Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19990725.htm

HEBREWS: REPLACING MAN'S RITUALISM WITH CHRIST
"Part XVII: Adjusting To God's Warning Of Future Judgment By Faith"
(Hebrews 11:7; 2 Peter 3:3-7, 11)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

It is hard for people to take real doomsday predictions seriously because of the "overkill" factor on the subject in our culture:

(1) If we let our eyes wander at a typical grocery store check-out counter, amid all the Hollywood "beautiful people" and soap opera cover shots on the magazine stands there, we cab find something on prophecy!

Usually the tabloid mentions "Nostradamus" and may even pull in "Billy Graham's predictions" or words from famous deceased people with their predictions on future cataclysmic events! One can find subjects there ranging from a predicted asteroid hit on the earth to atomic war and an invasion of space aliens!

And people actually buy the tabloid!

(2) But consider the great fear many Christians have over the Y2K Millenium Bug and it's associated doomsday-type predictions. They worry that many computers and computer chips that were designed with only two digits to represent the year's date w ill malfunction, producing chaos when the Year 2000 rolls around and computers understand the digits "00" to mean 1900. Dave Hunt reports: "Some Christians, unable to change their residences, have plywood ready to nail over windows and an old car they will park in their driveway and burn January 1, 2000, so that the rampaging mobs will think the house has already been looted and will pass it by." (Hunt, The Berean Call, May, 1999, p. 2)

Though we might consider that as an excessive reaction, many Christians are worried about it! Dave Hunt reports that he chose to deal with the Y2K subject in his newsletter only because "This subject was forced upon us by the many letters and phon e calls we received from frightened people. Some were on the verge of panic because of the disastrous consequences of the alleged worldwide computer crash predicted in some [Christian] circles . . . " (Ibid., p. 1)



What do we do with the numerous "doomsday" predictions of the end of the world that we face -- do we take them seriously, or not? WHY?!



(We turn to the sermon's "Need" section . . . )

