You want to turn in your Bibles
to the book of Genesis, chapters 6 and 7. We're going to look
back there again. I don't mean to tire you out
in the topic of Noah, but I figure if it's something that I have
to keep studying in order to understand it, you probably won't
suffer too much by hearing these things again in a different way.
The truths that God has given us here in the book of Genesis
I see, as I do in all of scripture, I see the repeating pattern of
God's salvation. And that's prominently seen in
the life of Noah. It starts with Adam and Eve,
goes through their children, Cain and Abel. And then we saw
it in the life of Seth and his son Enos, who called upon the
name of the Lord. And we saw it in the life of
Enoch, who walked with God. And I'm going to take a look
at a few more things here in the book of Genesis, chapters
6 and 7, this morning, as we look at Genesis, especially verse
1 of chapter 7, where it says that the Lord said to Noah, Come
thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Let's pray. Our great God and Father, We
pray, dear Lord, that you would find, according to your word,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you would find us, and you would
see us also to be righteous in him. This is our great need. This is our prayer. This is all
of our salvation. And this is all our desire. We
pray, Lord, that you would bring us to yourself through the blood
of your Son. By your Spirit, give us this faith that you gave
to Noah and to all your people to look upon Jesus and to find
him to be all of our salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. There's some things I want to
point out to you in the book of Genesis chapter 6, but before
we do, I want you to consider Methuselah with me. I know that's
reaching back a little bit, but there's a reason for this. Methuselah
is somebody that almost everybody knows about. If you mention the
name Ethuselah, people immediately understand that's the guy who
lived to be the oldest, at least the most recorded, the one that
was recorded to have lived the oldest. 969 years old, that's
a long time. And it turns out that his name
means, according to what I've studied, it means, quote, when
he dies, judgment, or when he is dead, it shall be sent. Now
that's a pretty prophetic thing that the Lord gave Methuselah.
This name that reflects the fact Enoch, his father, remember he
lived 65 years old and begat Methuselah, and then he walked
with God 300 years after he begat Methuselah and God took him.
But Methuselah was born then. He had a son, Lamech, who lived
777 years, and then Lamech had a son, Noah. But Methuselah died
the year of the flood, and that was the year God poured out his
judgment. So you see something in this.
First of all, you see God's long-suffering. When Enoch named his son Methuselah,
that indicated that when he was dead, God would bring his judgment. Then his life, being the longest
life recorded in the Bible, indicates that God was long-suffering in
the days of Noah. Long-suffering, just like he
is today. Long-suffering. He's not willing
that any of His people perish, so He saved Noah. But also, it
reminds us that it's appointed unto men once to die, and after
this the judgment. Remember that, where it says
that in Hebrews chapter 9? It says there, as it is appointed
unto men once to die, and man, it is appointed unto man once
to die, but after this the judgment. So, listen to these words, Christ
wants was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them
that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation." Isn't that amazing? That in that very verse, you've
probably heard it, maybe as a child, maybe later in life, you heard
it preached in a way that brought the dark cloud of God's judgment
into your conscience, and you heard those words, it's appointed
unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. And that's
as far as it went, maybe. That's about as far as it went
with me as a young person. Judgment is coming. I knew I
was guilty. I did what I thought I had to
do to get out of it, and all that I did didn't help. But here's
the grace of God. Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many. And unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Thus,
after Methuselah died, God sent judgment and saved his people. Those two things we see in the
life of Noah. God sent judgment, destroying
the world, but he also saved his people through the judgment.
