Did Noah's Flood Really Happen? - Genesis Part 15

There is a yearning in the Evangelical world today.

It is a yearning for what is real. Disneyland on the loose in our churches is not making and cannot make serious disciples of Christ. It is time to reach back into the Word of God as we have not done for a generation and find a serious faith for our serious times. The modern marketing approach to Christianity downplays theology and Bible knowledge and then we act dumbfounded when commitment and passion for Christ evaporates.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles gave the church the definitive statement of what the Christian faith is. They delivered it to us in the form of doctrine. Christians therefore are people who know this doctrine. They believe it. They have it. They hold fast to it.

They guard it and they contend earnestly for it. Today, however, there is an abysmal ignorance of biblical truth in Evangelical churches. The doctrines of the New Testament are terra incognita in most churches. Christianity is about many things now but increasingly biblical truth is not one of them. In short, we have lost the conviction that the Word of God in the hand of God is sufficient for the people of God. Now here at McLean Bible Church we are determined to be different.

We believe the Bible from cover to cover and we preach the Bible from cover to cover and we submit to the authority of the Bible from cover to cover but more than that we want every one of you here to have this very same view of the Bible. However, and this is key don't miss it, in order for us to embrace the Bible in this way we must believe that it's every word is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now this is what we're going to talk about today because nowhere is the trustworthiness of the Bible more attacked than when it comes to the issue of Noah's flood. I mean atheistic scientists say never happened. Unbelieving scholars say never happened. Liberal theologians say never happened. So the question, a foundational question we want to ask as we begin today is did Noah's flood really happen the way the Bible says and after I've proven to you today that the answer to that question is yes then we want to bring all of that forward and talk about okay so what difference does that make then in your life and my life today so are you ready all right buckle your seatbelts everybody ready here we go now let's begin by admitting that for those of us who know Christ in a real impersonal way the most convincing evidence that Noah's flood really happened is the fact that the rest of the Bible says that it happened Noah's flood is referred to as a factual event by Job chapter 22 by Isaiah chapter 54 by David Psalm 104 and by Peter in both 1st Peter and 2nd Peter but even more importantly than that the Lord Jesus Christ himself considered Noah's flood to be a literal event listen Matthew 24 verse 37 Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man for in the days before the flood people were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and took them all away now if I'm a follower of Christ this puts the whole issue to rest for me the fact that the Lord Jesus said it's real and the rest of the Bible says it's real I say fine end of discussion but folks wouldn't it be nice if we could go look at geological data and wouldn't it be nice if we could go look at biological data and wouldn't it be nice if we could go look at anthropological data and find the footprints of the flood all over this data well we can that's the good news and that's what I want to show you now let's begin by talking about the geological data and in particular about two items first all the sedimentary straight as of rock we have around our globe and second about all the coal deposits that we have on earth first the sedimentary strata of rock its layer after layer after layer of mud piled up sometimes hundreds of feet deep dr. Henry Morris who has a PhD in hydrology and hydraulics said and I quote according to the law of hydrodynamic selectivity a flood of the magnitude described in Genesis would of necessity produce horizontal superimposed layers of materials selected by the moving waters according to their specific gravity and sphericity he went on to say thus as various currents moved across the earth during the months of the flood a great series of sedimentary strata would have been formed in various parts of the earth in some cases two depths of hundreds of feet end of quote you say do what what in the world was that I heard what you said but honest lies idea with what did you just say what did he say well friends listen just take dr. Morris's word for it okay that the sedimentary rock that we find all over the earth is exactly what we would expect to find if Noah's flood had happened the way the Bible says it did and to the contrary if Noah's flood did not happen all of this sedimentary layering across the globe would be inexplicable we wouldn't even have an explanation for how it all happened and then there are the coal deposits we know there are coal deposits all over our world big coal deposits but here's the question how'd they get there how'd they get there friends we know in order to make coal it takes enormous quantities of vegetation suddenly being covered quickly by layer after layer of mud and dirt and then being compressed by an astronomical weight of water well you say Lon that's all right though isn't coal being made today I mean if coal is being made today we don't have any big flood going on today I mean what about that well listen to dr. Morris and I quote he said the dismal swamp of Virginia perhaps the most frequently cited case of a potential modern coal bed has formed only seven feet of Pete to date hardly enough to make a single respectable seam of coal furthermore Morris says there is no evidence that Pete is actually being transformed into coal anywhere in the world today he concludes to the contrary he says all known coal beds seem to have been formed in the distant past and are not continuing to be formed in the present end of quote the point is that to make all of the coal deposits that we find throughout the entire world demands a cataclysmic water event such as only Noah's flood could have produced let's move on now to the biological data and in this regard I want to talk to you about the fossil record we all know that we have hundreds and thousands