Good morning. How are you all doing today? Great. I always like to start our
services by welcoming anybody that is here for the first time in our sanctuary
or if you're joining us first time online, welcome. We're so glad you're here.
I am Pastor Nathan and today we are here to participate and celebrate with our
brothers and sisters who are getting baptized. We are so excited for them and
this decision they're making to publicly proclaim what they have already decided
to do in their heart. You see, we understand that baptism is the public
profession that you have given your life to Jesus Christ, that you have died to
yourself, that you have been resurrected to new life through the power of Jesus
and that's what this represents going into and coming up out of the water. And
so for those of you getting baptized today, we are blessed and honored to be
here to celebrate this with you. But we're also going to continue our study
through the flood story of Genesis and so we'll be getting into that as well.
But we know or we should know that God, Almighty God, being outside of time is in
control of and orchestrates everything. Every event, every possibility, every
calendared thing, it's all in His control. You know, some people describe it like a
big tapestry of events that God knows every connection with. And so even though
we know God controls everything and we acknowledge that He is aware, there are
special moments that take place that really kind of stand out as especially
God orchestrated or just very unusually obviously God orchestrated. And today is
one of those days because we are at the point in our study of Genesis where we're
going to be looking at the actual flood itself. That's what we're looking at
today. And that happened to fall on the calendar on the same day we're
celebrating baptism. And the reason that is really special to me is because this
is what 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 18 through 22 says, for Christ also
suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He
might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the
Spirit, in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison
who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah
while the ark was being prepared. In it, speaking of the ark, a few, that is eight
people, were saved through water. Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you,
not as the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience
towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to
Him. Baptism corresponds to the waters of the flood. And I just think it's
beautiful that that's where God has us landed today as we're celebrating
baptism. And so the question you might have is, well how does baptism correspond
to the flood? Guess what? That's what we're gonna be looking at today. And
we're gonna be looking at what that teaches us about baptism and what it
means. We're also gonna be looking at a little bit of some of the evidence and
answering the question, did the flood really happen? Is it just a story? Is it
a story that Moses stole from another source to include in the Bible? How do we
know? Is there any evidence in our world today that points to the fact that a
flood happened? And then we're also gonna be dealing with some of the stuff where
was it a global flood? Was it a local flood? And all that good stuff. But the
overarching importance of it is to understand what the flood teaches us
about baptism, the importance of it, and the just beautiful, beautiful
representation of what baptism is. But first we're gonna celebrate God and
praise him because he is amazing. He is the one who saves our souls. You know
when we put our faith on in him, in his work on the cross, the Bible says that we
are a brand new creation. That the judgment that we stood in front of
because of our sin has been wiped away, washed away, done away with, that we
would live a new life in the glory of Jesus Christ. And that is absolutely
worth celebrating. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we love you so much. We're so
thankful, God, for everything in your Word. Lord, you speak to us in this
Bible we have, God, that you held together just through centuries. Lord, to
give us the message of who you are, what you want, what you want from us, and what
you did for us, Lord. God, we're so grateful. Lord, as we've been studying
through Genesis, the beginning of all things, God, and we've come to this point
of the flood, Lord, where you destroyed the entire world because of sin and
people choosing to live in sin and deny you. God, we still see the hope that you
saved Noah and his family. And Lord, as your Word tells us that baptism
corresponds to the waters of the flood, God, I pray today we would be
encouraged, we would be equipped. God, we would have the knowledge necessary, Lord,
to have these conversations with people who dispute these things, Lord, to
encourage them and to share with them the truth of what your Word teaches. That,
God, we would be ready to share what baptism is with new believers, God, that
they would then take that step to be baptized publicly. But, God, we would all
be encouraged ourselves in our own relationship with you that, God, because
we are in Christ, we have been saved from judgment. And for that, God, we are
eternally grateful. We love you and we thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. You guys ever heard of typology? Typology is a word that means a special
kind of symbolism. You know, when we hear the word symbolism, most of us would
understand that symbolism is something that represents something else, right?
Well, type, a type or typology in the Bible means that something in Scripture,
a person or a thing in the Old Testament, is prophetically foreshadowing a person
or thing in the New Testament. That's what we mean when you hear the word
typology or biblical typology. You guys might have heard people say something in
a study about the Old Testament like, oh, that's a type of Christ. And when you
hear that phrase, what the teacher means there is that there is something in the
Old Testament that is prophetically foreshadowing something about Jesus. It's
a type of Christ. Now, sometimes in Scripture we'll see these types stick
out very obviously as like for like. For example, in Matthew chapter 12 verse 40,
it says, for as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights,
so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
So what we would say there is that Jonah being in the belly of the fish was a type
of Christ being in the grave, right? Sometimes these types are like opposite.
