Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 318. 318. I need thee every hour. No tender voice like thine can
be sung. Now my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Stay thou nearby. Temptations lose their power. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee,
every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. ? Enjoy your pain ? ? Come quickly
and abide ? ? Your life is vain ? ? I need Thee, oh I need Thee
? ? When will I need Thee ? ? Oh bless me now, my Savior ? I come
unto Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One. O make me like Thee, Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
67. Hymn number 67. Oh, say does
that star-spangled banner yet How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? have set the course I promptly
vowed decades How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love us
all How can it be? Was ever grace so full and free? From heights of bliss to depths
of woe, In loving kindness Thou didst go. From sin and change, How can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should in our course books on the very
last page, page 35. His back was laid in heavy, His
strength was almost gone, Yet shouted as he journeyed, Deliverance
will come in arms of victory. The summer sun was shining, the
sweat was on his brow. His garments worn and dusty,
his steps seemed very slow. But he kept pressing onward,
for he was winding the road, still shouting as he The songsters in the armor that
stood beside the way Attracted his attention, inviting his delay
His watchword being on word, he stopped his ears and ran Still
shouting as he journeyed, deliverance will come then I saw him in the evening, the
sun was bending low. He'd overtopped the mountain
and greased the vale below. He saw the golden city, his everlasting
home, and shouted loud, Hosanna! Deliverance will come in all
homes of Israel. While gazing on that city, just
o'er the narrow flood, Up and down all the angels came from
the throne of God. They bore him on their pinions,
save for the dashing foal, And joined them in his triumph, deliverance
has come. I heard the song of triumph they
sang upon the shore Our Jesus has redeemed us to suffer nevermore
Been looking once more backwards Turn with me to Genesis chapter
6. Genesis chapter 6. Before I read, we'll have prayer, and then I'll
read and bring the Lord's message, God willing. Our Father, as we come again
into your holy presence, we come with praise upon our lips and
thanks in our heart. And Lord, it's in our hearts
that we prostrate ourselves before you. lay ourselves bare before
you, lay ourselves in the dust before you, so thankful, oh God,
that you opened our heart, opened our mind, opened our understanding,
took us from darkness into light, from death into life, from sin
to righteousness, and oh God, thank you. And Lord, I ask that
you'd meet with us tonight, meet with us tonight, come among us,
And Lord, be merciful and gracious to those we love, our children,
our grandchildren, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. Every
one of us got someone we're praying for, for you to do something
for. So Lord, hear us when we cry
and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. I'm going to start reading here
in verse 5, read down to verse 18. And I'm going to preach on
Christ, God's Ark. Christ, God's Ark. And 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. And it
repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have 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 made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. These are the generations of
Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations. And Noah walked before God. And
Noah begat three sons, Shem, Hammond, and Japheth. And the
earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled
with violence. And God looked upon the earth,
and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end
of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with
violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them
with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood,
room shalt thou make in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within
and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which
thou shalt make of it. The length of the ark shall be
300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, the height of it 30
cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt
thou finish it above. And the door of the ark shalt
thou set, and the side thereof with lower, second, and third
stories shalt thou make it. And 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 is
in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish
my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons,
and thy wives, and thy wife's sons. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
there's two things he mentioned about the last days in Matthew
24. He said, as it was in the days
of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son
of Man. And so that was a day of nobody, nobody. All flesh was horrible, horrendous. And God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
But he also said, As it was in the day of Noah, shall it also
be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. As it was
in the days of Noah, said it was they were marrying and given
in marriage and eating and drinking and doing nothing wrong with
any of those things. But the scripture says that they
knew not. knew not until the flood came
and took them away. So they were too involved in
life, in the world, and in the things of the world, and did
not know anything at all until God said they knew not. And then the flood came upon
them. And I tell you what, and that's
the thing about it, people don't know, they don't know, they just
go on and on and on like it's never going to happen. But in
verse 5 it tells us here that God saw, chapter 6 and verse
5, God saw the wickedness. He saw the, He sees all. God
knows all. He sees everything. He said even
the IMAGINATION of the THOUGHTS, of the THOUGHTS, the IMAGINATION
of the THOUGHTS. God said, it tells us there that
God SAW the wickedness upon the earth, and He saw the THOUGHTS.
