We will be looking in the book of Hebrews chapter
11, both hours, if you would like to turn there. Hebrews chapter
11. Some call this chapter the Hall
of Faith. And although we can see that
that's kind of true, What they mean by that is, is the faith
of Abraham, or the faith of Enoch, or the faith of Abel, or the
faith of David. But whose faith was it really?
Whose faith was it really? It was the Lord's faith. It was
the Lord's faith bestowed. And so it's the hall of the Lord,
of the Lord's faithful people. Why were they faithful? Because
they're the Lord's. He made them thus. And he gave
them faith to believe. If you were to take every single
one of these, you start, we're gonna start and look at the first
word, verse seven, by faith Noah. Verse eight, by faith Abraham. Verse nine, by faith he sojourned. Then look, verse 11, through
faith also Sarah. And then it goes down, verse
13, these all died in faith. And it keeps going, by faith,
by faith. But I want, if we substitute that word faith with the word
Christ, this is what it would read. By Christ, Noah. By Christ, Abraham. By Christ,
he sojourned. And that's the point, isn't it?
It's the faith of Christ bestowed. He's the first cause. He's the
reason that they were enabled to obey the Lord. Now, like Abel
and Enoch, Noah is also among these who it says, and we can
look in verse two, for by it, by faith, the elders obtained
a good report. Noah is among those who obtained
a good report. Well, what is the good report
that's mentioned here? That they pleased God. That's
the good report, they pleased God. But we see the similarity
that it's not because they decided to do anything that pleased God,
it's that they pleased God because of faith bestowed. They were
compelled to do what they did because they pleased God, because
they were found in Christ. So many have it backwards. So
many say, well, you have to do this in order to please God. No, if I'm going to please God,
I have to be found in Christ. I have to be found with the faith
of Christ, or I am not able to please God. Without faith, it
is impossible to please God. And with that faith, looking
unto Christ alone, not my looking, not myself, but looking to Christ
alone, we're pleased then with what the Lord is pleased with,
aren't we? If we are looking, then it's not by the will of
the flesh, and it's not by the will of man, but of God. It's
the will of God. By faith, Abel offered a more
excellent sacrifice. But by the Lord Jesus Christ,
he was given faith to offer the more excellent sacrifice. By
faith, Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him.
He was translated before he should see death. It was Christ that
caused Enoch to walk with God. He's the only way we can walk
with God. He's the only sacrifice that God accepts. Do we see all
this is about the Lord? He hasn't deviated from the message
of the last 10 chapters now to say, okay, well, it's your faith
that you have to exercise and you'd have to do something. No,
not at all. It's that the Lord is the end of the law for righteousness
sake. He's the end of the old covenant.
Now we have the covenant of grace, which is confirmed by faith given. It's evidence of salvation. Faith
is evidence of the Lord's salvation, not the cause. Now here in our
text, Hebrews chapter 11, verse seven, let's read this together. I'm just gonna read this one
verse. By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen
as yet, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house. by the which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. I've titled this message How
God Saved Sinners. Wednesday night we talked a little
bit about people having bumper stickers that says Jesus saves.
And I said when we moved into this building there was a sign
back there that says Jesus saves. And somebody said, well, that
sounds not too bad. And I said, yeah, it's just one letter off,
Jesus saved. And I take that S off and put
a D, Jesus saved. Call his name Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins. And when he cried it is finished
on the cross, it was finished. Jesus saved his people. The title is How God Saved Sinners. First notice, Noah was moved
by fear. But that fear is not a fear of woe and of dread, of
disappointment, or a fear of disproval, or a fear of wrath
and judgment. It was a fear of faith. It was
a fear of faith, which is honoring to the Lord. He was motivated
to do that which God said. He desired to worship God. He
desired to be obedient unto God. And the Lord had given him godly
fear. You know what we call that? Repentance. Repentance. We call
it faith to believe. Repentance is seeing yourself
as what you are and seeing God for who he is. That's what repentance
is. And Peter was speaking over an
ax and he said that he preached repentance towards God and faith
towards the Lord Jesus Christ. They go hand in hand, don't they?