And so when Methuselah died, It reminds us that the Lord Jesus
Christ died, when? In the end of the age, in the
end of this world. That time when God said, at the
end of the world, Christ has appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Remember how that Jesus said,
even in John 16, that when the Spirit of God was come, he would
convince or convict or How does it put it there? He
would convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
John 16. That's exactly what Methuselah, Methuselah's name,
and his long life was doing. In Hebrews 11, verse 7, which
we're going to read in a minute, it says that Noah, by believing
what God said about the flood, he condemned the world. He condemned
the world. And so, Methuselah's name and
Noah, his grandson, Through what his name, and through what Noah
said, and what Noah did, he actually condemned the world. Just like
when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, and did all those
miracles, and lived a perfect life, and laid his life down
in suffering and death, he condemned the world for not believing him. Look at John chapter 15. Just some preliminary thoughts
here. for this morning's message, John chapter 15. This is remarkable
what Jesus said about those in the nation of Israel to whom
He came and refused to believe Him. In John 15 and verse 20, it says, remember the word Jesus
tells his disciples, remember the word that I said to you,
the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. Why did they do these things
to Christ? Because they didn't know God. Verse 22, If I had
not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now
they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth
my father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin, but
now they have both seen and hated, both me and my father. But this
cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written
in their law, they hated me without a cause." Now that's exactly
what God means when he's speaking about Noah's life, condemning
those in that time. By what he did, by what he said,
believing God's word and building that ark, and Methuselah's name
and his long life, it all speaks, as we read later in the New Testament,
it's a saver of life to life. according to God's grace to those
that are being saved, but it's a saver of death to death to
those who are lost." And that's a sad thing, isn't it? But I
want you to remember back also about what Jesus said here. They
hated Him without a cause. When they saw Him, they saw His
works, they heard His words, they hated Him. There was nothing
in Christ that caused them to hate Him. It was the evil in
their hearts. And remember Cain? I hate to
keep going back to these guys, but these principles keep coming
up in my mind. Cain hated Abel. Cain envied
Abel. And Cain murdered Abel. Why?
Why did Cain murder his brother? That's a cruel, hateful, horrible
thing to murder your own brother. Why? Well, in 1 John 3.12 it
says he did it because his own works were evil and his brother's
righteous. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus was saying. If I hadn't come and done among
them those things that none other man did, they hadn't had sin.
But because I did come, they have no cloak for their sin.
Now it's exposed. The reason they hated both me
and my father is because they were wicked. They hated the one
who was righteous, just like Cain killed his brother, hating
him. And so the world hated the message
that God gave to Noah, and this was a condemnation on the world.
So now let's look back at Genesis chapter 6. I just want to take
you to a few words there. But while you hold your place
there in Genesis 6, turn over now to Hebrews chapter 11. I
want to read this verse of scripture with you. Hebrews chapter 11
is a catalog of many in Scripture who were saved by God's grace.
And the evidence that they were saved by God's grace is that
they believed God. They believed His Word. They
believed His Son. And so it says here in Hebrews
chapter 11, speaking of Noah, verse 7, he says, "...by faith,
Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the
which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith." Now, look at that verse for a minute with
me. It says, "...by faith Noah being
warned of God of things not seen as yet." What is faith? Well,
the first thing you see about it here is that Noah was warned
of God. He believed God's word. And think about that for a minute.
Noah believed God. When you believe God's Word,
you believe God. If you believe what I say, it
means you believe me. Or if you believe me, then I
speak to you that you're going to believe what I say. If you
believe somebody, you're going to trust what they say. If we're going to the airport, and
I gave a key to our van to Andrew, and I trust him with it. I believe
that Andrew's going to take care of the van while we're gone.
He can get into the house. He could do things to our house
and our car. I don't worry about it, because
I trust Andrew to take care of it. If you believe someone, you
trust what they say. You believe what they say, you're
trusting them. Noah heard God's word. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Do you want faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Listen to what God says. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Remember
Cain? He hated his brother. When he
saw that he had done what God said, bring the offering. The
offering that pointed to Christ, it's your only hope. And Cain
refused, saw his brother did, that God accepted Abel, he hated
him for that. And how often do you find that
tendency in your own heart to hate someone because they do
what's right and you don't? Therefore, you need faith. You
need the faith of God's people. I need it. I need it. And what
do we do? If we know that God is the one
who makes a difference, what are we going to do? We're going
to go to Him and say, Lord, You see this heart of mine. I know
something about the wickedness in this heart of mine. God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. Look upon Christ. Give me that
faith that comes to your people because of His righteousness,
