have made them. The disaster of Satan ruling in the hearts of these wicked people, and they have corrupted. Now notice verse 12 of that sixth chapter, And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupted for all flesh. had corrupted his way upon the earth. But what was his way? Jesus. He's always been the only way there was. Corrupted his way upon the earth, the knowledge. There was Enoch, he walked with God, of course he was taken. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me. Now here is the early chapters of Genesis. And here we're being told in great detail about a calamity, the magnitude and the proportions of which you and I can't even begin to consider. We're all scared to death for fear that an atom bomb may fall, and a lot of people will be killed, but some atom bomb, maybe a whole country will be blotted out. We're scared to death. But here everybody was taken and destroyed except eight people, not all were left. The magnitude of it. Now before I go on, I want you to turn with me to 2 Peter, the last chapter of 2 Peter. And when you get to that, you're going to see how Peter confirms this flood. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. Now turn to it if you will please, because this is going to tie in these Sunday night sermons which are going to make us very conscious that the coming of the Lord is very near and we don't have any time left to fool around. That's what we have here. Now notice this chapter 3 and notice how the apostle begins it. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds. Yes, they're all right, they're believing God, by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words, and we're back to this business of the words inspired, which were spoken before of the holy prophets, Moses, holy, and of the commandments of us, the apostles of our Lord and Savior. by how Peter puts himself on the level with the holy prophets, and they were. Now, knowing this first. We've got a lot in this passage about knowing something, and that's why I'm going to preach these Sunday night sermons, so you people will all know a little more. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last day scoffers walking after their own lust. Well, we've got the scoffers in these ecumenical churches saying, where is the promise of his coming? But look at this right here. In the last days, walking after their own lusts, there it is, their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of this coming? Verse 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of. They've never read the Bible. That by the word of God, here it is, I read it to you tonight. The word of God, the heavens were of old, And the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. It didn't happen with an atom bomb, it just happened with some water. But the heavens and the earth which are now, that's the ones you and I are dealing with every day, by the same word. Now do you understand why I'm going back to Noah and going to preach some Sunday night sermons on this subject? By the same word. are kept in store, reserved unto fire." If you think that destruction by water was bad, just wait until we get through looking at the fire. "...were reserved unto fire against the day of the judgment of the kind of men that destroyed in the waters." The ungodly. "...of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." My, I want this church filled with godly men. I want it filled with families on Sunday night, and the pastor's going to open up these things so that we can know what's just ahead of us. The heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, everything that happened in the flood, everything that God told Noah would happen, came to pass. And as it came to pass in the first destruction of the earth, which the Bible says took place, the second destruction by fire will come to pass with the same reality, the same literalist, and for the same purpose. Now that's it. And God put the Lord Jesus Christ in this great sermon he made on the mount as it was in the days of Noah. It'll be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. So study Noah and you'll know about the way I'm coming too. I don't see how in the world a Christian church can exist today that doesn't talk about Noah. I don't see how in the world people today can look at these last days without looking at Noah. And here Peter tells us that the flood that came in Noah's day came because the Word of God said it would, and it came like God had planned in the judgment. And the same Word of God is kept in store right now for the day when we'll be taken out, and God will complete His judgment against this ungodly world. We're not an ungodly people. We're a people of faith. We're a people of righteousness. We're a people of decency. That's the kind of people we are. And we're going to stay that way. And we're going to get a lot of other people to become that way. And we'll be a part of the lights and the remnants of these latter days by what God can do with our callings with church and the location we have. And now that these things are opening up like they are. But isn't it beautiful that Peter says, the word that brought the flood is the same word that's kept in store when the ungodly will be judged and the earth will be burned up by fire. Twice he says this, by fire. How many times does God have to tell you in the Bible he's going to do something? Once enough. But I've got twice in this. I've got twice in this passage. Now let's turn back to this chapter, the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis, where we have this beautiful story of Noah. God saw the wickedness of man, and the thoughts of his heart was only continued. You can't even look at a TV anymore. You can't even figure out that you don't get into the lust of the sex and bed scenes and all that type of stuff. And how in the world is the country going to survive it? It's not going to. its appeal to the low basic nature of corruption that's in the hearts of man. And I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Man created from the face of the earth. Man beats the fowls of the air for it repented me that I have made man. So all the descendants of Adam went down to a watery grave, and only Noah, who had found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I want to speak about the grace of Noah one night, but I want you to see here. Then he said, These are the generations of Noah. He was a just man. He was born again, perfect in his generation, and he walked with God. I want our people to know that they are justified, and I want the people of this church to walk with God. And if we just do that, everybody around here will know something happened. Walk with God. And Noah begat sons Ham, and Shem, and Japheth. When I get through with this, I'm going to get to Noah's sin, and how his son saw his nakedness. I'm going to get to all the things that Noah did. I'm going to spend several Sundays on this now because Noah is going to instruct me about the day I'm living in. That's what God says to him. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me. Verse 13, the earth is filled with violence through them. And that's what you and I are getting now. A new order, yes. What's coming to pass, what's doing? It's the heart of man that is so desperately weak. Now beginning with verse 14. Look, he has a plan. God has a plan for our deliverance. Make thee an ark. Go out and cut down the gopher wood trees. Look at the description. Room shalt thou make in the ark. Thou shalt pitch it within and without. This is the fashion thou shalt make it. It gives the length of it, 300 cubits. The breadth is 50, the height is 30. The window in the ark, you'll have three stories, and each story you'll have a door that opens up into it. That's verse 16. He revealed to Noah the details of his plan whereby that ark was going to save a tiny remnant out of that awful darkness. And the whole plan was made. And as the detailed plan was made for the ark, Jesus is our ark. Jesus is the ark of the covenant. Jesus does for us what the ark that Noah built did for him. It saved him. It delivered him from judgment, and delivered him from death, and it saved his whole family. I don't want to develop this here, but I ought to catch it. The promises are unto you and to your family. God says, Noah, I'm going to save you, but your three sons and their wives, they're going to get in the ark with you. And I'm going to save you and your family. And the family that I save, that you save, will be grateful to me when they see what actually happens. My, those sons. I'm going to talk about that security of the three sons and their wives. Isn't that beautiful arc that Noah gave? Noah was saved, his family was saved, and out of that came what we have today, the remainder of the human race that's scattered over this world tonight. So God gave to Noah the plan by which he was delivered. And God has given to you and me the cross and the plan by which we are delivered. And we're in the cross, we're under the blood. We have the same protection that Noah had when he rode above the flood in that ark. I see as I look into this, all these parallels. all these parallels between that day and our day, and how God instructed Noah. And then we have the strangest thing, and we've wondered about it. This is one place where I hope the plans of Noah won't carry out so well with us, but Noah preached all his life. I don't know what seminary he graduated from. I don't think he had one. He had his own seminary. Noah preached all his life, we're told. And he was a preacher of righteousness. And the man had the craziest story, telling everybody, the wickedness is here, and God's against you, and the heavens are going to open, the rain's going to come down, the foundation, you're going to find water breaking out of the mountains and out of the hills, it's going to come flooding around. I'd never seen anything like that before. They all said he ought to be put over in the asylum somewhere. That's where he belonged. The man was just crazy as he could be to announce that water's going to fall out of the heavens. When they never had a cloudy day in their life, they never even knew what a cloud was. It wasn't until they made the clouds that they'd have a rainbow. And I'm going to give you a whole sermon on the rainbow on Sunday night. But these things are all piled in here, they're compact in here, so that when we come to the end of the age and things are shaping up and the violence is everywhere and the filth is everywhere, even the church is coming along and throwing out the standards that God has about the relationship of the male and the female. When that's taking place, it's time that we listen to Noah. My, isn't it nice he did it once so when he says he'll do it a second time, we know it'll come to pass. Yes, he did it once. And as he did it once and gave us all the details of it, Then when it comes to the second time when he's going to destroy the earth by fire and Jesus is going to come in the clouds of heaven, there were no clouds in Noah's day, but he's going to come in the clouds of heaven, you and I can say, Lord, your word was kept and it happened then and Peter says the same word is kept in store against the day when this earth will be burned up by fire and he'll give us a new earth and a new heaven. Now I'm going to develop something else for you that you've probably never heard, but it's here. In this passage in 3 Peter, Peter says, Since we know these things, what manner of person ought ye to be? Since ye know these things, What manner of an individual should you be in these last days? No one knew these things. I wonder how many times he sat down with his three sons, and there were only eight of them in the Ark. They came to church wherever he preached. I don't know where it was, but he preached. We know these things. And these things are to influence and determine the way you live in anticipation of this great development. These things are to affect the way we spend our money, the way we go to church, the way we rear our family, the way we train our children. And Noah sat down with these three sons and the wives many a time and said, God's spoken to me, son, and this is what it's going to be. Furthermore, God has told me that I'm to take the end of the ark with me. Now, it's time for me to close, but I wanted to say this to you. Someday, that ark is going to show up. I'm thrilled at what the Bible says. Every mile shall be stopped. Every mile shall be stopped. There's going to be enough things dug out of the ground They say this is the mountains of Ararat. They think maybe they've found something over there that represents it. But there's going to be a day, maybe we'll have to wait to the millennium to see it. But there's going to be a day when God will put the ark on display. And it will condemn the whole world that wouldn't believe that in the days of Noah, those days would be repeated just before Jesus comes. I've been saying to you people lately, and my own heart has been rejoicing, we've been confirmed, we've been right, we've been right, we've been right, we've been right, and we see it. Just wait until you get to the day when the Lord comes. We've been right on the cross. We've been right on the resurrection. We've been right in the new body that we have. We've been right in everything the Bible says, because it was right the day it was written. That's the kind of people we are. We've got to regulate ourselves in that way. Oh, Noah. You found grace in God's sight. And you went out and preached the craziest idea. From the beginning of the creation, the mist has come up and watered the ground and it's all been this way. And we've had one beautiful sunless What do you say to that? A starless night, everything was without change, and you mean to say you're going to tell me that something's going to happen and the water's going to fall out of those stars that we see every night? You mean that something's going to happen and there's going to be some big something come along and buckets of water pouring out of the heavens? You're going to ask us to believe anything that's as nonsensical as that? All things continue today as from the beginning of the creation. And Noah said, you just wait and see. You just wait and see. You better listen to my message and find this God who is going to destroy you for your sin. God will never, never dismiss sin. He will never mitigate sin. He will never modify sin. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. I told you in the opening of this sermon, I want a church full of Noahs. I want the Bible Preparatory Church to be full of Noahs as preachers. You don't have to talk about the ark, because we're not going to get in an ark. We're going to get in Christ, and He is our ark. And He's the one, the only one, to take us out of this estate in which we find ourselves and deliver us into the kingdom and into the presence of the Father in heaven. Well, you understand why I've decided to bring a series of sermons on Sunday night? And I'll get out the story so you have it. But as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.