Noah and the Ark — Genesis 6-7

0:00 Let's open with the word of prayer. Father, we bow before you this morning. We thank you for this time that we have to open your word. We ask that you would open our hearts this morning that we would hear the things that your spirit would have for us to hear today and that we might remember them and apply them in our lives. I ask that you would remove me from the equation that you would speak through me and that those hearing might hear your words.

0:28 We ask that after your blessing on this time. In his name, amen. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter six. Going through our study of Genesis and we arrive at Noah. I'm hear that I'm developing a slight reputation for getting through a lot of material in a very short amount of time and I thought about covering all of Noah in one week but decided against that.

1:06 I'm going to split this up with Ray. Ray is going to take the second half of Noah next week. So, stay tuned for that. So if you're here for this half, make sure you're here next week so that you hear the end of the story here. So we're starting out in Noah and like a lot of Genesis, probably is to a lot of us, this is a familiar story.

1:29 So I'm going to try to touch on a lot of the high points. I'm not going to try to dwell a lot on the facts and figures of the flood and the ark and Noah, which are very interesting by the way. If you get into studying the architecture of the Ark and a lot of the other scientific bits of it, it's very fascinating, but I'm not going to dwell on that too much today. I'm trying to bring out a little bit of the more substantial parts of it, not not so much the trivia end of it. In chapter six, in in Genesis, we come to...

2:06 Before we hear a mention of Noah, we hear about what's going on in the world. Now, this is about the year 1550. The flood occurred somewhere around 1650, I didn't write down what the exact year was, but we can trace it through the genealogies that we have. Adam was alive when Noah was born, interesting tidbit Methuselah died in the year of the flood when he was nine sixty nine, but we're in the year about 1550, 1500, 1550, which in the grand scheme of of scripture doesn't seem like a very long time, but sixteen hundred years ago, it was the year four hundred AD. So it actually kind of was a long time.

2:53 The earth had been around for a while, multiplying and man had been turning to evil as we see in chapter six. Now, I'm going to I'm going read through chapter six and then we'll stop and talk a little bit about that then we'll read through seven and and cover a bit of the high points in seven. Now, it came about when man began to multiply in the face of the land and daughters were born to them that the sons of god saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose. Then the lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.

3:34 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of god came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then, the lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and the lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart And the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah.

4:30 Then, god said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence because of them and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch and this is how you shall make it. The length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubic from the top and set the door of the ark inside of it.

4:58 You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish but I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark. You and your sons and your wife and your sons wives with you and every and of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

5:26 Of the birds after their kind and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing on the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive. And as for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible and gather it to yourself and it shall be for food for you and for them. Thus, Noah did according to all that god had commanded him, so he did. Alright. So there is chapter six.

5:54 What we see here is the corruption of the earth and chapter six is reveals to us, the righteousness of God and holiness of God and and the flood, the destruction of the earth is a result of God's righteousness and His holy judgment and His inability to tolerate sin. God had obviously created man with free will which we understand, for the purpose of glorifying himself. We can look at this a lot and say, you know, God could have just created man and if man didn't have free will, man wouldn't have sinned and the earth just would have been a better place and God would have been happier. But that's not that wasn't his plan all along. We know that god from the beginning knew Adam would sin.

6:49 God knew from the beginning that even after Adam chapter six, what happened? We get this description of the earth which is a very apt description of the earth today, actually. But God knew that would happen, but He allowed it. He allowed sin. He allowed man's free will.

7:07 He allowed it to further glorify Himself. It gave God an opportunity to perform works that ultimately glorify himself. And the scripture is full of all this evidence. Okay? So the spirit of God was striving with men as we see in verse three.

7:28 God was waiting for man. God did not want man to perish. God did not want to destroy the earth, and he still does not want to destroy the earth. He wants all man to come to himself. That's what he wants.

7:44 He wants to save us all. He wants us all in heaven with him for eternity. So, he waits. God has a lot of patience and god is waiting. He wants to be gracious.

7:53 He wants to be merciful but he says, my spirit shall not strive with man forever. There comes to be a point where I've given you enough time, you've ignored this, that, and the other thing, and now judgment has to come. My spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh. Man was flesh, not only frail and feeble, but also carnal and depraved. There was there was no hope for man.

8:24 There still is no hope for man and as we read in the in the New Testament, there is there is no hope for us. Outside of god and on our own, we cannot achieve anything sort of close to perfection. We cannot achieve anything that that god really desires. We cannot achieve righteousness before him. So, thus the spirit of god says, I will not strive with man forever.

