Can it be? You better believe it. It's full. I want you to turn with me now
to Genesis chapter 7. Genesis chapter 7. The word Genesis means beginning,
the very beginning of it all. Genesis chapter 7. I want you
to read with me one verse. Let's look at verse 23 together. And every living substance was
destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle and a creeping things, a fowl of the heaven, they were
destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive,
and they that were with him in the ark." Now everyone in here, as most everyone throughout the
world has heard of this story. I don't know if everyone has
read the story, but most everyone has heard of this story about
this man named Noah building a boat And rounding up all the
animals and putting them on the boat and the rains coming, flooding
the earth, destroying all man except those in that boat. And
like so many Bible stories, I should say Bible truths, and more than
a story, this is the truth. But like so many Bible truths,
this is made fun of. It's made light of. The flood. Men love to make fun of Adam
and Eve in the garden, don't they? That is the object of mockery
and laughter everywhere. People love to show these little
pictures of a man and a woman, you know, with fig leaves and
all. Her taking a bite and waiting on the whatever. They love to
make fun of that. And the second most made fun
of, if you will, story is this one right here. They love to
depict and parody on TV and in their advertisements and all,
this bearded man with a little boat and all of these animals. You know, you've seen it. You've
seen it everywhere. They love to mock and make fun of it. But
do you know, did you read with me over there in 2 Peter 3? That was written a long time
ago. They, Peter, through the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit,
said that that's the way to be. He said they'll come and they'll
be willingly ignorant. They'll make fun of it. They'll
mock. They'll scoff. They'll make fun of it. Willingly
ignorant of creation. That is Adam and Eve. Willingly ignorant of the flood?
Know what, little boat? Men love to make fun of that,
don't they? They love to mock and laugh at
these things. But you know something? Just as God said that, just as
God said that people would react that way, I read over here where
it says God's going to do some laughing. Proverbs chapter 1, you want
to look it up sometime, it says this. I'm reading directly from
the Bible here. Proverbs chapter 1 begins at
verse 25 and says, Now you said it not, my counsel. This is God
talking here. He says, You said it not, my
counsel. and would none of my reproof."
In other words, the warnings, just like the people back in
Noah's day laughed at Noah, people are laughing now at Noah and
at us. Hell's fire and damnation preaching,
you know, old-fashioned. I don't need that. But God said,
You've said it, and all my counsel, all the Word of God. He said,
and would none of my reproof. He said, I'm going to laugh. God says, I also will laugh.
You're laughing now. I'll get the last one. I will
laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me,"
they'll start hollering to God and calling on Jesus, Mohammed,
whoever they can call on, but I will not answer. God says,
they'll seek me early and they won't find me. If they hated
knowledge, they would not have my counsel, despised all of my
reproof. Words, counsel, reproof, warning
from God Almighty, yet men scoff at it. and mock these things
as being ridiculous, old-fashioned, and archaic. We're too smart,
we're too civilized, we're too technological, we're
too smart for this sort of old-fashioned foolishness. Well, God said you'd
say that. Turn with me, keep your place
there in Genesis, and turn with me to Matthew chapter 24. Now, I'm not pointing at you,
per se. When I say you, I say all men
by nature. I hope you don't react that way. I hope the people under the sound
of my voice don't feel that way about these things. But look
at Matthew 24. They scoffed at Noah's warning. Noah was a preacher. The Scripture
says Noah was a preacher. And there's nobody scoffed at
and laughed at more now than a preacher. And I have to admit,
here I go again, most of them are very laughable. They deserve
to be laughed at, and much worse. They ought to be tarred and feathered
and run out of town. But they scoffed at Noah. Noah was a preacher
of what? Righteousness. Now, he was a
different sort of preacher. And God's true preachers now,
they're different sorts of preachers. They're preachers of righteousness,
not their own, not your own, but somebody else's. All right,
they scoffed at Noah, a preacher, until the rains came. Then they
quit scoffing, didn't they? When those first big drops, big
as a fifty-cent piece, hit them on the head, they thought, maybe
there's something to this. Well, listen to another preacher.