They're one and the same. The Lord gives both at the same
time. We see ourself as the sinner and we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ as the savior. That's what God gave to Abraham. That's what God gives to all
of his people at the appointed time. If God didn't give, I'm
sorry, I said Abraham, I meant Noah. He gave it to Abraham too. I'm not wrong, but I said it
wrong timing. That's next hour. He gave it
to Noah. He gave it to Noah. If he didn't,
Noah would have never built the ark. But he gave Noah repentance
and faith. It's evidence because he was
warned of things that have not been seen yet. It never had rained. No dew had ever fallen from the
sky. The water never came down from above. But the Lord said,
he's gonna flood the earth. The water's gonna come down from
the sky. I'm reminded of Joseph and Mary,
the miraculous conception of the Lord Jesus Christ. She was
a virgin. She was a virgin that conceived. And you can imagine
if the Lord hadn't give Joseph faith to believe that, what would
your flesh think? Our flesh would mock that. Oh
yeah, sure, okay. There's no way we could have
believed that. But faith doesn't look for evidence. It looks upon things not seen. It looks upon the word of God.
It looks upon the Lord Jesus Christ. When God said it's gonna
rain, Noah said, truth Lord. If you said it's gonna rain,
it's gonna rain. Now how could he do that? because
God gave him faith to believe. See, we don't get any glory in
this salvation. We don't get any glory whatsoever.
The Lord gets all the glory in this salvation. At the end of
it all, if we continue to believe all the way to the end, it's
because he's given us the faith to continue to believe all the
way to the end, and he gets all the glory for it. All the glory
for it. Someone said, well, if Noah believed
God here, all I have to do is believe God then. Yes. Absolutely. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's the command that goes
forth. You have to believe God over your feelings. You have
to believe God over your choices. You have to believe God over
your power. You have to believe God over your will. You have
to believe God over yourself. And that's impossible unless
the Lord calls us to by giving us repentance and giving us faith. Noah didn't say, Lord, Are you
sure it's gonna rain? Are you? Like, I mean, how is
that gonna happen? I need a definition of this,
a little bit more information. I can't quite, you don't hear
Noah saying anything about that. We're gonna turn to Genesis chapter
six in just a second. He doesn't say anything about that. It literally
says, God said to Noah, build an ark, and Noah built an ark. Noah obeyed God. Now, how can
that be? Well, the Lord has come. I'm
confident come to some of us and said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We don't understand what we believe, but we believe it
by faith. Don't we explain to somebody that God is a three
in one explain that explain that God is a hundred percent man
and a hundred percent God explain that explain that God became
a man. A spiritual being became flesh
and dwelt among us. Explain that. Explain how God,
the eternal, the everlasting, never had a beginning, never
had an end, died for his people on the cross of Calvary. We can't
explain these things, but we believe it by faith, don't we?
Faith believes God over evidence that the flesh has. If you wanna believe God, you
must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as all in salvation, but
there's a problem, and the problem is not God, and it never was
and never will be God. The problem's me and you and
our flesh. Our flesh is enmity against God. Our flesh will not
come to Christ, though we might have eternal life. Our flesh
does not desire to be saved. Our flesh loves ourself. Our
flesh loves ourself. But if we don't come to God by
faith, Without faith, it's impossible to please God. What does that
make us say? Lord, give me this faith. Just
like the Samaritan woman. Lord, give me this water. Give
me this water. Just like the Seraphim woman.
Lord, we desire the crumbs that fall off your table. Give me
this lest I die. Give me Christ lest I die. So
the solution. how God saved sinners. That's the solution. That's the
solution. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
6. Now the Lord has established
here that men begin multiply upon the face of the earth. And
he said, my spirit shall not always strive with man. And as
we're getting this information, he then says this in verse five,
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in earth and the
earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. Now, that word every means the
whole imagination, the entire imagination, all imaginations.
Oh, that's important, that word every. This is one of the few
times in scripture that it refers to everyone without exception,
everyone without exception. When the Lord said, God so loved
the world, he wasn't referring to everyone without exception.
He was referring to Jew and Gentile because the Jews believe salvation
was just to the Jew. He said, no, Nicodemus, God so
loved the world. He's saying, and we know from
scripture that on the day that we're all going to be accounted
for around the throne, the day where the Lord gathers his people.
It's going to be of every tribe, of every nation, of every kindred,
and every tongue, which gives me hope. because I don't even
know what's all in my blood, but I know if it's every tribe,
every nation, every tongue, every kindred, I have hope. I'm part
of the everybodies. There's no exclusion. It doesn't
matter where you're from. It doesn't matter what your bloodline
is. That's the whole point. Nicodemus,
it doesn't matter that you were born a Jew. That's irrelevant.
