Let's turn together to Psalm
46 for our scripture reading tonight. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city
of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her in that right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come behold the works of the
Lord. What desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh
wars to seize unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow
and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Genesis 6. Genesis 6. Genesis 6. I want you to look down in verse
8. We're going to talk about Noah. Noah, a type of Christ. 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 with God. And
Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 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.
Rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within
and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which
thou shalt make it of. The length of the ark shall be
three hundred cubits, and the breadth of it fifty cubits, and
the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the
ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. And the door
of the ark shall set in the side thereof, with lower, second,
and third stories shalt thou make. But it says, Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. And I want to Teach tonight,
if God would enable me over just a little while, to talk about
Noah being a type of Christ. And you look back in verse 29
of chapter 5 and see what his name means. And he called his
name Noah. Lamech lived 182 years and begat
a son called his name Noah. saying, this same shall comfort
us concerning our work and toll of our hands because of the ground
which the Lord hath cursed. Now you look in the margin, it
says Noah, his names means rest or comfort, rest or comfort. And he came to give rest and
comfort to his mother and his father. That's what his name
meant. He came to give rest, to give comfort. And without
anybody could understand that our Lord Jesus Christ came as
the consolation of Israel. He came to be our comfort, to
be our rest. He himself says, come unto me
and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and you
shall find rest for your soul. And it says, he that hath ceased
from his own works hath entered into his rest. As God ceased
from his works, we cease from ours, and we enter into the rest
of Christ. So he came to be our comfort,
came to be our rest, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, as he
read tonight, there is a city, there is a river, And God is
our refuge and out of that place of refuge a river flows. And
that river comes through Christ, that blessed river of rest and
comfort and assurance and all the salvation that we need. And
this is the thing, oh, to be able to rest in our Lord Jesus
Christ entirely and completely. I'm afraid not to rest in Him.
I know that that there's no rest in this world. I know there's
no comfort in this world, but just very little, but there's
no rest in this world, none whatsoever. And we read tonight, I believe
it was James that read tonight out of Isaiah 11, said, his rest,
his rest shall be glorious. His rest shall be glorious. And
then it says he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In verse
8, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, not only did he find grace, and I shouldn't say he
found grace, the scripture says he was full of grace. In fact,
all grace is in our Lord Jesus Christ. All spiritual blessings
are in our Lord Jesus Christ. And God himself says, this is
my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. And if Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord, how much more would his son? How
much more his son? Not only would he receive grace,
but he was full of grace. And if you and I get any grace,
it's got to come out of the fullness of Christ. It's got to come from
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Ephesians 1.3, let's look at
that together. Ephesians 1.3. You know where
I'm going with this. But oh my, Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord and it's with Christ. This is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. You listen to what he has to
say. No man's gonna come to me except by him. I don't want to
speak to nobody. I don't want nobody to speak
to me apart from him. And look what he said here in
verse three of Ephesians one. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He chose us in him
one of the blessings before the foundation of the world. He blessed
us that we should be holy and without blame. In love, he predestinated
us to the adoptions of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. So if Noah found grace, imagine
how much grace our Lord Jesus Christ has. And I said, I told
Shirley on the way here tonight, she said, I'm praying for you,
pray the Lord bless you. And I said, I appreciate that,
but I tell you this, if God ever blesses me in any way, preaching,
praying, or whatever I do, He has to do it for Christ's sake.
He'll never find any reason to bless me in myself. never has
and he never will I don't care what I do what I say or where
I go or how I act how dedicated or committed I may be or how
undedicated or committed if I ever get a blessing in preaching or
get a blessing from God in any way he's got to bless me for
Christ's sake because he can never bless me for myself now
ain't that right and that's what he says. Noah found grace and
we find grace. We're at in the beloved. God
gives us grace in Christ and you know when he give us this
grace in Christ? Before the world began. God who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world ever began.
That's pretty comforting, ain't it? That's pretty comforting.
And not only that, but look what it says in verse 9 here, talking
about Him being as a type of Christ. These are the generations
of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations. Oh, he was just and perfect. And as a man, if he was just
and perfect, imagine what our Lord Jesus Christ is. Oh my,
no one is as just as our Lord Jesus Christ. No one was as perfect
as our Lord Jesus Christ. He was just in all of his dealings
with me and just in all of his dealings with God. Perfect in
all of his dealings with God and perfect in all of his dealings
with us. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he says,
lo, I come to do thy will, yea, I delight to do thy will. Paul
said this in Hebrews chapter seven, that he's holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. And
all my Noah was just and perfect, our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why I asked this day one time, they began to accuse him of this,
that and the other. And he said, which of you, which
of you can convince me of sin? Who is anybody ever seen me? Did I ever, ever mistreated anybody
with my words? with my actions, with my dealings,
with my attitude, or with my actions? Or where did I take
a step that wasn't just? Where did I take a step that
wasn't perfect? You know, they've got these stories
about, and these books that they've found that talk about what Christ
was like as a child. One of them said something about
he may, you know, no doubt, stumped his toe when he was a child.
