Episode Transcript
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Well, let's open our Bible and go to the book of Genesis tonight, chapter 6.
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Genesis chapter 6.
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We'll start in verse number 1, just to pick up the context.
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We're all familiar with this. It's timely as well with our recent trip to the ark, the ark encounter.
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So a lot of this, for those of you that went, this ought to be extremely familiar to us.
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Genesis 6, verse number 1, the Bible says,
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And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
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that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.
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We're not going to spend any time at all talking about the identity of these mysterious sons of God.
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You can have your own theory, and I have my own theory, and we'll move on.
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Verse 3.
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And the Lord said,
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Let's just pause here.
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Man is no better now than he ever was.
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Notwithstanding our technology, our progression in intellect, you know, the truth is, we don't know how smart these people were at this period in time.
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A lot of people think they were very smart.
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In fact, who was I walking around with?
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I think it was Matt Brown.
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And I was walking around because he met us at the Creation Museum in the Ark.
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What's mentioned is the smelting of iron in Scripture long before the Iron Age, which is interesting in the Bible.
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So they knew a lot more than we give them credit for at this period in time.
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But even though we consider ourselves in our modern day to be highly advanced with our medicine and our, you know, all that stuff,
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mankind at the core is no different.
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So basically, and the proof of that is the fact that the days of Noah, as we'll see in a minute, are the example given for the condition of man in the last days,
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which means that we will have done a full circle by the time the Lord returns.
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And verse 5, I'll read it again.
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And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
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And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart.
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And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air.
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For it repenteth me that I have made them, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
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These are the generations of Noah.
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Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations.
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And Noah walked with God and Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
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Let's pray together.
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Our father, thank you for the chance to have a meeting, Lord, with the church, God's people.
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Lord, as we meet together, we hear the testimonies.
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Thank you for the testimonies we've heard, how you're working, you're guiding.
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Thank you, Brother David's testimony of your distinct, clear leadership in his life.
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And you're helping and giving grace to others and others who are bearing burdens.
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I think of the one who had the heart attack and the stroke and his family is just under great, great pain right now.
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Have mercy, Lord, on that family and others, Lord, who are ill that we will pray for in just a little bit.
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Lord, we just pray that you'd help us to be tender Christians that have compassion on one another and pray for one another, as the Scripture says.
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But now, as we look at your word in Genesis about Noah, your servant, we pray that you'd give us understanding and wisdom.
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Be our teacher.
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Lord, help us to see the truths that we need to see about the family from this passage of Scripture.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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Now, notice, I want you to notice the extent of the detail of the description, the repetition of the description of Noah's generation.
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Notice in verse number nine, it mentions these are the generations of Noah.
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You know, it's funny, especially when you get into prophecy preaching, the question is always, how long is the generation?
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And we've gotten distracted on that.
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All that generation means is the group of people that live at the same time as you.
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That's all we're talking about here.
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In other words, Noah lived with other people who were, we would call it, his contemporaries.
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And among his contemporaries, Noah stood out because his contemporaries were, as the Bible says in verse 11,
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and the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
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And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, number two, for all flesh had corrupted, number three, his way upon the earth.
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And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence, number two, through them.
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And behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
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So listen to that description.
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Corrupt, filled with violence, corrupt, corrupted, filled with violence.
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And he says, verse number 12, look at the middle of the verse one more time.
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And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
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In other words, this was a hopeless situation.
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God himself basically says so.
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And he is resolved.
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He regrets, he repents that he has made man.
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He is resolved that he is going to destroy man.
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That's how bad it is.
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And this is the same God who the Psalms speak of saying, his mercy endureth forever.
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This same God who has patience as, you know, infinite patience is out of patience, right?
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The same one.
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And this is a description of this time period.
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So you have to, in order to understand this thing about Noah, you have to understand the society in which Noah lived.
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This society was wicked, extremely, extremely wicked.
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But we should not think that this society was in some way categorically different than the society in which we live.
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Let me show you why.
