evening to the seventh chapter
of the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter seven and verse sixteen, I believe it is, verse
sixteen. Well, we went a great length
this morning on this and try not to cover the same ground
again, but there is a few things that I want to point out to you
and say to you in regard to what's said here. This is not
a parable. There are many parables in the New Testament, parables
in the Old Testament as well. A parable is something that could
be or could not be, is or is not. But this is not a parable,
the, shall we say, simple story. of
what transpired in the old world. It's fact. It's fact. There's
a whole lot of difference between fact and parable. This is a fact.
This actually, literally happened. That is, all flesh had become so bad it
couldn't become worse. had worked and had filled the
mass, and there was nothing left for God to do but to destroy all the population of this earth. The evil had reached its climax And therefore, there was nothing
left for God to do but to destroy it absolutely and totally. That's how bad it was. It couldn't
get any worse. Now, that's the way I understand
this to read. It was so bad, it couldn't, it
just, the whole earth was filled with violence. It says that God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And every
imagination and the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It was a continual thing. It
wasn't just that men would take a recess from it, but it was
a perpetual thing with them. It was so bad that God said to
himself, I'm sorry I even made these creatures. They grieve
me in my heart, and I'll destroy them." And he goes on, and that
11th verse of the 6th chapter said, "...and the earth also
was corrupt before God. The earth was filled with violence.
God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt." Now
listen to this, "...for all flesh," not some flesh, but all flesh,
had done what? Had corrupted his way upon the
earth. And God said unto Noah, The end
of all flesh is come before me, not the end of some flesh is
come before me, but the end of all flesh is come before me.
For the earth is filled with violence, and through the earth
is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy
them from the face of the earth." Bad! Men outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ are bad! Bad! We live in a wicked world
made up of wicked people that have no concept of the truth,
have no understanding or don't have the vaguest or faintest
idea of how bad they are. If men would realize or could
realize, I know they can't realize a part, as Errol prayed, a part
from revelation. If man could ever be made to
see his awful state in the sight of God, just how God sees him,
this is how God sees him. That's the reason it says that
God's angry with the wicked every day. That's the reason it says
all have sinned and come short to the glory of God. They could see that. Man could
see it. Thank God God enabled me to see my own heart one day. ought to be ever before him in
praise and thanksgiving that God opens my eyes to see myself,
to see my heart, to see my nature, to see what it was that I was
a sinner before God, a violent, wicked sinner before God. And when that revelation came,
God just did not leave me there, but He revealed unto my heart
who He was. And when I found out who I was
and when I found out who He was, then I found out that He provided
a way, that He built an ark, that He sent His Son to take
upon Himself that which was my due. You see, where the revelation
of what you are and the revelation of what He is meets, Salvation
is the end result, Bob. That's the end result. The revelation
of what you are and the revelation of what he is. And the revelation
of what he is is seen here in the book of Genesis. When it says that God came down, Adam had transgressed, Adam had
violated, Adam had sinned against God. And God came down. And it says this about God. This
reveals who God is and what God is. This reveals the heart of
God. And God said, Adam, where art thou? What does that say? That says that God came down
to seek and to find Adam. Adam did not seek to find God. He hid from God. But God came
down. When we can find out who we are
and who He is, find out that we're so wicked and so bad, so
hopeless and so helpless, such worms of the dust. But when it's
revealed unto us who He is, that God in His love, why God would
want to save a sinner like you and I, I'll never know. I'll
never know. Eternity alone knows. And maybe
it will reveal it to us in the by and by, and maybe not. But
why God would want to save? We add nothing to His glory.
