Seeking the Lord's help and your
very prayerful attention, let us turn to Hebrews chapter 11
and verse 7. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 7. 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. Hebrews 11 and chapter 7. We have before us the subject
of the flood and Noah, that preacher of righteousness that lived at
that time of this world's history. And as we think of the flood
and think of the devastation that it produced, we need to
really compare it with what we call devastations today. In this last, we've had some
nicer weather recently, but mainly in the winter, it's been a stormy
winter. It's been many storms and there
has been considerable flooding in England. And the coast has
taken a tremendous battering. I understand it's estimated seven
years worth of erosion all taking place in one year. we've had
some stormy weather, we've had some flooding, we've had some
homes being unable to be inhabited in summersets and so forth. But when we compare it to Noah's
flood and what happened then, we realise that although it has
been severe and for the people involved it's been very difficult,
yet it is nothing at all compared to Noah's flood. Compared to
Noah's flood, it is as nothing. Noah's flood involved the whole
globe being flooded with water. The fountains of the great deep
being opened, the windows of heaven complete engulfing in
water the whole land. This is a tremendous catastrophe
that we're reading of in Noah's flood. And the things that we
read about today, though interesting, pale into insignificance when
compared to what Noah endured. We can learn a lot from what
happened in times gone by. The Lord, you see, was using,
and we can see that from the New Testament, that there was
a meaning in what was going on with Noah and this building of
an ark and preserving him in this flood. It was to give us
a picture as well of another judgment that is coming. You
see, for Noah, it was a judgment on sin that the flood came, and
another judgment is coming. And so therefore, today, we can
learn lessons from what happened in Noah's day, and learn about
the way of salvation. as Noah found it in his day and
we can realise that in our day. So there's pictures, graphical
pictures for us to help us understand really the way of salvation and
the necessity of being right with God. So as we look at this
account given us in Genesis chapter 6, we can see that there was
this multiplication of man upon the face of the earth, and it
seems that there was this godly seed of Seth. and the ungodly
seed of Cain. And it seemed that there was
this mixing of marriages. We read that the sons of God,
as in the line of Seth, came in unto the daughters of men,
which I think is the line of Cain. and they bear children,
and there was this mixing, you see, of those that feared God
with those that didn't fear God. Not a separation. There was this
lusting after wrong ways. And in verse 5, in chapter 6
of Genesis, we read this, And God saw that the wickedness of
man was great. God saw it. God beheld it. He
saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So we have then a picture of
what it was like before the flood and God seeing the evil that
was going on and God making it clear that he saw it. And we read later in verse 6,
and it grieved him at his heart. So when God saw all this evil
going on, the effect in the heart of God was grief. He hates sin. He abhors sin. You see, if you
love righteousness and love holiness, sin and the manifestation of
it working in others that you're looking down on as God is obnoxious. and it grieved him at his heart. So God saw the wickedness, he
was grieved. And then we read, and the Lord
said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face
of the earth. So then we have the judgement.
So we have God observing the wickedness. Him being grieved,
it grieved his heart. And then we have his resolve,
I will destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the
earth, both man and beast, and creeping things and fowls of
the air, for it repented me that I have made him. We have then, in verse 8, a but. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. What a turning point. God was
going to destroy all people, we read, but Noah found grace,
the grace of God. Noah, by God's grace, found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And there was there in this great
destruction, there was going to be a place of safety for those
that were in Christ, those which had found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. So I hope you can see many parallels
with our situation today. God sees the wickedness. God
has said that he must punish sin. God has said he will destroy
those that work iniquity. The wages of sin is death. that the gift of God is eternal
life. And of course this was the gift
that by grace Noah found. But in verse 3 of chapter 6 we
read these words, And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always
strive with man, for that he also is flesh, and yet his days
shall be a hundred and twenty years. Now I understand that
does not mean the lifespan of people. But what it was, it is
to be taken as this 120 years that God was going to give before
putting into practice this resolve that he had, I will destroy man. whom I have created from the
face of the earth. So we have here that God is postponing
the judgement. That does not mean that he is
not going to judge, but it is meaning that he has postponed
it. He has delayed it for 120 years. And what was going to
happen in that 120 years while he postponed that judgement? in that hundred and twenty years,
we have Noah being given this command to go and build an ark. So before the judgment was going
to come, before this water was going to descend upon the earth,
before it was going to be flooded, God was organizing and orchestrating
the making of an ark. There was to be an ark, you see.