For example, 1 Corinthians 15 22, for just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all
will be made alive. So there's an opposite, death and life. And then 1 Corinthians
15 45 goes on to say, so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being,
the last Adam, speaking of Jesus, became a life-giving spirit. You know, Scripture
identifies multiple Old Testament events, places, things as types in the New
Testament. But when we refer to something as a type in the Old Testament,
that doesn't automatically mean that it wasn't a real historical event or a real
historical person or anything like that. It doesn't automatically mean it's just
purely allegorical to something real in the New Testament. And so in the Old
Testament we have the tabernacle is called a type, right? Revelation tells us
that it was a picture. The tabernacle was a picture of the throne room of God.
The sacrificial system in the Old Testament was a type. It was meant to be
teaching about the necessity of blood being shed for sin and how that sacrifice
would then be on behalf of someone else. The Passover is a type where the New
Testament literally tells us that Jesus Christ is our Passover. But we know that
the sacrificial system, the tabernacle and Passover are real things that
happened in the Old Testament and some of those still happen today. Now if you're
interested in really digging into this stuff, study the book of Hebrews because
that book is just full of types all over the place. But this idea of types includes
the flood of Noah. The flood of Noah is a type and as we read in the intro, Peter
was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write, baptism corresponds to this, meaning the
waters of the flood. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today.
If you have your Bible or your apps open, go to Genesis chapter 7 verse 11. And I'm
going to read the entire story here and then we're going to kind of bounce through
it today to see what the Bible teaches us in the flood and what it teaches us
about the type of baptism that it is for us today. So it says, in the 600th year of
Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all
the sources of the vast watery depths burst open. The floodgates of the sky were
opened and the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. On the same day, Noah
along with his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth entered the ark along with Noah's wife
and his three sons' wives. They entered it with all the wildlife according to
their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl
on the earth according to their kinds, every flying creature, all the birds and
every winged creature according to their kinds. Two of every creature that has the
breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark. Those that entered, male
and female, of every creature entered just as God had commanded him. Then the
Lord shut him in. The flood continued for 40 days on the earth. The water
increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. The water
surged and increased greatly on the earth and the ark floated on the surface
of the water. Then the water surged even higher on the earth and all the mountains
under the whole sky were covered. The mountains were covered as the water
surged above them more than 20 feet. Every creature perished. Those that crawl
on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife and those that swarm on the earth as
well as mankind. Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its
nostrils, everything on dry land died. He wiped out every living thing that was on
the face of the earth from mankind to livestock to creatures that crawl to the
birds of the sky and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left and those
that were with him in the ark and the water surged on the earth for 150 days.
Now you'll notice through those scriptures that there is repetition. God
seems to repeat over and over so that we don't miss the point that it was all
creatures that crawl, all livestock, all birds, and he says it numerous times.
These came to Noah in two by two and then these died and he repeats it again.
They died and he repeats it again. They died so that we don't miss the point
that the entire earth was wiped out, that all life on dry land was wiped out. Now
some might go, well what about the fish? Well the fish didn't come into the ark.