that I might see His righteousness and believe Him. We plead with
Him, don't we? We believe God. And so, Noah
believed God's word. That's the first thing about
his faith. He was warned. God spoke to him. He was warned
of God. He believed God's word. The only
ground of faith is God's word. The second thing about faith
is that it says here, Noah being warned of God of things not seen
as yet. Faith believes God even though
it doesn't see the evidence. Noah didn't see any rain. There
was no water coming up. No flood imminent to drown him
or his family or the people. Nobody even thought anything
about it. He just simply had God's word. I'm going to destroy
all living things on the earth. Everything will die. That was
God's word. And Noah believed God. It wasn't
seen. In fact, faith believes God because
faith hears what God says and believes whatever God says is
the way things are. That's what faith is. Believing
the unseen truth that God has stated. We don't walk by sight,
we walk by faith. Over and over again in scripture,
God emphasizes this. This is so important. Deuteronomy
13, God told the people, He warned them. Now when you see a prophet,
someone who says he's a prophet, and he does all these signs and
miracles, but he leads you astray by teaching you to serve other
gods. Understand, God is sending him
to test you. Will you believe the Lord or
no? Faith believes God no matter what. Faith believes God in the
face of opposing evidence. Faith believes God more than
faith believes its own reason. Faith takes God's word as the
fact, as the truth. Thy word is truth, Jesus said,
and faith believes God. Remember what the thief on the
cross did. Here the Lord Jesus is next to him. And all the people,
all the people are mocking. They had brutally beat and spit
and hit him and pushed those thorns into his head and then
nailed him to the cross. He seemed helpless and weak and
without any reason to believe him. That thief heard him. He
heard his prayer, Father forgive them for they know not what they
do. He heard the people around him saying, if he's Christ, let
him come down from the cross. He saved others. He cannot save. And he heard those words and
God applied them to his heart. He heard the Word of God. He
believed it. Against all evidence, he looked at this man, beaten,
spit upon, mocked, and apparently weak, and dying. And he said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's faith. In opposition to all that he
could see, he believed God. That's the second thing about
faith. Not only we believe God's word, but we believe the unseen
things that God has said. And the third thing here, he
says in this verse about what Noah believed, he says he was
moved with fear. Now, faith believes God, even
though what God says seems rough to us. God says that he's going
to punish all those who are wicked. He says he's angry with the wicked
every day. In John 3, 36, he says this. Let me read this to you. Faith
believes this. He says in John 3, 36, He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Faith believes that. Noah believed God's warning.
It wasn't good news, was it? He heard the warning of God,
but he also heard something else. He heard God's provision of salvation. Faith believes God no matter
whether He speaks of judgment, or whether he speaks of promise.
Spurgeon said something along these lines. He said that those
who do not believe God will punish sin will not believe in Christ
as the sin-atoning Savior. Because if we don't believe God
will punish sin, then there's no reason to believe that God
has punished the Lord Jesus Christ and that there's any value in
that. If we don't believe God will send men to hell for their
sins, why would we believe God's grace that He will take men to
heaven when they die? You see, we believe God whether
He speaks of judgment or of mercy. Faith believes that, and so when
Noah was warned of God, he believed Him. The other thing that faith
does is, it says here, he, not believing God, he was warned
of God of things not seen as yet, he was moved with fear,
but he prepared an ark. Faith acts. Faith doesn't just
hear God's Word, but faith does something. The soul that believes
as God has persuaded him to be a sinner, and that Christ is
his only refuge, that soul will actually flee to Christ. In his
conscience, in his heart, with his lips, he will confess to
the Lord in his heart, like the publican. God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. That's what a believing sinner
does. And He will act that way. God
gives us different things in our lives to do. Things that
give evidence that we believe the Lord. I'm not telling you
what those things are, but you know this, this one thing that
all that believe God do, they will call upon God. They will
call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save them. Remember, so many
people. God be merciful to me, the sinner.
Lord, that I might have my sight. And in so many cases, we could
go through them. But the other thing that faith
does here, you see, is that he prepared an ark to the saving
of his house. Faith has a result, and that
result is salvation. Faith looks forward to that salvation. And over and over again, we see
something very Amazing in scripture that God saves people. He really
saves sinners. Not only does He save them who
believe, but He even saves others because of their faith. Now, it doesn't mean that God
saves people who don't have faith and die unbelieving. But it does
mean God does save unbelievers. Because if He didn't save unbelievers,
where would we be? We would still be in our unbelief,
wouldn't we? But when God saves us, He gives
us faith. But our faith also intercedes to God for others. And how many times in scripture
do you see that? Almost the greatest proportion
of cases in the New Testament where someone came to Jesus for
mercy, they were actually seeking mercy for someone else. Remember
the four men who brought their paralytic friend to Jesus? And they knew if they could just
get him to Jesus, he would be healed. And so they carried him
up, four of them, in his bed. He couldn't get out of his bed.
