We look at God's wrath. May He
in wrath remember mercy to us. Mercy that's in Christ. Mercy
of God's in Christ. Hebrews 11. Hebrews chapter 11
again. I hope you're enjoying this. We're going to, Lord willing,
take each story of each person mentioned. Sixteen names, I believe. Believers' names that we're going
to look at each one individually. We've done it before, but half
has not been told. Noah. Look at verse 7. By faith, Noah. being warned of God of things
not seen as yet. He moved with fear, prepared
an ark for the saving of his house, and by the which he condemned
the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by
faith. I'm going to say it again. I'm
going to tell you what faith is. Faith is believing God. It says, without faith it is impossible
to please Him. He that cometh to God must believe
He is. God is God. Beside Him there
is none else. It is to believe God's Word that
God be true. Every man a liar. The wisdom
of this world? Foolishness. It's to believe
God's Son. It's to look to Christ as your
all, as salvation. As your God, your Lord, your
Savior, your Wisdom, your Righteousness, your Holiness, your Redemption,
your Mediator, your Intercessor, your Substitute, your Covenant
Head, your Lamb, your All. To look to Christ. Nowhere else
but Christ. The way, the truth, the life.
By faith. Anyone, it says, had this faith.
That's what they believed. That's who they believed. That's
who they looked to. Christ. Christ. Noah knew Christ. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Like Abel did. Abraham, we quoted
this before. The Lord said, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it. When did he see
his day? When he and Isaac were on top
of that mountain. And his son was about to be killed.
And behold, he looked behind and caught in the thicket by
his horns was a ram, a male lamb, sheep. Who put that lamb there? And I'm not careful. Hang right
here, but that's all right if we don't Who put that ram in
that thicket caught by his horn? God did. Why? He provided this
lamb, just like Abraham said, as a substitute. And it says,
Abraham killed that ram in the stead of, as the substitute of
his son. His son didn't have to die because
he had a substitute, a lamb that was slain. Who is that? That's
Jesus Christ. Abraham saw that. And they went
down for that mountain, he and his son, hand in hand, singing
of the redemption that's in their Lord and their Christ, their
substitute. Yes, they did. Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. Isaac rejoiced to see my day,
his substitute, his Christ, his redemption. And he was so glad.
So glad. Moses, he said, wrote of me.
Genesis to Deuteronomy, he wrote of me. They are they which testify
of me, Christ said. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me. Who? Christ. It's all and end all. This is
life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent,
the Redeemer, to take away the sins of his people. They all
know him. They all know him. They all look to him. They all
believe him. By faith, Noah. Noah himself is a picture of
Christ. There are two or three ways to look at this story. We're
just going to look at it as Noah the man. But Noah himself is
a picture of Christ, and his name means rest. So, Noah by faith. The just shall live by faith.
Noah believed God. Noah believed God's Word, what
God promised, and Noah believed Christ. Why? Why did Noah believe
God? Go back to Genesis 6. Genesis
6. Why does anybody believe God?
We've already said this, and I sound like a broken record.
That's alright, because this is the record. This is it. This is the story. This is the story. What God hath
done in Christ. Look at Genesis 6 verse 8. It says, But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. He just said that man was corrupt
and only evil continually. Then it says, But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. The next verse says, These are
the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect,
that is, upright in his generations. And Noah walked with God. Why was Noah just in the eyes
of God? Why was Noah called perfect by
the Lord? Why? Noah found grace. By grace are you saved. Through
faith. And it's not of yourself. Noah
was given faith just like Enoch was given faith. Just like...
You've got to say it, don't you? You've got to say it. False prophets aren't saying
it. They're lying on God and lying to men. Making men act
like something they do and God congratulates them for it. Faith
is not something God congratulates you for. It's something He gives
you for His glory. It's not something He offers
you. It's something He does to you. The working of His power. He gets the glory. I'm going
to harp on that until I die. And then we're going to harp
on it in heaven. on our hearts to God be the glory. Great things
He hath done. He hath. Unto Him, unto Him,
unto Him. Do you love the sound of this? Well, by faith, Noah found grace. He found grace, and so he was
given this faith, and he was justified. The just shall live
by faith. He believed God, John, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness, just like Abraham. He looked
to Christ, and Christ was his righteousness. He believed in
the blood, the blood of his Redeemer. You say, that doesn't say that
there. Go on over and look and see what he did after that ark
landed. He sacrificed one of every single
clean animal. That's a lot of sacrifices. A
lot of bloodshed. Why? He knew that the mercy of
God to him was in Christ Jesus. A great redemption. Alright,
Noah found grace and so Noah had this faith, the gift of God. By faith, Noah. Go back to the
text. Hebrews 11. By faith, Noah being warned of God. Being warned of God. Things not
seen. Things not seen, moved with fear.