God didn't say build an aquarium in there to take two of every fish. So yeah
it's fish probably survived. Many of them I believe died but we have fish life
today and so there were some that lived because guess what? They don't breathe
air. They breathe water and so that's why it tells us that. But we see these
things and we see these details and I believe those details are there because
in literary terms when you have detail like this it's usually representative
of historical accuracy. It's representative of I'm telling you about
a historical event that really happened. Right? He opens up with this idea that on
the 600th year in the second month on the 17th day of the month. Now of course
over the years calendars have changed but when Moses wrote this you could
quite literally count back to the day the flood happened. And some people have
done mathematics today to go what day did that happen based upon you know the
Jewish calendar and all that and of course there's a lot of speculation
there but it's awfully specific to be just an allegory. It's awfully specific
and it doesn't say that anything was like anything else. It just tells us very
directly that the flood happened and that is the big question a lot of people
have in the world. Did the flood really happen? Right? When we're reading
scripture sometimes we read these really fantastic stories and there is
a thought that can run through our minds. Did it really happen? Did it really
happen like that? And to answer those types of questions we have to start as
believers with how we understand scripture. What I mean by that is how do
we approach scripture? When we read it what should be our methodology in
discovering what it means? Well I believe that this is the best way to read
scripture is that we should read it from a literal grammatical and historical
context. What that means is when you read scripture anything from Genesis to
Revelation you start with the assumption that what you're reading is literal. You
start with that. You approach the word straightforward just just reading it
with the plain common understanding of what is there. The idea is that it means
what it says. That's the best way to start with scripture. Now you do this in
every instance everything you read in scripture unless there is a very clear
representation that it should be taken figuratively and those are usually very
clear in scripture. Sometimes in scripture you will see the words for and
so right? For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days so Jesus will be
da-da-da-da. That tells you that this event is being used allegorically of
this event. Now it doesn't inherently say this didn't happen but you'll also see
the word like. We saw that a lot in the book of Revelation right? John is seeing
something that he can't really describe and he goes so it's it's it's like a
armored grasshopper with you know and he's just trying to describe it and
you'll see that it's like something else. Obviously that tells us that something
is allegorical but otherwise you read scripture literally. You just read it for
what it says and start with it means what it says. Then when you read scripture
you also look at things from a grammatical point of view. What I mean by
that is that when you're reading scripture you start with the assumption
that grammar functions in a sentence like it does in every other piece of
communication right? The the the nouns correspond to the verbs and the subjects
correspond to the you know it just it reads like it reads. Sometimes people want
to over spiritualize things and and and and go well it must mean this you know
like if you read that sentence in normal English in another book you wouldn't be
coming up with these weird conclusions right? So there's a grammatical point of
view and then we read it historically meaning that what we're reading is not a
myth it's not a legend it's not a fanciful tale that we start with its
historical fact unless it's very clearly otherwise noted in scripture right? And
so when you ask the question did the flood really happen it's all gonna be
on how we read the scripture here and how we understand it. Now some people
will read this story and they go there's no way that the flood could have happened
there's there's no way it means exactly what it says and they'll say things like
oh the flood was just stolen from the Epic of Gilgamesh and that's a ancient
document that we do have we have discovered and guess what in the Epic of
Gilgamesh there is a very similar flood story to what we have in the Bible. Now
they'll go well since they're similar the Bible must have stole theirs from
that source and I'm like well if the Bible stole theirs from that source did
all of the other 280 peoples and tribes and they have their own flood stories
they also steal it from the Epic of Gilgamesh but nobody gets into that type
of stuff they only attack the Bible with that. Now I disagree with that for a lot
of reasons and we're gonna walk through some of those today but one of the other
big objections to this flood story is that we understand that is a global
flood that the whole planet was flooded but people dispute that they're like
that's not possible there's no way it could be a global flood it was just a
local flood like it was just written from Noah's point of view of the
time right when Noah said the whole world well that's just what he knew and
so they go it's just the Mesopotamian Valley but it didn't affect anything
else and again I disagree with some of those points that I'll point out now the
main reason I disagree with those is when we read this literally
grammatically and historically it uses extensive universal language over and
over again for example back in Genesis chapter 6 verse 17 when God was telling
Noah what he was gonna do he goes understand that I am bringing a flood
flood waters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the
breath of life in it now that phrase with the breath of life in it means
creatures that breathe air right and we read that later that he talks about the
creatures on dry land so he goes every creature under heaven the breath of life
in it everything on earth will perish now you might go well what about the
fish they're on earth too right well the word that's translated earth there is
meaning ground or the dry land and then we read that later in Genesis 7 verses