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Hold your place here and go to Matthew 24.
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Matthew chapter 24.
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Matthew 24.
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Matthew 24, verse number 37.
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Now this passage is a passage speaking in which the Lord is, this is called the Olivet Discourse.
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This is speaking of the coming of Christ, right?
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That's what this is talking about.
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Notice what verse 37 says.
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But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
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For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark.
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Now notice this.
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And knew not until the flood came and took them all away.
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So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
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Many people have confused this passage in assuming that this is a reference, this taking them all away as a reference to the rapture of the church.
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In other words, saying the righteous would be taken away.
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But in context, that's not what it is.
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The ones taken away are actually the wicked, just like those taken away in the days of Noah were the wicked.
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And this is a reference just prior to the Lord's coming in his kingdom, how he takes the wicked out of his kingdom before he cleanses the earth of the wicked and sets up his righteous kingdom.
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That's what this is a reference to.
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But notice, I want you to see, without question, we are approaching that day.
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There's no question, just by virtue of time, right?
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The clock is ticking and we are moving ever closer to the day of the Lord.
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Not to mention the other passages of Scripture that we've seen where the Bible says evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.
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And the descriptions of men in the last days, how they'll be lovers of their own selves.
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And we've read those passages of Scripture recently.
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So we see in verse number 37, the Lord Jesus chooses the person of Noah and the condition and the generation of Noah to parallel and illustrate the generations just prior to his coming.
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So we can't say that the people in the days of Noah were far, far and just way more wicked than we are.
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No, the Lord said, no, there's a comparison here.
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They're similar.
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They're similar.
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And I think that I think that's important when we look at Noah, because notice back in Genesis chapter six, verse number nine, the Bible says this.
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These are the generations of Noah and Noah was there are three things listed here about Noah.
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Noah was number one, a just man.
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Noah was number two and perfect in his generations.
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And number three, Noah walked with God.
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He was a just man.
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He was a perfect man.
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And he walked with God.
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Now, I would like you to get Hebrews chapter 11 in your right hand, if you could.
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We won't read the entire.
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We'll come back to it later.
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So I don't want you to lose it.
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Maybe you can put up a bookmark there so that it's easy to turn to later.
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But Hebrews chapter 11, verse seven.
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Hebrews 11, verse seven.
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The Bible says this, by faith.
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By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
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Notice the last part.
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By the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith.
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This is justification by faith.
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Noah was made righteous, not because Noah was a good man.
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He was made righteous because he believed in the Lord, because his faith rested in God and what God had said to him.
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Noah was righteous by faith.
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Does everybody see that?
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The reason Noah went to heaven is not because Noah obeyed God, but because Noah believed God.
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The reason Noah was righteous was not because Noah did righteousness, although he did sometimes, but because Noah believed in the Lord.
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That's what the verse says in verse seven.
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You got to get that.
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Because you know the thing that is missing in Genesis chapter six and seven and eight and nine.
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You know what's missing?
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All of that.
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Well, no, Noah did sacrifice after.
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But yeah, you're right.
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But the other key thing that's missing is faith.
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It's not mentioned.
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Isn't that striking?
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Hebrews says that Noah was made righteous by faith, just like Abraham, just like David, just like Paul.
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It is a universal truth, right?
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But when you read the actual account, faith is not mentioned anywhere in the book of Genesis until chapter 15, verse six, where the Bible says,
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And Abram believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
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That is, believe it or not, the first mention of faith in the Bible.
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It is the first mention of faith is the mention in which the man of faith, the father of faith, is justified by faith.
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It just totally overturns the whole, you know, faith and works thing.
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Or it really solidifies the question, how are we saved?
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We're saved by faith.
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So even though faith is not mentioned in the context of Noah, yet Hebrews tells us it was present.
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Our challenge is going to be, where do we find it?
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And I hope to point that out to you in just a minute.
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But notice what it says in verse nine.
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It's found here.
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Noah was, number one, a just man.
