Alright, if you will, open to
Romans 9. This won't be my text, but I
woke up this morning and it seemed appropriate. Romans 9. Beginning in verse 22. 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? What if he was ready to kill
them, and he waited? He held off. And that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had afford prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath
called, not only of the Jews, but also the Gentiles." What
if the Lord was ready to destroy those vessels of wrath, but he
held off just so he could make these vessels of mercy see his
glory? Well, that happened. If you would,
turn to Genesis 6. It happens often. It's happening
today for us. This world's upheld for His glory
so His elect can hear of Him. Genesis chapter 6, we'll see
the first time this happens. This is lots of firsts. My wife ain't here, so I'm still
waiting to bumper whenever I get home, see if I did all right. I brought my analog notes in
case my computer fails the first time I'm using a computer. And
this is the largest text I've ever tried to cover. I'm really
reaching way farther than I ought to. Chapter six of Genesis, this
is a story of the flood, Noah and Ark. I got to thinking about
this, a girl in our congregation, they're gonna, just got married,
and she come from Darwin's Church, and they're gonna have a baby.
And I thought, oh, what trials are coming to you? I'm thankful
for them, but I hurt for them already. They're gonna have a
lot of long nights. But I got to thinking too, I
was cleaning out my girl's room, and we got a little ark, little
Noah's Ark piggy bank. And the only reason I threw it
away is I think it's made out of silver. I might have to melt
it down one day. I get about $10 out of it. Just the foolish gifts. Easter
has turned into bunny rabbits that lay chocolate eggs. I don't
know how in the world we came there. But Noah's Ark has become... It's a bedtime story. It's coloring
books for children. It's a pretty bumper pad around
the cradle and little toys and figurines. And it's just a nice
story to tell kids. This scripture, this entire book,
it's not for entertainment. It's not to pacify children or
teach them moral lessons and tell them little good boys go
to heaven and bad boys go to hell. It's to teach of Christ
and what He's done for His people, and that's it. So, there's a
lot of misconceptions about this flood, what I just mentioned.
And a lot of people look over things, they don't have the eyes,
it's not sent to them to understand. And they don't want to see it.
So to start like I did yesterday, the bad news, man fell in the
garden and our just God punishes sin. That's a fact. So we'll look in verse 6. Why would God destroy the earth?
Sin destroyed the earth. It destroys our bodies, doesn't
it? Man fell in the garden and continues to fall. In each generation,
we just have to fall worse, it appears. But Bob Coffey told
me one time, he said, Eve was the prettiest woman that ever
walked the face of the earth. And I thought, how would he know
that? I was a little guy, you know. She didn't know sin for
quite a while. She was morally innocent. And
that took a toll on this body. As I age, I grow a little older.
Every day I look in the mirror and these gray hairs are coming
out and my eyes are wrinkly and my skin's fading because I've
been out in the sun having to work and sweating my brow. But these two, they had no sin.
The Lord gave them one rule, and one thing, they couldn't
keep it. Genesis 6, verse 1, And it came to pass, when men
began to multiply on the face of the earth, that's what they
were instructed to do. Genesis 1, 28, multiply and fill
the earth. And the daughters were born unto
them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they
were fair. They were appealing to the eye, just like the fruit
was to Eve, appealing to their flesh. And they took them wives,
plural, all of which they chose. So what we see here, that's easy
to walk over. The Lord has Moses put that in
there before he continues in verse 3. That's just natural
things. That's what happens. People get
married, have children, find a wife. We are in a pre-arranged
marriage. I want to be clear. I know people
can be confused. I'm not endorsing saying that
we have to have pre-arranged marriages. But however, spiritually,
we're in a pre-arranged marriage. We were given to Christ. He's
our husband. And at those times, the Lord
made wives. Made a wife for Adam. And the sons of God are depicted
as those children of Seth. and the sons of men, and the
children of Cain. The Lord told them not to bother
with one another, and they did. Those sons of Seth found daughters. They found unbelievers and married
them on purpose. The Lord mentions this, and it
goes on in verse 3, the Lord said, My spirit shall not always
strive with man, for that he also..." meaning the whole race
of humanity, "...his 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 bare children to them,
the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."
