Thank you, James. I appreciate
that. One of those stories Christ will
be speaking about again tonight from Genesis chapter 6. If you
would go with me back to the book of Genesis and we'll go
to chapter 6 and we'll talk about the art of safety. arc of safety. In the sixth chapter of Genesis,
we see the world is filled with ungodly people The one thing that all of these
millions and millions of people had in common, by the way, it's
estimated by many people that when God sent the flood, that
there were as many as six billion people upon the face of the earth. But they all had this in common. They were all sinful. are all
wicked. Here's how things got going,
we might say sideways. It was on account of a compromise,
that is a compromise between those who believe the truth of
God's grace, who then let down their guard, And they began to
mix with, and their beliefs mixed with, those who did not believe
the gospel of grace. It's never a good thing to compromise
the very truth of God. It is very dangerous. The reason
that in Genesis 6, the reason that God is going to destroy
the earth with water was on account of this that happened at the
very beginning of the chapter as it sets forth. Those who knew
God and those who didn't know God, blending their beliefs together,
the result was a false There is no mixing of grace and works. There can be no union between
that which gives God all the glory and salvation and that
which enables man to get some of the credit. That won't work. And as I look at Genesis chapter
6 and chapter 7 and chapter 8, I see the end result of that. Those of us who've been gifted
by God to believe the gospel of His grace, let's hold tenaciously
to this gospel of Christ Jesus. There must never be any let up
or any giving in to those who believe differently. And so we
say, well, for the sake of unity, let's kind of compromise. We'll lessen some of the things
that we believe. That is deadly. And the greatest
evidence of that is what happened here in these few chapters in
the book of Genesis. The result of the mixing of these
two kinds of people and the mixing of these beliefs was that a race
of people arose who hated the gospel. They hated the message
of grace. You'll remember way back in Genesis
chapter three, God said, the seed of the woman is coming.
Who is the seed of the woman? That's Messiah, that's Christ
Jesus. And this was the very gospel
that Abel believed. And Cain killed his brother Abel,
and it was over religion, the very first blood shed in this
world was over religion. Cain believed that if you do
the best you can, you put forth a good effort, you live by the
golden rule, you bring to God the best that you've got, and
you try to live right and you try to do right, Cain believed
God would accept you. God wouldn't have anything to
do with his offering because his offering had no blood. It
didn't represent death. There was no death in his sacrifice,
in his offering. Whereas the gift or the offering
of Abel, it was an offering of death. And it represented the
Lord Jesus. And of course, we know Cain rose
up and he killed Abel. And the lineage of this man,
Cain, lived on and greatly multiplied. Now, of course, Adam and Eve
had another son, and his name was Seth. And he, like his mom
and dad, believed the gospel of God's grace. He looked to
Christ Jesus, and he believed this message that if we're going
to be saved, God's got to save us. And it's all of grace. It's
all due to His mercy. And things went on for a good
bit, and of course, the lineage of Cain kept growing, as did
the lineage of Seth. But then the lineage of Seth
began to compromise. And this is what happens. The
result was what's called in verse four, they were giants. They were giants. And the word
giants means violent, oppressive men. They were violent just like
Cain was violent. and they oppressed the people
of God. Those who continued to believe
the gospel were oppressed. And having the nature of Cain,
they were violent. They were cruel toward those
who believed the message of grace. And so God says he's going to
destroy. And I went through, actually
this afternoon once again, reading through all of this inspired
record regarding what God had said that he would
do. And you'll notice over and over
again, God talks about destruction. And for those who don't believe
that God is a God of justice, that God will by no means clear
the guilty, they need to read this. Look with me. Look, just go through the verses
with me and all I'll do on these particular verses, I'll just
read them without any comment. Look at chapter six and verse
seven. And the Lord said, and I'll just read these first few
words, I will destroy man. I will destroy man. Look down
at verse 13. And God said unto Noah, the end
of all flesh is come before me, the border of all flesh. In other
words, man has reached this deadline, as it were. He's reached the
end. I'm not going to let him go any further, is what God is
saying. For the earth is filled with
violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the
earth. Look at verse 17. And behold, I, even I, do bring
a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh. Go over to chapter seven. Look at verse four. God says,
forget seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth
40 days and 40 nights, and every living substance that I have
made will I destroy. from off the face of the earth.