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The word justice simply means righteous.
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It's the same word.
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Sometimes it's put just, sometimes it's put righteous.
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And in our Sunday school lessons on the Bible that we've been going through the last few weeks,
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this, probably this Sunday, we're going to cover why it's like that.
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Sometimes it's put as just, sometimes it's put as righteous.
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And it's important and it helps us.
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But the word just just means righteous.
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So Noah was a just man.
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This is, again, I just want to emphasize this because we don't want to get,
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don't want to misunderstand.
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This doesn't mean that he had a strong sense of justice, like we use it, like a just judge.
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That is one who will rule justly.
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No, no, no.
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To be just is righteous.
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Personal righteousness, right?
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Noah was a just man, which means he was a believer in the Lord.
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His faith rested in Jehovah.
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In other words, in New Testament language, you know what we would say?
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Noah was saved.
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Although the Bible doesn't say that until he gets out of the ark.
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And he was, he was indeed saved after that.
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But Noah was saved.
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That's what Hebrews 11, 7 says.
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So let me ask you a question.
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Remember the corrupt society in which Noah found himself, that surrounded him.
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Is it possible for a man to trust in the Lord for his salvation, though he is surrounded by a God-rejecting society?
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Noah was the only man, as far as we know from the text of Scripture,
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Noah was the only living person with saving faith on earth.
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Noah is the kind of apex example of that.
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But notice in verse 9 it says this, Noah was a perfect man in his generations.
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Now we know, if you take a peek at chapter 9, you don't have to go very far.
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Verse 21, you can see Noah, like practically every character, every person and figure in the Bible,
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Noah was not a man who was without fault.
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Verse 21 of chapter 9, and he, this is Noah, drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent.
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This is a shameful moment in the life of Noah.
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So Noah, was Noah a man without sin?
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Obviously not.
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His sin is recorded in the Scripture.
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So when the Bible says Noah was perfect, it is not in the sense that we use it today, perfect perfection as in sinless.
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That's not what the Bible means at all.
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What it means is that this, that Noah's faith and Noah's walk with God was whole.
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It was not lacking anything.
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In fact, this word is sometimes, the word perfect is sometimes in the Old Testament, or actually often in the Old Testament,
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translated without blemish, referring to a sacrifice.
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Sometimes it's translated upright.
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It refers to the fact of Noah's life, Noah's, rather Noah's faith and Noah's practical life had no glaring deficiencies.
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That's what it's talking about.
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It's not referring to sinless perfection, but it's referring to the fact that he had matured as a believer,
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and his life was everything God wanted it to be.
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He had grown.
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He was whole.
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So the question I have is this for you.
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Is it possible for a man or a woman to live uprightly, to be without blemish, to be perfect in the sight of God,
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even though he is surrounded by a rising tide of wickedness?
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It is absolutely possible.
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We cannot, none of us, man, woman, boy or girl, none of us can look around at our surroundings
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and say everything's just so evil.
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It doesn't matter if we live in Greenville, South Carolina,
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or if we live in some remote, heathen-infested land where idols are worshipped on every corner.
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It doesn't matter.
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We cannot use that excuse and say,
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well, you know, I just can't live for God.
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I can't walk with God.
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I can't be faithful to God.
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I can't obey the Lord.
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I can't be perfect in my generation.
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No, we can't.
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By the grace and help of God, we absolutely can.
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But yet, how many times do we have such flimsy excuses for our lack of faithfulness and obedience and walking with God?
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Are they not so just petty?
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They are so petty, aren't they?
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Just any sort of hindrance, any sort of adversity knocks us off.
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Well, I just, I guess I can't, I guess I can't follow the Lord.
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I guess I can't serve the Lord.
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I guess that, that, listen, that won't hold up because the moment you say that,
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we think we're all, we're going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at judgment day.
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And it's just going to be him.
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It's just going to be he and us, he and us standing before him.
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That's not what the Bible says.
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You should remember that from Matthew, right?
