In chapter 6 of Genesis, after
we pray, let's ask the Lord to be with us. Our gracious Heavenly
Father, we pray, Lord, that You would, according to Your great
power and goodness and grace, for Jesus' sake, speak to us
by Your Spirit, not just in our ears but in the depths of our
soul and our heart, and give us this precious faith in Him
that we might live our lives viewing your great accomplishments
and grace to us, knowing that you can use our lives, which
seem to us to be unprofitable in many ways. In our pride, we
think we have something to contribute, but we know, Lord, that we're
just dust, helpless worms of the dust, and we can do nothing
apart from your grace, and yet you can do all things according
to your will through us helpless people. Lord, you've taken nothing,
and You've created the world. You've made man from the dust,
and You've raised Your people from the dead. All things are
possible with You. You said that You can do far
exceedingly above all that we ask or think, so Lord, we pray,
give us this precious faith to see Christ and to rejoice in
Him in our heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Genesis, chapter 6, I say in
the bulletin, the title of the message is, Chosen in Christ.
That's a good title. There's several subtitles. I
think the subtitle I would give you is, Saved through the water,
or saved by the water, as it's put in 1 Peter 3. We're going
to look at that chapter, but I first want to read here from
Genesis 6. Let's continue where we left
off last week at verse 14, and we'll read through together.
Genesis 6.14, God told Noah, Make thee an ark of gopher wood,
rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it with
in and without, and without with pitch. on the inside and the
outside. And this is the fashion which
thou shalt make it of, the length of the arc shall be 300 cubits. Now a cubit is about the length
from a man's elbow to his hands, about a foot and a half. So just
multiply that by one and a half, around 450 feet long. That's about one and a half football
fields, if you have a sense of how big that is. Not a long boat,
you'd think, to hold everybody in the world. Didn't have to
be that long, though. Just had to be big enough. The Lord knew
exactly how big to make it. 300 cubits long. 300 cubits,
the breadth of it 50, and the height 30 cubits. A window shalt
thou make in the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it
above. Just one window, and it's right above. And the door of
the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower, second,
and third stories shalt thou make it. 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." Notice how God takes that act
to be His act. It's not a natural disaster.
It's an act of God. They even say that, I think,
in our insurance policies, don't they? It was an act of God. Everything
really is an act of God. 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. And of every living
thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the
ark, to keep them alive with thee, they shall be male and
female. All the animals bring him by male and female, and of
fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of creeping
thing of the earth after his kind. So, the birds, the animals,
and things that creep, like probably reptiles that couldn't survive
the flood. Two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep
them alive. And take thou unto thee of all
food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and
it shall be for food for thee and for them. Thus did Noah according
to all that God commanded him, so did he. 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. Of every
clean beast shalt thou take to thee by sevens, the male and
his female, and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male
and his female, of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male
and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the
earth. And yet seven days And I will cause it to rain upon
the earth forty days and forty 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 six hundred years old when the flood of waters
was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons,
and his wife, and his sons' wives with him into the ark because
of the waters of the flood." Notice how God repeats that.
