Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou
Rock of my soul? Hiding in Thee, Hiding in Thee,
Thou Rock of Ages, Thank you, Sherry. Hebrews chapter 11, book of Hebrews,
chapter 11. As we continue these messages, I hope you're enjoying them.
half as much as I am, is so profitable. These are real people, real men
and women, and real stories, real men and women with real
life stories and trials and difficulties and things they go through and
the faith that they live by. And we need this. This meets
us where we are. We can enter into the same things. I hope you enjoyed the story
of Abel and the story of Enoch. Now, tonight, verse 7 says, By
faith, Noah. By faith, Noah. Now, Noah is
spoken of several times throughout the Scripture, several times. The Lord Himself mentioned Noah. In Matthew 24, He said, As in
the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. And it's very significant, very
significant that in our day, in this very day, Modern, our
modern society has a fixation with Noah's Ark. You notice that? Very significant. It's prophetic. They use it as decor, jewelry. I even saw briefly on the computer,
they have a new computer game, Noah's Ark, where you erase You
try to get all the animals on the ark before it rains. It's very significant that man
is making fun of, mocking, making a mockery of the wrath and judgment
of God. That whole story is about the
wrath and judgment of God against this world. And yet, the mercy and grace
of God was in that ark. People laugh, mock today. In
those ways, they're laughing and mocking. They don't believe
that that really happened. They really don't. And they're laughing as they
did at Noah. You know they laughed at him.
Noah, it says, heard. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God. of things not seen as yet. By faith, Noah being warned of
God. Now, what is faith? Again, let
me tell you what faith is. It says in verse 6, he that cometh
to God must believe that he is. Noah believed God, well, was. Noah believed. Noah believes
God is God. I mean God. Not trying to be. He believed God reigned and ruled
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. That
God was holy, just, righteous, merciful, gracious, love, yes,
but will punish sin, the God of wrath and judgment, holy,
will by no means clear. The God of the Bible. Noah believed
the God of the Bible. Not just one characteristic of
him, but all of them. He believed God is God in all
of his attributes. He believed God, as you do, if
you're a believer. He believed God's Word. Whatever
God said, he believed it. When God told him he was going
to destroy this world, he believed him. When God told him there
was going to be a worldwide calamity, he believed him. When God told
him to prepare an army, he did it. He believed God's Word, God's
promises of mercy to him and grace to him. but also judgment
to this world. He believed it. He believed it
all, the whole counsel of God. He believed God's Word. That's
faith. Faith is not a pick and choose
thing. Faith is not, I believe this, I don't understand this,
so I don't believe. No, no, no. Faith takes God at His Word.
Noah believed God's Son. Nobody gets to the Father but
by the Son. Is that right? That's what Christ
said. No man comes under the thought. No man. Oh, that means
no man. We saw how Abel brought that
blood that stood for Christ. He knew. Abel knew. Adam taught
him. Adam and Eve saw it, didn't they?
And if I'm not careful, I'll go back over all of that. Enoch
knew. Jude mentioned Enoch in the book
of Jude. And so, Noah believed God's Son,
believed Christ. Yes, he did. He looked to Christ
for his salvation. Where does faith come from? It
says, by faith Noah being warned of God of things not yet seen. Faith is a gift of God. Faith
is according to the working of His mighty power. Ephesians 1.19. Faith is a gift of God. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now I've
always, Brother Gabe and I were talking about that verse, Romans
10, 14. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Well, faith cometh by hearing, and what you hear is the Word
of God. That's where you get your faith,
right? But that also, that verse, Hearing comes by the Word of
God, by the command of God, by God Almighty saying, hear. Thou hast given me, given commandment
to save me. Scripture says, faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing, you see, people have ears, but they
don't hear. Why do you hear? The word of God, God sent the
word, says, give them ears like the deaf people were healed by
Christ himself. So were you hearing by the word
of God? So, Noah, one day, go back to
Genesis six now, Genesis six. And we're going to turn back
and forth between Hebrews 11 and Genesis six. So keep both
of those marked. Genesis six. Brother Stan read. Genesis six. Verse 5, God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. That means all man could think
about was evil. That describes man now. And it
repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it
grieved him at his heart. Now, the scripture says God is
not a man that he should repent. There's no contradiction here.
