Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. It's just every once in a while they'll come across some instances where folks in our church will ask me about certain things. And then sometimes I find that there's different folks asking me about the same thing unrelated to each other.

And this is one of those instances. Now, I understand that there is a Hollywood movie coming out soon about Noah and the Ark. And a couple of these individuals asked me, they said, you know how Hollywood can twist everything? Have you ever thought about just taking some time and teaching about Noah and the Ark? And just kind of show what the truth is so it wouldn't get twisted or folks would kind of understand it better?

And you know, I think there's a lot of good thought to that. We're not doing this message because there's a movie coming out. But I do know that this message is something that I wanted to preach on eventually anyway and there could not be a better time for it.

Here's why. As we preach on this over the next two or three weeks, you're going to have individuals at your job that might bring up something like that. It's amazing when something from the Hollywood will come out with that all of a sudden it begins to pique interest. And you know, we think of even the passion of the Christ and different things and how it spurred conversation, whatever the case might be. So I want to dig into things this morning and I want to look at what the Bible has to say.

And by the way, it's extremely, extremely interesting. But what I want to do is today I want to look at the Ark and we're going to share some details about the Ark today. But I want to look at the Ark of how it is as related to the gospel of Christ. And this morning we're going to be teaching on that subject, that good old gospel ship. So if you realize this, but the Ark is nothing but a picture of what Christ has done for us. Every last detail of what happened with Noah and the Ark. And we're going to show a little bit of that today.

Next Sunday we'll give probably a little bit more specifics, measurements, look at the nitty gritty of things. And then after that, the third week, unless we extend another one in between, we're going to be talking specifically about the rainbow that God gave as a sign. Obviously when the flood had expired and he gave Noah and his family that sign from the rainbow.

And by the way, let me just say this just so you know, I'll tell you ahead of time. Anything that God ever does, Satan likes to take it and absolutely twist it. And the rainbow has been twisted over these years. And that's just like old Satan. God left that as a sign that he would not judge the earth with water anymore, but next time it would be fire. And it's just like Satan to try to take the focus off of that. To try to make folks forget that there is judgment coming.

And dear friend, I hope that this will be interesting for you over the next couple of weeks. Let me start off by saying this. There's a lot of folks out there, believe it or not, and you and I that go to church that do not believe that the Ark ever existed. They do not believe the story of Noah and the Ark. They do not believe that God wiped out all of mankind, every living and breathing thing on the earth. They do not believe that God did that and salvaged mankind basically through Noah and his family that were on the Ark. They just don't believe that happened. They don't believe there was an Ark.

And can I tell you, there is. And if for no other reason, because God said it. Now the Bible says in the New Testament, Jesus began to, not criticized, but he began to explain that some people, their faith was small because they had to have a sign of something to believe. May I say that if God's Word, and I believe God's Word is God himself, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. So if the Bible says it, that's all that has to be said. There's an Ark, there's a man named Noah, and God did exactly what God did and we're going to share that. I have a couple pictures.

Simply because all you've got to do is get on Google or YouTube and it will absolutely make your mind swim. And I just wanted you to, I think it's about 1880, they began to find these first glimpses and they believe, and I don't doubt it, I've not been there, so this is not fact. I'm not saying or sharing that, hey, we found something online.

It's more than that. We're doing research through, obviously, Ken Ham and his creation website. I've been doing some research about the Ark and different things, but I want Ben just to show these next couple of pictures. In the country of Turkey, and this is, and the Bible makes it clear that the Ark, when the flood was done, that it rested on the mountains of Ararat. It does not mean that it rested on Mount Ararat. It means it rested on the mountains of Ararat. And there's all these kind of mountains there in Turkey that is that region. And if you'll notice in the bottom right-hand side of the screen, you'll see a big outline, and they believe that they have found the Ark.

Now you would think this would make, you know, obviously news, and by the way, it did make Fox News three days ago, of all things, simply because this movie's coming out. But if you'll show the next image, I know they're a little bit hard to see on a small thing, but you can see the outline of the Ark. They have found a man-made substance there. It's made out of wood. They have literally, you go on YouTube, you can find, they have found rooms. They have found wood. They have found, this is mankind. It's been buried underground, dirt and ice.

Go ahead and go to that next picture. This is a picture of the inside of that structure that you just saw. It is made out of wood when there's nesting rooms that they called it.

And it's amazing. I'm going to show you today when the Bible says rooms in the Ark, what it means. This is the actual inside of what we just saw on that land. The measurements measure exactly what the Ark measurements would be. The walls are still intact.

