Genesis chapter 6, a very familiar
history to anyone who has ever sat under the gospel for any
length of time. In Genesis chapter 6, through
part of chapter 8, we have the account of the flood, the great
flood, and Noah and the ark. I'm entitled to the message,
The Ark and the Covenant of God. The Ark and the Covenant of God. The Scripture here says, And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God
saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took
them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My
spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is
flesh, yet his days shall be in a hundred and twenty years.
There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after
that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men,
and they bared children to them, The same became mighty men, which
were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thought of the heart was only evil continually. And He
repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and He
grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast, and creeping thing, and fowls of the air. For it
repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And then as you read on, God
tells Noah what He's going to do. Tells Noah to build an ark
in a certain dimensions, in a certain facet. And then He tells him
to gather the animals. The animals will come unto Him,
and He will put them in the ark, and before the flood is to enter
in, and God would shut the door, and there would rain come upon
the earth for forty days and forty nights, and they would
be in that ark over eighteen months in that ark. until the
waters resided, until the waters abated. And then, you know that
Noah offered an offering unto God. And God there made a covenant
with him. And he put the rainbow in the
sky as a token, a picture, that he would never destroy the earth
again in this manner. So this is the account. What
does this have to do with us? That's a history. What does this
have to do with us? Well, I want you to know that
all scripture, all scripture, especially that in the Old Testament,
speaks always and only of one person, Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. This history that we have just
recited is none other than a gospel message of God given to man. Given to man. We know this, that
this is the gospel, that God in grace so loved His elect people
before the foundation of the world, and even though they were
born of Adam's fallen race, the Father in love and grace that
would send Christ to be their Savior, that He would, the seed
of the woman, should crush the head of the serpent, and that
He, by the Holy Spirit, would call and give life to all of
His elect. How? Through the preaching of
this Gospel. This is God's chosen means. This is a means despised by the
world, but chosen of God. The preaching of the Gospel. And so then everywhere we go
in Scripture, every place you study in the Word of God, you
should be looking for Christ. And that's what we're going to
do. This morning we're going to take this account of Noah
and we're going to see the real purpose as to why it was given
to us. It was given to us to preach
the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus told those Jews,
He said, you search the Scriptures. In them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they that testify of Me. Of Me. I know one lady that I know,
she was complaining, she was having great difficulty, and
she's lost, she doesn't know Christ, and she tries to read
through, she's religious, so she reads through her Bible,
trying to find solutions for her problems. I keep telling
her, her problem is that she's lost. Her problem is she needs
Christ, because she's looking at the Scriptures for all the
wrong reasons. This book is about Him. This
book is not about you. It's about Him. It's for His
glory, not yours. You have a problem, alright,
it's sin. And the only solution is Christ. The only hope for
you is Christ. And so then all the book speaks
of Christ. And so then this morning, there
are four things. Four things I want us to show
us about this account of Noah that is the gospel. It is the gospel message. First thing I want us to see
is the condition of man and the condemnation of God. We can see in this account the
condition of man and the condemnation of God. The second thing is this.
I want us to see the grace of God. The grace of God in this
account concerning Noah. God's grace toward this man,
Noah. The scripture says, but Noah
found grace. And so, the gospel is of grace,
is a message of grace. This third thing is this, the
confidence of the Ark. The Ark. The Ark in this picture
here is a picture of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And the fourth
thing is this, the covenant of God's grace given to all who
are in Christ. A covenant. Remember that covenant
I told you about the rainbow? He gave Noah a covenant. And
so he gives us his covenant who are in Christ this morning. So
first thing, let's look at this. The condemnation, the condition
and condemnation of man. Look at verse 5. Scripture says,
and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, Scripture here says that
the sons of God, before this, that there were people having
children, and then the sons of God, it says, they took wives
of the daughters of men. And what this is talking about
is not angels or anything like that. It's talking about God's
people marrying unbelievers. Marrying the race of Cain. The line of Seth went and took
of the daughters of Cain for wives. And you know what happens
when you have those kind of unions. It leads the man's heart away
from God as it did Solomon. Solomon was a man of God and
he married those wives. His heart was taken away from
God. And this is what happened to
those men in those days. They had married outside of believers
and their hearts were taken away. And then their sons and daughters
grew up not hearing the gospel, not believing the gospel. And
so it was a very wicked generation. Wicked time in this day. And God says this in this time.