9:43 The word preacher there, the Greek word there is is pretty much correctly translated. It's a preacher. It's those that that bring a message. Noah could have been a preacher before God told him to build the ark, but most assuredly, he was preaching while he was building the ark. We know that it took a long time to build the ark.

10:05 We don't really know how long. We know it was less than a hundred years because I'll get into that later. I'm gonna get ahead of myself here, but I deviate too much from my notes and it gets me in trouble. My spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

10:32 Some take that hundred and twenty years in verse three to indicate that it was a hundred and twenty years from that time. It took Noah a hundred and twenty years to build the ark, but we don't actually have... We can't conclude decisively that Noah started building the ark that same year. I have a quote here in in regards to the the state of of the earth at that time. Anyone might see that the wickedness of man was great, but god saw that every imagination or purpose of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.

11:07 This was the bitter root, the corrupt spring. The heart was deceitful and desperately wicked. The principles were corrupt. The habits and dispositions evil. Their designs and devices were wicked.

11:19 They did evil deliberately contriving how to do mischief. There was no good among them. So when God says a little bit later on in chapter six, we get to verse six, and this is a very careful thing. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on earth and He was dreaved in His heart. And the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, for I am sorry that I have made them.

11:44 I think we should be careful here. That word sorry. It it it could appear at first glance that god was regretting his decision. He that he was regretting his decision to create man. When we come to some of these things where it might appear at face value, something that contradicts scripture.

12:06 The easiest thing I find to do is to start with what I know is true. If we know that God doesn't change, James one seventeen, the Father in lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning from the King James. And there's also several other ones, references I I could make in the New Testament that we know that God does not change ever. His attitude doesn't change. His his plan doesn't change.

12:30 Okay. So, that's not what the word sorry here means. It's not a it's not a sorry that he was regretting a decision but it's more a reaction. We need to understand it as a reaction and we're also using human terms, human language to describe god which in itself is inadequate but we need to understand that god was sorry. He was sorrowful.

12:56 It was it was it was god's attitude and his reaction towards what was going on because god does feel emotion. He wasn't regretting his decision to make man but he was incredibly sorrowed. He was grieved. We read in the New Testament that we are capable of grieving the Holy Spirit as believers and and so that's a very possible and plausible thing but god was very upset at at the way mankind was going and and the prevalence of evil in the generation. He was sorrowful.

13:31 It was... If you could picture God sighing, you know, the way that you maybe parents have for their kids once in a while. Just that sort of and and you're just when you don't have anything else to say yet, you know, and and you're just so disappointed and and you're so, you know, and and something needs to be done about it. You know, something needs to be done about it. So, we get to the mention of Noah in verse eight.

14:52 It's God is stooping to help an inferior being. That's what that word means. First mention of it here, Noah found grace or favor in the eyes of the Lord. Next verse, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God.

15:13 Couple other things here. That is the first mention of the second of only two mentions that I I believe in scripture where a man walked with God. Enoch is the other one. Enoch was Noah's hold on. Great grandfather or great great grandfather.

15:35 Enoch and Noah were the only ones I I believe that were referred to as walking with god and it also says that Noah was blameless. We should also not interpret that to... Not not interpret that as Noah was sinless. We need to be careful with that. That Hebrew word just as an example, is is used in Joshua twenty four fourteen and it's translated sincerity.

16:02 Now, therefore, fear the lord and serve him in sincerity. That's the same Hebrew word that's used in Genesis. In sincerity and truth. So, it's it's a It's used in a moral sense. The the word is by the way and and it's linked with truth, with with with virtue, uprightness, and righteousness.

16:21 We see it also in in Psalms. We see it in Proverbs and it's used as a moral in a moral sense and Noah was upright in comparison to everyone else. So, it's not it's not an absolute definition that Noah was some kind of perfect being. He was not. It does not say that he was sinless.

16:42 That that word is not used. So, we need to be careful there. He he was not perfect but he was he did walk with god and and only Enoch did. Now, I have a cup, there's a couple of symbolisms that I am trying to bring out in in my two chapters that I have of Noah here. And and this gets to the first one.

17:03 And it's a suggestion, But the two men who are listed here as walking with God, Enoch and Noah, Enoch was raptured as as most of us know. He he walked with God and then he was no more as it says. Enoch did not die. God took him. God transported Enoch to heaven.

17:24 He graduated Enoch just from here to there. Elijah, the same thing happened to Elijah and symbolism number one that I might propose between Enoch and Noah is that Enoch might represent the raptured church. The the New Testament, you know, the the current church. Enoch is a representation of the church who is raptured before the tribulation and Noah, of course, we know that the flood happened and god saved Noah through the ark. I'm not going to try to get ahead of myself here but god saved Noah through the flood and in Zechariah 13, it talks about the faithful Jewish remnant that God preserves through the tribulation, that the faithful Jewish who live through the tribulation and then inherit the new earth.

