Genesis chapter 7. Genesis chapter
7. I want to read a few verses here in
chapter 7. Actually, I want to read down
to verse 23. We're going to skip a few verses for time sake. But
let's begin in Genesis 7, verse 1. Very familiar passage. It says, 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. 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. Verse
16, And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh,
as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him The Lord
shut him in. And the flood was forty days
upon the earth, and the waters increased, and bare up the ark,
and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters prevailed,
and were increased greatly upon the earth. And the ark went upon
the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed exceedingly
upon the earth. And all the high hills that were
under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the
waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. That means fifteen
cubits above the highest mountain. Verse 21, And all flesh died
that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of
beasts, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth, and every man. all in whose nostrils was the
breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was
destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven. And
they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained
alive. And they that were with him in
The Ark. Now the account of Noah and this
Ark is a familiar story. Everybody is familiar with this
story. It's very popular in children's
books. Illustrated with little cartoons
and all that. But the story of Noah and his
Ark is a true story. Everything that's written here
is true. Noah was a real man. And the Ark was really a real
Ark. and there was a real flood. This
is a true story. Now, what does it picture? When
you've heard the story of Noah's Ark as a child, perhaps, did
you ever hear anything about the gospel in it? That's the
key. Most people just read an account of Noah and about this
flood and there's not much to gather from it spiritually. Well,
I want to show you this morning that Noah's Ark is a picture. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ in whom every true believer is saved and has a full provision
of grace. Now, first of all, in the need
of the ark, we see our need for Christ. In the need of the ark,
we see our need for Christ. Go back up to Genesis 6 and let's
begin in verse 5. The problem was mankind's sin. This was the problem. Verse 5,
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. Verse 12 says, And God looked
upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had
corrupted his way upon the earth. Do you think that describes our
day? Do you think this describes our day? Man's constantly imagining
new ways to commit evil continually. That's a constant fact. We see it in our day. The world's
more religious than it ever been. It was more religious than it
ever been in Noah's day. And the world was more corrupt
than it ever been. And it's more corrupt now than
it's ever been. More religious and more corrupt.
God sees it just like he saw it in Noah's day. And it's man's
fault. Man has corrupted his way. We
can't blame God. God only does that which is right
and good and just. It's our fault. The things that
have happened in this world, we're the stewards of it. And
what's happened in this world, we've done it. Nobody else to
blame, we've done it. What we do to one another, we
do it to one another. It's not the objects that do
things to one another, it's us that does it. It's not our environment
that causes us to act like we do, it's our heart that causes
us to act like we do. We do it. In your free time,
you read Romans 1, verses 18 through 32, about the middle
of the chapter to the end. Read it in Romans 1, and you'll
think he's describing our day. Sounds like he's describing our
day. Have you ever seen a day, let me ask you this, have you
ever seen a day where sodomy was condoned and received and
practiced and defended like it is in our day. You ever seen
that before? Sodomy. Homosexuality. That's a pretty
word for it. God calls it sodomy. Well, in
Romans 1, God says clearly, whenever a people or a nation are given
over to sodomy, It's a clear demonstration of the judgment
of God that he's turned people over to reprobation. And we see
it everywhere in this world, more than we've ever seen it
before, just like it was in Noah's day. So the problem in Noah's
day was God was about to bring judgment upon all the world because
of our sin. Verse 7, Genesis 6, 7. The Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Can God
not do with His own what He will? He's a just and holy God and
He demands perfection. And if He doesn't, have it, he
won't receive men. In fact, he'll destroy men. He'll
send them into that second eternal death that never dies. And he
says here, I will destroy man whom I've created from the face
of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the
fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I've made them. God says
through the apostle Peter, soon as he calls the last of his elect
children in, soon as he calls them into the ark, brings them
to believe. God's going to do that same thing
again. He's going to do the same thing again, but this time He's
going to do it with fire. Not with a flood, with a fire.