He gives this warning. He says, My spirit shall not
always strive with man. Not always strive with man. What
a warning it is to you this morning. Do you realize this may be the
last message you ever hear? I'm just honest. This may be
the last message you ever hear. God may withdraw His Spirit and
never allow you to hear this Gospel again. This should compel you to pay
attention, to compel you to seek God and to serve and believe
Christ. And God will not always strive
with you. I've seen many men in that condition. They've come
in thinking they'll hear the gospel, they'll have another
time, another opportunity to go out into eternity. I believe what happened to that
man Felix, is that right? He said, I'll hear thee another
day. I'll hear thee another day of this. You know what? He never
heard again. God won't strive. And I pray
this morning that you, as I preach this message to you, you'll listen.
You'll pay attention. May God give you the ability
to do so. And the first thing you should
know is this. That when God looks upon men by nature, this is what
He sees. That every imagination of the
thoughts of your heart are only evil continually. Only evil continually. Now this generation of Noah was
very evil, but I tell you that this is not just speaking of
that generation. This is personal. This is talking
to every one of us in this room. This is a revelation of our nature. This is who we are by nature. Only evil continually. This is who we are by birth,
that our wickedness is great and every thought of the imagination,
imagination of the thoughts of our hearts. And so what does this mean? This
means even our good is evil. Even our good is evil. What we
do even in the most pure and righteous of intentions, is nothing
but sin in the eyes of God. Now, in order for our deeds to
be righteous, they must be, of necessity, spring from a righteous
nature. But we have a problem, don't
we? We do not have a righteous nature by birth. None of us possess a righteous
nature, therefore, out of our nature only springs evil. You can't get an apple tree to
produce oranges. Just can't do it. It's not in
its nature. And neither can you get a man
who is born of Adam's race to produce righteousness. It's not
in our nature. It's not in our nature. Now,
I want you to understand this. People do good things. So, someone's
hungry, someone's starving to death, and someone gives them
food out of kindness. Now, to us, that's good. Is it not? It's not good. It's good for us to say that.
We would praise someone like that. Think of somebody that
gives their life for another person. You see your daughter,
your son in peril, and you jump in front of the gun, and you
sacrifice yourself. We think that's honorable, that's
noble, and it is in our eyes. But I'll tell you this, that
does nothing before the eyes of God. Now listen, you jump
in front of a gun for your daughter, you realize you did that out
of your own selfish motive because you love them? I mean everything we have to do
is self, is always centered and motivated by self. We're evil
continually. Isaiah says the whole head is
sick. and the whole heart is faint
from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head is nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores." Jeremiah said the heart
is deceitful and desperately wicked above what? All things. Who can know it? Our Lord said that when they
were trying to, those Jews thought that you, you know, you ate corn
on the Sabbath day, you digest that without washing your hands,
something. You were defiled and Jesus said, no, what defiles
you is what comes out of your heart. There's the source and
spring of all sin. Comes from our heart. Our heart. So what does man need? He needs a new heart. Jesus said, either make the tree
good and its fruit good, or else the tree is corrupt and the fruit
is corrupt. Is that not just sensible? You're evil continually because your
heart is evil, and everything out of the heart is evil. So
everything you do is mixed with sin. Even the good that you do
is mixed with sin. And so evil is man here, God
says this, it repented the Lord that He made man on the earth. It grieved Him at His heart.
Now, listen, God doesn't turn, God doesn't repent. God is the
same yesterday, today, and forever. This is just an anthropomorphic
language. This is condescension of God
to understand His hatred of sin. That sin is against His very
nature and being. God is holy. And what must a
holy God do with sinners? He must and will punish sin. He will condemn it. And that's
what we have in the type here. Our Lord says, I am going to
destroy man that I made from the face of the earth. He's going
to flood the world and destroy everyone in it. God swore He would do it. And
there is no turning back. And he warned them a hundred
and twenty years. Now how patient is that? There's
Noah building the ark every day. And he's preaching the gospel
of righteousness every day for a hundred and twenty years. Judgment's
coming. Judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. And what did man do? They mocked. Now some of you mock. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. I know, I've heard this before.
Okay. So did they. But I tell you what,
it came. It came upon them. Verse 21,
and all flesh that died, all flesh died that moved upon the
earth, both fowl and cattle and beast and every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth, and every man, just like God
said He would do. Just like God said He would do.