God always tells us what He planned to do, tells us what He told
Noah to do, tells us what Noah did, and then He tells us how
it followed His plan. He said in verse 8, Of clean
beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and
of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two
and two Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had
commanded Noah. And it came to pass, after seven
days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In
the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the
seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains
of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were
opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty
nights. In the selfsame day entered Shem and Ham and Japheth, the
sons of Noah and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his son
with them into the ark." You can see how God keeps repeating
that number. There were eight people. They, and every beast
after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every
fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went
in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein
is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in
male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and
the Lord shut him in. 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, 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." Notice how God emphasizes it's a worldwide
flood. 15 cubits upward did the waters
prevail, and the mountains were covered. 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." God made a point to say that this judgment, this
flood, actually destroyed all living things. all in whose nostrils
was the breath of life, and all that was in the land, dry land,
died. And every living substance was
destroyed 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 Noah only remained
alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters
prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days. 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. And the fountains also of the
deep and the windows of heaven were stopped." Because that's
the way it had flooded. The fountains from under the
ground and the fountains that were above the earth were opened,
and that was what caused the flood. So they were stopped,
and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters returned
from off the earth continually, and after the end of the 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 Ararat. And the waters decreased continually
until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first
day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it
came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window
of the ark which he had made. And he sent forth a raven, which
went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off
the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the
waters were abated from off the face of the ground." Because
they couldn't see out, there were no windows, so he had to send them out the
roof. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and
she returned unto him into the ark. For the waters were on the
face of the whole earth, Then he put forth his hand, and took
her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet
other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the
ark. And the dove came into him in the evening, and lo, in her
mouth was an olive leaf plucked off, so no one knew that the
waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other
seven days, and sent forth a dove, which returned not again unto
him any more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and
first year, In the first day of the month, the waters were
dried up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering
of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
And in the second month, on the seventh and twentieth day of
the month, was the earth dried. And God spake to Noah, saying,
Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy
sons' wives with thee. And that's where I'm going to
stop. It's a pretty clear explanation
of what happened, isn't it? God destroyed the earth and all
that was in it with the flood of waters. And God saved Noah
alive and his family. And so that's why I've entitled
the message, Saved Through Water. But notice I've also entitled
it, Chosen to Salvation in Christ. So we're going to look at these
things together. If you look back in chapter 6, in verse 18,
it says that God said to Noah, "...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." And so he tells him,
and he goes on to describe the animals too, so the Lord tells
Noah very clearly that, I want you and your family to come into
the ark. And he said, I've made a covenant
with you. Now that's significant because there was nobody else
that was saved in all the earth except those God told to go into
the ark. When I was a kid we had Bible
story books and in the pictures they had the ark floating in
the water and people outside the water trying to get into
the ark swimming. It was to impress upon us the
tragedy, the awful judgment that came upon these people, but it
made it seem as if they had been told to get into the Ark, but
didn't, and they were outside and they were flooded because
of that. I think they probably were told, because we're going
to see that in a minute here, exactly what was happening. But
it's very clear here that God really intended to save Noah
and his family through all this. And that is an amazing thing,
isn't it? God destroyed a world and saved
eight people out of the world. That's why I've entitled the
message, Chosen to Salvation in Christ. Now, the Ark represents
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to show you that from
Scripture. Would you like to turn with me, first of all, to
2 Peter? I'm going to take you to some
scriptures to show this to you so that you don't just take my
word for it, although it's clear that in scripture everything
ultimately points to what God has done in our salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in scripture is meant
to do that. But in 2 Peter 2, in verse 5, it says this about
Noah. He says, And God, He's talking about all the things,
the judgments that God brought upon the earth. He mentions the
fact in verse... Well, I'm going to read verse
4. He says, "...for God spared not the angels that sinned."
So he mentions the fact that there were angels that God didn't
spare who sinned against Him. And they are delivered in chains
of darkness to be judged later. So they're reserved now in chains
of darkness. All the angels that sinned, God
kept under judgment. Reserving them to that judgment.
That's a sobering thing, isn't it? Not one of them was saved.
Not one angel was saved that sinned. And it says, and it spared
not the old world. That's a sobering thing. All
the world was destroyed, but saved Noah, the eighth person. It doesn't mean he was the 8th
person in the world or even the 8th person from Adam. It means
he was the 8th of the 8 that were saved. There were 8 that
were saved. A preacher of righteousness. Underscore that. He was a preacher
of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly. So God brought the flood up on
the world of the ungodly. Now turn back to 1 Peter chapter
1. I'm sorry, chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. So I wanted
to establish there that God saved Noah there in 2 Peter 2, 5, and
he was a preacher of righteousness. Now look at 1 Peter 3, and I
want to read this with you because the context here is important
to understand the message of why God mentions Noah again here
in 1 Peter 3. He says, I'll pick it up in verse 14.
But if you suffer for righteousness sake, 1 Peter 3.14. If you suffer
for righteousness sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of
their terror, neither be it troubled. That seems like, that's an interesting
thing. If you suffer for righteousness
sake. It seems like that would be the time when you would need
to really get out of that situation. No, the Lord says no. Don't worry
about that. Don't be anxious about that.
You're happy. And don't be troubled by their
terror. Don't be afraid of their terror.
Don't be troubled. But, do this. Sanctify the Lord
God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every
man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
What do you think he was preaching? Well, righteousness. And what
is righteousness? Righteousness? In preaching righteousness,
you have to preach that men are sinful. Remember the scribe that
came to Jesus and said, good master, he says, what's the greatest
commandment? And Jesus said, thou shalt love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is like
it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself." And the scribe said, that's right. To love the Lord
thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is like
doing the whole law. And Jesus told that man, he says,
you're not far from the kingdom of God. You answered right well.
