Praise, for thou for us hast
done, Be found o'er new in this day's accord and magnified. I think as most know, our pastor
this morning is in North Carolina at Spring Lake preaching for
John Chapman, who is now the pastor there. And in his stead,
We have with us this morning, Cody and Rachel Henson from Kingsport
Sovereign Baptist Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. And I'm sure that
talking with Cody last night, and we're all going to be hugely
blessed by the message he's about to bring to us. Brother Cody,
if you would, come and teach us from the Lord's Word. Good morning. It's good to be with you all
today. I'm very honored that Paul would ask me to come preach
to you. I don't think I could come here and, you know, not
say you get nervous any time you preach, but being a young
preacher and preaching to Henry Mahan, I pray the Lord wouldn't allow
me to even think about it because you're all my brethren and I'm
so thankful and it truly is an honor to be here. If you will
open your Bibles back to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Our text will be found in verse
9. We'll start at the second part of the verse. Genesis 6,
9 says, Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. Noah walked with God. That's
the title of my message this morning. We remember Enoch, right?
In the previous chapter, Enoch walked with God. And he was not,
for God took him. And before God translated him
into his kingdom, he had this testimony that he pleased God.
So what do we know about Enoch? He pleased God and he walked
with God. He was translated. He's with God in glory. And I
pray that I would have that same testimony, not merely before
men, but before God. That I walk with God, that I
please God by faith. Now what does it mean to walk
with God? I really, I want to walk with God. I really do, and
I pray that each of us here does. What does it mean to walk with
God? It means to walk together in fellowship. You know, Gabe
says all the time, we're fellows in the same ship. You and I,
we're brethren. And what do we read in the Psalms?
How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. We have fellowship. We have communion
one with another. We walk together. Well, how do
you walk together in fellowship? How do you get this fellowship?
How did we get the fellowship that we have that is so wonderful?
How did we obtain this? From God. How do we obtain fellowship
with God? First of all, it's God's work. People talk about God being their
buddy. Well, God says the opposite. We're friends with the world,
the enemies of God. The carnal mind hates God. That's us by
nature. We must agree with God. Amos chapter 3 verse 3 says,
Can two walk together? And this certainly speaks of
us, but it speaks of us and God. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? We cannot walk together except
we be agreed. And I mentioned earlier, we have fellowship one
with another. We have the mind of Christ. Well, how did Noah
walk with God? How did Enoch walk with God?
They agreed with God. It's the only way. They agreed
with God. They agreed with what God says
about man. They said, Amen. What God said
about who God is, Amen. I agree. And what God says about
the justice of God, we just read about it. I agree. We must agree
with God. We must side with God. We must
side with God. And not only that, Enoch and
Noah, they were one with God. We are one with one another.
We dwell together in unity. We are truly made one. We read
in our text that Noah was a just man. Remember, just lot. He was
a just man and perfect. The Lord Jesus said, be ye therefore
perfect. Be ye therefore perfect. Well,
how was Noah just and perfect? If we're going to walk with God,
we have to be just that. We have to be just and perfect.
How did Noah, how was he just and perfect? Look back at our
text, verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Notice, it doesn't say the hearts
of men, it says the heart of man. Did that include Noah? You
better believe it. That included Noah, that included
Enoch, that includes you and me. Well, how was Noah just and
perfect? Noah was a sinner. A sinner isn't
just and perfect, is he? What did the scripture say? There's
not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
Not a single one. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. God looked down from heaven upon
the children of man to see if there was any that did understand.
If there was any that did seek God. And what did he find? Every
one of them has gone back. Every one of them. They're all
together become filthy. There's none good, no, not one. Not one. How then was Noah? How was Noah just and perfect?
Look at verse 8 of our text. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Noah found grace. How are we
saved? By God's grace. We're saved by grace, not by
our works. Noah found grace. Noah was saved by grace. And
you know how he found it? I love thinking about this. How
did Noah find grace? This might confuse somebody,
but this is glorious. Noah found God's grace by not
even looking for it. Scripture say, you shall seek
me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Well,
I'm gonna search God. What did Job say? Can't a man
by searching find out God? Oh, that'd give all the glory
to us. Well, I saw God, I found God.