Jesus Christ was a preacher. Listen to this, verse 37, "...as
the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of
Man be," that is, the second coming of Christ. "...for as
in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered into the ark. And they didn't know until the
flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming
of the Son of Man be." As I've said so many times, there's nothing
wrong with eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage.
That should go without saying. You've got to eat and drink to
live, don't you? Marriage is ordained of God.
Nothing wrong with those things. What he's saying there is that
things are going to keep going on like they always have gone
on. People are going to be doing the same things they've been
doing and not give God a thought, not give Christ a thought until
the day that comes of the thiefless night when they least expect
it, like the rain. They heard a rumble, a thunder,
and felt some drops. They'd never heard it before.
It never rained on the earth before Noah's flood. It never
rained. They weren't expecting it, never
seen it before, never heard it. They didn't believe it. It's never
rained fire before. We weren't expecting it. We don't
believe it, do we? God said it's going to happen. They scoffed
at Noah, and Christ said, the same thing is going to happen
in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. Now, back to
Genesis chapter 7. Turn back there. As in the days
of the flood, that was the judgment of God upon this world. He said,
so shall the coming of Jesus Christ be. And let me tell you,
it's going to be the same way now. The only place of safety
back then, during that flood, there was only one place you
could go to get out of the rain. It's only one place that a man,
a woman, an animal, anybody was safe from that judgment. Where
was that? A child knows. In the ark. Right? In the ark. Look at Genesis
6 with me. And even so, the only place of
safety for any human being is in Jesus Christ. This ark represents
Christ. Now, the world was a very wicked
place. Here in Genesis 6 it tells us
that. It was a very wicked place, just as it is now. I don't think
that it was any more wicked back there in Sodom than it is in,
say, San or Los Angeles or New York City. I really don't. I
don't think it's any more wicked. As a matter of fact, I think
it's more so now. I think it's more widespread. Same thing,
they say that one-third of the population of San Francisco is
homosexual. It's a very wicked place back
there during the flood, as it is now. And this man Noah, it says that Noah was a little different.
Noah was a little different. How's that, preacher? Well, Noah
wasn't different in himself, but Noah was considered different
by God. Let's look at it. Genesis 6,
verse 5. It says, Now God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually every
day. And let me just stop there a
second and ask you all to be honest with yourself. How much
of the day goes by, your thoughts, how many thought processes go
through your head that aren't evil? Huh? Not very many, if
any at all. This is an indictment against
us, isn't it? Isn't it? We wake up in the morning with
just Gutter's thoughts. We go to bed, you know, with
the same thing. And all through the day we're plotting, we're
planning our course of worldliness or whatever it may be, you know,
not giving God much of a thought at all. Right? Right. And it repented the Lord, verse
6, that He had made man on the earth. No, God's not a man that
He should repent or that He should change His mind, but He's talking
in man's language here. He's trying to show us that going
to wipe this thing out. It doesn't deserve to live. And
the Lord said, verse 7, I will destroy man whom I have created
from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing,
the fowls of the air. It repents me that I have made
them. It repents me. But Noah found grace. You see, Noah was no different
than anybody else. Oh, yeah, he was. Look at verse
9. It says, Noah was a just man, perfect. Noah walked with God.
Why? Who made Noah different than
Baal? 1 Corinthians 4, 7. Who made Noah different from
Joe Snow over here, who was a wicked ungodly about to perish? Who
made him different? Who made Noah different? Noah
grew up there, went through the same things as everybody else.
