Good evening. If you would, open
your Bibles back to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Tonight I have a very straightforward
message. I have a message that Lord willing,
everyone who listens to will be able to say exactly what it
was about when we're done. Now my hope is not just that
everyone will be able to recite the title or say what it was
about, but that maybe we can enter in and we can believe this
phrase. The title of my message is Salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I will say that phrase a lot
throughout this message. And everybody in here has heard
that phrase plenty of times. And for the next few minutes,
I want those words to constantly be going through our mind. Now, going further, let me see
if I can give an illustration of what I mean. I don't know
if anybody else remembers, when you were younger, they had these
little plastic glasses that you could wear that the lenses in
them were colored. They would be like blue or red
or green, and when you put them on, everything you saw changed
to have that color to it. So if it had that blue lens in
it, you could put it on and walk outside and the leaves on the
trees looked blue, and the grass looked blue, and everything changed
colors. Now, I say that because what
I want us to do is use this with salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because everything on the other side of those glasses
was affected by whatever color that lens was. whatever you were
looking at, that lens transposed upon it. Meaning that if everything
we hear tonight, in the back of our mind, we continuously
think about how that applies to salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, if we're going to do that,
I first want to quickly Go over that phrase. There's two parts
that are very important. The first is, who is the Lord
Jesus Christ? I'm thankful to say that I know
that everyone in here has an understanding of that from hearing
messages we've heard preached, and our kids have heard it from
the Sunday school classes. But quickly to say that, who
is the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, He's God. And He's the
Son of God. He was made a man. He came down
to earth and lived as a man and he lived perfectly. And in doing
so, he was able to take the place of his children. He bore their
sins on the cross and he died being punished for their sins. And in doing so perfectly, he
then arose from the grave and is now seated on high in glory. So the second part of that phrase
is the word salvation. We must understand that word
if we're gonna continually say it. Now, this is a word we hear
a lot, but it's one of those words that we don't really hear
it explained much because we just heard it said over and over
again when we're here. I don't remember the last time
I heard the term salvation when it wasn't either someone talking
about it in a message or a conversation with another brother or sister
about salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the definition of
that word in the concordance is to rescue. Now, it's used
in the Bible numerous times as another word other than salvation.
And a couple of those are to deliver or to save. Most people
could give you that definition, hearing salvation is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They could kind of put it together
that he means, you know, you being saved in the Lord. But
let's go a little further because I really want to understand it.
We all know words or subjects that we've heard about, but if
we really got asked questions, we couldn't really answer it.
We just have heard it. So what is salvation? The key
to understanding that word is knowing that salvation always
has an object, okay? There has to be something that
is being saved or being rescued. And the key to that is also knowing
that the object, it can be a person or a thing, that's being saved
can't save themselves. and that they also need saving.
So every single thing you ever talk about salvation with, it
needs to be saved, and it can't save itself, all right? So everything
we're talking about in this story with Noah and the ark, we gotta
remember, salvation is saving or rescuing someone, and that
person can't save themselves. So here in Genesis 6 is the start
of the story of Noah and the ark. Now we're going to read
through a couple chapters. Remember that we're always thinking
about salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. But also think
about this. The arc that we see here is a
wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we will use
this in the phrases I'll say, and I'll kind of interchange
them. And then also, Noah here is a man. He's a child of God. But this is not a story just
about Noah. This is a story about a child
of God. So put ourselves in his place, okay? The things that
he's going through and everything are very applicable to us. Okay,
let's look at verse one of chapter six. 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 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 thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, or every
day. This is a pretty rough description
of man, of all the people that were living at that time. It's
also a very true description of us today. So the question
becomes, who is responsible for making such an evil creature?
Look back at Genesis 1, verse 27. Genesis 1, 27 says, So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him. Okay, so God made man. But look at verse 31 there, Genesis
1-31. And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good. Okay, so man was good
when God made him. So what happened in these couple
of pages here that now all of a sudden man has every thought
is evil continuously? Well, as we heard this morning,
in the Garden of Eden, man sinned against God. God told Adam, you
can do anything in this garden, but don't eat the fruit off of
this one tree. That's the only thing he told
him. But Adam ate it and he sinned. By one man, sin entered into
the world. And after nine generations to
Noah, every imagination and thoughts of man's heart was only evil
continually. All of that happened because
one man ate a piece of fruit that God told him not to eat.