Here's how Noah found grace. God in his grace found him. Has
that been your experience? Has God in His grace found you? Oh, I pray it would. I pray God
would find us in His grace. What did He tell Moses? He said,
Moses asked, Lord, show me your glory. He said, Moses, I will
be gracious. You know, people have a problem
with Jacob, have I loved, but Esau, have I hated? Don't even
think about that. Election, oh, well, I rejoice
in election. That opens the door for me. Don't
worry, God will be gracious. To whom He'll be gracious? Well,
who knows if He'll be gracious to me? Just think about this.
I will be gracious. Oh God, have mercy on me. God,
be gracious to me, the sinner. That's how Noah was just and
perfect, by the grace of God. And that's how Noah walked with
God. Now I want to briefly talk to you this morning about Noah's
walk with God. Keep your bookmark here in Genesis
chapter 6. I know this isn't the most convenient
thing to do, but we're going to be turning back and forth
from Genesis to Hebrews. So keep a bookmark or a bulletin
or something there and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews
11. I want to show you six things
about Noah's walk with God. And these six things apply to
you and me. If we walk with God, these apply to everybody that
walks with God. Look at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7. 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."
The first thing I want us to see about Noah's walk with God
is that Noah walked with God by faith. by faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. We read in the scriptures, the just shall live
by faith. We don't walk by sight. Henry,
your eyes are not set on this world, are they? And by the grace
of God, ours are not either. We walk by faith. And what is
this faith? First of all, it's the faith
that God gives us. It's saving faith. And it's faith that looks
somewhere. Faith does not look at the substance
of things not seen. Things not seen. We're looking
somewhere. Where are we looking? Where does
this God-given faith look? We know, don't we? It looks to
Christ. to him looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. That's where our faith is, right?
It's in Christ. Faith in Christ. You say, well,
Noah, he was in the Old Testament. He was long ago. Surely he didn't
have faith in Christ. God begs to differ. That's the
only true faith there is. Noah had faith in Christ by the
grace of God. God in mercy, he found Noah,
and he pointed Noah to Christ. And we'll see that with the ark,
won't we? We'll see that. You know what faith is. Faith believes
God. God gives a man faith, that man
believes God. We believe God's Word. We agree
with God. We agree with what God has to
say in His Word. You know, the Lord told some
religious folks, He said, you search the Scriptures. Search
the Scriptures. For in them you think you have
eternal life. People get a Bible and they think,
well, I found God. You don't. It's not going to
happen. God finds you. Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify
of me, he said. We must see Christ in the scriptures.
It's the hymn book. It's his book. It's all about
him, the Lord Jesus. You and I must believe in God.
This Bible does us no good if we don't see Christ. We must
see Him. We must believe Him. And by God's
grace, we will do just that. We will believe Him. We'll believe
on Him. We'll trust Him. And we'll walk
with Him by faith. We'll walk with Him by faith,
but we will not walk with God at all. It's the only way. The
only way. Second, look back at Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 7. Noah walked with God by hearing
God's Word. By faith, Noah being warned of
God. Noah was warned of God of things
not seen as yet. What was that? What things was
Noah warned of God about? Look back in Genesis chapter
6. Genesis 6 verse 13. 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. Look at chapter seven, verse
four. God said, for yet seven days,
and I will cause it to rain upon the earth, 40 days and 40 nights,
and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from
off the face of the earth. What was God saying? God said,
man is evil. Man has corrupted his way upon
the earth. Man is evil. I am going to destroy man. The
end of all flesh has come before me. I'm going to wipe man off
the earth. What's that? God's judgment fell
upon the old world. And God destroyed it. We'll see
that in a minute too. That applies to us. You know
that. God said, never going to destroy the world by flood again,
but in the New Testament we read He will destroy this world again,
this time by fire. He's coming. He's coming. Praise
God, He's coming. Lord, come quickly. But it's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
You know, this world knows very little about the judgment of
God. He knows very little about the
judgment of God. What did God say in the Passover? He said,
I will execute judgment. God's going to execute judgment.