They have rooms underneath. Some of it is still encased in ice underneath the ground. And so they believe, and of course we believe, and many obviously Christians believe, that this is the Ark and they have found it. But why does that not make national news? Why are there not crews digging, excavating up the Ark? Because there has been no way that you could be an atheist. If you had that proof.

So do you think Satan would ever let that get out? But I'm just telling you there are some things you go online you need to see. And just Google say pictures of the found Ark or pictures of the Ark.

Anything like that you have fun just doing some research on your own. That's not what I'm doing for you this morning. I just wanted you to see a few of those things. Look at verse 12 of Genesis chapter 6. And I'm excited about this this morning.

I hope that this will be a blessing to you. Everything we do this morning you've got to look at through the eyes of the gospel. Everything I share it relates to how the Ark pictures the gospel of the Messiah that was to come. Look at verse 12. God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt. And guess what? It is again. For all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

Boy that sounds like us doesn't it? Verse 13 God said unto Noah the end of all flesh has come before me. For the earth is filled with violence through them.

And behold I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the ark and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of. By the way isn't it great I'm preaching on how the floods came and the rain is coming down outside.

Doesn't God just, okay anyway. Verse 15. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits. The breadth of it 50 cubits and the height of it 30 cubits.

We'll give you that, exactly what that means to us in just a little bit. A window shalt thou make to the ark and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. And the door of this ark shalt thou set in the side thereof.

With lower second and third stories shalt thou make it. Notice this. And behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh. By the way they hadn't seen rain yet at this time. Wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and everything that is in the earth shall die.

Notice that. It didn't say everything on the planet. It said everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant and thou shalt come into the ark. Thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee.

They shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten. Thou shalt gather it to thee and it shall be food for thee and for them. Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him.

So did he. We're going to find out in chapter seven and as we go further in this that there was two of every kind of animal. Also that there are some different animals that are given.

We'll give you that next week. That there were seven of those animals that came on not just two. Now I had someone ask me a question a couple weeks ago. What did they do for the fish? Where did they keep the fish? How did they keep fish alive?

And it's very simple. They didn't have fish on the ark. They didn't need to. The whole point of the ark was to keep those species alive and when you flood the earth with water, fish are fine. There is, it's said that everything on the earth, fish don't live on the earth. They live in the water. And so the fish didn't need to be salvaged because they were just fine. God basically just gave them a whole much more room to play. That's basically what he did for the fish.

So the fish obviously were kept and they were not on the ark but it goes through in all these details and we'll give you some more of those next week. We've read God's Word. Let's pray. Lord we need your help this morning. And Lord anything that the Spirit has given us this morning and Lord anything that displays your gospel I know you're in. So Lord I pray that I would rightly divide your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

It's always easier to look at things a little bit systematically. Let's look first at the plans for the ark. The plans for the ark. God gave Noah some specific plans that he should follow.

Number one, I want you to notice this under the articles of that. What are the articles of the plan? What things were used and what did he tell them to use?

Two things he was specific with. Number one was gopher wood. And God told him obviously to make the ark or build the ark out of gopher wood.

Now you would not believe the debate just about that point that is out there. What is gopher wood? Nobody really knows. It is from an undisclosed tree.

They have no idea. Some believe that that word gopher was actually a translation from the word coffer which could end up meaning a cypress tree. But then you'll find other proof that it wasn't cypress tree. It could have been pine, it could have been cypress, it could have been ebony wood. We really don't know exactly where gopher wood came from or why God called it that or why it was translated out that. We don't know.

Nobody knows specifically. And I've got to tell you in our day and time you can get online and find about anything. And you can't believe everything you find online.

Like the commercials tell you. So listen you've got to be real careful and a lot of people think they know a lot of things but if you're going to stay biblical there's just some things we do not know for sure. Here's the whole point.

It really doesn't matter. The point of the ark wasn't the kind of wood it was built out of. The point of the ark is that it pointed to Christ. But we're going to look at gopher wood. And gopher wood or wood is a type of humanity. As you look at this story why did God say build it obviously out of wood?

Why is wood a picture of humanity preacher? Well in order for a tree to exist there had to be a seed. And that tree had to basically have been birthed. You say well how is a tree birthed? Well it grows in the soil.

Who created the soil? So God created that tree. A tree had to be born. A tree had to grow.

And then a tree had to be cut down to build the ark which was an item of safety for people. The son of God had to come. He had to be born.

He had to grow. He had to die in order to be safety for us. Not only that he died on a tree.

Wood, trees are always a picture or a type of humanity. To provide salvation Jesus had to be cut down and be sacrificed for us. I want you to I'm going to read this to you in Isaiah 53.

The Bible speaks of this. How he was sacrificed. How he was cut down basically for us. Isaiah 53 says he is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs. Carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

But he was what? Wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. Verse 7 he was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.

