Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And today I'm going to be preaching
back in the book of Genesis, the Old Testament book of Genesis,
the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the book of beginnings.
And I'm going to be preaching from Genesis 6. And the title
of the message is Christ, Our Ark of Salvation. Christ, our
ark of salvation. And of course, when I say ark,
I'm talking about the boat that God, through Noah, built. We're
talking about Noah and the ark, the flood, and all of that. Last
week, I preached on Christ in the Old Testament. Well, this
is a golden opportunity to show you an example of that. The ark
of salvation is Christ. Not the boat, you know. I know
there's a place up in Kentucky called the Ark Experience or
something like that, and somebody built a replica of the ark. But
my friend, and maybe that's impressive and all of that, but seeing that
ark is not gonna bring a sinner to salvation. Seeing Christ the
ark of salvation, that's who we need to see. Do you see Jesus? That's the key. The name Jesus
means God our Savior, God our salvation. His name shall be
called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Matthew
1.21. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. So if you never go and
see that boat that they built, that's okay. Look in the scriptures
and pray that God will show you by revelation power, the true
ark, which is Christ. He is the Lord, our righteousness. And that's what Noah preached.
And I'll show you that. Look at Genesis chapter six.
Let's begin at verse five. It says, 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. Now understand that this refers
both to the immoral and to the religious. Because religion without
Christ, Religion without God's grace and truth is evil in the
sight of God. Why? Because it denies Him in
His glory. It denies Christ. And I've said
this on just about every program. If you're seeking salvation based
on your works, conditioned on you, If you're seeking to be
righteous before God, in other words, to be good enough in God's
sight, to pass the test of judgment by your works, that's evil in
God's sight. Think about those in Matthew
7 who peered before Christ at the judgment, saying, Lord, haven't
we preached in your name? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Haven't we cast out demons? Only to hear him say, depart
from me, you that work iniquity. I never knew you. Now, some preachers
will tell you, well, now those guys were insincere. That's not
what that verse says. How do they know that? And let
me ask you this, how much sincerity is enough? Now, I hope if you're
a true believer, you need to be sincere, but your sincerity
is not your righteousness before God. Your works is not your righteousness. Your sincerity and works should
glorify the God who saves by grace through the righteousness
of Christ. You see the difference there?
That's a big difference. So here he's talking about the
state of the earth. Now people talk about today,
they say, well, it's worse today than it was before. Well, I don't
know about that because he says, every imagination of the thoughts
of the heart was only evil continually. And verse six says, and it repented
the Lord that he'd made man on the earth and it grieved him
at his heart. Now that's what we call in biblical
interpretation. and anthropomorphism. Now, I'm
not just trying to impress you with big words. I don't know,
you might say it this way, simply, even more simply, is it is a
human expression that kind of helps us to understand how much
God hates sin, but it's not literally ascribed to God. God does not
repent. Repent means to change. And true biblical repentance
is a change of mind. In the light of Christ and His
righteousness and how God saves sinners, I repent of my dead
works. Ever thinking that I could have
attained salvation by my works, I repent of that. I repent of
the idol that I had in my mind who received such things. But
God doesn't change. The scripture also says that
God is not a man that he should repent. It says God is immutable. He never changes and all of that.
So when you read things like that, understand what's happening
here is the Holy Spirit is trying to bring it down to our level
because there are concepts about God that we just cannot grasp. And I've often said, when you
think about God's eternity, God is eternal. No beginning, no
end. Wow. I can't wrap my mind around
that. Everything I know is change.