of fossils that have been discovered over the last several hundred years we have fossils of fish with every single bone being visible we have fossils of invertebrates like jellyfish and sponges and trilobites remember them from high school mm-hmm okay we've even found entire whale fossils but but here's the problem this kind of fossilization my friends is not occurring anywhere on the earth today I mean today when a fish dies it doesn't sink to the bottom of the ocean get covered in tons of sediment and then turn into a fossil it either gets eaten by scavengers or it else it just naturally decays hey you remember the millions and millions of Buffalo that were shot on the plains in the late 1800s in the early 1900s by everybody you know all the white men going by on the trains you remember that remember that and they were left all those carcasses were left just to rot on the open plane isn't it interesting we don't have a single Buffalo fossil from any of that and let me tell you why it's because in order to produce fossils animals must suddenly be killed and then immediately covered with tons and tons of sediment the point is that the everyday environmental conditions that are operating today simply do not produce fossils which is why none are being made today only the cataclysmic events of Noah's flood can adequately explain the fossil record that we find all over the earth but it can explain the fossil record and it does explain the fossil record last of all how about the anthropological data and here we're talking about all the flood legends and flood stories that abound in societies all over the world dr. James E Strickling who taught at Georgia State University wrote an article entitled a statistical analysis of flood legends and here's what he said and I quote he said if a worldwide catastrophe took place one would expect to find some record of this deluge in ancient records this he says is exactly the case legends he goes on to say and mythologies of nations and tribes around the world tell of a time when the entire earth was devastated by water anthropologists dr. Strickling says have collected at least 59 flood legends from North America 46 from Central and South America 31 from Europe 17 from the Middle East and 37 from the South Sea Islands and Australia that's a hundred and ninety I'll save you the trouble and they all agree on three points he says number one that a worldwide flood destroyed both men and animals number two that there was a vessel of safety and number three that an extremely small remnant of people survived end of quote now one of the most famous of these flood legends is the Babylonian flood story I will show you a picture of one of the tablets on which disappears it dates from 2000 BC and here's how the story goes the story tells us that the gods decide to tell a fellow here on earth named utnapishtim mm-hmm how'd you like your mom to name you that utnapishtim all right I was his name that they told him that they were going to send a great flood on the earth and but to save utnapishtim from the flood one of the gods told him to build a boat and told him the exact dimensions of the boat so utnapishtim builds his boat and he seals it with pitch and then he and his entire family go aboard and they're safe eventually the boat comes to rest on a mountain and utnapishtim sends out from the boat a raven and a dove and when the two birds don't come back utnapishtim comes out with his family and builds an altar and makes a sacrifice of Thanksgiving to the gods hey that sound familiar it's almost exactly the Genesis story very similar and there are stories like this all over the world in society after society how do we explain this well I'll tell you friends we explain this by saying these are corruptions of the true and accurate account of the flood that the Bible contains and remember most of these stories were written before these societies ever had any contact with the Bible so these stories represent an extra biblical outside of the Bible independent historical witness that the Bible is telling us the truth when it tells us there was a huge flood I mean if 190 different cultures have a story about a cataclysmic flood then it stands to reason there was a cataclysmic flood just like the Bible presents it so can we summarize okay let's summarize and say then when we look at the data from geology that is the sedimentary rock strata around the earth and the coal deposits when we look at the data from biology that is the fossil record and when we look at the data from anthropology that is a hundred and ninety flood stories in societies around the globe what we see is the footprint of the flood everywhere in fact apart from Noah's flood much of what we find in geology much of what we find in biology and much of what we find in anthropology doesn't even make sense so where does this leave us well friends it leaves us encouraged in our faith encouraged in our faith in the veracity of the Word of God our faith in the trustworthiness of the Word of God our faith that the Word of God is telling us the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth now if you want a little bit of extra reading on this you want to do a little more study I recommend you pick up the book the Genesis flood you can order it off Amazon and you can dig in deeper but the bottom line is the flood happened exactly the way the Bible says and its footprints are everywhere on this earth now that brings us to another question and that is not did the flood happen but there's another question we need to ask now you know what this question is yes you do all of us here know what this question is so I have to tell you I ask everybody else today to give us a pre snow so what I am shameless and they were pretty good they were pretty good so but you you guys you can't lose ever right that's right that's right so all of you on the internet and all of us here let's hold up our reputation here we go you ready come on now 1 2 3 you guys are awesome I swear you are I'm not Steve am I lying to them that they win every single week no you got you guys are unbelievable I love you I love you I love you all right now Dwight L Moody greatest evangelist of the 19th century more than a hundred years ago said this and I quote he said what we need today is men and women who believe the Bible from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet men and women who believe the whole