We share in His glory, but we don't add anything to it. We
don't add anything to the happiness of God. God was happy in Himself. We share in His happiness. You
see, what I'm saying is this. If we're ever saved, it's by
the grace of God. It's by the grace of God. He
didn't need to save us. He didn't need us. He still doesn't
need us. He bypassed the angels, and they were more fit, qualified
objects to be redeemed than you and I were. But he passed them by and didn't
save them. Well, here in this 16th verse
of the 7th chapter, it says, And they that went in, went in,
male and female, of all flesh, as God had commanded him, as
God commanded him, Noah. And the Lord shut him in. The Lord shut Noah in the ark. That is not to say he didn't
shut the other seven in with him, or the animals, the clean
and the unclean. He shut them all in. But here
it says, he shut him in. The Lord shut him in. What does
that mean? Well, it means this to me. It
means that mercy's gate was shut. And the time of God's long suffering
was over with. That's what it means to me. The
door was shut. God saw the wickedness of this
earth was so great. It was a stench to the nostrils
of God Almighty. And He said, it's enough. Violence
has filled the earth. The earth is corrupt. It's enough. I will destroy man that I find.
I'll destroy every one of them. Everything that moves and wiggles
and crawls and runs and flies, I'll destroy. And that's what
God's going to do one day. One day, one day this earth,
the leaven is going to fill the mass, and God says it's going
to be enough. I'll destroy. I'm coming. And when it comes, if a man's
not in the place of safety, it's too bad. That is, relative to
the second coming of the Lord, gee, or relative to death. If a man's not, if he doesn't
have a place of safety and security, if he doesn't have a place of
refuge that will bear him up when the cup of God's eternal
wrath is poured out, he's in a bad way. The Lord shot him
in. To me it means that mercy's gate
is shut. The time of God's long suffering
had come to a close. It had come to an end. And the
Bible says, He that openeth. He that openeth and no man can
shut. That's the Lord Jesus. He has the keys of hell and death
in His hand. And He can open and He can shut.
And when He shuts, no man can open. And when He opens, no man
can shut. God shut him in. The time of God's long-suffering
had come to a close, and there was a barrier, a barrier between
those on the inside and those on the outside, and there was
an impossibility for either to cross. There's a great golf pitch,
that's what it says there. It talks about that rich man
dying. The rich man and the poor, and
the rich man and the beggar, they died. It said one of them
wound up in hell, and one of them wound up in in the lap of
Father Abraham. Angels carried him to where Father
Abraham was. And that rich man was in torment.
He was cast out. He was shut out. Shut out of
the place of rest. Shut out of comfort. Shut out
of hope. Shut out of mercy. Not only all of that, but he
said, I can't stand it over here. It's too much for me. He said,
I torment. Now where the worm doth not,"
that worm that burns, that worm that turns, that worm that agonizes
and gnaws, he said, I can't stand it. He said, send that beggar.
Send that beggar, Father Abraham, over here. Abraham wouldn't do
it. But he said, you can't come where I'm at. He said, there's
a great gulf fixed and you can't come over. When God shut Noah in, There's
a great gulf fixed. There's a barrier between them
on the inside and them on the outside. Those on the outside
couldn't come in and those on the inside couldn't come out.
Why? Because God shut the door. I'm telling you, I'm telling
you, when God shuts the door, that's it. God may shut the door
on me. He may shut the door on some
here tonight. I don't know. He said my flesh will not always
strive with me. He said that, I read that to
you this morning. 120 years, he said. Noah preached for 120 years.
He said, my spirit shall not always strive with men. At the
end of the 120 years, he said, no more. Mercy's gate is closed. I'll pass you by. Well, the great gulf is fixed.
Can't pass over. Shut in. Who shut him in? God shut him in. Let me read
something to you in 2 Peter. I believe it is. Turn over there
with me and let's look at that. 2 Peter 2. Look down here at
verse 4. It says, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down
to hell, and delivered them unto chains
of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." This is what God did.
He didn't spare them. He could have spared them, had
it pleased Him, but He didn't spare them. Verse 5, it said,
"...and spared not the old world." Who spared not the old world?
God did not spare the old, it was God. Listen, but God spared
Noah. But God, who saved Noah? Who
shut Noah in? God saved him. If I'm ever saved
and you're ever saved, it will be God that does it. The salvation
that brings a man peace and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ is a
salvation that God does. When God saves a sinner, He saves
him all over. You wonder sometimes, you say,
well, a fellow made a profession of faith and he claimed God saved
him, but I can't see no change in his life You can't get him
to come to church. You can't get him to do this.