God so loved the world. But here in this passage, when
he says every heart, every imagination of the thoughts of the heart,
every, that's all without exception. Every single one of them. So
you mean Noah, his heart, his heart was on evil in that continually?
Is it any different than our stony, depraved heart by nature? Our hearts are evil continually
also, isn't it? In the flesh, it's only evil
and that continually. It's enmity against God. Our
depraved stony heart isn't any less. Yes, Noah was a sinner.
Needing a savior, Noah was born in sin just as you and I are.
Just as you and I were. Noah was born in sin. He was
shaped in iniquity. Just as David said, in sin hath
my mother conceived me. This is what, this is what it
is to be born human, is to be born a sinner. And Noah is no
exception to this fact. Sin wasn't a result of just his
actions. His actions, just like ours,
is a result of his sin. Most people have it backwards,
that sinners are those who commit sin. No, men commit sin because
they are sinners. I use this example quite often.
A dog is a dog, not the first time that it barks. It barking
is part of the evidence that it's a dog. Cat doesn't, We have
cats and dogs in my house, and their personalities are totally
different. I'm not going to tell you which one I prefer, because
I don't want to be biased, but cats will meow and scratch and
claw, and they act totally different than a dog. They don't act like
a dog. They might do some things, but their character is different.
Their nature is different. They don't bark, do they? They
meow. Well, do they meow to become
a cat? Or is all of that just part of
their nature? It's part of their nature, isn't
it? We're sinners by nature, and therefore all we can do is
sin. So it would be the same as me
saying a dog is a dog by nature, and all it can do is just dog,
just do dog things. A cat is a cat by nature, so
all it can do is cat, cat things. Noah's actions was not a reflection
of, it was an evidence. It was evidence
of him being a sinner. He wasn't a sinner because of
his actions. He was committing the actions that he did because
he was a sinner. So what's the need? That God
would save him, just like you and I, the same need that God
would save us. Now there's others that know
something a little bit about sin and they believe that their
good deeds make up for that. I was reading something or watching
something even recently and it said, did you know a good deed
erases a bad deed? No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Not in the eyes of God. because
sin must be punished. We heard that last Sunday. He
cannot excuse sin. He must punish sin. A good deed does not erase a
bad deed. But I'll tell you the deed that
erased the sin, it was the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross of Calvary. It was the atoning blood that
went forth to redeem the Lord's people on the cross of Calvary.
That put away sin. That's the only action the only
action that ever put away any sin, and there's nothing that
you and I could ever do that's comparative to that. You and I can relate that every
one of us, without exception, we are dead dog sinners. Unless
the Lord chooses to have mercy upon us, we'll remain dead dog
sinners. If he doesn't tell us about the
ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the picture here. The
place of refuge, that's the ark, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's pitched, it says, inside and outside with slime, but that
word's also atonement. It's the atoning blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the outside and on the inside for the Lord's
people. What does that mean? Well, that means when the Lord
sees the blood, he's gonna pass by us, we're in the ark, we're
safe from the wrath to come. That's our only hope, to be in
the ark. We have no hope of fixing our
sin. If left to ourself, we wouldn't care of the things of God. We
would only be concerned with this life and the things going
on around us as others. And we will be of all men most
miserable. Isn't it amazing that you see
people and men have become really good at acting like they're not
miserable. They have done a great job of covering it up. And social
media is one of those ways that people do that. I call it fake
book, not Facebook, because you get on there and you see people's
lives looking like it's just sunshine and rainbows, but you
know them and you actually be around them. You're like, your
life ain't nothing like you're saying it is, but that's how
you want people to perceive you. They're covering it up. All men
are miserable because they don't know Christ. So when they lay
their head on their pillow at night, they have to decide, why
am I, what makes me think that if I died right now I would be
okay? And maybe they never think that. Maybe the Lord's never
gracious enough to give them that thought. But you know who
thinks about that when they lay there on the pillow each night?
The Lord's people. If I died right now, what am I hoping in?
Am I hoping in what I've done? You think Noah, when he came
to his deathbed, you think, well, I built that ark, I know the
Lord's gonna let me in the glory. No, no, the Lord said, failing
not the assembling of ourselves together. When you stand before
him, are you gonna say, well, I went to church on November the 17th,
2024, Lord? No, no, you came to worship him. His actions were worshiping the
Lord. That's why Noah did what he did.
