Genesis chapter 7. We'll begin
in verse 21. We're going to look at the death,
the burial, and the resurrection. Genesis 7 verse 21. And all flesh died that moved
upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast,
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 the dry land died. And every living substance was
destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle and creeping things and the fowl of the heaven. And
they were destroyed from earth. And Noah only remained alive. And they that were with him in
the ark And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and
fifty days. And God remembered Noah, chapter
8, verse 1. 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
swaged. 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 a hundred
and fifty days, the waters were abated. And the ark rested in
the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains
of Ariadne." As we've been going through the story of Noah and
the ark, we've seen Noah as a type of Christ, and this ark as a
type of Christ. And we see clearly a picture
here of how Christ saves His sheep from the wrath and the
judgment of Almighty God. He said back in Genesis 6, 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. What
a sobering thought. When the Lord brings His flood,
He's going to destroy every living thing that breathed air. Everything
that had breath in its lungs, He's going to destroy. Mankind
now believes that because they're not dealing in God's judgment,
that judgment ain't coming. Prison's an easy thing to forget
if you ain't in it, isn't it? The Lord is going to come again.
It gives us this picture of whenever He sent judgment the first time
on a scale that this world had never seen and hasn't seen until
He comes again. He deals with sin. Men need to
know that. Women need to know that. Children
need to hear that. God's real. He is. He cannot clear the guilty
by no means except for Noah and his family. his bride, his sons,
his daughter-in-laws, and all those animals, all those creeping
things that the Lord was pleased to save. They lived. Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. He determined, the Lord had determined
before time to save Noah, to deliver him. And that grace,
that love was set upon Noah before the world was made. Before he
spoke to Noah, The Lord was gracious to him. The Lord looked upon
him. The Lord thought of him, loved him. And it pleased the
Lord to deliver Noah, his family, and all those creatures when
everyone else drowned in the flood. The way that God was pleased
to spare Noah was using this ark. It was this great mighty
vessel that housed him, that protected him, that provided
for him. All his provisions were in it. The ark was the means
of escape. It was the means of security.
It was deliverance from Noah. It delivered him and his household
from death. When God sent the waters, it
was a picture of His wrath against sin. His judgment against sin. Nothing escaped it. Nothing escaped
it. Outside of that ark, there was
no life breathing. Boy, what a picture we have.
When that flood came, people did all they could to avoid it.
Right now, men and women do all they can to not think about these
things. Boy, put it out of your mind. Or the Padres playing,
something. Watch the news, even if it's
bad. Don't think about these things. They had mines back then.
We have mines now. I can surely imagine they climbed
the trees as the water came. They got on top of every building
they could get a hold of as these waters came up and come down.
They climbed the mountains as they come sideways up and down
on them, doing everything they could to escape the flood, to
escape these waters of judgment. But they could not avoid it.
They could not save themselves. It says in verse 21 of chapter
7, and all flesh died that moved upon the earth. We have a picture
here in this ark of how the Lord saved Noah. It's a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ and what a precious thing that is. It's
precious. I have two pictures in my office
of my father, my dad, and they look like pictures. If you looked
at them and said, well, that's the same fella. They're 20, 25
years apart. Wouldn't think nothing of it,
would you? But to me, both of those pictures are precious.
I know the context of them. I know the man in them. They mean something to me. There's
some little details that I can't overlook. Because I know what's
there. You may not see it, but I know
the man. I know what that picture's of,
where it's from. And I can't overlook those things.
And I can't get tired of seeing them. I've zig-zagged this country
three times with them. I've had them for 25 years. And
I don't get tired of looking at them. What a picture we have
of our Lord here. I don't get tired of looking
at it. I want to hear it again. In this picture we see the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of our Lord. First His death. Why was this ark prepared? Why
did the Lord say, Noah, make yourself an ark? The Lord did
that to save a chosen people. To save Noah and his family. Why did our Lord have to come
to this earth and die? To save a chosen people. Paul wrote to the Romans and
said, for the wages of sin is death. That's what sin earns. That's its wage. Death. But the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ezekiel
said, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The cross must
come to that hour. His hour wouldn't come for so
many hours, but that hour came. He must come to that hour. He
must suffer and He must die on that cross because of the sin
and the rebellion of those put in Him, those that's made one
with Him. Noah was full of sin just like
every other person that drowned in that flood. There wasn't no
difference in him. He's a child of Adam. There wasn't no difference.
So sin must be dealt with, and Noah's sin was dealt with. God purposed that ark. He called
Noah into that ark. He sealed him in that ark, shut
him up in it, and when the rains came and those floods rose up,
it beat on the ark. It didn't beat on Noah. It beat
on his sons and daughters-in-law, his bride. It beat on the ark.
