Brother Paul, in his lesson this
morning, stressed the importance of gratitude and being grateful. It was worth driving 400 miles
to hear what he had to say this morning. And it'll be worth driving
400 back. I believe, you know, I teach
almost every Sunday morning to young people at 13th Street.
And I suppose that I forget how much I miss being taught. Don't want to overstate it, but
I'm not sure that I don't think that's the most important service
all week, is that Sun School lesson. I was greatly blessed,
and I thank you for it. But the reason I made the comment
about being grateful, this is the first opportunity I have
had to personally express my gratitude to you. On behalf of
my wife, Becky, you were a great encouragement and comfort to
her, the many I know you prayed for her, what have you, before
she died, and I want to thank you on her behalf, and I want
to thank you also. My children and I are beholden
to you. We appreciated your expressions
of sympathy and your prayers, your cards, your letters, your
calls, so much. Flowers, so much that you did
for us, and we appreciate you and thank you for it. Now I want
you to turn back to Genesis chapter 6 that Brother Paul read, and
let me introduce this message this way. Many of you know what I do to
meet expenses. I almost said, and I have written
down here, what I do for a living. Christ is my living. He's my
life. But to make expenses as we go
through this life, I sell artwork. I go around and call on art galleries
and go in and show them things by various artists that I represent.
And different subjects sort of come and go in their popularity.
Sunflowers have been a big thing. Right now, I guess the hottest
subject matter there is, is anything related to Noah's Ark. I mean,
there's earrings and bracelets and Christmas tree ornaments.
flags and everything you can imagine. The Atlanta Merchandise
Mart is just crammed with just thousands of things associated
with Noah's Ark. Well, some of the artists I represent
are quick to pick up on these trends and what's in vogue. And
I have an artist that has done two paintings of boats and animals
and two of every kind, that kind of thing. And I was in a gallery
recently, and when we came to one of those, this customer said
to me, he said, this fellow that owns this gallery, he said, you
know, he said, it's a shame that people don't get the real message
of Noah's Ark. Now, he perked up my interest
in a hurry. I thought, well, hmm. And then he said this, he
said, you know, Uh, he said, uh, I mean, I said, well, you
know, you're absolutely right. And he said, well, you know,
he said, God didn't intend us to ever destroy any species of
animal, or he wouldn't have gone to all that trouble to save them
all. Animals have rights too, you know. My spirit fell, and I said, well,
you know what my pastor says, and usually it's wise quote your
pastor, and if they're going to get mad, they'll get mad at
him. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, I am serious. Brother Charlie Payne taught
me that. He said, don't try to tell them what you think. He
said, it'll just provoke them. But he said, if you can tell
them what your pastor's taught you, he said, they might listen
to you. And I said, well, my pastor's taught me that the Ark
is a picture of Christ taking the wrath of God in the place
of his people. And he looked at me a minute,
and it was quiet for a second, and then he said, yeah, he said,
and we have to get involved in the conservation of animals and
the environment, too. And my little sermon got me no
sale. And that's OK. That's OK. I went
right over the hill and got a great order. And I can tell you that
as an aside, too. It seems that God never lets
me suffer very much for being a witness to the gospel. Just
go ahead and do it. Let the chips fall where they
will. But this man, like most, was woefully ignorant of God's
Word. Everything in the Scriptures,
and Noah's ark included, is for the express purpose of glorifying
the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care what you read in
here, what you see out there, it's all for one purpose, to
glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, the ark must be
about Christ. It's got to be what it's about.
But the key verse to understanding this portion of Scripture is
verse 8 of chapter 6. And if you have time and want
to go home today and read chapter 6, 7, and 8, it'll give you a
blessing. But here's the golden nugget. It's right here, verse
8 of chapter 6. It says, But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And grace here means that Noah
was favored. He found favor. in God's sight. The Lord showed Noah favor. Now,
many in modern religion would say that the reason Noah found
grace was because of what it says in verse 9. Read it with
me again here. These are the generations of
Noah. Noah was a just man. Noah was perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. Now
listen, they got it all backwards, but here's the way they think.
Now listen to this. They got it all backwards. They
say, well, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because
he was a just man. He's a good man. And Noah found
grace in the eyes of God because he was upright. All the other
people looked up at him and said, he's a good man, righteous man. Well, you know, that's just backwards.
The truth of it is that Noah, the only reason Noah was a just
man was because he'd already found grace in the eyes of God.