Before there was any flood, before there was any inkling of a flood,
before anything looked as if it was going to flood, God prepared
something for a way of rescue, a way to be safe from the storm. We read these words, Make thee
an ark of gopher wood. Rooms shall thou make it in the
ark. So he was commanded, you see,
to make this ark. Noah was commanded to make the
ark. Well, going back to our text, by faith Noah being warned
of God of things not seen as yet. There was no visible sign
that the flood was coming. There was nothing to see that,
as it were, the sky was getting darker, that it was soon going
to be a time of more and more storms before the storms developed
into a flood itself. No, it was not like that. It
was completely as they'd always known it. Life went on as usual. But Noah, you see, was given
this command to build an ark. And God, you see, was providing
a way a God-ordained way of escape from dreadful judgment. This is God's Word, this is a
picture you see of our great salvation, a picture of God's
appointed way of escape from the destruction that is coming
to us because of sin. God has made a way We read of
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that there has
been, as it were, from the foundation of the world, this preparation
that there should be a God-ordained way of escape. And there's only one way. There
was only one ark, and there was only one door to the ark. Make thee an ark of gopher wood.
Rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and
shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this word pitch,
we would think of like a bitumen-y sort of material that you put
on the ark to make it watertight. But it's interesting that this
word pitch, the Hebrew word that it comes from, is only translated
pitch one or two times in the Bible. The other 70 odd and more
times in the same Hebrew word is translated atonement or covering. It's tremendous that the same
word, Hebrew word, for pitch and for atonement. You see, all
in the ark were going to be covered. They were going to be covered
from the wrath of God. They were going to be in the
ark and they were going to be safe because they were covered. And you see all those in Christ,
those who have rightly entered by the door, I am the door, all
that come unto me shall be safe, you see. There was to be this
pitch that Noah was going to be put on the inside and on the
outside So God could see it as it were from the outside and
Noah could see it from the inside. If he looked from the inside
out, he could see the covering. He could see that he was covered. Cover my defenceless head with
the shadow of thy wings. Covered from all the anger of
God, righteous anger of God against sin. And this is the fashion
which thou shalt make of it, the length of the ark, that we
are told the dimensions of it, 300 cubits, 150 meters, and so
on. And a window shalt thou make
in the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. And the
door of the ark shalt thou set in the side. There was one door.
There was not to be multiple doors. There was to be one door. There was one way into the fold.
There was one way we read Jesus says, I am the door. And we are to enter that door.
We are to come rightly. And how are we to enter? Well,
we are to enter, you see, looking to Christ as our righteousness. We read this in our verse, in
our chapter, sorry, in the text. And became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith. You see, Noah's righteousness
came from trusting in the Lord Jesus. It came from putting his
faith in the Lord Jesus and therefore he had a righteousness, not his
own, but because, as it were, he was looking to the Lord Jesus
and all that he had done. So Noah, you see, was building
this ark. But while he was building this
ark, we read in Peter that he was also a preacher of righteousness. So he was preaching to the people
around him that there would be, as it were, these 120 years of
delayed judgement from God. There was a time to build the
ark. There was time to prepare for
this great day. and Noah was able to preach as
it were perhaps on the we could think on the Lord's day preaching
and in the week he would then get on and build his ark and
in a sense you'd be preaching by building that ark wouldn't
he he would be telling people and by which by the which he
condemned the world you see as he built that ark It was condemnation
to all those around him, wasn't it? As he built this ark, he
was showing that he needed a boat, he needed a refuge, he needed
safety from the impending storm of Dodd's Wrath. They were busy building their
farms, busy building their houses, on their business projects, and
basically, no. was building an ark. That was
what he was spending his time doing. He was spending his time
preparing for this great day. But you see, by showing that
he was spending his time preparing for it, it was showing that they
were spending their time on things which according to Noah, and
according to Noah's prophecy that Noah had been given, that
they were passing away. They were not substantial. All
their farms and their lands and their great possessions and all
their treasures were going to be flooded and drowned and gone
according to Noah, his preaching. So he preached with his mouth
but he preached also with his feet and his hands as he built
that ark. And no doubt, we read in Peter,
talking about in the last days, scoffers shall come. Those people
that ridicule everything of religion, ridicule that there was ever
a worldwide flood, and ridicule the fact that God will be bringing
another judgement. But you see, it didn't change the fact that the
judgement was coming. Noah was preparing, Noah was
preaching, Noah was building the ark, but what were the people
doing? Well, the Lord Jesus tells us
what the people were doing. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter
24, we can read just what they were doing. But as the days of
Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days that they were before the flood, they were
eating, and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. This
is Matthew 24 verse 38. And giving in marriage until
the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the
flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming
of the Son of Man be. Coming of the Son of Man. So what they were doing, was
carrying on just as normal. They were just living their life.