Warned of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of the Lord. God warned
Noah just like He does every single person whom He reveals
Himself to. God warns. And when God sent
the prophets, none of them ever stood up and told everyone, God
loves you. Never. Not one time. Not one
time. No apostle ever stood up before
a crowd of people and said, God loves you. No, sir. Acts chapter
2, when Peter stood up, what he preached was a sovereign Lord
on a throne whom they had offended, and they are now in His hands
to do with as He pleased. And it struck fear in their hearts. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of a sovereign God in
whose hands our breath is. This is why you know these false
preachers are false. There's no fear of God before
the eyes of those whom they preach and teach to. No warnings. No warnings. Not warning people
anymore to flee from the wrath to come. Not warning anybody. Malachi 2 says, where is the
God of judgment? Where is the God of judgment?
Our generation needs to be warned now more than ever. That's right. Now more than ever. So much more
as we see the day of Christ approaching. We need to be warned to flee. Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. That's what Peter did. And with
many other words. Paul said, I cease not to the
Ephesians. In Acts 20 he said, I cease not
to warn you day and night. with tears. When God Almighty comes to someone,
speaks to someone through His Word preached, the first thing
He does is create the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord. God
in His sovereignty. I'm in His hands. To do with
as He pleases. It's not the other way around.
And I've offended Him. I've sinned against a holy God,
a just God. David said, you're going to be
just when you judge me. He's holy. He's holy. And if
He gives me what I deserve, He'll destroy me. The fear of the Lord is to see
something of your own guilt and sinfulness. Guilty. In danger of what? Wrath. Under the law. Guilty. Condemned. And to flee. Where do you flee? God shows everyone, after He
creates the Spirit of the Lord, He gives them faith. The law,
it says, is a schoolmaster. The law does one thing, condemns
us. The law just shows us the exceeding
sinfulness of our sin. And then God, through that, says,
now, run. The law says there's a city of
refuge. Run. Just as fast as you can. Flee
to Christ. There's the mercy of God. The
Lord warned Noah. being warned of God. The Lord warns every one of His
people. He warns us to flee. He says things not seen. He was
warned of things not seen as yet. Rain is what He's talking
about. Principle. Rain. It had not rained
upon the earth up to this point. The Lord watered the earth by
dew. by mist. There was no rain upon the earth.
And Noah, for 120 years, preached that God told him, I'm going
to open up the windows of heaven, and water is going to come out
of the sky. A great deluge of my wrath is going to be poured
down upon, and so much so that overflowing scourge of his wrath
is going to consume and destroy all flesh, because I'm angry
with them. I'm not loving them. I'm angry
with them. That's what God told Noah. He believed God. He'd never seen rain before.
You read with me in 2 Peter 3, didn't you? Where it says, the
same heavens are now kept in store, reserved unto fire. And they call us preachers old-fashioned
fire and brimstone preaching when we talk about it. We didn't
say this. God did. God did. Rain and fire. Peter wrote that. God's Word. Things not seen. Haven't seen
it. And that's what Peter said. He said, they reject that. They scoff. They were scoffing
at Noah. Water? Pour out of the sky? Are you kidding? How ridiculous
can you get, Noah? We've never seen it like that.
That means it's not going to happen. You know, creation is clearly
seen. The things of creation are clearly
seen. They're without excuse. There's
eternal power in God. It's clearly seen. Wrath is clearly
seen. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all. That's clearly seen. The Word
of God is clearly seen. Everybody's got it right in front
of their eyes. They don't read it. Christ came to this earth. God was manifest in the flesh.