Because that's the evidence of faith is obedience under the
Lord. That's why we, and what is the obedience? Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the obedience, looking
unto the Lord. No, we lay our head on our pillow
at night, we have peace. And even though we are miserable
because of the sin that we see around us and the sin that we
see in us, we're never grieved so much as the sin we see in
us as we see around us. The good news of the gospel is
how God saved sinners. He put the sin away to bring
peace and reconciliation to the father, to bring joy to his people,
to bring hope, to bring rest in a weary world. You imagine
being the only guy out there building a boat, telling maybe,
I don't know if you told anybody, scripture's silent on that, but
I would imagine people's gonna ask questions, what are you doing?
Well, I'm building an ark, it's gonna flood. Okay. Yeah, it's
never rained. What's rain? Well, water's gonna
fall from the sky, okay. Yeah, this guy, he's off his
rocker. He's lost his mind. I don't know
what they would've said back then, but that's what we would
say now. That's exactly what we would say, unless the Lord
gave us faith to believe God. It's amazing because he's called
a preacher of righteousness, so we know that he preached to
his family, and they heard because they went into the ark with him.
His three sons, his wives, and their wives. It's his daughter-in-laws.
So we see the Lord's purpose in the chosen people then, the
elect then was those eight into the ark. Could you imagine it? You know, it took him over a
century, it took him over a hundred years, 100 years of working on
one thing, the ark, 100 years. You can see them every day. You
know, he'd had to be discouraged at some points, you don't have
to be, Well, I'm the only one, the Lord have to give him fresh
manna every day. Don't you get discouraged yourself? We do,
don't we? Lord, I need that manna today
because I get discouraged too. I understand Noah's no different.
I remember hearing in Sunday school about how you need to
be more like Noah and you need to be more like Moses and you
need to be more like Daniel. They're the same as we are. David
was a murderer. David was an adulterer. No, don't
be trying to strive to be more like David. Look to Christ who
is our acceptance with God. Look to Christ who is our acceptance
with God. And that's what Noah was doing. He was looking unto
the Lord because the way that the Lord saves his people is
he reveals his son as their only hope in salvation. He reveals
his son. We can imagine how those, I'm gonna
call them poor souls. They're poor souls. Whether they
mocked him, whether they didn't, whether they noticed it, whether
they didn't, whether they knew anything about it or not, I don't know.
But whenever the first drop of water smacked them on the head,
if they had heard anything about it, can you imagine what they
felt? What was that? And then the next drop falls,
and the next drop falls. See, God said it's gonna rain,
it's gonna rain. And the truth of it is, is it's going to rain
again, this time not water, it's going to rain fire and brimstone
upon those that are not found in Christ, the ark. It's going
to rain. I'm thankful he built the ark
himself. We're not building the ark here. We're just declaring
the truth and he's doing the work. But the idea is we have
to be found in the ark. We have to be found in the ark.
This is why knowing how God saves his elect sinners is so sweet.
Look at verse eight. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. That, that alone is the gospel. The gospel that tells us how
God saved sinners. By grace are you saved through
faith. Noah wasn't looking. for mercy
or grace in the Lord's eyes. Grace had to come to where Noah
was. It had to be revealed. Noah wasn't looking for, he wasn't looking for grace,
was he? Here's a question. Some of you
may have been in false religion at some time. Were you really
looking for true grace back then or did you have it all figured
out? Well, whatever Noah's religion was prior to God coming to him
saying, hey, I want you to build an ark, He had it all figured
out just as we did, just as we did. And when God came and told
us the truth, it's like, truth, Lord, I am a sinner. I am the
dog, save me, save me. But the whole reason that we
got to that point is because before we were even formed in
the womb, God had found, we didn't know it, but we had found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord had chosen us, elected
us unto eternal life by his own will and his own purpose and
grace. That's what God does for his people. Otherwise, no one
would be saved. No one would be saved. Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is how God saves sinners.
Not because he was looking or desirous, but because God bestowed
it upon him according to the good pleasure of his will. And
it is no different than today. If you find, if you find grace
in the eyes of the Lord, it's because he's looking on you with
eyes of grace. And for no other reason but Christ.
