Dying You Shall Die

Genesis 2, verse 16, "...And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Look at that last word. Die. Three letters. Very simple. The youngest of our children that can read can read that word. Die. Let your eyes fix on it. None of us can escape that word. We all have to do with it. "...In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die." One of the questions I ask myself is this, what did Adam even think when he heard that? I mean, it resonated with him. It didn't mean a rock. It didn't mean, you know, die means to swim. What did it mean? What did it register? I mean, what God is saying to him, you eat that fruit, you die. What did that conjure in his thinking? You think about Adam. I think about him. Much like us. I can think of a time before I was born. I mean, I don't know what happened there, but you can go back. I was born in 1965. If I go back to 1963, say when President Kennedy was assassinated, I mean, I recognize I didn't exist. The world was going on. It was moving people were living, people were dying. Everything that goes on in the world was going on in the world and I wasn't there. And I can imagine that. I can go back. I recognize there was a time I was conceived. There was a time I was created. Before that, I wasn't there. I didn't exist. I didn't feel anything. I didn't know anything. Because I didn't have any being. And then, there was life. And the same thing with Adam. Could Adam think back? There was that moment when Scripture says that God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature. Adam could think that way. Adam could think there was a time I didn't exist and then God breathed life into me and then I was alive. I knew. I thought. I was. I had being. And then God says, you eat that fruit, you die. What did he think? Did he think, oh, it's going to be like before I came into being. Is that it? Annihilation? I'm just going to not exist anymore. For God to threaten Adam with death, Eve spoke to the serpent. I'm talking about Eve now. In Genesis 3, she spoke to the serpent as though she knew something about it. She said to the serpent that God had said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. Now, think about this. Why didn't the devil just say to her, well, Eve, it's true that when you eat of that fruit, you are going to die. But death is great. You don't have to be afraid of death. That's something you want. Why didn't he argue that way? I suspect the devil didn't use that tactic because he knew... I have a feeling it was like it is with us. There's a fear of death. And I'll tell you this, whatever they knew about death, it was enough to keep them away from that fruit up until that day. They didn't think of death as a good thing or they would have gone over and eaten that fruit. They knew it was a warning. They knew something terrible would happen. They knew this was a threat on God. They knew this was a punishment. They knew this was bad. That's why they didn't go eat. And that's why Satan did not use that tactic because saying that would not have come across with great effect. I mean, it's like man's sense of death runs deep and the devil disfigured. There's no reason trying to minimize that. The way to seduce this woman is not to tell her that death isn't scary. The way to seduce this woman is just to tell her that the scary thing death, that she fears, won't happen. You won't die. Yes, death is scary, but you don't have to fear that. If you eat the fruit, you're not going to die. Okay? I mean, what was it that they feared? Did they fear annihilation? Did they actually fear that their souls would be torn from their bodies? Their bodies would go back to the dirt and their souls would be cast off into outer darkness? Did they have any sense of that? Or was it just a fear? Or maybe largely a fear of the unknown about death? What is it about death? Have you ever looked at a dead body? Have you ever stood next to somebody's bed when they died? I've seen both. I've watched people in their last motions before they died. I've seen that dead body, not just in the casket, but before they came and got the body. What is it about death? Part of what makes it terrifying to man is the unknown. He's got this foreboding. What's beyond? Death was not natural. It was not innate to man from the beginning. It only came in afterwards. And I wonder what they thought when they did eat of the fruit and they actually woke up the next morning and the next morning after that and the next morning after that. And for hundreds of years that went on. Did they wonder? Did it ever enter their mind? Hey, Eve, what do you think? Why didn't we die that day? Or did they actually recognize all too well that they had died that day? What did they know? What did they make of all this? In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now, I approach the Scripture different than the vast majority of the world. I don't approach this book as an unbeliever. I approach it as a believer. What I mean by that is when God saved me, He drove a deep conviction into the depths of my being that this Book is true. When I read, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die, I believe that that is precisely what happened. I believe that what God intended to communicate by that passage did indeed happen. I don't start by looking