Noah was in the ark, but the judgment he rightly earned, just
like everybody else, God's judgment for Noah fell on that ark. The
water was destroyed. This water destroyed all mankind. All the trees, everything that
breathed. The death rightfully given by
God. That was right. That was just.
And it was endured for the ark for all of those in it. The ark
withstood it. It bore it. That's the same judgment
this world's never seen, hasn't seen since. Fell upon that ark
in full force. Same judgment everybody else
got. In full force, came upon that ark. Same water, same judgment,
all in that one ark. The only thing at all to protect
Noah from the judgment of God was the ark. The only thing that
stood between Noah and perishing And what he earned, just like
everybody else, was that ark. The only one that mediates, that
reconciles, that intervenes between the holy God we sinned against
and the sinner that sinned against Him, is the God-man mediator,
Christ Jesus. He's the only thing in between
us. I only hope we have. And he's the one that bore it.
And he bore the full force of it. David wrote to us in Psalm
88, Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me
with all thy waves. He said in Psalm 42, Deep calleth
unto deep, and the noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and
thy billows are gone over me. It didn't just tap it on the
side, it covered it. When Christ stood as a substitute for His
people, He didn't just take a slap on the wrist. It wasn't just
a wink and a nod. It wasn't pretend. He endured
the full wrath of the Father for each of His people. That
violent waves, those violent billows, all of them, they fell
on our Lord. Paul wrote to us and said, for
he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be the righteousness of God in him. He bore all of it. That opened up Isaiah 53 to me. Today I'll study this again.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, he hath carried our sorrows,
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted,
but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. With His stripes
we're healed. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. That doesn't make any sense to
us, does it? That's right. That's just and the justifier.
He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.
By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquities. He bears their iniquities. He
bears the punishment, the wages for them. Instead of God's wrath
falling on Noah, it fell on the ark. Instead of God's wrath falling
on His elect throughout every generation, it fell on our Redeemer. He bore it all. He was perfect. He was without sin. But He must
die, not for His sin, but because of the sins of His people that
were laid on Him. This flood came once. This earth was flooded
like we can't even imagine. It happened one time. Throughout the history of this
earth, it happened one time. And it had accomplished the justice
of God just exactly as He wanted it to. Christ went to that cross
one time, completely accomplishing the justice of God for His people.
Peter told us, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins. The just, that's our Lord, it
ain't us. The just for the unjust, that's
us. That He might bring us to God, being put to death in the
flesh. He had to come and be made a
man. God could not die. Man cannot satisfy. But the God-man,
He died and satisfied. He took on human flesh and He
died as a perfect man, as our substitute. Noah deserved to
die just like everybody else. But when those waters accomplished
what God purposed them to do that whole time, Noah was completely
safe in that ark. Not a drop is going to touch
him. He says there in Genesis 7, 17, And the flood was forty
days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and bare up
the ark. And it was lifted up above the
earth, the whole earth. When everything else died in
the waters, all the birds, all the cattle, the trees, the men,
the women, the ark alone survived. And as those waters rose, as
they increased, that ark rose. Our Lord said, and if I be lifted
up from the earth will draw all men unto me. If we had a satellite
picture, if we had drones, we can get some drone footage of
that. Picture this whole earth covered in water. The only thing
you would see is that ark. It's the only thing to see. You
saw wrath, you saw him. You saw wrath, you saw the ark.
That's the highest point on earth. I got to think about that. A
man told me one time I was in basketball. summer class or whatever. And
he said, you know, you can only see half a basketball at a time.
I said, boy, that's true. That's deep thought. I was in
a deep thinking back then. But I thought, you know, what's
the top of the world? I was sitting on top of the world. If this
ball was covered in water, you don't know where the top and
the bottom is. Wherever that arc is, that's the top. And it's
the highest point, highest thing to be seen. His death was a death
of substitution. And boy, if we'd get a hold of
that. We can understand what that meant. A substitute solely
stands in place of another, and it solely does the work of another. If you've got a pinch hitter
in baseball, you don't have your pitcher and the pitch hitter
up to swing at the same time. Only one goes. If you've got
a substitute teacher in a class, the teacher shows up, the substitute
goes home. They stand in place of, they do the work for. Our
Lord was before Pilate, and Pilate said to him, he said, you have
a custom. that I should release unto you one at the Passover.
Will ye therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews?"