They were just unconcerned. And here was Noah preaching day
by day, building day by day, 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. So this was these years building
up to the flood. These 120 years where God was
preparing this way of deliverance, this way of escape in the ark. As he did, you see, in Joseph's
time. When there was to be a famine in the land, Jacob didn't organise
some way of coping with the famine. It was God who had sent Joseph
to fill the storehouses in the land of Egypt. So in the time
of famine, there was a way of escape. God uses these pictures
in the Old Testament, these types as we call them. to point to
the great antitype, this lamb slain from the foundation of
the world, who was prepared for this great event to save his
people from their sins. Well, life went on. The time got closer and closer. The art got more and more complete.
The animals started gathering. They entered the ark as we read,
two by two, and those that were clean animals, seven, were going
on. And they all entered this ark. All through the door they went.
And in chapter 7 verse 1 we read, And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark. Come, not go. not get in the ark, but come.
Believe this is the first time we read. If you like a gospel
call, come. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and
ye shall find rest for your souls. 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. So there was a coming. There
was this entry of Noah, his family, all of them into the ark. And
for seven days before the floods came, they were all gathered
into the ark. And in verse 16 of this same
chapter we read, chapter 7 that is, we read it together. And they that went in went in
male and female, all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the
Lord shut him in. The door of the ark was shut. That door that had been built
by Noah had been opened. We don't know how long for, as
it were since it was built. But the door had been open for
some time. Noah had been that preacher of righteousness that
had preached that there was coming a flood. And now, the door was shut by
God. The Lord shut the door. And when
the Lord shut that door, it was a shutting in, but it was also
a shutting out. It was a shutting in for all
those that were in the ark. They were safe. The storm was
going to come. The floods were going to rise.
But they were sealed. They were safe inside the ark. But those that were outside,
they were shut out eternally. They could never enter anymore.
The one way was through the door. I am the door. But that door
was going to be shut. and the door was shut by God.
We read that the Lord is he that shutteth and no man openeth and
openeth and no man shutteth. God shut the door. Then you see we read that after
seven days after shutting that door, Noah entering into the
ark with his family and all the animals that God had appointed
that there should be, with all their food appropriate to keep
them alive during their time in the ark. In verse 11 of chapter 7 we read
this, in the sixth hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month and the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were
all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows
of heaven were opened. For 120 years this had been prophesied. By faith now being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, they were only to be seen by
faith. They were only to be believed by what Noah said. There was
nothing to show in the sky or in the surroundings, scientifically,
that there was coming this flood of things not seen as yet, but
God had told them. And by faith Noah believed it.
Then that day came and we read then that the fountains of the
great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. Suddenly, the world as the people
knew it, suddenly was changing. We read that there had never
been rain before, but a mist had come up from the ground to
water the earth. The first time they'd ever seen
rain, but now the windows of heaven were opened and the fountains
of the great deep were broken up. It was a tremendous outpouring
of the wrath of God against sin. And who was to endure it were
the people that were outside the ark, endured it themselves. They felt the rain falling upon
them. They saw or felt the fountains
of the great deep breaking up underneath their feet. They were
being washed away with those tidal waves and tsunamis that
would have been devastating the earth at that time. But the ark would have been seeing
it too. The ark was not in some nice resting place away from
all the storm. No, the ark wasn't. The ark was
in the midst of the earth and in the midst of the storm as
it were. The ark received the full wrath of God poured out
from the windows of heaven and from the fountains of the great
deep being broken up. The Ark was not spared. The Ark received the full force. What a type of Christ it was.