The only reason Noah was any different than Charles Manson,
the only reason he was a little more upright is because he'd
already found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You see the difference
there? One's all backwards. There was nothing natural in
Noah that made him just or upright. It was the grace of the Lord
in Noah that made him that way. Noah didn't get just and upright
and then find Christ. No, no. Christ found him and
made him upright and just, and there's a big difference. Modern
religion gets it backward. The last part of that verse,
they say that Noah found grace because Noah was faithful to
walk with God. If you'll just walk with God,
you take the first step and he'll meet you halfway. You know what
they say? No, Noah didn't take the first
step. That's all backwards. You see, Noah walked with God
for only one reason. That's because God first found
Noah and was gracious to him. That's the truth. We don't first
love God. That's not what the Scripture
says. It says, no, we love him only because he first loved us.
See the difference there? And let me hasten to add this,
though. Yet, even though that's true, Those who find grace in
the eyes of the Lord, you know what they want to do more than
anything? Oh, they do want to be just. They do want to be upright. They do want to walk with God. And maybe one of the reasons
that this that verse 10 is here gives us look at verse 10. And
Noah begat three sons, Sham, Ham and Japheth. Maybe the reason
this verse follows verse nine is that these are the truths
we most want our children to understand. Isn't it? Yeah, oh, we want our children
to understand the difference between what modern religion
is saying and the truth of the Scriptures. But look at verses
11 and 12 here. It says that the earth also was
corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And
God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all
flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Now. Some things left
alone will never change, and that's especially true of man's
nature. You see, verse five, what's it say about man's nature
in verse five? It says that every imagination
just say some imagination. No, it says every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was. Does it say sometimes evil? Occasionally evil, maybe evil. No, it says only evil. And how
often? Some days? No, every day, continually. Now, that's what we are by nature,
and I tell you, that doesn't change. It's our generation.
We read here that it says in Noah's generation the earth was
full of ions, full of it. Has anything changed since then?
Has man done a turnaround? Is man evolving up, getting a
little better, like the scientists say? Not the best I can tell.
The last few weeks I read the paper and some woman straps her
kids in the back seat of a car and drives them in a lake. Two
boys come in and take shotguns and shoot their parents to death
and then reload and shoot them again. Sounds like this world is just
still full of violence to me, doesn't it? Yeah, folks still
abandoning their children and shooting their parents. Nothing's
changed. Not a thing in this world has
changed. And, you know, men and women are depraved. That's why nothing's changed.
Have been since Adam fell and always will be, but for the grace
of God. The only reason Noah was any
different is he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And worst
of all is that men not only don't believe God, men don't believe
the truth of what we just read. That we're depraved. We don't
believe anything about what the Word says about God. We don't
believe what it says about us. And the reason is we're spiritually
dead. Spiritually dead. Look at verse
13 with me here. The end of all flesh has come
before me." I'm just fed up with it, Noah. I have had enough. Any of you parents ever get that
way with your children? You just go, enough! You know,
wham! It happens, doesn't it? Huh? Yeah. God finally said, Noah,
I've had enough now. I've just had enough. What's
he going to do? He says, The end of all flesh
has come before me. For the earth is filled with
violence through them, and behold, I will just destroy them with
the earth." I'm just going to wipe them out, Noah. Now, why then, let me ask you this,
why, after hearing that, Noah is part of this, does it say
I'm going to destroy some flesh? It says all, doesn't it? Well,
what's Noah? He's flesh, isn't he? God just
told Noah, I'm going to destroy everybody. all flesh. If I was
Noah, I think I'd be thinking, ooh, that means me, too. Why, then, would the very next
verse God say this to Noah? Look, verse 14. Noah, go make
an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark,
and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Now, if God's
going to destroy all flesh, why would he tell Noah to go build
a boat? Huh? Now, if somebody told you, Henry,
that you were going to die tomorrow, would you go build a boat? I've
got a feeling that wouldn't be a very high priority on your
list, would it? Well, there must be some reason
why Noah could foresee then why he should build a boat. You know
what it is? It's right back to the key verse I told you. When
God promised Noah, he said, You found grace in my sight. He believed
God. Noah didn't know how. But he
did believe God, that when God said, I'm going to wipe it all
out, he believed somehow God was going to take care of him,
didn't he? That's what he believed, and that's why he did what God
said. You say, well, the reason he did that is because God told
him to. That's right, he did, and we
all do that, too. When God tells us to do something, we all do
it. Let me tell you, this ark, Noah understood that God was
going to pour his wrath out. And God told him to go build
an ark. Somehow Noah knew this was a picture of how he was going
to be delivered. He knew this was what we ought
to know, that this ark is Christ. It's a picture of Christ. And
we'll see some of the things that make this ark a beautiful
picture of Christ. But before we leave verse 13
here, I want you to notice one other thing. Do you notice here,
the first line says, God said to Noah, what a blessing. God condescended to speak to
a man. That ought to encourage us. You
know, he just might speak to us. Just might speak to you.