for errors or inconsistencies or contradictions in Scripture. I believe what God says right there in Genesis 2.17 in fact, precisely came to pass as God said it would. And I don't start by assuming that because Adam did not die physically the exact day that he ate the fruit, that somehow our Bibles cannot be trusted. So what do we make of this? Well, let's just think about the technicalities of this before we dive into the practicalities. The first thing that might interest you is we start studying Greek. People say, well, that's Greek to me. Actually, Greek is a pretty nice language. Hebrew ought to terrify us. It is backwards. I mean, literally, they write backwards. Their books are backwards. Baruch Meaz came here. He had his Hebrew Bible. I picked the thing up and he's laughing at me because I've got it upside down. You can't even tell. At least with Greek, it has a semblance of the kind of Roman alphabet that we use. The Hebrew rendering here is something like day, eat, die, die. And both those verbs are actually a little bit different tense. A literal reading, in fact, Young's literal translation, if I modernize it just a tad and get rid of the these and the thous, in the day of your eating of it, dying you shall die. Now dying you shall die, it definitely can indicate the beginning of death. In other words, the way that that comes across, just something that's interesting, is you may remember there was a certain chap that cursed David. And when David was dying, David said to his son Solomon, remember that guy Shimei? He cursed me. In your wisdom, you'll know what to do. And so what Solomon told him was, you build a house here in Jerusalem, you cross the Kidron, whatever he crossed, you cross that river, and the day you cross, you die. It's the same kind of verbiage. But you know the thing is, the day he crossed it isn't necessarily the day that he died. What happened was it set in motion the judgment. Because what happened is he went somewhere and he found a servant, and then he came back, and in the course of time, he was called before Solomon, and then he was executed. But that's the idea. This thing was set in motion. Now, look, I know some are going to say, well, hey, I know my Bible pretty well and I heard what Joshua said this morning, and if you go and read Ephesians 2, you know that there is a spiritual death. And somebody says, I think what that means is that he died a spiritual death that day. Remember, dead in trespasses and sins? You heard there in Ephesians 2? Dead. There is a spiritual death. And I would not argue with anyone. Adam and Eve died spiritually that day. But I don't think that's what God's talking about necessarily. You say why? Because I'll tell you this, the day that Adam ate of that fruit, when God came into the garden, He did talk to him about death. And it wasn't precisely spiritual death that He spelled out. Look at your Bibles. Look there at Genesis 3.19. This is the last of three verses where the man is having the curse pronounced against him. In 3.19 it says, "...by the sweat of your face." And right here what we're going to get is the only place that God tells them about the death that they are going to experience after they had eaten. "...By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." And here it is. "...Till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Now think if you're Adam. I'm not going to live forever. I'm going to go back to the dust. God made me out of the dust. You see, the day they ate, God did speak to them about death. And we can all see what sort of death He speaks to them about. And yes, there is such a thing as spiritual death. I'm not arguing that. There is such a thing as being dead in trespasses and sins. I'm not arguing that. Did they die that day spiritually? Yes, they died that day spiritually. I'm not arguing about that. But I really believe that that doesn't seem to be the issue here. You're dust, and to dust you shall return. It's physical. And the culmination was not yet. How do we know that? I mean, just look at the curse. Look at the nature of the curse here. What's actually being said? Before you get to the place where you do return to the dust, what's going to happen? Eve's going to bring forth children in pain. Adam in pain and the sweat of his brow is going to seek to bring forth bread from the ground in the midst of thistles and thorns. You see, what God is basically doing is He steps in that day and death is set in motion. Dying, you shall die. It's like you are dying. You are in the state of death. And you know the reality is our little children come forth into this world dying to die. Dying, you shall die. Our children are born into this world and they're already in that process to death. They're already moving in that direction. It's their first day of dying. First day of moving towards that reality. You see that here. Only after all that happened, pain in childbearing, pain in bringing forth bread, some period of time that Adam would then return to the ground from which he was taken, only then would God kill him. Oh, you say, I don't like the way you say that. God's going to kill him. Brethren, Deuteronomy 32.39 says this, See now that I, even I am He, and there is no God beside Me, I kill and I make alive. Do you recognize when people die? It's because God kills