What made Noah any different? found grace." You see, grace
comes before these other things, right? He found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. Does that mean he went looking
for it? No, that means God went looking for him. God found Noah, and gave him
the gift of his grace. Salvation is by grace. By grace,
you say, through faith. And that's not of yourself. Noah
didn't walk with God. Noah wasn't a just man, a perfect
man because he was better than everybody else. Noah found grace. In other words, God bestowed
this gift of faith, and it says Noah was a just man. That is,
Noah was justified. If you've got spiritual understanding,
you'll understand that the just live by faith. Noah was justified
by faith. Look it up in Hebrews 11. Noah
was considered a perfect, that is, a holy man by God. Why? Because he was better than
everybody else. Let me show you this. Look over Genesis chapter
8. In case people think, well, Noah,
because Noah was a good old boy, Noah lived a good life, therefore
God looked at Noah and said, well, Noah, I'm going to destroy
everybody else, but hey, buddy, you're all right. I'm going to
save you, because you deserve to be saved." No. There's none
good, the Scripture says. It still holds true. It held
true back then as well as now. There's none good, no, not one,
God said. He said they've all gone astray.
That includes Noah. There's none righteous, the Scripture
says. That is holy as God. No, no, not one. Right? Look
at it here in Genesis 8. Look at verse 20. It says, "...Noah
built an altar." As soon as he got off that boat,
he built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast
and every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the Lord smelled a sweet savor at that offering." That's
a picture of Christ, his sacrifice. The Lord said in his heart, I
will not again. Now look at it very carefully
with me. God said, now this is after the flood. The only people
around now were Noah and his boys and their wives, his wife. God said, I will not again curse
the ground any more for man's sake. For, the word there is,
although, even though the imagination of man's heart is, present tense,
evil from his youth. Who was around then? He had already
killed everybody else. Noah in himself was a sinner
like everybody else, but Noah found grace, sovereign grace
bestowed upon him. Noah didn't earn it. Noah didn't
deserve it. God just said, I'm going to make
you a vessel of mercy. A vessel of mercy fitted for
honor. Now, back at the text again,
Genesis 6. Noah found grace. He found grace. Look at verse 17 with me. Genesis 6, verse 17. And God said to Noah, God revealed
to Noah his salvation. Here's where he really found
grace. God revealed his salvation to him. This is where grace is
found. God is gracious. God is gracious in giving a lot
of things to all of creation, but God's real grace, his saving
grace, is in revealing his Son, Jesus Christ, to some people. And it's said that God did this
for Noah. He said, Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters
upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath
of life. from under the heaven, and everything that is in the
earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my
covenant." Look at these next words, "...thou shalt come to
my door." Terry, he said that a long time
before he seemingly asked him to come in, didn't he? Isn't
that the covenant of grace? God says, I will and you shall. That sounds kind of like election
to me. Doesn't it to you? I'm going
to destroy and kill everybody else but not you, Noah. Not you. And you're going to get in the
boat. You ain't going to miss the boat. You're going to get
in. I'm going to make sure you get in the boat. With you is
my covenant." That sounds like election to me. So God instructed
Noah about this boat, about the building of this boat and so
forth. Now let's look at this boat. Look real carefully with me at
this boat, this ark. Look back at chapter 14 with
me. This is more than a boat, folks. I'm telling you, this
is not a bay liner. This ain't no Chris Craft. I
wonder where that name came from anyway, Chris Craft. This craft
is Christ. That's what this is. This is
more than just an old boat. This is more than just an old
story of a bearded man. This is a story of Jesus Christ
and salvation. More than a boat. More. Because
you know why? Because in this boat, there was
none other boat given among men whereby they must be saved. And
I tell you what, there's none other name, no other religion,
no other way under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. That at the name of Jesus Christ,
the ark will be saved. That ark is Christ. It is Christ. Look at it with me. I want you
to see the fashion of it. what it was made of. It says, God
said to Noah, Make thee an ark of gopher wood, gopher wood,
wood. That is, it was going to be a
vessel out of earthen materials, right? An earthen vessel, an
earthen vessel. The Scripture says we have this
treasure, this gospel treasure in what? Earthen vessels, the
Scripture says, or rather, an earthen vessel. We have this
treasure, John, in a body, in a person, in a man. You see,
God Almighty took a body, took a vessel. He became an ark of
safety. God was born of a woman made
