this morning to the seventh chapter
of the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 7. Let us read the first seven verses. 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. Of every clean beast thou shalt
take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts
that are not clean by two, the male and his female. of vows
also of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep
seed alive upon the face of all the earth. And yet seven days
I will cause it to rain upon the earth, forty days and forty
nights. And every living substance that
I have made will I destroy. off of the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all
that the Lord commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years
old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah
went in and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with
him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. We're all familiar with this
story here in the Bible. Not a story in the sense that
we tell stories. It's not something similar to
Esau's fables or Mother Goose Ryan. Little Red Riding Hood,
The Three Bears. This is a story of proof. This is a story which is a fact. And I hope that everyone here
believes that this is a fact, that this really did happen. That it is not just a fairytale,
something to tickle the fancy, or titillate the minds of the
ignorant. But it is a fact of truth that
God destroyed every living thing upon the face of the earth that
he had made, except Noah and his wife and his sons and their
wives." Now, God Almighty over all and above all, and besides,
there is no other. God Almighty. In His infinite
grace entered into covenant with Noah that he would preserve him
and his family alive. He made a covenant. Noah, that he would preserve Noah,
his wife, his sons, and their wives. He would preserve them. And you can find the tenor of
that covenant in the 18th verse of the 6th chapter. It says, But with thee will I
establish my covenant. talking to Noah, God Almighty
over all and above all. Besides him there is no other.
He rules and reigns. No limit to his right to rule,
no limit to his reign. He does whatsoever pleases him. He, speaking to Noah, says, but with thee will I establish
my covenant. Thou shalt come into the ark,
thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons
with thee. From what we've read thus far,
we're in perfect agreement that God, in infinite grace, he didn't
have to do it. He wasn't obligated to do it.
Why did he seek Noah and enter into an agreement or covenant
with Noah and his family? There were lots of families on
the face of the earth at that time. It was in infinite grace. He gave every believer grace
in Christ Jesus before the world began. He didn't have to do it. He did it because it pleased
him. He did it in regard to his infinite
wisdom and sovereignty and power. God in infinite grace had entered
into covenant with Noah that he would preserve him and his
family alive. Now, what was this agreement? What did it amount to? This covenant, this agreement,
was a positive foretelling of Noah's coming into the ark and
finding safety. He's already told him. to build
an ark. In the prior chapter, he said,
I have looked upon the earth, and behold, it is corrupted.
It was corrupt for all flesh, and it corrupted his way upon
earth. 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. an ark of gopher wood. So it
was a positive foretelling of Noah's coming into the ark and
finding safety within the framework of those wooden walls. Now this
thing, this covenant, this agreement was fixed and ordained so to
be. It was signed, sealed, and delivered,
ordained so to be, yet when the time came, nor was not carried
to the ark by force. It was foreordained to be, yet
when the time came, in due time, when The purpose of God was fully
developed. And when the time for the rains
to come forth from the heavens and the fountains were to break
up from the deep, when it was time to get on the ark, Noah
was not carried to the ark by force. He was not lifted up into
it against his will. Can you see that? He was not
forced into it. There was not some act of violence
on the outside that drove him and made him come. It had not
yet rained one drop of water. He was bidden to come into the
Ark, and in the most natural manner possible, he entered it
voluntarily. and he entered it cheerfully,
he and his family, his wife, his sons, and their wives, they
left their houses to find a home in the Ark of God, and did so
willingly, cheerfully, and voluntarily without the force of constraint,
though it was a fixed thing. Now, the covenant and promise
and purpose was fulfilled after Noah entered into the ark. But
I want you to see here this morning that Noah acted in perfect freedom. in going into the ark. As much this freedom is seen
in this statement, as much as choosing to go into the ark,
as others chose to stay out. He went into the ark. It was
a fixed and certain thing that he go into the ark. Make thee
an ark. Thou shalt go into the ark, you
and your family." But when the time came for him to go, he wasn't
forced into it. He acted in perfect freedom and
chose to go in as much as those on the outside chose to stay
out there. Now, brethren, there is. There is a decree in heaven ordaining