He thought the IMAGINATIONS. He saw how evil they were, how
wicked they were. God, nothing, nothing passes
by God's eye. God sees everything. He sees
right now into our minds, into our hearts, and everything about
us. And he saw this people, and he said, there's nobody as wicked
on the earth as these people right now. And I'll tell you,
and he sees, and he sets the judgment upon all. He set the
judgment upon all these people. And like it is in the days of
Noah, salvation is exactly the same as it was in the days of
Noah. Ain't that what it says there in verse 8? Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace. It says, you
know that these are the generation of just men. How did he become
a just man? Found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. Same way you and I are made just. How was he made perfect
in his generations? How was he made perfect? Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God didn't look at him
and say, boy, he's a fine fellow, he's a great fellow, he's a righteous
man, he's a good man, he's a perfect man, so therefore I'm gonna show
him some grace. No, grace made him what he was. He was as bad as everybody else
in those days. He was as wicked as everybody
else. He was as lost as everybody else,
but God said, Noah, Noah, you found grace in my eyes. And because
you found grace, I'm gonna save your wife and your three sons
and your three sons' wives. And I'll tell you, that's the
salvation. It's always been by grace. It's never been any other
way. When Adam fell, God had to go
find Adam. Adam never went to God. God went
to Adam. God called Adam out. And that's
the way he's got to do with everybody. He's got to go where we are.
And God had to come in all this wicked generation. God looked
at one man and said, he's found grace. I'm going to give him
grace. And I'll tell you something about him. He was a man. a sinner
by nature like everyone else born of Adam. And you know what
his name means? Look up here in chapter five
in verse 20. You know what his name means? I think it's 529, excuse me,
I'm sorry, 529. And Lamech lived 182 years and
begat his son. He called his name Noah. saying,
this name shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands.
And I tell you what, his name means rest, his name means comfort. And that's what, you know, that's
the way it is with our Lord Jesus Christ. Rest and comfort. And his father said, God's gonna
give me rest and comfort through this man right here. And I tell
you, through our Lord Jesus Christ, God gives us rest and gives us
comfort. Huh? And all he had to be saved
by grace is everything before, everybody before him, and everyone
since. For by grace are you saved through
faith and not of yourselves. And Christ is the key for us
to ever have a true understanding of how God saved Noah. And the
ark that Noah built, Noah's preaching, when he preached 120 years, and
the flood that came and destroyed all. The only way you can understand
it is see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of this. Now, here's the
thing. God gave Noah a work to do, and
he finished that work. And God gave Christ a work to
do, and Christ finished that work. Christ finished that work.
Now, let's look at this ark, Christ being our God's ark. First
of all, I want you to look here in verse 13 and 14. God was the
one who provided the ark. Nobody even had any idea what
an ark was, or didn't have any idea they NEEDED an ark. But
look what it says, And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh
is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through
them, and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth, and then
look what God told him to do. Make thee an ark of gopher wood.
Roof shalt thou make in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within,
and without with pitch. Now what in the world would,
you know, Noah was going about his daily life, and then all
of a sudden God come to him and said, I want you to build, I
want you to build an ark. And an ark's a boat. And if I
understand the dimensions of this thing, this thing's 460
foot long. 460 foot long. I didn't add up how many it was
tall, but the wind alone was one square cubit, and the door. But here's the thing about it.
This wasn't some little old bitty thing. I mean, it's going to
hold every creeping, crawling thing on the earth, and it's
going to hold two of every clean beast on the earth. But here
He was, this ark was provided by God and He provided it before
the flood, before ever a drop of rain fell, God provided this
ark. And that's the way, and there
was no danger, no danger of rain coming or the flood starting
until the ark was provided. And God, we did not know it.