under the law to redeem them that were under the curse of
the law. God took a body, a body. And in him, somehow, we're going
to see this in a minute, in this man, in this vessel, is all the
mercy and the grace and the salvation of God to be found in this man,
this ark called Christ. All right? It was also made with
rooms. There was room in the ark. Verse 14. There was room in the ark. I
like that, too. Lots of rooms. There was room
for all the animals that wanted to come in. You say, silly animals,
they wouldn't want to come in this boat. Right you are. Somebody
had to bring them in. But you better believe there's
a bunch of them, wasn't there Barbara? Two of every, somewhere
on the face of the earth. Can you imagine how many animals
were in that boat? Standing room only. I tell you, but there was
room. There was room. Could have been
a little turtle come along, you know, and say, well, I sure would
like to get on. Well, get on! The door is open. Get on. And
he got on. There was room, dwelling places,
provisions for all the animals. The Scripture says, in Christ
are hid all the treasures. Those animals had all that they
could eat for the duration. Anything they wanted to eat,
well, take that back. All that they needed to eat was
in that ark. They never missed a square meal,
did they, Henry? All their provisions were in that ark. And the scripture
says, in Christ. In Christ are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Everything you want to know,
everything you need for life eternal, for this life, is in
Christ. It's found in Christ. And it
says, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a
body. And it says also, you're complete in him. You're complete,
you're safe, you're provided for in Christ. Look at the next
thing. There was room. And God said,
now nowhere are you going to have to pitch it. Nowhere are
you going to have to turn it. That's what the word pitch means. exactly what the word pitch means.
Atone it. In other words, you're going
to have to atone it. You're going to have to cover
it within and without with pitch, with the atonement. What is that,
speaking of? Is this just talking about tar?
Huh? Oh, no. It's the blood that makes
atonement for the soul, you see? If Noah hadn't pitched that boat,
it would have been a leaky vessel, right? Water would have come
in. That thing would have perished, right? It would have fallen apart
had it not been pitched, covered within and without from these
floods, from this scourge of God's wrath. And that blood of
Christ covers our sins from the all-seeing eye of this holy God. If there's a crack, if there's
one sin that God's eye can see in us, we're goners, we're destroyed. But thank God it says in 1 John
1 that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all it atones
for. It covers all of our sins. All
of them? You mean what I did back when
I was sick? All of them. All of them. You mean what I
did yesterday? All of them. All of them. You mean what I'm going to do
tomorrow? All of them. Past, present, and future. I
like that pitch. That blood means a whole lot
more to me than just an old story. Right? That's the pitch. That's
what covers this vessel, folks. Within and without. It must be
a covering for my soul. Pitched within and without. And
this also is talking about the holiness of Christ. Christ was
holy in the inside and out, and that's what we must be. But in
Christ, we are. We are, by faith. All right,
now look at this. This is great. In verses 15 and
16, he starts describing the height, the depth, the breadth,
the length, and the depth. Height, the breadth, the length,
and the depth. Let's hear you say that real
fast. He starts describing how high this boat was to be. how
wide it was to be, height, the breadth, the length, how long
it was to be, and how deep it was to be. Right? The length
of the ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits,
the height of it 30 cubits, and then he goes on down to the last
part of 16 and says, lower, second, third story, the depth of it,
how deep it is. Listen to this. Oh, I wish that
Christ would dwell in your hearts by faith, that you be enrooted
and grounded in him. being put in him that you might
be able to see in this ark, the heights, the depths, the lengths,
the breadths. To know the love of Christ, of
God, the mercy of God in this ark, which passes mere knowledge,
filled with all the fullness of God. All right, look at this
with me, verse 16. It says, you're going to make
a window in it, Well, how about a skylight? No, one window. Or it would look better with
a double-hung Anderson over here, a multiple unit. One window,
Noah. One window in that ark. What does that tell you? One
window. Well, Christ said, John chapter
1 said, He was the light of the world, right? Christ is the light. He said, I am the way and the
truth. That means everything else is
a lie. That means everything we know, everything we think
is misinformation. Christ said, I'm the truth. Everything
else is a lie. He said, I'm the light. All who
are not in Christ, all who do not know Christ, all who do not
understand Christ, who do not believe in Christ, are in darkness. Right? There's one window. Terry,
there's only one way to understand who God is. There's only one
way to see the light, and that's in Christ, who is the light.