And men laugh at that, and they scoff at that. Do you scoff at
that? They scoffed at it in Noah's day when Noah said, get in the
ark now because judgment's coming. The flood of God's judgment's
coming. The only place is in the ark. Get in the ark. And
they scoffed at him. They laughed at him. And God
says they're going to scoff and laugh at his preachers in this
day. So scoffing, if you scoff and you laugh at this, you don't
prove it's wrong, you actually prove it's true. You prove it's
true. God said this in 2 Peter 3, verse
5. This they willingly are ignorant
of. They're willingly ignorant of
it. They study the rocks and they study the patterns and all
of those things to try to prove all this wrong, because they
willingly want to be ignorant of this. That by the Word of
God, by the Word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth
standing out of the water and in the water, just like it is
today. Some land out, some in. Whereby the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished. That's what God says. And then he says, verse 7, But
the heavens and the earth which are now, this is out of 2 Peter,
I'm sorry, 2 Peter 3. He says, But the heavens and
the earth which are now, by the same word, the same word that
did that in Noah's day, they're kept in store, they're reserved
unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly
men. All the heaven and the earth
is reserved by the Word of God. We try our best to corrupt it
and He preserves it. Because He's reserving it for
a purpose. For a very particular purpose. Do you realize there's
only ever been just so much water created? God's never made any
new water. He only made so much water in
the beginning. The same water that overflowed
all the world in that day is in that glass right there. And
it's been preserved and kept all this time because God's reserving
this world to the day when He's going to burn it up and everything
in it with all ungodly men. All the scoffers. Now here's
the issue. Do you personally see your need
of Christ? That's the issue. This describes
every man on this earth. But the issue here is do you
see you need Christ? Do you see you're the sinner?
Do you see you deserve the judgment of God? This is the issue. That's
the issue. This was true of Noah. His imagination
of his thoughts of his heart by nature was only evil continuance.
There's only one thing that made a difference between Noah and
the rest of those folks in the world. Verse 8, Genesis 6, 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. God determined before the world
was made, He's going to be gracious to Noah. And when all this world
was being corrupted and corrupting their way and scoffing and mocking
and hating God, Noah found grace in the eyes of God. God looked
at Noah and said, this is mine. This is one I've chosen. This
is one I'm going to save right here. He's mine. Noah found grace
in the eyes of God. There's nothing that separates
you and me who believe from anybody else in this world that ain't
nothing that we did, nothing we thought, nothing about us.
We were by nature the children of wrath even as others, but
God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us. Even when we were dead in sins,
He quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you are saved. By grace. By grace. We found
grace in the eyes of God. So, we see our need of Christ.
It's sin and it's the judgment of God. So, we need Christ. Alright? Now, secondly, the ark
was the only way of salvation. The ark was the only way of salvation,
and we see in that Christ is the only way. Christ Jesus, God's
Son, is the only way. Verse 13. Genesis 6, 13. God said to Noah, The end of
all flesh is come before me. This is it. But verse 14, he
says, Make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms shalt thou make in
the ark, and you shall pitch it. within and without with pitch. That word pitch means to cover.
You'll cover it within and without. With this tarry substance it
means, and the word also means to take away. It means to take
away. Now it didn't matter if you were
a prisoner A convict who was sentenced and condemned to spend
life in prison and the off-scoring of the world so bad that the
world didn't want to have anything to do with you. It didn't matter
if that was your case or if you were a king in a palace in that
day. God said everybody is going to
die. Everybody's going to die. And that's true. That's true.
That's true now. Everybody's going to die. God
said this in verse 17, Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of
waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh. Wherein is the breath
of life from under heaven, and everything that's in this earth
shall die. Now this water represents the righteous judgment of God. That's what the flood represents,
the righteous judgment of God. I want you to turn to Isaiah
28. Isaiah 28. Look at this passage with me. Now when God returns, this is
what He's going to do. He says there's coming a day
when He's going to judge the world in righteousness. Now let me tell you what God's
not going to do. God's not going to take you and set you up beside
your neighbor. and say, well, let's see, now
you did better than him, so I'm going to save you. That's not
going to be judgment. God's not going to set you up,
take all your good works, put them on one side, and all your
wicked works, put them on the other side, and say, well, let's
see here, your good outweighs your bad, so you can enter in.