He's speaking in a language that you and I can understand. He's showing his utter detestation
of sin in such a way as if to say, I wish you'd never been
created. Now, that gets the point across,
doesn't it? He repented of me and I wish
I'd have never made him. Wish you'd never been born. You
ever heard somebody say that about somebody? That's the language
he's using. God doesn't repent. God's purpose
was being fulfilled in all of them. Well, you understand. Showing
how much God Almighty was grieved and hated the state of man at
that time. Not love. Hate. And the Lord
said, I will destroy Man, this struck me as I read it for the
third or fourth time this week. And I may deal with this on the
radio next Sunday, not this next, but the one after that. People
fail to read this for what it is. We're going to see all the
way through here how God said, I'm going to kill man. I'm going
to wipe him out. Everything that breathes, I'm
going to kill him. Destroy him. That's not the love
of God. There was no love of God outside
of that ark. The love of God was only found
on the inside of that ark. Those were the objects of God's
love. Everybody outside of that ark, God hated them and he killed
them. That's right. Someone said once,
if there was a bumper sticker, it would have been on the inside
of the ark saying, smile, God loves you. Not on the outside,
but the wrath of God. That's Romans 8.39, is it not? The love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. John 3.36 says, The wrath of
God abides on the ungodly. Him that believeth not, the wrath
of God abides upon him. Now that's, this world doesn't
read those things. They can't see it. Well, verse
8, But Noah. But Noah found grace. in the eyes of the Lord. Was
Noah better than anybody else? No, God had already said that
the imagination of man was evil continually. Noah was a man.
Noah was flesh and blood. You'll find if you read it for
yourself, after Noah, after the ark landed on dry land, after
the flood, Noah, you know what happened to Noah. And God said,
but I'm not going to destroy man anymore by flood, even though
He's evil. There wasn't anybody left. But
Noah and his sons and their wives. Man's sinful. All of them. But
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And why is anybody
saved? By grace are you saved. Through faith. God gave Noah
faith. You have to believe. That's the
gift of God. It's not of yourself. Noah found
grace, and God gave him the grace of faith to believe Him. Well, Noah found grace, and it says
in verse 13 that God said unto Noah, This is God speaking to
Noah. The faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. God said unto Noah, the end of
all flesh is come before me. The earth is filled with violence.
I will destroy them. Make thee an ark. Noah, there's
one hope, an ark. There's only one hope for you
and your family, for anyone. It's going to be an ark. And
if you're on that ark, you're going to be safe from the overflowing
scourge of God's wrath when it comes through. If you're in that
ark, you're safe. Noah, make an ark. What's that? Oh my, that's a picture of Christ,
isn't it? And we'll look at that a little more fully in a moment.
The Lord speaks no less to you and I. Now, the Lord has spoken
no less to you and I. Right? He's told you, He's told
us through His Word, I'm going to destroy this world by fire. But there's an ark. There's an
ark of safety. Christ is that ark. You better
get in that ark. and don't come out. So He's spoken
unto us, no less than He did to Noah. It says in our text,
Hebrews 11 verse 7 says, Noah was warned of God of things not
seen as yet. Things not seen. What things?