One window. Not Mohammed, not Confucius,
not Buddha. Not Carl Sagan, not whoever,
Guru Swami Prabhupada. In Christ, in Christ is all the
wisdom and knowledge of God Almighty. All the understanding. Light
is thought of, is referred to as the understanding. Didn't
he say this? Didn't Christ say, if thine eye
be single, The whole body is full of light. You see that boat, that ark,
if anybody on that ark wanted to see outside, they had to go
one place, to that one window. They couldn't bore a hole, they
couldn't open the door, and we'll see that in a minute. One window.
Look at this. And God said in verse 16 also,
"...and make a door, and the door of the ark shalt thou set
in the side thereof." One door. There's only one way in this
ark. One way. One way in, one way out. Only
one way. Didn't Christ say, I'm the door
of the sheepfold? Didn't He? Didn't He say, I'm
the way, the truth, and the life? Didn't He say, I'm the only entrance
into life eternal? Didn't He say, no man comes unto
God but by me? You can't make a way. You can't
think you've got a way. There's a way which seemeth right
unto men, but the end is destruction. I'm sure those fellows, when
it started raining, Terry, they started building them boats real
fast. It wouldn't work. Only one boat
with one door. There's a way which seemeth right
unto men, but the end is destruction. There is one way to God, though,
and it's through faith in Jesus Christ, Him and Him alone. Look at verse 17. God said, Behold, I am going
to bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh,
wherein is the breath of life from under heaven. And everything
that is in the earth shall die. And the first man is of the earth,
earthy, right? This first vessel is earth. Everything
in it is earth. But the second man is the Lord
from glory. He's not of the earth. He's a
spiritual vessel. Everything that is in the earth
will die. But, verse 19, of every living thing of all flesh, two
of every sort Thou shalt bring into the ark to keep them alive
with thee." Everything that's alive will be in the ark. Right? What a simple truth this is.
Do we understand what it's saying? Everything outside of the ark
was dead, even while it lived. Everything in the ark, Job, was
alive and kept alive with Noah. With Noah. All in the ark. Do
you know what the name Noah means? It means rest. When they named
that boy Noah, his parent, what they named him was, God shall
comfort us. I rest in our old age. And God
said here to Noah, everybody in the ark with you is going
to rest, be comforted when this scourge, when all this judgment
comes through. And you know who Christ is? He's
rest. He's the ark of safety. He's
our security. He's our salvation. Everybody
in the ark of Christ Everybody that's in Christ shall rest,
shall be comforted, shall be saved. And if we're alive, if
God makes us live, quickens us by his grace, if God mourns us
again by his Holy Spirit, he puts us in Christ. And Christ
said, All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me. That's
what he said in verse 18. You shall. Noah, you shall. Yes,
you will. You'll come unto me. Shall come
unto me. That's God's eternal decree. Electing love and predestinating
power. God said it. Electing love and
predestinating power. God Almighty elected and predestinated
Noah and his people to be in that boat. And every person who
is going to be saved, God Almighty elects them. I know because, I know it's true
because I know I would have been in the boat if he hadn't put
me in. I'd have clung to this sinking
vessel just as long as I could. How about you? Unless he tore
my fingers loose and put me in the boat. We're going to see
that here in a minute. Here's the call. He said, Thou shalt come. The
effectual call. Look at chapter 7, verse 1. The Lord said unto Noah, Come
thou. and all thy house into the ark,
for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."
Now remember, up in verse 18, he said, Noah, you shall come.