He just might. He didn't know us, so let's hope
he might speak to me, you see. You see that? Noah heard God speak. And all
to whom God is gracious, they hear him speak. And listen, don't
get this backwards either. Don't get this part backwards.
Modern religion says this. They say, God speaks to everybody. Whosoever will, those who will
let him, you know, if you just let him in your heart. Isn't
that what they say? They've got it all backwards. You see, God
does speak generally to all men. You young people, when you're
about to do something, you get this little voice that says,
I'm not going to do that. That's still a small voice. You listen
to that voice, OK? God's good. He put that conscience
in your head and in your mind and in your heart for a reason.
If you don't do it, you'll be better off. If you do do it,
you just have to pay for what you're doing. OK? Listen to that
still, small voice. And God speaks through myriad
ways to all men, but he speaks his gospel. He speaks his word. OK? He speaks his word to some. And let me tell you what he always
says when he speaks. He talks about two people. Every
time he speaks, he speaks about two people. The first person
he's going to speak to you about is yourself. He's going to tell
you who you are, what you did, and what the consequences are.
He came walking in the garden and said, Adam, Adam, where are
you and what have you done? I don't do what Adam did until
that woman made me do it. He's going to tell you who he,
Adam, found out who he was. He was a sinner. And that's what
God speaks to us. We're going to find out who we
are, what we've done, that we're sinners and we deserve whatever.
No one knew that he deserved, if God destroyed the earth, no
one knew he deserved to be destroyed with it. But the second thing
he's going to do, he's going to speak to you about Christ
and tell you who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And that's what we
need to hear. Pray God will speak to us as
he did to Noah in his day. God spoke to Noah, and for the
next hundred years, you know who all Noah cared about the
next hundred years? It was building that boat and
telling everybody he could about that boat and coming into that
boat. And that's why we know that ark
is Christ, too. Every preacher is preaching Christ.
And Noah was preaching Christ, too. For a hundred years he preached
Christ. You say, talking about the boat? Yeah, that's the picture
God gave him to present about Christ. That salvation, he kept
saying, oh, God's wrath's coming. It's coming. But there's salvation
in the boat, in the ark. You see, that's Christ. Listen,
God's wrath's coming, folks. You know what? It's not going
to rain for forty days and forty nights and keep the earth under
water for seven months like it did in Noah's day, but God's
wrath's coming. Do we know that? But there's
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ? Come on in! Come on in! Everything in regard to Noah
was now relative to that ark. And if God speaks to us, you
know what will happen? We'll spend the rest of our life,
whether it's a hundred years like Noah or a hundred we'll
spend the rest of our days trying to tell somebody about Christ,
who He is and what He did and why He did it, and who we are
and why we need Him. That ark wasn't first in Noah's
life now. That ark was his life. And Christ
is not...now listen carefully, I don't want to be cute about
this, but Christ is not first in my life. Christ is not the
most important thing in my life. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
my life. He really is. He is all and in
all. And we maybe need to be careful
not to put anything else ahead of that, or he just might remove
it. Just might remove it. Don't get this out of sequence.
Don't get it wrong. Christ is our life. Is that too
narrow to say that Christ must be all and in all? That's what
the Scripture says, isn't it? That's what the Scripture says.
Now, you turn to John 14, and I'm going to re-read you a verse
that we've already looked at. You turn over and find John 14,
and I'm going to read you the next verse from the book of Genesis
here concerning Noah. You find John 14 there, and when
you find that, listen to this verse. He told Noah to go make
an ark of gopher wood, and he said, Rooms shalt thou make in
the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. He said,
We're going to put rooms in this ark, Noah. What do you think
that rooms mean? What's that mean, huh? Well,
John 14, if you want to know what something says in Scripture,
find another Scripture that explains it to you. In John 14, our Lord
was teaching his disciples, and he said, Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions." Now, if you want to go look that word up, you know
what that word, the best word about, the two best definitions
of that word, mansions, are dwelling places or rooms. Christ said to his disciples,
said, My Father's up there making rooms. Making rooms. Now listen to what else he says.