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The men of Sodom shall rise in the day of judgment and condemn this generation.
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You remember that when we studied Matthew?
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I wonder if, I wonder if Noah, the Lord's going to say, hold on just a second.
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Noah, was my grace sufficient for you to walk with me and live uprightly and without blemish in your generations,
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though your generation was extremely wicked?
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Yes, Lord.
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Noah was a perfect man despite the generation in which he lived, which was definitely a wicked generation.
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But last thing in verse number nine, notice what it says, and Noah walked with God.
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That's number three.
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This speaks of Noah's personal relationship to God.
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When you walk with someone, what does that mean?
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We know what that means, but visualize it in your mind.
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It means you are side by side with the Lord.
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Where he goes, you go, right?
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This speaks of his personal relationship to God.
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This speaks of his pattern of doing God's commandments.
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And this speaks of his life of following God's leadership in his life.
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So not only was he perfect, not only was he saved by faith,
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but he was a man who walked with God despite everything around him that discouraged him from doing so.
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So is it possible, the third time, for a man or a woman to walk with God,
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though he has no encouragement to do so?
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He has no Christian culture to help him along.
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He has nothing encouraging him around him.
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Is it possible for you to walk with God without that at all?
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What you might not realize is, and I challenge you to go to a foreign country and to visit some missionary.
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What you'll find is that when you go to a place where God is not known,
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you'll find that you have left a place where there are many, many crutches
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that enable you to walk with the Lord much easier.
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And then you go to a place where none of that exists.
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And you know what you find?
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You find that the grace of God is sufficient for you to walk with God there too.
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Those surrounded by evil.
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It is.
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It absolutely is.
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I thought about, as we go, we're headed down to chapter,
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let's just go to chapter 6, verse 10, and I'll make a mention about that, about his family.
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Look at verse 10.
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And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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So Noah had a family.
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He was a family man.
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Even though he lived in a world that was so wicked, yet he had children.
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And he didn't say, well, this world, I've heard people say this,
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this world is so wicked, why would you bring somebody?
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Usually this is the eugenics people, right, that don't want kids in the world.
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But they're like, why would you bring a child into this world?
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Well, Noah says, I bring a child into this world because I want there to be righteous people in this world, right?
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So Noah has a family.
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But what we see in verse number 18 is this.
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He says, read it if you would.
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It says,
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But with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
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How old are his children?
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They're obviously adults.
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Now, I don't know.
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Maybe that's 500 years.
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Maybe that's 300 years.
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I don't know how old they were.
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How old you'd have to be to qualify as an adult in Noah's day when you probably had to be 150 years old just to get your driver's license.
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But the point is, his children, his children were not kids.
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They were adults, and they had families of their own.
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They're separate family units.
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That's a key thing to remember.
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So everything we read about Noah and his family, you have to keep in mind is that you're not talking about little kids in tow.
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You're talking about adult children, right?
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That's so important in the life of Noah.
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But think about Noah's kids growing up in this society.
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How lonely would it have been in Noah's family?
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Think about it.
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And the reason I want you to think about this is because Christian families often feel this.
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When there's a family who has a real heart for God, and they are intent, they are serious about the things of God.
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And they're not going to turn a blind eye to sin when it's around them.
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They're not just going to overlook it just to go along to get along because they want people to like them.
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They're not going to do it.
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They're serious about things.
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That's Noah, right?
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That's a lonely path.
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You know that?
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And that's a lonely path for your family.
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That's a lonely path.
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When you're in a path like that, as a mom, as a dad, and you have kids, and you, you know, your kids know other kids who, you know, they do things at their house that, you know, you don't do at your house.
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And you're not going to subject your kids to that kind of influence.
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And, you know, that creates kind of a lonely environment because sometimes kids at that point come to you and say, you know, I just don't have any friends.
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Sometimes even the adults, even the adults might not have had many close friends in that society.
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Who could they, who could they be close friends with?
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All flesh was wicked.
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Everybody.