And look at verse 23. And every living substance was
destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground. Here's God's message. I will
destroy. But there were a few people,
in fact, one man that God saw who was righteous. And the scripture
says of this one man, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
And it cannot be that the righteous should be destroyed with the
wicked. And so God commissioned this
man to build an ark, an ark of safety. And so we read in chapter
six and verse 14, God said, make thee an ark. Make thee an ark,
chapter 6 and verse 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood,
rooms, literally compartments. If you want to be real specific
about the meaning of the word, nests, like the birds make nests. That's the word here. Nests shalt
thou make in the ark, and pitch it within and without with pitch. In the Old Testament, in the
Hebrew, that word translated here, pitch, 70 times in the
Old Testament is translated atonement. And it points us to the reconciling
work of the Lord Jesus. What is atonement? Atonement
with God. That's what it means. God is
atonement with us. God approves of us because of
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God said He's going to
destroy, but He's going to spare this man and this man's family. Building the ark is what Noah
set out to do. Now, of course, God had said
this back in verse three. The Lord said, my spirit shall
not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh, and yet
his days shall be 120 years. 120 years. The picture that God sets
before us is of awful depravity and human guilt. And yet God
gives to men, He gives them space for repentance. 120 years. And
during those 120 years, Noah built the ark. The ark is a picture of the Lord
Jesus and His salvation, as our brother sang in that song. God
has purposed to save people by the Son of God, and judgment
would not fall upon Noah, it would not fall upon his wife,
it would not fall upon his sons, it would not fall upon his daughters-in-law,
but it fell on the ark in which they were in. And God kept them
safe. In fact, just hold your place
here. If you'd go over to 2 Peter,
let me just show you this one verse in 2 Peter 2 and verse
number 5. 2 Peter 2 and verse 5. Where Peter says this, God spared
not the old world, but He saved Noah. He saved Noah, the eighth
person, who was a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the
flood upon the world of the ungodly. He saved Noah. You know what
that word means? He kept Noah safe. He preserved
Noah. He guarded Noah. All the wrath
of God that fell upon the ark, and the wrath of God that came
gurgling up from the heart of the earth, in the midst of all
of that, in that ark, Noah was absolutely safe. He could not have been safer
had he been in heaven's glory. He is absolutely safe in the
ark. God guarded him. God preserved him. That's literally
the meaning of the word saved there in 2 Peter. God preserved
him. God guarded him. God kept him
safe. And so as we go back to Genesis
chapter 6, Noah builds this ark. Now God gives specific instructions
about the building of the ark. And he says to Noah, he talks
about these rooms, these different compartments or nests. He says in verse 15, and this
is the fashion which thou shall make of it. The length of the
ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, the
height of it 30 cubits. That is about 450 feet long and
75 feet wide and 45 feet high. And then he says, now notice
this in verse 16. A window thou shalt make to the
ark, and a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the door of the
ark thou shalt set right in the side. Thereof, with lower and
second and third stories shalt thou make it. And as I thought
about this, about three stories, Surely there's some typology
here, there's some picture in here. I don't want to stretch
these pictures or these typologies. I don't want to stretch them
too thin. But here surely is a picture
of the very Trinity. Here's a picture of our God.
Because all of this art is of God. This is not Noah's idea. Noah, he had no idea judgment
was coming. And when God said at first, I
will destroy, Noah didn't even know how that destruction was
gonna come about until God revealed to him there would be a flood.
But before God even revealed to him there'd be a flood, God
said, make thee an ark of gopher wood. And this ark is going to
be the place of safety. The ark is of God's design. The ark is of God's making. And
you see this ark which pictures Christ and His salvation, that's
the way it is with the salvation which is of God by Christ Jesus. It's all of God's design. First
of all, consider the lower floor, the first floor. That's the very
basis of all of it. There's not going to be an upper
floor, there's not going to be a second floor, unless there's
a first floor. There's the work of God the Father.