And it became worse the more man multiplied. The more men
there were, the more men and women there were, the worse it
got. And that's true today. We just
keep getting worse. Does everybody realize that we
are the problem? God made a perfect creature,
and then just so many generations later, they were only evil continually. So let's look in verse six and
seven and let's see what God's reaction is to this. Verse six, and it repented the
Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it 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 the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me that I have made them. Wow. That's a really strong reaction
to our sin. The Lord said, I will destroy
man, and that's speaking of all humans, whom I have created from
the face of the earth, all of them. So what do we learn from
these seven verses we've read so far? We first learn that God
hates iniquity. In Hebrews, it says, thou hast
loved righteousness and hated iniquity. and we learn that God
is just and holy. In Matthew it says, Then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that
work iniquity. Sin will be punished. The verses here show us that
we all need salvation. We talked about salvation is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The first part that's of this
story is to show we need salvation. Okay, so there's a phrase that
I see all the time. There's a car that I park to
on a consistent basis that has a bumper sticker that says, God
loves everybody. Now, children, if you haven't
already learned this in school, at some point you will learn
how to deduce things, okay? And I'm going to explain how
that works. I asked Isabella, before the service, to give me
someone in her classroom that was shorter than her. She said
Samuel, okay? I have no idea how tall Samuel
is, okay? But I know standing next to Isabella
that I'm taller than her. So what can I deduce from that?
I know that I'm taller than Samuel. I don't have to see Samuel to
know if he's shorter than her, he's shorter than me, okay? So
using that, those two things we just learned, okay? God is
just and God hates iniquity, okay? It says in our Word that
men are evil continually. And we see there's none good,
no not one. And we also see that God hates
sin and hates iniquity. So if we're only sin and God
hates sin, that means He hates man. That means He hates the
sin that's in us. Now, I'll come back to that shortly. Look at verse eight. Verse eight
says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord said He will destroy
man. He just said that back in the
verses before. And He said all man. Then He gives us this but. Now, this but isn't contradicting
anything that's been said. The Lord doesn't do that. He
doesn't ever contradict Himself. This doesn't change the fact
that Noah still fits in this first group. He still fits in
this man whose only thought's evil continually. This but isn't
telling us that Noah deserves something different than all
these people got. He still is the sinner and he
still deserves what the Lord says, I will destroy man. The
but here simply tells us Though everybody deserves the wrath
of God, everybody, and they deserve the punishment of death, there
is a somebody who isn't under his wrath, but under his grace. Everybody in the world ever. Every man, woman that's ever
existed is either in the wrath of God or they're in the grace
of God. Those are the only places you
can be. So if we go back to what we're looking through on this,
everybody either has salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ or they
don't have salvation. So keep going here in verse 9.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and
perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." Again,
now, in the first seven verses, it never says in there anywhere
except Noah. There's no asterisk here or anything
that pulls him out of that. It's talking about all men. So
how can we call Noah here? It says Noah was a just man and
perfect. How can we say those things about
him? Well, let's talk through it again, deducing something,
okay? So if the Lord is just and perfect,
and Noah is in the Lord, then what can we say? In the Lord,
Noah is just and perfect. Now there's no way we can get
Noah to perfect and just without him being in the Lord. We can't
connect those two things without in the Lord. That's the only
way you get there, which again is that comment about salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because salvation is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and if you're in the Lord Jesus Christ, the child
of God inherits his perfection. Now, I went to lunch a couple
weeks ago to a busy restaurant after Sunday morning church.
And Sunday afternoon after church at a busy restaurant is a very
interesting place sometimes. The comments you'll hear and
the things you'll see and everything. But there was a lady wearing
a shirt that had four words on it. And there are a lot of things
in this that I could probably just keep talking about and being
frustrated, but I'm just going to apply it to what we just said.