them. Let's be honest with Scripture. God ends people's lives. God has numbered your days. It is an appointed time for you to die. And when your day comes, God ends your life. And God actually says, I kill. That's how He describes it. I'm not using unbiblical terminology here. Isaiah 43.13, There is none who can deliver from My hand. You can't get away from His hand. He's coming for us. All of us. And you know the reality is, Adam did die. The day came. And you turn in your Bibles there to Genesis 5. And you see this reality. Death came. It's like for the first time in the history of man, I'll tell you what happened, and this is what happens with all of us. Look over your shoulders. Do you know what's coming behind you? Do you know what's chasing you? Death is coming. And it's got its bony hand out. And for the first time, man looked over his shoulder and here it comes. And it may have been more than 960 years. I don't know how old he was at that time. It may have been 900 years away. But He was coming. And you can't outrun. You can't outrun. Because remember what death is. Death is God killing you. And you can't outrun God. Genesis 5.5, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years. You say, oh, that was a long time. I wish I could live that long. But you know what? For as long as he lived, he died. And look. Look what's next. Look at v. 8. His son died. You just go down through this. 5.11, all the days of Enos were 905 years and he died. And then you go to v. 14, all the days of Canaan were 910 years and he died. Genesis 5.17, all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years and he died. All the days of Jared down to v. 20, 962 years and he died. And Genesis 5.27 is the man who lived longer than any other man. 969 years and he died. And you see, we read this and it's just pull up anybody on Google. Research anybody. Pull them up. Pull up Adolf Hitler. He was born. He died. We get so used to it and we can become so separate from it, but do you know there's that moment? There's going to be a moment five minutes before you die. Oh, what would we all be like right now if we could all go to that five minutes before we die and just live that one minute from five to four minutes and then all come back here? Because even though you wouldn't have tasted the death yet, who knows, where would you be? Driving down the highway in the midst of a heart attack? Withering away with cancer? You are going to die. And somebody in the future will be able to put your name in there. He lived. He died. They came. They went. It's all over. We go right on dying. Brethren, this just reaffirms all over again what I've been trying to tell you ever since we started this Genesis series. What I keep on saying, not only is this book relevant, it's like it alone is relevant. It alone is dealing with the reality that we're faced with. We really don't begin to understand what we see all around us out here, what's true of life in this world unless we accept the message of these early chapters of Genesis. And here alone is the real explanation. And I know that the world tries to explain things and they've got all their theories and they're throwing them all around. But here alone is an explanation that fits the facts. Look at it. Evolution does not explain death. What evolution, they're trying to tell you, is that things evolve. Things come together. Order out of disorder. Well, if life springs together and it's got this ability, I mean, some innate law in our universe causes life to come, then why would it ever end? It doesn't explain that. Life is a miracle. Why should it come? When our body is actually created in such a way and if you study the inner workings of the DNA, you see that basically what happens is that thing is unzipped. Information is there. And what it does is it allows us to replicate cells. Our cells can repair themselves and replicate themselves. What is the explanation for why death eventually comes? Here it is. This fits the facts, folks. People are as they are and they die like they do for reasons that can be traced back to historical events. Real historical events recorded for us in Genesis 3 where a certain thing happened. What was that thing that happened? Our first parents rebelled against God. They spurned the divine voice. And this is history. And we see what happened. And I find that the answer to two fundamental questions is found in this book. Two questions. Two questions that we all ought to be asking. The first question is why are things the way they are? And then the second question is what's the remedy? How do we fix it? Brethren, for 15 years, I struggled to be an engineer. I recognize this. You didn't have a problem with a machine and run out and just start fixing it. You first determined what's wrong with it. Why is it like it is? And then, only then, you diagnosed the problem first, then you fix it. Diagnosis, then remedy. But have you ever noticed the world doesn't want to consider the first question? What's wrong? Why is it all broken? They just want the remedy. Make the pain stop. Take the fear away. Just give me something to make me forget my problems. That's what the world wants. Sedate me. Amuse me. Intoxicate me. Make the symptoms go away. I don't want to die. The world doesn't want to die. They don't want to face death. They want to forget