No other reason but Christ. He says in Ephesians chapter
one, verse four, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy, and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. Before time was ever created
and the earth and everything that was in it, God chose to
save his elected sinners. He knew the cost. He knew what
had to take place in order for that to be accomplished. He knew
that he had to become a man and die. The Son knew he had to come
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemn sin in the
flesh. He knew all this. And he chose to take the book
and to loosen the seals thereof. Understand, God saving sinners
begins with God and it ends with God. And everything in between,
God does it. He is the alpha of salvation.
He is the omega of salvation, or none is saved. He is sovereign.
He is sovereign. He's the beginning and the end.
Now understand, it's not just spiritual. It's not just physical
birth. We had nothing to do with our
physical birth, did we? None of us remember being there.
If you do, I would definitely challenge that, but I wouldn't
say anything to you. We don't remember being there. We had
no part in our physical birth. None of us. We didn't choose
to be born. Just as we didn't choose to be
born then, Second birth, spiritual life. We don't choose to be born
spiritually. The Lord does that. The Lord
does that. God must do the electing. God
must do the saving. God must do the calling, and
God must do the keeping, or none will be saved. None will be saved. This is the second birth, when
God comes to us and reveals his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Second
Timothy 1.9 says, who hath God, who hath 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 before
the world began, but now is made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath
brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. This
is how God saved his elected sinners. This is how Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, the second thing I want
you to notice is found 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. Now that's judgment. He just
pronounced judgment unto Noah in what's gonna happen. Now if
God would have stopped there, Noah's in big trouble. Because
at this point, there's no solution given, other than God's gonna
destroy everything. But he doesn't stop there, does
he? He says, make thee an ark of gopher wood. So the Lord only
warned Noah. He was the only one at the time.
The Lord came specifically to Noah and said, I'm going to destroy
everything because I've chosen to have grace upon you for your
good and my glory. Make you an ark of gopher wood.
I'm gonna tell you how to survive the coming storm. I'm gonna tell
you how to survive the coming wrath. I'm gonna tell you how
to survive the guaranteed death of everything. How does God save,
how did God save his sinners? They're saved by grace. But then
they're saved by calling them in time, by revelation. The Lord
calls them in time. And that's what you see here
with Noah. Noah had to be warned. Noah had to be called. Somebody
told me one time, well, I don't have to go to church to know
the truth. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. The
Lord made it clear that we are to assemble ourselves together.
The only place the Lord promised to meet with his people is where
two or three are gathered in his name. And we come to worship,
not out of a duty, not out of obligation, but because we desire
to. Noah obeyed God because he desired to obey God. The Lord didn't crack the whip
on Noah and said, you're going to do this. He said to him, build
you an ark of gopher wood because I'm going to destroy everything.
Now, if the Lord said that to you and I and gave us the faith
to believe, what are we gonna do? We're gonna build an ark,
right? The Lord says to you and I, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved because you deserve hell and
you deserve judgment because of your sin. Now, what are we
gonna do with that? Well, the Lord's gonna have to give me
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how
he saves. That's how he saved his people. Just as he revealed the ark to
Noah, the truth to Noah, that is what he reveals to his people
today. The Lord Jesus Christ, the ark.
He is the only place of refuge. He's the only escape from the
wrath. He's the only hope. of not receiving
that which we deserve, the torment, the justice, the wrath, the bitter
dregs of the cup of fury of God. God revealed the truth to Noah.
And Noah believed God of things that not only had not been seen,
but had never been heard of, had never been heard of. Have
you, I mean, I understand the things that we talk about spiritually.
We talk about heaven. We talk about glory. We talk
about there being no sun there. Have you ever been at a place
where there's no sun? Well, you've been in your house at nighttime
where there's no sun. It's dark, isn't it? But there, the Lord's
the light of the city. Explain that. Well, I can't,
but I believe it. it. See faith doesn't need an
explanation. When somebody starts asking questions
the best thing they can do is just sit and listen because if
the Lord is going to reveal Himself it is going to be by the preaching
of the Gospel. It is not going to come through debates. You
are not going to convince somebody to believe it. The Lord didn't
come to convince, and actually it is interesting He didn't come
to convince the Pharisees to believe on Him. He told the sinners
to He told the rebels, he told the publicans, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and gave them the faith
to do so, didn't he? He said, I come not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And Noah was a sinner, and therefore
God chose, God chose to have mercy on him and make him a sinner,
first and foremost. That's why Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Faith is the only way that we
can receive the things of God. If faith is not bestowed, we
cannot receive the things of God, we cannot believe the things
of God. And just as Noah was moved with fear, we cannot be
moved with fear unless we have faith. Unless we've been given
faith. Now this faith and this fear
is not the same as what's seen in most churches. Most churches
will say, they live in fear of doing something wrong and being
punished. And I have good comfort for you this morning that believe.
