Okay, let's take our Bibles and
turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 7. Genesis, chapter 7. I'd like to read the first verse,
and then we'll ask the Lord's blessing. Genesis 7, verse 1, And the Lord
said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for
thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. This evening, we thank You for
this privilege to be here, to be able to look into Your Word
and to hear. Lord, I pray that You would bless
the Word by Your Holy Spirit to our heart, comfort us, teach
us. Lord, I pray that You would do
this for Christ's sake. Amen. I read this verse of Scripture,
and when I read it, it was a verse that just arrested my heart. And whenever something like that
happens, I need to just stop and just contemplate, look again,
ask. There is something that is indescribably
wonderful and merciful about the revelation that is given
in that verse of Scripture from Jehovah. When you see the word, you know
this in that line, in the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D. That means Jehovah. self-existent
One, Father, Son and Spirit. The Trinity and the Trinity,
the three in one, said something to a sinner. And this is what
he said, "...thee have I seen righteous before me." Now, tonight, In just a few minutes,
we want to partake of the Lord's Table. And I want us to realize
something of the significance and the wonder and the grace
of being able to eat together. And that we're going to eat in
the name of Our blessed Lord and Savior who
is the Word of Jehovah, God, human flesh, the Son Himself, told Noah, ìThee have I seen
righteous before me.î From the mouth of him that Habakkuk said,
is of pure eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. From him that cannot lie." The Scripture says concerning
Noah, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, the thing
that's wonderful about that is that maybe I have to. Maybe the Lord has shown mercy
to me. Maybe Almighty God has been pleased
to look upon this sinner and one here tonight in mercy. Now, I'd like for us to contemplate
for just a minute on this question. Has the Lord spoken to me? I
think that's a good question. I think it's one that every sinner
ought to ask, but only one regenerated by the grace of God will, because
they're the only ones that care. No one else cares. Has the Lord
spoken to me? Now I know based on his word,
he told Moses, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Now if you're interested in that
question, has the Lord spoken to me? I've got some scriptural
foundation to give you an answer. And I pray some hope and assurance.
Here's the first thing that I do know. I know that God does speak. It says, the Lord said unto Noah. Isn't that wonderful? I know
that He does. Now here's a great mystery. Because by nature, We're so doubtful. We struggle. We read and we believe. And then we do pray, Lord help
our unbelief. But I do know that God does speak. The Lord Jesus Christ said, My
sheep hear My voice. And I read that and I think,
I want to hear. I want to hear. I know that His speech is always
heard by those that He's pleased to speak to. Now, I do understand
that there was a time when the Lord Jesus Christ walked on this
earth And many heard His voice with a corporal ear." Just an
ear. They heard it. But some heard
with an ear that was alive spiritually. Seeing eye, hearing ear. The
Lord has made both of them. But I do know this. I know that
when He said, My sheep hear My voice, I know that they hear
His voice. I know they do. They're going to hear His voice based on what He has said in
His Word. They're going to hear His voice
by that new man in their very being, in their conscience. They
hear in their heart. It's a heart issue. It's always
a heart issue with God. Only a believer understands that. Only man or woman that God has
given heart. The Scripture says in Genesis
12, verse 1, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out
of thy country, and from thy kindred, from thy father's house,
into a land that I will show thee. I know he spoke to Abraham. Moses at the burning bush. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he
said, Here am I. I know God speaks. I've never heard him with my
natural ear. I've never heard the voice of
God. I know that there's record where
some have. I know that God Almighty spoke
at the Lord's baptism. I know He spoke on the Mount
of Transfiguration. I know that there's a recording
of God speaking, but He does not change the fact that though
I have not heard with my natural ear, it does not change the fact
that God speaks. He says He does, and He does.
And His people hear, He knows them, and they follow
Him. Remember when the Lord was called
in little Samuel, Saul of Tarsus. Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? If Almighty God is going to show
mercy, He's going to speak, and He's going to speak in particular.
