All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to Genesis chapter 7. Genesis chapter 7. The Lord in the first verse of
this seventh chapter had commanded Noah, Come thou and all thy house
into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. And verse 5 of this chapter said,
and Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. Now, we're going to consider
according to the good pleasure of our Lord a few verses in this
chapter that deals with the entry of Noah and his family into the
ark and the security of being found in the ark. Now in verses 7 to 9, and let's
read those verses, the first thing I want us to notice and
to consider is the miracle of God's grace that Noah and his
family were in the ark. It says in verse 7, And Noah
went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with
him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean
beasts, of beasts that are not clean, of fowls, of everything
that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto
Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded
Noah. Noah and his family was in the
ark and everybody else was outside. Everybody except Noah was perishing. And the reason that Noah was
in the ark was because God had chosen for Noah to be in the
ark. Noah alone found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. And if the Lord had left Noah
to himself to do what he would naturally desire to do, Noah
would have been on the outside too, doing just exactly what
everybody else was doing. So the Lord, who bid him to come,
had given him a willing heart to do just exactly what Noah
did. He was made willing in the day
of God's power. Noah went in by faith. Faith that Noah did not naturally
possess. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 2 says,
All men have not faith. is a gift of God. It's given,
Philippians 1.29. It's given you in behalf of Christ,
not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. So, believing God and suffering
for the sake of Christ is a gift of God. A miracle of God's grace. So sinners, chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world when it pleases God. They
enter into the fellowship of Christ in regenerating grace
and they enter willingly, they come to the Lord willingly. Him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise come out. Why do they
come? They come because they want to. Why do they want to? They want to because God gave
them a want to. That's why they come. He made willing. So, by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. So, seven days before the flood
would come, the Lord had told Noah, it was going to be in seven
days, he said, I'm going to send a flood. So, seven days, the
flood was going to come and Noah began in obedience to the Lord's
command, he began to The animals started coming to
Him, and there the Lord was going to preserve that which He had
created, and God moved those animals to come to Noah. Well,
the second thing I noticed and found in verses 10-15, that the
counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Verses 10-15, it came
to pass, after seven days, that the waters of the flood were
upon the earth in the 600th year of Noah's life. In the second
month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the fountains
of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were
opened, and the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
in the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth,
the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of
his sons with them into the ark. They and every beast after his
kind, and all the cattle after their kind, every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl
after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in
unto Noah, into the ark two and two of all flesh wherein is the
breath of life." Now, the Lord who rules in heaven and earth,
the one who commands and even the wind and the sea obey Him,
now is going to reveal that which He has purposed for the earth.
He's going to destroy it. He's going to pour out His wrath
upon him, but the Lord is going to show mercy and compassion
to whosoever He will. To whosoever He will, He hardeneth.
What does that mean? He leaves them to themselves.
Noah had been preaching 120 years, and now Noah and his wife, his
three sons, and their wives are going to get in that boat, in
that ark, and the rest that were given up to judicial blindness,
the Lord's going to destroy them. Now here's an amazing thing.
I've read it, and as I've read this, I've read it twice now
since we've been here, and I've just been very, very methodical
reading that 11th verse. It was an amazing thing. It just,
when I first read it, I wondered the exactness of when the Lord
sent that flood. It says in verse 11, in the 600th
year of Noah's life, in the second month and the 17th day of the
month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep
broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. Now, in the
second month, 17th day, There were many writers that
wrote on this, but one that I read, I want to say it was John Gill,
I read a bunch. It was John Gill, that exact
time, he said it was probably in April, according to the Jewish
calendar, Hebrew calendar. Second month, 17th day of the
month, April according to their calendar. And it was a time of
year when everything was in its prime. It was in April. Flowers are blooming. The weather's
nice. Birds are chirping. And it was
a day that surely they didn't expect the world would come crashing
in. It was like as in 1 Thessalonians
5, 3, for when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them. I read something concerning the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord poured out fire and
brimstone on this, and in the day that the Lord would destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family They were in Sodom. And they were directed by two
angels to leave that wicked city. They told Lot, you get out of
here. You get those that are with you,
you get out of here because we can't destroy this city as long
as you're in it. And Lot asked, go back and read this in Genesis
19. Lot asked, they told him to go
to the mountains. And Lot asked, he said, let something
catastrophic happen to me there. There's a little city named Zoar
that's not too far from here. Would it be okay if I went to
this city called Zoar? Could I go there? And they said
you could, you could go there for refuge and the angels. according
to the mercy of God, spared that little city of Zoar. Now Lot
asked, he said, can I go there? And they spared that city for Lot's sake. That's Genesis 19.21 if you want
to see that. And it said Lot left Sodom and
the scriptures reveal this, on the day that Sodom was destroyed. Here it says, this is Genesis
19, 23 to 25, the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered
into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven
and he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the
inhabitants of the cities that grew upon the earth. No one in
Sodom Gomorrah or any of those other cities that were destroyed
expected anything to be any different from any other day. As far as they knew it was going
to be business as usual. Sun's coming up. Here it is. Everything is like it always
has been. And the scripture says God rained out fire and brimstone. The scripture says, hold your
place here and turn to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. The Lord has
given us some scripture concerning the end of this world. Matthew
24, verses 36 to 39, concerning the second coming. But of that day and hour knoweth
no man. No, not the angels of heaven,
but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were,
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the
days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered
into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them
all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." They knew
not. Again, given up to that blindness. And the Lord said as it was then. This is what they were doing.