The shirt said, not perfect, just forgiven. Now there's a
lot of things in that that go all over everything, but using
what we're talking about here real quick. If you are not perfect,
if you and me, if we're not perfect, we aren't forgiven. Okay, that's
just as simple as it is. We heard our pastor this morning
in a message say something about that word forgiven and the way
people misuse it and everything. The only way to justification,
the only way to salvation is if we are perfect, okay? Now, anybody who wants to argue
that, we can just immediately go back to Adam, okay? Adam was
perfect. He was made perfect. He didn't
sin. He was perfect. And then he ate
one piece of fruit he was told not to. The Lord chose that action,
okay? And I think part of the reason
is, it's hard to think of a sin that's less bad, for lack of
a better term. Like, that's such a, I mean,
if I went for a walk in my neighborhood, and my neighbor had a tree with
apples on it, and I went and took an apple, I wouldn't think
the fact that I'm stealing from him. But that's what I'm doing.
But the point is this, Adam never sinned ever until he sinned and
it was done. He was dead, spiritually dead
at that very moment. So this comment, not perfect,
well it's too late then. If you're not perfect, you got
no shot. So we have to be in the Lord Jesus Christ because
we have to be perfect. Okay, now look at verse 11. The earth also was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked
upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had
corrupted his way upon the earth. 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 with the
earth." The wrath of God was coming, and the wrath of God
is coming. It doesn't take a huge event
like the flood for the wrath of God to come. The wrath of
God will come to everyone no matter how they physically die
on this earth. But this is a warning to Noah. It's another warning to tell
him it's coming, okay? And he says, I'll destroy all
men again. Now look in verse 14. 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
is the fashion which thou shalt make it of. The length of the
ark shall be 300 cubits, and the breadth of it 50 cubits,
and the height of it 30 cubits. A window shalt thou make to the
ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the door
of the ark shalt thou set, and the side thereof with lower,
second, and third stories shalt thou make. These three verses
simply tell us that God will provide a means of salvation. The arc in this story is Christ. The details in these three verses
have many different meanings. And there are messages I've heard
that use these three verses, and it's wonderful to see all
the details. But for this message's sake, I'm simply gonna say this
about all that description. Nothing, no part of the Ark here
was left up to Noah. He didn't have any input. He
didn't make any changes. They didn't have a conversation
about it. All of it was a commandment from God. This is salvation,
okay? And it's the same thing that
he says to us throughout this whole book. There's no, you know,
if you do this, or you can go around this way. No, this whole
book is salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one way.
That's it. There's one way. Okay, look at verse 17. And behold,
I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy
all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and
everything that is in the earth shall die. Everything that has
breath shall die. Everything, okay? Now look at
the beginning of 18. But with thee will I establish
my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark. Here's that word
but again. Why does Noah get this promise? What's different about him? Because
as we see here, and it'll continue to follow this, nobody else gets
this promise. There are a lot of men in the
earth and one man gets this promise. The key to it is because it says
but that with thee will I establish my covenant. With you I'll have
this, and thou shalt come into the ark." Noah got this covenant
because he's in Christ, because he's gonna be in the ark. And
it doesn't say here, if you go in the ark, you'll get this covenant. It says, my covenant with thee,
and you're gonna get in the ark. Okay? If you look at these lines
again, the covenant here was made before the ark was provided. There's not an ark yet. We don't
have an ark. But this covenant says, but with thee will I establish
my covenant. Now, let's examine this word
established. It says, with thee will I establish
my covenant. Oftentimes when I hear that word,
I think of starting something or beginning something. But that's
not the meaning here. The definition of the word establish
is to rise. And it can be read with these
words. These are words that are used
in the Bible instead of the word establish. Okay, I'm gonna read
that phrase again, inputting those definitions. With thee
will I lift up my covenant. With thee will I perform my covenant. With thee will I make good or
make sure my covenant. Now why does this matter? Why
does it matter that this word doesn't here mean, with thee
will I start my covenant? And instead it means I will perform
it or make sure it. Well that's because God's covenant
with each of his children was made before the foundation of
the world. This covenant he's speaking of here is not something
that he's bringing up to Noah as something as, here it is,
he's not handing it to him or making a deal right now. It's
something that was performed, that was established before time
began. And his performing it here is
when the child of God realizes that they have to be in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He makes his covenant real to
them. He makes it aware and they understand
the need to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the covenant
is already established. I saw a bumper sticker that said,
Jesus is still saving lives. I really wished I could have
rolled my window down and yelled at the person and said, he's
already done. The Lord is already done saving. It may not be revealed
to us who has been saved, or it may not be revealed that we
have been saved, or we have not been saved. We may not know those
things. But the work has already been finished, no matter what
we know. And to imply other than that is just another way of man
trying to say that God needs something from us, or that we
have a role in it. But, as we all know, salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, look at verse 22 with me.
Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did
he. God commanded these things. Which things? All the things. So, every part of this story
God commanded? No, every part of this book God
commanded. So, but not everything, everything. No, every part of everything
God commanded. Now, why did Noah do all these
things? Because God commanded him to. It's as simple as that. If God
commands something, it will be done. Okay, look at chapter 7,
verse 1. 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. Look at verse four. For yet seven
days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth, 40 days
and 40 nights, and every living substance that I have made will
I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according
unto all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah was 600 years old
when the flood of waters was upon the earth. There was a hundred
years between the time that God told Noah the floods were coming
and the time when the floods came. The coming of His wrath
was a hundred years in the making. In 1 Peter 3, it actually describes
this time period as the long-suffering of God. He gave Noah a hundred
years to preach to all these people and to tell them the flood
was coming, The ark is going to be the only way you're going
to be saved. And in a hundred years, everyone had heard of
the wrath to come, and that was the only way. But no one else
came. No one else. This is another
example that the only people who will be saved are the ones
that God chose and that He commanded to get in the ark. In Romans
9, Don't turn to it, let me just read it to you. In Romans 9,
it says this. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath
resisted his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou
that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that He might
make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy,
which He had aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom He hath called?" We also see in this same passage
here that they got in the ark before the rain started. You have to be in the Lord before
the wrath comes. Now, you know that them getting
in the ark before the rain started is of God. Now, why do you know
that? It had been a hundred years since they were told this rain
was coming. They didn't just all of a sudden pick the right
day to get in. They had no idea when to get
in, but God told them and they got in. The elect of God are
redeemed by the Lord, and they're called to Him by His Spirit.
Yet, like Noah, they hear it, they believe it, and they willingly
come to Christ. They come to Christ, their ark
of safety. By faith, they do enter into
Christ. Now, verse 10. Chapter 7, verse
10, And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of
the flood were upon the earth. The wrath of God came exactly
when God said it would come, and it's coming again on the
exact day He's appointed for it to come. Now, we are like
them. We have no idea when the flood's
coming. We don't know if it's today,
or 100 years from now, or whenever. But the lesson in that is knowing
that we have to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this sense,
get in the ark. Okay, verse 16. And they that
went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded
him, and the Lord shut him in. This is the way to salvation. God commanded him, and the Lord
shut him in. He was chosen, and he was grasped,
and he's in the Lord. And it's pitched within, without,
there's no other way, just the one way. There's no safety for
anyone that was near the ark. The person who was standing near
the ark, it didn't help them any. There was no safety beside
the ark, under the ark, over the ark. There was no safety
if the person was touching the ark. That wasn't good enough.
You couldn't be standing on a hill looking at the ark. That didn't
help. You couldn't have said, yeah, I know about the ark. Knowing
didn't help. And it didn't help if you had
your own ship next to the ark. You had to be in the ark. Now look at verse 17. And the
flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased
and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And
the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth,
and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters
prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills
that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits
upward did the water prevail, and the mountains were covered.
It rained so much and the water came up so much that even the
highest mountain was covered in water. There was no refuge
left. The wrath of God will prevail
over all of the earth. It will rise above all of it.
It makes the place that there's no place of refuge available
for man. The only place is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And now verse 21, And all flesh
died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and
of beasts, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth, and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath
of life, of all that was in dry land died. And every living substance
was destroyed upon which was upon the face of the ground,
both man and cattle and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven,
and they were destroyed from the earth. And look at verse
24, And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and
fifty days. Everything was destroyed. God
had said everything that breathed air would die, and they all did,
just as he had said. God's justice is complete. There is no partiality. There's no pieces of God's justice. It's an absolute thing. If you
are under the wrath of God, you will surely die. So now go back
into the second part of verse 23 here. I skipped over this.