Rain. If you want to look at it, maybe
you've never seen this, in Genesis chapter 2, you see it never rained
on the earth before, before Noah. Genesis chapter 2, you'll see
this. God watered the earth with dew,
with mist, with fog. And it's very possible, isn't
it? This summer when we went through the drought, yet there
were a few mornings when you'd wake up and that dew would be
real heavy. it kept the grass and all from
just completely dying. Well, Scripture speaks a great
deal about the dew of Hermon and so forth. But God watered
the earth, verses 5 and 6, Genesis 2, 5 and 6, every plant of the
field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before
it grew. The Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. There was not a man to till the
garden, the ground. There went up a mist from the
earth and watered the whole face of the ground. You see, that's
how God watered the earth. It had never rained before. God
told Noah, water's going to fall out of the sky. So much water that's going to
fill the earth up that over the highest mountain, the story says
15 cubits over the highest mountain on earth, over Mount Everest,
15 cubits. How high is that? That's 25 feet almost, higher
than Mount Everest. So that nothing, no matter how
tall it was, could escape it. And it never rained before. Water
is going to fall out of the sky, Noah. Water? That's right. Okay. Noah told everybody else, water's
going to fall out. It's going to rain. What's rain?
Well, it's water coming down in the sky. So much, it's going
to flood this whole world. Things not seen. He warned him
of things not seen. Well, there's so much more. Faith
believes God. Faith believes. Things not seen.
Things that are seen are temporal, Scripture said. Things that are
unseen are eternal. Man believes what he sees. Man
won't believe anything until he sees it. But faith, when God gives the
eye, the eye, singular, a faith, faith only believes what it doesn't
see. The things that are seen are
temporal. All this is passing away, fading away, but the things
that are unseen are eternal. things of God. We believe in
unseen God, don't we? Whom having not seen, speaking
of Christ, you love. Huh? Don't you? Haven't seen
him, but you love him. The unseen Christ, we look for
an unseen place. We look for a city which has
foundations. Hebrews 11 says it has foundations.
Whose builder and maker is God. We look for a city. There's a
city, a new Jerusalem, going to come down out of heaven. You
believe that? I'm sure you do, if you're a
believer. The world scoffs and laughs.
Rain? City? Yeah, we believe. Things not
seen. How do we know Noah believed?
Look at Hebrews 11 again, verse 7. It says, Noah being warned
of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. Acted. He moved with fear. He acted
upon what God told him to do. God said, build an ark. He got
his hammer out. He got the gopher wood. He got
the nails. He got the pitch. He got it all
out. When? Right then. He didn't put it off. He got
it out. He moved with fear. God didn't tell Noah when he
was going to make it rain, did he? He didn't know it was going
to be 120 years. That just occurred to me. God
never told him it's going to be 120 years. No. And God hasn't
told us when he's coming again, has he? That's by design. We're
procrastinators, aren't we? Faith moves. Faith acts right
then. He that believeth shall make haste. That is, hurry and
get to cry. Or do what God said right then
and right there. It won't put it off. Noah moved.
Noah built an ark. He went. Started grabbing material. He moved with fear. Noah heard
from God. Noah believed. I believe you,
Lord. How do you know he believed?
He moved. He acted. Faith without works
is dead. Right? He moved with... How did
he move? What does it say? He moved with
what? Fear. Now, there's a beginning
of wisdom, isn't it? That's a person who knows God.
That's a person who believes God. Fear God. They fear God. Noah feared God. Faith fears
God. Faith believes God. Faith acts.
Faith without works is dead. Faith repents. God said, repent. God commended all men everywhere
to repent. Well, a person that really believes
God will repent. And repent, and repent. Never
quits repenting. Repentance is a lifelong thing,
not a one-time thing. Faith, repent. God commands us
to confess Christ in believer's baptism. He that confesses me
before me, and I'll confess before the Father. He that denies me,
I'll deny. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Faith acts, moves. Faith with fear not to be baptized.
Faith would fear not to confess Christ. A person that loves another
person gets married. If they don't, they don't. Faith believes Christ, confesses
Christ. It's just a fact. Worship. Worship
me, the Lord said. When? Whenever you can. Whenever God's people meet together.
So faith does it. Where you go, I'll go, Ruth said.