He's the one who laid the keel for salvation. He's the one who
laid the foundation. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. It's God the Father who's set forth in that first floor,
in that first story. He holds up all the great edifice
of salvation. Here's this magnificent preservation
of undeserving and ungodly sinners. Who's behind it all? God is. God the Father. God who loved
us with an everlasting love. God the Father who is gracious
to us. And then there's the second floor.
And as I think of the second floor, that must represent Christ
Jesus. Right in the middle. Right in
the middle. The one of God's choosing. The
one who had laid down his life in order to save his people from
their sins. And then, on that second floor,
that's where the door was. The door wasn't on the bottom
floor. The door wasn't on the top floor.
The door, the scripture specifically says, is in the side. It's in
the side. And as I think of the door being
in the side of the ark, I think about our Lord Jesus being wounded
in His side when He was crucified and out flowed blood and water.
And the fact that there is one door indicates that the Lord
Jesus is the only way to safety. If you wanted to go into the
ark, There was only one way you could get in there. It didn't
matter whether you were old or young or whether you were a human
or an animal. It didn't matter whether you
were male or female, a big animal or a little animal. It didn't
matter whether you're Noah or Mrs. Noah. Everybody went in
the exact same way. And that's the way it is in the
salvation. There are not many ways, there's just one way. Our
Lord Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture. Well, preacher,
you say that's the Baptist way, but also the Catholics have got
their way. Listen, there are many ways that
men talk about getting into salvation and getting into heaven itself,
but the scripture is very specific, just like the ark, one door in
the side. Christ is the only way of entrance.
There is no other door. You see, grace is the great equalizer. I know they say death is the
great equalizer, but really grace is. Because grace, if grace is
going to usher us in and effectually draw us into the ark of God's
salvation, it will deal with all of us through Christ Jesus
himself. And then there's the upper story.
There's the upper floor. And that has to represent, I
believe, the work of the Holy Spirit. Because you see it's
in the upper story. That's where the window of the
Ark was. And we've already talked about
it, and the scripture says one cubit, about 18 inches, that
being the way they measured from the tip end of your longest finger
to the crook of your elbow, about 18 inches. And so there's a window
that goes around the ark, and it's just like this, divided
only by those supports that hold up the roof. And the roof would
overhang. This speaks to us of the Holy
Spirit because, you see, it's the Spirit of God who lets in
light, who enlightens us. The Scripture talks about our
darkened hearts, the ignorance, the natural ignorance and spiritual
darkness of all men. Well, who is it that brings light?
It's the Spirit of Grace. and He brings breath to us. We've already talked about how
the window is necessary for light and for ventilation, for air. And the very name for the Spirit
of God is breath or wind. You see, in conversion, it's
the Spirit of God who breathes into us the breath of spiritual
life. You'll remember back in the book
of Genesis, and of course in chapter one we have the record
of the creation of Adam, but it's in the second chapter where
we read that God made man out of the dust of the ground, and
Adam's name means red dirt. Red dirt. We have a real illustrious
genealogy, don't we? We came from red dirt. There's
not too much to be proud about there. But God breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
And it's the Spirit of God who breathes into us, through the
Word of God, the breath of spiritual life. And we live to the glory
of God, and as a result of being born again, we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And listen, you've got to be
careful. Be careful who you listen to
and what they're saying to you. There's a preacher on television
every Sunday. And he'll close his message by
saying, if you believe on Jesus, we believe you just got born
again. That's not the way to be born
again is believing on the Lord Jesus. You're born again and then you
believe on the Lord Jesus. It isn't belief first and then
life. It's life first and then belief,
right? Isn't that the way it goes? That's
the right order. There's life that has to come to us first.