Toward the bottom it says, and Noah only remained alive and
they that were with him in the ark. The most important phrase
of that part is the in the ark. That's the only difference, again,
we've said this over and over, the only difference between Noah
and those that were with him, because they were in the ark,
Back to that phrase I said I would come back to, Jesus loves everybody.
That phrase is so popular because man loves a God that loves man. Okay? Man loves a God that loves
man. God doesn't love people. God loves his son. Noah wasn't saved because he
was better. He wasn't saved because he did
something different. Noah was commanded to get in
the ark, and he was saved because he was in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 1 of chapter
8. We're almost done. And God remembered Noah, and
every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the
ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters
assuaged, or they started to go away. The fountains also of
the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from
heaven was restrained. And the waters returned from
off the earth continually. And after the end of 150 days,
the waters were abated. Why did the waters end when they
did? They ended after the punishment
was complete. They ended after the wrath had
been satisfied. Okay, look at verse four. And
the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day
of that month upon the mountains of Ararat. Christ didn't rest
until the wrath of God was completely satisfied for all of those that
were in him. That ark did not rest on those
mountains until the waters had stopped and the wrath of God
had been satisfied. Now, another part of this is
the people that were in the ark, Noah and his family, they had
no idea where they were. The waters had covered everything.
They didn't have any idea where they were. Nothing outside of
the ark mattered to those who were inside the ark. Now, if
we could somehow just get a little bit of that, okay? If a child
of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what else is
going on outside of that, okay? It doesn't mean we quit our jobs
and we, whatever. I mean, our Lord has given us
very particular ways to act and behave, okay? But we worry too
much about all these things. When we, if we're put in a bad
enough situation, we will be like these people in the ark,
where nothing else around us matters except that we're in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, now, look at chapter eight,
verse 15. And God spoke unto Noah, saying,
Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy
sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living
thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of the fowl, and
of the cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful
and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his
sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, every beast,
every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth
upon the earth after their kinds went forth out of the ark." Every
single person, animal, creature that went into the ark came out
of the ark. Everything. Exactly how it was
when it went in. Actually, I changed that. When
they came out of the ark, they no longer had to worry about
the wrath of God. They had been saved. Many people
would say that at this very moment when we just saw here, that Noah's
salvation was now complete. The flood was over, the water
was gone, and he again had his footing on dry ground. But then
others might say, well, when the boat rested on the mountains,
that's really when he was safe. That was really the point, he
was safe. But then someone else might say, actually, it was when
the rain stopped. Because when the rain stopped,
they knew that the water would go down. And then others would
say, no, actually, he was safe when he was shut in. When they
shut him in the ark, that's when he was safe. Or maybe he was
safe when God told him the flood was coming. That's when it was.
But he was safe when the covenant was made before the foundation
of the world. Okay? All the other details are
our experience, and we feel these things, and it's hard for us
to see them, but at no point during all of those events, when
he found out that he had to undertake this huge, monstrous task of
building this ark, that waters were going to flood the earth
and kill all men, at no point during any of that stuff was
he ever in danger. Now, I don't know how he felt
about it, but he was never, ever in danger. Because any man or
woman or child that has a covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, they're
safe. They will be saved. Salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, now look at chapter 9,
verse 1, our last verse here. And God blessed Noah and his
sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
earth. God blessed Noah. God blesses all of His children. What we see about the Ark here,
and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, in closing, the Ark was
the only way of deliverance. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only way to salvation. The Ark was big enough for all
who came. It was the perfect It was the
perfect vehicle to save all of them. The Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth and lived perfectly. He was the perfect substitute
for His children. The ark was a safe refuge, and
it was able and sure to survive the flood. The Lord Jesus Christ,
bearing the sins of His people, He was the perfect substitute. He was the perfect person to
bear the wrath of God that we deserve. And finally, the ark
brought them all safely through the flood. The Lord Jesus Christ
died on Calvary. And he didn't rise from the grave
until the full wrath of God to every single child of his was
fully paid. Nothing left to do. And at that
moment, he rose, and he's ascended on high, and he sits on the throne.
That's why salvation is completely in the Lord Jesus Christ.