We turn in God's Word this evening to Genesis 7. Genesis 7. We continue our series through Genesis. Coming tonight to the flood itself. We'll read the entire chapter, and the entire chapter is our text. Genesis 7. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. And every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. In the self same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark. They and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bare up the ark. And it was lift up above the earth, and the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth. And the ark went upon the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died, then moved upon the earth. both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground. both man and cattle and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days. This is the holy and inspired Word of God. May He bless it to our hearts this evening. Beloved congregation, in our Lord Jesus Christ, what we have just read is laughed at by the world. What we have just read has no perfect human explanation. Those who seek to seek a controversy with Christianity, will point to Genesis 7 as proof of their contention that the Bible cannot possibly be true. Because a worldwide flood that destroys all things is impossible to explain with the meteorological sciences that we have today. and with the geological studies that we can do today. A worldwide flood that destroys all men and in which eight souls alone are saved in a box made of gopher wood is a human impossibility to explain. And yet, and yet, this is the word of God. The flood was sent by God as threatened. The flood did what God said it would do. It destroyed all flesh so that all living things died. And God saved Noah and his family and two of all living creatures just as he had said. And we know that this word is true. Because as we read this Word, we hear our God speak to us. He speaks to us in Genesis 7. And He says to us in Genesis 7, My church, My people, I hate sin. I hate sin. I forbid sin. I judge sin. I judge sinners. My people, I hate sin. But my people, I love you, and I save you, and I shut you in, safe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the waters, by the waters, deliver you. We know it's true because it's the word of God. But we know it's true also because our hearts burn within us as we hear the gospel of Genesis chapter 7, the gospel of the flood. So let us turn our attention in our series in Genesis to this chapter tonight under the theme, the flood. In the first place, we consider God destroys the earth. In the second place, we consider that God warns the world by the flood itself. God warns the world that He hates sin. And then in the third place, we consider that God saves His elect. God saves Noah and his family. God sends the flood. God destroys the earth. God warns the world. And God saves His people. Genesis 7 teaches us the history of the flood. Let's get the setting in our minds. The setting is this, that Noah is a 600 year old man. As we read in verse 6, Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. Noah was a married man by now. We don't know When he married, he had been married for at least a hundred years by now, but Noah has a wife. Noah's three sons not only have been born by now, but they have grown to maturity. We know that Japheth was 100 years old. He was born when Noah was 500 years old. We know that Shem was 98 years old. He was a father of 100 years old, two years after the flood, so now he's 98 years old. We don't know how old Ham was, maybe 96, maybe 94, who knows. But these three boys had grown to maturity and these three boys had taken for themselves wives now. so that each of them is married for a total of eight people in Noah's extended family. Noah and his wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law. Noah had been building the ark for probably many years. We don't know exactly how many years. probably at least dozens of years, 50 years maybe, 60, 70 perhaps, but Noah had been building the ark and the ark was now completed. All of the specifications that God had given in chapter six when he came to Noah had been met so that the ark of Gopherwood with its three stories and its immense dimensions and its rooms or nests is now entirely complete. The other part of the setting is that the other godly people in the world had perished by now. They had died. Noah's father, Lamech, had died five years ago. before the flood. Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, had just died. He lived up to the year of the flood. And because the flood came in the 600th year of Noah, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, that probably means sometime just in the last month, maybe even in the last week, Methuselah had died, whose name means when he dies, it shall be sent. Noah and his family are the last godly people upon the earth. But there are many, many other people upon the earth. There are many wicked upon the earth. And these must have been exciting days to be alive upon the earth. There were giants in those days. So that as you went about your business, perhaps from time to time, you would see a giant walking through town, or perhaps these giants were tribes of giants, the way they would be later in Israel's history. There were giants on the earth. There were mighty men upon the earth. We read in chapter six, these mighty men were famous. They did great deeds. They were household names in the earth. And these men, including the giants and the mighty men, were corrupt and were violent. The earth was not a holy place. The earth was a place where every thought of the imagination of the heart of man was only evil continually. You get the impression reading chapter 6 that every way that man wanted to indulge his sin was available to man in those days. It sounds a lot like our days, doesn't it? Mighty men, famous men, household names, men of renown that all the world follows after, wants to know what they think about every topic, and emulates their lifestyle. They're proliferate upon the earth. violence upon the earth, and corruption, and only having evil thoughts and evil imaginations. An age in which every sin that man wants to indulge is available to him. We get the impression from Matthew 24, as Jesus tells us about what life was like, just before the flood, we get the impression from Matthew 24 that men were living the good life, that life was easy, or life was at least pleasant from an earthly point of view. Jesus says, in the days before the flood, men were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, all these things that make earthly life pleasant, they were busy in. That was the earth. before the flood. That's the setting in which God comes to Noah in verse 1 and says, Noah, it's time. It's time. Come thou and all thy family into the ark. It's time. In seven days, I'm going to send a flood of waters upon the earth. When God told Noah, come thou and all thy family into the ark, Noah obeyed. He and his family went in. Now, what Noah did when he went in that first time was come back out again, and then go in again, and then come out again, and go in again. These seven days that God gave to Noah were a time of preparation for loading the ark. Don't think of it this way, that God said, go into the ark and seven days later, after you've sat on a chair in the ark for seven days, I'm going to send the flood. But rather God said to Noah, go into the ark and load it up. In chapter 6, verse 21, we read that Noah was to be stockpiling food, all food that is eaten. And thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee and for them. Noah had to load the food on the ark during these seven days. And not only the food, but the animals had to be loaded onto the ark in these seven days. We read that there were A male and a female of all the kinds of animals that lived upon the earth. That's one of the gotcha verses that atheists will point to or those who don't believe Genesis 7. You mean to tell us that there was a male and a female of every single species of animals that lived? That's millions and millions of animals. There's no way they would fit on the ark. Well, God didn't say species the way we say species today. He said kinds. Two of each kind shall come unto thee on the ark, the male and his female. A kind is different. A kind is somewhere up in the family level of biological taxonomy. Not a species, but a kind. Not every species of dog but the kind dog came on to the ark. Not every species of cat, but the kind cat came on to the ark. That's the idea. And there were two of each. That is, two of each of the unclean animals that Noah and his family were not to eat. And that laws would be made against later, specific laws would be made against when God gave the law to Moses. Laws which already were now apparently in place. Two of all of the unclean animals, the male and his female, and seven of the clean. Seven of the animals that were to be offered as sacrifices to God. Now seven, does that mean seven pairs? So that 14 total of the clean animals went on? Or does that mean seven total? So that there were three pairs plus an extra? Well, it's hard to determine that exactly in the end. That's a detail that we don't need to know. It seems like it means seven total. So three pairs plus an extra. For example, verse two, we read, Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, and of beasts that are not clean by two. So that would mean if it's seven pairs, then it should be two pairs of the unclean, but it doesn't seem like that's the case. It's one pair of unclean, male and female, and three pairs plus an extra of the clean, male and his female. And God told all of these animals to come onto the ark so that their seed would be preserved alive after all of the rest of the living creatures upon the earth were destroyed. And that means that these seven days of Noah getting on the ark and loading some things and then getting back off and loading again, these seven days were days of miracles in the earth. Noah did not have to go out and capture all of these animals. These animals came to him. They were brought unto him as God indicates in 6 verse 20. At the end of that verse, every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive. And that idea is repeated in chapter 7, verses 9 and 15. For example, verse 15, they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. These are days of