Even so in truth will God one day come and judge all men by
holy judgment. All sin, every sin, must be and will be punished
of God. It will be punished with eternal,
never-ending, never-quenching fire and damnation forever. There are many men today in hell. And yet they have not begun to
experience the full measure of God's wrath. Why? Their bodies
are not there yet. But I tell you, they've been
there ever since they've died, and they're not going anywhere
else. They cannot and will not ever escape this all-consuming
fire of God's justice. He will pour it out over them
for all eternity with no hope of escape or reprieve. The Scripture says, He that is
unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. And so then I ask you, do you
not see your need? Have I not presented to you a
need? You have a sinful heart that can only sin, and God being
holy must punish every sin. Now can you count your sins even
today? You can't. There are many sins
you've not even known you've committed. But they will be accounted
for. They are accounted for by God.
So what then is hope? Where is hope for sinners? Look at verse 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. If there's any hope for any one
of us here today, it is this. The grace of God. This is the
first time grace is mentioned in Scripture. It teaches us a
lot about grace. Noah was a man like every man
in his generation. He had the same wicked heart
as every man in his generation. What made Noah different? What
distinguished Noah so that he should understand the condemnation
to come? That he should be moved with
fear to build the ark, to enter the ark and be saved. What made
the difference? But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. The grace of God. This is the
second part of the Gospel. The grace of God. Noah was a
sinner, but God. He found grace. Now this word
found is not that Noah was searching for grace and he found it. That's
not what it was. Noah wasn't seeking God. God
found Noah. This word is experienced. Noah
experienced the grace of God. He did. That's how you know you
have the grace of God, if you experience it. If you're born again of the Spirit
of God, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you heard my
words, heeded my word that I've just preached to you, and the
Spirit of God moves you to faith in Christ, you've found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. You found grace. Noah, like all of God's elect,
are sinners saved by the grace of God. The cause of salvation
is never the result of man doing something. This is backwards. The cause of salvation is the
grace of God and that moves men to service and faith in Christ. Now look at the billions of Adam's
race who cannot and will not ever obey the law of God, who
cannot and will not believe on Christ. I tell you this, we would
have all been like Sodom and Gomorrah had God not shown grace. But God in grace has a remnant.
You see why I preach? I preach because I know God has
a remnant. I know He has a people. And I
know this, they, like Noah, will find grace in the eyes of God.
They will hear and they will believe. They will believe, just
like Noah. You know, Noah was the great-grandson
of Methuselah? And the Scripture tells us that
his father was a believer in Christ. Now, he had many brothers
and sisters, you know that? I don't read of any of them finding
grace in the eyes of God. I'm sure that all his brethren
perished in this flood, not believing. What made the difference? And
listen, if there's going to be any difference in you and your
children, in this matter of salvation, it will be this, the grace of
God. The grace of God is to be accredited
with all salvation. All of our salvation. You realize
salvation is something done outside of you? Totally devoid of you. You were not there. You had no
part in it. When God chose you, where were
you? You weren't there. Other than God putting you in
Christ, you were not there. You didn't have any work to do.
Where were you when Christ died? You were not there except you
be in Christ, except God put you in Christ, in union with
Him, mystic union with Christ. You had no hand in that. And listen, we were not seeking
God when He found us. We were seeking the God of our
imagination. We were seeking the God of this
world. We were not seeking God. We were
not coming to Christ. We would not and could not. But
God. That's the difference. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? What hast thou thus not received?
We know this, that God made the difference in Noah, and Noah
believed the Word of God. You know what's the evidence
of the new birth? Faith. Faith. Believing God. How do we know
Noah believed God? Did he build the ark? You bet
he did. Why? He believed God. He believed
God's Word. Now, several things about Noah
the Scripture says for us in this verse 9. He says, "...but
Noah was a just man, a perfect, in his generation." What does
this mean? He was without sin? No. He was justified. Just like
you, if you're a believer in Christ, you're like Noah. You've
found grace and you've been justified by God through the blood and
righteousness of Christ. You have been found innocent
in the eyes of God. All who believe on Christ are
made perfect by Jesus Christ. By His one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And listen, Noah walked with
God. Look at that in verse 9. He walked
with God. And listen, everyone who finds
grace in the eyes of God walks with God. Now how do we walk
with God? We walk by faith. We walk by
faith. The just shall live by faith. And listen, Noah believed God's
Word. This is another evidence here. He believed God's Word. Verse 13, And 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
within the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood."