But he wasn't in the kingdom of God. The reason he wasn't
in the kingdom of God is he had an understanding of what was
required. But he didn't understand that by that requirement he fell
short of it. To love God with all your heart,
soul, mind and strength is what God requires. That is the great
commandment. And to fail to do that is an
evil, isn't it? To love God who is only good.
How could you... not blame someone for not loving
God who is only right and good, and kind, and merciful, and wise,
and everything that God is. Faithful. He's never done anything.
Why would you not love Him? Therefore, to not love Him is
a sign of great sin. And so preaching righteousness,
first of all, is to preach man's sinfulness, failure. And then
it's to preach there's only one who's good, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. And our righteousness is in Him.
The psalmist in 71.16 says, I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only, because there is only one. And so he preached
righteousness, and God said he was righteous, righteous in Christ.
There's only one way that we can stand righteous before God.
Every man of himself is not righteous. There's none righteous, no, not
one. 1 Kings 6, or 8, 46, I think it is, it says, there's none,
there's no man on earth that doesn't sin, Solomon said. No
man living that doesn't sin. And so, Noah was a sinner just
like us. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. So preaching righteousness is
preaching our sin and it's preaching God's requirement. That's why
we can see so clearly that we're sinners and preaching that Christ
has fulfilled that by the grace of God. But here, Peter says,
when you're troubled, be ready to give an answer to every man
that asks you for the hope that lies within you. And what is
that hope? That hope is that I'm going to stand before God
one day, righteous in Christ, without sin. And I'm going to
see His face and I'll be like Him, received according to His
promise with all the blessings that He's given His people in
Christ. And so he says, verse 16, 1 Peter
3.16, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil
of you as evil doers, They may be ashamed that falsely accused
your good conversation in Christ. When we profess Christ as all
of our righteousness and hope, we also walk according to that
hope. If we believe something, we're
going to act out that faith. We're going to depend on the
Lord in all of our lives. And depending on Him, we're going
to want to follow Him in all things. We're going to walk honestly
before men. Ready to give a reason, and that
reason is Christ and Him crucified. He's all my hope, and we point
men like John the Baptist to Christ. We confess our hope. So he says in verse 17, It is
better, if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well
doing than for evil doing. It's never good to suffer for
evil doing. So suffer for well-doing instead. But look at verse 18. He continues. He gives us the
Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate and infinitely greater example
of suffering. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just, he's the righteous one, the just, for
the unjust. Now that's the comparison. If you suffer for well-doing,
Christ did. He suffered for well-doing. He
is the just who suffered at the hands of the unjust for the unjust. He says, the just for the unjust.
Why? What was the purpose? That he
might bring us to God, reconciled. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. He was put to death in his human
nature. But in His divine nature, He took back the life that He
laid down. John 10, verses 17 and 18. I lay down my life. I have power
to lay it down. I have power to take it up again. The spirit that quickened Christ
is His own divine nature. The spirit of Christ. Now look
at verse 19. By which also, by that spirit,
he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime
were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in
the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that
is, eight souls, were saved by water. That's the verse I want
to focus on, just a minute of your time here. What is he saying? The spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ raised up Christ in his human nature. He who is God dwelt
in the body and soul of a man. And when he laid his life down,
he laid it down in that human nature and he took it back again.
Now by that same spirit, he says here he went and preached to
the spirits in prison which sometime were disobedient. When once the
long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. That's what
we're reading about in Genesis. There was a time before the ark
was finished and before God poured out the rain from heaven and
opened up the fountains of the deep, when the ark was preparing. What were men doing in those
days? Whatever they wanted to. Ungodly men, wicked men. And
while that was going on, Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
Remember, we just read it. 2 Peter 2 verse 5, he was a preacher
of righteousness. Look back at 1 Peter 1 verse
11. He says that we will receive
the end of our faith, even the salvation of your souls. Verse
10. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Why? Why were they searching
diligently for this salvation? Because they prophesied to you
of the grace that should come to you. Searching what or what
manner of time, notice, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it testified, beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. What was the Spirit of Christ
doing? He was in the prophets. What was he saying from those
prophets? Whatever the word of the Lord was. He was telling
them about Christ's sufferings and the glory that should follow.