He says, And if it were not so, he said, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a room for you. And if I go and prepare a room
for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. And
now listen to what he's saying. When I receive you, oh, it's
going to be a pretty room. It's going to be a beautiful
house. It's going to be on the forty acres on the backside.
Is that what he says? Now where are the rooms? Do you
see where he says? I'll receive you unto myself. You want to know where the rooms
are? They're in Christ. They're in the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how do you get a person
in another person? I don't know, anybody expecting
here? Huh? I can ask and we got Peggy Moore's
expecting in just a few months. There's a person in her. There's
plenty of room in there. You want to call that a room?
Well, I don't understand, but that's if we're born again. It's
because we're this room in Christ. That's where we are. You understand?
Yeah. Yeah. Not a perfect picture,
but you get the point. And he said, And where I am,
you may be also. That's what these rooms, it's
a picture. You see the ark is full of rooms. Plenty of them. There's enough for everybody.
And yet there wasn't a vacant room in the place when it's all
loaded up. Not a bit. These rooms. But it also says
in verse fourteen, back in Genesis six here, that the ark was pitched. That means it took tar and put
it all over the outside. You know what that means? There
wasn't a bit of water going to get in that ark. Not an ounce
of wrath was going to touch anybody in that ark. And that's so in
Christ. You don't have to worry about
the wrath of God if you're in Christ. Not a bit of it's going
to touch you. Look at verse fifteen here. It
tells us the size of this ark. This is the fashion which thou
shalt make it of. The length of the ark shall be
three hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height thirty
cubits." You know how big that is? That's a football field and
a half long. Four hundred and fifty foot long
boat. And it was seventy-five feet wide. Does that sound too
narrow to you guys? Hmm? Sound too narrow to you
guys? How about four and a half stories
high? A little too short for you to
get squeezed under? Huh? Doesn't sound like it to
me. Let me tell you, this boat was
immense. I've never seen a boat that big. That's a huge boat. And let me tell you, Christ is
immense. He's vast in His mercy and His goodness. He's God in
human flesh, and none will fail to enter into Christ because
He's too small. No sirree. He is vast enough
to hold all who enter into him. He's plenty large enough. Look
at verse 16. It says, There was a window shalt
thou make to the ark, and in a cubit thou shalt finish it
above, and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof,
with lower, second, and third storeys shalt thou make it. How
many windows does it say there are there? A window. That means one. A window. And in proportion to this ark,
this window seems pretty tiny. A cubit's about 18 inches square.
It wouldn't seem to us that that would let much light in, would
it? One window in a boat that's 450 feet long? Huh? Apparently
it let in enough light. That's all that was needed. Let
me ask you this. As a believer, does it ever seem
to you that you don't have very much light? It does to me. Let me tell you, though, we'll
get just as much light as we need. And I promise you this,
what do you think if somebody was in that boat and needed a
little more light, what they did? They went walking over to
that window. You want a little more light?
Get a little closer to the window and those that preach the window. You understand? Don't complain
about, I can't see, I don't have any light. How close are you
to the light? You understand? Get over to it. The Bible and those who preach
God's Word, that's the source of light God's given us in His
day. And let me ask this, how much light did those outside
the Ark have? When I was learning how to scuba dive, the first
place I went was in a lake and it had been a big rain. I got
about a foot and a half under the water and I couldn't see
that far. Folks outside the ark, they had no light. They were
on the bottom. They were under forty feet of
water. They were dead. Outside the ark
there was no light. Outside of Christ and his word
there is no light. Don't be surprised what folks
do. Don't be surprised if some woman straps her babies in a
car and drives them away. She's got no light. He's dead,
dead outside of Christ. That's why men do the things
they do. How about the door? Only one door. One door. And
it's curious that it doesn't say how big the door is, but
it does indicate that there's one way into the ark and only
one. That's pretty narrow, only one
door. Modern religion says, oh, there's
many ways. We all go in the same places,
come in different ways. Oh, is there that many doors?