miracles as the animals come onto the ark. What must that have looked like? Can you children imagine what it would be to stand next to this huge building behind you that is the ark and to see coming over the fields around the ark all these animals, lions walking together, a male lion and a female lion, elephants walking together, sheep walking together, none of them eating each other or chasing each other, but all coming to the ark and loading up into the ark, and being brought by Noah and his family, perhaps, to the nests or the rooms that they had prepared throughout the three stories of the ark. What a sight that must have been. What a miracle of God preserving alive this flesh. These were days of miracles, too, in the preservation of all of them throughout all the days of the flood. So Noah and his family finished that loading, and they then finally entered the ark for the last time, as we read in verse 13. In the selfsame day entered Noah and Shem, and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, etc., with them into the ark. In that selfsame day that the floodwaters came, they entered finally into the ark. What a sense of anticipation there must have been in the ark. What an electric feeling of witnessing what God had promised must have run through the hearts of Noah and his family. The flood had been announced for more than a thousand years by now. They had been waiting for it for all these years. The seventh from Adam, Enoch, had already been prophesying long before the 10th from Adam, Noah, Enoch had been prophesying God is going to send judgment. Enoch even named his son, when he dies, it shall be sent, Methuselah, as a countdown for 969 years to the coming of the flood. Noah himself, while he built the ark, had been a preacher of righteousness. so that all through these years the flood had been announced, its coming was certain. And now it's time, God says, come thou Noah and all thy family with thee into the ark. It's time. And that is the sense of anticipation that you and I may expect when some of the last signs of Jesus' return are seen. There's an announcement, for thousands of years now, I'm coming back. I'm returning, says our Lord. The signs are seen all around us. The tropical storm off the eastern coast now. all kinds of other disasters, apostasy of churches, persecution, the gospel being spread to all nations, wars and rumors of wars, there are signs. When some of those last signs come, that's God saying to his church, it's time. It's time. The Lord is at the door. He's almost here. What a consolation for you and me when Antichrist comes and unites the wicked world against the church. And you and I are afraid. We see the horrors that he visits upon the people of God. And then we remember Noah, God saying to him, after a thousand years, it's time. That will be God saying to us in the rise of the Antichrist, After 2,000 years, or however many it is by that time, it's time, it's time. The Lord Jesus Christ is at the door. And when the great plagues are falling upon the earth, and when the sun is turning to darkness and the stars are falling from heaven as a fig tree casts its figs upon the earth, then we will know. It is time. It is time. And the very next thing that will happen is the heavens will rend and my Lord Jesus Christ with a shout, a shout of victory shall descend and gather me to himself with all his people. It's time. What a sense of anticipation there must have been in the ark and what a sense of anticipation we can have as we see the signs of the Lord's coming. Come into the ark, Noah," God said. They came in, and God sent the flood. That's described in chapter 7, this way, in verse 11. In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights." All the fountains of the great deep were broken up. That means that God had stored enormous reservoirs of water under the surface of the earth. There was the dry land, that men walked on and lived on and built their homes on. But underneath that surface of the earth were huge reservoirs of water, the fountains of the great deep. And apparently there were many of them. There's the word all here, all the fountains of the great deep. And when God sent the flood, He caused those fountains to be broken up, That's not this. Suddenly over there, there's Old Faithful, a geyser squirting out of the ground. Old Faithful's an impressive sight. The fountains of the great deep breaking up is the explosion of all of these reservoirs out of the earth, bringing with them tremendous destruction. Perhaps someone has seen with their own eyes or seen video footage of floodwaters that come racing down a mountain. And as those floodwaters come, they're pushing huge boulders in front of them. Boulders so big that if you and five of your strongest friends got together, you wouldn't be able to budge that boulder it's so big. But that water carries it right down as if it's a twig. the tremendous force of water to move the earth was on display in the fountains of the great deep breaking up. It must have been like bombs going off everywhere on the earth as another reservoir exploded its water onto the earth. And not only was water coming from underneath their feet, But water was coming down from the heavens. We read of the rain that was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. It seems like this was the first time it rained. Because we read earlier in chapter 2, as we did last week, that God watered the earth by a mist. There's no evidence after that that He did anything other in the earth. He watered it by a mist. But now comes rain from the heavens for 40 days and 40 nights. The rain that's falling in the Carolinas right now is tremendous rain. There are record rainfalls. 