I wanted to spend some time looking
at the pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ that are particularly
related to Noah's Ark. So if you turn back in scriptures
to Genesis chapter 6 and 7. It's remarkable the evidence
that the Lord has left in this world of his flood. We went to that great big rock
in the middle. It used to be called Ayers Rock. It's Uluru
now. But it's a monster of a rock, isn't it, man? It's very big.
It's a very big rock. And Cole ought to take you out
there again. It's a very impressive rock. The remarkable thing about
that rock is that as big as it is, it's kilometres around the
bottom of it, but as big as it is, all the layers in it are
tipped perpendicular. to the earth. And so that huge
rock out there at some stage was turned through 90 degrees. And then the other rocks, which
are nearby the Olgas, are a different structure altogether. They're
like sort of huge pebble creek, the Olgas. And the Olgas are
tipped through 45 degrees. So the thing that tipped... Anyway,
look, God has left this creation in such a way that we are We
who through the eyes of faith see the hand of the Lord Jesus
Christ and all will see his finger works on everything in this creation.
And that's what it's designed for. And this arc, like all the
other stories in the scriptures, are pictures of the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified. They're pictures of salvation
of sinners in him. They're pictures. This arc is
a picture of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, safe and secure. protected, safe and secure as
the wrath of God falls upon his people in the Lord Jesus Christ
and comes to rest in a new creation, a creation prepared for the habitation
of these people. So I just wanted to have a look
at some of the pictures of it. Obviously the Ark is unique in
its design. It's a design which came from
God alone. You've got to remember that it
didn't have to steer itself. There was no rudder on the ark.
There were no sails on the ark. There were no oars on the ark.
It was, in effect, just a huge barge that floated above the
waters of the world. It's a unique design, just like
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a design that's come
from God and from God alone. There was nothing in their world...
The treasure of eternal life wasn't in the movement. If you just sit and listen, you'll
be good. The Ark is unique. The pattern
of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ is unique. It's unique
and it's foreign to all men. Men in religion create. a salvation
which is meaningful to natural men. But the Ark seemed to all
of the world, except for eight souls, it seemed like the most
ridiculous thing. Why on earth would you need to
build a boat? Why would you need to build such a huge boat in
a place where it never rains? Why? The pattern of salvation
is unique and it's foreign to all men. The building of the
Ark was directed exactly by God in every You read the account,
Noah did exactly as God had commanded him. See, Noah wasn't a shipbuilder,
nor was any other man that we know of. He couldn't have received
advice from anyone. In the matter of the salvation
of your soul, we must deal directly with God and in his due order. And the opinion of men doesn't
matter one little tiny bit. and the salvation of your soul.
We hear from God. They that hear the shepherd's
voice, they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus
Christ builds his church, he does all the work. He does all
the work, and he gets all the glory. And when the glory of
the church is finally seen, what's the shoutings of it in Zechariah?
The shoutings are grace unto it, grace unto it. He's done
it all by himself. He's done it all. There are times
in this world set by God. That's a stark word that he has,
isn't it, where he says in Genesis 6.3, My spirit shall not always
strive with men. There are limits to men's activities
in this earth, and God will bring them to an end. Noah, verse 5 of chapter 7, Noah
did according to all that the Lord commanded him. He typifies
the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't he? He did all that the Lord
commanded him. And did the Lord's command stop
and did the Lord's promise stop now from building? You see, the
commands and the promises of God compel the activities. Love
constrains us. Love for him, his love for us,
constrains us and compels us. Paul is told in Acts chapter
18, you just keep on preaching here in Corinth. You've got all
this opposition from the Jews. You've got all this opposition
from this extraordinarily rich commercial world. You've got
all this opposition from man. He said, you keep preaching on.
Why do you keep preaching, Paul? Because I have many people in
this city. The sovereign purposes of God constrain and compel and
energize the children of God. In that world, no one thought
Noah wise, and no one listened to his preaching of righteousness. 120 years of preaching Noah,
and no one listened to him. 120 years of warning and no one
listened to you. 120 years. You see the preaching
of the gospel is unto God a sweet savour. We are here to honour
our God and he is honoured by the the raising up of the Lord
Jesus Christ and him crucified and the declaration of him as
a sovereign reigning saviour over all. We are unto God a sweet saviour
when he gathers his people together and his gospel is proclaimed
and he's the preacher. bear witness to him and to his
faithfulness and to his gospel. He's the one that receives all
the glory. When he puts his people in the ark, whether he puts a
few in the ark or many, he gets all the glory. This gospel, this vessel, this
ark, was designed by God to withstand the wrath of God. the righteous
wrath and the righteous judgment of God. Noah preached for those
years, and with every blow of his hammer, he was warning of
the judgment to come, and he was saying, flee to Christ, flee
to Christ. And there was no response. But
this vessel was particularly prepared. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus said, okay, I've come in the volume of the book. The Ark is that body in which
all of the children of God rest safe. As we said earlier, the
Ark was pitched inside and out. That word pitch means to cover.