He was cut down for us. A type of humanity. Second, the article is this. God said I want you to build it out of gopher wood and I want you to pitch it within and without. Now what is pitch?

This starts another whole debate of things. Pitch is basically a black-like gooey substance that would basically be used as a sealant. And basically when this ark was built on the wood they would slather this black stuff called pitch and it would cover the outside of the ark and God says I want you to cover the inside of the ark with it.

It would basically be a sealant to keep water from coming into the ark. Now for all of us that are not geologists pitch, and let me explain it, is a black-like glue substance left behind when coal tar is heated or distilled. Now it belongs to the same family of asphalt or bitumen. Now today it is largely produced by heating coal. We still use pitch today on asphalt. It's a lot of that black stuff that they'll cover to cover different things and seal it.

It's the same thing basically that they use. Now individuals that don't believe in the ark say well we don't think that they were able to have coal in those days. They had not had that mining process so there's no way you could have used pitch on the ark.

The whole thing is false. So then how did he make pitch before the growth of what we would call petroleum or coal? Now listen to me. I thought this was interesting that I found. Their first step would have been to obtain resin from pine trees which at the time grew in dense forests throughout Europe.

Listen to this. A herringbone pattern of cuts was gouged into the tree trunk and the resin would run down the grooves and collect it into a pot at the base of the tree. Pine resin is still collected in this way in Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Finland and other countries. Now when the resin had finished flowing the trees were chopped down, covered in soil or ash and burned slowly to produce a lightweight, black, pure form of carbon called charcoal. It could all be done without coal. It could be used the trees to do this.

Obviously they would have known how to do this back in these days because they used the resources that they had. The last step in the process of making pitch was to add the powdered charcoal from those burnt trees to the boiling pine resins. Different proportions of charcoal would produce pitch of different properties.

It was this pitch which was used to waterproof the large ocean going wooden ships in our obviously history that we would know in American history. Obviously as we look through this we find that it was absolutely possible for Noah to come up with pitch and to create it and to use it even in those days. Now isn't it a shame that you've got to read all that to convince people because if God said it that's the way where it stopped. But you work with people that don't necessarily believe the Bible and you'll run across people.

So I want you to understand that process could have very easily been used just with trees and they would not have had to have coal. You say alright preacher what's the point of pitch? Think about it. God said a type of humanity. I want you to cut down those trees, build the arc out of those trees and then I want you to cover that picture of humanity with resin to seal it and to protect it. That pitch is a sign of the blood of Christ. It has covered our sins and His blood has sealed us unto the day of redemption. Everywhere you look in the arc it's a picture of Christ. Now listen that pitch covered the wood like Christ's blood covered our sins.

Second it protected the wood. Water in the Bible is always usually used as a sign of judgment. Remember how the children of Israel were walking through the Red Sea and God swallowed Pharaoh's army out of judgment and He did it with what? Water is always a sign of judgment.

Look at me. This pitch that covered the wood. That pitch protected the individual from the judgment that was coming in the flood. And dear friend when you've been saved you've been covered by the blood of Christ. Not only has it forgiven you of your sins but there is another judgment coming. Not of water like here but of fire that God said would come and God's blood that covers your sins will protect you from that judgment. All God's people ought to say amen.

Now that's the article. Second I want you to notice the abodes. And I say what do you mean the word abode?

It's the only A word I could come up with for room. The abodes. Notice this if you would. The Bible says in verse 14.

Notice closely. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the ark. Interesting this word rooms. That word rooms literally means nests or resting places.

Almost like cocoons. And you know that's exactly what Jesus said when you get saved. The Bible says that he provides rest. Now that ark obviously was a picture of preserving human life but it was also a place where they could rest from the storm. Now I want you to notice two things about their abode.

Why is this a picture of us preacher? Well number one it provided them a room. Number one here. There. Number two it provides a room for hereafter. Now listen to me.

That ark, that nest, those rooms and that ark provided for Noah's family and anyone that would have received Christ and would have believed and would have gotten on that ark. Listen to me. It provided rest from that judgment but it provided rest when the judgment was done.

Now listen to me. Matthew 11 28 says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. What does Jesus say?

I will give you what? Rest. Rest. So that means this. When you're saved God gives you rest here but also second he gives you rest hereafter. You say well what do you mean by that? John chapter 14 verses one through three ought to pretty much explain it all. Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God believe also in me. In my father's house are many what?

Mansions. That's what he said. He says I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself. I'll put you in that place of rest for where I am that where I am ye may be also. Look at me. I'm here to tell you that the blood of Christ that covered humanity that covered those that put their faith in Christ in Christ and put their faith in him.