They broke up the roof and they let him down. And when Jesus,
it says in Matthew 9, verse 2, when He saw their faith, He said
to the paralytic, He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Amazing,
isn't that amazing? Noah believed God, prepared an
ark to the saving of his house. Remember the mother whose daughter
was troubled by a devil and came to Jesus? She wasn't even a Jew,
she was a Syrophoenician woman, a Canaanite woman. And she came
to him and said, she pleaded for mercy, and he didn't say
anything. And she went to the disciples and she pleaded with
them. And they said, Lord, send her away. And he said something
like, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And so she kept coming. She kept coming and pleading.
And she just finally, when he said, it's not right for me to
take the children's bread and give it to dogs. She said, yes,
yes. But even little dogs get the
crumbs from their master's table. She put herself among the dogs.
I am a heathen Gentile dog. Lord, if it's just a crumb of
your mercy. She pleaded for her daughter. And over and over we
see this in scripture. The centurion who pleaded to
Christ, he didn't even feel worthy that Christ could come to his
home, but he sent the elders of the Jews to Jesus and asked
him through them if he would just speak the word only. He
says, I'm a man under authority. I tell this servant, go here.
Another one, go there. And he does it. Just speak the
word only. And Jesus said, I haven't found
such great faith, not in all of Israel. And so the servant
was healed. He pleaded for his servant. See,
the Lord works through the faith of his people to save other people. Let's never forget that. that
we go to God who can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think and plead for those who are lost, our loved ones,
knowing that God can save them. So that's the fifth thing about
this. Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house. And
that's an amazing thing. An amazing thing. The other thing
we see here is that he says that by the witch he condemned the
world. And I already mentioned this. He condemned the world
by what he did, by what he said. It wasn't that Noah went around
saying, condemned, condemned. No, he just simply preached righteousness. He was a preacher of righteousness.
Obviously he would have said that God is angry with the wicked.
Obviously he would have said God looked and saw that the thoughts
of men's heart was only evil continually. But he also preached
righteousness, God's righteousness. Men wouldn't hear it. And by
rejecting God's word, God condemned them by that word. Jesus even
said it. He says, I don't condemn you.
The word that I've spoken to you, that will condemn you in
the last day. So by faith, Noah prepared the
ark to the saving of his house, but by the witch he condemned
the world, because that's what the gospel does. It causes those
who hear it to be saved, that the Lord was saving, and it causes
those who will not hear it to be condemned because they reject
the word of God. He condemned the world. And I
already mentioned that to you about Jesus. If I hadn't come
and done those things among them, that no man did, they wouldn't
have sin, but because I did, now they've hated both me and
my father. And the last thing we see here is that he says,
he condemned the world and he became the heir of the righteousness
which is by faith. Now this thing of righteousness,
as we find it here in Genesis chapter 7 verse 1, is an amazing
thing, isn't it? Have you ever thought about this?
The righteousness of God. He became an heir of the righteousness
which is of faith. Look at Genesis 7-1. He says,
And the Lord said to Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the
ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
He didn't say, I've seen this one and that one and the other
one righteous. But he did say to Noah, I have
seen you to be righteous before me. In this generation of wickedness,
I've seen you to be righteous. That is grace, isn't it? Who would think that in a world
of sinful people, God would find one man and say to that man,
I have seen you righteous before me. Now, I don't know about you,
but I immediately think about myself. What if I was in the
world when Noah lived? He only spoke to Noah. Where would I be? Well, unless
the Lord sees us righteous before him, we will be lost, won't we?
But by faith, he became heir of the righteousness. Because
he believed God, he became heir of the righteousness, which is
by faith. This is an amazing thing. What did Noah do? He simply
believed God. We should never underestimate
the significance of believing God. He searches, he looks to find
someone who will believe his word. But of course, we won't
by nature. But he gives precious faith to
his people to believe him. To believe God is to be translated
from the kingdom of darkness. Because in the kingdom of Satan,
we don't believe God. We're condemned, we're deceived,
and we don't believe God. But there's something that God
gives His people, and it's called faith, to believe His Word. What Word? The testimony that
God has given concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Gospel, Noah, believed God, and he became heir of the righteousness
which is of faith." This righteousness is a gift. He was an inheritor
of it. He was an heir of it. God gave
it to him. How does this righteousness come?