It means to purge. It means to make an atonement. It means propitiation. It means that which absorbs and
expiates and removes the wrath of God in justice and in judgment
and in truth and in an exhibition of the holiness of God. But it
was pitched on the inside as well as on the outside. The blood
shed and the blood applied to the hearts of God's children. The blood on the outside absorbs
the wrath of God. The blood on the inside pictures,
as Peter says, it's a picture for us of a conscience, isn't
it? Let me read, a conscience that's
clear before God. He says that it pictures baptism. And in baptism, what are you
doing? In baptism, you come as a sinner,
and in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, you are buried beneath
the seas, you're buried beneath and you rise again gloriously
to a new life. Exactly what happened with this
ark, it's pictured as Peter says. So this word pitch is the same
word that's used for the mercy seat in Hebrews 9.5. It's the mercy seat there in
the holy of holies, the high priest, that high priest that
typified the Lord Jesus Christ, he went in once, didn't he? And
that earthly high priest went in once with his own blood, and
he sprinkled that blood on the mercy seat. And God met with
him, and he came out, and he blessed the people. The Lord
Jesus Christ took that blood, took their own precious blood,
and he went into the Holy of Holies in heaven, and he sprinkled
that blood upon that mercy seat. raised because of our righteousness. God accepted the wrath that he
had poured out on his son as a wrath that is sufficient for
all of his people completely. He takes his people into the
very presence of God with his own blood. God brings all living creation
into the ark to preserve life, as Genesis 7 verse 3 says, to
keep seed alive. Isn't it remarkable? You're here
today because of that ark. You're here today because Noah.
You're in Noah. You're in the loins of Noah and
his family. All of the living were in there,
and all of the living are in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they
live because of their union with him, and they live because of
who he is and what he has done. to keep Sleet alive. God designed
this ark. God commissioned this ark. God
gave Noah the skills to build this ark. God gave Noah the materials
to build this ark. And in this ark, there is just
one door. Christ is the door. There is
just one door in the ark. A three-story building just with
one door. And there was just one window
in the ark. one window in the ark, and that window's up high. And you look up from inside the
ark, and you look up to the sky, look up to heaven, and you're
in the ark, you'll see, you can't see the destruction and the judgment
that falls upon the earth. because the judgment is an activity
between God, and we leave his judgment in his hands. God brought
Noah and his family, as we read earlier, into the ark, and he
shut them in, verse 16 of chapter 7, when God shuts his people
in. He shut them in when? He shut them in in the eternal
covenant when he placed them in the Lord Jesus Christ before
the foundation of the world. They are God's gift to his Son. They are the precious receipt
of the Son, and he became the surety for them in that eternal
covenant of love. The Father's gift, the Son's
delight at receiving that gift. of his son, his jewels. God says that we're precious
in his sight. God sees his son, and he sees
all of his people in his son, and he looks upon them with exactly
the same love he has for his son, exactly the same admiration
he has for his son. He sees us as him, as one. When you looked from the world
of that ark, you just saw the outside, didn't you? The people
are inside, and God looks at his people, he sees them in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He sees them in him, and he sees
them safe and secure in him. When the judgment of God comes, When the judgment of God comes,
it comes because it's very close to everyone. The waters were
just above them. that they were a danger to them.
The waters were just underneath them and they didn't know that
they were a danger to them. Just like the people of this
day, they are oblivious to the fact that God has made a promise
that he'll come back and he'll destroy this earth with fire.
Do you know how close we have to be moved to the sun to burn
us up? In percentage terms, it's almost
microscopic. If this earth was a soccer ball,
the size of the bit of dirt that we're standing on is the thickness
of a postage stamp. Above and around and below all
the people of this earth are all the means of the judgment
of God upon them. It lies very close, which is
why the Spirit and the Bride say, come now. It's why the Spirit and the Bride
say, now is the day of salvation. Don't be like these people outside
of the Ark who wanted to debate with Noah about what he was doing
and mock him. It's so easy to do, and yet the
danger is so, so, so severe and serious. All that were put in the Ark
All the righteous are in the ark. God commanded them to go,
God put them in, and God shut them in. Who sealed the door?