This is our salvation. So what was Noah? He was a preacher of righteousness.
What was he preaching? He was preaching of the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. And so the Spirit
of Christ was in Noah preaching in those days. Look at 2 Peter
1 verse 21. He says, 2 Peter 1 verse 21,
he says, "...for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost." Carried along. They spoke, they breathed out
what the Spirit of God gave to them. I love what Micaiah said
in the book of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. He said, whatever my God tells
me to say, that's what I speak. I want to do that, don't you?
Whatever God tells me, that's what I want to speak. And that's
why he was put in prison and persecuted. That's why all of
God's prophets are. Because they speak what God says
and men don't like God. They hate God. They hate what
He says. And so Noah was a preacher of righteousness. But he was
also a prophet who not only preached righteousness, but in building
the ark, he was speaking. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Let's
hear what he was saying. Hebrews chapter 11, in verse
7, it says, being warned of God of things
not seen as yet. There was no rain, the sky was
sunny, and the people were happy, giving one another in marriage
and living just like we do every day of our lives. And Noah was
warned of God. Remember, we just read it in
Genesis 6 and 7 and 8. He said, build this ark. I'm going to pour out a flood
of waters and I'm going to destroy everything living. But I want
you and your wife and your three sons and their three wives to
get into the ark and bring with you all these animals and I'm
going to pour out my flood of water upon the earth and the
earth's going to be destroyed." And that's what God did. And
Noah preached that. And he started building the ark.
And the people asked him, what's the hope? What are you doing
this for? He says, God has told me he's going to destroy this
world for their wickedness. Everyone is going to be destroyed
and he told me to build an ark and get into it and bring the
animals because the flood is going to destroy every living
thing. There was a warning. He believed God and he acted
accordingly. He lived his life looking for
the fulfillment of what God said. The truth he believed about the
way things are in this world is whatever God said. That's
what faith is. He lived on the word of God as
if this was the reality. It's like he had eyes that the
unbeliever didn't have. He could see the reality of what
God said. Because he knew whatever God
said is the way things really are. And he warned Noah. And
Noah built the ark. And that's why there was no evidence.
He lived on the Word of God and he built it out of fear because
of the judgment that was coming. Look at 2 Peter 3. One thing you get very clearly
from this account in Genesis of the Ark is that judgment is
certain. It is unescapable. In 2 Peter 3, looking at verse
3, he says, knowing this first, that there shall come in the
last days scoffers walking after their own lusts. That's exactly
what was happening in the days of Noah, scoffers. walking after
their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
in other words, before the flood, all those people that lived then,
all things, continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of. In other words,
they deliberately suppress this truth, that by the word of God
the heavens were of old, God created the world out of nothing
by his word. And the earth standing out of
the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being
overflowed with water, perished. So God created the world and
then he destroyed the world with water. The very water in which
that world was suspended. Verse 7. But the heavens and
the earth, which are now by the same word, The word of creation
and the world that brought it under judgment are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and the perdition
of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day." In other words, time
is of no consequence to God. He sees things in eternity. The
Lord is not slack concerning His promises. Some men count
slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any
of us should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
God is not willing that any of His people perish. That's why
He told Noah, get into the ark, back to 1 Peter chapter 3. So
the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets in the Old Testament,
preaching the gospel, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. And in the days of Noah, the
Spirit of Christ was in Noah, who was a prophet, a preacher
of righteousness, who preached about the Lord Jesus Christ,
about our sin. And he built the Ark, which was
a great picture of salvation in Christ. And so he says here,
While Noah was building the ark, these people, verse 3, I'm sorry,
verse 20, 1 Peter 3, verse 20. He says, "...which sometime were
disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of
Noah." God's longsuffering waited in those days. The men, the women,
the people there heard Noah's message. Not one of them repented. Remember when God sent Jonah
to Nineveh to preach? In 40 days God is going to destroy
the city. And the king said, wow, command
everyone to... He got himself on an ash heap
and he prayed. He said, cry mightily to God.
Who can tell if God will have mercy? And God said, Jonah, you
see that? And he spared the whole city.
Not one man did that. Remember, before Noah, Enoch
walked with God, and God took him just before the flood. And so here, the Lord says these
were disobedient. It doesn't matter. What if some
did not believe? What if some did not believe?