They clearly saw Him. And they had to say, nobody can
do what you did unless God is with you. So it's just somebody
other than a man. Clearly see that. So it says
they're willingly ignorant. They're blind. They're blind. Blind to those things. Isaiah
6, the Lord said, You go, Isaiah. And you blind their minds, and
you blind their hearts. He said, but I'm going to reveal
this to a tenth, a remnant of my people. I'm going to reveal
this, just like Noah. A remnant finds grace in the
eyes of the Lord. He gives them this fear of the
Lord. He shows them things that are not seen, but they clearly
see them. That verse in 1 Corinthians 2
says, I hath not seen, e'er hath not heard. Nancy goes on to say,
but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. We clearly see. Things of God
are clearly seen. We see these things, don't we?
Creation and God's wrath and His Word. We clearly see that
it's the Word of God. The Word says, prove it. Well,
no. God doesn't prove Himself to
anybody. He reveals Himself. And then He proves it. Then He
proves it. And Christ is saying, but they mock and they scoff
as they did then. Our Lord said it would be so
as in the days of Noah. But Noah, but God, with His great
mercy wherewith He loved Noah, warned him, and he moved with
fear. See that? It says he moved with
fear and prepared an ark to the saving of his house. He moved
with fear. Upon really hearing God's voice,
upon really hearing God's Word, and this is what I look for,
what I hope for, what I pray for in those that I preach to,
and in myself, is that the Word of God will move us. How many
times your children are young, you know, and you speak to them,
and you speak to them, and they're not listening to you. They're
waiting for you to shut up so they can leave. And you want
to just shake them. You want them to hear you, don't
you? Are you listening to them? Yeah. Are you through? I did the same thing, sitting
under the sound of God's Word for years. But God, one day, I heard thousands
of messages, but one day I heard Him! Him! It moved me! My heart! It broke my heart! Before my
heart was hard, my eyes were blind, my ears were deaf. But
God, one day, moved me! Son! God doesn't have to holler. Be a still smile, boys, can you?
Saul, Saul, why have you persecuted us that way? Oh, it's hard to
kick against the brick. Moved. Noah moved upon hearing
God's wrath and God's judgment. He feared God. It wasn't just
a sermon. When he finally heard God speak,
it wasn't just a sermon. His life was in danger. His soul
was in danger. His family was in danger. The
world was going to hell in a handbasket. He feared God. He heard the Word.
He heard it. He feared God and moved Him.
Moved Him. You know, I can't move anybody. Try as I may. We can't, can we?
It's up to the Spirit of God. That's why we pray. We can't
move ourselves, can we, Sam? We can't move ourselves. In vain
we strive to rise. We can't do it. I'll tell you
who does. When the Spirit of God moves on the face of the
water, when the Spirit of God moves in the hearts of God's
people, only when the Spirit of God moves will we be moved. I need to be moved, don't you?
That's what we read there in 2 Peter. Oh, that we might be
stirred up. That God would stir up our minds,
remind us this world's perishing. It really is. It really is. Don't
you see it? But Mac, there's an arc. There's
still an arc. The door's open. Oh, we want
our children to go in, don't we? Before it's everlastingly
too late. Fiction? Scare tactic? No, God's Word. Fear. Move with fear. Move with fear. Fearful for his family. Upon
hearing that there is one way. Upon hearing of the vessel of
safety. God told him about a vessel of
mercy. God told him about a refuge.
A place that you will be found when the wrath of God rains down. A place that you will be safe
from the scourge of God's wrath. A place of safety. An ark of
salvation. What is that? That ark is Christ! That's why we preach Christ when
we stand up. Every day, every time. Why do
we preach Christ? Because it's orthodox. Because
it's good doctrine. It's life. And we're dead without
it. We're perishing. We've got to
hold up the serpent on the pole. Everybody's dying from sin, don't
we? A preacher, a prophet is like that pole. A preacher is
like Moses who holds it up. They're only so good as they
hold up Christ. Look! Look! It's that urgent. It really is. Christ said, don't
boast of tomorrow. We are looking for the Lord to
come, aren't we? He's coming. Paul said, the trumpet shall
sound. He said, and it will sound. When? Not May 21st. I know that much. It's not May
21st, because some fellow says it is. No, that's not so. When will it be? Maybe May 16th. Tomorrow. Yes, sir. Uh-huh. A time when you think
not. So shall the Son of Man come, and every eye shall see
Him. And those in Christ, found in Him, just like Noah was in
that ark, will be saved. And when it's over, they're going
to end up in the new land, the new heaven, and the new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness. When the Lord really speaks to
us, He'll move us. Move with fear. Move your heart.