18:18 I'll read that for you here in Zechariah 13. And there's prophecy about Jerusalem and in the Jews. And it says, let's see, in verse... I'll start in verse seven. Awake, oh, sword, against my shepherd and against the man, my associate, declares the Lord of hosts.

18:40 Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. And it will come about in all the land, declares the Lord, that two parts in it will be cut off and perish, but the third will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them and I will say they are my people and they will say the lord is my god. So, I would like to suggest that maybe there is symbolism number one.

19:12 In the story of Noah, Enoch is a little bit predating Noah but maybe Noah is a is a symbol. He's he's pointing towards the faithful Jewish remnant that which hasn't even happened yet. So, that that's still to come but there will be a remnant preserved through the tribulation and if we understand the flood as perhaps a a symbolic tribulation and then Noah comes out to inherit the sort of new Earth. Okay? It's not actually a new Earth.

19:38 He didn't recreate it but again, symbolism here and that's what we're going with. The story of Noah exists, I think, in large part so that we have more pictures of what's to come, more pictures of the New Testament, some of which has happened already and some of it which hasn't. Because God could have saved Noah in a much simpler way. God did not need Noah to build an ark in order to save him from the flood. If God was going to flood the earth, God could have created some sort of cave and hold the aid up in them somewhere and sealed it up and you know, after a year, god could have opened the cave up and they could have walked out and that was the end of that.

20:23 You know, could have been much simpler but we wouldn't have had this whole story. So, Noah was instrumental in this, and the ark was instrumental in this. So, it's it's the symbolism that we got to that we have to draw from it. Okay? So, let's keep going.

21:04 You've you've never seen a boat anywhere close to this. I mean, I don't know how big of ships they had built at that point, if any. If they had even built, you know, anything besides sailing down the river, canoes, I I don't know. But Noah has to try to build something that he's never even seen anything sort of even close. And God just tells him, well, you're make it out of wood.

21:28 And if we interpret the standard cubit as being 18 inches, which is from the elbow to the third finger, So the arc was 450 feet long and 75 feet wide and 35 feet high, if we interpret it that way, which is huge. It's about half the size as most modern day cruise ships. But since its sole function was to hold people and animals and food, there wasn't as much wasted space. So you could really carry a lot. But Noah had it tough.

21:58 He really did. Without going again into a lot of facts and figures and stuff, which is very interesting and I encourage you to do on your own time. But for the sake of time, I don't I don't... I can't get through that today. But Noah would have struggled through this a lot.

22:13 Obviously, he had to cut down all the trees and and and make all the timber to make this thing. The the ark would have been a very laborious task, obviously. It would have been very tedious and probably even dangerous. If the Ark was 35 feet high and had three decks, he had to make some sort of scaffolding and without any of the modern day equipment or tools, this was no small task to to take. So, there's a little bit into Noah, part one, and I'm going to carry on through this a little bit and then I'm going to backtrack as we talk about some of the symbolism here.

23:00 So we get to... God talks about the the instructions for the ark, and then the instructions for the animals and the food that's going to come. And then we get to 22, verse 22, and Noah did according to all that God had commanded him. That's what Noah did. So let's read chapter seven, and we'll get through that, and then we'll we'll backtrack a little bit.

23:26 Then the Lord said to Noah, assuming after the ark was built and this was all done, enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone. This is interesting, remember that. For you alone, I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female, and of the animals that are not clean too, a male and a female, also of the birds of the sky by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of the earth. For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.

24:03 And again, Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, that's eight, with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. Of of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, there went to the ark to Noah by choose, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came about after the seven days that the water of the flood came upon the earth.

24:34 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of that month, on the same day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the sky were opened and the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. And on the very same day, Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth and the sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons were with them entered the ark. They and every beast after its kind and all the cattle after their kind and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. It's just a little bit repetitive. So they went into the ark to Noah by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life.

25:12 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him and the Lord closed it behind him. Remember that one. Then, the flood came upon the earth for forty days and the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth and the water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth and the ark floated on the surface of the water And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. And the water prevailed 15 cubits higher and the mountains were covered and all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth and all mankind and of of all that was on dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life died. Thus, he blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky and they were blotted out from the earth and only Noah was left together with those that were with him in the ark and the water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

26:16 Okay. In chapter seven, we get to the flood and Where is it? Okay. So, when the ark was completed, god told Noah to enter the ark and then said, I'm going to the flood will occur in seven days. So, god gives Noah seven days and the seven as we understand and as we see a lot in scripture, seven is a Hebrew becomes a Hebrew sort of symbolism for completeness.