But in time, God came to Noah and then said, Noah, come on. Noah was elected by grace before
it all began. He was elected by grace, and
then in time, he was called by irresistible grace. Now let me
ask you a question. Is there any possibility? Say,
is there any possibility Noah wasn't going to get on that boat? No. No, thank God. No, and Noah
said that later, thank God, didn't he? You see, the power of the
call depends upon the caller, doesn't it? The power of the call depends
upon the caller. Christ said in John 17, 2, all
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Didn't he? And he said, I will give eternal
life to as many as God given unto me. Didn't he? He said,
all power is given unto me. in heaven, and yes, on this planet. All power over all flesh, John
17.2. Now, the power depends upon the caller,
doesn't it? Yes, we are called, and we call
on him. Let me illustrate this. The power
depends upon the person and his authority. You see, if he's got
a high enough office, if he's got enough power and authority,
when he calls me, when he speaks, I jump, right? Illustrate. If I come, say you're, whatever,
you're jaywalking or whatever, and I see you do that, break
the law, and I come up behind you and say, hey, stop! Say a
guy is robbing a bank, and I say, stop! In the name of John Smith,
you stop now. I don't know who he is. And he'll
go right on it. But if you let a policeman get
behind that old boy with a gun in his hand, and he says, Stop! In the name of the Lord! He may go on for a while, but
you better bet your bottom dollar he's going to stop eventually.
Either a but, or he'll be made willing in the day of that boy's
power. And when Christ the Spirit When God the Holy Spirit sets
His eye, His sovereign love upon somebody, you know what He does?
When they're walking and running and pursuing their wild career
of sin or whatever it is, just as mad, just as fast, just as
hard as they can go, you know like the Nike commercial? Life's
short, live to play hard, you know? When God Almighty sets
His affection on somebody, He says, Christ says, Stop! Hitherto have you come. No further. I know you want to go to hell,
but you ain't going to do it. And he stops us. How do I know
that? He stopped me. Ain't nothing
that nobody could have done it but him. You better believe it.
I wasn't looking for God. You hear these silly testimonies.
Yeah, I called on God. I didn't call on God. I did after
he called on me. After I heard a man preach the
gospel and tell me what I was and see what I was before this
holy God, I didn't call on him until then. Until God called
on me and said, You are in mighty bad shape, buddy. Stop. Buddy, they come, my daughter
comes when I call. And God's sons, his sheep, come
when he calls. Didn't Christ say, I'm the good
shepherd. I know my sheep, and I'm known
of them. My sheep hear my voice, and they
come when I call. Every one of them. And they're
all black. They're all black. Every one
of them. He said, I was the black sheep
of the family. So was I. Well, they were all
black when he called them, but he turned them white when they
got in the fold. Hail, sovereign love that first
began that scheme to rescue fallen man! Hail, matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding, an ark, a hiding place! Against
the God who rules the sky, I fought with my hand, uplifted high.
I despise the mention of this grace, too proud to seek this
hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran. Almighty Lord, arrest that man! Stop him! I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place, no heart. but long a heavenly
voice I heard, and mercy's angel form appeared and led me on with
gentle pace." There's the ark. There's Jesus Christ. You're
hiding a place. How can I keep on preaching to
the faces of people that seem to have no interest in this gospel?
I look into the faces of people. How can I keep on preaching to
people who go on uninterested and unmoved? Because I know that
in God's good time, if it's God's will, someday, someday He's going
to say to whoever it may be, that's all. Now come. Quit running in the other direction
and you come. Is there any possibility that
they won't come? No. Because why? You know why?
I've got to hurry. I want to show you this. He said, Come thou and all thy
house into the ark, for with thee I have seen righteous with
me before this generation. That sounds to me like God was
in the ark. No, no. Terry didn't say, Go,
did he? He didn't say, Go. Noah, get in the ark. He didn't
say. He said, Noah, come in the ark. God was in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world. God was in Christ, and Christ,
when he stood at that last day of the feast, he said, Come unto
me, all ye that are laboring and heavy laden. I'll give you
rest. God was in Christ. Christ, Jesus, this man named
Jesus everybody's talking about. Everybody talks about this Jesus.
Listen to me. Everybody. This man named Jesus everybody's
talking about today. There was a man named Jesus on
the face of the earth, but he was more than just a man. He's more than just a man. Jesus,
who walked this earth, was God. God Almighty. He was more than
a man. He was God. Why didn't he have
to be God? Because the Scripture says, salvation
is of the Lord. Because the Scripture said, with
man this is impossible. Man can't get to God. God's the
Spirit. We're flesh. With man it's impossible. What's impossible? Peace with
God. We just talked about a while
ago how we've broken God's law and how we shook our fist in
the face of God, giving no thought to God. God's angry with the
wicked every day, the Scripture says. And only God can declare
peace. You hear these people, when a
man dies, they say, he made his peace with God. No, he didn't.