We wasn't aware of it, wasn't not conscious of it. But God
provided us a Savior before he ever put Adam in the Garden of
Eden. Before Adam was ever created, before there was ever a sinner,
before Adam ever failed, God had us a Savior. Christ was provided
for us as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
And 1 Peter 1 says, being redeemed not of corruptible things but
incorruptible, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without
spot and without blemish who was ordained before the foundation
of the world. So God, we had a Savior, God
had a Savior before Adam ever fell, before He ever even made
Adam. And I tell you, He did. That's one thing that I, Lord
Jesus Christ, before there was ever a sin that entered this
universe, before Adam was ever made, before we ever fell, we
had a Savior. We had someone to intercede for
us and provide for us. And we didn't know it, didn't
know it. About 22 and a half, 23 years
before God I ever knew that I needed a savior. And oh my, and you
know what it was that caused the flood? Man's awful, wretched sin. You know why God brings judgment
upon people? Because of sin, sin. It was sin, man's sin that caused
the flood. And that's the reason the ark
was provided. And because man is sin, man is
an awful, wicked, terrible creature. And this shows us that God had
to provide us some salvation. He had to provide it for us because
we would have never known anything about it. But I'll tell you something,
this shows us two things here. First of all, God is just. He's
just. You think He mistreated those
people when He punished them with the flood? Do you think
He was unjust to destroy the whole world? Do you think He
was unjust to send all those folks and make that flood come
on them? I mean from a baby to a granny,
from the youngest to the oldest, do you think He was unjust to
do that? When He looked around and He
saw everything on this earth, and He said, These people are
so awful, And he used the language like we would. I'm sorry that
I ever made this bunch. I'm sorry that I ever treated
man. He's corrupted himself on this
earth. And he ain't got a good thought
in his mind. His mind is evil and imagination,
not just every once in a while, continually. You think God's
unjust to destroy that crowd? Oh, this shows us two things.
First of all, that God is just. He is just. He must punish sin. He ain't gonna let nobody get
by with nothing. People say, I want God to deal
with me fairly. Believe me, He will. You'll get
what's coming to you. And I'll tell you, that's what
happened here. And then not only that, He was even a just God
towards Noah, and we'll get to that later, but it also shows
us that He's a Savior. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth. I'm a just God! And boy, when
they said, Noah prepared you an ark, he said, I'm a just God,
I'm gonna destroy all flesh. But it also says, I'm a savior
and I'm gonna save. You know how I'm gonna save?
I'm gonna save by grace. How am I gonna save? In an ark
by somebody else, bearing the wrath of God. And God, let me
tell you something else about happened here. In verse eight. God revealed His will to Noah.
He would have perished in the flood like everybody else. But
it says there in verse eight, but Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And oh my, you know how Noah
was saved from this flood? You know how Noah was saved in
this ark? It was an act of pure, free grace
to provide an ark. A pure, free grace. That's what
it was. It was pure, free grace that
saved Noah. Pure, free grace. You know, when
Abraham started up the mountain, take his son, Isaac, and was
going to offer him a sacrifice. They started up that mountainside
and They had the wood, they had the fire, they had the knife,
they had everything for a sacrifice. And Isaac asked his father, he
said, Father, we've got everything, but where in the world is the
Lamb? He said, My son, God will provide
Himself a Lamb. God's gonna provide a way to
save you and me both. God's gonna make a way for you
to come back off this mountain with me. God's gonna provide
a lamb to put in your place. And that's what God did here.
He provided for Noah before the flood ever come. And I tell you,
it never rained. It never rained. What a strange
of spirits it's gonna be. Look down here in verse 17 and
18. And 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 the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish
my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, and thy sons and
thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." Oh, my. He said, I'm going to send a
flood. He didn't know what a flood was. Did anybody know what a
flood was then? It never rained. God watered
the earth strictly with dew up to that time. It never rained. It'd be a strange thing, but
he also, he said, Noah, and there in verse 18, but with thee will
I establish my covenant. And you're gonna come into the
ark. You're gonna come into the ark, your sons and your sons'
wives. And I tell you what, beloved, If anyone ever, ever knows God's
will of salvation, if anyone ever sees God's grace, they're
gonna have to see it. And he gives it to us in his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he must reveal it. There's
no way in the world that you can understand grace. There's no way in the world that
you can understand God's will. No way in the world you can understand
how God saves a sinner unless God reveals it to you. Did you
know that? God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. What did he do? He shined in
our hearts. What did he shine? The light
of his glory. Where at? In the person of his
blessed son. I want you to see my glory. Where's
it at? In my son, in my blessed son, right here, right now. And
oh, God provided this ark. And if everyone, anyone ever
knows, he's got to reveal it. He says that no man can receive
nothing, nothing except it be given him from heaven. And to
as many as received him, to them, to them, gave he the power to
become the sons of God, which were born, not of the will of
flesh, not of blood, not of the will of man, but of God. God's
the one that has to give this power. And Noah preached for
120 years, And Noah told everyone that what
was going on. Do you know, he couldn't build
that ark by himself. He couldn't build that ark by
himself. Him and his three sons couldn't have built it by themselves.