of it the things that they do understand and the things they don't understand end of quote and you know what folks these words are just as true in 2012 as they were more than a hundred years ago I've just spent 20 minutes giving you compelling scientific evidence that Noah's flood happened just the way the Bible says and my logic follow my logic here is that if we can trust the Bible about something as extraordinary and atypical as a worldwide cataclysmic flood then it's merely makes sense that we can trust the Bible about everything else that it says and so if the Bible is utterly true and if I'm a person like Moody says who believes the Bible from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I believe the whole of it so what difference then should that make in my everyday life well I've got three to tell you so here they are number one the first difference if the Bible is utterly and absolutely true then difference number one it should make is that it means that as a follower of Christ the Bible must have total authority over every facet of my personal life hey Joshua chapter 1 verse 7 God said be careful to what's the next word obey all the law my servant Moses commanded you do not turn from it to the right or to the left do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth meditate on it day and night that you may be careful to do what's the next word everything written in it what's the Bible telling us here well the Bible is telling us is that God wants every part of our lives down to even the tiniest details of our lives to be lived in obedience to the Word of God you know many of you know that while Brendan I were away on vacation we met with this young lady that we shared Christ with because you're one of my prayer warriors I have the privilege of having over a thousand people who pray for my family and me and I that is a great privilege and if you say I don't even know what a prayer warriors don't worry about it next week in the bulletin we're going to give you a chance to sign up and become a prayer warrior but I sent out an urgent prayer request to my prayer warriors asking them to pray for this young lady and let me tell you how it worked we went to a restaurant one night Brenda and I and when it was time to pay the bill in the little folder they bring you I put a CD of my life story and I also gave her a really big tip well I figure if I give her a really big tip it'll make her feel obligated to listen to the CD hey I don't care why people listen I just want them to listen right yeah okay so anyway she listened and she got in touch with us and she said I want to come and talk to you and Brenda and she came over to and met with us for two hours and at the end of the two hours she bowed her heads with us and prayed the sinner's prayer and asked Jesus in her heart that was wonderful now the minute we were done with the sinner's prayer the minute we opened our eyes I said to her I said now you need to understand there is a new authority in your life it is no longer how you feel that's not the authority for your life anymore it's no longer what you want to do it's no longer what your friends tell you that you should do and it's no longer what's most expedient and comfortable for you to do the new authority in your life is what does God tell me in the Bible to do everything in your life now that is the authority and you know folks for those of us who are followers of Christ right today here the same thing is true our authority in life is the Word of God if it's utterly true then it is to be the authority source for our life and because of the authority of the Bible over our lives that means some things for us as followers of Christ it means that we must run our business affairs righteously not just legally righteously it means that we must keep our word even to our own hurt it means that we must fill out our 1040s honestly it means that we must control our mind and our words and our thoughts around members of the opposite sex it means that we must return good and not revenge and not evil when people treat us wrong it means that we must forgive people when they've hurt us even if we don't feel like forgiving them because of the authority of the Bible in our life it means that we must thank God for our circumstances every single day by faith whether we feel like it or not and it means that we must act with integrity even when our competitors and other people are not acting with integrity etc etc etc as Jesus said if you're a follower of Christ Matthew 4 verse 4 man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and my friends the bottom line is if the Bible has not brought this kind of radical change to your lifestyle and to your behavior then you have not yet given it the authority that it demands and that it deserves in your life it's just that simple number two the Bible is really true then the second thing difference it makes is that it means that the Bible should be our roadmap the Bible should be our secret to living a meaningful satisfying successful life Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 goes on God said be careful to do everything written in the Word of God then he says for then you will be prosperous and then you will have good success wherever you go Psalm 1 verse 2 blessed is the man or woman whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates upon it day and night he or she will be like a tree planted beside rivers of water which yields its fruit in due season and whose leaf does not wither look and whatever he or she does will prosper you know we have we have people in our world my friends spending billions and billions of dollars every year trying to hit on the formula for successful living we have infomercials and we have astrology and we have self-help books and we have pop psychology and we have all these investment schemes and you know the saddest part of all is they're spending all these billions and billions of dollars when thanks to the Gideons what they're looking for the answer to their question is in the drawer of every hotel in America it's the B I B L E real fulfillment in life real success in life real meaning in life comes from knowing the Bible and believing the Bible and with the help of the Holy Spirit and to the best of our ability obeying the Bible every day and look that doesn't mean that you and I won't have trouble in life this doesn't mean we won't have adversity