Those in the Ark were safe. But the Ark received it. They
should have received the rain. They should have received the
floods. They should have received the death that it would have
given them. But the Ark, you see, received it all. but they
were inside it and God had shut them in and he endured that anger
of God. The Ark was preserved and though
it endured the buffeting, you see we read in the Psalms, all
thy ways and thy billows are gone over me. Surely it was so
of the Ark. The ark would have been buffeted
and no doubt many waves bouncing over it and around it and engulfing
it. So we've seen some of the waves
crashing into the shores of England over this last winter time. Surely
what winds and what things would have engulfed that ark while
it was in the flat. and yet it was preserved. And
when we think of this, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ at Calvary,
to be in Christ, we're not in one that dwelt as it were in
a place of quietness. We've come to Calvary and we
see the wrath of God poured upon Christ. The only appointed place
of safety was the place that received the full pelt and anger
of God's wrath. The door of the ark, you see,
God has shut them in, but the ark was then bombarded by the
full force. And we read, you see, in chapter
7 verse 16 of Genesis, chapter 17 and the flood was 40 days
upon the earth and the waters increased and bear up the ark. The ark you see, it was floating
and we read these almost strange words in the English and it was
lift up above the earth. It was lift up above the earth. Can we think of any other thing
that was lift up above the earth. I, if I be lifted up, will draw
all men unto me. You see it was the anger of God's
wrath as it were at Calvary and all the fountains of the great
deep that were broken up that put Christ in that lifted up
position on the cross at Calvary. And you see we have the fountains
of the great deep broken up at the flood. And the effect was
the ark was lifted up on the waves, bombarded by the waves. And the waters prevailed and
increased and greatly upon the earth. And the ark went upon
the face of the waters. The ark was safe. But the ark
was bombarded. The ark received the full anger
as it were of the vengeance of God. And yet the Ark came safely
to rest in due time. And it rested on the top of the
mountains. And we think of Christ when his
work was complete, he went to be in glory. He was in a highly
exhorted place, above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow. So we see in this this account that happened in
Noah's time, we can see that there's much teaching about our
need of salvation. It teaches us that God is angry
against sin. God will punish sin. And you
see, the thing is, because people get away with it today, because
it seems that sin goes and nobody cares, and the government doesn't
seem to legislate against it, and everybody seems to be agreed
that sin can take place, it seems that God will not punish sin. It seems, well, perhaps this
sentence has been changed. Perhaps God won't really punish
sin. Well, in the 120 years, God had said that there would
be yet 120 years and Peter picks this up as the long suffering
of God. It's a long suffering of God.
And you see, we can take that long suffering of God and we
can make that think that he won't do it. Now the 120 years was
no reflection on the fact that God was not going to judge sin.
It was a reflection on God as a God of mercy and long-suffering,
and that he was preparing a place, a refuge for his people, so that
when that storm, which would engulf and destroy every living
thing, when it did come, there would be a place ready, preserved,
so that they could enter that place and be kept safe through
all the storm that was to follow. But you see, just because there
was this long time, we can read into that that God is not going
to do what he said he's going to do. When he says, I'm going
to come again and judge the earth, and before every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess, well, we can get into the thought pattern
of the scoffers. Where is the promise of his coming?
Everything continues as we've known it for so many years. Where
is it? What makes you think that something's
going to ever change? God has said, God said in Noah's
day, and they scoffed, and they mocked, and they ridiculed Noah.
But when Noah entered the ark, and when the floods started to
rise, oh what a difference, what a difference they would have
thought of Noah then. As they were clinging to that
ark, trying to get their breath for the last time, how much differently
would they see Noah and his wisdom in building such an ark. and
warning them against sin. And indeed all their knowledge
about the ark, all that they knew about the ark, its dimensions
and what Noah had told them in preaching, all of those things
would be so many arrows in their conscience as the flood water
got higher and higher. Because they knew, if only they
had listened, if only they would have heard and turned, oh that
the wicked would turn from his evil way Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord. So in Noah's flood we see a picture
that God, although he is long-suffering, it's a postponed judgement. That means it's been put off
for another day. If you postpone a meeting, that
means the meeting will still take place, but it will take
place at a later date than it was originally intended. You
can cancel a meeting and that means the meeting is never going
to take place again if you truly cancel it and you're not going
to have the meeting. God's judgement is always postponed and not cancelled. It's postponed. It's deferred
to the great judgement day when all the books shall be opened.