death. They want to just put it out of their minds. It's coming up behind them. And you know what they do? They just don't look behind them. They just want to ignore it. I don't want to think about it. I don't want to go there. Make me forget I'm going to die. Try to convince me there's no death. Or try to convince me that if you freeze my brain, somehow I'm going to come back later. When scientists have it all figured out, I can live forever. But you and I know that any good doctor is not going to simply address the symptoms. He wants to know what is the disease at the root of the matter. That's always the case. He wants to heal the patient at the deepest level. Listen, is it uncomfortable to go to the doctor and find out you've got cancer? Yes. People don't want to hear that. But would it be wise to stay away from the doctor because you don't want to hear that? Because you're afraid to hear that? Because you don't like the diagnosis? The Bible makes us uncomfortable. Because it does what a good doctor's going to do. It's going to be truthful with us and it's going to tell us what the problem is. And it says that we cannot have the treatment until we've submitted ourselves to the diagnosis. And that's what Jesus says. He comes along and He says, those who are well have no need of a physician. But those who are sick, no remedy until we recognize the sickness. But the world hates the diagnosis of Genesis 3. Man hates the first part of the Gospel. And this is the first part. Why do you think the law came in? You see, that is the first part of the Gospel, is it not? I mean, who was it? Wesley? He said if he had an hour to preach to a man, he'd spend how much? Forty-five minutes on the law. Fifteen on the Gospel. You see, there's a first part and a second part. Why 15? You know what the difficult thing is? The difficult thing isn't to say here's paradise over here. Do you want it? Everybody says line up. No, the difficulty is when you say, listen, God isn't going to give you the remedy until you deal with the sickness. What's the sickness? You preach the law to Him because what you're showing them is they're lawless. They're rebels against God. Men are wicked. And they don't like that. He wants the cure immediately. You know what they want? Just tell me that when I die, I'm going to go to a better place. I don't need some fairy tale about a naked man and woman in some mythical garden. That's not what I need. I need something real. Give me something real. I mean, seriously? Way back there in that chapter, you're going to tell me it applies? Come on, I live in the real world. I need something practical. I need something real. I need something that applies to me. Something that meets me and my problems right where I am. And you know as well as I do that as much as they talk like that in all the places they look for a remedy, they never find it. And I've looked at people on their deathbed. People that scoffed. I have a picture in my mind so indelibly written there of my aunt dying in her last days. She was pleading. She was calling out like a little girl. Mama! Mama! Mama! She was like 50 years old. She was terrified. Absolutely terrified. They don't find. They just go on looking and looking and never finding. Scripture says always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. We might think people experience the things people experience, the darkness, the dread, the despair that falls upon the people in this world, we might think that it would drive them to their Bibles, but it doesn't. They turn in every other direction. They consider every other possible solution. I mean, think about man right now. Think about man out here. He knows he's going to die, but what does he give himself to? In all of his problems, in all of his despair, in all of his depression, in all of his divorces, in all of his kids going, in all the death that surrounds him, in all the things that are discouragements, and the emptiness, and the conscience, and the guilt, and all that man deals with. What do men get in their brains that they need? A big one? I need more religion. That's what I thought. When I was living the crazy life, I thought one day I'm going to get that right. I'm basically going to take the religious pill. But what is it that people resort to? What is it that gives people hope in this world? I'm not kidding you. People increasingly are thinking that if they freeze their brains, that's going to give them the hope. How many people do you hear? I just think it's all going to work out in the end. But I'll tell you what, when you're young and you have health, that's easy to say. My aunt wasn't saying that. I'm yet to see somebody on their deathbed. And I haven't seen lots and lots, but I'm yet to ever hear of somebody lost dying on their deathbed who's just lightly, casually saying, well, I hope it all works out in the end. There's a foreboding. Because death is close and they know it. Never finding. People think, what would I need to correct in my life? What is it that would have made everything good? People look around and they don't want to think. They just, give me money. Money will fix my problems. Give me a man. Give me a woman. That's going to fix my problems. Or if I would have been born in the right family or born the right color or born in the right place or with the