And the objects of His mercy will amazingly hear what man
by nature can't. He said, they're going to hear
my voice. And they listen. They listen. Every time the gospel is preached
and they hear that truth set forth again, and a believer is
listening for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're listening
for His honor. They're listening to hear that
message again, how salvation is all of grace. And they said,
yeah, that's the voice I recognize right there. That's His voice. But can I know that He's spoken
to me? Can I know? Yes, you can. Yes, you can. The Lord said unto Noah, now
listen to what He said, Come thou and all thy house into the
ark. That's the voice. That's the
voice. That ark, you know this, was
a glorious picture type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if Almighty
God has spoken to you in Spirit, by His Spirit to your heart,
this is what He says, And come, and come to Him who
is the ark. Come to the haven of rest. Come to Him who alone is your
only hope. Come thou and all thy house into
the ark, and in your heart You say, Lord, I come. I've come. He that cometh. You
know the ETH. Present progressive. He that
cometh. And you read that verse right
there. Come thou and all thy house into
the ark. And in your heart, you're going
to say, Lord, I come. I come afresh. I come right now. And I'm so glad that you've given
me a heart to want to. I'm so thankful that you've given
me a heart that would come to Him and flee from everything
else. I don't want anything else. I
don't need anything else. He's the way, He's the truth,
He's the life. The Father has said, this is
my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear Him. If you've
heard His voice, then there's no other subject. There's no
other message. The voice of Almighty God has
one subject, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
the Father will send another comforter and He will speak of
Me. Any time that there is a message
that you hear anybody speak it, and it's not concerning the glory
of God in the salvation of God's elect, all of grace, unless it
is the glorious honor of Christ Himself That's not the voice
of God. He speaks of Him. I know a lot of folks say, well,
the Lord spoke to me. But if it's not the gospel of
sovereign grace, God didn't speak. You'll hear His voice in the
gospel. You'll hear His voice in power. And His voice always
draws His people as sinners. to the Lord Jesus Christ. Never
to His self-righteous work. Not that sinner's self-righteous
work. Never. Never to that. And lastly, if
He speaks in mercy, He's going to set forth and reveal
to you that He's satisfied with you in His Son. Have I seen righteous before
me in this generation? Righteous? Righteous? Righteous before Him that the
Scriptures reveal that there's none righteous, no, not one. Right? There's none righteous
in themselves. But in that generation that surrounded
Noah, God wasn't pleased. Genesis 6-5 said, God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, let me tell you something. You that know Him, you know something
about that right there. because that nature is still
with us. Every imagination of the thoughts
of this old dead heart is evil continually. I've said before,
there's a new heart, a new man that doesn't sin. Boy, the presence
of that old man is a grieving, it's a waiting, A burden. Every thought. A man in himself
unrighteous. But the Lord revealed to Noah,
for thee have I seen righteous before me. Just? Justified? Right? How? How? Now, the answer to that
question is the very heart of everything we preach. The answer
to this question, Job said it like this, I know that it is
so, but of a truth, how should man
be just with God? That's the question of all questions
right there. How should man be just with God? every question
that you can think of. And it's not going to top that
question. That's a question right there when it comes to a man
taking his last breath. How should man be just, right,
holy, justified before God? A man clean. A man who in himself drinks iniquity
like he would water. A filthy man that's nothing more
than a lump of putrefying sores. How should he be just with God?
The disciples asked our Lord. When our Lord said it's easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into heaven. And the disciples asked Him,
who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, with men this is impossible. We looked at that verse last
week. How should man be just with God? How can a man be justified
before God? Remember what justified means?
It means that the law has looked at you and examined the situation,
and the law has said, innocent, innocent, no charge. No guilt. Justified. Justified. How should a man be
justified before God? With men, this is impossible. You know, that ought to end it
right there, shouldn't it, whenever it comes to someone talking about
their self-righteous acts? That ought to end it right there.
With men, it is impossible. Oh, but listen to this, but with
God, all things are possible. How should a man be just with
God? Turn to Romans 3. I'm going to
read three verses of Scriptures as we close. This right here
answers that question. How should man be just with God? Romans 3, 24, 25, 26. Being justified. You know what the word justified
means? Examined and found to be before God's law, no guilt,
no charge, no charge. Being justified freely, no cause in you by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has
set forth, foreordained to be a propitiation, a satisfaction
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for
the remission, the forgiveness of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." For a man to be just before God, that man's guilt is going to
have to be taken care of. Now, I said a man is justified
before God. The law examines him and says,
no charge. What happened to that sin is
the whole issue of redemption. He hath made him sin. Remember, the issue is not the
heart of the issue. is not what we do. It's what
we are. We do what we do because of what
we are. He hath made Him what we are. He who knew no sin. That we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. For a man to be justified
before God, God's going to have to deal with that man's sin. But the mercy and compassion
of God is that He made Christ sin. How holy is God? I can't answer that. But I can
tell you this. When His Son was made sin, the
Father forsook Him. He forsook Him. My God, my God,
why hast Thou forsaken me? How holy is God! I just read
a few minutes ago, He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The debt that is owed to the
law must be honored, paid for. For a man to be just before God,
God is going to have to deal with his sins. for a man to be
just before God, that man is going to have to possess the
righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. God must be satisfied. A man's guilt has got to be paid
for. He must possess the righteousness
of Almighty God. And in Christ, We are so. The Lord said unto Noah, Come
thou and all thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Oh, that God might have mercy
on me and show mercy to me and look upon me in His blessed sign. Show mercy to this sinner. You
find yourself interested in that subject. Here is what he said. Come unto me, all ye that are
weak, heavy laden. I will give you rest. May the
Lord bless these words to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.