And he gives those instructions. And Noah built the ark. He believed
God's Word and he built that ark. In Hebrews it says, "...by
faith Noah, being warned of God of things which he had not seen,
moved with fear, prepared the ark to the saving of his house,
by which He condemned the world and became the heir of righteousness,
which is by faith." Now listen, can you relate to Noah? Have you believed God concerning
yourself and concerning His judgment? Have you believed God concerning
Christ? Now listen, if Noah didn't believe
God about the flood, do you think he would have built the boat?
No! I believe God concerning myself and concerning His condemnation. Therefore, I flee to Christ,
who is what? The Ark. The Ark. Have you fled to Christ? Now
then, let's look at this third part, the Ark. The Ark of Noah
was built By Noah is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. As that
ark was a refuge for Noah, even so is Christ a refuge for everyone
who believes in Him. Christ is a refuge against the
wrath of God. Now behold, the whole world was
sunk and drowned under the wrath of God that day. In those forty
days, that rain came down and there was not one living man
left. Except for who? Those who were in the ark. But
I see this picture, that the rain's coming, the deep being
broken up, and the water starts rising. But if you notice that
no matter how much the water rises, there's always one thing
above the water. What? The ark. As the floods rose, what? The ark rose. It exalted above
the justice of God. And so too, the whole world will
be destroyed by fire and vengeance of God, and everyone outside
of the ark will be destroyed. But how happy then are the people
in it? How happy are the souls who are
in Christ? This ark was not haphazardly
put together, was it? It was planned. There were certain
dimensions given by God for this ark. And listen, Christ is no
accident, friends. Christ was planned and ordained
of God to be the Savior of His people from before the foundation
of the world. God purposed and planned that
all the salvation of His people should rest upon His shoulders. One of my favorite passages in
these last few months has been Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter
9. And look at verse... Get the right place here. Verse
6. For unto us a child is born.
That's Christ's humanity. Unto us a son is given. That's
his deity. And what? The government shall
be upon his shoulders. Do you not see that God set all
the government of His church, His elect, on the shoulders of
Jesus Christ? That all their safety, all their
salvation, all of their glory should rest upon Him and His
work alone. And God did this from eternity.
2 Timothy 1.9 says, "...who has
saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world." This is planned,
friends. This is planned. This whole thing is planned out
to every detail. Just like the ark was, even so
Christ was ordained of God in every way to be our Savior. And listen, was that ark sufficient
to save them? Was the ark sufficient? It was
a large ship. I think it was 450 feet long,
75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. That's just a rough guesstimate. That's a big boat. And you know what? It had just
enough room for those that God ordained to be in it. Now Noah
preached that message. There was not enough room in
that boat for the whole world. You know that? There was only
enough room for those animals and those eight people. God commanded
everyone to come in, but I guarantee you it was not designed for everyone. This boat was sufficient for
those God purposed to save. And you listen, Christ is sufficient
to save everyone the Father gave Him. All that the Father giveth
me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. Our Savior, like this boat, is
sufficient as a refuge against the wrath of God. Now consider
the ark. as it floated underneath this
water, and as the water beat down upon this, as the thunder
and lightning came down, it did not strike the people in the
ark, but rather the ark itself. Now look to the cross. What do you suppose was happening
there? Our Lord God took our sin, made Him to be sin for us. And all of the justice of God that we deserved, He endured. And as not one drop of water
fell on the head of Noah, neither will one drop of God's wrath
fall on your head." This is assuring. Now listen,
I don't imagine for one minute that it was very comfortable
in that boat, do you? Eighteen months in a boat full of animals. I can't stand a week in my house
with two dogs. It was uncomfortable. Listen,
friends, our life in this world is uncomfortable. Our Lord said you're going to
have troubles and you'll have tribulations, but you know what
they had to do while in the ark? They had to trust the ark. Trusted
it. When they were troubled, they
just looked at the ark. I imagine you can check it for
leaks if you want to. Won't find one. I know this, that's what you
do when you're in trouble. You begin to look for leaks in
Christ. You won't find any. Why? When God shut them in, he
sealed that door and nothing could get in. And nothing could get out. Look
at that in verse 16. Look at that in verse 16. And
they went in, male and female, of all flesh, as God had commanded,
and the Lord shut them in. Believer in Christ, you get this.