Why would they mention this? It seems so irrelevant, doesn't
it? These believing folks, the children of God, had children
with unbelievers and the kids seemed to come out all right.
Well, we had babies, that's what's supposed to happen. They're growing
up strong, they're well known, they're men of renown, they're
doing great things. They're mayors or firefighters or whatever they
had in those days. And they seemed to be just fine.
But like Eve, when she ate that fruit, she didn't immediately
die in the flesh. She died spiritually, so she
didn't see that death immediately. And they didn't see the downfall
of what they were doing. Verse 5, And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart were evil continually. That's called total depravity. It is true now as it was in Noah's
day, and men know it." You know it in your heart. We were talking
about that the other day. Adam ate that fruit, and all of a
sudden he knew he was naked. However many years he had been
on this earth after the Lord made him, he didn't know he was naked.
He had no shame of it. As soon as he ate, he knew inside. He did not know in his head,
but his heart knew spiritually he was naked. Alright, so that's
how we started. Now we get to verse 6. This is
the Lord's wrath. He's prepared and scheduled it. In verse 6 it says, 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. Oh boy, that's not a trial. That was a trial for me. It took
me years to learn what one of the forms of repentance was.
And a lot of people come to me, a good friend of mine who likes
to argue everything we can find. He says, doesn't God change his
mind? He changed his mind, Kevin. It
repented him. And I said, I don't know what
that verse means. This was years ago. I said, I
don't know what that verse means, but it doesn't mean that. Someday the
Lord will show me. But that's not the God of the Bible. Numbers
23, 19 says, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the
son of man, lowercase son is a child, neither the son of man
that he should repent. He hath said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make good on it? Malachi 3 says, you all know
these, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed. He doesn't change, does he? He
wouldn't change his mind, he can't err. So what does repentance
mean? And Brother Gabe Stoniker helped
me out a whole lot on this, and I started studying it, and I
came out exactly with the same stuff he did. So I think I've
got a good guidance for you. There's five conjugations of
repentance in the Bible, and there's five definitions, not
that it goes with it, but how the word's used. There's five
definitions in all of Scripture. The word in its forms is used
112 times. So the first one is a change
of mind. It's like I told you last night. Repentance is a pilgrimage
from the mind of the flesh, the way I think, to the mind of Christ,
the way he thinks. But he changes us. He turns us.
The second one is irrevocable. Romans 11, 29 says, For the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. Isn't that precious?
The gifts that the Lord has are irrevocable. He gives them to
you. They're not going to go away.
The third definition is retreat. The armies of old, whenever they
were losing, they would repent the battlefield. They would draw
back. They would retreat. In this passage,
that's not the definition. The fourth one is to regret or
care afterwards. Our Lord doesn't regret. He's
not a reactive God. He's a proactive God. He doesn't
react to what we do. We react to what He makes us
do, His will. is providence. And so finally
the fifth one, and this is the Hebrew that's used here for repentance,
and that's to breathe strongly and comfort oneself. It's to sigh. My children do something. I don't
love them any less. I don't retreat from them. I
know what struggles they have to go through, and I'm not going
to change anything. I know it's coming. I've lived through their
trials already. They're little. But I sigh because I love them.
Don't I? I know what has to happen. That
doesn't mean I'm cheerful about it, but it's needed. Breathe
strongly and go forward. And that's the definition of
this word repentant. Our Lord is not a stoic, indifferent,
emotionalist God. We accidentally and foolishly
think of Him. He's like a statue, solemn and
doesn't move. Scripture says He has pity and
He laughs. Won't that be something to see
the Lord laugh one day? It will be a wonderful day. He laughs. He weeps. He weeped with Martha and Mary
whenever they went to the tomb of Lazarus. He has compassion. He has anger. And thankfully,
he has mercy on us, doesn't he? Ezekiel 18.32 says, For I have
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord thy
God. Wherefore, turn yourselves and
live ye. It's a call to repentance to
turn. Turn to Christ. So the Lord is ready to destroy
the earth and everything in it. And what happens next? That's
what we see when we talk about fear last night. That's what's
deserving. And we get physically afraid.