It took him over 120 years to build that ark. 120 years. So he had laborers
helping him. He had people working with him
to help build that ark. But those people that worked
on that ark did get in that ark. They thought, this old man's
crazy. He is nuts. He is building him a big old
wooden boat here. Big old wooden thing. I mean,
420 foot long. Long, big old thing. Got all kinds of rooms in it.
He gonna have to live in this thing. And oh, my. And I tell you, that took them
120 years to build that ark. And God had already told them.
You know, if God told us, you know, here's the thing about
it. I've been preaching here, Dirk corrected me the other day,
I thought it had been 45 years, but it's 44. 44 years. And I remember Scott Richardson
preaching one time about coming into the ark. And he preached
so intensely and so, Powerfully that I was sitting about two
rows back and I wanted to get up and get in that arc right
then and there I want to get in that arc I wanted I wanted
to be in Christ and that's what this is about I tell you, God
provided an ark, and nobody will ever know anything about that
ark. People sit and hear a preacher
preach time and time and time and time again, and yet never
hear what he has to say. Noah preached the preacher of
righteousness for 120 years while he was building that ark. How
did he preach? A flood's coming! A flood's coming! It's gonna rain! It's gonna rain. God said, all you folks are wicked. All you folks are terrible. God said, he's gonna destroy
you. Oh, they laughed at him. They mocked him. And they said,
how can that be? I seen a little old thing the
other day. You know, a rock in a bad person's
hand will kill you. A rock in Cain's hand, it killed
his brother. A rock in David's hand, he slew
Goliath. It's not the rock, it's in whose
hands it in. Well, some nut said, listen,
does that mean that we all got to have, we all have to have
the right to have rocks? He missed the whole point. He's
making fun of us, making fun of that. Let's all just get a
bunch of rocks and start killing people. That's just stupid. But
what I'm telling you is that men have always made fun of God. They always have and they always
will. If people believed, now here's
the thing about it, if you preach salvation by water, you'll have
a big house, and especially if you warm the water. And here's
another thing, that if you preach salvation by words and by man's
free will, and tell him that that God's going to bless him
for all the work that he's doing and because all he's doing then
you'll have a house full but you preach salvation by another
by substitution by free grace by God providing it all and Noah
being saved by grace and all of us being saved by grace. Noah,
Noah I'm telling you what that The only reason he had an ark
is God said, I've got to provide a place for you to be saved,
and God provided us a salvation in His blessed Son. And you tell
people that, my children ain't interested in it. They're interested
in going everywhere else but to hear the gospel. My grandsons
in their 30s, their 20s and 30s, they don't care. My brother don't
care. My sister don't care, who cares? Oh, they love me and they think
the world of me, but they don't think anything about what I have
to say. Have you got anybody in your family like that? Well,
that's what Noah had to contend with for 120 years. And he kept, every time, every
time that saw would run and saw a big old board, and they'd put
them boards together and they had to curve them boards and
had to make those things come out. And every time he laid those
boards on top of one another, he was preaching. Judgment's
coming, judgment's coming, judgment's coming, rain's coming. God's
gonna destroy you. God told me he's gonna destroy
all flesh on this earth. And you think any of them said,
boy, listen, Noah, you reckon he'd let me in? Would you pray
for me and please pray for me that I can get in the ark? Would
you plead with God for me that maybe God would let me in the
ark? Not one person, not one soul can you find in the scripture
said, Noah, would you please plead with God? Tell me about
God so I can call on him. I'd like to get in that ark myself.
Not one person. You think man's not evil? Oh,
my. And I tell you, God in grace
now reveals Himself, not in an ark, but in His blessed Son.
Oh, my. I want you to see something.
You keep Genesis and look over here in Ephesians with me, chapter
1. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He prayed in one place and He said, He said, Father, I thank
Thee that thou hast hid these things. Hid what? The grace of
God, the wisdom of God, the power of God, that thou hid these things
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
But oh my, look what it says here. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. We're in because of this grace,
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. And this Beloved is
whom we have redemption, the payment price, through His blood. And that blood even brought the
forgiveness of sins. And why did He do it? Oh, He's
rich in grace. And then look what He says. And
in this richness of grace and in this glory of His grace, wherein
He hath abounded, abounded toward us, in all wisdom and prudence."