20 inches or over 20 inches that some towns have received as of this afternoon. So much rain, 20 inches, that The rivers are bursting their banks. Roads are flooded out. Homes are submerged in water. And rescue efforts are underway to get people off second stories and from the tops of buildings. 20 inches of rain in a few days' time. can bring that much flooding. Well the rain that fell on the earth in the flood covered the highest mountains. Not 20 inches of rain in 40 days, but 29,000 feet of rain if we take Mount Everest. 29,000 feet. I think I have that number correct. works out to something like close to 450,000 inches of water to cover the earth above Mount Everest. Again, I think I have those numbers correct, but you might want to double check later. So much rain for 40 days and 40 nights. And not only that, but the windows of heaven were opened. Now that seems like a different event from the rain. That seems like a third source of water. The fountains of the great deep is one, the rain from the clouds is another, but the windows of heaven is a third. And that's because the Bible is consistent in saying that the clouds, where rain comes from, belong to the waters below the firmament. And the Bible is consistent in saying that there are also waters above the firmament. Now what those are, who knows? But Genesis 1 says God made a firmament to divide the waters above the firmament from the waters below the firmament. God says in Psalm 148 that the waters above the heavens are to praise Him, as well as the waters below the heavens, that is the hail and the lightning and the other events that happen in the clouds. The Bible is consistent in saying waters above and waters below. If the rain belongs to the waters below, then when God opens the windows of heaven, that's that ocean of water above the firmament, whatever that was, falling down onto the earth. along with the fountains of the great deep being broken up and the rain falling for 40 days and 40 nights. So that not only was rain falling heavily, but oceans from the heavens were crashing down upon the earth. That's tremendous power. Tremendous destruction. And the result of the sending of that flood is that all flesh dies. all flesh, except the flesh in the ark, but all flesh that was upon the dry land died. We read that in verses 21 and following, and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died. God destroyed life on the earth. So violent, so tremendous was this destruction that we even read in 2 Peter 3 that the world that then was perished in the earth. Whereby, 2 Peter 3 verse 6, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. That means that when Noah and his family got off the ark 110 days later, the earth was different. They must have been able to recognize it as the earth yet. Perhaps they even recognized some landmarks that they had known before. But the earth was different. The world that had been before the flood perished and all flesh was destroyed. And we can well understand how the world that then was perished with all that violence of oceans crashing down and oceans breaking up and the rain falling heavy on the earth. And that flood itself was a warning, a warning from God to the world. There had been warnings before the flood But now the flood itself is a warning to everybody who lives after the flood. The warning of the flood is that God hates sin. He hates sin. That was the reason for the flood. As God had announced in chapter 6, The way of all flesh is corrupt before me, and therefore the end of all flesh is come before my face. Their sin, their iniquity, their evil thoughts, their violence, their corruption, I hate that sin. I forbid that sin. I judge that sin. That God hated it was evident from chapter 6, where we read, it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And as we saw, that's not God changing His mind, the way we use the word repentance, but that verse indicates the abhorrence that God has for sin. It grieves Him at His heart that He made man when man walks in sin. God hates sin. God forbids sin. It was clear enough to man, even though the law hadn't been given to Moses yet, it was clear enough to man that man may not walk against God. God had left Himself a witness in the creation, as Romans 1 says, which witness He leaves yet today to every man, that He is, He exists, and that He must be worshipped, and that there are right things to do and there are wrong things to do. And every nation's court system proves that humankind, even apart from the Bible, knows there's right and wrong, because they punish the wrong and they exonerate the right. God has left a witness in the creation that He is and that He must be served. He forbids sin. And when God sends the flood, and sends the fountains of the great deep breaking up, and sends death and destruction upon all of these wicked sinners, He declares to all of the world yet today, I judge sin. There's no sinning with impunity. I judge sin. And what is more, the flood itself was just a picture, a type. It was real, it happened, but that great flood with all of its destruction was just a picture of another judgment, the final judgment. That's 2 Peter 3 as well. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. The flood was a picture, that final judgment is coming. A day in which the heaven and earth themselves will be melted with a fervent heat when the Lord, our Lord, Jesus Christ, descends from heaven on the clouds of glory as the great and mighty judge. And now let us put ourselves in the shoes of those wicked men who walked on the earth before the flood. They had heard for over a thousand years, I hate sin and I judge sin. And they didn't listen. Jesus says in Matthew 24 that they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and they knew not till the flood came and took them all away. They should have known because it was announced to them But they didn't know because they paid no attention to the Word of God and the judgment of God. And as they walked upon the earth in all of their sins, the judgment of God was hanging right there over their heads. And the judgment of God was flowing right there under their feet. The judgment surrounded them. It was ready to fall upon them. They did not humble themselves. and heed the warning. They went on in their stubborn, wicked ways and perished. And that flood is a warning, a warning to us, a warning that God hates sin and judges sin. That flood is a warning to the Protestant Reformed churches in America. That flood is a warning to you and to me. Because our churches have committed the worst sin that a church can commit. What is that sin? We compromised the gospel of Jesus Christ. We did that? That's what we say about other churches, isn't it? I say again, the Protestant Reformed churches have committed the worst sin a church on this earth can commit. We have compromised the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now when I say that, I am not pointing fingers at a particular minister or a particular consistory. I'm talking about us as churches. I'm talking about corporate responsibility The error began in a particular place, but that error was not condemned for many months by us as churches. In fact, this is a way of protecting and helping even the minister and the consistory where this sin arose. because we're all guilty of this by corporate responsibility for not taking that sin in hand and condemning it in no uncertain terms right from the beginning. We can say to that minister and that consistory, you had a whole classes of our churches that was right there with you. I'm guilty of it. by virtue of my membership in these churches. I'm guilty of what our churches have been guilty of. I want to say as well that it is not merely my own personal opinion that the Protestant Reformed churches compromised the gospel of Jesus Christ. When I say that, I'm quoting what Synod 2018 said. After it evaluated some specifics that came before it, it took a step back and said about those things in general, what happened here is that the gospel of Jesus Christ was compromised. And necessarily then, the doctrine of justification by faith alone was compromised. The doctrine of an unconditional covenant was compromised. Those aren't my words. That's the words of the Protestant Reformed Synod. The gospel of Jesus Christ was compromised. And then Synod went on to say, that classist East, you wrote a statement, you wrote a statement that contains similar errors and that also gave works a place and function that is out of harmony with Scripture and the Reformed confessions." Again, not my words, but Synod's words. And this isn't meant to point fingers at any man, not the men who wrote the statement, not the men who have spoken about the statement. This is for us as churches. I am as guilty of that statement as anyone else. Now the Protestant Reformed churches have been working, and I can say even working hard to correct the sin. They have been. In June, Synod said that compromises the gospel. They laid out the doctrine rightly and truly, and you can read that in Article 62 of the Acts of Synod when they're published. Article 62 of the Acts of Synod. The classist that met last week, Classist East, said, we erred. We erred when we did those things back in January and February. That was a mistake. That was wrong of us to do those things and take those decisions. Thank God, thank God that the Protestant Reformed churches are working hard to correct the mistake that we have made. That's a cause for great thanksgiving. But now the question that we face is this. What next? What next for us as churches? How do we go forward as Protestant Reformed churches? Or the question sometimes goes something like this. Is that the end of it now? Is that the end of it now? What might happen next? Well, this Word of God teaches us What must happen next? One suggestion is don't talk about it. And that weighs on me. That does weigh on