But the Lord intercedes, don't He? There's the good news. Our
Lord is both the just and the justifier through Christ. Now
in this text, this is just too big for It could be a whole conference
of everybody preaching from the flood, and I don't think you'd
ever exhausted none of them. But in this type of what I saw,
Noah's picture of Christ. We'll look in verse 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. All that destruction was coming,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. If I'm going to
find this hymnal, It has to be there for me to find it. It's
already there. I thought that was sweet. Verse 9 it says, And these are
the generations of Noah. Noah was a just and perfect man
in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And then it
goes on to list his children. Noah was a just, perfect, obedient,
fearful, as in he honored God. He was a fearful, honoring man,
walking and communing with God. And we know that Noah himself
was not perfect. He was a man made out of flesh just like we
are. He was a sinner just like we are. He was born a sinner. He fell on Adam just like we
did. He needs salvation the same way we need salvation. But he's
a picture of Christ. And he's seen in the eyes of
the Lord because of Christ's works. And he's seen as just
and perfect. There's other sinners that are
saved that way. That's how we are. Job was. Job 1 says, And
there was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. And that
man was perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed
evil. That's precious. The text says, and these are
the generations of Noah, colon. And there's a listing there of
his lineage, but it's preceded by a description of Noah. It's
a blessing to us, too, because this is a description of Noah's
house, just like we are the house of God. We are listed by Christ
attributes. Because of Christ's substitutionary
work, we are seeing the Father's eyes as Christ is described,
just and perfect. Psalm 45, 7 talks of it and says,
Thou lovest righteousness and hateth wickedness. Therefore
God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. When we're presented to the Lord,
we're presented with the attributes of Christ first and then his
house. That's what it is when we're
made like Christ. We love righteousness and we hate wickedness. Once
the Lord makes you see what He has done for you, you love hearing
the gospel preached, even if it's a little rough around the
edges and poorly organized. But that's what you enjoy hearing.
And you cannot tolerate a false gospel. It makes you sick to
your stomach. If you lie about my wife, I'm going to have something
to say to you about it. You can say good things, I like hearing
that. But I don't want to hear nothing bad about someone I love
and the Lord makes you love him. And you can't stomach it. Let's
turn to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews 7. Begin in verse 25. Hebrews 7.25, wherefore He is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
For such an high priest became us. who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
needeth not daily, as those high priests offer up sacrifice first
for his own sins, and then for the people's. He doesn't need
to offer for his sins, personal sins, for this he did once when
he offered up himself. He only needed one time to do
the work the Father sent Him to do and it was finished. It
was completed when He was here. It was just and perfect. Let's
look back at Genesis 6 verse 10. And Noah begat three sons, Shem,
Ham, and Japheth. 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 has come before me, for the earth is filled with
violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the
earth. This time he destroyed the earth, but the next time
he'll make a new heaven and a new earth for him. Both will be taken
away. Every man and woman on the earth was corrupt, thought
only evil continually. So how was that? What law did
they break? Did they break the Ten Commandments?
That hadn't come yet, has it? They didn't break the Levitical
laws that hadn't been given to them. They didn't eat of the
tree because Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden and
the guards were placed in front of the tree. How could they be evil? There
weren't any rules. They were that way because of
their father Adam as our federal head. As an illustration for
that, I've used before is that You can go to a foreign country
on the other side of the world, they don't like us sometimes,
and you can love that country and support them and be their
biggest cheerleader, but because you're an American, that's where
you came from, you may not like it, they hate you. Well, because
we're born and we came from Adam, the Lord hates us. Even from
the birth. We listen for a child to cry,
right? That's the first thing. That's how you know the child's
healthy. I don't want to hear it cry. Well, that comes from the
womb speaking lies. That little tiny baby, it'll
cry. It doesn't need fed. It doesn't need a diaper changed.