It's coming. It's coming to your house and to mine. Hebrews 9
verse 27 says, It's appointed unto men once to die. We're going
to die, but after this, the judgment, we're going to stand before a
holy and just God. You and I must. We will face
God. And look at Genesis chapter 7 verse 10. And it came to pass,
after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth,
just as God said it would." He said, in seven days, the flood's
coming. Seven days went by, the flood came. God says, that's
going to come as a thief in the night. We're not going to see
it coming, but He's coming. We need to realize that. We need
to pray for God to prepare us for that. And I want us to put
ourselves in Noah's shoes. You know, they say that it had
never rained before. And then God says, I'm going
to flood the earth. Can you imagine? You know, people
hear what we preach. They hear the gospel preaching,
and they don't hear anything. They say, that's ridiculous.
You mean to tell me God, you can't tell me God loves me? Not
outside of Christ, I can't. Outside of Christ, God's a consuming
fire. And we're all born into this world dead in our trespasses
and sins. God must punish sin. I like to put myself in Noah's
shoes and think, is God really going to do this? Noah was a
sinner just like you and me. Noah could not believe God apart
from God causing him to, just like you and me. Is God really
going to do this? Look at Genesis 7 verse 17. And the flood was forty days
upon the earth. And the waters increased and
bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters
prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth. And the
ark went upon the face of the waters, and the waters prevailed
exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were
under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the
waters prevail, and the mountains were covered." Is God going to
do this? God is going to do this. God
is going to come to us in judgment. He will. And we must give account. You see, God is holy. What did
God say about it? He grieved God in His heart that
He made man. You know why? Because we're sinners. We're nothing but sin. God is
holy. He's of purer eyes than to behold evil. He cannot look
on iniquity. That's why God's justice said
man has got to die. And it's the second death that
we must fear. We must have a hope. We must
have a hope. Look here in verse 21. It says,
"...and all flesh died." Does your Bible say that? All flesh
died. redone, that moved upon the earth,
both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beasts, and of every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. And every man, all flesh,
every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all
that was in the dry land, died. Every man died." You remember that rich man who
wanted Abraham to dip the tip of his finger in water, cool
his tongue, because he was tormented in this flame. What did God's
mercy say in the Day of Judgment, when God put righteousness to
the plumbing? When it was too late, what did
God's mercy have for him? Nothing. It was too late. Not
only did the Lord destroy all flesh, He destroyed all animals. God, there is no mercy outside
of Christ. Not one drop. But praise God. Look at verse
23. Look what it says here. 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. Aren't you glad that verse
don't stop there? And Noah only remained alive
and they that were with him in the ark. That's good news, ain't
it? Praise God for the ark. Praise
God for mercy in Christ. Now, this point was that Noah,
he was warned of God of things not seen as yet, and so are you
and I. God has given us his word. God said, I'm gonna come. Vengeance
is mine, I'm coming. What's gonna be our reaction
to that? I pray that God would cause us to heed his warning.
To heed his warning. We better. Back at Hebrews 11, Verse 7, By faith Noah, being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. The third point
is Noah walked with God by fearing God. And not only did Noah walk with
God by fearing Him, he was moved with fear. Moved with fear. I
wonder what kind of fear that was. Was he just afraid? Was he just
terrified? No. Noah was moved with the fear. You know, we're constrained by
the love of Christ. Noah was moved with that fear of the Lord.
He reverenced God. You know, to believe God is to
reverence God. No one's going to believe God
who doesn't take God's Word seriously, who doesn't reverence God. Sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts. Reverence God. Believe Him. Believe
Him. He believed God would do exactly
what He said He was going to do. You know that? That's why
He prepared the ark. That's why He built the ark.
Noah was absolutely persuaded that God was able to save him.
You think about that. Are you persuaded that God is
fully able to save you, apart from your will, apart from any
works of our hands? Scriptures say He's able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. We know
whom we believe. We're persuaded that He's able,
aren't we, Ron? Persuaded that He is able. You cannot walk with
God apart from fearing God. It's just not going to happen.