And listen to this now, "...having made known unto us the mystery
of His will." What is that mystery? Salvation is by grace for Jew
or Gentile, bond or free, male or female. The mystery of His
will and here's why He did it, "...according to His good pleasure."
And look what it says, "...which He hath purposed in Himself."
He's done us know that whatever He does, He does on purpose.
He gave us that glory of grace. He done it on purpose. Made us
accepted in the beloved. He did it on purpose. He made
known the mystery of His will on purpose. And He said, Noah,
it's my purpose to destroy everybody and save you. And He prepared
an ark. Oh my, our Lord says, no man
can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.
And everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father, been
taught of God, cometh unto me, for they shall all be taught
of God. And let me tell you another thing about it. We go back to
Genesis. The ark was the only refuge From God's judgment, from
God's wrath, there was no other place. You know why he said,
I'm going to send a flood to destroy all flesh? He said, I'm
going to send a flood and destroy all flesh. And that was God's
judgment, and the wrath of God's going to come on that generation.
And I tell you, the only refuge from the judgment and wrath of
God was in that ark. Oh my, you read it the other
night out of 1 Thessalonians 5. We've not appointed to wrath,
but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ. Now there's three
arcs in the scriptures, three of them. And there's three things
that can destroy us in this universe that can harm us and destroy
us. The first arc was Moses' arc. You remember Pharaoh said,
he said, Hebrew women have men children. I want them to die. I want them to die. We're going
to be too many of them. There's going to be more of them
than they are us. She said, I want them killed. I want them all
destroyed. Well, Moses' wife, she had a, I mean, Moses' mother
had Moses, and he was a proper child, the scripture said. That
means that he was chosen of God. And she kept him for three months
and kept him hid. And she built her an ark. And
she took that thing and put it out in the river. Made it out
of bulrush and sent it out in the river. She took a three-month-old
baby, a mother, done this. Because she knowed if those Egyptians
found it, they were going to kill that baby. She put it in
that little old bulrush, put it in that ark, and that Satan
hated God, and he said, I want all those children destroyed.
Put him in there. Guess who found him? Pharaoh's daughter. She went
over there and said, oh, look. And then she brought him up there.
And guess who she said, he needs a nurse. Send over and get him
a nurse. And you know who his nurse was?
His mama. That's God's purpose for you,
I'm telling you. You got the wisdom of God. Oh, my. And it's like Job. Job
said, Satan said to God, he said, you let me at him and I'll have
him cuss at you to his face. It was Satan that come and deceived
our mother Eve. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
tempted of the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. Well, I tell you
what, our Lord defeated Satan at the cross, disarmed him. He has no power. He can't do
anything unless Christ lets him. And the second ark is the ark
of the covenant. That's the ark that God had them
to build when they built the tabernacle. It was about 40 inches
long and about two foot high, and it was made out of sheetum
wood, and then they overlaid it with gold. They put gold all
over that, and they put a lid on it. And on that gold on the
top of it, it's called a mercy seat. And inside that ark, they
put the two to two tables of the law. They put them in there
that come down from the mountain, and then they put a pot of manna
in there, and then they took our errands, robbed it, butted
it, and put it in there. And see, that ark was made, and
there was a mercy seat on top of that ark. And you know what? And why they put that law, broken
law, in that ark was because it was hid under the mercy seat,
and that we was condemned, but when you got to that mercy seat,
all condemnation was gone. And Christ is our mercy seat,
and there's therefore now no condemnation in Christ. The law
is fulfilled in us, and in Christ, he's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. So the law can't help hurt us.
The law can't do nothing to us. It's been fulfilled. Who fulfilled
it? Christ did, and we did in him. No condemnation, and that
mercy seat is over that broken law. Ain't you grateful we got
a mercy seat over that law? Oh my, and then here's Noah's
Ark. Here's Noah's Ark. God's angry,
angry with the wicked. His wrath and judgment is fixing
to come. But you know, the only person
that never The only place that you could bear the wrath and
judgment of God was being in that ark. And the only place
we could bear the judgment and wrath of God is in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now here's the thing about it.