the salvation of God's chosen people, a decree by God himself. He hath chosen out of Adam's
race a people that are highly faithful. and he hath ordained
their complete salvation." There is a decree in heaven fixed by
God as to the salvation of his chosen people. Yet, yet, this
by no means prevents you and I who are believers in Christ
Jesus from speaking in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to all
men. Nor does it set aside the necessity
of those men that they should cheerfully resolve in their hearts
to receive the gospel of God's grace and God's power. Now, I
can't tell whether your name is written in the Lamb's Book
of Life from the foundation of the world, but I can assure you
of this one thing this morning, that the word of salvation is
sent to you this morning, and that it commands. Now, it doesn't
ask you if you will or not, But it's a command of God, it commands
you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has commanded all
men everywhere to receive his Son, who is the Gospel. Now, I assure you that if you
do receive, If you do receive the Lord Jesus Christ, if you
receive his gospel, I assure you, you will be saved. And if
you do not, I assure you, you will be damned and lost forever
in the regions of the damned, in that place where there'll
be weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth throughout
the eternities of the forevers to come. I will guarantee you
that. Now, the method of this divine
arrangement involves the actual consent on your part and a willing
obedience on your part to the gospel command of receiving the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the purpose is sure, but
it is unknown and unrevealed until the gospel is made known
and brought home to your heart with effectual power so that
the heart receives it and your spirit obeys it or yields to
it. And then a man is saved by the
grace of God. He's saved as a voluntary being,
yet that man is not saved apart from the secret, almighty purpose
of the Most High God, or without the effectual working of his
grace in your heart. So we speak here this morning
to you, everyone, hoping that the Spirit of the living God
will apply the Word with spatial power to the chosen of God, that
they may see that they themselves must believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that they must be actively awakened to repentance and faith
and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when this happens,
then shall the covenant purpose be known unto them and fulfilled
in them, for they shall be saved from the wrath to come. When
Noah entered into the ark, The covenant promise was fulfilled
and he was saved. He went according to a fixed,
ordaining decree of God Almighty, who decreed in himself that they
would come, but yet when the time for him to come in, he chose
freely to do so. And when he got in there, then
was the covenant purpose and promise fulfilled. Huh? Oh, listen to me. It's like casting the net into
the waters, like casting the net into the sea. We don't know
who's going to come into the net. We don't know what fish
will swim over and get into the net. But we believe that Jesus
Christ knows every fish in the sea. And we also believe that he knows
what fish will come into that net. And it's not needful for
me to know. It's enough for me just to cast
the net out and leave the results unto God. Leave it up to God,
who knows the fishes of the sea, as to what fish will swim in
that net. And the fish that swims in that
net will do so voluntarily, but ultimately it will be because
of a fixed decree which God decreed in Himself in eternity past. I said I don't wish to know this
for myself. I don't have to know whose name's
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Just leave the results
up to God. Just tell the story. Tell the
story. But notice, in this first verse,
in Genesis chapter 7, verse 1, notice there's a call here. The
Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. It was a call from the Lord. The Lord said to Noah, that was
a call coming from the mouth of God to the ear and the heart
of Noah, a call, a call. It called him. Now, Noah was
a preacher of righteousness throughout the Bible, it tells us that he
was a preacher of righteousness. That is, he is a faithful minister
of God Almighty. And he pleaded with people, I'm
sure, day and night. Yet, it's sad to say that nobody
heard what Noah was saying. outside
of his own family. He preached day and night, saying,
there's a flood coming, there's a flood coming, there's a flood
coming, I built an ark, get on the ark, get on the ark and be
saved from the wrath of the flood. But no one heard him outside
of his own family. No one heard him. It was not an effectual call
to them. It was a general call. You, everyone
here has heard the general call. No one, this is not the first
time that you've been here. Everybody that's here has been
here before. And you've heard the general
call that went forth from my lips to repent, and to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've heard that. That's a common,
general call. But you won't respond to that
call, but it's your duty to do so, and you'll be condemned by
God because you didn't. It's your responsibility to do so.