How many doors in the Ark? I don't hear anybody taking a
ramp up to the backside or coming through a porthole or crawling
in a window. No, it said there is the door. That means one. And I tell you what, if that
door, if that door, it was big enough for an elephant to go
through, that too narrow for anybody here. If it was, I wouldn't
admit it. Or maybe I'd lose a little weight.
Maybe I'd, maybe I'd, you know, maybe we're trying to carry something
through with us. You know, you trying to carry
Mama through there with you? Maybe you won't fit, you know.
You're trying to carry your prized possession, that hall tree that
somebody left you? You can't get through the door
with it. I mean, maybe we need to get rid of some possessions.
Maybe we're trying to carry too much with us, huh? Maybe, on
the other hand, we're not nearly as big as we think we are. There's only one door to the
Ark, and there's only one door to Christ. That's his Word, his
Gospel. You say, that's pretty narrow,
Bob. I didn't make that up. Scripture says he is the way. It says he is the door. Not one of the doors. He is the
door. Maybe we better shed some of
our traditions and shed our preconceived religious notions. The truth
is, God is vast. God is everything. The door is
not too narrow. Christ says, I am the door, come
unto me that you might have life. The problem is not with the door,
it's with us. We won't do what he said, they wouldn't do what,
no, it's been a hundred years since, come on in, come on in,
come on in, and nobody would. Nobody would. You said, well,
wouldn't they? They didn't believe it was going to rain. Well, they
wouldn't come in. There's no problem with the door,
he's not too small, the problem is with me. I think over much
of myself I think myself too big, and by nature I'm not willing
to enter, because it means confessing how puny I am." Now, you look
through the Scriptures, those that were able to come through
the door, there was a woman with an issue of blood, and she got
on her hands and knees and crawled through the dirt. I believe she
got in, didn't she? Yeah, there was a woman who came
and got down on the floor next to her, and he said, It's not
right to give the children's bread to dogs, and she just,
she said, Well, I am a dog. I just want some crumbs off the
master's. I believe she got under there, don't you? Huh? Apostle
Paul riding on his high horse down the road, and bang, boy,
when he hit the dust now, lost his sight. He's ready to come,
he'd get in, couldn't he? Huh? There was a harlot, a harlot,
yeah, Rahab, She was ashamed to admit what she was. She got
in, didn't she? Got under that door. You see,
he shows those who come to Christ how great Christ the door is.
That's what the Lord's going to show you, is how great a door
he is. You remember on the day of the day of Pentecost. Well,
Isaiah, first of all, Isaiah said, in the year that King Uzziah
died, he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Said, his
train filled the temple. It was amazing to see. And the
smoke, smoke the post of the door. You mean this door can
move, or? I guess so. It's big enough on
the day of Pentecost that 3,000 came through it at one time.
And what about sitting back there and saying, I don't know if there's
a place for me, or I don't know if it's, you know. I've got to
get better for it. No, just come on in. Just get
in the door. Look at verse 17. Look at verse
17 with me. And behold, I, even I, do bring
a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein
is the breadth of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die. God's wrath is coming. God's
the only one who can convince men of this truth. If you believe,
be grateful he's made you believe. Only those he's convinced that
they deserve God's wrath really believe wrath is coming in due
time. Aren't you glad you've been convinced?
Aren't you glad that the Lord sent you a pastor to tell you
wrath's coming? Aren't we glad the Word didn't
fall on deaf ears as it did in Noah's day. How many do you suppose
Noah preached to? This ought to encourage you,
Paul. How many did Noah preach to and not have a single convert? I don't know how many millions
heard him. I don't know. But all I can tell
is that his family came in. That's all. Of course, God's
family is all going to hear anyway. But we're going to preach the
gospel because we don't know who his family is. But aren't
you glad? Don't you hope that he'll let
it be preached a little longer? Maybe your children, like Noah's,
might hear. Look at verse 18. "'But with
thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into the
ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with
thee.'" So why does God do all this? For what purpose? God does
all this to honor the covenant He made with His Son. You say,
what's this covenant about? Well, God said, I want a people.
And I wanted to be just like you, son. And of course, there
was a problem because they weren't a bit like, like his son. So the son said, Father, I'll
go down there and become just like him. But I'll be right,
upright and righteous and perfect. And I'll give him that righteousness.
And I'll take all her filthiness on me. And I'll be, I'll pay
the price for it. They'll kill me, crucify me.
I'll die for And then I'll bring them to you, and they'll be just
like me." That's the covenant. And that's why God did all this.