Move your mind. Turn your mind, won't you? You'll
think different thoughts of God. 180 degrees what you used to
think about God. You'll turn from idols to serve
the living and true God. He'll turn your mind. He'll turn
your heart. He'll turn your feet. You'll
quit walking according to the course of the world, and He'll
turn you toward Him. Quit walking with the religious
in the camp, and He'll turn you outside the camp. Bear His reproach
with the people of God. He'll turn you. He'll move you.
Move you. And you'll literally move where the gospel is, because
you can't live without it. For 120 years, Noah prepared
an ark. 120 years. Hard work. Diligence. Daily work. Every day. Ark. Preparing the
ark. It was his life, wasn't it? It
was his everyday life. So is the gospel. So is Christ. So is the worship of God when
God reveals himself to his people. Yes, he is. Christ is not part
of our life. He is life. You don't have life until he
gives you life. Christ is our life. And the worship of Christ
is our life. The people of God are our family.
That's what Noah did. Every day for 120 years he worked
on that ark. And I know his children said,
Dad, we've got to go again? You know good and well he had
Shem, Ham, and Japheth working with him on that ark. Don't you?
You know that. Maybe their wives, his wives.
You know that. You know they did. And they thought,
not again. We've got to go again? This ain't no ritual we're going
through. Our life depends on it. We've got to go to church again. Dad,
we just went last Sunday. We just went Wednesday night.
You don't understand. You just don't understand. This
is not a ritual. We're not going through the motions
here. This is life. This is life. We'll die without it. If this
ark is not finished, if the work is not finished, we're goners,
aren't we? If it's not complete, if we're
not found in this ark, boys, if we're not found in this ark
when God's wrath comes through, we're goners. We're not playing
games here, Jim, Ham, Japheth. We're not playing games here. It's not just another Sunday.
We're preaching life. Today is the day of salvation.
Really. And buddy, when you hear that,
you'll move where the Gospel is. You'll forsake everything
else and go where the Gospel is. You'll move. You're literally
moved with fear. You move. Get up! Go! Hurry! Now! Run! Go! You know, you'll move from false
religion. You see it all around. You hear
it. All this stuff going on in religion, programs and social
activities. You know what the modern world
equates with religion? Spaghetti dinners, family activities,
gymnasiums, ball teams, fundraising. The church is a place where you
do one thing. It's a pillar in the ground of
the truth. It's where sinners need to hear Christ. And you
don't have to bribe them and dope them and do all that and
bargain with them to get them. What kind of God do they have
to have a dinner for to get them in, sneak them in, sneak the
Word up on them? Huh? There's no God at all in
it. God has a people and He'll bring
them. We don't have to sneak the truth
in. Are we ashamed of it? Let's announce it. What are we
going to do here? We're not going to serve spaghetti. We're going
to preach Christ. We're going to exalt God. Anybody
interested? We've got mercy here. We've got
grace here. Maybe. We're going to preach the truth. Anybody want the truth? Come
one, come all. Huh? God, bless God, He said,
I'll bring them from the north, from the south, the east. I'll
bring them. My people are going to hear my voice. They're going
to seek my face. Not what's in it for their children.
They're going to seek their children's salvation. They're going to see
there's one thing needful. Away with this wood, hay and
stubble. Away with all that. Preach the truth. It's all dung. Dung. Preach the pearl. Every time. Every time. Every
time. Every time. Look at this. It says, "...by
this he condemned the world." You see that? Verse 7, "...by
the witch preparing that ark to the saving of his house, Oh,
thank God. Noah thanked God for a long time,
for over a year that he was in that ark. He thanked the Lord
that Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives were in that ark.