Well, listen, I said that he pleaded with people day and night,
yet it's sad to say that no one besides his family entered into
the Ark. to all outside of the family,
his words seem to have been powerless. That is, powerless as to their
being delivered from the wrath of God that fell from heaven,
the waters that would snuff out the life of all humanity apart
from Noah and his family. And the Lord said to Noah, a
call to Noah. He said, Noah, come now. Now,
Noah did not put it off. He did not say, surely, I'm hearing
things. It's not meant for me. But Noah
felt in his heart that it was a direct call from God and it
was a personal call to Mr. Noah. He knew that it was for
himself. Now, this call was an effectual
call because he came. That's what made it effectual.
He came into the ark. If he hadn't came into the ark,
it wouldn't have been effectual. But the call of God to his chosen
people is an effectual call. They will come. They will come. He said, Thou shalt come. The call was effectual. Resistance
was out of the question. You can't put off or stay the
voice of God when God speaks in authority and in power and
in love. You can't put it off. Did not, in this instance, feel
inclined to plead or delay or object or make excuses or say
that he could not come? No, the call was effectual. Others could close their ears
or their eyes to the call, and they did. But the Bible said,
Many are called, if you are chosen. Many go to hell with the honest call of God ringing
in their ears. Many go to hell sitting on the
front row. Many go to hell with the Bible
in their hands. Many go to hell singing hymns. Many are called. and fewer chosen. But when this silent or effectual
call comes to a man's heart, if there's any resistance, and
most of the time there is resistance, but if there is resistance, that
resistance is sweetly overcome by God the Holy Spirit himself. Now, what I want to ask you here
this morning is this. Has this powerful, secret, inward
call spoke to your soul? Have you heard this call that
you cannot resist and you must come, thou into the ark? Or have you heard what you said? Not for me. And began to make
excuses and plead ignorance and this and that. Well, listen, if the only voice
or the only call that you ever heard is the call that came forth
from my mouth, you're yet in your sins. No hope for you. That is, there may be hope in
the future, but there's no hope right now. If the only call you
ever heard was mine, you got to hear a secret, inward, personal,
effectual call to come. Come to Him! Have you yielded
to that call over and over? The Bible says, Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest."
Have you heard that call, that effectual call to your heart,
that call that you couldn't resist, that call that sweetly overcame
every opposition and resistance that you built up? It answered
every question. And you came. Oh, listen. You remember that's
written in the Bible? And I think in the 8th chapter
of the Book of Romans where it says, whom he called, do you
remember that? Whom he called, he justified,
and whom he justified, he glorified. Who were they? Those that he
called. Have you heard this call? Noah must come. It wasn't a call
that left Noah in a state of indifference. It didn't indicate
or cause Noah to say, well, I'll just sit here where I'm at. Everything's
going to be OK. Everything will work itself out.
Now, that's what hell's full of people who said, it'll work
itself out. Something will happen. Things
can't go like this for me. Just stand by. It didn't result like that with
Noah. But he said to Noah, Come into
the ark, and Noah must come. He must come. And where must
he come to? He must come into the ark. He
must come into it. Ah, no use coming near the ark.
He didn't walk over to the ark and put his elbow up on one of
the beams. That did not satisfy the caller
or the callee. He must respond, he must come
and must not stop until he gets in the ark, if he's going to
be saved. Saved from what? Saved from the
wrath of God that's fallen upon him. He's got to get on that ark.
I've been telling people every day, day and night, day and night,
day and night, day and night. He's been telling people. They
said, what are you doing? I'm building an ark. It's going
to rain. It's going to flood. And it's going to cover the mountains.
It's going to cover everything. It's going to drown everybody.
I'm making this ark. And if a man will come into the
ark, come on, get in there. Get into the ark. He's got to
come into that. He's got to get in, in the midst
of the wooden walls of that ark and hide himself. No use for
Noah now to keep on making preparations for that ark. That is, there's
no more hay to be gathered. They've gathered all the hay
that the animals are going to use for 40 days and 40 nights.