Noah, Noah bore God's wrath. He endured God's judgment, but
it was in the ark. The rain fell on him just like
it did everybody else. The flood came on him like it
did everybody else. But you know what? Not one drop
fell on him. Huh? Not one drop of rain. There
wasn't any water seeped into that ark. Oh, the ark bore that beating
of the rain. The ark was carried through that
flood while everyone else in the ark was saved, nobody else
was. Look in Isaiah 43 with me for
a moment. Isaiah 43. You know, it's just, oh my, thank
God God gave us an ark, gave us Christ. Oh my. Yeah, that ark bore God's
wrath. Noah did too in the ark. God's
judgment in the ark. And look what he said here in
verse 2, Isaiah 43. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. Well, now he just passed through
the waters. He just passed through the waters.
He went through that flood and he said, when you go through
the waters, I'm going to go with you. They ain't going to come
over here. They're not going to come over
here. And oh my, the ark bore the beating of that rain. The
ark bore that flood. The ark bore them up in that
flood. Everyone in that ark was saved. You know, knowing his
sons, you reckon they were afraid? You reckon they were anxious?
You reckon they was afraid? You reckon they was scared? I'd
say they probably were. I'd say they probably were. You
know, they was in that ark a long time. It took 40 days for that
water to get up enough to move that ark. He was in that ark
40 days before it ever got up. And 40 days always means testing.
And here he was. They was in that ark, and they
was afraid, no doubt probably were, when that rain started
beating, and it was a while before the ark moved. But let me ask
you something. Did their fear, did their anxiety,
or did their feelings make them any less saved? Make them any
less secure? They might have been scared to
death, but they still saved. They was still secure. They might
have been anxious, but they were still saved. Their feelings didn't
add to it. And let me tell you this, look
over here in chapter 7, verse 1 with me. You know, God told Noah, He said,
you know, He said, you're going to come into the ark. You and
your family is going to come into the ark. And look what He
says here. First of all, in verse 22 it
says this, Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him,
so did he. And everything God gave Christ
to do, so did he. He finished it. And listen to
this now, And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house
into the ark. I love this right here. What
does that tell us? The Lord told Noah, said, come
into the ark. So, you know, if God was on the
outside, he would have said, go into the ark. But God was
in that ark with him. Christ was in that ark with him.
He said, come in here. Come in here. Come into the ark. In the Garden of Eden, he drove
out man. Here, he said, come. And that's
what our Lord tells us. He says, come, come. Oh my, here
he brings him in. Here's what you call effectual
calling. Oh, I could just, I could just
hear the average preacher. If you know what he's, you know,
Noah, he'd been preaching for 20 years and he's already in
the ark. He's preaching's over and done with. And here he's
in the ark. And I can just hear preachers
when they're getting ready to talk about the ark and all that
said, listen, let's just sing another verse of Just As I Am. Sing one more verse of Come to,
it's suppertime, come. Let's sing one more verse of
that. Oh, listen, God wants so much for you to get in the ark.
Oh, he wants you in that ark so bad. But God ain't gonna infringe
upon your will. You gotta be willing to come.
No, God got it. God was in that heart and just
said, Noah, come. You reckon Noah would have said,
nope, I ain't coming. No, no. Here's a fix you'll call
him. When God says come, you're coming. Oh, could Noah have refused? No, no. For whom he did foreknow,
them he also called. Oh, my. As many as were ordained
to eternal life. What'd they do? They believed.