He can't do that. God's the one who's been offended.
God's the one who's angry. People can't just accept God
as their personal Savior. People can't make their decision
for Jesus. No, he's not a man. He's God.
He must decide. He must say, I accept you. Not us accepting him. We've got
the cart before the horse. Yeah, we accept him after the
facts of the matter when he says, I accept you. Now, you will accept
me, won't you? Yes, I will. Made willing in
the day of his power. This peace with God. Only God
can say, I've got peace with you now. Why? Because a man cleaned
up his act? Quit his drinking, smoking, chewing,
and running around with other women to do those things? No! Because Christ was blessed by
the blood of his cross. Because Christ came down here
and bore the sin, the penalty of that broken law that we deserve
to bear. Death. Death. The soul that sinneth
must surely die. Christ died for our backs, for
his people's sins. And God no longer sees those
sins. He put them away, covered them, pitched them in the ark.
He didn't cry. And righteousness. We must have
this righteousness. He said to Noah, I've seen you
righteous before me. God's got to see us righteous.
God's got to see us righteous. God's got to look at me. Now,
God is holy. I've got to have time for this.
God is holy. I've missed it today. I say God is love. God is love,
but it's a holy love. God is holy, first of all. He
loves holy things. He loves holy people. God loves
holiness. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness,
and His soul hates iniquity, the Scripture says. God is holy. God says, Be ye holy, I am holy.
I won't have anything to do with anything or anybody that's not
holy like me, righteous like me. How are we going to do that? Our iniquities have carried us.
We fade like the leaf. Our iniquities have carried us
away. We're full of sin, evil thoughts, deeds, what have you.
How are we going to be made righteous before God? only in Christ, in
the ark, considered righteous. See, everybody in that ark was
considered righteous with Noah, right? Rick, you didn't say anything
about anybody else, did you? He said, Noah, I've found you
righteous before me. Well, what about Noah's wife
and children and all? Well, they were with Noah, weren't
they? They were considered righteous. Sammy, you're righteous and holy. Me? Not righteous. You're with
Christ, aren't you? You in Christ, by faith? Righteous. Righteous before God. Back to
Genesis 7, real quickly. You see, the ark bore all the
judgment. All that rain, that lightning,
that flood, the judgment of God upon sinful men, that ark bore
it all. And 2 Corinthians 5 says that
Christ was made sin. He was made a vessel of wrath. Terry? Wrath. We were made vessels
of honor, of mercy. Christ was made a vessel of wrath.
You ever thought about that verse in that context? He was made
a vessel of wrath. Fitted for what? Destruction. For our destruction. He was fitted. He said, a body you've given
me. God outfitted Christ in a body to do what? To take our destruction,
our condemnation, our wrath. And he did it. That's why he
hung on that cross, not because he couldn't get down, not because
men put him there, but because it pleased the Lord to bruise
him and make his soul a what? An offering for sin, to put away
sin, the sins of his people. all of his people. And Christ
bore that deluge, the wrath, the fire, the indignation of
God against all of God's people's sins on himself. He took it all. That's the reason he's sweat
blood, because he was made, actually made, not just the sins we've
committed, but sin at principle itself. Made it! And he bore
it. Why? Because God made that ark. A man didn't make it. It was
just a man, you see, because who he was, he was God. God was
in that vessel. You see, just a man couldn't
have took it, could he? He'd go to all the tombs everywhere. of Mohammed, of Confucius, of
Buddha and all, their bones will be there. I guarantee, no, you
won't find them. They won't be there. There's nothing left of
them. They're rotted. They're dust and ashes. Go to
the tomb of Christ. He's not there. He's not here,
the angel said. What are you looking for in here?