They've gathered all the supplies. They've got all the wood. They've
got all the water. And they've got all the bread.
And they've got all the grain. They've got everything. It's
inside the ark. So there's no need now for Noah
to, the work's done. Come into the ark, Noah. No more fruit to be picked. It's all picked. No need to say
that there's more work to be done. Now, he's got to actually
now, right down to it, he's got to actually enter into the ark. And the sinner has got to actually
come to Christ and enter into Christ. He's got to come to Christ
and Christ alone. He can't come just through the
door. He's got to come in if he's going
to be saved. Come to Christ. He's got to come
like Noah came. How did Noah come? He came unreservedly,
unreservedly. That is, he committed his whole
life and his whole future to the ark. He committed everything
to the ark. He left everything outside and
he came inside to the ark and committed his life and his whole
future to that ark. Noah got in the ark, and it was
sink in the ark, or swim in the ark, or live in the ark, or die
in the ark. He committed his whole body,
soul, and spirit, and future to that ark. He got in it, in
the ark. That's where all that's in the
ark. Wouldn't do any good for old Noah to walk around the ark
and admire it. A lot of people admire Jesus.
Admire says he's a mighty, mighty nice fellow. He done a lot of
good things when he's here on this earth. And they admire him. They admire him. It wouldn't
do any good for Noah to walk around the ark and survey it
and admire it. No need for Noah to examine the
timbers that made up that ark of gopher wood. Those timbers
wouldn't rot. They were permanent. They wouldn't
rot. No need for him to stand and
admire the ark. God didn't tell him to stand
and admire the ark. God told him, said, Come thou
and thy family into the ark." You see, to stand and to admire
the ark won't save anybody. To stand and admire the Lord
Jesus Christ won't save you. You've got to get into the ark,
get into Christ. If you just admire Jesus and
think that he's a fine fellow, And you're going to do him an
honor by coming to church on Sunday and Wednesday. You're
going to open your Bible once in a while and you admire him
and you'll give some of your money and all that. That will
not save you. The only way you'll be saved
is to enter into the ark. You'll be saved from the wrath
to come. But you'll have to get in the
ark. And you'll have to commit yourself unreservedly to that
ark, your whole future to that ark. Huh? No need to admire it. Your admiration won't save you.
No need for Noah to say, well, it's so many cubits high and
so many cubits long. No need for Noah to say, well,
we've built good rooms in there for the animals and all that.
Oh, no. No need for Noah to come up and
stand by the door and look at the door. Jesus said, I am the
door, and if any man enter in, he shall have life. He enters in. Look at the door
if you want to, but it will not save you. You've got to enter
in, like Noah did. You must, like Noah, personally
come. God did not say, Go thou into
the ark. He said, Come thou. You know
why he said, Come thou? Because he was in the ark. He
was in the ark alongside of Noah. And when a man comes into the
ark, he comes into the presence of Almighty God. And he's with
God. With God forever. To live in
the ark is to live with God. Those that live in the ark or
under the protection of God, because God's in the ark. It's
to have Him as our protector, our refuge, our hiding place,
our consolation. He, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians,
that God made Christ unto us, weirs of righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. Come into the ark! Find everything
you need in that ark, Noah. Come in the ark. Noah's wife,
she won't have to go out shopping for groceries. She'll have to
get in the ark and then say, well, what are we going to do
for food? Everything Noah and his family and those animals
needed to survive was in the ark. But you've got to get in
the ark to get it. And she's going to spend all
of her time in the ark. No shopping for Noah's wife or
Noah's son's wife. And there's no plying the trade
of Noah's sons. Noah's son's not going out there
and start digging for gold, panning for gold, or building houses,
or barns, or plowing fields, or taking care of the cattle
and raising sheep. They're inside the ark. They're
all, Bob is in the ark. All that they need is in the
ark and all that a sinner needs. All that a sinner needs, a ruined,
helpless, hopeless, rotten, deceived, corrupt, ungodly, unholy, unsanctified
sinner, all that he needs is in Christ. It's in Christ! Get in Christ! Come to the fountain. Be plunged beneath that fountain
filled with blood and lose all thy gifts. Ah, no more shopping. Listen,
all of his heart's desire was in the ark. Everything he desired
was in the ark. No more outdoor amusements. His pleasure was to be found
in the ark. His pleasure was being in the
ark with God, and that was enough. He didn't need to go to picture
shows. He didn't need to watch his favorite sport. His pleasures
were fulfilled in the ark. All his heart's desire is in
the ark. All of his pleasures is in the
ark, for himself and for his family. And if he's to find any
pleasure, listen to me, if he's to find any pleasure, Where does
he find it? In the ark. What will please him? What will
be his pleasure? He is with God Almighty. That will please him and that
will be his pleasure. All his work inside has nothing
to do now except within, no work on the outside. His work's on
the inside, in the ark. That is, he's going to serve
now. Christ is our pleasure. He's
our meat. He's our drink. He's our prophet. He's our priest. He's our king.