Just like in Sodom and Gomorrah. It was just another day. It was
just a nice day, sun rising, everything's fine, everything
is going to be just like it was yesterday and how it will be
tomorrow, I'm sure. And all of a sudden, it was over.
And in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it was over. And nobody
had time to think. You couldn't reflect on any message
that you'd ever heard. It was just before you knew what
happened. They're standing before God in
the day of judgment. The Lord said in Matthew 24,
44, Therefore be ye also ready. For in such an hour as you think
not, the Son of Man cometh. When you think this ain't going
to be it, it ain't going to be today. Isn't it easy to think
that? Do you think the Lord's coming
tonight? He could, but he said that's the day it's going
to be. When you think not. So verse
11 and 12 reveal that on the day of the flood, this is what
happened. The scripture 11 and 12, ok,
it said in Seth's same day, I'm sorry, verse 12, I'll get my
bearings here, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and
forty nights. Forty days. Verse 11 says that the second
month, the seventeenth day of the month Same day were all the
fountains, I finally found the scripture I was looking for.
The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and
the windows of heaven were opened. Now, you know, the scripture
declares that when the Lord created the heaven and the earth, He
separated the firmament. It was that when we looked at
the creation, there's water that's being held above, and there's
water under the earth. And the amazing thing about it
is that God separated those two, those two waters. And that the
clouds that hold that water, remember we talked about how
the tons and tons and tons of water, it's suspended. in these clouds, it's held up. In the day that God sent the
flood, what happened, it says the same day were all the fountains
of the great deep broken up. It was just like an explosion. The earth just opened up and
the windows of heaven were opened. Like if you took a jar of water
and you just hit it with a hammer and all the water is out. It
just opened up and it was just a flood at the appointed time
that the waters from above and the waters from below just gushed
up and fell down and all that water, it came down for 40 days
and 40 nights. And at that specific time of
divine judgment, and it was completed. And in that day, verse 13 says,
in that self same day, that was the day that Noah and Shem and
Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the
three wives and his sons with them, went into the ark. The word there, self-same day,
it does mean that it was that very day. Obviously the Lord
had given Noah seven days. He said seven days, floods coming.
And all the animals began to get in and Noah's responsibility,
I'm sure that he the Lord used him the means of in placing these
animals in that ark. So it does mean in that very
day, but also the word means, if you look at the translation,
it means bone, strength, or substance. And it seems to indicate the
time or the strength of the day. Matthew Poole wrote this, and
this is just his thoughts, but the word does mean, that word
self-same, self-same. That word means bone, the strength
of the day. He said it could have been very
much noon, you know, right in the middle part of the day. If
that's the case, good. But that is, it means the strength
of that day, and the scripture set forth that in that selfsame
day, on that seventh day, and it was over. Today is the seventh
day, and God is sending, and that's the day that Noah and
his family went in. But whatever the exact meaning
of selfsame, it means that the time for Noah to get in was accomplished. It was that day. It says in that
13th verse, in that self same day entered Noah, Shem, Ham,
Japheth, their sons' wives. Now Shem, that's one of Noah's
boys, and he's revealed to be the bloodline of Christ. Ham and Japheth also were with
him. But before I go further, we look
at these last few verses. And Lord willing, I'm gonna mention
something in verse 16. And Lord willing, next time I'm
gonna pick up right in verse 16. We'll go on from there. But
the scripture says that there was something that happened,
or was found to be, let me say this. in that ark that we experience
today. All of the pictures and types
that we find in this passage, the ark was a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Noah himself was a picture of Christ, but
Noah was also a type and figure of every vessel of God's mercy,
but there was another type that set forth in this thing. Noah
and his family was a picture of the entire church. The church, the whole church,
Mark, was in that ark. Everybody else was destroyed.