Tear up that tomb in Jerusalem. Tear it up. Bulldoze it over. Put a morrow. Put something profitable
there. Right? Tear it up. He's not there. God's
not worshiped with men's hands. God's not in a tomb. Where is
he? He's risen. We worship a living Lord. We
worship Christ seated on the throne. That's the reason we
have crosses and robes and all this stuff. We worship a living
Lord. If they found, I tell you what,
if they found one board, remember when they were looking for that
ark over there in Mount Ararat? If they found one board of it,
they'd put it over in St. Peter's Basilica, and people
would come and crawl on their knees and kiss that thing or
something, wouldn't they? Guarantee it! That's what they've
done with the Shroud of Turin, that's what they've done with
everything, Guadalupe, whatever. We've got a living ark, a living
Lord. And look at this. You've got
to see this. Verse 16. And it says, they went in, male
and female, of all flesh, as God had commanded them. And the
Lord shut him in. They went in. Why did Noah go
in? God commanded it, God said he
would, in verse 18 of chapter 6. In chapter 7, verse 1, God
said, Now come, God told him to, commanded him, and he went
in there. You see, what God opens, no man
can shut. As long as that ark was open.
And folks, the ark, the gospel is still being preached right
now. The ark is open. Mercy is still God is still merciful
and gracious to all that come to him by Christ. I'm not asking
you to do anything. I'm telling you better. That's
what I'm saying. I'm not asking you to accept.
I'm telling you better. You better get in the ark. But
what God shuts, not like this. This is not just judgment. This
is mercy. What God shuts, no man can open. Didn't Christ say, no man shall
pluck them out of my hand? Didn't he say, no man shall pluck
them out of the Father's hand? In other words, when God puts one
of his sheep, one of his people, in Christ by faith, he said,
I give unto them eternal life. How? Putting them in Christ.
Putting them in Christ by faith. And he said, they'll never perish.
Why? Shut the door. While that door
of mercy is shut to those on the outside that they can't get
in after the door's been shut. Once he rises up again and comes
back to this earth, no more mercy. But that is comforting to me
to know that I'll never perish if I'm in Christ. Because he
put me here. And the flood, verse 17, was
forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bared
up the ark. My, my. Call your babysitters
and tell them we'll be a while. I'd love to go on, but we've
got to quit. The waters bore up the ark and lifted up above
the earth. Didn't Christ say, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw all men to myself, all of my people, Didn't it say,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, whosoever
looked, whosoever believed, never perished, didn't it say, God
so loved the world that he lifted up, he gave, he put his Son on
a cross? Didn't it? Christ was lifted
up on high. Christ was crucified, made a
sacrifice, a substitute. that we might be declared righteous
before him. And all that the Father gives
will come to Christ. And like I said, folks, like
I said, the door of mercy, as long as this gospel, as long
as this gospel is being proclaimed right now, you're under the sound
of it, there's mercy, there's hope, there's still help. Don't
despair, parents. No despair of yours, as long
as this gospel is still being preached, as long as there's
a place to come hear the gospel, there's hope. The door is open. But I
tell you what, and I'm telling you, I implore you, I beseech
you, everybody in the sound of my voice, whether it be here
or by tape, come to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm not asking you, I'm telling you that the power of God Almighty,
believe and come to Christ by faith. He's your only hope of
safety, only arc of safety from that certain judgment is coming. But you'll find in Him more than
just that. You'll find in Him all you ever
needed or ever wanted. And if you do come, It's because
God made them. If you do come in, it's because
God said they will. They'll come in. I'm sure he'll
come up here and let's sing a closing hymn. Let's sing this 235. I know people sing this as an
invitation hymn. I didn't give any invitation. Next thing, this is an altar
call. I didn't make any altar call. Hebrews 13 says we have
an altar, doesn't we? It ain't right here. It's in
heaven. I'm not asking you to do anything.
I'm telling you, you better get in the ark. How? Just do it. Better come to Christ. I don't
understand. Just do it anyway. Come to Christ. Because he's
going to pass some folks by, and I want him to pass me by.
Let's stand and sing this, a couple of verses.