Those of you who believe the truth, believe the gospel, if
you've ever lived in a time where you're still living in a time
where you're afraid of doing something against the Lord because
you're afraid of incurring His wrath, or you're afraid of being
punished by Him, Christ Jesus took all the wrath away for the
Lord's people. He took all the punishment away
for the Lord's people. Now you may have consequences
for what you do in this life, If I drive over the speed limit,
I may get a speeding ticket. That doesn't mean I've angered
God now and God's gonna pour his wrath out upon me. Don't
think that, it doesn't work that way. My tire blows out, that's
purpose of the Lord to cause me to cry out to him, but that's
not his wrath coming out on me. COVID was not the Lord's wrath
coming out upon the world. COVID was part of what the Lord's
purpose was. I'm not sure what all it was, but we bow to that
by faith. What happens is ordained and
established by God, not as the punishment for the Lord's people,
but for one purpose, to drive us to Christ and calls us to
cry out unto him, saying, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
Not his punishment. Christ endured the punishment
for the Lord's people, just as he did it right here in Genesis
chapter six, whenever the wrath of God started pouring out upon
the entire world. Did it touch Noah and his family?
Not one drop. Not one drop touched Noah and
his family. Why? Because God made the way
of escape. Salvation begins with God and
it ends with God. And the Lord's people are enabled
to believe God as all their righteousness in salvation. This fear to men today is their
motivation. They get fear mongering. They
say, if you don't do this, or if you do this, oh, you're gonna
be in trouble. And men believe them. I would
say this on the authority of the Lord's Word, live like you
want to, look to Christ. Look to Christ, live exactly
like you want to and look to Christ. I wish I could live like
I want to. I would never sin again. I would never sin again
if I could live absolutely like I want to. I would look to him
all the time. I would be in complete rest all the time, in perfect
attention to him, seeing his face. That's how I want to live.
Boy, this old man just keeps getting in my way. That which
I would do, I do not. But the things which I would
not do, that's exactly what I find myself doing. That's why I'm
the chief of sinners. That's why I'm a dead dog sinner.
That's why I need the Lord to say unto me, come into the ark.
Come into the ark. Come into the ark. If he doesn't
summon me, I can't come. No man come to the Father but
by him. He's the only way. He's the only truth. He's the
only life. Do you know what he says to his people time and time
again? Come into the ark. Realize that you are going to,
you've already escaped this wrath. I've already saved you. Come
into the ark. You know what? You know what
casts out fear? Perfect love. No greater love
hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friend. We preach a love gospel that God really truly loved his
people and died and saved them. Not a God that says, I love you,
but you may end up in hell anyways. What's the love in that? Oh,
that's not love at all, is it? If I say to my wife, I love you
as much as I love every other woman in the world. What good
does my love do? No, it's a it's a perfect love. It's a particular love. It's
a precious love. And it casts out all of our fear
because that love accomplished the salvation of the Lord's people.
It actually accomplished salvation. How did God save sinners by his
amazing grace? How has God saved sinners? By
revelation of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And lastly,
God saved sinners by the sacrifice of himself. God had to die. Someone had to die. Someone had
to bear the sin that we are, the sin that we're guilty of
in his own body and pay for those sins. You and I couldn't have
done it. You and I couldn't have put a
dent in the sin that we don't even know how much sin we are,
the sins that we've committed. The sins that we don't even think
that we do, we don't even know about. He knows. He bore them
in his body on the tree, on the cross, didn't he? We have a beautiful
picture of all of this. You wanna look at Genesis chapter
seven, verse one. 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. Now how is it that he's seen
Noah righteous? Because he was seen in none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. It couldn't have been Noah. We've
already established his heart was on evil like the rest of
them. But he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You know, if
you find grace in the eyes of the Lord, you know that means
that God's already placed you in Christ. That's what that means. And there's no getting out of
it. Isn't that good news? You can't mess it up. I can't mess
it up. God, and I want us to understand
how glorious this is. The Lord didn't say, go thou
into the ark. This is important. This is very
important. The Lord didn't say, okay, go thou into the ark. What
did the Lord say? Come. So where was the Lord when
he said that? He had to be in the ark. He had
to be in the ark. Second Corinthians chapter five
tells us, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled to
himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us, to us, the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. See, this
is the effectual call. This is the call that's irresistible.