right benefits. Or if I could have just had this or had that or everything else. Or if this guy could just become president or this other thing, that'll fix it. Or success or stuff. And you know what? The whole time man is thinking and your time is running out. It's like the sands of time are sinking. And you can't get away. And they're running. And we're a week closer to the day we die. You know there's going to be that date on your tombstone. And you're going to die. Who knows? Who knows and has come back that can tell us what it's like right at that moment when the soul is torn away from the body. No one. We've got no one to tell us. Nobody has been there and back again. We have the testimony of God about these things. Death is coming. Man just absorbed with what's immediately around him, what his eyes can see. So what we have at this present hour is man doesn't know the real cause of his troubles. That's just... People would not sleep well going on like they're going on. Do you know if people really recognized the true cause of their troubles, if they really recognized the truth, if they came under conviction of that reality, people would not be able to fit in here. People would be lined up all around. That's a reality. If people really knew what was coming, if people really knew the horrors of hell, if people really knew that man is dying and the reason he's dying is because of a consequence of his sin and there isn't just a first death, there's a second death and there is really a lake of fire, and if they really knew that that man is not mythology in Luke 16 that begged to have just one drop of water, but there was no drop given to him because he had the things that he had while he lived in this life and now his life ran out. And now there was eternal bankruptcy where you would pay all to have a drop of water. That is not myth. That is God warning you. That is God telling us death is real and death is coming. What we've got here, man speaks to us about our precise condition that we find ourselves in. And what is that condition? It's this. It's what I said before. You young people, we've got people in here that don't know the Lord. Look over your shoulder. You say, what, I don't see anything, I just see a curtain. Oh no, it's back there and it's dogging your steps. This is like having a person that you can't shake and he's got a knife in his hand and he's coming behind you and you can't run fast enough, you can't go far enough, you can't hide. Because He always sees your steps and He stays behind you. And you know what the problem is? That for every step you take, He takes too. And He's getting closer. You cannot distance Him. That's the reality. Death is chasing us. Man asserts, I don't fear death. Men are liars. The Bible tells us they're liars. Men are afraid. And the Bible talks about through the fear of death, men being lifelong slaves. Death. The Bible's not messing around. Men fear death and it brings us slavery. We see Adam and Eve's rebellion immediately led to terrible, terrible consequences which are still with us today. And we can't shake. And men brought His misery upon Himself. Brethren, this is Genesis 3. But it doesn't stop there. It keeps on going. And what does God tell us? What's the subsequent record that God wants to give to us? We want to learn from the pattern of God's dealings with humanity. And what have they been ever since the fall? What does it look like? I mean, you don't even have to get out of Genesis. And what are you going to find? You're going to find that when you get into Genesis 6, we're only talking six chapters deep into the Bible. And what do we have? We have this, the Lord looks out at man. In Genesis 6, verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth and it grieved Him to His heart so the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, and I'm sorry that I have made them. I will blot out man. Remember, I said before, God says, I kill, I make alive. I will blot them out. I will kill mankind. Say, God is a killer. God is a killer. And man has brought that upon his own head. God kills man and He goes on killing man. He doesn't allow everybody to live to a ripe old age. He cuts men's lives short through all number of kinds of calamities and the general message is that all calamities are due to sin. You look at this calamity. What does it tell us? Why did God do it? Does God do it just out of the blue? Does He do it out of a vacuum? That's not what He says. The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth. God strikes man as a consequence. It's a terrible consequence of man's rebellion against God. And there it is. Somebody says, I don't believe that. I don't believe in that flood. Let me just tell you this, you may not, but the Lord Jesus Christ did. Christ Himself said this, Matthew 24, 37, For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood. You see, Jesus speaks about the flood. Historical event. Not myth. Not superstition. As in those days before the flood. And here's what they were doing. Imagine man. And you can see them. You know the reason Jesus is talking this way? It's because this is exactly how men are going to be before He comes. And this world is swallowed up in a flood of fire. Listen to how they were. In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. They were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Peter believes in the flood. 