A person who's dead, physically, has no breath. They have no breath. And that's the way it is with
us by nature. But the Spirit of God gives us
breath. He gives us life. And so the
third story, I'm persuaded, speaks of the ministry of the Spirit
of God, the wind of God, who gives us life. That arc also, I'm sure, pictures
the death, the burial, and the resurrection, and the regeneration
of all of God's people in Christ Jesus. going into that ark and residing
that ark, being separated from the world, cut off from all life
without, picture the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He entered
into death. That ark lifted up by the waters
from beneath, and with the waters of heaven covering the top of
it, all that rain, underneath the thunderclouds of God's judgment. That's his burial in the wrath
of God. Being buried in the wrath of
God. But then the ark comes to rest
on top of Mount Ariadne. And there's his resurrection.
And then when the doors open, the door of the ark is opened
by God. Go forth. There's regeneration
because it's going forth into new life. Everything's new. The old has been washed away. And everything is new. And let me tell you, everybody
who's in the ark was safe. You agree? Everybody who's in
the ark was safe. And as I think about the people
of God, everybody who's in Christ Jesus are safe. You need not
worry, you need not be anxious about the judgment of God or
the threat of the wrath of God. If you're in Christ Jesus, you're
absolutely safe. But there are some of the people
of God who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's almost
like they're down on the bottom floor in the darkness and they
just don't have much assurance of salvation. You see, it's kind of dark down
here. It's kind of scary down here. You're in the ark, aren't
you? And then there are those on the
second floor, and they have faith. We believe Christ Jesus. And
then there are those up there who are looking out through the
window, looking up to the sky, looking up above, and they're
full of assurance. Whereas those down in the bottom
are kind of doubting. Reckon everything's going to
be alright. But you know what? All are equally safe. Because
they're all in the ark. And we do want more faith. I
pray for more faith. Let me tell you something. It
isn't the strength of your faith that keeps you safe. It's the
strength of the ark. It's the strength of the ark.
It's how mighty your Savior is. It's how glorious this salvation
is. If it's a salvation all of God
and all in Christ Jesus, it will last forever. It'll never wear
out. And your faith may be weak. And
let's all be honest as people of God, there are times when
our faith is very weak. But we're still strong in Christ. we're still preserved by the
power of God. Let me show you a passage in
1 Peter 3. Would you go over there? Look
in 1 Peter 3. And I'll go to verse 18. 1 Peter
3, verse 18, also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that means the righteous for the unrighteous,
that he might bring us to God, in order that, the word might
means in order that, he would bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. By which also
he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime,
that is, in time past, were disobedient when once the long-suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah. That is, our Lord Jesus,
through his servant Noah, preached in that day. The Lord speaks
through his men. After all, we read there in 2
Peter that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. It says, when
once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is in eight souls,
were saved by water. It says that there's the longsuffering
of God. God waited 120 years. Isaiah says He waits to be gracious. What's God waiting on? Well,
He's not waiting on men. No, He's not waiting on men to fulfill
His purpose. He's waiting until He Himself
has that ark by His appointment, constructed by Noah, and all
eight people are safely in the ark. That's how long God will
wait. That's the forbearance of God. Because, here's another passage.
Look over at 2 Peter again, this time chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter
3. Look at verse nine. The Lord
is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering, not to everybody, but to usward. To usward. Not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And then
look down at verse 15. And the count that the longsuffering
of our Lord is salvation. God was longsuffering in the
days of Noah. What's He waiting on? Why doesn't
God send His wrath He's already said, and we read those times,
I will destroy, I will destroy. Well, what's God waiting on?
For the ark to be built so that His people will be safely in
the ark and the deluge will not wash them away. The wrath of
God is still going to fall. but it will fall on the ark and
not on those occupants inside the ark. Even as the wrath of
God, it fell on Christ Jesus, did it not? The wrath of God,
He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And indeed,
all the storm clouds of God's wrath gathered over the cross
of Calvary, and the lightning bolts of His anger struck right
into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ when He bore the sins
of His people, but all of us were in Him because He is the
ark. And none of them fall on us.
Not one drop of rain water is going to fall on us because it
all fell on the Lord Jesus. And you see, God waited till
the ark was built because Noah and his wife and his sons and
his daughters-in-law, they could not perish. And I made some statements
like this Wednesday night. They could not perish because
the gospel of God's grace was in that ark. The only truth of
God was in that ark. Will God preserve the truth?