Does that make the truth and the faith of God without any
value? No. God destroyed a world of
unbelievers. And God is going to destroy the
world we live in now by fire one day. And everything in it
will be burned up. And there's only one place of
safety. It's not in an ark. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So he says here, they were disobedient in those days while the ark was
a preparing. Now these men who were in those
days, while Peter is saying this, he said, are spirits in prison. By which also he went and preached
unto the spirits now in prison. Who then were sometimes disobedient
when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah. So understand, this verse has been so convoluted by people
who have tried to explain it in so many different ways. It's
not worth really getting into those different ways. Some people
said, well, Jesus went and preached to the people in hell after he
died so he could get them out of hell. That's not true. That's
not what it's saying. He's talking about people in
Noah's day who were disobedient. It doesn't say anything about
them being taken out of hell. They were in prison. They were
in prison when Peter was saying this. And there's so many other
different explanations of this that just aren't worth mentioning.
It's very clear here. Christ, by His Spirit, was in
Noah a preacher and a prophet, preaching about what all prophets
preached about. Judgment, mercy, and faith. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus
told the Pharisees? And so he says in verse 21, 1
Peter 3 verse 21, in the like figure. What's a figure? A figure
is like something that represents the truth. It's a picture of
the reality. It's a shadow of the substance.
It's the thing that represents it. It says that Adam was a figure
of Christ because Adam was just a representation of the truth
God is teaching through Adam. And God says here that the like
figure, the like figure, what does that mean? The like figure.
It means that there's another thing that's like this that also
is a figure. And what is that figure? What
is his figure? What has he been talking about? The flood of Noah's
day. And the fact that Noah and his sons and wives were saved
through the water. He says the like figure, where
unto even baptism doth also now save us. And you go, what? Baptism saves us? And then he
puts it, he emphasizes it, not the putting away the filth of
the flesh, like getting cleaned up in the water on the outside,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. So now we have to use these two
things to understand what is God saying here. Remember I said
the ark is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter
6, if you'll turn there, he explains this thing about baptism. Which,
when we understand that, we'll be able to undeniably see that
the ark and the flood are teaching us about salvation in Christ.
In Romans chapter 6, he says, knowing this, in verse 6. Let
me back up to verse 3. Romans 6.3, Know ye not that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into His death? Therefore we are buried with
Him. by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection, knowing this, this is something we know,
that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For
he that is dead is justified from sin. The word freed in the
King James Version should have been justified from sin. Which,
by the way, is a freedom, but the word is justified. Now, if
we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him, dead with Christ. Knowing this, that Christ, being
raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Now, look at verse 11. Likewise,
reckon ye also, consider this as the truth on which you stand,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is what
baptism is teaching us. That's what he's talking about
here, baptism. In Galatians 2.20, Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. Here he says it plainly. We were
buried with him by baptism into death. Our baptism in water symbolizes
our death and our burial and our resurrection with the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a figure of our salvation. It's a representation of what
actually took place. God put us into Christ. And in
Christ, by virtue of our union with Christ, when He died, we
died. When He obeyed God's law, we
obeyed it. When He died under the weight
of our sins, the body of our sins was put to death in His
death. And we were buried with Him so that God forgot them as
a man forgets a dead person. And then we were raised from
the dead because the satisfaction was given to God for them. And
so God justified the Lord Jesus and us with Him. That's the teaching
of baptism. It teaches us how we were saved. Baptism as an act doesn't save. But the reality to which baptism
points is a picture or a figure that does save the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so the like figure, Noah's
Ark, And the 8 souls that were saved, just like baptism, is
pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. How we are saved in Him. Now,
how were we put into the Lord Jesus? How did we get into Christ? Well, we were put there by God.
1 Corinthians 1.30 says, "...of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption." Everything we are to God in His acceptance
of us, we are in Christ. God put us in Him. When? When
did God put us in Him? When He chose us in Him. Ephesians
1, verse 4. Look at that. Ephesians 1. You see, Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Every believer has found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 says,
According as he hath chosen us in him, just like God chose Noah
and his family to be in the ark, chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. How did God make us holy? How
did He make us blameless? He put us in Christ. And in Christ
As our representative head, just like Adam, when he obeyed God,
that obedience was counted as ours. And when he died under
the weight of our sins, his death was our death. We died with him.
And when he was buried and forgotten, our sins were put away, forgotten
by God. And we're going to look at a
verse of scripture that proves that. And then when he was raised,
God said, death has no more power over him. Sin has been put away. My wrath has been satisfied.