You can't get him to do that. God never saved him. When God
saves a man, He saves him all over. If any man be in Christ,
he's what? He's a new creature. When God
does it. When the preacher does it, it
doesn't amount to anything. When the preacher saves men,
it doesn't amount to anything. They're safe for a little while,
then they fall away. Or you have to put up with them
for year in and year out, year in and year out. You've got to
baby them around, put up with them, try to get them to come
in here, try to get them to serve, try to get them to read the Bible,
try to get them to pray, try to get them to act right, try
to get them to live right. But when God saves them, I'll
tell you, Like old Barnard said, that little dog Rover, when that
dog died, he died all over. And when God saves a man, He
saves him all over, from the bottom of his feet to the top
of his head. He didn't half save him. God saved Noah. It was God that did it. If there's any argument about
this, put the finger on God. He did it. God spared Noah. God saved Noah. The eighth person, what was known? He was a preacher of righteousness
bringing in the flood upon the world of who? The world of the
ungodly. Who did it? God did it. God shut
him in. And if we're saved this evening,
it's because God did it. He saved us. He chose us. He
chose us. Back sometime in eternity past,
God chose us. Here in time, the Lord Jesus
Christ, born under the law, lived under the law, honored the law,
magnified the law, satisfied the law, gave Himself as a living
sacrifice for our sins, was dead, buried, and rose again, and ever
lives on God's right hand. For who? For those that God gave
Him before time ever was. Only those that God gave the
Lord Jesus Christ are ever to be the recipient of what Christ
did. I don't know who they are. I
don't know. Only God knows. But I know that God did it all.
I know that I didn't have no part in it, and I know that you
didn't have no part in it. You say, well, I believe. You
believe because God prevailed upon you and enabled you to believe.
When I say believe, that means faith. You say, I exercise faith.
The reason you exercise faith is because God gives you that
faith. He enables you to look upon the Lord Jesus. You have
nothing to do with it. You were passive in this thing. You didn't
have a single solitary thing to do with it. It was all of
God. That's the reason that God is to receive all the glory and
all the honor and all the praise. And a salvation that does not
give God all the honor and all the glory and all the praise
is not the salvation of this book. It's not it. And I wouldn't
walk across the street to hear someone talk about it. Nor was shut in. That's what
it says. The Lord shut him in. Well, it
also says this. Maybe not in these words, but
this is the implication. This is the fact. Noah was shut
in, but the majority was shut out. God shut Noah in, but when
God shut Noah in, He shut the majority of the human race out. The same hand that shut Noah
in, shut them out. Is that too hard? The same hand
that shut the door. And the seven souls in the two-by-twos
inside, the same hand that shut the door, that shut them in,
shut them out. God shut them out. God shut them
out. All right, just let me mention
a few things. Who were they? Who were these people that God
shut out? Well, I went over a list of things
this morning about the rich and the learned, the illiterate,
the beggars, and the doctors and the rabbis and those religious
people and what have you. Who were these people? They were
a people that had been preached to. These people that were shut
out multiplied millions and millions and millions of people. They
were shut out, but they were not shut out without being preached
to. Noah preached for 120 years. I read to you there in 2 Peter
2 verse 5 where it says that Noah, God saved Noah, a what? A preacher of righteousness. He preached the righteousness
of God. That's what he preached. He preached
that God requires and demands an absolute, spotless, perfect,
Immaculate righteousness! And that righteousness can only
be found in another. And God freely gives it to every
man who repents and believes. Noah preached. He was a preacher
of righteousness. Who were these people? Well,
these people were people that had been preached to. They'd
been preached to day in and day out, day in and day out. They'd
been preached to. Old Noah was a preacher of righteousness,
and I believe with all my heart he fulfilled his office well.