26:56 God gives Noah seven days to get organized, to get everything into the ark, and it was not a small task here. So there's only one door in the ark, don't forget. So there's only one door. So all these animals and all the other provisions that they had. God gives Noah seven days to get in, get situated, get yourself as comfortable as you're going to be, and that's awfully nice of god, I think And I also read somewhere that, as I mentioned before, Methuselah died in the year of the flood.

27:30 And I read it somewhere and of course you can't really prove it, but it's something to think about. Did Methuselah die in the flood or did Methuselah did God take Noah home Methuselah home so that he did not have to die in the flood? We don't really know. We don't really have a record of Methuselah being God fearing man. But what someone...

27:55 I've read someone say that perhaps Methuselah died when the ark was finished and part of that seven days was a grieving period for Methuselah. Again, I can't prove that but just an interesting tidbit and something to note because Methuselah died in that year. After everyone's in the ark and when the flood is about to come, god closes the door. In verse 16, And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him and the Lord closed it behind him. So we get to some of the other symbolism here behind the ark and the flood and why this all occurred and why God didn't just do it in a simpler, easier way in a story that could have been told in two or three verses.

29:05 Here here's another one of the symbolisms. The ark was the only way to be saved through the flood, that that God had provisioned. The ark was the only way. Christ is the only way to salvation. Christ is the only method.

29:22 The ark only had one door. There was only one way in. There was only one way to get into the ark to be saved. And we understand there is only one way to receive Christ and receive salvation. Not that there's only...

29:37 There's one specific prayer you have to pray, but it is... Scripture in the New Testament is clear on how the salvation process works. Like Chris was pointing out last week, you can't just believe that Christ was real. That's not the end of it. There there's a process and we understand that through the New Testament.

29:56 There is one way to accepting Christ and accepting god's plan of salvation. So, that's where the the the ark represents and it and it points forward to the new covenant. God sealed the door behind Noah and his family. God sealed it. So, once they were in, they were kept.

30:19 They were sealed. And and the picture that we get there, I think, is when we are saved and we receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seals us for the day of redemption as we read in the New Testament. And we are sealed. We are kept by God.

30:36 Further evidence of a Christian's inability to lose their salvation. This is another one of those. The spirit of god will keep them till the day of redemption and that's part of what god sealing the door. God closing the door that that represents this finality. Okay.

30:54 God shut it. That's it and not only can you not lose your salvation but what else did that do? God closed the door before the before the water came, I assume, or maybe it had started raining, but it wasn't really a flood yet. I don't know. But it also kept everyone else out.

31:12 It also kept everyone else out. And this is... If if you wanna try to get into Noah's shoes again, Noah would have had a lot of family. We know that that Methuselah had died and and his father, Lamech, actually died five years before the flood. But Noah probably had a lot of siblings.

31:33 His wife probably had a lot of siblings. And Noah is declared by God as the only one. As we saw in the beginning of chapter seven, for you alone, I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. So even though Noah's siblings were not followers of the Lord, you know, even if that... That's true today, you could have a sibling or a close loved one who's not follower of the lord.

31:58 Does that mean you don't love him? Of course not. And and god sealed them in the ark and they probably wanted to come in when the flood started and that would have been a tough thing. I I that would be terrible. But god is clear that there is sin and then there's judgement.

32:18 God waits and and we know from what I said earlier, Noah was preaching. Noah was preaching. Peter said he was And even if Peter hadn't said that, could probably figure that Noah must have been. During all that time he was building the ark, trying to... Not just his family, but friends too, trying to get them to understand and believe God and believe that this was coming and that they could be saved, but they rejected it.

32:43 They rejected it. So God shuts that door and it kept all the other evil out. Another symbolism, and and we're getting close to the end here, another picture that I think we have, not only is the ark a picture of Christ, but I think we can I think we can say that Noah himself in some certain ways pointed to the work of Christ? And let's get on to that. Noah was given a specific task by God.

33:46 Probably not just the physical suffering of how many splinters and blisters and however many years it took them to build that thing, fifty, seventy, eighty, I don't know how many years it took. But there was a, you know, that was physically difficult but what about the emotional and spiritual trials of doing that, having to dedicate your... I don't want to say your life's work because Noah was 500 years old before he even started building it. But a large portion of his life, Noah had to spend doing this thing. And I don't know how many of us would have would like to have a job given to us by god that took seventy or eighty years to do and we just do this day in and day out.