And yet, with that being said, only God can put such a fear
in our hearts. Only God can give us that fear.
Over in Psalm 34, It says, O fear the Lord, ye
his saints. There is no want to them that fear him. The young
lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. He said, come, hearken unto me.
I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. O God, teach me the fear
of the Lord. Cause me to believe you, to reverence
you in my heart, to bow and submit to your will. We must. We must. Fourth, Noah walked with God.
by obeying God. Read our text again, Hebrews
11.7, it says, By faith Noah, and you know, I'm glad we're
reading it over and over. Let's hammer that point down, by faith
Noah. By faith Noah, being warned of
God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, he prepared
an ark to the saving of his house. Turn back to Hebrews, I'm sorry,
we're in Hebrews. Turn back to Genesis chapter 6 again. Noah prepared the ark. Look at
Genesis 6, verse 14. The Lord was speaking to Noah.
He just said, I'm going to destroy flesh. The end of all flesh has
come. I'm going to destroy all flesh and beasts. And then He
said, make thee an ark. Make thee an ark. And then He
went on and said, this is how you're going to make it. He said, Noah, the end of all
flesh has come. Make you an ark. This is how
I'm going to save you. I'm going to be gracious to you.
I'm going to save you. Make the end arc. And look down
at verse 22. God had just told him, this is
exactly how you're going to make the arc. Genesis 6, 22 says,
thus did Noah. God said, build the arc. Thus
did Noah. This is how you're going to make
it. You're going to pitch it within and without with pitch.
This is how long. This is how tall. This is how wide. There's
going to be one door. Christ is the door. All must
enter by Him. There's going to be one window.
This is how you're going to make the ark. Thus did Noah, according
to all that God commanded him. So did he. You know why Noah
did that? Why Noah did thus? Why Noah did
what the Lord commanded him? Because he believed in God. He
believed in God. He feared God. He trusted God. We must believe God. And we must
obey Him. Well, you can't say that. I'm
not here to tell you, keep His commandments. We kept them in
Christ. But I am here to tell you, there's one commandment
we must keep. Look at 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3 verse 23. 1 John 3.23 says, And this is His
commandment, this is God's commandment, that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave
us commandment. This is His commandment. We're
not going to be saved by trying to keep the law of God. We establish
the law in Christ by faith in Christ. But God commands us to
believe on Christ. We aren't going to establish
the Law in Christ unless we believe on Christ. We must obey God's
commandment, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I will
believe for the same reason that Noah believed. God gave him faith
to believe Him. That's the only way we're going
to believe God, if God gives us the faith. Know what truly
believe, God is going to save me through that ark. You know
what my hope is? You know what I'm believing with all my heart
by the grace of God? That God is going to save me
through the ark, Christ Jesus. Salvation is only in Him. If we're going to walk with God,
we must obey His commandment. John 3 verse 36 says, He that
believeth on the Son, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life. He that believeth not on the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Oh God, give us the grace to obey your commandment, to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Fifth, look back at Hebrews 11,
verse 7. Noah walked with God by faithfully
declaring the truth of God. Let's read it again. 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. His
house was saved. But look what follows after that.
By the witch he condemned the world. Not everybody was saved. Almost everybody on the face
of the earth. God killed them. Rightfully so. But Noah's house
was saved and Noah condemned the world. How do you suppose
Noah condemned the world? I'll tell you. He was declaring
the truth of God. He believed God. He obeyed God's
commandment. He built the ark. God told him to build it exactly
how he told him to build it. And we'll see it in a second,
but Noah was a preacher. Noah was a preacher. You know what
true preaching is? Noah, all his message was, was
this is what God said. Noah didn't have some great message
that he came up with. What God told him, Noah turned
around and he told it to others. That's exactly right. And that's
what true preaching is, isn't it Henry? We tell others what
God has already told us. Thus saith the Lord. I was reading
one of his commentaries, and in the foreword, Paul had written
a little something. He said that a self-proclaimed
scholar had this to say. Too simple. They just say what
God says. That's it. God forbid our message
be anything but that. What God says. That is good. Turn over to 2 Peter chapter
2. 2 Peter 2 verse 4, For if God spared not the angels
of sin, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not
the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly. Noah, by the grace of God, was saved. And Noah, by
the grace of God, was a preacher of righteousness. You know what
that means? Noah preached righteousness.