That's not what the judgment of God's going to be. God said
He's going to judge the world in righteousness by one man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the righteousness of God.
He came forth holy from the womb. He walked this earth holy in
thought, word and deed. And He went to the cross loving
God and His brethren as Himself. He laid down His life bearing
the wrath of God to save His people from our sins and to declare
God just and justify. That's a holy man and a righteous
man. God says that's the one you're
going to be judged by. If you don't measure up to Him,
The fact is, if you don't have His righteousness, God says,
all flesh will die. All flesh will die. Now look
here, Isaiah 28, 17. How thorough will that judgment
be? Isaiah 28, 17 says, Judgment also will I lay to the line,
and righteousness to the plummet. And the hell shall sweep away
the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not
stand. You remember those videos of
the tsunami in the Philippines? When those waves came, and those
folks were just enjoying a sunny day, having a big time in a resort
area, and all of a sudden they looked up and here come these
waves. And there was nothing they could do to stop it. And
those waves came in and they swept over every hiding place. Wherever they tried to get to
hide from it, it swept them over. And it trod them down. It just
went right over everything. Picked up buses and cars and
buildings and everything else and just moved everything off. It wasn't on a solid foundation.
That's what it did. It overflowed everything. Well,
in Noah's day, when those waters came, just think about this,
they went 15 cubits. A cubit is 18 inches. They went
15 cubits above the highest mountain on earth. God made sure that
there was no hiding place anywhere on this earth. He swept away
every refuge of lies. Now, you take that and you apply
that spiritually. You think you can climb up to
Mount Sinai and hide in the refuge of all your law keeping. That's
going to be overflowed with God's judgment and you'll die. You
think you can climb up on the mountain of your morality and
all your good deeds and hide there. That's going to be overflowed
with the judgment of God and you'll die there. You think you
can climb upon that mountain of your own self-opinion of yourself
and how you think you're righteous and good by nature. That's going
to be swept away, brethren. That's not a hiding place. In
Noah's day, God promised Noah there'd be one refuge. One refuge
in the ark. That's the one refuge. And it
was covered within and without with pitch. That's why it was
so safe. It was covered with it and without with pitch. God
shut him up in there. Shut them up in there. Noah and
all those animals. He shut them up in there. Throughout
the Old Testament, this word pitch means, it doesn't mean
this, it means to cover or to take away. And so the same word,
when it's found in the Hebrew, throughout all the Old Testament,
you find it translated as to make atonement. to make atonement. That's what to make atonement
means. For example, the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy
seat in the holy place. Here you got an ark, and in that
ark you got broken law, and on top you got a mercy seat. It's
a little cabinet, and on top you got a mercy seat, and the
priest sprinkled the blood of a lamb seven times on that mercy
seat. And that covered that broken
law. So that between God looking at
the sinner, there in the middle is a mercy seat that covers all
our offenses in having broken that law. So that day was called the day
of atonement or the day of covering, the day of pitch. That's what
it was called. You think of the flood of God's
judgment that beat on that Oh, when God broke up the deeps,
it had never rained. God broke up the deep so that
floods came up from the deep, from the bottom. And I believe
this is why later on the Lord separated the continents at the
Tower of Babel. We'll see that at another time.
But He broke up the deep and it began, water started just
flooding up right there in your yard all of a sudden. A spring
of water, like a river. And water started coming down
from above. And they've never seen this before. And that, it
says it rose up and it increased and it increased and it's all
around that ark. It's beating on that ark all
around. But not one drop of the judgment of God touched Noah
and his family or any of those animals in that ark. Not one
drop. Not one drop. Because they were
covered in the ark. They were covered in the ark.