And they all cried again, saying, not this man. We don't want him,
but Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. He's a robber. He's a thief. One of those crosses
that ended up on Calvary was going to be for Barabbas. He's
going to carry it up there. But when Christ took his place,
Barabbas was set free. He lived because another died
in his place. He had a substitute. All that
Christ died for must go free. Boy, that puts an end to 95%
of this world's religion, don't it? If the Lord died for a child,
if He died for one of His elect, for one of His people, they must
go free. There ain't no chance. His justice, His honor is at
stake. They must go free. If He made them righteous, they
must be righteous. That ain't gonna change. This ark endured
the wrath for Noah, not for everyone on earth, only those that were
in the ark. Those that were in Christ. We've
heard this reference a lot. I'll use it. They used to have
those bumper stickers that says, smile, God loves you. Somebody
said, boy, it wouldn't mean much on the outside of that ark, would
it? That'd be a lie. That's what that'd be. Boy, what
if you put that on the inside of the ark? Well, I discount
those things so quickly because they're just abused and just
used for lies and deceit so often. But what if I was on the inside
of the ark? Now, I could wake up every day and see that sign
and say, well, that's right. That's right. I hope next time
somebody calls me and they're just distraught and they tore
all the pieces, I could say, fold it up, your heads. That's true to believe, right?
That's true to childhood. What more comfort could, what else
you need to hear? Man, waves ain't so rough no more, Lord
loves. Not on the outside of that ark. When Noah entered that
ark, that was death to him. Did you know that? Noah died
when he went in that ark. This world was dead to Noah. He left everything he had. He
left his water pot. If he had a construction business
on the side, it's gone. He had in-laws and outlaws and
everything else. His wife had family. His daughter-in-laws
had parents. People on this earth, wasn't
there? Dead to the earth. This world was dead to him and
he was dead to it. He lived. He was shut up in Christ
and everything he had before was at the bottom of the ocean.
It was covered in water. But everything he needed was
right in that ark. He didn't need nothing else. All his provision
was there. Noah forsook the world and Christ's
ark was his everything. He was everything to Him. He's
dead to the world, dead to sin, dead to judgment. Judgment couldn't
touch Him because Christ died in His place. Next thing we see is the burial.
When God began to send the waters, they came from above and they
came from below and it surrounded the ark. That ark was buried.
It says in verse 11, Genesis 7-11, In the 600th year of Noah's life,
in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day
were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the
windows of heaven were open. Those fountains of the deep were
broken. They burst upward. I just thought
of a volcano, but instead of lava, it was water. Do you know
how much ground water is underneath it? What keeps that ground water
in the ground? The Lord does. Think He can make it come out?
Of course He can. He opened the ground waters up. They broke
forth, come out and the heavens, the windows of the heavens were
open and the waters come down. It came from below and it came
from above. It was like that ark was buried. It came from
the sides, from the bottom, from the top. It was consumed, completely
covered. That's a picture of our Lord.
Paul told us, for I delivered unto you first of all that which
I also received. Can't talk about a man you ain't
never met. You can't come back from a place you ain't never
been. Paul received it. Paul met Him. How that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that He was buried. How was He buried? According
to the Scriptures. Completely. And He rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures. Why was Christ buried? Because
He is dead. You don't bury somebody that's
alive. This isn't pretend, is it? This isn't as if. He came. He lived. He died. He really
bore the wrath. When our Lord hung on that cross,
it was getting close to 6 p.m. before the Passover started.
The Jews didn't want to break the Passover. So they sped things
up a little bit. They were going to break the
legs of those hanging there. And when the soldiers got to
Christ, he was already dead. That the scriptures might be
fulfilled that not one bone of his body be broken. That was
according to the scriptures too, wasn't it? But they took a spear
and they pierced his side just to prove on a shadow of a doubt,
there's no questions, he was dead. Water and blood come out.
They pierced his side. He died and they buried him.
We read this morning, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, they
put our Lord in Joseph's tomb, and they rolled a stone over
it, because He is dead. He was buried. When Christ walked
this earth in perfection, those in Him walked in perfection in
Him. When He bore the judgment, and
God turned His back on Him, we bore the judgment in Him. When
He was buried, we were buried with Him. When He died, we died. Noah was in the ark. It was buried.
But it didn't stay that way, did it? And Acts 2.27 says, "...because
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
the unholy one to see corruption." Christ died, but His body saw
no corruption. His body didn't rot. We're dying
from birth. Boy, to be around a dead body
long, they don't start smelling too good. He satisfied the judgment
and the wrath of Almighty God. That's why I didn't see corruption.
It was finished. This ark's a picture of our Lord's
death. When He died for my sin, I died.
It's a picture of His burial. When He was put away, I was put
away. And lastly, this ark pictures
our Lord and His resurrection. He came forth from the grave.
Why did He leave that tomb? All the justice was fulfilled.
The judgment was over. It was complete. It was done.
He came forth. He's alive. Justice demanded
it. And just as He is, we are in
Him. We're alive because He lives.
That wrath came against the ark. It covered the ark. But that
ark was lifted up above the water. And God's judgment was satisfied.
Those waters, we read there in chapter 8, they began to assuage.
They were receding, started going down. The winds began to stop.
The windows of heaven were closed. Those fountains were closed up.
And those waters started returning back to where they came from.