On the outside. God sealed the door. God shut
them in. He shuts his people in. We're
in Christ, in God. No one is going to pluck you
out of my hand. Nothing is going to separate you from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing. No one. Not Satan. Not this world. Not even yourself. Isn't that wonderful? Salvation
is so secure in the Ark. The other thing is that they
had that six months in the Ark and everything they needed for
preservation was in the Ark. Verse 21 of chapter 6. Take thou
unto thee all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee,
and it shall be food for thee and for them. All the provisions
for life are in the ark. All the provisions for life are
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our life. Christ is all. We need nothing else. Noah and his family entered the
ark before a drop of rain fell. No judgment falls on the redeemed.
All of the judgment of God has fallen on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Ark suffered the judgment
exactly the same judgment as the rest of the world. And what
kept the Ark afloat? What preserved the Ark? The propitiation
of God, the sin atoning, wrath, So no judgment falls on the redeemed.
Not a drop of water fell on Noah and the righteous in the ark.
It all falls on the Savior. And to enter the ark, they had
to leave everything behind, didn't they? They had to leave behind
their family. They had to leave behind their
friends. They had to leave behind everything
that was in this world. Was it painful? Did it cost? Does it cost? It costs to be
in the ark. God, God in the salvation of sinners
must satisfy himself. When thou shalt make his soul
pleased the Lord to bruise him, literally to crush him, it pleased
God. And he shall see the travail
of his soul. The Son no doubt saw it, the
Spirit no doubt saw it and proclaimed it, and God the Father saw it. He saw the travail of his soul,
his soul's son, and he was satisfied. He was satisfied. So the offering, the propitiation
of the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't an offer to this world in any
way, shape or form. It was an offering to his father. He was offering to his father,
and his father accepted it. God set forth his son to be a
propitiation. God set him forth, in this ark
God set him forth, and all the wrath of God fell on him. And when judgment has been expended,
it cannot come again. It's unjust of God and unholy
of God, and God has to deny all of his character for that wrath
to ever fall on them again. When the ark settled on dry land,
as you read in chapter eight, when the waters recede, When
the Ark settled on dry land, it was already productive. See,
all the provision for the new creation was prepared and provided
while men were still in the Ark, and without their efforts, exactly
as God's new creation, the home of the righteous. God put them
in. God made the Ark. God pitched
the Ark. God shut them in. God shut them
into the one place of safety in this world. God's judgment
comes after God has worn sinful men and exposed their self-righteousness
before themselves and his people. Those in the ark went through
that deluge. They went through that terrifying
deluge, and yet, in all of the shaking and all of the upheaval
that Ark went through, Noah and his family were secure. The righteous
were secure. This world is a world that is
going to bring tumult to the children of God. No one ever
said, and people should not say, that this walk of faith in this
world is going to be a walk that's going to be easy. You're promised
the trials that the rest of the world is going through. But our
lives are hidden with God in Christ. And I want us to finish by looking
at what happens when they get out of the ark. We read these
verses earlier. The first activity of the righteous,
saved by grace, is the activity of worship. Worship with a sacrifice. Where did the sacrifice come
from? It was already in the Ark. It had been carried through all
of the Ark and had already suffered all of the judgment and wrath
of God. All the provisions for the worship
of God come from God. All the provisions for the worship
of God are provided in the Lord Jesus Christ. False religion
and false worship of an imaginary God was swept away by this flood
in Noah's day. There is in the picture of the
ark and God's people in a pitched cupboard vessel and a pitched
line vessel is a glorious picture of particular redemption. The
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed for a particular people. There was a particular people
who were declared, because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be just, to be righteous, to be cleared, to have no sin,
and they're in the ark. The blood of Christ was seen
by God. He says in Exodus 12, the Passover,
he says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. God alone saw the blood propitiation
covering the Ark. Those inside the Ark were pure
and sure and protected by blood, by propitiation. Those outside
of the Ark bore all the wrath of God themselves. As I said earlier, the blood
shed all the redeemed of God were
in the ark. They were all in Christ Jesus before the foundation
of the world. Before Adam sinned, there was
a Savior. Before you sinned, there was
a Savior. A Savior who put away all of your
sins before you were even born. They're gone, brothers and sisters
in Christ. And the Holy Spirit As I quote
that verse out of John 16, so often the Holy Spirit comes and
he takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. What are the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ? All of this ark represents God
built this ark. God created this world that we
would see a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. They are united with him as much
as they were in that ark. All of God's children are in
him before the foundation of the world. They are in him in
Adam by their first birth, but they're in Christ before that.