Oh, how he thanked the Lord and his wife. But it says, "...by
which he condemned the world." The gospel we preach is the gospel
of how God so loved the world. That is, a people of every tribe,
kindred, nation, and tongue in the world and saved them out
of the world. God doesn't love every single
individual in the world. The word world doesn't mean that
there anymore than it means it when God says, he that loveth
the world is an enemy of God. Love not the world. Right? 1 John 2.15. Very few
people know that verse. Any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him. The word world doesn't mean every
single individual ever lived. It means a people. God so loved
a people out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue under
heaven. A people out of the world. He
redeemed out of the world. They were in the world. We're
in the world. God saves the people out of the
world. He loves the people that are
in the world. But now the gospel, we preach
the truth. The truth says God is going to
destroy this world and everyone in it. Right? The gospel, when you preach it,
you must preach that. You condemn the world or you're
not preaching the gospel. The way men make it sound, these
false prophets make it sound like God is nothing but love,
you know. He wants you to be happy and
wealthy and healthy and wealthy. Well, then what's going to happen
to this world? God's going to destroy it. We
just read it, didn't we? He's going to destroy it. The earth is going
to melt with a fervent heat. We condemn the world. God's going
to destroy the world. You know, when Christ came, listen
to this, that ark was a vessel of both love and wrath. Noah's, the ark of God, which
Noah, it's not Noah's ark, it's God's ark. The ark of God that
Noah was involved with was a vessel of both love and wrath. That ark showed clearly that
God is angry. He wouldn't even need an ark.
He didn't need an ark. Right? If God loved everyone, why have
an ark? If God loves everyone, why did
Jesus Christ come and die on a cross? If righteousness comes by the
law, then Christ died in vain. But God showed when He put Jesus
Christ on that cross, He's showing us what He thinks of sin and
what He must do to sinners. Cast them out. Forsake them.
His wrath comes down upon them. Like that ark of Noah. God Almighty said, create an
ark because I'm going to destroy this place. And the wrath of
God is going to fall on that ark. The wrath, the judgment
of God is all going to fall on that ark. But now inside the
ark, all those inside the ark, that's
where the love of God is. God doesn't love everyone outside
the ark or he wouldn't destroy them. Someone said, if there was a
bumper sticker on that ark, He's on the inside. Smile. God loves
you because you're in Christ. You've been found in Him. Outside
of Christ, God's a consuming fire. Ark is a picture both of
the love of God and the wrath of God. And the cross of Christ
is both a picture of the love of God. Oh, greater love of no
man than Him. God so loved the world. God redeemed
His people. God poured out His wrath. God, in love to His people whom
He chose, poured out His wrath upon His Son whom He chose to
be their substitute. So that's wrath. Condemn the
world. My, my. So you condemn the world. And so they laughed. They laughed at Noah. He condemned
them. You know, in Hebrews it talks
about baptism being a picture of that. Baptism. And Paul said,
I'm crucified with Christ and the world is crucified to me.
When Noah went in that ark, did you read the article by Brother
Mahan? He went in before one drop of rain fell. Because that's
faith. Faith believes God before it
sees. And he went in that ark, and
for seven days it did not rain. And you know that was the hardest
seven days of his life. And you know he endured more
persecution in those seven days than ever. They laughed and scoffed
and mocked at him. Maybe some people were interested
the first five years, ten years, but it began to wane, didn't
it? They saw, what are you building, Noah? An ark. And they told him,
he preached righteousness. God's righteousness. Our need
for one. Christ is it. And they may have
been interested, but it began to fall away, that great falling
away, until after 120 years, eight people. Went in. By faith. Went in. And the people passed by. Oh,
and they laughed. The doctors, wise men, lawyers,
educators, they laughed. Look at that crude. Look at that
old boat. And that fool in there. Yeah,
a fool for Christ's sake. And the religious ones mocked.
The religious world walked by and they laughed at him. You
say God is angry. You say God is holy, that God
is just, and God will punish us. Noah, you're a fool. God loves everyone. Look at this.
Clear, sunny sky. God loves us. And they laughed. And they scoffed. And while they
laughed, Noah prayed. And while they stopped, Noah
worshiped. And while they passed by, Noah was sitting in the ark,
reading God's Word if he had it, waiting, expecting. And then one day, just as sure as God said it,
the door of that ark shut. And the sky was red and glowing. And the storm clouds came. And
a deluge began to fall from heaven. And nobody is laughing now. Nobody. As a matter of fact,
they started banging on the door of that house. And God didn't hear them. He
didn't hear them. He didn't hear them. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. That's why we sing. That's why
we preach what we preach. Do what we do in the fear of
the Lord. Sing what we sing. Worship the way we worship. Preach
the message we preach because it is a life and death matter.
Today is the day of salvation. Get in the ark. Get in the ark.
Oh Lord, put us and our children in the ark now. Right now. Today.