21 through 23 every creature perished those that crawl on the earth birds
livestock wildlife and those that swarm on the earth as well as all of mankind
everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils everything on
dry land died he wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth
from mankind to livestock to creatures that crawl to the birds of the sky and
they were wiped off the earth only Noah was left and those that were with him in
the ark now when you just read that plainly and you read a sentence like
only Noah was left and those with him in the ark grammatically you would go that
means only Noah was left and those that were with him in the heart right you
just read it that way and it tells tells us over and over it uses this universal
language every creature right it uses this phrase every living thing on the
face of the earth and face of the earth is another way to say on the dry land so
it uses this language over and over now as a Christian when you read this and
you're going okay I'm gonna read it literally grammatically and historically
you have to say this either happened universally or God is lying because we
believe this is his word and so let's look at the story again verse 11 it
opened up there to give us a very specific time frame in the 600th year of
Noah's life in the second month on the 17th day of the month on that day all
the sources of the vast watery depths burst open the floodgates of the sky
were opened and the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights and then at
the end of this section of verse 24 it tells us that the water surged on the
earth for 150 days so there was water that came from two places it rained for
40 days and 40 nights the water was surging we're gonna talk about that
later on the earth for 150 days and then as a story goes on we know that the
floodwaters receded and Noah ended up back on the dry land at the top of Mount
Ararat now when we read these things and we take it literally we take it
grammatically we take it historically we go okay it tells us here that all the
sources of the vast watery depths burst open and the floodgates of the sky
opened so that means water came from two places the sky and the ground now the
reason I'm pointing that up is because some people will argue things like well
it couldn't have been the sky because the sky cannot produce that much water
to flood the entire planet 20 feet above the tallest mountain and they'll have
different theories that that go to to stand against that one of them is the
canopy theory regarding the floodgates of the sky I've mentioned this back in
chapter 1 of Genesis if you remember in Genesis chapter 1 verses 6 through 8 on
the second day of creation it tells us that we find the earth completely covered
in water and then it says then God said let there be an expanse between the
waters separating water from water so God made the expanse and separated the
water under the expanse from the water above the expanse and it was so God
called the expanse sky evening came and then morning the second day and so there
there are some that that postulate that when the waters above from the waters
below were separated what happened is the waters above created what was called
a canopy it's called the canopy theory that there was a mist or an ice shell
around the planet and and they say that this shell around the planet created
perfect ideal temperatures around the earth the temperature was uniform around
the earth and so it was a very temperate place for life to grow and plants and it
was all you know super awesome right but then the canopy theory says when it says
here that the floodgates of the sky opened what they're referring to is that
that shell that missed or that ice became rain and fell to the earth and
that's where it rained some people point to that because this is the first time
rain is mentioned that up into this point it had never rained and that would
possibly explain some of the people you know speculatively going Noah why are
you building the boat God told me it's gonna rain what's that right you know
that's speculation but the idea was is that this water came down from this
canopy now some people will dispute that because modern scientists will do their
math and all their sciencey stuff and they'll go there's not a possibility
that enough water came from the sky to cover the planet above the highest
mountains and they'll go so it's not possible that there was this mist it's
not possible that all that happened or they'll say things like well that much
mist becoming rain and falling to the ground well that creates this thing
called an exothermic reaction right when steam becomes water it releases heat and
so the scientists go if all the entire globe suddenly mist became water there
would have been so much heat generated it would have cooked the earth like a
microwave or they go if it was an ice shell up there and that became liquid it
would create an endothermic reaction when ice becomes water it releases cold
and so they go if all of that happened it would have froze the earth now I
find that one interesting because we do know scientifically that there was ice
ages upon the planet at least one ice age that that is proven we have evidence
of that very clearly and a lot of theologians think yeah after the flood
when the floodwaters receded that's when everything changed upon the planet
that's when the ice caps formed that's when the first ice age happened it's all
speculation but it's interesting to consider and then some people go well it
just can't rain that long well in 1939 on Manuawili Ranch in
Hawaii it rained for 331 consecutive days so you know yeah there's that the
biggest thing when people go that there's no possibility that the water
came from the sky to fill over the mountains I go you're right because it
says the water came from the sky and the ground it came from both places now when
it says all of the sources of the vast watery depths burst open that means
water came up from the ground in some way there's a few different theories that
that are postulated for what this means and stuff but one of them which is
interesting is called the hydro plate theory and I just wanted to share that
with you because it has some interesting details the theory postulates that
before the flood there was one big supercontinent right the pangea idea
that has been floated by science and and below the surface of the earth there was