me. Don't talk about it. You just stir us up. You get us riled up. I was naive a few weeks ago when I said some things, I didn't realize how hard this would be on you. I didn't realize how hard this would be on the elders of the church. When I said some things a week ago, that puts you in an uncomfortable position. Now you go to coffee with your friends and they say, what's going on with your minister anyway? What's he up to? What's he doing? And now you're in a position where you have to defend your minister and make your friend angry, agree with your friend and say something about your, that's a tough position to be in. That's a tough position for you to be in. And the elders, I don't know if they've heard from any, but I can imagine that some might say to the elders, how long are you gonna let him go with this? How far are you gonna let him go with this? It weighs on me that one solution is to be quiet. But Genesis 7 says to us, God hates sin. And God judges sin. And those who have fallen into sin must recognize what they have done. I believe we're at that point. We believe our ecclesiastical assemblies have said we recognize that we were wrong in those things. But what has to happen next is that we're sorry for that sin. That we repent of that sin. We acknowledge we compromised the Gospel. And with broken hearts we cry to God, Be merciful to me, to me, and to all of us for our sin." Is that really the way to go? I wrestled with this. I wrestled with it. And then, in even a brief read-through of Galatians, we can see how bad compromising the Gospel is. Galatians 1. Verse six, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Removed from Christ. Verse seven, which is not another gospel, that is a valid gospel, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Perverting the gospel of Christ. Verse eight, but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. And now I remind us, I'm not talking about any individual man, not at all. I'm talking about us as churches. If we have compromised the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God to us is, let him be accursed. Galatians 2 verse 21, if righteousness come by the law, which is giving works a place and function out of harmony with the scriptures and reformed confessions, then Christ is dead in vain. Does it get more serious than Christ being dead in vain? Galatians 3 verse 1, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? Galatians 4 verse 11, I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Paul says, I'm afraid you're falling away, falling away, apostatizing. Galatians 5 verse 4, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Chapter 5 verse 9, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Some say that's a little small compromise of the gospel. Well, it leavens the whole lump. The Word of God is clear. There's nothing more serious, no more serious sin. that we could commit as churches, and therefore our calling is repent, repent, and cry unto God for mercy, unto the God who hates sin, and who judges sin, of which the flood is a little picture, a little type. And so we ask, how do we go forward We go forward by repenting. God has granted that we are beginning that. I thank him for that. We thank him for that. But I wonder sometimes whether we have been gripped by the accusation that sin had made. You compromised the gospel. We must be gripped by that and have that sink in to our hearts because God hates sin. And the judgment is hanging there. God won't send a flood of waters anymore, but He still sits enthroned in the heavens. From heaven He sends His Son, Jesus Christ, to judge the quick and the dead. The judgment looms. The judgment is over our heads. Beloved, I call myself, whether it makes life comfortable or uncomfortable for me, and I have to call you whether it makes life comfortable or uncomfortable for you. Let us repent. Let us repent and be brokenhearted before the Lord and beg him for mercy. for sinners such as us." That's the calling of repentance that our Canons of Dort lays before us as well. In Head 5, Article 5, by such enormous sins we very highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt, grieve the Holy Spirit, interrupt the exercise of faith, very grievously wound our consciences, and sometimes lose the sense of God's favor for a time, until on our returning into the right way of serious repentance, the light of God's fatherly countenance again shines upon us. The calling before us, the clear calling before us is repent. and there is salvation for you and for me. From our sins, even the worst sins, there is salvation for us in the cross of Jesus Christ. That salvation is evident in Genesis 7, when God sent the waters of the flood, but saved Noah and his family. Eight souls were saved by water. Verse 16 puts their salvation this way, and the Lord shut him in. They went into the ark, and the Lord shut him in. And the idea is this, that God, when He created the earth, had said to the waters of the seas, I set a boundary for you, as Job 38 says. I set a boundary for you, and you may not pass over that boundary. And that boundary is the beaches and the shoreline that I put all over the earth. Thus far shall thy proud waves proceed, but