Your God will be my God. Faith loves. By this shall all
men know you're my disciple. You have fervent love, active
love, true love, not just in lip service, but actually love. Sacrifice gives. Faith is generous. God loves a cheerful giver. Prove
the sincerity of your love, Paul said. Faith gives. A person that loves another person
will give. The sky's the limit, no limit. If you really love, faith is
extravagant. I mean, love is, faith is too. Love is extravagant. If you have enough money, you'll
give it all to the person you love. No gift's too expensive,
too elaborate to the one you love. Faith gives. It says in our text that he prepared
an ark, verse 7. Noah moved with fear and prepared
an ark to the saving of his house. Now go back to Genesis 6 again.
He prepared an ark. Let's look at this ark. You know,
Noah and the ark represent Christ. We've looked at this story before.
We've preached on this together. I say we. We're in it together. About six or seven or eight times. One time we looked at Noah. His
name, look back at, if I can find it, verse 29. I'm going
to have to get my glasses. I've been putting it off. I've
got these little glasses I have to see through now. Verse 29
of the previous chapter, chapter 5, verse 29, it says, Lamech,
his father, called his name Noah. That means rest. Noah's name meant rest and comfort. Now, who is our rest? In whom do we find our comfort? The Lord Jesus Christ. Noah is
a picture of Christ. As Brother Stan read it, these
things were just jumping out at me. He says, Noah, whatever
you bring in to eat, that's what they'll eat. Noah, whoever you
bring in the ark, that's who's going to be in the ark. With
you, I've made my covenant, Noah. I'll bless you and everybody
that's with you in the ark. Now, who is that speaking of?
The Lord Jesus Christ. So Noah himself is a picture
of Christ. But we're looking tonight at Noah as a man, just
like you and me. And the ark is the picture of
Christ. The ark is Christ. Now look at
chapter 6, verse 14 through 16. He said, Make thee an ark of
gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the
ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
This is the fashion which thou shalt make it of. The length
of the ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits,
the height of it 30 cubits. A window shalt thou make to the
ark, and a cubit shalt thou finish it. The door of the ark Shalt
thou set in the side there with lower, second, and third stories,
shalt thou make it." Anybody catching this? That ark is Christ. Rooms. He's
our tabernacle. He's our abiding place. Rooms.
Rooms. Gopher wood was a very common
wood back then, but it was impervious to water. It's waterproof. It's
just an ordinary wood. water couldn't penetrate. Our Lord's humanity. He was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. Pitch it within
and without. That's the atoning. The word
pitch means atonement. That's the very same word as
atonement. Covering the blood of Christ. And this is the fashion of it,
the length, the breadth, and the height. Paul wrote in Ephesians,
he said, Oh, that I might know, that they might know the love
of God which passes understanding the length, the breadth, and
the height of it. It's all in Christ. A window,
there's a window in that ark. How many windows? One window. He's the light of the world.
There was no light except through one window. If Noah wanted any
light, he had to go to that one window. Right? The entrance of
light was through one window. A door, how many doors? One door. That's Christ, is it not? Huh? Making art. Rooms, nests. That is nests. There are many,
many nests, many resting places in this art for all manner of
animals. Resting at art. Great was its
length, breadth, and height. A window, a door, and it was
three stories high. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Christ is that ark. Christ is our ark. And verse
19, it says, verse 19, Every living thing of all flesh, two
of every sort, shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive
with thee. Everybody in that ark is going
to be alive after that flood goes through. Alive. Life is
found in the Lord Jesus Christ, our ark. All right, go back to
Hebrews 11 now. And by faith, what do we do?
We're not preparing an ark per se, but in the same sense, the
Lord says to us, keep yourselves in the love of God. Doesn't it? Keep yourselves in the love of
God. What does that mean? Be under the sound of the gospel. There's no love of God outside
of the gospel. There's no love of God for those who don't love
his gospel of his Son. Keep yourselves under it. Keep
yourselves under it. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word, you may grow. Building up ourselves on this
most holy faith. Prepare an ark, Noah. Prepare
an ark. And he tells you, Dan, build
up yourselves on this most holy faith. What's that? You build
up yourself by sitting in that Whenever the word goes forth,
that builds you up. Keeping yourselves under the
love of God, that's what that is. Preparing art. The saving
of you and your house. Have your children here. You're
doing the right thing, Teresa. I know it's difficult. I was
right where she is. I thought my parents were being...