All blessings are given in that covenant of grace. Raise him
from the dead. Justice cried, deliver him. And so God's people are raised
with him. And this is what baptism teaches.
We were in Christ of God when He chose us in Him. Look at Romans
chapter 5, or actually on the way back to Romans, look at 1
Corinthians 15. He says, verse 22, "...for as
in Adam all die." Because we were represented by Adam in his
disobedience, And his disobedience was charged to us as our sin. We died in Adam. And so he says,
as in Adam all die. Even so, in Christ Just as we
were represented when Adam did all that he did in the garden
when he sinned, we were represented in Christ when He did all that
He did in His life. His fulfilling the law, His giving
His life for His sheep in love for His Father, for His people,
and redeeming them from death. All that He did, we were in Him.
We shall be made alive. Now back to Romans. I wanted to take you to chapter
5, verse 1. In chapter 5, I want to look at this with you just
briefly and then we'll try to wrap this up. Now, in 1 Peter
chapter 3 he's talking about suffering. Suffering what? Because
we did evil? No, suffering because we did
good and by the will of God He wanted us to suffer. For doing
good? Yes. Why? Because when we suffer
for doing what's right, we're doing what all the prophets of
God have done. And all the servants of God have
done. We're telling the truth and we're looking to God to do
His will. We're looking to Him to do through
us and in us and for us all that He's promised. That's what faith
does. It takes God's words and stands
on it and looks for the hope of glory. That's our hope. That
in Christ we've been made perfect before God and we'll stand there
in judgment. Righteous before Him because
of Christ. And so in Romans chapter 5, he
wraps this up. He's saying this in verse 1,
he says, Are we justified because we believe? No. Faith doesn't
say, I'm justified because I believe. Faith says, I'm justified by
God because of what He thinks of what Christ did. That's what
it means to be justified by faith. Faith finds all of its hope before
God in Christ. And so to be justified by faith
is just saying we're justified by what Christ did. And faith
has been persuaded. We've been persuaded of that.
And because we've been persuaded of that in our conscience, we
have peace with God. We have a good conscience toward
God. We know that God looks upon us in Christ and receives us
for Christ's sake. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. By whom? By Jesus Christ. Also,
we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Again, what is that hope? To be found in Him. Not having
my own righteousness. Verse 3. And not only, but we
glory in tribulations. What? Glory in tribulations? Boasting in our trouble? Knowing
this, knowing that tribulation works patience. And patience
is this cheerful enduring, because we see that God is doing His
will, even though it causes us some pain. It's light affliction,
really. It's light affliction. But that
tribulation works patience, and patience works experience. Because
as we continue to look to Christ in our trouble, knowing that
God is sovereign and works all things according to His will
for our good and His glory, when we trust Him, really trusting
Him, we're proving by our experience that His word is true. God reinforces
it and gives us this assurance. that His Word is true because
we've been given grace to look to Christ even in trouble and
patiently enduring under it. And so that patience works this
experience, proving God's Word in our experience, the assurance
that what He said is true. And He says, and not only that,
Patient works experience, and experience works hope. And this
hope is that certainty that because God said it and has sworn by
Himself in Christ, He's going to fulfill it. We stand upon
this not for our works, but because of what God has said. And hope
makes not ashamed. It doesn't disappoint us. We're
not going to be ashamed in the day of judgment. Why? Because...
In our experience now, the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. And what does
the Holy Spirit teach us? He teaches us this. For when
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. And you see this? God is pouring
out the truth that he teaches us day by day in our lives. Trouble
comes. Lord, I'm in trouble. And even
in that time when people falsely accuse us for doing well. Lord,
I'm in trouble. It's okay. Look to Christ. Know that God is sovereign. He's
working this out for your good and His glory. And if those people
who hear you... Look to Christ and are saved,
that's God's will and that's their salvation. But if they
don't, if like in the days of Noah they remain disobedient,
that also is God's will. Because we are unto those that
are being saved, a saver of life to life. But to those who are
not, a saver of death to death. That's the way the gospel works.
Christ was a stumbling block for many. But a stone, a foundation
stone for the others, for the rise and falling again of many
in Israel. And so the Lord teaches us here
these things by Noah. Saved through water. Back to
1 Peter chapter 3. Saved through water. You see,
we weren't saved. Noah could have been spared.