Don't believe a minute of it. Our Lord Jesus Christ, if he
bumped his toes, that means he wasn't perfect. I'll tell you
what, in fact, you know what, when he's the saint and says,
you know, Listen, I'll give you this world, I'll feed you where
you're hungry and all this. And our Lord said, it is written,
it is written, it is written. And here's what our Lord Jesus
Christ did. He was, who in the world has
ever been as just? Has he ever been unjust to you
or me? Has he ever mistreated us in any way? Has he not always
treated us perfect? Is not his will perfect? Oh my,
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And then look what
it says again in verse nine. Not only was just Doa a just
man and perfect in his generations. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ is
perfect in his generations and all the generations that he saved
by his grace, they're perfect. That's what I preached up at
Paul's last Wednesday night. Perfection in Christ, perfect
in Christ, complete in Christ. And look what it says here now.
It said, and he walked with God, Noah walked Our Lord Jesus Christ, He walked
before God. In fact, before the world was
ever come into this world, He walked before His Father. He
was His Father's delight. He was His Father's joy. He was
His Father's blessed, glorious Son, and He delighted in Him.
He was the glory of heaven itself. And then when He came to this
earth, He said, I and my Father are one. Everything that I do,
my Father does, and everything my Father does, I do. Every word
He says, I say. Every action He does, I do. When
you talk about God, you're talking about me. Me and my Father are
one. Not only do I walk with Him,
but we are one in will, in purpose, in aim, in goal, in grace, in
salvation. We're together. We walk together. And oh, our God, me and my Father. He said, I in you and you in
me. One with His Father in all the
purposes of God in this world. Oh, my. And I'll tell you what,
if Noah walked with God and Enoch walked with God, how much more
did our Lord Jesus Christ walk with his Father? In fact, when
you watched our Lord Jesus Christ walk and you was watching God
walk, you was watching the steps of the Father. If the Father
would have been here and in assumed flesh like Christ did, He would
have walked every place our Lord Jesus Christ did. Because I tell
you, when he was here, he walked perfectly, walked with his father.
He is one with the father. And here's another thing about
Noah. Look down at verse 13. 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, the people,
with the earth. But he says, make thee an ark
of gopher wood, rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and thou shalt
pitch it within and without pitch. And this is the fashion that
thou shalt make it." And what this tells us is that Noah had
the will of God revealed to him. God's will was revealed to Noah. Nobody else in that generation.
Nobody else did God speak to. Nobody else did God reveal His
will to. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
says, He was in the bosom of the Father. He hath come and
declared Him out. He come to declare God and do
the will of God. And God's will, if you and I
know anything about God's will, we're gonna see it in His blessed
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I came from heaven not
to do my will, but the will of Him that sent me. And you know
what He said, the will of Him that was to send me? That everyone
which seeth the Son, and believeth on him hath everlasting life.
And I'll raise him up at the last day. And the will of God's
revealed in him. And the will of salvation is
revealed in Christ. He said, I'm the way. Adam lost the way. He went hid
from God. Christ is the way. Adam denied
the truth of God. Christ said, I am the truth of
God. Adam lost the life of God. Christ
said, I am God's life. And oh, listen, oh, the way of
salvation was, and listen, the will of God was made known to
him, the ark. was a revelation from God, and
this was the way that God was going to save Noah and his family
through this ark. And God says that there's no,
and this, if I had an opportunity, and I've told you this before,
if I had an opportunity to preach to a great, great, great big
crowd one of these days, what I would preach is, from John
14 and 6, that no man, our Lord says, no man can come unto me,
unto the Father, but by me. And now there's salvation, but
there's salvation no place else but in Christ. Said, we can't
come, I don't want nobody coming, you can't come to the Father,
but by me. And he said, I'll tell you what,
I'm life, and if you have life, I've got to give it to you. If
you know God, I gotta make you know him. If you know the will
of God, I gotta reveal it to you. And he says, when the Holy
Spirit's come, he's not gonna talk of himself, he's gonna take
the things of mine and show them unto you. Oh my. And not only
that, but he came to manifest the name of God. He said, Father,
I made, I made, I manifested your name unto these men. They
know you. How do they know you? Through
me. Through me. Oh, and he spoke not his own
words, but the word of God the Father. And oh, Noah had the
will of God revealed to him. Christ is the will of God. He's
not just revealed. He is the will of God. He's the
will of God in everything, in every way. People say, boy, I
sure would love to know the will of God. Well, I can tell you
what it is. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone will seeth the Son and believeth on him.