It says there in Genesis 8 verse 4, And the ark rested in the
seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains
of Ariad. That's the resurrection. Now
we're gonna see life again. We was trapped in this ark. All
we saw was judgment coming. Everybody's gonna die. Lord put us in this ark. He shut
us up in it. And now we're on dry land again. Oh, it's them
boys. We're gonna live again, boys.
That ark brought Noah safely through the flood. Not even,
not one, none of them in the ark perished. Not a fly, not
a gnat, not a centipede, nothing. Nothing died in that ark. Everything lived. And they were
standing now on resurrected ground. They're standing on dry ground.
It's a picture of Christ bringing his people safely through that
river of Jordan when we leave this world, to live with him
forever. It's like Jonah coming out of
the belly of that whale, put on dry ground. It's where the
ark takes us, where the waters have receded, and they won't
touch us anymore. Our Lord didn't remain in the
grave. He came out victorious on the other side. He conquered
the grave. And what conquered the floods
for Noah? The ark did. Who brings us through? Who's
going to keep us? Who's going to be our conqueror?
The Lord Jesus Christ is. I read this earlier for 1 Peter
3.18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. Why did he do that? That he might
bring us to God. He might bring us to the Lord's
dry ground. Be in his presence. Paul said, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised up for our justification. Noah
came through the wrath of God, the death, the burial, and now
he stands alive, justified. Right. Hold it. Perfect. Stand
up on that mount. We read in Ephesians 2, but God
who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. He's made us alive. He's given
us this life, quickened us. And hath raised us up together. Just like He raised Noah and
that ark, put it on top of that mountain. He hath raised us up
together and made us set together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. That union with Christ, being
made one with Him. That's why we gladly enter those
waters of baptism. We go in that water and we say,
when He died, I died. I was in Him. It wasn't me, nothing
I did. No, it was just in the ark. When He died, I died. When He
was buried, He went underneath them waters. I was with Him.
I was in Him. God commanded that I come to
Him. God shut me up in there, sealed me in Him. And when He
arose, I arose with Him. Somebody says, why in the world
would you get baptized? That's insulting for a grown
person. Why would you do that? Other
people do that. My Lord asked us to. He gave us a commandment
to. I love Him. He died for me. He's
buried for me. He's risen for me. Take His table. Remember His body. Gladly. Gladly. That's not a burden. It's not
a burden to obey Him if there's love involved, is it? And as
He sits on the throne, as He was lifted up, we sit with Him. I can't enter into that now.
I can't. There'll be a day I can. I can't
enter into that. My brother Greg said one time,
he said, we'll realize in this physical death, when this body's
shed, and we're brought to glory that we've always been there."
And I said, what's the truth then? That's the truth. Paul said, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow, those
that He loved before He told them. He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that Christ, Christ
our Lord, might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
Whom He did predestinate, He called. Whom He called, He justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. That's past tense. That means
He exalted them, lifted them up, raised them with Christ. Before Noah went in that ark,
the Lord had glorified Him. He justified because He said
so. He entered that covenant of grace with His Son before
time. And it was so. It was so. What shall we say
then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
made Him a human, made Him this ark, put His people in. He didn't
spare Him, but delivered Him up, exalted Him for us all. How shall He not also with Him
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Across
that ark. Across their ark. Because of
Him bearing those rats. Him bringing His people to the
other side. He justified them in His blood. He was risen. We're glorified with Him. Who's
going to lay anything to charge God to lay? No, I don't think
that's fair. They gurgled for a minute and
then they drowned, didn't they? No one can. That serpent, it
can try to. It's been defeated too. It's
done. One day, we'll leave this world,
and we'll stand on solid ground, and we'll rest. We'll rest like
we don't know what rest is. I was going to take a nap that
day, come close to it. And I thought, well, I'm not
wired for naps. If I slow down for seven or eight
minutes, boy, I went from 30 miles an hour to 10. That slows
me down. And I thought, well, it'd be good to rest this time.
We don't know what rest is. We're in Hebrews 4, 9, "...there
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." We rest in
Him now. When we look at eternity, when we look at the judgment
and those things, boy, we can rest in Christ. We're put in
that ark. We can see the pitch. We're reminded of His blood.
We see His provision. We have a window giving us light.
The Holy Spirit speaks to us, gives us understanding, teaches
us. We know those things, but boy, there's a rest coming. There's
a rest for His people. Paul wrote back in Ephesians
2, that in ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace and His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. What
kindness! He's done something for you.
The Lord spoke to you, commanded you to get in that ark. You said,
thank you, Lord. And you saw something of judgment.
You saw that's what you earned. You saw that Christ bore it.
Oh, what riches! What exceeding riches! And that's
what we see now. That's just what we see now.
Imagine when He sets us down. We don't have sin clouding our
eyes. We see Him as He is, and it's still true what this means.
Boy, that'll be a day, won't it? Oh, we'll sing His praises.