How does this become an inheritance to men? How are men inheritors
of God's righteousness? You know the answer. It's a gift,
isn't it? Doesn't Romans 5.17 say that? Look at Romans 5.17. There's
much we could say about this, and we'll try to say much about
it in the short time that we have. But look at this in Romans
5.17. For if by one man's offense,
that one man being Adam, by one man's offense death reigned by
one. To reign means to rule as a tyrant. Death reigned as a tyrant because
of one man's offense. Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one, Jesus Christ. they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness." This righteousness, this is an
all-surpassing gift. There's no greater gift than
this gift of righteousness. Righteousness doesn't come to
us because of what we do. It's a gift of God's grace. The
abundant grace, the gift of righteousness by one man, Jesus Christ. This
righteousness is God's doing. It's the fulfillment of God's
law that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished by his life and
in his death, and it's given, freely given, It consists in
the sacrifice Christ made of himself that made satisfaction
to God and justice. And it consists in the fulfillment
of God's law that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished when with
his whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, loved his God and
his people with all of his heart and laid his life down for them.
That's the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that righteousness,
that obedience, he did not do for himself. He did it for His
people. It says in, look at this other
verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I want you to see this. How is this righteousness? What
is it and how does it come to us as a gift? Well, it's surprising. It's the very act of the Lord
Jesus Christ by which He reconciled us to God. That obedience in
His life and in His death is the righteousness God looks upon
him and all of his people, and he counts it theirs. Look at
this. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. Look at verse 18. All things
are of God. who have reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ." Now that is an amazing thing, isn't it? God
by himself, of his own initiative, of his own provision, out of
the riches of his grace, reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. And he has given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. That service where we come out
and proclaim to you that by Jesus Christ God has reconciled his
people to it. This is that ministry that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. If God didn't impute trespasses,
then he justified those, according to Psalm 32 and Romans chapter
4. To not impute sin is to justify,
and if God didn't impute sin to the world, then the world
is justified. And here he says he didn't impute, not reconciling
the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses. So that world
that he's speaking of here are those whose sins he didn't impute
to them. And He committed this word to
us, the word of reconciliation. Now then, because God has given
us this word, we are ambassadors. We are servants of the King,
sent by the King, with a message from the King to those to whom
the King sent us. We are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
stead. He's not here, not in person,
but in His stead. We pray, be ye reconciled to
God. For He hath made Him. This is
the basis, this is the ground. Listen to what God has said.
This is what you need to hear in order for you to be reconciled
to God. Don't think of what you're going
to do. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him." The Lord said to Noah, in Genesis
7, 1, and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation." That is God's gift. That is God's
work. That work was accomplished by
Christ when God laid our sins upon Him and He bore them as
His own and suffered the punishment for them and answered God in
justice for all of His people. with his obedience and his sufferings
and his death. That's righteousness. God looked
upon him and says, my son, with thee I am well pleased. Through the obedience of one
shall many be justified, Romans 5.19. That is grace, isn't it? Abundant and free, full and complete,
perfect, all-accomplishing grace. Notice how it says it in Genesis
7-1, he says, the Lord said to Noah, come thou. He didn't say
go, get in the ark, did he? Come thou, and all the house
into the ark. This is the way God speaks in
grace to us as sinners. Come into the ark. What is the
ark? The ark is the Lord Jesus Christ,
isn't it? Isn't that what it means? Didn't
we read that last week in 1 Peter 3, that the like figure, where
the flood of Noah's day, they were saved through the water,
and now baptism also points to our salvation in Christ. We died
with Him, buried with Him, rose again, justified. The ark is
the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom his people are saved from the
wrath of God. The judgment came, and the judgment
fell on the ark, but those in the ark were saved. And so he
says, come thou, and all thy house into the ark, come to Christ. Isn't that the message of the
gospel? The Spirit and the Bride. Revelation 22, 17. The Spirit
and the Bride. The Spirit of God and the Church
of God. Those sent by the Spirit of God
say, Come. Come. Let him that is a thirst say,
Come. Jesus said, Come unto me, all
you who labor. labor under the burden of sin
before God with the guilt and the dominion of sin, and the
consequences of your sin, come you, you who are thirsty and
have no money because you spent it and wasted it on things that
don't satisfy, come and hear that your soul may live. Hear,
hearken unto me, diligently hearken unto me, that your soul may live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's what he says, come thou and thy house
into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. What a message to sinners. Come thou and all thy house.
Noah was the one God saw righteous. Now, there's much that could
be said about this, and I just want to point out a couple things
to you. Look back in chapter 6. I just want to summarize some
things with you. Notice how he speaks here in Genesis chapter 6. In the first part, in Genesis
6, he says, In verse 5, 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, and it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
What is that saying? God looked, God saw, and God
judged men to be wicked. Isn't that true of me? Isn't
that true of you? Isn't that what God says in Romans?