1 Peter 3.20 God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. Notice that God's patience. Oh, careless sinner, as one of the hymns says. Be careful. You say, oh, things go on every day. Went to bed last night. Woke up this morning. I had breakfast. We went to church. Everything goes on just as it always has. Do you know God's patience always comes to an end? God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Again, 2 Peter. God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness or a preacher of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. The author of Hebrews also believed in the flood. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events, has yet unseen in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. People say, of course, we no longer believe in that garbage. Science has proved this and that. And you know the reality is science hasn't proved anything. Science is great where science is real. All that really means is somebody with a loud voice and a wicked mind and heart is out there propagating some theory, some idea, some supposition that they've invented in their own mind that's never been proved. But because they have lots of degrees behind their name, because they come from some famous university, everybody says science has proved. Well, science hasn't proven. All that's happened is some scientist has just given his opinion. It's altogether different than science proves. If you want to look at real science, observe. You ever looked around our world? It is full of evidence of a worldwide flood. Everywhere. Fossils. You think if I go throw a dead chicken in my backyard, you're going to come back a million years and there's going to be a fossil there? Fossils don't happen that way. Fossils happen when there's a great calamity in life. You think about this. They find all these animals fossilized together. What does that tell you? That tells you lots of animals were immersed in mud and sediment immediately and cut off from oxygen. That's how you get fossils. You say, how'd that happen? Oh, a worldwide calamity. And it took place. And even though I haven't actually seen the fossil proof myself, I have heard that they have discovered different places. Well, I mean, one thing you know is they find fossils on the top of the highest mountains. That is just a fact. But another thing that I understand is that they have found fossilized regions high up in the mountains where you have all sorts of different kinds of animals, both prey and predator together. I mean, the basic picture is all the animals were going as high as they could. Now you say, how did you get fossils when they've been washed away? I don't know. Honestly, this thing covered the highest mountains. The flood. Death. What's the message in all of it? It's this. What is God saying to us about the flood? You go around and you look at... I'm going to go out to the Rocky Mountains and you can see where there's cliffs and you've got all these layers in there and there is fossils and you've got these sedimentary layers that have been laid down and you start looking into that. I mean, what are we supposed to see in all this? What's this supposed to speak to us? God pronounces through all of this that He must and He will punish sin. He'll punish it in the individual. He punishes it in groups. He punishes it in the whole world. And it's for sin. And that is the general message. Why did God act as He did? It says wickedness was the reason. That's what always produces God's punishment. Then there's Sodom and Gomorrah. And you think about all these situations. God's patience. God's patience. You say, oh, you know what the sinner does? He gets drunk. He goes out. Sexual immorality. He lives it up. He lives a wild life. He's full of greed. He runs after all his idols. And he says, look, God hasn't struck me down yet, so He does it the next day. Look, God hasn't struck me down. Isn't that what Scripture says? Man gets pretty bold because sin is not executed upon him immediately. And so he continues going. He continues going. You children, you're doing that. Many of you. Well, look, I'm not dead yet. But I'll tell you what, his patience runs out. And what are you going to do? Wake up in hell? Oh, I should have listened. I should have bowed down to Christ. It's going to be too late. And I'll guarantee you this, there was a day when that door shut on that ark, even before the rain had started, their doom was sealed because the only way of escape was God. Sodom and Gomorrah. You say, I don't believe in that either. Let me tell you this, the Lord Jesus did. Genesis 13 says, now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. There you have it again. Genesis 19, I love that. In 13, they're wicked, but you don't get judgment until 19. God was patient. Six chapters of Scripture. Not only that, God left Noah for 120 years to preach. Preacher of righteousness He's called to preach. Do you know what God did to Sodom and Gomorrah? He put Lot there. Righteous Lot. And He gives us six chapters before He wipes them out. Do you know what He did to Adam? He gave him over 900 years. Sodom and Gomorrah. You know what it says? The Lord reigned. The Lord did this. Reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. He overthrew the cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. He overthrew. He killed them. It was His hand that let loose with fire. And once again, the Lord Jesus Christ comes along and says, this isn't myth, the Lord Jesus says this, likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, Lot lived in Sodom. They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur reigned. And destroyed them all. And you see the same pattern. People just go on with their life. They're not thinking about what they ought to be thinking about. They just, let's eat and drink. Let's live it up. Marry, plant. Isn't that interesting? That seems to be the common factor. People just going on with life. And then bang, the end comes. Oh, how death catches people unaware. But God has warned them. But they don't heed the warnings. Peter also speaks about Sodom and Gomorrah. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to, now the ESV says extinction. That's a horrible word. They're the only translation that uses that. Why they would come up with that? That's just the kind of thing to give place to error. The idea is destruction, overthrow, ruin. The Tyndale says overthrow them and damn them. That's better. Damned, ruined, destroyed. Listen to this. Making them an example. You think there's no disconnect? The New Testament says what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is an example. An example of what? An example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. Let me tell you something. If you reach that day of your death still outside of Christ in an ungodly condition, read what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah because that's an example that God says is going to happen to you. And God doesn't lie. Death is coming. We sang it. Death is coming. Hell is moving. It's coming. It's coming. You're not fast enough. Jude says just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Remember the Amorites? Remember what God said to Abraham? He said, Abraham, you're going to inherit this land. But you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take your descendants down to Egypt for a while. Do you remember what He said was the reason? The sin of the Amorites is not yet full or complete. Now isn't that interesting? What's that again? Amazing mercy. God did not wipe them out in the first generation. And you say, well, yeah, He did postpone His judgment. That's true. But I'll tell you, in postponing it all the way to when He did, a certain woman by the name of Rahab had time to be rescued. And she's actually in the lineage of the Messiah. Do you know Noah built that ark for a hundred? God said My Spirit isn't always going to abide with them. He said 120 years. That's it. 120 years. They've got 120 years until I'm going to wipe this whole thing out. And do you know during those 120 years, there wasn't just silence. There was this massive ship being built. Do you think that thing... Have you seen the one Ken Ham built? You think that thing back in that day would have drawn some attention? People would say, well, you know, Saturday night, what are we going to do? Are we going to go to the movies? No, let's go out and look at the ark. And they walk out there and it's like over 120 years. I'm sure they laughed, they mocked. What is it? What are you doing? Judgment's coming. He was a preacher of righteousness. So as He hung off the sides there, He may have come down off and He addressed the people. He preached. He proclaimed the truth. He told them 120 years. They said, what are you doing, Noah? Noah said to them, undoubtedly he said to them, God is going to judge the world. God is going to bring a flood. I'm building a boat because God is going to wipe everybody out unless they repent and believe. And I'll tell you, where you find men repenting, you find God not bringing the calamity that He had promised. And here He is. He told them. Can you imagine the whole scene? It was a joke. I mean, after a year. Can you imagine after a year He's building? A year later. Seriously, the guy is still out there building the ark? After 10 years. Noah, do you still believe all that nonsense? 20 years. 30 years. 40 years. People are saying, I've had children. They've had children. We've been eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. This lunatic's out there building still. He keeps talking about some judgment. Where is it? Where is it? I mean, can you imagine if you were born like a year or two after He started and your whole life all you knew is 100 years. This guy's been building this boat. It's all I've ever known. And judgment never comes. Everything goes on like they did in the days of our forefathers. Everything just continues on. There's no difference. This guy's threatening us with death and judgment. And it just doesn't come. 100 years. They mocked on. They laughed Him to scorn. Noah, you're a fool. You hear how the world talks to us Christians? You guys are fools. They look at us like you believe all these myths. You believe all this. What is this? We can't see it. You can't see God. You can't prove God. Laugh on, world. And we're preaching. Judgment's coming. Judgment's coming. There's only one way of escape. It's repentance. It's faith. Noah, you fool. What are you doing? And you imagine 119 1⁄2 years. Noah preached. And they paid no