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Was there, were their neighbors are wicked?
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They're wicked.
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How could they be close to them?
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Unless they condoned and winked at their wickedness.
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How could they give their kids to families that were wicked like that?
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That's a lonely life.
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You know what?
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That sounds very much like a Christian's life now.
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It does.
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A Christian's life, a Christian family that is serious about things of God is often a lonely life.
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It's true.
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But we have one benefit he didn't have.
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You know what that is?
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The church of God.
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Which is supposed to be a group, a community of believers who also have the same desire to walk with God.
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Who we can fellowship with so that that lonely feeling we get from walking with God surrounded by a, if you could say, a Noahic world, right?
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Is maybe dulled a little bit by the fact that we do have people that we can hang out with.
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We do have people we can fellowship with.
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We do have people that we know hold our values.
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Now, we're not going to align on everything, but we do know they're going to hold the values of God.
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And even when we disagree, you know what?
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It's okay.
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We can find, we can agree to walk with God together.
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And that's, why don't we take advantage of that as the people of God, as the church?
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This is where our friends should be.
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And that's not to say you can't have friends.
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Of course you can have friends outside of church, you know.
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But that's, the church of God is designed to dull that lonely feeling sometimes you get in the path following the Lord.
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That's why we're here.
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We ought to utilize that.
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You ought to go out to eat together.
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You ought to go to people's, go to each other's houses.
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Sister Karen has a nice house.
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She does.
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She has a nice house.
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You ought to go to people's house.
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I'm trying to invite you over to Sister Karen's house.
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You ought to go to each other's house.
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You ought to spend time together.
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Make plans to go and have your kids play together.
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Spend time together.
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Get to know each other.
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We should get over this whole front that we have where it's, where we have our church face.
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And we all, you know, we're going to look a certain way when we come to church.
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And we want everybody to think we're, no, people ought to see us.
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That's one thing about this trip to the ark, you know.
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It was, there was a few bumps along the road, was it not?
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People saw my ugly, and I saw people's ugly, and that's okay.
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Devin's a special.
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That's okay, because we all got it, and we're still supposed to love each other.
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And that's okay.
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You can't do that with a church front, can you?
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But it's supposed to be a family, right?
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That's the way we're supposed to be.
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Supposed to love each other as a family.
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Y'all got me all distracted.
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Now, Noah, as I said, Noah had adult children, as we saw in verse number 18 of chapter 6.
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And I mentioned before, let's read chapter 7, verse 1.
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And the Lord said unto Noah,
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Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
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Notice, it's thee.
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That's a singular pronoun, thee.
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This is one of those cases where it matters if you have you or thee.
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There's a reason why our Bible has a distinction in second-person pronouns.
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Here's an example.
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God's only referring to Noah.
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Singular.
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For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
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Now, as I said, there is no mention of faith anywhere in Genesis until you get to chapter 15.
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But Hebrews tells us that faith is behind everything that Noah is doing.
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So when you read Noah building an ark, why did he build an ark?
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He built an ark by faith.
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God told him to build an ark.
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So you could say it was obedience.
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That's true.
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But what kind of obedience?
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It was obedience by faith.
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It was obedience by faith.
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And this is the connection I think people often miss.
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When you hear the word of God and you obey the word of God because you heard the word of God,
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that obedience springs out of faith.
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It's not just obedience.
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It's faithful obedience.
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And that's what's supposed to drive our obedience.
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Not what other people think, but what God says.
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And so when the Lord tells us something, it's not just, Lord, I believe that.
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If we believe it, then we do it.
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That's the evidence and the outworking of faith.
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Faith is in the heart and the outworking, the fruit of it is the obedience.
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And this is why you don't see faith anywhere in here, but yet you see it.
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You know what you see?
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You see fruit of his faith.
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That's why Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 talks about not Noah's obedience, but his faith.
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Because the writer of Hebrews saw, read this passage and did not read faith, just like we did not read faith,
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but saw his obedience and knew that his obedience came out of his faith.