It just wants to be picked up. It's wanting something that you
ain't doing. And it cries. As soon as you pick it up, it
quits crying. It's lying to you, isn't it? Anyway, then we get to verse
14, the vehicle of salvation. Make thee an ark of gopher wood,
rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and it shall pitch it within
and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which
thou shalt make of it. The length of the ark shall be
three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height
of it thirty cubits. 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 thereof, with lower,
second, and third stories shalt thou make it. The gopher wood
is used for the sturdiness and its longevity. Salvation of Christ
is specific and exact for His sheep, and there's the exact
number of rooms and the exact size for the exact people that
He has. The pitching, which is like a
tar, is used for waterproofing on the inside and outside, the
double cure in that. That way not one drop of the
wrath of God, of that water, will enter into us. The window
above is to allow the light in and always keep us looking up
to Him, and to see our brethren inside of there only in the light
of Christ. That makes for a sweet communion, doesn't it? And the
door is big enough for the tallest giraffe, strong enough for the
elephant, and it's smooth enough for the lowest snail. In my mind, I always think of
the coloring books when I think of Noah's Ark, that's what I
guess I saw growing up. And so you always see a picture
of the ark in the background, half-completed, Noah's there
hammering, shaming, Ham's out there, Ham's sawing on a log,
you know. They're working together to do
it. And I can't imagine the size of that. I've moved some heavy
pieces of lumber. I can't imagine the size of that
ark that Noah did all that work by himself. That's just unfathomable,
isn't it? But as a picture of Christ, nowhere
in the scriptures is it mentioned that Noah was helped. He accomplished
it alone. Who else did that? Christ suffered
alone, didn't he? He stopped trodding the wine
press alone. Isaiah 63 3 says I've trodden the winepress alone
and of all of the people there was none with me for I will tread
them in my anger and trample them in my fury and their blood
shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment
for the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed
has come. So after the means of salvation
were clearly laid out and secure, the punishment for sin was imminent.
So we look at verse 17, 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. That's the wages. That's the
payment of sin. Romans 6.23 says the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Exodus 34.7 says, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression of sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquities
of the father upon the children and upon the children's children,
unto the third and fourth generations. The Lord will punish sin. So,
the covenant was established in verse 18. But with thee will
I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark,
thou and thy sons and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee."
Now we're not told throughout all of this to go. We talked
about that last night when they crossed the lake. The Lord doesn't
tell us to go somewhere. No, you go over there by yourself,
and you're going to be alone, and it's going to be on you.
See if you can do anything. He goes with us, doesn't He?
He always tells us to come. Come where he is. You can't come
to me if I'm not here. Wherever we are sent, Christ
is with us. In verse 19, and of every living thing of flesh,
two of every short shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them
alive with thee. And they shall be male and female,
of fowls after their kind and of cattle after their kind. and
of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind. Two of
every sort shalt thou come unto thee, and keep them alive." That's
a whole lot of different things. That's Jews and that's Gentiles,
rich and poor, educated and uneducated, famous, faceless, people from
mansions, people that are homeless, all different sorts. So what's
in that ark for all those different types? There's full provision.
Verse 21, And take thou unto thee of all
the food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and
it shall be food for thee and for them. Everything on that
boat was provided for. There's nothing you need to bring
into that ark. Our Noah, our picture of Christ
has already supplied it for us. You don't need to bring a day,
a Sabbath. You don't need to bring your
confession. You don't need to bring that you were baptized
when you were younger. You don't need to bring a good
worldly walk. Nothing. You don't need to bring anything.
Everything's completed for you. Christ has already done it all.
He did it through his obedience. So next we see the obedience
and its result in verse 22. Thus did Noah, the Lord instructed
him, he told him what to do, he commanded him, and that's
what he did. Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him,
so did he. This is mentioned in Hebrews
11 verse 7. By faith Noah being warned of
God of all things not seen as of yet. moved with fear, prepared
in art to the saving of His house." That's what the body of Christ
is. It's the house of God, isn't
it? We meet here, but if we were
meeting in the parking lot or we're meeting at a house, someone's
home, this is still the house of God. It's His body. So how
was Abraham saved? All these people before the law,
Noah, Christ's work and what the Father
gave Him in His hand to do was so guaranteed that while He was
still on this earth, He hadn't died yet. On the Mount of Transfiguration,
He met with Moses and Eliza, didn't He? They were already
in heaven. They were saved by the blood of Christ, but that
blood hadn't been shed yet. We see things literally, in time. We're trapped in time. We only
see things one way. But it was so effectual, and it was so sure
and certain, that they were already in glory, and Christ hadn't even
died yet. Isn't that precious? Alright,
let's get to Genesis 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." You can only come to something
that's already been established, something that's already there.
So who do we come to? Christ said, "...all that thou
hast given me shall come to me." We'll go to Him. He'll draw us.