The people of Noah's generation were not left to perish without
light. They heard the word of God day
in and day out, day in and day out for 120 years. They heard
the same man preach for 120 years. Who was that man? Noah, a preacher
of righteousness. Not a Noah, a teller of tales. Not Noah, a healer. Not Noah,
a magician. Not a man of a television. Not
a huckster, not someone trying to get in your pocketbook, but
a man who was loyal and faithful unto God, and God said he was
a preacher of righteousness. Say that about Noah. And he fulfilled
his office, and they heard the word of God, and they heard the
gospel preached unto them by the same man for 120 years. Who were they? I believe they
were a people that were prayed for. They were prayed for. Noah was a man of prayer. As
a matter of fact, in the book of Ezekiel, in the 14th chapter,
in about the 14th verse, and then verse number 20 of the same
chapter, mentions three notable men. And Noah is one of them. And they were known because they
were great intercessors. That was Daniel, and Job, and
Noah. And God would not have placed
Noah in company with these great intercessors if Noah had not
been a man of prayer. He was a man of prayer who believed
in prayer and prayed. So these people were a people
that were preached to. They were a people that was prayed
for. These people. They were a people that, some
of them, and I mentioned this this morning, They were a people,
some of them, that had been employed by Noah. They worked for Noah.
They cut the trees down. They cut the trees down that
built the ark. They sawed the lumber. They made
the boards. They made the keel. They drove
the bolts. They fashioned the cables. Whatever
was needful and necessary, they did. They built the nest or the
rooms in the ark. They got the pitch. They pitch
you within and pitch you without. They built the ark. These, a
great number of these men. Some worked a while and some
moved on to another job. Some worked for 120 years. Some
died. There's a whole lot of people
involved in building that ark. Ah, it's a sad thing, wasn't
it? That people who helped build the ark, who cut the trees down,
who hauled them in, and they was locked out, shut out, lost
forever. Think of it. Men who had contributed. Contributed. Maybe there was
some free labor there. Probably was. Probably some volunteered
and said, well, I'll help you know. I don't have anything to
do, anything I can do today. I'd be glad to volunteer my help. Shut out. What happened to them?
They shut out. They was lost. They perished
in the angry flood of God's water. No part in the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes me sad, too, to think
of the many religious workers, many people that are involved
in religion today that contribute in religion, do something for
God, do something under the auspices or under the banner of religion. Shut out. Thousands and thousands
of people that are just chomping at the bits to do something for
God in religion. They are hiding in the religion.
They are in the caves of religion. In the caves of ritual and ceremony. This morning we were baptized. I noticed up on the pole as I
came up the road there from the baptismal waters. Singing revival. Singing revival. This group,
that group, this group, that group. They'll all appear to
have a singing revival. Going to sing the gospel. There'll
be no gospel sung. Mark it down. Mark it down. There'll be no gospel sung and
there'll be no gospel preached. They're religious. Those people
are religious. They're doing something for God.
They're doing something for the young people. They're doing something
for the old people. They're doing something for God. They're contributing. They're
making an effort. They're building the ark. But
bless God, if they don't get on the ark, they're going to
be lost. That's a fact. Who are these
people? Well, there's people that built
the ark, helped build it. No part in Christ. They're like
the religious workers of ours. Who are these people? These were
people that had seen great wonders. Oh, they'd seen something that
no one's seen before since, these people. What did they see, preacher? Well, half of the world must
have gathered to see those camels, and elephants, and eagles, and
peacocks, and snails, and worms come crawling, and running, and
flying, and creeping, and crawling. Two by two in that arm. What
a spectacle. What a sight. What a sight! Here comes the elephants, two
by two. Here comes the camels, here comes
the lion, here comes the leopards. Here comes the snails, here comes
the eagles, here comes the seagulls, two by two. What a spectacle. And there they was, sitting there
watching all that. Watching it. Look at them elephants. You hear them talking? Look at
them elephants. Well, they're just walking right
up there side by side. There's kind of a pair, they
must be mates. Oh, yes, one's a male and one's a female. Wow,
look at that. Look at the zebras. Well, look
at the lion. Look at that big eagle. Look
at them two big eagles swooping down, flying, flying right in
that door. Look at them. Oh, these were
people that seen great wonders. Oh, if I could just see people
say. Well, if I just see a sign. I'm looking for a sign. I'd believe
if I had a sign. I'd believe. Why, if someone
would just, well, if I could just see a vision out yonder
in the sky there, I'd believe I'd become a Christian. I'd just
bow down if I could see a vision. No, you wouldn't. People wouldn't.