But I know that God is eternal. God is immutable. Never changes. That's mind boggling. But He
hates sin. He hateth the workers of iniquity. And the only way that, somebody
asked me one time, said, well, aren't we all workers of iniquity,
even believers? Not in that sense. We're sinners
saved by grace, but the iniquity that he's talking about is how
they do not equal out in God's judgment. Because a believer,
he equals out in God's judgment, not by his works, but by the
righteousness of Christ imputed to him. You see, when I stand
before, right now, and when I stand before God at judgment, I have
a righteousness that equals the demands of God's law and justice. And I didn't have any part in
producing it. It was Christ. And it's by His
obedience unto death. that God has made me righteous,
imputed righteousness to me. That's why Paul wrote in Romans
4, 6, the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without works. That means to lay it to my charge. I count somebody else's worthiness
and goodness and holiness to me legally. Now I'm still a sinner
in myself. But in God's court of justice,
I'm righteous because of Christ. I'm washed in His blood. What
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And I'm righteous in God's sight. You understand that? So all of
these things, when we see how much God hates sin, He's determined
to remove it from His people. Now one day, as a sinner saved
by grace, I will be totally free within myself of any sin. because
I'll be made like Christ. I'll go to be with Him and be
perfectly conformed to His image. Look at verse 7, Genesis 6. The
Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the
face of the earth, both man and beast, and of the creeping thing,
and of the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have
made them. Now this was all determined before. This is not God reacting. He's not a reactionary God. But
here's where I want to get to. Look at verse eight. Now listen
to this very carefully and don't let this get by you. But Noah
found what? Grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now what is grace for? Who is
grace for? Sinners. What does this tell
you about Noah? It tells you, like all of us,
that by nature, He was no different than these evildoers. That's
right. The Bible says we've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Now, you might be looking
around and say, well, some are worse than others. In your eyes,
that may be true, but there's not one of us who don't deserve
and have earned eternal death and damnation. That's our case. There's not one of us if we're
saved. It's by grace, including Noah. Noah was a sinner saved by grace. So Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Now, where is grace to be found?
The Bible says in Romans 5 21, that grace reigns through, that
a sin that's reigned unto death. So even so grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now
Noah, we're gonna see built an ark, a physical ark, big thing,
a miraculous thing. And I believe he did it by the
power of God. And it took him a long while to do, I think 120
years, if I'm not mistaken, because it said he preached righteousness
for 120 years and he didn't preach his own or man's right, he preached
Christ, who he knew as the coming Messiah, the promised Messiah. So Noah built an ark, but Noah's
true ark of salvation Eternally and spiritually is the same as
my ark, Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Christ's
blood, Christ's righteousness. So he says in verse nine, these
are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man. That word
just means righteous. Over in Genesis 7, one, 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. Well, how did Noah become righteous?
Oh, he was just a better man than the rest of that bunch.
No, he was a sinner saved by grace. Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. Never lose sight of that. When
you're teaching the story of Noah and the ark to your children,
make sure you emphasize that Noah was a sinner saved by grace. He didn't do all that he did
by his own power and goodness. He did it by the power and goodness
of God. So it says that Noah was a just
man, Genesis 6, 9. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Noah was a just
man. He was righteous by Christ. Noel
was perfect. That word perfect means upright.
That means he was a man of faith. Where did he get the faith? Out
of his own free will? No. He got the faith from God,
just like I did, or any other sinner saved by grace. For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
he says, in his generations, and Noah walked with God, just
like Enoch walked with God, Noah walked with God. Every sinner
saved by grace is to walk with God, walk according to his word,
walk in the honor of his glory, exalting Christ. motivated by
grace, gratitude, and love. And it says in verse 10, and
Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And the verse
11, the earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was
filled with violence. Verse 12, God looked upon the
earth and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his
way upon the earth. God's way is the way of salvation
by his grace through Christ. Any other way is a corruption.
There is a way that seems right unto a man. It's a way of death.
That's quoted in Proverbs 14, I believe, and 16, twice in Proverbs. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Any other way is a corruption.