Well, what kind of righteousness did he preach? The righteousness
of God. Just as we, by the grace of God,
preach a person, we preach Christ and Him crucified, Noah preached
a person in the form of an ark. Noah preached an ark. He said,
God's wrath is coming to you and to me. It's coming. But he
has provided an ark. God provided the ark. Your only
hope and my only hope is to be in that ark which God has provided. You remember Abraham took Isaac,
his only son, up and God said, kill him. Abraham, he had everything
there, right? And then Isaac said, Father,
where's the lamb for a burnt offering? What did he say? Son,
God will provide himself a lamb. You see, the ark is our only
hope of salvation. Christ alone is our only hope.
Who provided that hope? Did you or I do anything? Did
we play any part in providing that hope for sinners? Not a
single part. God did it all. God will provide
Himself a lamb, and He provided the lamb, and He provided Himself
as that lamb. Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Noah preached Christ. And by the grace of God, we'll
do the same. And preaching Christ, He condemned all who refused
to believe. Turn over to John chapter 3. When the gospel of God's free
grace in Christ is preached, some will believe and some will
believe not. Every time. Some believed and
some believed not. John 3 verse 18. He that believeth
on Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, he that believeth on Christ is
not condemned. No condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Why? Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Noah condemned everybody
who refused to believe his message of salvation in Christ alone.
But it wasn't so much Noah that condemned them, as it was they
condemned themselves. Look at verse 19, it says, and
this is the condemnation. Here it is, that light is coming
to the world, and men love darkness rather than light. Christ came
into the world and we hated Him. Hated Him without a cause, hated
Him with all we had. You and I did. It wasn't just
the men of old, it was us. Light Himself came into the world
and we put Him on a cross. You know why we did that? Look
at the end of verse 19. Because our deeds were evil. What did God say? The wickedness
of man great in the earth, every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil. That's us. Continuing. Noah preached the righteousness
of God, Christ. And this is the sad reality.
Nobody needed it. You know who got in that ark?
God said, this is who's going to be in the ark, Noah, Noah's
sons, Noah's wife, and Noah's sons' wives. Everybody God says
is going to be in the ark was in the ark. No more, no less. And that's all that the Father
giveth me. What are they going to do? Shall come to me. But
him that cometh to me, well that shuts me out. Oh no, but him
that cometh to me, I what? I will in no wise cast out come
to him. The commandment is come. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. How are we going to come? No
man can come to me. Oh, well that puts man down in the dirt,
don't it? No man can come to me. But praise God for that next
word, accept the Father which has sent me, draw him. He's going
to draw somebody, ain't he? Oh, praise God. Noah declared the truth of God.
He faithfully declared the gospel as God revealed it to him. And
I can imagine that Noah was very concerned, not only for his own
soul. This not thy soul. We must be
concerned with our soul. But he was very concerned for
the souls of his loved ones. I rejoice to read that God put
Noah and his family in that ark. But we know Noah had other family.
Don't we read the Generations of Noah? There were many, many
in that day as there are in our day. Noah was concerned with
the souls of his loved ones. And you know what? So are we.
I have four siblings. We all have family, do we not?
Some believe God, some don't. And we try to bring them here
and pray God would speak to them just as He spoke to us through
the foolishness of preaching. You know, we can't save anybody.
We certainly can't save ourselves. But God can. His hand is not
short and dead, it cannot save. You know, looking out into the
auditorium, I see some people, oh, I just love you with all
my heart. And I see some that I've never met before. I see
some I do not know, but I care about your souls the same. This
is too serious. How could we be saved and not
care about the souls of others? God forbid any man stand to preach
who cares not for the souls of men. I want you to be saved,
but I know the only way it's going to happen. God must speak
to you through His Word, through the foolishness of preaching.