I thought it was cruel and unusual punishment to make me sit, of
all times, Wednesday night. And when I got old enough, I
suddenly had homework. Didn't have it for 13 or 14 years,
but then every Wednesday night, though, I had homework. I saw through that. But they
brought me. Did it do any good? I'd rather think it did. Paul
commended Timothy's grandmother and mother, Lois and Eunice,
for having him under the sound of the gospel, the Word of God,
which was able to make him wise unto salvation. If he's not under
it, he won't hear it. If he's going to be saved, she's
going to be saved, they're going to be under the sound of the
Word. And our responsibility as parents is to have them, if
they're under our roof, eating our food, abiding by our rules,
will be in the house of God. As for me and my house, Joshua
said, we'll serve the Lord. Now, when they get on their own,
they have no control over them. As long as they're under my roof,
they're going to be under this one. Is that good? God honors
that. Yes, he does. I'm living proof. Several people are living proof
of that. Alright, prepare an art to the
saving of his house. See that? The saving of his house. Noah didn't just have himself
in mind. Noah didn't just have himself
in mind when he was building that art. It was three boys he
loved, and a wife, and three daughters-in-law. He wanted them in that art too.
Well, to the saving of his house. Noah's confession. Look at it. It says, by the witch, when he
built that ark, the whole time he was working on that ark, he
condemned the world. He condemned the world. It says, Noah condemned the world.
While he was building that ark, he was condemning the world.
With every blow of that hammer, he was saying, judgment's coming.
This thing's not going to last. Get in the ark. Get in the ark.
God's angry with the wicked every day. There's only salvation in
this ark. With every blow of the hammer.
And it became monotonous to people after a while. You know, you get used to this,
like living next to a railroad track. You know, after a while,
you don't even hear it. And the world's not hearing the
gospel anymore. They're not hearing it anymore. Judgment's coming. That's what old, long-bearded
fellas do say, standing on street corners, you know, prepare to
meet thy God. That's Bible. That's not a fanatical nut. That's
God's Word. Prepare to meet thy God. And a true and faithful preacher
will keep hammering. Somebody just might hear it.
Look at 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 5. It says, God spared not the
old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness. Noah was a preacher. Say he was
a carpenter. That sounds familiar, doesn't
it? Yeah, a preacher carpenter. 120 years he was building that
ark. What do you think he was saying, Brother William? People
were coming by. What are you doing, Noah? Why don't you build it? You think
he told them? You think he told them what God
said? You think he warned them? Sure he did. He's a preacher
of righteousness. Whose righteousness? Not his
own. Not man's. If you just straighten
up. God's going to destroy the world because there's none righteous.
No, not one. But God is merciful. God is gracious. God has told me that there's
salvation in this ark. For everyone who's in this ark,
there's salvation. Not because we're good. Not because
we're righteous. Not for works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he's going to save
us in the ark. Get in the ark. That's what Noah
said. 120 years. Preacher of righteousness. God's
righteousness. Not ours. We don't have one. Ours is filthy rag. God's righteousness. Christ, the righteousness of
God. We're going to look at that Romans
1, Sunday morning. The righteousness of God is revealed. It was made manifest to Noah
as it is all of God's people. God's provided righteousness
is in the ark. Noah was a sinner, but he was
saved. Why? He was in the ark. The children of Israel were sinners,
but they were saved. They were not, the firstborn
weren't killed in Egypt. Why? Period. Noah was a preacher of
righteousness. God's provided righteousness.