They're in Christ when he was circumcised. They're in Christ
when he walked before God in obedience to the law. That's
my obedience before God. They're in Christ when He walked
faithfully before God. That's my faith before God. They're
in Christ when He loved God with His heart and His soul and His
mind and His strength and I loved Him at the same time. We've walked
in Him. We walked with Him. We were crucified
with Him. When He was crucified on that
cross, as the Ark shows, He wasn't crucified alone. We were there.
God says we were there. We were in Him. and we are buried
with him, and we are risen with him, and we are glorified with
him. Let's finish by looking at why the
children of God sacrifice. First thing they do, the first
thing they do, Noah gets out of the ark and the very first
thing he does is he builds an altar. We have an altar, that
altar represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And on that altar he
sacrificed, the very first thing he does in the new creation is
sacrifice an animal which represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Distinguishing grace, electing
grace, saving grace, separating grace makes people worshippers
of a sovereign and holy God, and they're worshippers in a
blood sacrifice, in a substitute for sinners, in a saviour of
men before God, in a saviour of men from the wrath of God.
They're sacrificing because there's a successful sovereign God, is
sacrificing because they are saved by a blood atonement. They
are redeemed by a blood atonement. They are sealed by a blood atonement. And though they worship, we take
the elements of the Lord's Supper at the end of our service, and
it reminds us of a broken body, and it reminds us of blood shed. A broken body, broken under the
wrath of God, and dead, and yet risen again. A sweet-smelling
saviour, it's called, isn't it? If you read there in Genesis
9, verse 21. And the Lord smelled the sweet
savour. The sweet savour the Lord smells
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Noah and his
family did. A sweet-smelling saviour. Blood
shed. a just God honoured in his holiness,
a righteous God righteously making sinners righteous as he is. so he can dwell with them and
live with them and be in them. A covenant making and a covenant
keeping. God, if you read chapter 9, you'll
see again and again and again in chapter 9, there's a covenant.
A covenant I've made. I've made my, I'll establish
my covenant with you. I'll establish my covenant with
you. It's a token of the covenant is a rainbow. There are only
two places in the scriptures where we read of the rainbow.
There is one here and it's a token. And when you see that token in
the sky, you're meant to see the rainbow that surrounds the
throne of God. Everything that comes from the
throne of God comes because of an eternal covenant. And nothing
gets to the throne of God, but through the rainbow, through
the eternal covenant. Noah worshipped a God of covenant. Noah worshipped a God He smelled
the sweet savour, the sacrifice of his son. Those in the Ark today have a
need. They have a need because they're
Genesis 6-5 sinners. And if you're a Genesis 6-5 sinner
with thoughts like that, Imaginations like that. You'll worship. You'll worship
a God when he reveals himself to you. And when he reveals himself
to you, he reveals what you are. Genesis 6, five sinners find
grace. To go back to Noah's name, it's
comfort. There's comfort in the ark. There's
rest in the ark. You've entered into his rest,
brothers and sisters in Christ. You're comforted by the fact
that all that God ever expects from you and all that God ever
requires from you, he finds in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is that rest for your soul? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the way, the multitudinous ways you have pictured the salvation
of your people in the death of your dear and precious son and
in his glorious resurrection, Heavenly Father, that causes
your people to stand before you, holy and righteous, unblameable
and unapprovable in your sight. And it's all been done. It's
all been done long, long ago. And it's all been done by your
dear and precious son. And it's done in the hearts of
your people as the blessed Holy Spirit shows the Lord Jesus Christ
to us and shows what happened on Calvary's tree. Oh, Heavenly
Father, your saints say that his blood is precious. May you make it precious to us.
Your children love his coming, love to contemplate the time
when we will see him face to face, because we will be like
him. Oh, our father, give us hearts
that simply trust, simply rely upon the finished work of your
dear and precious son. And may we, Heavenly Father,
like Noah and all the righteous, find ourselves at comfort, at
peace, and at rest in who you are and what you have done and
your glorious and precious promises that are all sealed and signed
and come to us as blood-bought promises from your dear and precious
Son. Please bless your word to the
hearts of your people as you have promised our father. And
may your son be magnified and glorified in us as we walk by
faith.