And so it says in verse 13, God said unto Noah, the end of all
flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence
through them and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
So here's the commandment he gives Noah, verse 14, make thee
an ark of gopher wood, rooms shall thou make in the ark and
shall pitch it within and without. And that word pitch or pitch
it has to do with an atonement. And so what we're seeing is right
here at the beginning, this ark, the way it's going to be built,
is a type of Christ. Wood signifies his humanity. And the pitching within and without
is atonement. Christ was, you know, God manifest
in the flesh, perfect, sinless flesh. And he says in verse 15,
and this is the fashion in which thou shalt make it up. And then
he gives the measurements of the ark and how Noah's going
to make it. Now, Noah did not build this
ark simply by his own power. He was diligent, he obeyed God,
but Noah did this as God's instrument to save him and his family because
God had chosen them. And so Noah built the ark, and
you know how he brought the animals in two by two. I'm not gonna
read the whole story here, you know it, and you can go back
and read it for yourself. But look at Genesis 7. When it
came, as Noah, now understand now, we learn from the, I think
it's the first epistle of Peter, how Noah, all the time he was
building this ark, he was also preaching. And the Bible says
he was a preacher of righteousness. Now to be a true preacher of
righteousness is to be a preacher of Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. If you don't preach Christ in
the glory of His person and the power of His finished work as
revealed in the book of God, you're not preaching righteousness,
you're preaching dead works, sin. So look at Genesis 7, 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. And righteous means justified. And how's a sinner justified?
By the blood of Jesus Christ, by the righteousness of Christ
imputed. So Noah and his family came on
the ark with all the animals that he gave him. And that was
him and his family, eight souls is what we're told. So the flood
came and it lasted 40 days and 40 nights. And then as time went
on, after that, the waters covered the whole earth, destroyed it,
and we see the waters subsiding. And all of this, it says, verse
three, the waters returned from off the earth, continue. This
is Genesis eight and verse three. The waters returned from off
the earth continually. And after the end of the 150
days, the water were abated. This is what you had 40 days
and 40 nights of rain, the water covering there. And then it says
the ark rested, verse four of Genesis eight. In the seventh
month, on the 17th day of the month, upon the mountains of
Ararat. And then there were 150 more
days. The waters decreased continually
until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the first
day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it
came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window
of the ark which he had made, and he sent forth a raven. and
which went forth to and fro, and the waters were dried up
from off the earth." The raven is a bird of death, it eats carrion,
feast on death. So there's the symbol of death.
And then he sent out a dove, verse eight, he also sent forth
a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the
face of the ground. The dove found no rest for the
soul of her foot. The dove is the emblem of peace,
you see. And then later on, he sent out
the dove again, and it came back with an olive leaf, which is
a symbol of peace. Now, all of that's picturing
that in the world, there's death like the raven, but in Christ,
there's peace and life like the dove. So all of these things
surrounding, picturing Christ. And what happened when they got
off the ark? Here's what happened. Look over
at Genesis 8 and verse 20. It says, and Noah built an altar
unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean
fowl. Notice I had to be clean now.
These were beasts that were gonna be offered for sacrifice. To
picture Christ, the sacrifice of God, he has to be sinless. And so he says, took 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 is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite
anymore everything living as I've done. While the earth remaineth,
seed time and harvest, this is the seasons, cold and heat, summer
and winter, and day and night shall not cease. So the Lord
promises he will never again destroy the world by a flood. Now he will destroy the world.
And you read about that in passages like 2 Peter 3. This world is
going to be burned up with a hot heat, with a fire. But let me
go over to Genesis 9 before I have to quit. This is where God established
his covenant with Noah through the sign of the rainbow. It says
in verse 11, well let's go back to Genesis 9 verse 8, God spoke
unto Noah and to his sons with him saying, I behold I establish
my covenant with you and with your seed after you and with
every living creature that is with you of the fowl of the cattle
of every beast of the earth with you from all that go out of the
ark to every beast of the earth And I will establish My covenant
with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut
off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall there
any more be a flood to destroy the earth." And God said, This
is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you
and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations.