Maybe God could have taken him up into a cloud and kept him
from the world. And then he poured it out and
washed the world and put him back down on the earth. But he
didn't do that. He left him there. He put him in the ark. And the
ark felt the full force of the flood. He said in 1 Peter 3, verse 21,
I just want to take you to one place in scripture here. Back in Psalm 88, there's a lot
of Psalms that speak about this, but I just want to point out
this one here. In Psalm 88, it says, it talks about the fact
that this is a prophecy. Remember the prophets? What did
the prophets teach? What was the Spirit of Christ
speaking from the prophets? He was speaking of our salvation.
And how was that salvation accomplished? The sufferings of our Lord Jesus
Christ. How do we know it was accomplished? Because of the
glory that did follow. That was the message of the prophets,
the gospel of Jesus Christ. But look at Psalm 88, as he's
prophesying here, he says, This is our Lord Jesus, praying, In
the days of His flesh, O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried
day and night before Thee, Let my prayer come before thee, and
incline thine ear unto my cry." This is the psalmist speaking
in prophecy of our Savior. The Lord Jesus is praying here
in prophecy under the outpouring of the flood of God's wrath upon
him because God put our sins upon him and demanded from him
the full payment that curse of God's law demanded in punishment
for our sins. And so he says, let my prayer
come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry, for my soul
is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
I am counted with them that go down into the pit. I am, as a
man that hath no strength, free among the dead, like the slain
that lie in the grave, whom thou remember'st no more, and they
are cut off from thy hand." Our Lord is saying here as he's dying
and suffering under the wrath of God in his soul and his body,
saying, unlike a man ready to go into the grave, free among
the dead. There's no freedom there. Free
from life. but not free to see and know
the things of God, not free to enjoy the communion of His presence?
I'm like those that you remember no more, those buried in the
grave. Look at verse 6. Thou hast laid
me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth
hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Now if you look at the book of
Jonah in chapter 2, Psalm 69, these same things are repeated.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the ark. But in Christ, we underwent
the baptism of divine wrath, the flood from above and the
fountains of the deep being broken up, and the pitch on the ark
representing our atonement by His sufferings. Us, in Christ,
having satisfied God's law and fulfilled all righteousness in
the sufferings of our Lord, we're justified. by what he did, justified
by his blood. And when Noah and his family
came out of the ark, that was equivalent to our being raised
from the dead to live to God. Can you imagine what it felt
like to get out of that ark? After almost a year in the ark?
Only one window, right at the top, three stories up, looking
out all the time. What were they thinking back
then? What were they thinking as they looked up in that window? My help cometh from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth. My help, my salvation, all comes
from my God. They looked to the One who poured
out His wrath in the ark and they said, in the ark, my salvation
comes from my God. And that's what they looked at.
They only looked to the One who was their Savior. God is my Savior. No matter what my deeds have
been, no matter what my weakness is, I'm going to look to God
my Savior. With Him nothing is impossible.
He provided. He's the one our sin was against.
He's the one who could dictate what was required to reconcile
us, to remove our offense. And He's the one who provided
it in His Son. And our Lord Jesus Christ made
that satisfaction. He took away the wrath. He reconciled
us to God and now He sends His Spirit, enabling us with His
God-given faith to be persuaded, this is the truth, the whole
truth about the way things are between me and God. And we look
to Christ and we say, my soul, look at this earth. As they stepped
out of the ark, the flood was gone, the ground was dry, the
things were green, the sky was blue. We can live to God. That's the resurrection accepted
in Christ. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord,
for your salvation. Thank you for our Lord Jesus.
Thank you for this truth from Scripture that teaches us, as
all of Scripture does, about the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. He didn't die, He didn't live
and die for Himself. He wasn't buried by Himself.
And He didn't rise by Himself. He lived and died for His people. And we lived and died and were
buried and rose with Him. And how we know this is that
you've sent your Spirit to us to teach us what you preached
from the beginning of creation until now. That in the Lord Jesus
Christ there is the full fulfillment and perfect satisfaction to your
law. Righteousness is established, and it's everlasting, and we
therefore have everlasting life in our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. To Him be all glory and praise, who has saved us from
the death we deserved and made us stand in life. To Him, even
though all the tribulations of our life, dear Lord, we pray
that you would save us through them in Christ, and we would
give you glory and look for that hope that you've promised in
your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.