I came down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him
that sent me. Will of Him that sent me. You want to know God's
will? Know Christ. His will's in Christ. His will
of salvation. His will of purpose. His will
of eternity. And oh, listen to what else happened
in verse 14. He prepared the way of salvation
in verse 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood.
Roof shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and
without. You see, not only that, beloved, he had the will of God
revealed to him, he prepared the way of salvation. He made
the ark. That's just the way of salvation.
Christ himself is salvation. Christ is made for us. Look at
Hebrews 10.20. Look at this in Hebrews 10.20.
You know, I quote this, but let's look at it. Let's look at it
together. Hebrews 10.20. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he prepared
the way of salvation. Christ has made for us a new
and a living way. Look what he says in verse 16. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my
laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them,
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. now
where payment or remission of these is there's no more offering
for sin having therefore brethren boldness liberty freedom to enter
into the holiest by the blood of jesus under the law men didn't
have freedom they didn't have liberty to come into the presence
of god they had to have a priest they had to have a sacrifice
and they had to have blood and here he says now We, brethren,
have this liberty to enter into the holiest. How? By the blood of Jesus. You gotta
have blood. And look what he says, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated or newly made for
us through the veil that is his flesh. And so we have a high
priest over the house of God. Let's draw near. Let's draw near. And so you see that Noah prepared
the ark of salvation, the way of salvation. And the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's the way
of salvation. And then he finished the work
given to him. Look down verse 22. He finished
the work that was given to him. Thus did Noah, according to all
that God commanded him. So did he. God gave him something
to do, and he did it. He finished it. He finished it. Thus did Noah, according to all,
he left nothing undone. And he finished it completely. It was the place where salvation
was going to be, and it was complete, and it was perfect, and it would
save him and his family. He left nothing undone. And our
Lord Jesus Christ said, I have finished the work that thou sent
me to do. And oh father, glorify thou me
with the glory which I had with you before the world was. And
he says, must I not be about my father's business? And our
Lord Jesus Christ, the last work, words that he said on the cross
were, the last words that he said, it is done. Finished. Done. Done. It didn't say it's almost finished.
Need your help. He didn't say, well, I'll finish
it one of these days. He said when it was finished,
it was finished. And I tell you what, whether
you and I believe it, our believing it didn't make it finished. Our
believing didn't make it finished. Our believing did not make the
work of Christ complete. Christ's work was complete. and
finished before you and I ever believe. And God sent the gospel
to us so we'd understand that the work is done. It's finished. And when something's finished,
it's like a man. If a fella, you know, he builds a building,
and he said, it's turnkey. And I say, no, no, it's not.
It's not. Does that mean that the fella
didn't do the work? No, no. And I'll tell you what, people
say, well, Christ finished it, but we have to believe. Christ
finished it, but we have to work. Christ finished it, but we got
to go to the altar. Listen, Christ finished it and
all we have to do is believe it. Rest in it. He finished the
covenant. He finished sin. He finished
the Father's will. He finished death. He finished
everything that was against us. He finished it and it's over
and done with. He satisfied God. He glorified
God. And oh my, it's finished. And then I'll show you in chapter
7, verse 1. Look what his work was effectual.
His salvation was effectual. The salvation that Noah had,
it was effectual. Look what he said in chapter
7, in verse 1. And the LORD said unto Noah,
Come down all thy house into the ark. And all thus did Noah, his salvation
was complete. It was sufficient for himself.
And the Lord says, Noah, come in. And down in verse seven,
look what it says in chapter seven. And Noah went in. And
Christ finished salvation. You know, it's salvation. He
didn't need salvation for himself. And Noah entered in, and the
great, great work that our Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation that
He accomplished for us, brings glory and honor to His holy name. And beloved, we enter in. We enter in. And when God says,
Come, that means He is in there with him. Oh, if salvation was
effectual, that ark was finished, and it was sure. And then it
was for his house, he said in verse 1 again. The Lord said
unto Noah, Come down all thy house, all thy house into the
ark. our Lord Jesus Christ has a house
Hebrews 6 says whose house or Hebrews 3 said whose house we
are and a house means all your generation and all your family
and we are Christ's family said all that the father giveth me
shall come to me when he says they come and they're coming
And he says, come thine Lord. God says, come and we come. And he said, also this, he'll
bring many, many sons under glory. And the household of faith, every
single one of them will be saved. There won't be one. Everybody
that was meant to be in that ark, you know who was in it?