I do set My bow in the cloud. and it shall be for a token of
a covenant between me and the earth. And he set the rainbow
in the cloud. Down in verse 16, it says, and
the bow shall be in the cloud. I will look upon it that I may
remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living
creature of all the flesh that is upon the earth. And God said
unto Noah, this is the token of the covenant, which I have
established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
Now, let me say this about the covenant. God is a covenant God. I'm getting ready to do a series
at our church on the covenants. A covenant is an agreement. And
basically, when you read the Bible, there are two different
types of covenants. There's what we call a bilateral
covenant. Bilateral meaning that it's a
covenant that two parties, whether it's two individuals or two groups,
must agree on for that covenant to be in effect. And then the
second one is a unilateral covenant. That's a covenant made between
two people, but the onus is upon one only. In a bilateral covenant,
the conditions are upon both persons. In a unilateral covenant,
the conditions are upon one person. Now, every time you see a bilateral
covenant in the Bible, where God makes a bilateral covenant
with man, it's not such that God is going to promise them
salvation or life based upon their obedience. It's to show
the abject sinfulness and depravity of man who is totally unable
to meet those conditions. You see it in the Garden of Eden.
God told Adam that you can eat of all the trees of the garden
except this one, and that's the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. Now, God didn't promise Adam, He said, if you don't eat
of the tree of good and evil, I'll let you stay here and you
can live forever. No, He didn't say that. It was already determined
that Adam was going to do it. In fact, what God said to him,
He didn't say, if you eat, He said, in the day that you do
eat, because it was determined that he was going to eat. And
I know people don't like to hear that. They say, well, you're
saying God's the author of sin. Let me tell you something. God's
not the author of sin, but He's the controller of it. And before
this world was ever created, the covenant of salvation, which
was a unilateral covenant in God's sight, not conditioned
on man who was to come, but conditioned on Christ, one person. That covenant was already set
in the mind and purpose of God. When Peter spoke of the death
of Christ on the cross, he told the people who crucified him
that you with wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord
of glory. But he said, you did no more than what God determined
that you would do. Read it in Book of Acts chapter
two. There are other scriptures like that. So you say, well,
I don't understand that about God. Well, join the club. God
is bigger than me and you. Just like an old false preacher
said one time, when he'd come to the end of his life, he'd
been preaching and struggling and debating and arguing and
dividing and all this, and he was tired, and he said, I've
come to all my life, I've learned only two things. And the young
man asked him, well, what have you learned, preacher? He's a
false preacher now. He said, what have you learned,
preacher? He said, I learned that there is a God, and I ain't
him. Well, I know more than that because
God's revealed the gospel to me. Thank God for His gospel.
But I'll tell you what, when it comes to the mind and purpose
of the immutable sovereign God, and what took place in His sovereign
mind, and what was always present in His, that's mind-boggling.
I leave that to Him. I just bow to His word, and you
should too. Understand that. One old false
preacher said another one. I'm quoting false preachers,
but sometimes they'll say good things. Your arms are too short
to box with God. Paul said that in Romans 9. Let's
quote a true preacher, Apostle Paul. He said, who are you to
debate with God? You can't debate with God. So
the covenant of salvation, which is a unilateral covenant conditioned
on Christ and not on you or me, That was made before time began.
So when God, you can say that bilateral covenant with Adam,
it wasn't a conditional covenant where God promised him eternal
life or perpetual life based upon his obedience because he
was set up to fall. Because God's gonna be glorified
in the salvation of his people through Jesus Christ. Well now
this covenant that God made with Noah is a unilateral covenant. He didn't say, Noah, I'm going
to not destroy the world if you'll do what's right. There's no bilateral
activity there. He didn't say, Noah, I'll put
the bow in the clouds to remind you that you better straighten
up and fly right, else I'll kill you. No, this was all God's work. And that ark that represented
Christ, that's how salvation comes. That rainbow is a reminder
to us of God's promise not to destroy the earth again with
a flood, but it's mainly a rainbow of mercy that leads us to Christ
for all salvation. That's what I think of when I
see a rainbow. I think about Noah, the flood,
and all of that, and God's promise not to destroy us again, the
whole earth. I mean, there are floods that
come on earth. We've had one here in Albany
years and years ago that kind of destroyed a lot of places. But God won't destroy the whole
earth again like he did in Noah's day. But my friend, here's what
he will do. He'll save sinners conditioned
on Christ, the ark of salvation. and there is no other. Get on
the ark. What does that mean? Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest in Him for all salvation,
all forgiveness, all righteousness, and all glory. He is the one,
the only one ark. God put Him in, shut the door.
That's Christ. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you. you