no further. And now in sending the flood, God had burst those boundaries. God sends water over them to cover more than 20 feet high, the highest hills. And yet God still says to those waters, thus far shall thy proud waves be stayed. I shut in Noah and his family and all flesh that I preserve and save them. That's a miracle of salvation. There's no human explanation for it. We're told by those who have knowledge of such things that the amount of rain that had to fall in 40 days and nights and had to come out of the heavens and come up from the earth, the amount of rain that had to fall would sink any vessel that was upon the face of the earth. If one of our modern aircraft carriers had been in the field the day the flood came, it would have sunk. There's no human vessel that is engineered to withstand the volume of rain that came down. There's no human vessel that could be engineered to withstand that volume of rain. And yet we read in Genesis 7, The waters increased and bear up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed exceedingly. But God saved Noah and his family in the ark. That salvation of you and me from our sins is a miracle. There is no earthly explanation or human possibility for us to escape the wrath of God. Why not? We've sinned and God hates sin and God judges sin. There's no explanation from the side of man how we're going to endure the fire of God's wrath. But God shuts us in. to the gospel of Jesus Christ as our ark and bears us up upon the waves of wrath that they do not plunge over us. And there's even more to that salvation. Noah was not saved by the ark. Noah was saved by water. by the waters of the flood themselves. As we read in 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 20. We read there about the ark preparing wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. And what is water there in 1 Peter 3? It's a picture of baptism, which itself is a picture of the blood of Christ. What saved Noah is the sacrifice of Christ that was coming. That's the covering for sin! That's where sinners must go to find salvation from the wrath to come. We go to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there are covered in His blood. And there's more. Not only does God save us from the flood of wrath, but He sends upon us another flood, the flood of His blessing. the flood of all of the salvation that our Lord has earned for us. As Isaiah 44 verse 3 teaches, For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring. God's promise is, not only do I deliver you from the wrath to come, but I give you the glory to come. I give you the spirit earned for you by Christ so that all of the blessings that I have determined for you and promised you are yours and shall wash over your heads grace wave after grace wave after grace wave until finally having borne you along through all of your brokenheartedness and all of your repentance having borne you along by my grace through that and born you along through the confidence that you are forgiven in Christ, I bear you finally into heaven itself, where you shall live with me in the new heavens and the new earth." That's the salvation that God gave Noah. And that's the salvation that he gives to you and me through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the world laughs. They laugh. They cannot believe it. The child of God reads this word of God and believes and hears his Lord speak to him. My child, my church, I hate sin, I hate it, and I judge it, but I save you through my only begotten Son. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word to us this evening. Apply it to our hearts. We thank thee, Father, for the meeting of Classes East this past week. We thank thee for the meeting of Synod in June. We thank thee, Father, that thou hast so led our churches as we have beseeched thee, so that the churches have identified the error, have set it forth clearly, that Classus East has identified error and rejected it. We thank thee, Father. And now, Father, have mercy upon us. Have mercy and forgive our sins. We love the gospel. We love it. We have never meant to compromise it. Forgive us, Father. We thank thee for Jesus Christ, whose blood is our baptism, whose blood is our salvation, and whose blood brings down upon our heads, not the flood of thy wrath, but the rain of thy mercy, and not for 40 days, but forever and ever, for Jesus' sake, amen. Psalter number 416, 416. This is a song of great longing for God and for his mercy. Let's sing the stanzas one, four, five, and seven. Note stanza four about waters plunging and leaping, waves and billows roaring. Stanza five about the salvation that we have through God. 1, 4, 5, and 7 of 416. before the curse of water, so my soul hath paid for thee. I beware of my misery, of the fool I am. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Salvation, enlighten us. and the home of the brave? He will still thy refuge be. I shall yet through all my days give to Him my thankful praise. ♪ A new veil from shame delivered ♪ ♪ This my God I wrap forever ♪ ♪♪ By all his creatures let his name be honored and adored. Let all that breathe in praise unite to glorify his name. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.