He made a covenant with Noah. You know what it was? Noah, I'm
going to be gracious to you. I'm going to make you like my
son. You understand? That's why God... What are you doing? That's why
he was doing all this. You see, verse, the critical word here
in verse 18 is into the ark, into the ark. And it's repeated
over and over here. You read in the next chapter,
it'll say Noah and his children and their wives and his wife
came into the ark, into the ark, into the ark. You say, what are
you making such a big thing about that is? I'll tell you why. God told everybody to come into
the ark, but it was only Noah and his family that did. And
I'll tell you what, Noah could have stood around all day long
and not come into the ark. What good would the ark have
done him? Not a bit. Not a bit. You say, but Noah
did come in. What's the difference between
him and those out there? Now look at this verse with me. Have
you got verse 18 of chapter 7? I'm sorry, verse, I've got it
wrong here. Verse 18 there, it says, but
of chapter six, but with thee will I establish my covenant."
Now, what's it say? Does it say, please come in,
Noah, won't you please let Jesus in your heart? Won't you please
come in the heart, Noah? I want you to come in so bad
so you don't drown. That's the message false preachers
are preaching today, isn't it? Won't you let Jesus have his
way in your life? Is that what Noah said? So when God said,
Noah, he said, Noah, thou shall come in. You are going to come
in. That's the difference between
Noah and all the rest of them. He said, Noah never would have
come in if God said, Noah, you are coming in, now get in. And
Noah went in. In the day of his power, his
people are willing. I know when you'll come to Christ,
the day God says, Thou shalt come. That's the day I came. What about you? I wasn't interested
in coming. No siree, but in the day of his
power. We didn't decide to come on our
own, and therefore, you know, here's the difference, Stan.
If you decided on your own to come, you know what happened?
One day in glory, you'd be standing up there going, yeah, I remember
the day I decided for Jesus. And everybody would be tempted
to go, yeah, all right, Stan, and you'd just, you'd take your
little bow, you know. Let me tell you, that's not how
it's going to be. No, you're going to stand up
there and go, Oh, I wasn't coming. I didn't want to come. I was
going the other way. I didn't want anything to do with God
Almighty. But boy, one day He came to me and said, Thou shalt
come. That's when I came. Everybody's going to turn to
Christ and go, Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to the Lamb.
He's going to get all the vows, you understand? Because this
is what this is all about, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the difference between
the lie and the truth, between false religion—he's got it all
backwards—and what's taught in the gospel here. Here's another
proof of that. Who kept Noah in the ark? You
say, well, he would have been really stupid to get out of the
ark during that flood. How dumb can a man be? Well,
I have found in my life that stupidity has not prevented me
from doing a lot of things I ought not to have done. I'm embarrassed
to admit. I mean, does anybody—it has not
hindered me much. Does anybody here—I just wonder
if anybody else here has done as many stupid, ignorant, and
self-destructive things as I have done in my lifetime. There's
only one reason that Noah stayed in the ark. God made the window
so little he couldn't get out. And God sealed up the door, outside
and inside, to where he couldn't get out. That's the reason it
says, God shut Noah in. He shut him in. Thanks be unto
God. You worried about losing your
salvation? Well, if you've had some religious
experience now, and some preacher talked you down an aisle and
got you in the pool and said, shake my hands and say you believe
on Jesus. You better be worried, maybe. You might lose that. And
I tell you what, if you've met the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
shut in. There's no way out. You're in. There's light coming in, but
you're not getting out, any more than Noah would. And again, for
the same reason, and that's so that you're not going to stand
there and say, yeah, boy, I walked the walk and talked the talk,
and I just was faithful and I gave and I didn't know, siree. You
ain't taking any vows. It's going to be He brought me. He called me. He found me. He brought me. He put me in,
and then he shut me in." Hallelujah to the King. Praise God, he did
it all. The Lord did it all. In the ark
is critical. Into the ark. Well, I'll give
you another reason why it's critical. How many folks do you think over
those years saw Noah building the ark and yet didn't come in? How many of you suppose in a
far country heard about this lunatic building a boat, and
yet they never came and went in. How many, you suppose, actually
knew about this boat, snuck around at night and looked in and checked
it out and all this kind of thing, but they never came in? Huh? Many believed there was an ark. Yeah, that they never came in.
Now listen, this is maybe the most dangerous refuge, false
refuge in all the world to you who are preached the gospel day
in and day out, week in and week out, year after year after year. You know, you've heard a lot
about Christ. You've seen him in the word here.