attention. God warned them. And God warns us. Death has come upon mankind. And it's a monster. There's a lot of unknowns, but we don't have to be ignorant. Wrath. Fire. Worm that dies not. Not even a drop of water. The smoke of their torment goes up forever. And no rest day or night. Gnashing of teeth. Weeping. Outer darkness. Death is coming. And God warns us. And He warns us individually. He warns the whole world. God warns before He strikes. God kills. And the Bible repeats these warnings. Folks, Sodom and Gomorrah were turned to ashes. And that is an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. You're going out of the world someday. That day with your number on it, it's coming. You're going to die. Where are you going? To what are you going to face on the other side? And God warns you. And He warns you by the flood. He warns you through Adam. He warns you through the Amorites. He warns you by Sodom and Gomorrah. He warns you through a double destruction of Jerusalem. He told those people the same thing. If you don't obey My voice, I am going to wipe you off the face of the earth. And they kept on, and they kept on, and they kept on. Can you imagine those prophets? One prophet after another. Decade after decade, another prophet comes and warns. Death is coming. Destruction is coming. God is going to wipe you out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've heard that before. Kill that guy. Throw that guy in jail. Where is it? And they kept saying. And it came. And the Babylonians came. And then it happened all over again. And even Jesus came. And they killed Him. And then the Romans came. These things are warnings. He warns you in His Word. You must stand before Him and He is going to judge you in righteousness. Can you imagine those folks in Noah's day? I mean, see them. Hear them. Listen to them. That day, hey, Noah's not working on the ark anymore. The door's shut. Yeah, and the clouds. Strange. It looks dark. And this was no ordinary rain. And something began to happen. Something threatening. I'll tell you what had happened. Time ran out. It was over. Mercy was exhausted. God's patience had come to an end. And when those first drops of rain began to fall down, that door was shut. Remember how it says it in the Gospel? And the door was shut. And those servants, those five virgins, that were on the outside, when the door was shut, the door was shut. Today is the day of salvation. If you foolishly laugh and mock and play on and eat and drink and plant and marry, and that door gets shut and takes you, you're a fool. You are warned. This is a warning you want to take with the utmost of your attention. Imagine that. That door's shut. God's sealed them in. The one place of refuge gone. See, if you let death take you and you're outside of Christ, it's gone. All the hope is gone. Who was laughing then? I don't know. Some of them probably said, we've got to get to high ground. Some probably banged and clawed on the side of that ark. It was all for naught. They were doomed. They had crossed the point of no return. There's no more safety. There's no more hiding place. It's too late. There was a place of salvation. God did provide a way of escape. They laughed at it. They ignored it. They ridiculed it. Christ is the ark. There is not another. When He comes, the door's shut. When you die, the door's shut. You remember that death angel? He's coming. He's tracking you. If there was blood on the doorposts in the Lentil Passover, He passed by. Death is coming. You know what Scripture says for the Christian? Oh, death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? It's not very stinging when like that thief, you say, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. I don't have anything to offer You. I'm just hanging here. A miserable, guilty thief. I have nothing to offer. Remember me. Death ushered Him straight into paradise. To be absent from the body for the Christian is to be present with the Lord. To depart and be with Christ is far better as how the Christian can talk because the fangs have been taken out of this monster. And in fact, we can actually turn around and look over our shoulders and say, death, you hold no terrorist to me anymore because you just usher me to my Savior's side. But if you don't know the Lord, it ushers you to a place where the punishment for your sins will be meted out. No mercy. You won't even get a drop of water. God's mercies will have come to an end for you. Genesis 3, very relevant. Shows us where we all came from. How we all got here. It teaches us about death. Where it came from. Father, many of us here, You have not dealt with us according to our sins. You've given us a way out. You've given us a hiding place. You've given us an ark. We find ourselves inside that ark, standing at the windows and beckoning to others. Come in, come in, come in. That has been one of our prayers. We want the children at VBS to hear that voice and come in. We want the families on this east side to hear those voices and come. We want those Syrians to hear Kevin's voice, Jenny's voice and come in. We desire that they would hear the Hamilton's voice over there in China and Myanmar. Come in. Lord, move them to come in. Draw them to come in. Have mercy upon them and compel them to come in. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.