Every single one of them. And everyone who's meant to be
in Christ, they'll all be there. Every single one of them. There
won't be one, it's not there. One's not there. And then I tell
you what, not only was the salvation for him, salvation for his house,
but for all things, everything that was in that ark. And you
go down through there and read about all the things that were
taken in there, every clean beast and all the people that, and
all the souls that were in there and all the animals that were
in there. And that ark passed over the flood into a new world. And the world purged of all the
violence, purged of all the sin, and purged of all the violence
and all the wickedness of man on the earth. And God was there with him. And
all things shall yet, as everything was destroyed and everyone was
saved in this ark, God one of these days is going to put everything
under the feet of Christ. When our Lord comes, mark it
down, He's going to put down every enemy. He's going to put
down every enemy and the last enemy that's going to be put
under his feet is death. He said he would put all things
under his feet and all he's the head of the church and all principalities
and powers and everything. Everything but his redeemed and
all of his elect everything in this world just be swept away
And we're going to go to a new heaven and a new earth and Noah
come out in a new earth come out on resurrection ground come
out on resurrection ground and then look what it says in chapter
8 and verse 1 and Then God remembered him God remembered him God remembered
Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that was with
him and God made a wind to pass over the earth and earth was
assuaged God remembered Noah and all that was with him. Oh
my I'll tell you God will never ever Forget his son and the people
that's in his blessed son as he remembered Noah And he washed
over Noah all through that flood all through that judgment that
fell on the earth God remembers his son and all of his elect
and everyone that's in his son. They're in him and they're in
the ark of his saving grace. And God said, Malachi, I met
a priest on that several months ago or a year or two ago, that
God says that he looked down and everyone who spoke of him
and feared him, he had a book of remembrance. He had a book of remembrance.
And like that thief, He said, Lord, remember me when I come
into your kingdom, when you come into your kingdom. And I tell
you, I know this for a fact. There may be a day when you and
I won't remember our name, won't remember who we are or where
we are, or nothing about it. May not remember our children,
may not remember you. If you saw Brother Mahan right
now, you'd say, I'd have never dreamed Brother Mahan would be
in that condition. Had to get a hold of a man's arm just to
get out of his chair and be pulled up. The man had to have enough
strength to pull him up and then has to walk him. He comes to
every service, got to walk him up the steps and put the arm
behind him and stand right behind him, get him up the steps. And
we get frail. And if you go into a coma or
something like that and you don't know God, And you don't remember
who you are, and who your family is, and who your sons and daughter
is. But you know who remembers you? He remembers you. He knows exactly
where you're at. In fact, he says, if our Lord
Jesus Christ, bless his holy name, he entered into an everlasting
covenant, and he ordered in all things and sure, And this is
all our salvation. And it doesn't count, you know,
I may not, I may get to where I don't know nothing, but one
thing I know, he always knows me. Do you know, this is how
great and glorious our God is. You know how many people of his
elect have passed, have died over the years, over the centuries
and over the centuries and over the centuries. And every one
of them that passed, the Lord Jesus Christ has got their spirits
in glory with him right now. The spirits of just men made
perfect in heaven. But he knows where every single
one of their bodies is. And it's but dust, dust. And he'll put, as just like he
took Adam out of the dust and made a man, he knows where all
his people are and all the dusts are. And if he took Adam and
made him out of dust, don't you think he can get us back up out
of the dust and bring us back? Huh? Oh my. God remembered Noah. God remembers us. He'll never
forget us. You know why? He said, I've written
you in the palms of my hands. A mother may forget her sucking
child, but I'll never forget you. Never. Written you on the
palms of my hands. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord, how wonderfully kind, how wonderfully gracious,
how wonderfully patient you are. And I thank you for your mercies.
Oh, they're new every morning, new every morning. Thank you
for your compassions. I thank you for your grace. It's
always sufficient, always sufficient. God bless these dear saints as
they go their way, as they go home, go to their jobs, raise
their families. Lord bless them. And Lord, their
families that they want to see converted, brought to faith in
Christ, pray for them. Pray for mine, pray for Shirley's,
and I pray for all that's represented here. We have so many unconverted
among us, these young people, these young, these children,
these young folks. Oh Lord, touch their hearts while
they're yet young. Speak to them while they're yet
children. Bring them to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let
them find their rest in Him. These teenagers that come, oh
Lord, speak to them. Please speak to them, oh Lord.
Save them before they go out into the world and get so involved
in sin and in the world. Oh Lord, while they're still
here, they're still coming, God speak to them through the gospel.
We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen, amen.