in life hey Moses had adversity Joseph had adversity Abraham had adversity so did Ruth so did Naomi so did Esther hey you talk about adversity what about our old friend job what we're saying here though is if we will trust God through that adversity and if we will keep obeying God through that adversity when the dust clears on the other side God will see to it we're on top of the heap just like he did for every single one of these people number three if the Word of God is utterly true then number three it means that the Bible is telling us the truth about what's on the other side of the grave John chapter 3 verse 13 I love what Jesus said he said no one no one has ever gone into heaven and that is come back and tell us what's there and how to prepare for it except for the one who came from heaven that is the Son of Man Jesus himself and therefore my friends if the Bible is utterly true what Jesus says about the afterlife in the Bible is the one and only source of reliable information anywhere in the world about what's on the other side of the grave hey don't you pay any attention to people who go down some long tunnel and see a bright light don't you pay any attention to people who tell you that they died and spent ten weeks and ten hours in heaven and now anything like that you know if they are telling you anything that differs from what Jesus tells you in the Bible about what's on the other side of the grave don't you believe it and don't you hit your wagon to it if some other religion tells you something different some other religious leader tells you something different than Jesus says in the Bible don't you believe it because Jesus said nobody knows what's on the other side but me and what did Jesus say he said John 14 6 I am the way the truth and the life nobody gets to heaven except through me but you know what for those of us who've already trusted Christ and we're planning to go through him there's more he says more he says in John 6 40 for this is the will of my father this is God's will look that everyone who believes in me everyone shall have eternal life and I will oh I love that word I will raise that person up at the last day Jesus said John 11 25 I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me will live even if he dies here on earth don't you worry about dying here on earth you're gonna live because I am the resurrection Jesus said you know not too long ago I was over a gentleman's house who was getting close to death as a matter of fact he actually passed 12 hours after I was there visiting him and we were up in his bedroom with several family members and he was sitting on the side of his bed barely able to talk at that point and I said to him I called him by name because I knew him and I said now listen I said because of what Jesus said in the Bible and because you believe it you know you're going to heaven right you know that you have eternal life right there's no doubt right and he gathered everything he had because he could barely talk and he said very quietly no doubt friends I was one of the last things this gentleman ever said on earth but I'll tell you there was a calm in that room there was a a peace in that room there was a tranquility in that room there was no fear in that room no terror in that room no screams of agony facing death in that room and let me tell you where that sense of confidence in that room came from it did not come because this man had read and believed Newsweek it did not come because he had read and believed Time magazine or Sports Illustrated or because he had read and believed Forbes or People magazine or the Washington Post God forbid no it came because this man had read and believed the Bible he had read and believed the words of Jesus this is my father's will I will raise you up at the last day you will have eternal life I am the resurrection in the life you're not gonna die you're gonna live you're just leaving earth that's all and folks this is the kind of confidence God wants you and me to have as followers of Jesus when we're ready to leave and we get it by believing the Bible is telling us the truth and then believing what the Bible says that's how we're able to look death right in the eyeballs and say you know what I'm not afraid of you not afraid of you because you may be the king of terrors death but Jesus is the king of kings not afraid of you so let's conclude when it comes to believing that the Bible is the trustworthy utterly true Word of God I love what Peter said second Peter chapter 1 verse 16 he said for we have not followed cunningly devised fables in other words he says the Bible is not a hoax it's not a hoax not a game but as Jesus said John 17 17 God's Word is truth and that being so the three differences it should make in our life is that number one the Bible therefore must have total authority over every facet of your life in my life it means number two that the Bible must be the road map we use for successful living and it means number three that the Bible must be our one and only source of reliable information about what's on the other side of the grave and how to make sure that we're prepared for it friends remember what Jesus said he said heaven and earth will pass away but my word will never pass away and many said you build your house on the rock of my word and even though the winds of this life may blow against it and even though the waves of this life might smash against it that house will stand because it's built on the Word of God may God help us do that let's pray heavenly Father we need as the church and as individual followers of Christ to hear messages like this because there are so many people who are undermining and undercutting and casting doubt on the truth of your word and they're not just unbelievers either they're pastors theologians and seminary teachers and Christian leaders who are undermining the authority of the scripture Lord Jesus help us to be smarter than they help us to understand that we may not have all their intelligence and we might not have all of their educational background haha but if we build our life on the Bible when the dust clears we will be glad we did so Lord Jesus may the Bible be that rock that we build everything in our life upon our behavior our plan for the afterlife our roadmap for success the Word of God give us that confidence in your word and we pray these things in Jesus name and what do God's people say amen you