Our Lord said, all that the Father gives me, what are they gonna
do to me? All that the Father gives me,
they're gonna come to me. They're gonna come to me. And
I, oh, blessed is the man the Lord chooses. And back up here
in verse 18 of chapter 6, it says this, but with thee I will
establish my covenant, thou shalt come into the ark, not only you,
but your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. He
said, you're coming. That's what's so wonderful about
preaching the gospel. You know, I don't have to talk
anybody into anything. That's what's so wonderful about
God. You don't have to talk anybody into anything. You know, the
Lord, if he don't do the work, it ain't gonna be, you know,
it ain't gonna be done. Oh, God didn't ask him. Do you
want to go in? And you know, there's certain
characteristics to every promise given in the Bible. to every
one of them, or calls, I should say call. There's characteristics
to every call given in the scriptures. Our Lord stood in that last day
of the feast and cried, if any man's thirsty, let him come to
me. Now, how many folks you reckon
come to him? People that were thirsty, nobody else did, huh? And then he said, if any man's
hungry, I'm that bread which came down from heaven. Huh? You know who come to him? The
hungry. He said, if any man's labored and heavy laden, I mean
he's wore out with his sins, he's tired of carrying his sins,
he's so heavy laden with his guilt and his condemnation, let
him come unto me. Oh my. Sinners, I come not to
call the righteous, call the sinners. Who you reckon come
to him? Sinners. Oh my. They said, Oh, they that
are whole don't need a physician, but they that are sick. Those
impotent. Oh, there was people come to
him and said, Lord, if you will, if you will, if you will. And God willed for Noah to have
an ark, God willed for Noah to come into that ark, and God provided
us an ark, and God willed for us to come into it. And that
ark is our Lord Jesus Christ. And if God willed for you to
come into that ark, believe me, just as sure as God's on His
throne, you gonna come. I don't care if you're 75, 85,
or five. Don't make any difference to
me, yet God's gonna do it. Oh my, God was in that ark. God was in that ark and said,
come. God is in Christ reconciling
us to himself. And he says, come, come. And old Scott, I mean, Todd said
something one time, I never forgot it. He said, the moment you start
coming to Christ, you immediately arrive. The moment you start coming,
you're there. Oh, I gotta get up and go, I
gotta get up and go there. Nope, nope. The minute you start
coming, you're already there. Can't do that no other place.
If you gotta go somewhere, you gotta go from here to there.
But not with Christ. You start toward him, you're
there. That quick. All right. Noah had God's, had
absolute security in that ark. He said back over here in verse
14 of Chapter 6, look what he said over here. He had absolute security, absolute
security in that ark. He said, pitch it within. He
said, make then ark of gopher wood in the ark and I shall make
rooms in it and pitch it within and pitch it without. That word
pitch within, without, that's the same word for atonement.
That means that it's judgment proof. And the blood of Christ
makes us judgment proof. The blood of Christ covering
us, washing us from our sin. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when it's applied, it sanctifies us, makes us secure, safe from
the judgment of God. First Peter said we're kept by
the power of God through faith. And you know, I read it tonight
back in the study in Colossians 3. And three, it says, you are
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. If your life's hid with Christ
in God, that's a pretty good hiding place, ain't it? Oh, and then look what it says
there in verse 16 of chapter 7. And they went in, male and female,
of all flesh, as God had commanded him. He done just like God told
him to do. And listen to this, and the Lord shut him in. The Lord shut him in. Shut him in from the flood. shut
him in from the wrath, shut him in from the judgment, shut in
from the world, shut in by God, and here's the best part about
it, shut in with God, huh? And all those but who were left
out, who was left out? Oh my, people who were preached
to, people left out who were preached to, people were left
out who were prayed for, People were left out who were ASSOCIATED
WITH BUILDING THE ARK! People who had SEEN WONDERS!
They stood and WATCHED as Adam... You know, when Adam built that...
I mean, Aaron built that ark. Noah built that ark. I'll get
it right here in a minute. When Noah built that ark, you know,
all the animals had to come. Seven of every clean animal.
That means seven lambs, seven bullocks, Seven heifers, seven
goats, and two of everything else had
to go in that ark. So they had to go in that ark,
and they had to be put in the right places. They had to go
to the right place and be put in the right place. Big old giraffe. How's a giraffe going to fit
in there? He'd go fit. He'd be all right. Big old lions
going in there. Tigers. rhinoceros and all these
things. And all my big ole elephants,
and here they come in there, two by two by two. It took a
while for that to happen. Took a while for that to happen. And so all those folks that helped
that and all those folks living around him, they seen that. What
in the world's all them animals going in? What in the world's
going on here? I've never seen anything like it. Look at all
them animals parading in there. Look at them two big old elephants. Look at them two lions. Look
at them two tigers. Look at them two giraffes. Look
at them seven sheep. Look at them seven goats. Look
at all them things going in there. And they watched it. But do you
think, boy, oh boy, there's something strange going on around here.
They saw the wonders of it, but they were shut out. The door,
and listen, the door was shut, God shut them in, and that was
the only way into the ark. Look over here in verse 16, it
said there's, I think it said, yeah, verse 16, maybe it's, yep,
16 of chapter six. The window shalt thou make in
the ark, and the cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the
door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. You got
second, third stories here, you make it. That door's gotta be
three stories high. And oh, listen, what happens
was, there was only one way into that ark, there's only one door,
one door, one door. And you know where that door
was? It's in the side. And you know what our Lord said?