You've heard about him. You may believe with all your
heart that there is a Christ, a man named Jesus. But have you
entered in to Him? That's why it's such a big deal.
This is not just doctrine, folks. He is a person. And we must be in Christ, in
Him. It's the most dangerous place
in all the world. to hear about and know about
to believe about as opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ entering
into him and here's an illustration of it. All those you know all
those who heard about believed about thought about saw about
the art. You say with a they could even
cling to it. That's right from the outside.
What was the difference in clinging on the outside? The first wave
that came along, they were gone. Now, if you were on the inside,
the first time you rolled down one of those, you grabbed one
of those ribs inside, it doesn't matter how good you were at clinging,
you might have ricocheted all over that place, but you were
staying in the ark. You understand? And when the
storm was over, you were safe. You were secure in him. He takes
better care of his own than that, too. Go around like this, son,
but if you're clinging to Christ, you're all right, because you're
in the ark, in the ark, as opposed to outside of it. Well, am I
deceived? I tell you, it's too important
to take for granted. Yeah, too important. Here's some
help, maybe, to you. I'll do this quickly. Ultimately,
God has to give a person assurance. And each one of you say, well,
am I in Christ? Am I in Christ? Well, I'll tell you what modern
religion says about Christ. They say that if you know, if
you know Jesus, you got health and wealth and ease, life just
of ease. Don't you know what they say?
They say it gets, oh, it gets so much better. Well, listen,
the truth of the matter is that I, you know, the truth of the
matter is that the life of ease, well, Stan, if I told you I got
a new job for you, the next few months here, I'm going to give
you two horses, two cows, two zebras, two tigers, two giraffes,
two rhinos, two hippos, two elephants, and two of everything else You
take care of them. Does that sound like the life
of easy? My son got his first-hand experience yesterday shoveling
out a stall. You want that job, Luke? I don't think so. I don't
think. You say, man, there's going to
be a lot of shoveling to be done on that boat, isn't there? Does
that sound like knowing them just sort of prop their feet
up and drink cool drinks all afternoon? Hauling the hay for
that many animals? Can you imagine? Huh? Listen,
It's a lie when they tell you it's a life of ease when you
come to know Jesus. Maybe their Jesus it is, but
not the Christ of the Scriptures. Now, this group, I'll give you
another example. This boat, is there, most of
you ladies, is there a boat big enough for you with three daughters-in-laws
or three son-in-laws to spend seven months with? Listen, I'm
greatly blessed. I have the greatest in-laws in
the world, but my mother-in-law, Doris, will probably shoot me
after a few weeks. You know, I'm just that ornery. Listen,
this group needed grace, and we need grace, too. You want
some assurance? Well, does God give you grace?
Does he give you grace? Huh? That's why, take that as
assurance, if he does. I tell you, they could never
have got along with each other. They'd have killed each other
long before if God hadn't been gracious to them. And those in
Christ grow in grace. Do we see that? What about wealth,
huh? God make everybody wealthy who's
in Christ? Well, you ladies, would you want to go on a cruise
and come back and find your whole house gone, everything wiped
out, everything? You know, that's what Noah's
wife did. They left on this boat, and when they came home, nothing
was left. It was gone. That sounds like, oh, they just
got rich. No, they lost everything. They
lost everything. And God may allow you to be wealthy.
He does have some, although it's harder than shoving a camel through
the eye of a needle. And though it's, he said to the
rich young ruler, he said, well, just, you know, you got to go
give away everything you got. And he went away sorrowful. He
wasn't having any of that. I tell you, he may require, he
may not take everything you've got, like he did Noah's wife
and family away, but I tell you what, he may, he does, he does
require always that we be willing to, willing to forsake all for
the Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn't sound like wealth
to me. What about modern, what about health, huh? Did everyone
in the ark enjoy perfect health? Well, I know the sickest that
I ever was. That was one day I ate a bucket full of Kentucky
fried chicken and then got on a sailboat on Lake Michigan.
And in about fifteen minutes, I'd lost all the chicken and
was so sick, I just thought I was going to die. I crawled down
the guts of that boat, thought, that'll be better. No, it was worse.