Make a difference what they see. Why, Abraham told that rich man,
that rich man was in hell. He said, well, I got some brothers.
He said, send that beggar. He said, send that beggar back
and let him tell my brothers to avoid this place at any cost. Avoid it! And Father Abraham
said, well, they got Moses and the prophets. He said, if they
won't hear Moses and the prophets, they wouldn't hear one if he
was raised from the dead. They wouldn't hear. And a man
wouldn't believe if he seen a full-fledged picture in the sky. He wouldn't
believe. Just make an idol out of it. reading Newsweek magazine,
I believe it was, this week, down in Miami, Florida. There's
a big tree down there in a certain part of Miami. I think it was
Miami. Great big tree there and all limbs been cut off and some
fellow went out there and he had cataracts on his eyes, an
old man, 92 years old. And there's some water oozing
out of that tree. And he went over and he put his
finger in that water and rubbed it on his eyes and he said he
could see. It was a miracle, a miracle. And hundreds and hundreds
of those Latin American people crowded around there and they
were saying the Rosary. And they were reaching in trying
to get some of that water. And they sprayed bark off of
that tree. And the reporter said, these
people, he said, they've just gone crazy. He said, they're
worshiping this tree, this idol. And that's what men would do.
God's not in it. Give them something to eat and
see, and they'll bow down to it. Make us a God. Make us a
God. Give us some of that water from
that tree. Ah, this was a sight. Boy, they've
seen some wonders. They've seen some wonders. But
I'll tell you what. Old Noah didn't say anything.
That is, in regard to the flood or anything, he didn't say it.
But he believed what God said. It says in the 11th chapter of
the book of Hebrews, it said, And Noah being warned, moved
with fear, built an ark. By faith Noah did it. He couldn't
say it. He just believed it. God told
him to build an ark. He didn't know anything about
the flood other than what God told him. He couldn't see it. It was
yet in the future. He couldn't see the unseen, but
he believed it. By faith he believed it. I can't
see it either. I can't see anything that I've talked about here.
I've never seen the Lord Jesus Christ. I've never seen Him.
Never seen Him. No sir. Visibly, if he walked
in here right now, I wouldn't know him. My eyes never looked
upon him. Only by faith. I believe. God help my unbelief. I believe
that Jesus Christ died to save sinners in whom I am chief. Visibly, if he walked in here
right now, I wouldn't know him. I've never, my eyes never laid,
never looked upon Him, only by faith. I believe, God help my
unbelief, I believe that Jesus Christ died to save sinners in
whom I am chief, and all that's in me is cast upon Him, my eternal
soul is cast upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And I love Him because
He first loved me, and I've never seen Him by the eyes. Well, who were these people? And what did they do? Turn with
me over to that book of Luke. Luke chapter 24, wasn't it, I believe. Look what
these people did. Who were these people? What did they do? Here's what they done. Was that Lucas or was that Matthew? It wasn't Matthew, I'm sorry.