Christ, the ark of safety. Genesis 6, go back there. The
whole story of the ark is a picture of Christ. And like I said, Noah
for 120 years built that ark. And by working on that ark, he's
condemning the world. Now building that ark, you see,
nobody's interested in that ark. Nobody was interested in that
ark. They were buying and selling, marrying and giving and marrying,
eating and drinking. Maybe, I thought about this,
Ron, maybe at the beginning some people heard it and were a little
bit, maybe there's some truth to it. And maybe some neighbors
and all, maybe he had to hire some helpers to do some of the
work. Somebody might have got in on
it. I don't know. I doubt it. But anyway, maybe
there were some people who were just nominally curious at first
and thought, hey, there might be some truth to this, and joined
up with him for a little while. But as time went by, I don't
even see a cloud in the sky no more. And they all fell to the
wayside. He believed God. How do you know
he believed God? Faith perseveres. He kept right on. Kept right
on. He condemned the world. He was
saying, when building that ark, he was saying, this world passes
away, the world is corrupt, I'm looking for another world, a
new earth. And it says in chapter 7 of Genesis,
chapter 7, look there, it says in verse 1, Brother Stan read
it, the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou in all thy house into
the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me." In Christ he saw Noah as righteous. He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. He was found in Christ. That's how. That's what Paul
said in Philippians. He said, Oh, that I might win
Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law. but that righteousness which
is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, found in him. I found
you righteous. That's what's going to be said.
That's what's said about us now. Yes, now, behold now, are we
the sons of God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8.1. Hmm? Come back. I like this. Up in verse 18 of
the previous chapter, God said, With thee will I establish my
covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark. Chapter 7, verse
1, he said, Come into the ark. He did. God said, Thou shalt
come. In chapter 7, he said, Now come.
Did he? Oh, blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, causes to approach. And he did. It says, Noah went
in. Noah went in. Verse 7, There's no way in the
suns is what the suns were. Because of the water. One I want you to turn one more
OK one more passage first Peter Chapter three I quit with the
first Peter Chapter three. First Peter Chapter three. Now when Noah went in that ark,
people, now this really took faith. It took supernatural,
God-given faith. This is not of yourselves. This
is not of man. Nobody is going to withstand
120 years of persecution, laughter and mockery, scoffing. There's
no record that God ever spoke to Noah again for 120 years. There's nothing written. Is there? Is there, Vicki? There's no,
God, there's not a word spoken. 120 years. God hasn't spoken out loud for
2,000 years. Right? We've never heard Him
speak. That's supernatural. 120 years to keep, to persevere. That's of God, isn't it? That's
not of man. Noah went in that ark. and not one drop of rain
had fallen yet. Not one drop. It was just as mysterious to
him, Brother John, as it was to everybody else. Rain? I've
never seen it. I don't even know what it is.
But I believe God. He went in the ark. And it says
God waited seven days. Noah went in that ark and sat
there. Barber, he sat there, he and
his whole family sat in that ark, a beautiful sunny day, not
a cloud in the sky, for seven days, with the door wide open. Do you know what was going through
some of their minds? Hmm? I know it was, him, him, and
Jacob. Dad, are you sure about this? Did God really tell you,
yes, son, he did? Noah's wife, honey. Everybody's laughing at us. Honey,
are we trying to please men or God? Do we believe men or God? But honey, no, but honey, but
God. They sat there for seven days. Seven days. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, the door shut. Noah didn't shut the door. It
said over there in Genesis chapter 7 that God shut him in. The door was too big. Noah had
to build a door that elephants could walk across. Brother Kelly,
two elephants could walk across this door. Two of them abreast
could get through this door. That's how big the door was and
heavy it was. Rhinoceroses could walk through. Noah couldn't shut that door.
It says the Lord shut him in. Now, he had to pitch the ark
within and without. That's pitch, tar. He had to
atone the ark inside and out. The water couldn't get through.
How's he going to pitch the outside of the ark? Door shut. Huh? Who's going to pitch it?
Why, God did. God shut him in. I love that
picture. God shut him in. Noah couldn't
get out if he wanted to. That's my hope of salvation.