these big watery caverns right there was this water underneath the earth and it
was talking about that when God separated the waters and they go so there
was all this water underneath the earth and what happened is when it describes
the vast watery depths burst open that word burst means a violent explosion
so that this water through God's hand or whatever pushed up through the crust and
exploded into the atmosphere and all this vast watery depth started to fill
the earth as the rain came down on top of it now it's an interesting thing to
think about because when you look at all of the evidence that we know today for
things like continental drift right and the tectonic plates drifting around and
crashing into each other and plates going under another one and making
mountain ranges and all this stuff that we know is there it's evidence of some
cataclysmic event happening upon the earth it's very interesting to postulate
a theory that as this water burst up out of the vast watery depths it forced
plates apart forced him to bump into other plates and mountain ranges were
created and all kinds of interesting stuff one of the things that science
can't really fully understand right now is the mid Atlantic Ridge if you guys
look at a map you'll see right down the Atlantic Ocean in the middle there's
this trench that's like the deepest place on earth and it's where two
continental plates have gone above and under each other but it's incredibly deep
and they're going well how is that made and it follows the curve of all the
continents down on the map so anyways sciencey stuff is that boring you I'm
sorry but very interesting evidence that that modern science tries to say well
well this happened and it was over millions of years and and all that but
some of the changes indicate a rapid cataclysmic effect that did something
upon the earth now there's other theories out there and and the reason
these theories exist is because we see evidence in the world today that
something happened now if a global flood did indeed happen in the time frame that
scripture says it happened right 40 days of rain 150 days of the water just being
around the globe and then it all kind of receded after a while if that all
happened in the span of a year which is what the Bible talks about you would
think there should be evidence of this rapid change of things right well guess
what there is there's fossils of sea life that were found at the top of Mount
Everest how do fish bones get to the top of Mount Everest well duh it was
underwater one time and then people go well no Mount Everest is is too tall
there's no way there's no there's no amount of water could have done that
well we're assuming the earth today or the earth then looks exactly like the
earth today right you got to stop making assumptions on some of this stuff but
when we look into places like Mount Everest we look in places like the Swiss
Alps Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz we find intact whale bones we find intact
skeletons of these big sea creatures called ichthyosaurs ichthyosaurs right
anyways and they're at the tops of mountains and people can't explain how
they got there and and what science does say is like well one day or one day in
the past those continents were underwater and we go duh right it's right here in
the flood account so anyways other evidences that we find in the world
today are these massive fossil graveyards right what a fossil graveyard is is
where all these skeletons and bones and in evidence of creatures both sea
creatures and land creatures are all deposited in the same place and these
places where they're deposited is right in the middle of land masses and there's
no way to explain how all these all these creatures got deposited in the
same place unless well maybe everything was underwater and as the waters were
draining it all coalesced in one area how many of you have ever drained your
sink when there's like food particles still in it and eventually it starts to
swirl and then it all collects in the middle right there where the water
drains down it's just a picture of that and we see those all over the planet
today and they're not just in the Mesopotamian Valley they're in America
they're in Siberia they're in other places as well the other thing we have
evidence of is fossils that are preserved with incredible detail right
like you have fossils that will show the detail of fish scales and fish limbs you
have fossils that show all this really specific stuff squid that are buried and
they still have evidence of ink in their sacks and their petrified squids you
have fossils of animals giving birth mid-birth and they're fossilized well if
fossils were created over millions and millions and millions of years that's a
long labor isn't it that's just really incredible but we have evidence of that
type of stuff and then you got stuff like the geological strata right this is
a lot of like interesting science stuff if you're interested in it boring if
you're not but you know scientists look at the rocks and they go oh we could see
all these layers of rocks and they were deposited over millions and millions and
millions of years and yet if they were deposited over millions of years there
should be certain evidence of erosion and stuff on each layer because you know
wind and water but we find all over the planet these evidences of rock strata
where they're perfectly smooth and the only way that happens is one layer was
rapidly laid upon another layer I don't know maybe like as a flood was draining
across the planet so anyways there's a whole lot of other stuff we don't have
time to get to but when we look at the cataclysmic effects of water and then we
apply it to a global flood theory we see things line up we see things explain how
fossils can be buried mid-birth like that and fossilized we see how fossils
can be at the top of mountains and for sea life and we see all this stuff that
that points to a global flood but the bigger thing is it says that the water
surged right we looked at that multiple times it says the water increased and
lifted up the arc so that it rose above the earth the water surged and increased
greatly on the earth and the arc floated on the surface of the water then the
water surged even higher on the earth and all the high mountains were under
the whole under the whole sky were covered and the mountains recovered as