Absolutely. He'll preserve Noah who will
teach us about substitution and satisfaction because the very
first thing he does when he leaves the ark is build an altar and
offer sacrifices to God. Blood sacrifices. Blood is something
a lot of people are leaving out of their sermons these days,
but the Bible is full of the blood of Christ Jesus. God waits to be gracious. And it cannot be that the righteous
should be destroyed with the wicked. And here's the promise
of God about the seed of the woman. Who made that promise? God did. His promise, as it were,
is in that ark. Will His promise fail to come
to pass? Oh, no. He's preserving those
in the ark. And I'll show you why. Go to
Luke chapter 3. The purpose of God can't fail.
Within that ark is the gospel of God's grace, and within that
ark is the very lineage of Christ Jesus. inside that ark. You can trace it all the way
back. All the way back to Noah. There's
the lineage of our Savior. Listen, if that ark goes down,
if it sinks, then all of our hopes sink. And moreover, the
purpose of God sinks, and that can't possibly happen. Here in
Luke chapter three, here's the family tree of Mary. I don't
have time to read all this, but I'll tell you, these names, don't
read over them too hastily. They're very important. And you get down to Luke chapter
three and look at verse, I'll go to 36. Look at Luke chapter three in
verse 36. We're just kind of breaking into this lineage now. Which was the son of Cainan,
which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of, it says
Sam, that's the New Testament way of saying one of the sons
of Noah, Shem. Which was the son of Noah, which
was the son of Lamech, which was the son of Methuselah, which
was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the
son of Malaliel, which was the son of Canaan, which was the
son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of
Adam, which was the son of God. And you know how this all started
out? The very beginning, go back to verse 23 here of Luke three. And Jesus himself, began to be
about 30 years of age, as was supposed, the son of Joseph,
who was the son of Heli, and then tracing Mary's lineage all
the way back, it goes through Shem. You see, there's Shem in
the ark. There's Noah in the ark. But
His Son is in the ark too. And it's through Noah and then
Shem and onward forward, then the Lord Jesus is going to be
born. Hundreds of years in the future.
If the ark goes down, there's no Savior. If the ark goes down,
there's no redemption. It can't go down. God has designed it in such a
way and given instructions to Noah. This is how you build it
and you pitch it with in and without with pitch. It don't
look like much, Noah, but I'll guarantee you this, it'll float.
Because pitch was a black tarry substance. It's on the inside,
it's on the outside. Let me take a picture of that
beautiful ark. Look at all that beautiful wood. No, it wasn't
beautiful. It wasn't beautiful. But it sure
got the job done. It kept them safe. That was its
intention. That was its purpose. To keep
them safe. And so, God did indeed keep them
safe. Let me show you something. Go
back to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Look at verse 10. Here's another
verse we tend to read over. And Noah begat three sons, and
here are their names, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It's kind of an
unusual order. You know why it's unusual? Because
Shem wasn't the oldest. No. And I know that from chapter
10 and verse 21. Chapter 10 in verse 21. Undershim
also, I'll give you a second to find it. Okay, about all the
pages have stopped turning. So look at chapter 10 in verse
21. Undershim also, the father of
all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth, the elder. Japheth is the elder brother. Well, what is the reason when
the sons are listed? Shem's name is the first one
mentioned. Because that's the lineage of
the Savior. That's why. Not these other boys. There's some indication Japheth
became a believer. Not Ham. But Japheth. But you see, here's all the promises
of God. They're tied to shim. And so the flood came and destroyed
all the unbelieving world. And you might conclude, and let
me see if I can bring this message to an end here. You might conclude,
well, all the iniquity and all the evil and all the depravity
has now been washed away. It's like God has trimmed all
the trees of the dead branches and the rotten branches and here's
all these ungodly people. They're all dead and washed away
in the everlasting hell. We're done with them and now
things will be much better. There's a bright future for the
earth. Well, not so fast. Why don't
you look at chapter 6 and verse 5 again. 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. And you
know, when Noah and his family came out of the ark, God had
the same assessment. If you'll look in chapter eight, And verse 21, and the Lord smelled a sweet
savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground anymore for man's sake. Now watch it. Virtue of
the same language, just a slight change. For the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth. Oh, I thought things would be
better. they'll go back to being just like they were before. And every imagination of man,