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So when you have faith, the evidence of your faith is that you obey what the Lord tells you.
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Now you'll look at verse number one again of chapter seven.
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And the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy, what does that say?
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House.
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Sunday night, Psalm 127.1.
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Remember that?
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Except the Lord build the house, the family.
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Come thou and all thy house into the ark.
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In Hebrews 11, somebody read that out for me.
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The first part of the verse.
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Brother Jim, can you read it for me?
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You still there?
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Brother Jim's quick.
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Seven.
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Stop right there.
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00:31:18,340 --> 00:31:20,660
Prepared an ark to the saving of his what?
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His house.
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Here, his house.
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00:31:24,260 --> 00:31:25,000
His family.
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00:31:25,540 --> 00:31:26,160
His family.
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00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:29,460
We have Noah.
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00:31:30,460 --> 00:31:34,100
Noah was just in the midst of a wicked society.
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Noah was perfect in the midst of a wicked society.
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Noah walked with God in the midst of a wicked society.
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But there's one other thing.
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Noah was a man who led his family in faith in God, also in the midst of a wicked society.
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A society that is likened to our society as we approach the coming of Christ.
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00:31:57,820 --> 00:32:00,340
Is it possible for a man to lead his family?
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00:32:00,340 --> 00:32:08,560
Is it possible for a man to successfully lead his family in these days, these wicked days?
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Even though our children are, like Noah, surrounded by an increasing tide of wickedness all around us,
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just as it was in the days of Noah.
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00:32:20,580 --> 00:32:24,760
Is it possible to lead our family aright and to be successful in doing so?
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00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:26,540
Was Noah successful?
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00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:28,440
Did Noah do that?
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Remember, his children are not kids.
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He can't just say, you just come with me and you don't have a choice in the matter.
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No, they have families of their own.
457
00:32:36,820 --> 00:32:38,380
They have a wife of their own.
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So he's not leading them in the way that we would lead our 10-year-old or our 8-year-old.
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He's dealing with adults.
460
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:48,140
You know what?
461
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For parents, those of you that have children that have come into adulthood,
462
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:53,980
that's kind of a hard transition, is it not, Sister Lynn?
463
00:32:53,980 --> 00:33:00,680
Where you kind of, part of you still wants to be like you're dealing with a little kid,
464
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:04,380
but they're not a little kid anymore, and they don't really appreciate being treated as one.
465
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,280
And that transition, that's kind of hard.
466
00:33:07,780 --> 00:33:09,240
Okay, I have, maybe I'm the only one.
467
00:33:09,300 --> 00:33:11,640
I found that kind of difficult to get used to.
468
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:16,300
But what do we see?
469
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,280
When Noah went into the ark, what happened?
470
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:26,940
His three adult sons and their wives went in after him.
471
00:33:26,940 --> 00:33:33,300
In fact, the Bible repeatedly says they went in with him.
472
00:33:33,340 --> 00:33:35,000
Like in chapter 16, verse 18.
473
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:36,320
Chapter 6, verse 18.
474
00:33:37,100 --> 00:33:37,800
It says,
475
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,140
But with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark,
476
00:33:42,300 --> 00:33:46,140
thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee.
477
00:33:47,580 --> 00:33:48,540
Think about this.
478
00:33:48,540 --> 00:33:53,480
The salvation of humanity depended on the faith of Noah.
479
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:58,240
The salvation of Noah's family depended on the faith of Noah.
480
00:33:59,900 --> 00:34:04,760
The salvation of his wife, the salvation of his children depended on the faith of Noah.
481
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:08,000
Because in the scripture, did you know, when you read this,
482
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:13,580
the only person's obedience and the only person's faith mentioned in the Bible is Noah's.
483
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,000
I don't know if his wife believed, his children,
484
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,900
but the only person who's mentioned is the faith of Noah, singular.
485
00:34:18,900 --> 00:34:28,880
By faith, Noah prepared an ark by the which he, singular, condemned the world
486
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:31,880
and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith.