Finally, I said, take me to shore. I'm going to jump over. It says
two miles or a half a mile or whatever it was. I don't care,
and off I went. Because I'd have rather died than be that sick
anymore. And they circle back around, finally took me in that
green thing they talk about, I was green. Now, you say, well,
you're just speculating about whether or not anybody got seasick
on that boat. Well, maybe so, but it was not
a life of ease on that boat. You understand what I'm saying?
And God's people, now listen, God's people are going to experience
some sickness and even death. There's no speculation about
that. He made Lazarus so sick that he died. And the devil didn't
make Lazarus sick, did he? No. No. The Lord did. The Lord did. And I watch these
TV charlatans who blow on people and touch them and act like they're
reaching in and yanking the cancer and whatever out of them. And
let me tell you, it's a lie. It's a lie now. It's a lie. God's
purpose is not that all his people be well. It's not. He says, I
kill and I make alive, I heal and I make sick. There's only one reason that
God allows his people to be sick. You know what it is? So that
Christ can get the glory when he makes them well. There was
a talk of that whole town when the Lord came back and said,
Lazarus, come forth! And Lazarus came out of that
grave. All well. All well. And you say, well,
he doesn't always make them well. Some die. That's right. Oh, but
that doesn't mean he doesn't make them well. He makes them
really well. Really well. And listen. And while they're sick, Christ
gives them grace sufficient to the degree of their sickness.
He will not try one of his own more than they can endure. And
I know something about this. Those in the ark may have been
sick. They may have lost everything. They no doubt had some real stressful
times and labored almost continually, but one thing they never need
have feared about, and that was the fact that the ark was going
to carry them through. And you may be sick, you may
lose everything you have, you may have a hard life in this
life, but I can promise you this, if you are in Christ, He's going
to carry you through. He's going to take you to the
place where you want to be, which is in a room in Him, in glory. And I've observed that God only
sends really severe trials to those who have a really great
Savior. You know why this boat had to be so big? Buddy, it was
going to be some storm. That's why. And our ark is Christ,
and He's already been through the storm for us, and He'll get
us through. One other thing, and I'll close
very quickly, one other assurance I can give you, and that's to
those in Christ They will always obey the divine command of our
Lord Jesus Christ to follow him in baptism. I'm sure Noah took
some—can you imagine how much grief he took? You talk about
peer pressure and stuff. Bram and I, you'd like to have
been Noah, telling everybody, What are you building, son? A
boat. What's a boat? Well, it floats
on water. You know, when it rains, there's
going to be a lot of water. What's rain? You talk about peer
pressure. Now, Noah took some grief over
this boat. OK? But Noah, Noah nonetheless
was identified with that Ark. What do we call it today still?
Noah's Ark. Noah's Savior. Noah's, Noah's,
this was Noah's Lord. It was his life. We must be identified
with Christ. And the beating the Ark took,
it fell on the Ark and not Noah. The death that Noah should have,
when God said, I'm going to destroy all flesh. Christ took that. The ark took that. It fell on
the ark. And as the ark plunged into the deep waters and rose
back up and finally came to rest on dry ground, that pictures
Christ, death, burial, and resurrection. And that's why we won't be baptized.
I'm going to be identified with that. I'm going to be identified
with Him. And that's how we do it in our day. In Noah's day,
it was, this is my ark. He was identified with the ark,
despite what it cost. And those in Christ, we claim
Christ. We're not ashamed to be identified
with the Christ of the Scriptures, with Him. And get it right and
not backwards. Now listen, one more time. Get
it right and not backwards. We are not baptized so that the
Lord will have mercy on us. We're not baptized so the Lord
will be gracious to us. No. You know how it works? We're
baptized because He's been gracious to us. We're baptized because
he's shown us mercy. Modern religion says that because
Noah did all God commanded, he found grace in the eyes of God. That's just backwards again.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and therefore he
did all God commanded him to. Now listen, that's the real message
of Noah's Ark. It's not about animals and the
environment and all that crazy stuff. It's about Christ. It's
about Christ. Well, I pray that the Lord will
bless that to your hearts. We're the only ones that heard
that today. 272. 272. 272. Let's stand. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I trust not sweetest frame,
only lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
no other ground is easy. All other ground is sinking sand
His oath is covenant, His blood will support me in the whelming
flood My soul gives way, even as all
I hope and stand. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When he's got God with trumpet
sound, O may I lay in him be found, Rest in his righteous
blest love, All of us to stand before the throne. God's righteousness, God's righteousness,
All of the ground is taking place, All of the ground is taking place, So, You. So, you. I don't know. I don't know.