I am the door. You know what a door is used
for? Either let people in or keep people out. That's what
it's used for. And you know, when you open your
door, if it's a stranger, you don't automatically say, well,
listen, come on in, come on in. But if it's, if you all knock
on my door and you knock on my door, I'm going to just open
that door and open it wide and say, welcome, come on in here.
I'm just so good to see you. We're welcome. But for strangers,
and people that you don't know, and people that you can't trust,
you shut the door. That's the way our Lord is. The door is open for His people,
but shut against the world. Huh? Oh my. And when that door
was shut, all hope was gone. And I'll tell you what, as the
church come from the side of Christ, and I'll tell you what,
the tabernacle had one door, one way in, and our Lord He is
the door into the church. Then he says, build you a window.
He said there in verse 16 again, put you a window, one window,
one window. And that window was above. You know, there's only one way he
could look, and that was up. And you know what? Looking unto
Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, We look to our
Lord Jesus Christ, where our affections is set on Christ,
who is above. We're looking for the appearing
of our great Savior and Jesus Christ. Oh, one window, and I'll
tell you what, he had to look up. And that's what we do, we
look up to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then look what it said in
verse 17, and I'll wind it up here, chapter 7, verse 17. And the flood was forty days
upon the earth, and the waters increased, and bear up the ark,
and it was lifted above the earth. It took forty days for that water
to lift that ark up. And this is what it says, And
the waters prevailed, and creased greatly upon the earth, and the
ark went upon the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed
exceedingly upon all the earth, and upon all the hills, that
were under the whole earth. Two times it says here, the waters
prevailed. The waters prevailed. What did
prevail over? Their unbelief. Their unbelief. Their indifference. I bet those
folks wasn't indifference afterwards. Oh, I tell you, when that ark
started coming, That rain started coming, started coming up, got
up out to their waist. Don't you reckon they was banging
on that ark? Oh my. But it's over their indifference. Over their pleasures. No more
marrying and giving in marriage. No more making fun of God. No more making fun of Noah. And
I tell you, it prevailed over their efforts to save themselves.
Oh my. And you know what the first thing
Noah did after he got off that ark? Look over here in Genesis
8, 20, first thing he did. Oh, they, God told him to go
forth out of the ark, come out of the ark, bring everything
with you that's living. And look what it says in the
verse 20, after he brought everything off that ark, and they got off
that ark, and Noah built an altar unto the Lord. The first thing
he wanted to do is he wanted to worship God. And he took one
of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt
offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor. And the Lord said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the
imagination of man's heart's evil from his youth, neither
will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. And so
I tell you what, the waters prevailed, but the first thing Noah wanted
to do, he said, I want to go offer sacrifice. I need to worship
God. He said, save me. He just saved
me. And I need to worship God. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, again, we thank you for allowing us to
meet with you. And you meet with us. Lord, thank you for the worship
we've had today. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for the truths that you've opened our hearts. Oh, Lord,
I don't want to be one of those peoples ever learning and never
coming to a knowledge of the truth. I want to learn. I want to learn. I want you to
teach me. I want to be taught of you, Lord Jesus. Oh God, my
Father, take the things of Christ and show them to me, show them
to us. We can learn together. Lord, forgive us of everything
that's so unlike you. And Lord, thank you for providing
our Lord Jesus Christ for us. That place, that hiding place,
that refuge. that place from the wrath and
judgment of God, that place of no condemnation, that place of
worship, that one offering that's already been offering. Oh Lord,
we bless you for it. God bless your people as they
go on their way. We thank you in Christ's name, amen. I don't
know if y'all know this course or not. Maybe you can, I don't
know if we got it in here or not. but I'm gonna try to sing
it if I can find it. Under the Blood of Jesus. It's not in here, is it? Do you
know, do you know, how much? Eight? Yeah, okay, eight, yeah. Let's sing it. Do you know a
tune to that, Marlene? Well, let's try it. I may be
able to sing it, I may not. If I can't, I'll quit. Let's
stand together. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
in the shepherd's fold. Under the blood of Jesus, Safe
while the age. Safe though the worlds may crumble. Safe though the stars grow dim. Under the blood of Jesus. I am secure in Him. Maybe we'll do better next time.
It's a good one. It's a good one. Good night and
God bless you.