We know that whatever the law says, it says to them that are
under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. That's what God's word says.
Do we believe God? But then look at this, in verse
7. 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 the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me that I have made man. Judgments to come, certain.
God's gonna do it. God's gonna do it. But look,
and Noah, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. One
man out of the entire human race found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. What does that teach us? Have you ever considered the
fact that only one man found grace in the eyes of the Lord
here? Aren't you glad that at least
one did? Or you and I wouldn't be here. Aren't you glad that
one man found grace? If God hadn't shown grace in
one man, no men could be saved, could they? Listen to these words
of the Apostle Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 verse 1. He says to Timothy, Christ Jesus. The grace that
is in Christ Jesus. Noah found grace. One man out
of the entire human race. And God said, grace to that man. Grace, I'll have favor on that
man. I will choose that man. And I'll spare the world for
that man's sake. What is he saying here? Isn't
he telling us that Noah represents our Lord Jesus Christ? If God
hadn't chosen him, and chosen his people in him, to have grace
and give promises of salvation in him, none could be saved. And what does that say to us?
Oh, our only hope is to be found in Christ. Paul said it in Philippians
3.9, Oh, that I might be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. To be found in Christ. Look at
Galatians chapter 3. A little later God spoke to Abraham
and promised Abraham, In thee and in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. All the nations. Go look at this,
Galatians chapter 3. That's repeated here, that promise
made to Abraham. He says in Galatians 3 verse
7, "...know ye therefore that they
which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham,
and the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all the nations be blessed." Now, so he says, So they which
are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is
written, Cursed is everyone that continueeth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident.
For the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. That's
the ark, cursed for us. For it is written, Cursed is
every man that hangeth on a tree. Listen carefully. That the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's
covenant. Yet, if it be confirmed, no man
disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds, plural,
as of many, but as of one, unto thy seed, which is Christ. This I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise, not by law, not by our law keeping, wherefore then serveth
the law. It was added, listen carefully,
because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom
the promise was made. So the Lord Jesus Christ is that
seed. That's the point I wanted to make from that. To whom were
the promises made? To the Lord Jesus Christ. And
now back in Genesis 6, he says this, in verse 18, verse 17,
he says, 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. Everything that is in the earth
shall die, but with thee will I establish my covenant. What
is God saying here? I'm going to make a covenant,
and I'm going to make it with Noah, and because I make this
covenant with Noah, I'm going to save him and his family from
the flood, in the ark. This is exactly what salvation
is. God said, I see the wickedness of man, he finds grace. I mean, God shows grace to one
man, and he shows grace to his people in that one man. And so
he makes a covenant with him. And all of his family is saved
when they together are in the ark. And this is preaching the
gospel. Man's wickedness, God's warning
of judgment to come, God's grace that chose and saved his people
for himself by the sin-atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the ark. Christ, our ark, our sin-atoning
ark. The one with whom God made a
covenant and salvation is in him and we receive it by faith. This is the message of Noah and
his family. I just want you to hear these
words again, because it's so important that we see God's message. Christ is our only hope. All of God's salvation is in
Him alone. God sees all men, and He tells
the truth. All of us are guilty, wicked
in our heart. And there's no hope for any of
us, but there is hope in the ark, in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And outside the ark all perish, in the ark all are saved. And
they're saved for Christ's sake alone. The one man with whom
God has shown mercy for his name's sake. Let's pray. Our Lord and Savior, we pray
that you would so find us in the Lord Jesus Christ. You would
have mercy upon us for his sake and find us in him. You would
consider what he has done. Consider what he suffered. Consider
the wrath that he bore himself. Consider the sins that he himself
bore and suffered for. And consider that propitiation
that he made in his death. And Lord, receive us for his
sake. We look to him. We hear your words, come. Lord,
we ask that your spirit would bring us, draw us, take away
this stubborn heart of unbelief, this proud self-righteousness
that we have that callouses us so that we find no reason to
come in ourselves. We would even turn away from
the gospel, but Lord, we pray that you wouldn't let us go.
You would draw us to yourself, bring us to Christ. We would
hear your word and we would find this message of Christ to be
all of our life and desire, all of our salvation. We would trust
no other. We would have this precious faith, which is the
work of your spirit. We can't produce what we must
have, but we hear your word that all we need is in Christ. And
Lord, we pray, help us to see him and come to him and find
in him our all. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.