"...and all thy house." God will judge the entire world on the
merits of two men. You'll either be judged under
Adam of the fall of man, or you'll be judged under Christ and His
accomplishments. It will be either the house of man or it will be
the house of Christ. There's only two houses. So here
comes the wrath finally. This is the first weather report
that ever existed. It had never rained on the earth.
All life was watered and replenished by mist. It says the dew rose
up from the ground. It never rained, like a heavy
fog. And so Moses had been preaching for a hundred years. He said
the Lord's going to make water come out of the sky. We'll call
it rain. And he's going to flood this
whole place and the springs are going to open up and we're all going
to drown, unless you get in that ark. He gave a general call to
them and told them what was going to happen. And they laughed at
him and they scoffed at him. And so what do we do now? The
Lord said He's going to destroy this earth again with fire. So
we tell people, the Lord's coming and He's going to destroy this
earth and the only way you can be saved is in Christ. That's the only hope you have.
And they laugh at us and they scoff at us. But they haven't
seen those things. Before, people knows they've
never seen rain. Well, now we've never seen the
skies catch on fire and death and destruction come as we think
it'd be. We've never seen that happen. But we do know death's
coming, don't we? There's not a one of us that
no one's ever lived 2,000 years in our generation. No one's still
alive from then, from creation. So we know it's coming. I've lost my place again. That
was a trial that Noah had to go through. Things didn't change
anymore. We're in the same mess they are now. In Genesis 7 verse
12, And the rain was upon the earth
forty days and forty nights, And in the self same day entered
Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, and the sons of Noah,
and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them into
the ark. Noah and all thy house went into
the ark. And that same day it started
raining. Not one drop of God's wrath on
sin will touch any of his lept. It is solely bore on the work
and the merit of Christ and his accomplished work. Just like
Lot leaving Sodom, not one stone failed to burn that city up until
Lot was out, wouldn't it? So when the last saint is brought
home and put into Christ and knows Him, that's over. This world will be done. His
glory will be complete. His body will be complete and
we'll all be taken home. Alright, it's just 716. And they that went in, went in
male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut them in." The
Lord shut them in. They're secure for eternity.
Man does not secure his own salvation. God does. Where I grew up, people
always like to argue. I was talking about that last
night a little bit. They hit you at the door. We believe once
saved, always saved, and this and that and this, and they got
just a pre-canned response, but they just regurgitate on you.
And I was just asking how your day was, you know, calm down.
But they always say, there's an argument of always once saved,
always saved. They call them backsliders, if
you can come and go and you can lose your salvation. But here's
a solution for that. If God shuts you in that ark,
He shuts you in Christ and seals you and pitches outside the seams
of that door, can you open it? Is His work not effectual? If
He's done it, brethren, there's your peace with it. If He's done
it, you can't undo it. You don't want to undo it, do
you? You start seeing that rain come. I'm fine in here. I'm going
to stay right where I'm at. All right, verse 20. 15 cubits upward did the waters
prevail, and the mountains recovered. 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 on the earth, and every
man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that
was in the dry land died. So 15 cubits above the highest
mountain. A cubit's 18 inches, so it's
about 21 feet above Mount Everest. That's crazy that they would
include that. But you can stand on top of the
mountain Sinai. You can stand on your morality.
You can stand on your works. Everybody talks about a judgment
scale, the way your good works versus your bad works. And if
that side's higher, then you'll go into heaven. You can stand
on top of that judge's scale, and the waters, the wrath of
sin is over you. The only place that's safe, that's
preserved, where the people persevere is inside that ark. So what will
happen when that last sheep is brought home? The last sheep
is brought home to know Christ. Let's turn to Matthew 25. Matthew
25. Again in verse 31. And the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him. Then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered
all nations. And He shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And
He shall set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on
His left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. And that day comes,
brethren, all the work will be completed, all of the commandments
obeyed, Justness, righteousness, and
perfection will be displayed for us, and all we have to do
is do what we're told and come. Come to Christ. If you haven't
already, Try it. It'll do you good. It'll do everything
for you. And if you have, keep coming
to Him. We know Him now. I want to keep knowing Him. I
want to learn more of Him. Someday we'll know Him and see
Him face to face, won't we? I hope that was a blessing to
you.