Found within that ark were some of God's elect. Inside. And one of the boys of Noah,
it's revealed that he was cursed. Ham was cursed. Now, let me just
read this to you. Genesis chapter 9 verse 18 to
25. Genesis 9. We'll look at this in detail,
I'm just going to read the scripture right now, but Genesis 9 verse
18, the scripture says, and the sons of Noah that went forth
of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Ham is the father
of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah,
and of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to
be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine
and was drunken. and he was uncovered within his
tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of
his father and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth
took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went
backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces
were backward and they saw not their father's nakedness. And
Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had
done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan,
a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Now, Canaan was the son of Ham. And Canaan was cursed along with
his father. Ham, his name Ham, means hot. But it's also a name for Egypt. In Genesis chapter 10 verse 6
reveals that one of Ham's sons was named Mizraim and he was
the father of the Egyptians. A cursed nation of a cursed father. So I told you all of that. We'll look at that more deeply
as we get into that, but we learn from within the ark. There were
some that were not blessed to be the recipients of God's grace. Just as today, there's tears
among the wheat. Not all are Israel, that is spiritually,
which are of Israel, nationally. Many profess to be the Lord's,
but according to the scriptures, shall proven later to not be.
Judas was found among the elect apostles, but was shown to be
a devil. And what did the Lord instruct
in the parable of the wheat that was sown and the tares that were
later sown in there? What did He say to do? He said,
leave them alone. Just leave them alone. The angels will separate
them in that day. So even in the ark, we find that
intermingling of the reprobates among the blessed of God. So
when you read that, it's just so... We'll miss it. We'll miss it. Who is Ham? He
was one that was cursed. Cursed of God. So the scripture
says now in verse 14, These are the ones that went in. They and
every beast after his kind, all the cattle after their kind,
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind,
every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. Here, again,
every type and variety and species. Nothing was left in the world
without representation. Remember, when the Lord created
everything, it was said to be very good, very good, needful,
needful. Verse 15, and they went in unto
Noah into the ark two and two of all flesh wherein is the breath
of life. Now here it appears that Noah
was in the ark and the creatures came, the scripture says they
came unto him, that's what they went in unto Noah. And there you see again, you
can see a picture of Noah being a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, come unto me, come unto me. When it says that they went
unto Noah, the word means, unto means, it means near, with, or
among, but it properly means towards. You come unto me. So again, I mean every verse
of scripture you can see The gospel, you see the glory of
the Lord in it. And this is the last one. I'll
stop with this. I'll make a couple of comments
on verse 16 and then we'll stop for the evening. And they that
went in, went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded
him and the Lord shut him in. Now, again, they went in and
closing it tells how the Lord ordered those animals to come
in. They went in male and female.
There was going to be a continuation of the animal kingdom. There
was going to be a continuation of the human race. So God paired
these animals and put them in according to His good pleasure.
And through the means of Noah, they entered in as God had commanded
Him. But let's look at this in particular
and then I'll be quiet. It said they went in, male and
female, of all flesh, as God had commanded Him. Now the title there, it's Elohim. It's Father, Son, and Spirit. God Almighty, who is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity. God, who will by no means clear
the guilty. God commanded Noah to enter. But look who shut him in. The
Lord. Jehovah. The covenant God. The Father who chose to show
mercy. The Son who redeemed all of God's
elect and the Holy Spirit who regenerates and seals and leads
and keeps, teaches. God commanded, go in. The Lord
shut him in. Young's literal says, and Jehovah
doth close it for him. The Amplified Bible says they
went in as God had commanded Noah and the Lord shut him in
and closed the door round about him. And the Lord shut him in. The Lord Himself who will have
mercy and compassion on whomsoever He will. as all of God's elect, was under
that special, distinguishing, watchful eye of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. And Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, covered him round about and shut
him in, showing the intimacy. that the Lord has for the objects
of His mercy and compassion. The Lord declared concerning
His sheep, He said, My sheep hear My voice, I know them, they
follow Me, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. They're secure in the Lord Jesus. They're shut in. shut in by Almighty
God, who is their covenant God. This is what David said. The
Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things,
ensured. This is all my salvation. What
was all of Noah's salvation? God put him in that ark and God
shut him up. Kept him. Like that cleft of
the rock. that city of refuge. Oh, may
the Lord be pleased tonight to effectually call one of His own
unto Himself according to His good pleasure. And may the vessels
of His mercy be given ears to hear, eyes to see, coming to
the earth. For God's glory and our eternal
good. Amen.