Matthew 24. Matthew 24. Down there about the 37th floor. I
want you to notice what they did. This is what they did. See? Right? As the days of Noah were, so
shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the
days that were before the flood," this is what they were doing
now, "...they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving
in marriage until the day," right up until the day, "...that Noah
entered into the ark." Well, not anything wrong with eating
and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. There's not
anything wrong with that. But if your whole life is taken
up with eating and drinking and marrying and giving and marriage
to the exclusion of God Almighty, then it's wrong. And that's what's
wrong with the world today. Everybody's taken up with their
own thing. Every man lives as if God did
not exist, as if there was no eternity, as if they evolved
from some snake and they are going to die and stand before
nobody or nothing in eternity to come. Indifferent, indifferent,
don't care. Eating and drinking right up
to living in an age of indifference and unconcern and ungodliness
right up until the day, until the very day that God said to
Noah, and your sons and daughters will come on in the ark." And
when he entered into the ark, they quit! Listen, until that day that Noah
entered into the ark, verse 39, and knew not, these people knew
not, until the flood came and swept them all away. Oh, my soul! Altogether taken up with this
world, like most people. In our generation, they live
as if this life was all there was. Worried, worried. Well, why don't you come to church
and visit with us? Well, I can't. I've got to work
today. Well, you know, inflation, we've
got to have enough to go on. I've got to work. My wife's working,
and I'm working, and the kids are selling newspapers, and we
still don't have enough money to make it. We just haven't got
time for church. We haven't got time! We haven't
got time for God. That's what they're saying. That's
what men are saying. We haven't got time for God. That's what
men of this world... But it's a sorry thing when men
who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ say the same thing,
isn't it? That's when it's sad, when they say, I ain't got time. I ain't got time. A lady told
me here recently, I said, well, what about those folks? I said,
do they go to church anywhere? She said, no. I said, they don't
go. And I said, do you have any children? They said, yeah, I
have a little three-year-old girl, but she said, I don't think
she likes you. And I said, well, why would she not like me? Well,
I said, she'd been listening to somebody, to her parents or
somebody. I told her one time, I said, well, why don't you get
ready on Sunday morning? I'll come and get you and take
you to church. You can hear the preacher. And she said, no, I
better not. She said, tell me if you start
going to church up there, A preacher makes you keep coming and said,
I don't know whether I want to keep going or not. Someone's
misunderstood what I've said, because I emphasize that people
ought to come to church and hear the word of God, because that's
what will do you good. You see, I've got a reputation
for being mean, being mean. But doctors don't have a reputation
for being mean when they want men to take medicine. They say
he's a good doctor. He's a good doctor. I said, well,
he operated on me, and my innards was about eight up, and he done
this, and he done that, and sewed me back up, and boy, I'm like
a new man. He's the greatest doctor ever was. If you ever
get sick, go to this doctor. But the preacher comes along
and preaches the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and declares
it, declares it. in boldness, without fear or
favor of any man. And even some of his church members
whispered, said, well, he means that. That the preacher means
that. He wants you to come to church all the time. Bless God,
I do. I want you to come to church
every time the doors open. I want you to be here. I want
you to deny yourself. I want you to forgo any pleasure. I want you to give yourself unreservedly
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that asking too much? to give
yourself to him who gave his all for you. I don't think it's
going to happen too much. I'm willing to do it. I'm willing
to do it. You say, well, you wouldn't preach
if you weren't paid. Yes, I would. Yes, I would. As a matter of
fact, I'd pay you to let me preach to you. Well, that's neither
here nor there. I'm just trying to emphasize
the fact of these people, what became of them. We notice what
they did, who they were, and what they did, what became of
them. Turn back over there to the 7th
chapter, the book of Genesis. I'm going to show you what happened
to these people. I'm going to show you what happened to everybody
who lives as though God did not exist, who wants to do their
own thing, who says, I don't care, I'm going to do this, come
hell or high water, I'm going to have my way, I'm not going
to bow, I'm not going to bow, I want to do this and I want
to do that. Now you can have your Bible and your religion
and do what you want to, but I've got mine and I'll take my
chances. I'm going to tell you what's
going to happen to those people. I'm going to tell you what's going
to happen to every man who's not found in Christ. Paul said this, he said, I want
to be found, not having a righteousness which is of the law, but I want
to be found in that righteousness which is by faith, that righteousness
that is in Christ. I want to be found in that righteousness.
I haven't got no righteousness. I need one. I need one. I need a righteousness. I need
to be as righteous as God is righteous, and I can't produce
it. I haven't got it. Where will I get it? Get it from
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, who satisfied the law, magnified
the law, paid the penalty for the demands that the law made
upon me. Get it from Him. Come to Christ. You get everything that you need
in Christ. It's all there in the ark. It's
all in the ark. Come to Christ. That's where
I'm going. I'm going to fly to him, flee
to him, creep to him, crawl to him, but I'm going to get to
him. I'm going to get to Christ because that's where it's at.