All God's people were in the Lord Jesus Christ by God's grace. By God choosing us and putting
us in Christ spiritually before the world was made, we were in
Christ when He went to the cross. And so when Christ bore the judgment
of God, that flood of judgment for His people, not one drop
of judgment touched God's people because we were in Christ. Everybody
must die, God said, and Christ died. But everybody in Him spiritually
died with Him so that we don't have to die. The judgment of
God don't touch us. It won't call for us to die eternally
because we were in Christ. We were in Christ. Without, believers
are covered, we're pitched by what Christ did for us at the
cross. He has made one offering and
perfected this forever and He's entered in the holy place and
obtained eternal redemption for us. And then within, we're covered
in pitch because Christ has entered in and purged our conscience
with His blood from dead works to serve the living God. Pitched
within and without. Now, when God brings us to believe
on Christ, God makes an everlasting covenant in our heart that we're
going to be safe. Look at verse 18. Genesis 6,
18. But with thee will I establish
my covenant. Genesis 6, 18. He says, But with
thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the
ark. God said, I will establish it. And that's what Christ did. The reason Christ came and the
reason Christ lived and died and rose again is He was establishing
the everlasting covenant of God for His people. God was on one
side making the covenant. Christ was on the other side
making the covenant as man, representing His people. And God fulfilled
His side of the covenant and Christ fulfilled His side of
the covenant as a man so that everybody He represented They
did everything Christ did and that covenant's established for
them. So that now we're brought together one in Christ. So this
was the only way, brethren. Christ is the only way. He's
the only salvation. There was one window in that
ark and you know that window was not for you to look out.
That window wasn't so you could look out. That window was so
light could come in. There's just one window. And
that's the Holy Spirit that sheds light into the heart, and Christ
is the light that shines into that heart. You picture the picture. There they are in the ark. There's
the window. Where's the light coming from? The S-U-N. And it shines in through that
window, into them, into that ark. That's a picture of Christ
shining in our hearts, brethren. And there was just one door in
there. Christ said, I'm the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. That's the only way. He said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Not a way, a truth, and
a life. The way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father but by man. Alright, lastly. There was enough room in that
ark for everybody who God purposed to save. That ark was 450 feet
long, 75 feet wide, and 3 stories tall. So there was enough room for
all these different kinds of animals that God said bring into
that ark. God is the one who said bring
them in there. Look at Genesis 6 and 19 and 20. Of every living
thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall thou bring into the
ark to keep them alive. You see that? That's why He did
it, to keep them alive. And He says, "...they shall be
male and female, of fowls after their kind, of cattle after their
kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind,
two of every sort shall come into the ark to keep them alive."
What does that tell us? Well, the picture here is, brethren,
there's an abundance of room, and there's full provision made
for all different kinds of sinners that God has purposed to save.
You see, it's not just one kind of sinner that God's going to
save. Not just one nation of people God's going to save, or
one race of people God's going to save. God's going to save
Jew and Gentile. He's going to save rich and poor.
He's going to save male and female. He's going to save educated and
uneducated. Out of every kindred, tribe,
tongue, and nation on this earth, God has a people. And then God
purposed it. When they came into that ark,
they would not want a thing. There would be full provision
for them in that ark. Look at verse 21. He said, Take
thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather
it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee and for them. Everything
they needed was going to be in that ark. Everything they needed.
And that's what he tells us. When you come into Christ, there's
a full sufficiency to make you accepted of God. Full righteousness,
a full redemption, a full reconciliation, and there's a full provision
of everything we need as we walk through this earth the rest of
our days. Full provision in Christ. Now look at this. The only way
that they knew that there was room in that ark and there was
full provision in that ark is this. When God called them, they
entered. That's the only way they knew
it was for them, personally. When God called, they entered.
They entered. Now look at verse 22. Genesis
6, 22 says, Thus did Noah, now pay attention to this, Thus did
Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. And
the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the
ark, for, because, Thee have I seen righteous before me in
this generation. Now, there's no doubt that when
it says here Noah obeyed, that it's referring to the fact that
Noah built the ark and did everything God said to do. There's no doubt
about that. But what I want you to pay attention to is Noah obeyed
and then he entered the ark. And the reason God called him
to enter the ark is because God saw Noah was righteous. He saw
he was righteous. Long before you and I ever entered
Christ by faith. Long before we ever entered Christ
by faith. The Lord Jesus Christ obeyed
God for His people. And when He obeyed God for His
people, we obeyed God in Him. And therefore, in time, God calls
us into Christ because He sees us righteous in Christ. He doesn't
call us into Christ to make us righteous. He calls us into Christ
because He has made us righteous. He's already done it. He's already
done it. Do you understand that? I point
that out because folks are going around saying, I justified myself
by faith, by my faith. They've turned that into a work.