You are shut in. Thank God I'm shut in. All who
come in are shut in. Not by themselves. Noah did not
lift one hand to lift that door and shut the door. Neither did
you. I don't seal myself. How many people run around trying
with this progressive sanctification to seal the door? Lord, you built
the ark and you did everything and I'm going to seal it with
my holiness. You'll drown. You'll drown. I tell you this, God sealed me
by the Holy Spirit unto the day of His coming. He took His ring
and He put it in that wax of Christ's blood and righteousness
and He sealed me in. Let all of hell try to get me
out of His hand and they won't prevail. Jesus said that, my
sheep hear my voice and they follow me and I give unto them,
give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Why? I shut them
in. I shut them in. Are you afraid of falling out? You afraid of falling out? If
you're really in Christ, you'll never fall out. Now those who
fall out have never been in Christ to begin with. And notice this about the ark.
There were no lifeboats. Got that? No life preservers. They
weren't needed. They weren't needed. You see, this is not about my
works. It's about His. You see, I'm safe because He
did all the work. I'm safe because He chose me.
I'm safe because He redeemed me. I'm safe because He called
me. I'm safe because He sealed me. What'd that song we just sang?
More happy but not more secure, the glorified saints in heaven?
See, they're more happy than I am, but they're not more safe.
Why? Same ark. Same mark. And this last thing I want you
to see is the covenant. Let's move on. The covenant that
God gave Noah. Now then, after he went out of
the ark and got onto dry land, God gave with Noah a covenant. A covenant. And he gave that rainbow, he
put that rainbow in the sky. I think it's chapter 9. Let's see if I can find it, I lost
my place. Here it is, verse 9. He said,
and I, behold I, Establish My covenant with you and with your
seed after you, with every living creature that is with you, of
the fowl and the cattle and every beast of the earth with you.
from all that go out of the ark to every beast of the earth and
I will establish my covenant with you neither shall all flesh
be cut off anymore by the waters of the flood neither shall there
be anymore a flood destroy the earth and God said this is the
token of the covenant which I made betwixt me and you and every
living creature that is with you for perpetual generations
I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token and
a covenant between me and the earth and it shall come to pass
when I bring the cloud over the earth and the bow shall be in
the cloud I will remember my covenant between me and you and
every living creature not destroyed by flood now listen God is never
going to destroy the earth by flood ever again he will destroy
by fire But this is a spiritual covenant,
and I want you to see this. In Revelation, when John saw
the throne of God, you know what was around it? A rainbow. Surrounding the throne. So that
means everywhere God looked, what did he see? He saw his covenant. Friends, this means that God
says to you, I will never ever bring wrath upon you. ever. I will always remember my covenant
toward you. Praise God for his covenant.
Why? Because in this life I need to
hear it again and again and again. See, when it rains, you know
there's always a rainbow but you don't always see it. How
many times do you forget God's covenant? Every time you're afraid, every
time you do not believe, every time you stumble and fall, it
is because you have not looked at the covenant of God. You've
not remembered. Now listen, this is your comfort. God doesn't forget it. That's all you should need. What is it if I forget it? Does
that disannul the covenant? No. Remember, salvation is something
done outside me. And listen, it was something
done in me, but it was not done by me. So what does this covenant have
to do with me? Well, as far as merit, nothing. Now the recipient, that's who
I am. I'm just the receiver of all
God's promises. So then, What does Noah's ark
in the flood teach us? All men by nature are sinners.
God must and will punish sin. Yet, God in grace has chosen
a people and He will come to them. They will believe on Christ.
He will justify them. They will enter Christ and be
safe. They will be sealed in Christ,
sufficient salvation is found in Him. And God promises us every
day concerning His covenant, I will remember my covenant forever. Now this should give you great... This is what? The gospel, isn't
it? That's the whole gospel. You know you find that everywhere.
It's amazing. You find it in any book of the
Bible you want to look. It's the same gospel. You can preach
from anywhere. Why? It's God's gospel. I pray God will give you grace
even now to believe in Christ. You know what I compel you, come
in. Come in. Come in while there's room. Why would you not believe on
Christ? The only answer is your rebellion. But if you ever believe on Christ,
it will not be your fault, it will be God's. And if you don't
believe it's your fault, you believe it's God's. And He gets
all the glory. May God bless this to your hearts.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.