the water surged above them more than 20 feet how many of you have ever been like
surfing or bodyboarding and you wiped out right on the shoreline that ever
happened is it like a gentle experience no you are tossed around like a like a
rag and a washing machine right that's the idea of surged tumble violent
forces and the water around the whole planet as it was coming up out of the
ground and raining from the top was surging it was violently churning around
the whole planet and the evidence we see of this great geological upheaval fits
the idea of this churning water that it was a devastating effect on the entire
planet now in verse 21 it then tells us every creature also perished and
everything with the breath of life including all of mankind died and that's
that universal language again that something happened universally across
the entire planet that changed everything and so when we read this
literally grammatically and historically did the flood happen yeah it happened it
happened was it local or global I believe very clearly points to a global
flood on top of that in the New Testament Jesus spoke of the days of Noah and the
flood as a real historical event it was a catastrophic a universal a total
destruction of the world of its time it killed everything that God said it
killed except for in verse 13 Noah along with his sons Shem ham and J Beth and
their wives and the two of every creature that entered the ark with them
now we understand that as we look at this we go this really happened this
really changed the planet this really changed the ecology of the planet it's
everything changed in this flood everything perished all of humanity
perished all the creatures perished except Noah and you go why would God do
that because it says the earth was corrupt filled with wickedness and every
inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time for us
today do you think God takes sin seriously yeah now if you're saved you're
saved please don't misunderstand me on that but sometimes as saved people we
deal with sin as if it's like it's not that big of a deal yeah you know Jesus
just died for it but I don't really have to stop doing that I don't really have
to get help I don't really have to be accountable accountable to people to
to help me stop the sin it's not that big of a deal and then you read a story
like this and you go God wiped out the entire planet for sin because of sin he
takes it very seriously now so we understand the flood is both a real event
but it's also a type it's also an Old Testament event that was prophetic of
something in the New Testament and so Peter is the one that tells us about
this again in first Peter chapter 3 he says God paid patiently waited in the
days of Noah while the ark was being prepared and in it that is a few that
is eight people were saved through water baptism which corresponds to this what
Noah and his family being saved saved from the judgment of God through being
in the ark he says baptism which corresponds to this now saves you and
then he clarifies not as the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a
good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ so the
flood itself represents baptism there's a correspondence between the two it's not
an exact identical but but there's elements about the flood that correspond
to what baptism is we understand that the word baptism simply means to be
immersed in something right that's all baptism means it's not inherently a
spiritual word it just means to be immersed we understand that the flood
destroyed the whole world it was God's judgment on sin and we understand that
that was a type of a judgment to come that in Revelation we know that one day
God is gonna wipe out the earth again in this time where the earth was immersed
into the flood waters of judgment it tells us in the future the earth is
gonna be immersed into the fires of God's wrath right we understand that but
it also applies to this baptism idea as the world of snows time was immersed
into the waters of judgment when we get baptized and go under the water what we
are representing is something very important is that we're recognizing
that the sin in our lives the sin we have committed the sin that Jesus died
for the sin that Jesus went into the grave to die for when we go into the
waters it's like us acknowledging that we deserve to die for our sin that this
is like the flood waters of judgment and you go under those flood waters but just
as Noah believed God and because he believed God he built an ark which was
God's specific instructions this is how you will be saved that ark which was a
means of salvation by which Noah and his family were in during the flood the
Bible tells us that when we are in Christ by putting our faith in him by
believing God's word when he says this is the only way to be saved from the
wrath of God against sin by giving your life to Jesus by being in Christ
through faith we come up out of the water we acknowledge the weight of our
sin and as Jesus rose from the dead we then come out of the water also
acknowledging that we have been risen from the dead that we have been
forgiven that the penalty of sin death the power of sin to hold us in the grave
is broken forever because we believe in Jesus Christ it's that idea that Noah
was declared righteous by God as we looked at in our last study due to his
faith in God in God's Word because he believed what God said he had faith that
faith led to salvation from judgment through following God's instructions
exactly and so as the world was immersed into the flood Noah by being in Christ
floated above the flood safe and what God told him he would be saved in and if
anybody was alive at that time to see Noah in the ark floating on the thing
they would see tangible evidence they would see a public proclamation of Noah's
faith Noah said I believe God a floods coming I'm building a boat and then they
saw the boat floating on the flood waters they go well well that's the
that's the testimony that Noah believed and when we enter these waters in
baptism and come up out of the waters of baptism we're making that public
profession hey guys see this this faith that I say I have in God this faith in
God's Word this trust I have that if I trust Jesus Christ I too will be saved
from the from the fiery wrath to come boop-boop this is a picture of it and I
want to proclaim that to everybody in my church that's the idea behind baptism so