Well, what became of these people? In the 7th chapter of the book
of Genesis, look at that 21st verse. Well, it says, The waters prevailed
exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were
under the whole heaven were covered, fifteen cubits upward. That's
twenty-seven feet over the highest mountain. That's how high the
water went, twenty-seven feet over the highest mountain. Fifteen
cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were
covered. And what happened to these people who said, We'll
do it our way? Preacher, you can have your religion.
You're too mean. I don't like this. I don't like
that. You say that God chose a people before time ever was.
You say God will reject my good works. You say that if you ever
saved, it's salvation by grace. You can have your religion, Preacher.
I don't want it. Well, all right. That's what happened to them.
All flesh died, listen, that moved upon the earth, both of
the fowl and the cattle and of the beasts, and every creep of
thing that creeps upon the earth, and every man. All died in the
flood, and all went to hell. All in whose nostrils was the
breath of life, and all that was in the dry land, died. They
all died. And every living substance was
destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle, the creeping things, the fowl of the heaven, and they
that were destroyed, they were destroyed from the earth, and
Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the
ark." Oh, my! What if someone, what if an angel
said to me here, what if he just whispered to
my ear and said, All your hearers will be saved
except one. All of them going to be saved
except one. Now what we want you to do is run your eye out
there and you pick out the one. Mark out that man or woman or
boy or girl that's going to be lost. We'll put that responsibility
upon you and you do that. When I look out, I look from
the left to the right and the right to the left and my eye
upon every face. What will I do? Which one? Which
one? Which one? Finally, I say, Lord, don't put
this responsibility on me. It's too great for me. Lord,
spare them all. Lord, spare them all. Save them
all, Lord. Save every one of them. Let every
one, let every one under the sound of a voice, let every one
hear, Lord. Let them become the recipient
of life. Lord, save them all. But listen,
some of you, will do for yourself what I won't do. You'll do for
yourself what I won't do. I won't make that choice. I won't
mark anybody out for doom, but you'll do it. You'll do what
I won't, because you'll count yourself unworthy of life, and
you won't enter into the ark. There's room. There's room in
the ark. The ark is 50 feet long, it was
as long as a football field and almost as long again as a football
field. And 75 foot wide. And there was
rooms in that ark. Rooms in the ark. There was nests
in the ark. They all didn't sleep together,
stay together. There's no rooms for them. There's room for everybody
to come in the ark. Wanted to be saved, there's room.
Listen, God made a feast one time. And He said, And he said,
now listen, he said, I'm making a feast here for my son. Making
a feast. He said, go out into the highways
and byways and command them, compel them to come in. They
come back and they said, Lord, they won't come. They won't come.
We told them. We invited them. We told them
our Lord's made a feast. Everything that's needful to
satisfy your hungers on the table. Come in, my master said. They
said, Lord, we will not come. I got to do this, and I got to
do that, and I got to do something else, and it won't come. Our
Lord said, now somebody's going to come. He said, you go out
into the highways and byways, and He said, you go to the maimed,
and the poor, and the meek, and go around and bring them in.
And He went out and did that, and He come back, and He said,
Lord, we did as you commanded us. And you know what He said
then? He said, and yet there's room. And yet there's room. There's still room. There's room
in the heart. There's room in Christ wherever
man will come. There's room, Bob, there's room. Well, I remember a story one
time. I heard about this fellow, an
old Christian, an old saint of God, and he believed what we
believed, the righteousness of God. The Lord Jesus Christ was
his only hope. He wasn't trusting in his works,
wasn't trusting in what he could do or what he couldn't do, the
death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, trusting in
the imputed righteous, he is arrested in Christ. And the fellow
said, well, now, what if when you die, and when you go to heaven,
or you go up there and stand before God in judgment, you find
out that this thing is wrong? That you've trusted in the Lord
Jesus Christ, but when you get up there, God's going to say,
well, no, that's not it. It turns your way. And he said,
Boy, that will be a loss, won't it? And the old fellow said this.