You know? That's my hope. God gave the
command, thou shalt come into the ark, and gave the will to
do it, come, and I came. And then God, shut me in, shut
me in. I will shut up by faith and cry. And pitched, you're not getting
out, you're not getting out. Tone full. And oh, the whole
story of the ark being lifted up on the waters. Christ who
bore the wrath of God. 1 Peter 3, it says in verse 20
and 21, sometime the people were just, back when the people were
in the days of Noah, When the long-suffering of God waited
in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein
few, that is, eight souls were saved by water, the like figure,
whereunto even baptism, doth also now save us. Not the putting
away of the filth of the flesh, but it's the answer of a good
conscience, a regenerated conscience by God, by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. What's Peter saying? What is
being said there? The like figure baptism. Well, when Noah went
into that ark, not one drop of rain had fallen, and everybody
scoffed and laughed at him, right? But, and then the ark shut, the
door of the ark shut. Maybe it didn't rain immediately
after that door shut. At any rate, the world was laughing.
at Noah. He had become a fool to the world. He was a fool for the ark's sake. Is Noah in there? Yeah. Well,
he's just going to die in there, isn't he? He was dead to the world. He
couldn't hear what they were saying and didn't care. While
he was in that ark, he didn't care what was going on outside.
And the world was dead to him. After a while, Noah was in there,
but nobody paid attention to him. That old fool, Noah. What a fool he is. And then the sky broke open. Killed everything that breathed.
But Noah found grace in the ark. We come here. You come here,
this little old place. and profess the truth, a rare
gospel that's rarely heard in our generation of the God of
Noah, the God who's angry with the wicked every day, the God
who's going to destroy this world, the God who is just and will
by no means clear the guilty. That's Bible. But a God who's
merciful and gracious, but only in Christ. A God who gives a
command for people to come to Christ, and they come. and they're
safe in Christ. And you come here and hear that
and the world laughs at you and scoffs at you. You think you're
right and everybody else is wrong, don't you, Noah? How can eight
people be right and a whole world be wrong? How can eight people
be right and a whole world, millions of people, be wrong? Can they? Well, they were. They were. And so they were in
that ark. And when we come here, we confess
this is the truth. There is no other. And I'm not
saying this is the only place by any means. But by this, we condemn the world. We're not saying God loves the
world. We're condemning the world. You understand. But we're saying
there is salvation in Christ and Christ alone. And when you
get up in that water of baptism and nearly everyone. And here that has done that was
baptized at some other point, whether you child or whatever,
and you get there and you renounce your former religion, your former
God of your imagination, you're another gospel that you believe,
which was not the gospel. But for the living and true God
and and the like figure, you see, baptism, the confession
of the true Christ, the confession of the truth, though the whole
world said, wait a minute, you were already baptized. But. No, I didn't know the true God,
I didn't know the true Christ. And though the whole world scoffs
at you and laughs at you, the like figure, even baptism,
is the answer of a good conscience by the resurrection of Christ.
It says, Noah, the end of Noah was he became an heir of the
righteousness, which is a fact, by faith. That was the end of
Noah. It said he became an heir of
the righteousness. Noah right now is in glory, is in glory
because he was found in that ark. he was saved, and is saved, because
he was found in an ark. Because he believed God, by God's
grace. He believed God's word, by God's
grace. He believed God's son, by God's
grace. He acted, he moved with fear, confessing Christ within
the ark. And so it will be with us. Same
way. By faith, Noah. By faith, Dan. By faith, William. By faith,
Vicki. By faith, Barbara. By faith, Nancy. By faith. Same
faith. Same faith. Alright, stand with
me. Our Lord, we thank You for Your
Word. Thank You so much. It's so rich
and so full. We thank You. We ask Your forgiveness
muddy in the waters and not rightly dividing it perhaps, but thank
you. We know in part, preach in part,
we thank you for that which we do know. We hunger and thirst
after more. Give us a desire for your word.
Give us that faith of Noah, Lord, which is by your grace. Keep
us by your grace. Shut us in. Shut us up to faith
which is in Christ Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. you