This is the call that's impossible for you to reject. You have to
have him at this time when he finally shows you the wrath of
God is coming when he finally shows you the center that you
truly are. And he says, come into the ark. What do you do?
You run into the ark. You run into the ark. Because
you see that is the only way, the only way to be saved from
the wrath of the cone. To be saved from, we're not trying
to be saved from hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. We're
trying to be saved from self. Is that not true? I need to be
saved from myself, what I am. By nature, by practice, by choice.
I need to be saved from this. I need to be saved from my sin. What does the Lord say? If you
want to be saved, come into the ark. Come into the ark. The glorious
news is, We come into the ark not by moving a muscle. Don't
move a muscle. It's not a work that your flesh
does. We come to the ark by looking to Christ by faith alone. By
faith alone. The ark found in verse one, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby God's people are saved. They're
saved and for seven days that ark door stayed open and that's
a picture of time. Right now that's where we are.
The ark door is open. It's open. And the call goes
forth, come into the ark, but only those who are enabled can
come. I'm glad it says whosoever, let
him come, take of the water, lie freely. I'm glad it says
that more than if it said my name, because there's many people
that have my name. It says whosoever, and that umbrella's
everybody here. Whosoever will, let him come.
Christ said this, you will not come to me that you may have
life. You won't do it. because you can't believe. You
can't believe because you're not of my father, you're of your
father, the devil. There's only two types of people.
But oh, the good news is Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. So what did he do? He ran into
the ark, didn't he? What about all the other people?
He wasn't going to that ark. That man's crazy. Well, it's
seven days it's been now and he's been in that ark all by
himself with his family and those stinky animals, I bet they're
having a great time. What an idiot. You know they thought
it. Not whenever it started raining. Too late then. Too late then. Come into the ark and be saved
from wrath. Oh, the ark is pitched and it's atonement on it. It's
the blood covering the people on the inside and on the outside. What'd the Lord say about the
blood? When I see the blood, I'll pass by you. And as the
rains beat down on the top, that ark just kept floating higher
and higher, and that water couldn't hurt it because the Lord's people
were inside of it. And as the wrath of God poured
out upon His Son, upon the cross of Calvary, when He was sacrificing
Himself unto the Father, when the Father was making His soul
an offering for sin, it was beating upon the ark, our ark, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we were in Him, it couldn't touch us. because
we were in him, could not touch us, could not touch us. On the day of Calvary, God's
chosen people were in him as he endured the wrath of God on
their behalf. Until the fullness of time had come, the fullness
of time had expired. He cried with a loud voice, it
is finished, and the veil on the temple was rent entwined
from top to bottom. Now he says, come into the ark. Come, come boldly to the throne
of grace now, having obtained mercy to find grace to help in
the time of need. We come to Christ pleading nothing but the
atoning blood, pleading nothing but his righteousness, pleading
nothing but his justification, his sanctification, his redemption. Rather than the flood of wrath
for our souls and the overwhelming scourge of justice, we have the
flood of grace. and the flood of never-ending
mercy that floods us every day. Not the flood of wrath. We have
the floods of peace that flood our soul. We have the floods
of joy that flood our heart. What a trade-off. What a trade-off. All because he chose to save
his sinners. We have his unending, everlasting
love. Rather than the judgment we deserve,
we received undeserving favor by grace alone. We receive grace
because of what he did on the cross. Now I wanna go back to
our text in closing. Hebrews chapter 11. Just to read,
just to sum this up. Look at verse seven, Hebrews
11. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God of things not seen, as yet moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. Noah's righteousness was in Christ
alone. received by faith alone. The Lord doesn't give faith,
we can't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but we get no credit
for it, he has to give it to us. The only way to see Christ
is to be given the faith. And he promised to do that for
all of his people. Noah's righteousness was in Christ
alone. Is my righteousness in Christ
alone? Have I came into the ark? If I haven't, Lord, call me into
the ark today. Call me into the ark today. How did God save his elected
sinners? By grace, number one. By revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, number two. And by the sacrifice of himself,
number three. Thank God he chose to save sinners
this way, or who then can be saved? Come into the ark and
be saved. Let's pray. Father, if you have
never called us, call us right now.