34:33 That's that's That's a test of faith and obedience right there. That would have been tough. And Noah also would have had to suffer the rejection by everyone else, those who rejected his message, more than likely the ridicule that he received from all this, and didn't Christ bear that also? But Christ also bore the rejection of man, the rejection of his chosen people as the Messiah. Christ bore rejection and ridicule when he was hung on the cross, he was mocked.

35:12 You know, so I I think that that the suffering that Noah had to bear through his god given task, we can see somewhat in Christ as well. And Noah was given this task to provide salvation. God gave him a task. God God said, I will save you. Here's how you're going to do it.

35:34 You have and you're going to have to suffer a bit and that's what Christ did. Christ came to the Earth and he came and he suffered in order to provide salvation and I think we can say, well, Noah did that too. So, in these couple of ways, I I don't want to glorify. I'm not trying to glorify Noah here but again, we're looking at some symbolism here. Why?

35:59 Why does this story exist in in the way that it does? And I think the rich symbolism here is why. So that we have another, a greater picture or another way of understanding why God works the way He does. Noah Noah was declared righteous by god not on his own works but on his faith and it's exactly the same way as Abraham was. When we read in Romans four about Abraham and Paul goes on this discourse about how Abraham's salvation worked out because this is before God laid the the law.

36:37 This is before the Mosaic law, before the sacrifices, this is before even the old covenant. So Noah, like Abraham, was an heir of righteousness. Noah had faith before the flood, which is why he was chosen by God. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and he was a righteous man, blameless in his time, and Noah walked with God. That's before.

37:03 So Noah wasn't given this task to work out his own salvation. It wasn't, I'll save you if you do this. It was Noah was already a man of high standing with God. Noah was already following God. Noah already had faith in God.

37:19 Noah already trusted God. Noah already obeyed God. And god gave him a task that tested his faith, that tested his obedience and the process of the ark was not a it it could seem at first look that the process of the ark shows a a sort of works based salvation but that's not what it was because like I said, faith... His faith existed before this. So, it wasn't that he built the ark in order to save himself.

37:54 You know, he had to commit a good deed or he had to do this act much like it is now. You know, we we as Christians, if we perform if we if we want to for lack of a better term, if we perform a good work or we do this thing for god, what why we why do we do these things for god? Is it because we think that we have to do this in order to keep our salvation or in order to keep ourselves in heaven or no, we we understand that it's not. The all the actions that we do as Christians come out of the faith that's from within. So, those of us who have accepted Christ, those of us who are who are carrying the spirit of god within us.

38:35 God gives us that power and that desire to do these things for his glory and his pleasure. It's not, it should not be because we think that anything that we do has any effect on our salvation at all because it doesn't and and and I've talked about that before. So, it's not a we should not take it as a works based salvation. It really isn't. It's a faith based and and because of Noah's faith, this is why he's mentioned in Hebrews 11.

39:01 In Hebrews 11 that we got through talking about just a many weeks ago but Noah is mentioned by the writer of Hebrews and Noah's faith. Noah was one of these great figures of faith and that's why he was chosen by god to do this. That's why he was given the story and that's why we have the story and and the symbolism that we have to try to see through this story. I'm going to close with a quote from Charles Spurgeon. And Ray will pick this up in chapter eight next week.

39:38 I was going to start... I was gonna talk about the flood a little bit and how it's kind of cool. But for the sake of time, we'll skip that part because it's not very doctrinal anyway. Charles Spurgeon. When the storm beat upon the ark, it might have destroyed the lion quite as easily as the mouse, but it destroyed neither because the signs of the ark could bear the tempest.

40:45 As I have already said, it all hangs upon that question, Do you believe in Christ? If your heart trusts Christ, you are safe, come what may. But if you rest not in Him, you are lost, come what will. God save you for Jesus' sake. Amen.

41:04 Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, we thank You again for this time that we've had to open your word. We thank you for the rich pictures and the illustrations we find in the Old Testament of your future plans and in the pictures that are painted of the New Testament that we might somehow through all the illustrations see or come to understand better what your plan is for us and the plan of your salvation and your plan in our lives. Thank you for this time that we've had and and we ask that you would help us to apply this in our lives that we might remember the things that you would have us remember and and if I said anything that you did not want us to remember that we would forget that as well and that that you ultimately would be glorified in in what was shared today and we ask that you impart your spirit upon us as we go and that we that we might be empowered more And that we might be empowered because we are safe in the arms of Jesus, that we are safe in the ark that is Christ our Lord.

42:15 And we ask that you bless us as we go. In His name we pray, amen.