There's no other way. God must give us faith in Christ
and Him alone. And I pray that God would give
us the faith. Last week Gabe preached on, therefore saying,
we've received this ministry. We have received this glorious
ministry. God, help us to be faithful. Help us to be your
faithful witnesses. You know, we're all a part of
this work. Whether we're sitting in the
pew or standing here singing a song, we're all a part of this
ministry that God has graciously given us. Lord, make us faithful.
And what's our message? To tell others what great things
He hath done for us. I love what Brother Scott said,
a gospel preacher's a nobody. I'm a nobody. You know, as much
as we love and adore Henry, he'd tell you I'm a nobody. Oh, but
by the grace of God, I'm going to tell everybody about somebody
who can save anybody. Oh, God help us. Turn back to
Hebrews 11, verse 7. 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 which he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." You know
what Noah did. He built that ark and God saved
him. God saved him from his wrath that he sent on this world. Noah
walked with God and he persevered to the very end. Look back at
our text in Genesis 6. Noah found salvation in the ark.
That's the only place he found it. And that's the only place
you and I would find it. But consider this quickly. Why was
Noah in the ark? Why was Noah in the ark? Look at Genesis 6 verse 17. The
Lord said, 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.
But with thee..." Who's he talking to? Noah. "...but with thee will
I establish my covenant. And thou shalt come into the
ark, thou and thy sons, thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." God chose Noah to build that
ark. God chose Noah to be in that ark. Who did the choosing? That ark's a picture of Christ. God did. We've not chosen Him.
We never would choose Him. He said, I'll make my covenant
with you. Who made the covenant? God did. You know, we make agreements
with each other, and that takes two, doesn't it? You know who
God agreed with when He made a covenant? With Himself. He made a covenant with Himself
for us, a bunch of nobodies, unworthy sinners. God did it,
and Noah simply received it by the faith God gave him, made
him willing in the day of his power, just as he will for us
if we belong to him." Well, doesn't Noah get some credit? We've got
to give him some of the credit, right? Look at verse 16 of Genesis
7. Verse 16, it says, "...and they
that went in, went in, male and female of all flesh, as God had
commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. You mean to tell me from start
to finish, God purposed to send the flood, God purposed to show
mercy, God chose to save Noah and his family, and God even
shut him in? Well, what did Noah do? Nothing. By the grace of God, by the faith
God gave him, he believed in God. And that's the way it must
be for you and me. Salvation's in the ark. Salvation's
in Christ. And notice back in our text,
it said, Noah became, in Hebrews 11, 7, it said, Noah became heir
of the righteousness which is by faith. I love thinking about
this. Noah was heir of righteousness. Isn't that glorious? Now you
think about an heir. What's an heir? Somebody who
inherits something. How do you inherit something?
You inherit something by somebody else. You had no part to play
in it. If I receive an inheritance from
my family, what did I do to get it? Well, I was their son. Well,
how did I do that? It just happened. I had no part to play in that.
And that inheritance is earned by the merit of somebody else,
isn't it? Don't you like that? Who do you
suppose earned Noah's inheritance? That righteousness which he was
an heir of. The Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Noah became heir by
free gift. What did the scriptures say?
Romans 6, 23. The wages of sin, that's what Noah deserved. That's
what you and I deserve. Death. That's the wages of sin. Praise God that verse don't stop
there either. But the gift of God. Are we interested in that? But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What a gift. What a gift. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. In conclusion, I just want to
consider God's wrath, that flood that we just read about. All
flesh died. That ark that Noah built. Did
that really happen? Scientists will tell you, oh,
that couldn't have happened, man. Waters that cover the mountains?