You didn't justify yourself by your faith. Christ justified
us by his faith and then he calls us in through faith. Listen to the scripture. He saved
us. That's what was done before him.
That's how we obeyed in Christ because he saved us. And he called
us. That came second. Then he called
us in the heart. with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who's
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Now we know it because He's brought us into the experience of it.
And when God calls us, then we obey, then we believe, and then
we find out. Everything God's been telling
us in this Gospel, everything that He's declared, all the full
room just for us and full provision just for me particularly, was
all true. It's all just for me. It's for
me. It's for me. Genesis 7, 9 says,
"...there went in two unto Noah into the ark, and the male and
the female, as God had commanded Noah." And the way those animals
knew that there was a provision for them in that ark is when
God sent Noah to call them, they obeyed the call and they went
in the ark. That's how they knew. And what
I'm saying to you is God sent me to give you a general call.
I don't know who God's elect are. I'm sitting here saying
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. There's
room in the ark. There's set rooms in that ark
for particular people that God's determined is going to be in
that ark. Leave on Him and it's yours. But see, I'm calling dead
folks to do what dead folks can't do. I'm sending to the valley
of dry bones to say, live, dry bones. But I depend on God to
enter in and give life to live and to do what God commands.
But the point I'm making is the only way you're going to know
if you're chosen of God and Christ died for you and there's full
provision of grace in Christ for you is when you believe on
Christ. It's the only way. You just find
yourself one day believing on Christ. And that's when you find
out, this has all been for me. I'm the one He's been talking
about. And then when you believe on Him, you find this all true.
Christ said, My sheep hear My voice. There's the Gospel. And
I know them. There's being born again. He
says, And they follow Me. There's the obedience. All three
have to be be included. He's got to send His gospel to
make us hear His voice. He's got to know us to make us
alive. And we've got to obey and follow
Him. You see what I'm saying? Don't just sit around making
excuses and going, well, if God chose me, He chose me, but I
don't think I'm one of the elect. Believe God. Come to this Word
and this service saying, I want to believe God. I want to know
God. I want to understand God. I come here, Lord, want You to
show me the Word, and I'm going to bow to it like a child and
believe You. And He says when you believe
on Him, you'll have the evidence of things not seen. You'll have
the substance of things hoped for. You'll stop being all divisive
and prove to me, prove to me, prove to me. When you believe God, you'll
find out God's true. God's true. And if you do it,
He gets all the glory and all the praise because we only do
it by His grace. That's just so. I know there's
room in the ark still. There's room in Christ still.
I know there is. You know how I know? He's still calling people. The gospel's still going forth.
As long as that... He never let one drop of judgment
fall in Noah's day till He had shut them all up in that ark.
Once they were in that ark, judgment came. I'm going to tell you something. It'll be too late then. It would
be too late then. Those on the outside of that
ark, they were not thinking, God loves me. I guarantee you
that. Only those in the ark were saying,
God loves me. Because He wouldn't take no for
an answer. He put me in the ark. That's when you know God loves
you. And He didn't let one drop of fire fall on Sodom and Gomorrah
until He got Lot out of Sodom. And he said, he's not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Peter said, you count, you just mark it down, that the longsuffering
of God is salvation. If he's not willing, they're
not perishing. If he's not willing, they're not falling. If he's
not willing for them to do anything but repent, they're going to
repent. Because God works his sovereign will. Because he's
God. He's God. Now, the only way you're gonna
find out about that, though, is believe on Christ. Believe
Him. I'm telling you, believe on Christ
and you'll be saved. All right, we're out of time.
Let's stand together, brethren. Thank You, Father, for Your Word.
We pray now You'll bless it as only You can. We pray now that
You'll make Christ be honored, glorified, sanctified, high and
lifted up before the eyes of our heart, that we might bow
and believe You. Forgive us of our sins, Lord.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.