487
00:34:32,240 --> 00:34:34,380
Now imagine if Noah had not had faith in God.
488
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,220
What would have been the result?
489
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,420
I mean, I know this sounds pretty dramatic, but it's nevertheless true.
490
00:34:41,580 --> 00:34:43,820
If Noah had not had faith in God,
491
00:34:43,820 --> 00:34:49,980
that would have resulted in the permanent destruction of the race, of humanity.
492
00:34:51,900 --> 00:34:58,160
And so God in his providence hung the whole future of the race of mankind
493
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:00,520
on the faith of a single man.
494
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,420
Of course, God knew what he was doing, obviously.
495
00:35:03,420 --> 00:35:10,900
But what about Noah, the man himself?
496
00:35:11,700 --> 00:35:12,220
Think about that.
497
00:35:12,420 --> 00:35:14,780
I mean, I know we think about the faith of Noah with the ark.
498
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:18,280
Well, say, say, for instance, Noah had faith and he built the ark,
499
00:35:18,940 --> 00:35:23,980
but he had a life that wasn't just, that wasn't perfect,
500
00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:26,240
that wasn't walking with God, right?
501
00:35:26,700 --> 00:35:27,560
He built it.
502
00:35:27,620 --> 00:35:28,820
He had enough faith to build the ark.
503
00:35:28,900 --> 00:35:31,480
Maybe he was saved himself, but he didn't have the other two.
504
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:36,040
And so his boys really didn't have a strong leader,
505
00:35:36,260 --> 00:35:38,840
a strong example to follow.
506
00:35:39,780 --> 00:35:43,240
And so he built the ark, and so he can save himself and his wife.
507
00:35:44,180 --> 00:35:45,660
But his sons are like, you know what, Dad?
508
00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:46,100
I'm good.
509
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,800
What would have been the result
510
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:54,940
if Noah had not been the man of spiritual character that he was?
511
00:35:55,180 --> 00:35:58,840
Would his adult children likely have followed him on such a wild idea?
512
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:04,380
What would have been the result if that had not happened?
513
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:06,780
It would have been the same.
514
00:36:07,980 --> 00:36:11,040
So not only did God hang the whole future of the human civilization
515
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:13,600
on the faith of a man to build an ark,
516
00:36:13,740 --> 00:36:16,680
He also built the whole future of human civilization.
517
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:18,040
I don't think I'm stretching this
518
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,400
upon the spiritual character of a man
519
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:24,200
who is leading his family,
520
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:29,020
whose adult children would follow him,
521
00:36:29,260 --> 00:36:31,120
who would be the progenitors
522
00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:33,400
of the entire human race.
523
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:42,820
And this principle is true in many parts of Scripture,
524
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:45,580
that the blessings of God
525
00:36:45,580 --> 00:36:51,660
come down through the faith of family members.
526
00:36:51,980 --> 00:36:54,160
The blessings of God will come down to children
527
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,180
through the faith of their fathers and mothers.
528
00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,340
And those things, in other words,
529
00:36:59,340 --> 00:37:02,700
if you as a parent, you as a husband, you as a mother,
530
00:37:03,620 --> 00:37:07,720
your faith will have an effect, a positive effect.
531
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,660
Your walk with God will have a positive effect
532
00:37:10,660 --> 00:37:12,320
upon those who come after you,
533
00:37:12,380 --> 00:37:13,800
your children, your grandchildren.
534
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:19,900
And so you, your wife, sir, your children, ma'am,
535
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:22,960
are depending on your faith
536
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:25,180
for their future spiritual welfare.
537
00:37:26,140 --> 00:37:26,740
They are.
538
00:37:26,740 --> 00:37:32,060
And I know the story of Noah
539
00:37:32,060 --> 00:37:34,220
is like an example of this
540
00:37:34,220 --> 00:37:37,460
in like the greatest extreme, right?