No, no. It just doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make sense
with what I've learned in school. It goes against all common sense. It goes against all logic. God
said it happened. You know what that means? It
happened. Todd would say that he saw a bumper sticker that
said, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Todd said,
no, God said it, that settles it. Amen. God poured out His wrath on all
flesh and all beasts just like He said He would. And that included
Noah. Do you know that? God poured
out His wrath on Noah. What? What? God said every sin must be punished. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Noah sinned just like us. Noah's sin had to be punished
too. Why wasn't Noah destroyed with
the rest? Anybody have any idea? Because he was in the ark. God poured out His wrath on all
flesh, including those that were in the ark. But it didn't touch
them. God's wrath couldn't touch them
because they were in the ark that God put them in, that God
prepared for them, God shut them in. That ark endured all the
wrath of God too. But you know why that ark was
not destroyed? I love reading the commentaries. It was pitched
within and without pitch, the atonement, the blood of Christ
that saves us. The redemption we have through
His blood, that blood must be applied to us individually. That
blood is the holy blood of God which people trample under their
feet every day. That's the blood that saves. God said, when I
see the blood, I'll pass over you. Just as that ark was sufficient,
the Lord spoke to Moses through that burning bush that was not
consumed. That bush is Christ. Endured all the wrath of God,
but God raised him from the dead and said, I'm satisfied. It's
finished. Saved. Salvation in Christ. Over in Hebrews 10, but this
man, we offer all these sacrifices, but this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down. From henceforth,
expect until his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Noah was
a just man and perfect. Well, how was he perfect? Christ
perfected him from eternity. Praise God for Jesus Christ,
the substitute of sinners. God hath made Him to be sin,
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. You may have seen it, I didn't
read it, but in Genesis 7 verse 1 it said that God saw Noah as
righteous. Why, how could He see Noah as
righteous? Because God made him righteous. That's how. We go about to establish our
own righteousness, not submitting to Christ, God can make us righteous. God has made His people righteous
through the death of Christ and resurrection. Would you be saved? Would you walk with God? There's
just one hope. There's just one way. Christ
said, I'm the way. I'm the life. Salvation is in
Christ alone. Well, how can I know if I'm in
Christ? 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 says, But of God are you in
Christ Jesus. Of God are we in Christ Jesus.
And He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And we're going to glory in the Lord. Is Christ enough? You mean to
tell me that? That sounds like such a simple
message. Is that really all? Is Christ enough? I've got to
do something, right? Believe God. Pray for God to
give you faith to trust Him, to look to Christ alone. Christ
is enough, only if He is all we've got. Scriptures say we're
complete in Him, Christ is all. That's what Paul loves to say,
Christ is all. And I love to hear, Christ is
all, and then all. I pray God would cause each soul
here to be in Christ and that He would enable us to walk with
Him by faith until the day we die. until we shall awake in
His likeness, conform to His image, and we shall see Him as
He is, and we'll be satisfied forever. And that time's coming
a lot sooner than we think. Oh, God, have mercy on us sinners.
Amen. Let us pray. God, our gracious
Heavenly Father, oh, we come to You this day as beggars, as
needy sinners. You say that we're evil, corrupt,
beyond repair, but you prepared an ark. Oh, God, as you put Noah
and his family in that ark, I pray that you would put us in Christ.
There is no hope outside of him. Give us a fear of the Lord. Oh,
cause us to obey your commandment. Enable us to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ alone for salvation complete. Give us faith in him
and cause us to look to him. As long as we're here and this
Lord caused us to look to Him and joyfully await that day,
we shall be with Him forever. See Him as He is, beholding Him
in all His glory, singing, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb
which was slain. Oh God, forgive us of our sins
through the blood of Christ. Save us and keep us by Your grace.
Enable us to walk with You by faith. For Christ's sake and
in His name I pray, amen. Thank you, Brother Cody. Stand with me, saying a closing
hymn, number 205, Once For All. Free from the law, happy condition
Jesus hath bled and now is remission Cursed by the law and bruised
by the fall Grace that redeemed us once for all Christ has redeemed
us once for all. Children of God, O glorious Wally,
sure His grace will keep us from falling. Passing from death to
life at His throne, blessed salvation once for all. Once for all. The sinner believed it once for
all. Oh, brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ redeemed us once for all. Yes, sir.