Look at me. It not only gives you rest here but it will give you rest for eternity. What is the size of the ark? You talk about these rooms preacher.

I'm going to give you more specifics next week but let me give you this way. The ark was 450 feet long. It was 75 feet wide and it was 45 feet high. It means this that the ark had 1,518,750 cubic feet or we can put it this way it had three levels. Three levels in the ark. Each deck or level contained 33,750 square feet of floor splice.

Let me put it in a vernacular that you would understand. Every deck, every level had 21 basketball courts. That was the room on the ark. Every level had the room of 21 basketball courts. Now you say well is that enough room?

Now listen to me. It is estimated that of the 35,000 known species that we have, of the 35,000 known species that they could have been fit into 150 boxcars with room to sleep. Every animal, every animal has been taken into consideration. In 150 boxcars there would have been room for them to sleep and room for them to eat and they could have fit in 150 boxcars. And the ark had the room or the size of 530 boxcars. So there was a whole bunch of empty room on the ark. Why? Was there overkill?

Oh look at me dear friend. I believe with all my heart that God made that ark big enough that every person that lived could have gotten in that ark. You say did God know that there were some that weren't going to get on the ark? Yes God knew that there were some that weren't going to get on the ark. You say did God know exactly who was going to get on that ark? Yeah probably God knew exactly who was going to get on that ark.

But listen at me dear friend. I want you to know salvation is the same way. God has provided enough room for everybody to receive Christ. He knows not everybody will.

And He might know the some that aren't and some that will. But there's room if they decide to come. And on that ark there was room for everybody even though they said no. It could have saved Noah a whole bunch of time to just build it for what was needed. But God made sure that there was room for everybody.

You can believe in the doctrine of election if you want to that only certain ones are going to get saved and you might as well not go out and soul win because you don't know who and whoever is going to get saved is going to get saved and whoever is not is not going to get saved. But I'm here to say God said we ought to go out and reach every person we can and I'm here to tell you there's enough room in the ark for you. They had room here and they had room here after. And I'm here to tell you folks God has provided a spot for you. I want you to notice thirdly not only we see the articles and not only we see the abodes but thirdly I want you to see the access.

God gave some specific things here and the first thing we find in verse 16 notice this if you would. The Bible says a window shalt thou make to the ark and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above and the door of this ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. Notice that the door. The door. With lower second and third stories shalt thou make it.

Let's look at the access. First thing we notice is the door. We find that God put one door on the ark. There was only one way to enter the safety of the ark. There wasn't another way. There wasn't an alternate way. There wasn't an easier way.

There wasn't a harder way. You had to go through that door. Dear friend I'm here to tell you there is only one way to salvation. Jesus the Bible teaches is the door. I like in Revelation where the Bible says Jesus says behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice let him open.

It's up with me and I with him. Dear friend I'm here to tell you there's no way you can earn it. You can't be a good person to get to heaven. You can't come to an altar and say you're going to go to heaven because you came to an altar. There can't be some time in your life where you had a car wreck and you survived and you just know God saved you and so I know I'm going to heaven.

Look at me dear friend. You've got to know that the time and you've got to remember the place and I don't mean like you've got to remember the date and you've got to know the exact. I just mean in your mind you've got to remember and you've got to know that specific time where you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Where he forgave you of your sins.

Where you entered a personal relationship with him. You've got to know that and I'm here to say there's no other way being a good person doing good things coming to a good church that doesn't save you simply because there's only one door to Christ. Dear friend you have to go through that door. Second there's the window. He instructed him to build that door and it would enter from the side and that door from that door you could access all three levels. Secondly he said to build a window.

Now why was this window here? Well when the flood had subsided and it had calmed down and God brought a great wind and I'm going to give you some specifics next week it's just kind of amazing what this storm probably did to the earth. You and I have never seen the earth before the flood.

We'll never be able to ever see what it was like then. It changed continents. It changed land. It created earthquakes. It moved literally sub points of our earth and our planet and different things. It was a nasty storm.

It's never been anything like it ever in the history of this planet obviously. And I want you to understand something. We're never going to know what that was like. But when that was all kind of subsided and God blew the wind away Noah would put out two different things from that window. First there was a raven and then there was a dove. And he would put these birds out so that he could find out if it was safe to get off of the ark. And so that window was there. Amazingly he put the window in the top.

In order for Noah and them to have light and to see light he put it in the top so that they had to look up to see the light. And dear friend I'm here to tell you, you and I, we have to look up to see the light. That's the only place we can look. It's the only place you're going to find understanding. You're going to find wisdom.

It's the only place you're going to find peace and rest is if you look up. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192. Or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.