He's our Savior from our sins. He's our sin-bearer. He's our
righteousness. He's our acceptance. He's the
Lamb of God. He's the lily of the valley,
the bright morning star. He is our all in all. We find our pleasure in Him. The sweetest joys that a man
has, he finds them in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our hope.
He's our crown. He's our delight. He's our heaven.
Ah, we're not our own. We've been bought with a price.
What is the price? precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all now, since we're in the
ark, and our pleasure is in the ark, our joy is in the ark, all
that you have to do in this world now lies within the circumference
of the will of the Lord Jesus. You have nothing to do outside
in the waters of sin, in the waters of self, and in the waters
of death, and in the waters of judgment. You're inside the ark. Shut up! The hand of God said,
go in the ark. And the Bible says that God shut
the door. God shut them in there to find
all their places. inside the ark, shot in with
God Almighty, dead to the world and only alive in Jesus Christ. You see, Noah coming into the
ark. You see, old Noah left everything. He left everything. He left houses,
lands, he left everything. And he came into the ark. And
what did he find? He found everything. He left
everything and he found everything in that ark. And that's the way
it is for the poor, hopeless, helpless sinner that has been
awakened unto his needs and has heard that inmost secret call,
silent call of God upon his heart that says, That sinner has come freely. He chose to come. He chose to
come. He delighted to come. He wanted
to come. God made him willing in the day
of his power and he said, All heaven and all hell can't keep
me from coming. All resistance is broken down.
All opposition has been destroyed. I must come and find my all and
then all in heaven. Find it in Christ. Oh, listen,
I could have quit. I shouldn't quit. Once Noah got on that ark, he was on it as long as the world
lasted. Ain't no getting off. Ain't no getting off. You want
to get off, you shouldn't have been on it. The man gets tired of the way
and lays it down and says, I quit. He can't go back and pick it
up because he never had anything to drop. But Noah gets on that ark. He's
on it as long as the world lasts. And the world didn't last too
long. But what happened? When he left that ark, he entered
into And we're in Christ unkilled. This thing's on fire. And there
comes a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Is that right? I bid you this
morning, I bid you to come to the ark. I bid you to flee to
Christ. Don't admire him. Don't say,
well, what the preacher said was good. Don't! Don't stand
by and admire him. Admiring won't save you. That
won't save you. You've got to come. In your heart, you can
come to Christ and never move a muscle. You don't have to come
up here and shake my hand. You don't have to come up here
and say a word. You will have to be baptized. He that believeth
and is baptized, you will have to confess Christ openly. That
is, unless you're just, unless you're confined somehow and we
couldn't pick you up and put you in the water that it hurt
too bad to touch you. If that would be the case, then
we could forego the baptism, but if you're hale and hearty
and there's water nearby, you're going to have to hit that water.
You have to be buried with Christ, give confession, beg judgment.