But it will happen. There is no cancelling apart
from in God's divinely appointed place of refuge. And that divinely
appointed place of refuge is the Lord Jesus Christ, who did
indeed endure the entire storm of God's wrath against the Church,
so that all the anger of God's wrath due to His Church was heaped
on Him. He endured it. He rose victorious, or sinned,
death, hell and the grave. to show that he has conquered
and is able now to set his people free, able to show that there
is a way of mercy for sinners. There is a way whereby sinners
can come in all their filthiness, in all their far-offness. They
are to come and seek Christ. Come and seek a place of refuge. Come and seek and take seriously
the Word of God. But we see here, you see that
in this picture of the Ark, that there is a time of delay, there
is long suffering, but there was a time when the door was
shut. And for you and I, there is coming
a day when for us the door will be shut. Now, that may be for
all of us at the same time if the world ends. But if any of
us die before the end of the world, then that door will be
shut at that point for us. And either we will be inside
the Ark, either we will be in Christ, as it were in the marriage
supper of the Lamb, or we will be eternally out. Open to me,
open to me, cried those at the wedding guests that were seeking
to enter. But the door was shut. Well,
we see then that those in Christ, even though the venom of the
storm was enormous, even though it destroyed every living thing,
it did not destroy one of the animals or the humans on the
ark. All of them were preserved. All
of them were safe. God's appointed way of salvation. is a way of true salvation. It's a way of safety. Seeking to hide ourselves in
Christ from the anger of God is the only place of safety.
Well as we come to this thought then, as we see in the Old Testament
type, We see the fulfilment of the Antichrist. You see Christ,
he did not lay down his life for eight souls. He did not lay
down his life just for eight. We read that in heaven there
is a number that no man can number, of every kindred, nation, tribe
and tongue. That's who were in the Ark of
Christ when he suffered. When he bore, he bore it for
the entire church, a number that no man can number we read. So
you see the anti-type, Christ, is a much more glorious example. of this more physical judgment
that we can understand more easily with our understanding, a physical
flood, a physical ark, we can understand that more easily,
but it's a picture of something far more deep, far more glorious,
not the salvation from a flood to bring us into a new world
which did also have sin in it, and that the fruits of sin were
soon found with the Tower of Babel and so forth. You see, the Lord Jesus, he saves
his people to eternal life and to heaven, so that they are brought
out of nature's darkness, brought through the judgment that should
have been due to them, but he takes it from them, that that
should have been theirs, and gives them in return the righteousness
of Christ. and they are saved then to be
with him forever in glory. A very different, as it were,
a very much greater salvation. So the type is great and is glorious,
but what it points to is the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which is to a greater salvation, to a greater number of people,
Not from a flood, but from eternal death. You see, when those people
died, well they were dying for some time perhaps, perhaps several
hours they were drowning before they drowned. But when they drowned,
that was the end of their life. But the Lord Jesus does not save
from a few minutes or a few hours of natural death. He saves from
eternal judgment in hell. He saves from an eternal state
of misery. What a difference to be inside
the ark or to be out. And all your knowledge of the
ark, its dimensions, its functions, its beauty, its size, its doors,
who made it, who went in it, all that information, if it didn't
lead to you by faith entering the ark, at that last great day,
would only really gnaw at your conscience. Therefore, beloved
friends, we have set before us the way of salvation, God's appointed
way, The Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness. May we be like Noah. Noah being
warned of God of things not seen as yet. Noah, if you talk to
your school friends, they're not particularly worried about
eternal judgment. Things not seen as yet. Moved
with fear. Prepared and up to the saving
of his house. It wasn't Noah's idea. It was
God's instruction. And Noah was obedient. And that's
what we are, to be by faith. by which he condemned the world.
He showed that the world was empty and passing and became
heir of the righteousness which is by faith. He by faith had
that righteousness of Christ because he believed in that refuge,
in that one who would stand the storm of God's wrath for him. and give him a righteousness
which he had not of his own so that he could be clothed with
that righteousness and he could be safe eternally. Not just from
a flood which he afterwards would then find he was still a sinner
and get drunk and all these things that we read about poor Noah.
He failed as well. He was a great man but he had
shortcomings as well. to be saved in the Lord with
an everlasting salvation, to a place in heaven where sin cannot
enter, to be with Christ, which is far better. Well, may the
Lord give us each a desire to be found in Christ and a true
longing to, by faith, to enter into that ark through the door.
I am the door, and that we may be enabled to be safe eternally. in that preservation. May the Lord add his blessing.