541
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,700
Because, I mean, the whole human race
542
00:37:39,700 --> 00:37:41,280
is resting on this fact.
543
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:44,400
But every single day that passes,
544
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:46,980
there are smaller examples of this same truth
545
00:37:46,980 --> 00:37:50,520
that are playing out in homes and in families,
546
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:53,400
sometimes with great success,
547
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,020
sometimes with sad failure.
548
00:37:56,740 --> 00:37:59,880
But we have to learn this lesson,
549
00:38:00,020 --> 00:38:01,740
this biblical and scriptural lesson,
550
00:38:02,100 --> 00:38:04,520
that our faith in Christ,
551
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:06,400
not just our faith to be saved,
552
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,360
but our faith to obey and follow the Lord,
553
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,720
and our walk with God is not just about us.
554
00:38:14,740 --> 00:38:16,380
It never was,
555
00:38:16,580 --> 00:38:18,220
no matter how we have deluded ourselves.
556
00:38:18,220 --> 00:38:20,840
Our faith and our walk with God
557
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:24,440
directly affects those in our family
558
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:27,020
in real ways
559
00:38:27,020 --> 00:38:30,640
and in eternal ways.
560
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:31,900
It's not just about me.
561
00:38:32,620 --> 00:38:34,680
If I fail, God help me.
562
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:35,760
If I fail,
563
00:38:36,020 --> 00:38:39,180
it will reverberate through the generations
564
00:38:39,180 --> 00:38:40,560
of the Wood family.
565
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:46,620
That's frightening to think about,
566
00:38:46,700 --> 00:38:47,160
but it's true.
567
00:38:49,260 --> 00:38:51,740
And if by the grace of God,
568
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,340
I stand and am faithful, right?
569
00:38:55,700 --> 00:38:56,640
And obedient,
570
00:38:57,840 --> 00:38:59,520
whether it's me,
571
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:00,640
whether it's my wife,
572
00:39:01,620 --> 00:39:02,360
whether it's you,
573
00:39:02,500 --> 00:39:03,300
whether you're a lady,
574
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:04,120
whether you're a man,
575
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:05,540
if you do that,
576
00:39:06,220 --> 00:39:09,860
it will have positive repercussions
577
00:39:09,860 --> 00:39:12,140
in your life and in the lives.
578
00:39:12,300 --> 00:39:13,620
I mean, look, Hebrews 11, 7.
579
00:39:13,700 --> 00:39:14,020
I'm done.
580
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:15,320
Hebrews 11, 7 says,
581
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:16,420
by faith,
582
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:17,220
it says,
583
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:19,960
Noah prepared an ark to the what?
584
00:39:21,260 --> 00:39:23,800
Saving of his house.
585
00:39:24,900 --> 00:39:26,200
He saved his family.
586
00:39:28,300 --> 00:39:29,300
Our faith,
587
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:30,760
our walk with God
588
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:32,800
can also save our family.
589
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:37,540
It can have such an effect
590
00:39:37,540 --> 00:39:38,940
that it rescues our family
591
00:39:38,940 --> 00:39:40,740
from utter destruction.
592
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:49,460
I know this is heavy
593
00:39:49,460 --> 00:39:50,800
kind of for a Wednesday night sermon.
594
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:51,940
This is more along the lines
595
00:39:51,940 --> 00:39:53,000
of a Sunday morning sermon.
596
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:55,960
We just need to be reminded
597
00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:58,980
that our faith never stands alone.
598
00:40:00,260 --> 00:40:02,320
Our faith is directly connected
599
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:06,040
to those that are closest to us
600
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:06,560
in our family
601
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,040
and it will have a direct effect
602
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:10,160
upon them and their future
603
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:11,600
just like it did with Noah.
604
00:40:12,420 --> 00:40:13,000
Let's pray.
605
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:13,020
Let's pray.
606
00:40:13,020 --> 00:40:14,200
Let's pray.
607
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:26,100
Let's pray.
608
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:27,100
Let's pray.