the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually. It isn't
that all men are equally wicked outwardly. Okay? It isn't that. But all men are
equally depraved inwardly. It's an inward problem. It's
not so much an outward problem. You see, the outward things that
men do that are vile and wicked and ungodly and ruthless and
violent, it's only the result of an inward problem and all
of us inwardly are exactly the same by nature. That's what people
don't see. They only see the outward things
that are done. You say, it's the worst age that's
ever been on the face of God's earth. The wickedness is indeed
great. But you see, within the heart,
man's just as vile as he's ever been. And when God says the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth, there are only eight people
left. So this applies to them. Oh yeah, the lineage of the seed
of the woman is going to continue. But I'll tell you something else
that's gonna continue. The evil of men's hearts. That's going to continue. Now, there's a difference though. Because if you look back in chapter
six in verse five, permit me to show you this again. You've
probably already picked up on it. It says, God saw the weakness
of man was great in the earth. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And therefore, verse seven, and
the Lord said, I will destroy. Now go back over to chapter eight. And God says, For the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth, but before that, God said,
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. And then he says, in verse 22,
while the earth remaineth, chapter eight, verse 22, seed time and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall
not cease. In other words, in Genesis chapter
6 verse 5, God said, every imagination of man's heart
is only evil continually. I will destroy. And you get over
to chapter 8 and God says, every imagination of man's heart is
only evil. I will give life. What's the difference? What's
the difference? The difference is the blood sacrifices. That's the difference. Because
you see, chapter 8, verse 20, And Noah built an ark unto the
LORD, And took of every clean beast, And of every clean fowl,
And offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled
a sweet savor, And the LORD said in his heart, He said to himself,
And the Spirit of God led Moses to record this. What God said
to Himself. I will not again curse the ground
anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I smite, I'm not
going to smite anymore everything living as I have done. I'm not
going to do that again. Instead, it's life. And the difference
is the death of the sacrifices. That's the difference. That's
always the difference maker, is the death of the sacrifices. And all of those animals, the
deaths of them pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And here is
God's promise, by the way, in verse 22. While the earth remaineth, seedtime
and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, the day and night
shall not cease. Now you think about this, Noah
and his family have been in the ark actually a little bit better
than a year. And all the water upon the face
of the earth has put the seasons of the year into disarray. Things are all mixed up. But God says not to worry. As long as the earth remains,
there will still be the seasons. He put that back in. There will
be seed time and harvest. as long as the earth remains.
Don't worry too much about those doomsday people that, and you
may, whatever you feel about global warming and things like
that. I heard one guy say the other
day, he said, it's going to end our seasons. Well, not unless
you can change the purpose of God. Can you change the purpose
of God? You think man can do that? God says, while the earth remaineth,
this is the way it's going to be. So I wouldn't give a whole
lot of worry to things like that. Or like somebody says, I think
a meteor is going to hit the earth and it's just going to
explode and kill us all. I wouldn't worry about that either. God rules over all things. People
worry about stuff they ought not even worry about. Hey, I know I was talking with
one of you just before the service. Before you know it, warmer weather
will be here. How do you know that? God said so. God said it may not come soon
enough for some of us, but it'll be here. There will be a time
of sowing yet again. And there'll be a time of harvest.
And it'll go on while the earth remaineth. And we give you one
more thing. Just exactly how long will the
earth remain? Well, as far as number of years,
I can't tell you. But I can assure you this. As
long as the people of God are here, we are the salt of the
earth. That's why God preserves the
earth. That's the only reason, because His people are here.
But when He takes us out, it's going to be another devastating
time for the earth. Not by water, but by fire. That's what He said. And I don't
care what anybody else says. Let them say what they will.
Let God be true. Every man a liar. I'm not going
to believe them. I don't believe God's Word. Well,
there's not too many like you, preacher. Well, he's always got
his Noahs, his Shams. He's always got his people, and
he preserves us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I hope that'll
help you.