He said, His loss will be greater than mine, because he'll lose
his honor, he'll lose his truthfulness, and he'll lose his faithfulness. God's honor and God's truth and
God's faithfulness is what he'll lose. So his loss will be greater
than mine. Noah went into the ark. No, when he entered the ark,
was he preserved? Was he safe in that ark? You
bet your bottom dollar he was safe. He was safe as God could
make him safe. He just made one window in that
ark, and that window was up here. He couldn't see outside. They
couldn't see the storms and the winds and the waters. They could
hear it, maybe. They could hear the moans of
those dying souls, but they couldn't see them. There's a window up
there. And wherever you was in that
ark, if you got any light, you got it through that window. If you was way in the far end
of the ark, if you got any light at all, you got it from that
window because that was the only place there was any light. But
y'all looked up, there's looking up. Wasn't looking out, looking
up. And it's all safe in that ark,
every one of them. God shut him in. Noah didn't
shut himself in. If Noah had shut himself in,
he might have opened the door and went back out. And that's
the reason a lot of folks... I never did have any problem
with this thing, this business of one saved, always saved. I
never did have any problem with it. Some people got some problem
with it. And I'm not being critical and saying that they're not saved
because they've got a problem, but I just never had any problems
with it. Never since I was saved did I ever have any problems
about this fact that one saved, always saved. Never had no problems.
But I think the majority of people that got problems with this business
of once in grace, always in grace, or once in Christ, always in
grace, I think the problem is that when they went in the ark,
they shut the door. When they got saved, they saved themselves.
And if it was up to you to shut the door, then you can open it
up again. If you saved yourself, you can unsave yourself. But
I'll tell you, if God does it, it's permanent. It's everlasting. It's eternal. It's an eternal
salvation. I'm going to tell you this. about
them fellows in the ark. Not a one of them jumped out.
Not a one of them built a ladder up that window and said, I'm
going to jump out. I used to hear that fellow from down at
Reverend Powell, every once in a while I'd hear him on the radio
take off about this once in grace, once saved, always saved. And
he'd go on and he'd say, I know the scriptures say that nothing
can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
And he'd name them all off, but he said, you can separate yourself.
He said death can't do it, and this can't do it, and that can't
do it, but he said you can do it. You can do it. You can get
up on the rock of ages and you can jump off. You can be in Christ's
hands and pour yourself out. Who wants to? Who was ever on
the rock of ages wanting to jump out? Who was ever in the ark
that wanted to jump out? You couldn't have drugged old
Noah and Shaman Ham and Japheth and Mrs. Noah and the two daughters
of Noah. You couldn't have drugged them
from that ark. They were safe in the ark, safe in the ark with
God and with another, and they had all the provisions and everything
that they needed. They were safe. They didn't jump
out and they couldn't be dragged out. They were preserved in that
ark. You have to get in Christ, Bob.
Get in Christ, we're saved. I did you. Oh, well, you know,
This is the way it is, folks, the world's lost, your neighbor's
lost, some of your children's lost, people you work with, they're
lost, and we kind of hedge around, we don't want to tell them, you
know. Listen, if you don't tell them, if you don't tell them,
oh, Noah told them, Noah told them, they said, Noah, you're
crazy. They said, he's a zealous old man, a zealous old man, he's
harebrained, he's senile, he's senile. He just lived too long. He was 600 and some years old.
Then he died when he was 950 years old. He said, that man's
crazy. Been here too long. Going around telling people if
they don't get in the ark, if they don't get in this ark he's
building, they're going to die and be lost. I wish we could
shut him up. That's all he talks about. He's
concerned about them. He's concerned about them. We better get concerned about
some folks and tell them and tell them and tell them. Get
on the ark. If you don't get on the ark, the flood is going
to get you. It will find your cave. It will find your hiding
place. It will snuff the life out of
you. You better get on the ark. Christ is the ark. Christ is
the door. You better enter in. By me, if
any man enter in, he shall be saved. The Lord is with us. Pray for us, Bob, if you will.