Need: "There is no lack for the predictions of a world doomsday by many sources! Well, are we to take such predictions seriously?! WHY, and IF so, WHICH ones should we believe?!"
  1. The author of Hebrews urged Jewish Christians to worship Christ rather than using the temple rituals under godless peer pressure, Heb. 9:7-10, 11-14 (sermon XII); Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, p. 1729.
  2. This vocation involved a LIFE of FAITH in Scripture versus heeding pressures to err from VISIBLE, FALSE things, Heb. 11:1.
  3. In one APPLICATION of this exercise, they were to follow Noah's example to prepare for a future, unseen world judgment and new world order under Christ OPPOSITE the unbelief of their peers:
    1. As an example, the author of Hebrews held up Noah's faith, Heb. 11:7.
    2. Like Noah, they were to respect God's prediction of coming world judgment and live opposite and thus critically of their ungodly peers:
      1. Noah respected God's prediction of a yet unseen flood, 11:7a.
      2. Accordingly, he translated that faith into action by heeding God's order to build an ark for the saving of his household, Heb. 11:7b.
      3. In building that ark, Noah critiqued his onlookers of a judgment to come on them for their SIN, Heb. 11:7c with 1 Pet. 3:19-20.
        1. Noah worked on the ark approximately 120 years, cf. Gen. 6:3 with 1 Peter 3:20; Bible Knowledge Commentary, N.T., p. 851.
        2. During that time, Christ used the Holy Spirit to preach to the lost through Noah of coming judgment, Ibid. with 1 Peter 3:20.
      4. Similarly, these Hebrew Christians were to cease keeping temple rituals before their peers & live by faith in Christ's predicted return, judgment and reign (Heb. 10:23-25 where "the day" is the Day of the Lord, the whole end-time era, Westcott, Hebrews, p. 326)!
  4. The Apostle Peter later applied this theme to OUR era:
    1. As the author of Hebrews urged his readers to follow Noah's lead, Peter wrote to call latter-day believers to the same vocation: Peter said scoffers would come mocking God's prediction of final world judgment. They would adhere to uniformitarian evolution, asserting " . . . the cosmic processes of the present and the future can be understood solely on the basis of how the cosmos has operated in the past," 2 Peter 3:3-4; Ibid., Bible Knowledge Com., O.T., p. 875.
    2. In adopting uniformitarianism, Peter said they would "deliberately forget" the Bible's Creation and Flood accounts, 2 Peter 3:5-6 NIV!
    3. Today, uniformitarian evolutionists deny these narratives are true!
    4. Yet, if we look at the data in nature that is overlooked by them, we have ample evidence that these Biblical accounts are trustworthy:
      1. Evidence From Rock Strata - In Montana's Glacier National Park are huge, parallel sediments of twisted rock formations that could be formed only when each sediment was in a plastic state. This reveals a quick, great Flood, Whitcomb, The Early Earth, p. 66-67.
      2. Evidences In The Fossil Record - Fossils support the Bible record:
        1. An Evolutionist, Bjorn Kurten, writes that many whole fossils of non-aquatic, duck-billed dinosaurs have been found "in . . .a swimming position with the head thrown back as if in death throes." (cited in Sylvia Baker, Bone of Contention, p. 11). This evidence supports the presence of dinosaurs at the Flood, so they lived when man did in support of the Gen. 1-2 account!
        2. Whitcomb & Morris reported in their book, The Genesis Flood, p. 176 that a "puzzling human skull composed of brown coal and manganiferous and phosphatid limonite'" exists in the "coal collection in the Mining Academy in Freiberg [Germany]," [citing Otto Stutzer: Geology of Coal (Transl. by A. C. Noe, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1940), p. 271]! The coal "was presumably Tertiary in age" and is held by uniformitarian evolutionists to have far preceded the existence of man!
      3. Evidence Via Genetics - Biologists who studied the mitochondria DNA from the placentas of women around the world have found that opposite evolutionary theory, modern man came from a single woman who lived in Africa or Asia! (D. Wallace, "The Search for Adam and Eve," Newsweek, 1/11/88, p. 46-50) This supports the Gen. 9-10 Mid-East, post-flood re-population account & Gen. 1-2!
      4. Evidence Via Worldwide Flood Accounts - There are over 270 flood stories from all parts of the world, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Gen. 7:19. This supports the Flood and man's single origin!
    5. Since noting such evidence leads us to see the Flood happened, Peter charges us to live godly lives in faith that the Bible's predictions of world judgment by fire are true, 2 Peter 3:5-7, 11.
Lesson Application: (1) If we heed nature's evidences that God once DESTROYED the world by the FLOOD, we find it reasonable to BELIEVE God's FUTURE predictions of ending the world by a cataclysmic FIRE, 2 Peter 3:5-6 with 3:7. (2) We must (a) believe in Christ as Savior from sin to escape the future judgment and, (b) like Noah, live that testimony as a witness before our peers!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 In the March-May, 1997 magazine issue of Creation Ex Nihilo, on page 22 are found three photographs of an ancient stone carving. The photos of this "petroglyph" are taken of a carving located on the underside wall of the Kachina Bridge arch found less than 100 yards from ancient Anasazi Indian ruins located at the Natural Bridges National Park in Utah. Keep in mind that these Anasazi Indians lived roughly from 150 B.C. to A. D. 1200, Ibid., p. 20.

The petroglyph is authentic according to evolutionist, F. Barnes that mentions it in his book entitled, Canyon Country Prehistoric Indians -- Their Culture, Ruins, Artifacts and Rock Art (Wasatch Publishers, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1995) as cited in Creation Ex Nihilo, Loc. cit. The carving accordingly shows signs of pitting and fading typical of authentic ancient Anasazai art work.

But, much to the consternation of Barnes who is an evolutionist, this ancient petroglyph is that of an extinct DINOSAUR, a SAUROPOD to be exact! This reptile had a long neck and small head and a long tail following its large body and four legs! The carving is .9 meters from head to tail. Barnes "concedes this glyph . . . but proffers no explanation. Antagonistic to creationists, he has refused to reveal its location." (Loc. cit., Creation Ex Nihilo) [Just like 2 Peter 3:5 says of such "deliberate" repression of the evidence!] Dan Patton has photographed the petroglyph, which photos are published in this magazine's March-May, 1997 issue (which the pastor has in his office for any to view for themselves!).

Since such a carving was surely made after the Genesis Flood as it came from the 150 B.C. to A.D. 1200 Anasazi Indians and could not have survived the cataclysmic Genesis Flood, it supplies evidence that dinosaurs died out after the Flood! The petroglyph also thereby counters the evolutionary idea that man and dinosaurs were not contemporaries, and thus acts to support the Genesis Creation account!

Instead of willingly being ignorant of the evidences around us of the Flood and even of Creation, it behooves us to heed the evidences, and take God's promises of a FUTURE world disaster by fire seriously! As He judged the world in Noah's day, He will judge our world for sin as well! We need to get right with God and live testimonial lives by faith as did Noah of old!