when Peter says baptism corresponds to this by going under the water it's a
declaration that you understand that you have died to yourself it's an
acknowledgement that the that you understand the penalty of sin is death
that your sin deserves judgment but it's you identifying with the fact that Jesus
went into the grave he went into the depth of judgment for you he did that
in your place and because you've put your faith in your trust and your
everything in Christ for forgiveness you being in Christ like Noah and his
family were in the ark are raised above the waters of judgment that you are
saved forevermore and when you come up out of those baptism waters it's that
public profession that God has saved my life he has changed me forever so as
Peter says here I want to make a last important point that it's not the water
he says it's not as the removal of dirt from the body what he's saying there is
it's not the physical act of being dunked in the water and having actual
dirt washed off of you he says baptism represents your pledge the pledge of
your good conscience towards God meaning this isn't what saves you this
represents the decision you've already made to be saved by trusting in Jesus
Christ that you believe he is real that you believe Jesus died and rose again to
pay the price and suffer the judgment for your sin that you believe through
your faith in him that he rose from the dead rose from the grave defeating the
power of sin and death forever just as Noah was lifted up above the flood
waters by the ark you too who are getting baptized today symbolized by
your coming up out of the water are proclaiming that through the power of
Christ you too have defeated the grave you too have defeated the power of sin
and death you have won the battle against Satan you have been born again
resurrected to new life second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 says
therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old is passed away and
see the new has come because Noah was in the ark he was saved the old creation
being destroyed and when he landed he was in the new creation and it was
because he was in Christ the symbolism of that is for us too that when we lay
down our life to Jesus when we are now in Christ the old life has passed away
the judgment upon that was laid on Christ in your place and you now come
out the other side a brand new person with the Spirit of God living within you
empowering you to be obedient to God it's a beautiful thing and so in a moment
I'm gonna invite you all to come forward or those of you that are getting
baptized to come forward and I want to give you some quick instructions for
that but before we do that I want to remind the rest of us here that we are
the public that gets to see observe this public profession our brothers and
sisters are making this is a holy moment this is one of the two sacraments that
we as a church observe communion and baptism this is the moment where we get
to celebrate with those who want to tell their church Jesus has changed my life
and so if the worship team will come up now and get ready I want to tell you
that are getting baptized today when I ask you to come forward you guys are
gonna come forward and follow out the side of the room right here and you're
gonna go into the back where we have changing booths okay private changing
booths if you brought your clothes to change into you can go back there and
change we have staff back there that'll watch your stuff so don't worry about
your stuff disappearing or anything like that and once you're done change and I
want you to come back out and line up right here on the wall where the white
it where the white wall is myself and pastor Rick we will be inside the
baptismal we'll invite you guys in one at a time where we will perform the
ceremony of baptism and let you make this public profession before your
church here we will do that one at a time until we get through everybody and
then we'll be done now it is 1106 and so I encourage the body here if you have to
go at some point feel free to leave but if you can stay and be a part of this
celebration with them I highly encourage you to do so now for those of you that
are sitting here in the front in the front side of the church we are gonna
be live streaming this because there are friends and family that aren't here that
want to see their loved ones get baptized so I'm gonna ask if you're on
the front half of the church to not stand up during worship okay we're gonna
be worshiping through the whole thing but stay seated but if you do want to
stand up and celebrate either come all the way forward or reset re-seat
yourself behind the camera if you guys are in the back go crazy okay
God's power to change people's lives is like nothing else if you've experienced
it you know it if you've been saved for a long time and your faith has kind of
become I'm saved let God minister to you as you observe these baptisms and
celebrate with those getting baptized what your life is all about now because
of Jesus so if you're getting baptized today I want you to stand up right now
don't be ashamed and come forward and just come right down the side here next
up back praise God we actually had more people come in today to get baptized
and we had signed up what a cool problem to have right we're so blessed for all
of you and for the rest of us the worship team is gonna be leading us in
worship throughout the entire baptism time I just encourage you to praise God
worship him and just be blessed as your new brothers and sisters proclaim what
God has done in their lives let's pray father we love you so much and we thank
you God Lord we're so blessed for what this day represents God that the
floodwaters of judgment have been really taken upon you Lord you took all of that
upon yourself that through our faith in you not through any of our actions not
because we're good people not through anything other than we believe in you
God that you have placed us in Christ that we have risen above the waters of
of judgment God and we are saved to live a new life in a new place and ultimately
in a new paradise with you we're so grateful God we worship you now as we
participate and observe these baptisms Lord and we're so grateful for what you're
doing in the lives of our brothers and sisters we thank you we love you it's in
Jesus name we pray amen