It's a great blessing, Lord,
that you have directed our steps into this place of worship. We're
so thankful that you have given to us a love for the gospel of
your free and sovereign grace to the unworthy. And that grace
is through the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary sacrifice
for the ungodly. We rejoice in the knowledge of
this One who is the Savior. Lord, we recognize that we know
Him because He knew us. And we love Him because He loved
us first. It is such a delight for us to
open the Word of God and to read, to see what you have to say to
your people. And Lord, as we have been gathered
this evening by the Spirit of grace, we do so with anticipation
of the favor of God upon us through the Savior. Our Father, thank you for adopting
us into your family, for your predestinating grace,
wherein you predestinated us into the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, unto yourself. And though we were by nature
children of wrath, that is, children who deserve wrath even as others,
yet you had mercy upon us and everlasting compassion, for you
loved us with with a love that is like yourself. A love that had no beginning
and a love that has no end. We were very humbled to remember
that you had thoughts of love toward us even before the world
was made. And in fact, you made all things
in this world specifically and the things that are in it as
that place which we would inhabit and this earth to which you would
send your only begotten son, who as God incarnate, would save
us from our sins by His bloody death upon the tree. And we are
so thankful that He who died for us finished the work that
you gave Him to do as evidenced by His exaltation. Lord, you
raised Him, and He ascended back to heaven, And He is even now
seated, Lord, at Your right hand, as our intercessor and as the
governor of all the nations. Our Lord Jesus is the King, and
we worship and adore Him. Now, Father, we would mention
to you, not that you need to be reminded, but we would mention
to you the folks that we bear upon our hearts, and you have
instructed us to make our supplications and our prayer requests known
unto you. Lord, we do remember Toretha. and we ask that you'd give her
comfort. We pray for Brother Russell,
also for Becky Refit, for Carolee, and for Kurt, for Nancy, Lord,
for others of our congregation that we love them, and more than
that, Lord, you love them. And we ask that you would embrace
them and make your loving kindness known to them. Think about Brother Scott and
Tommy. Pray for them, Lord, and Ben.
Those of our congregation who still haven't felt comfortable
coming out due to this virus, Lord, we lift them up to you
as well. And we miss them, and I know
that they miss being here. And we pray for your blessings
upon them as we begin to get ready for this weekend. And our
worship services, we pray that you would lead me to the Scriptures
that you would have me to deal with, and that you would meet
with us again by your Spirit as we gather on the Lord's Day.
We thank you for the Gospel that you have entrusted to us, and
Lord, may we May we hold forth the truth without any kind of
apology, and may we be delighted to do so. And we thank you that
you have instructed us how you save sinners, how you can be
just and justify the ungodly. We rejoice, Lord, in you, and
we thank you for your absolute holiness. and your absolute sovereignty. And for all of the attributes
that make you to be God, there is none else, none beside thee. And so we bow before and we worship
only you. And we ask of you again this
evening your mercies as we Open the Scriptures and see what you
have to say to us tonight. So it is with thanksgiving, Lord,
for the mercies that you will shower upon us that we offer
these petitions and we're grateful for all things that you give
us in Christ. In His name I ask these things. Amen. We read the scripture, of course,
back in the office before each evening service. And this evening,
Brother Ronnie Gray had the scripture reading for us, and he announced
his reading, 2 Peter 1. And, of course, he had no idea
that I was going to go to 2 Peter 2. And it kind of, I don't know,
is a sort of a confirmation that I was indeed led to this passage
of scripture, I believe, by the Spirit of God. It's interesting
as we get to the end of the first chapter, and he read this to
us, of course, back there, that Peter is led to speak to the
issue of the Word of God. that has come to us by the inspiration
of the Spirit of God. And he makes this observation
in the last verse of chapter one. If you'll notice in verse
21, he says, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, in old time. And then he says, by the holy
men of God, they spake as they were moved as God bore them right
along by the Holy Ghost. Now he is referencing the old
times. And of course, this takes us
back to the Old Testament scriptures, and it does indeed remind us
that all of the scriptures are given by inspiration of God,
but what he is specifically focusing on is the Old Testament. And
then he speaks of those men who wrote the Old Testament and who
spoke God's word, and he refers to them as holy men of God. And then he gets to the second
chapter. And of course we know chapter
divisions aren't inspired. They're very helpful and we're
grateful to those who divided the Bible into chapters and verses. But actually he is, the thought
is being continued for he draws a contrast between these holy
men of God. And then chapter two and verse
one, he talks about false prophets. And here are the two types of
men that will profess to speak to us of the things of God. And
all of the preachers who have ever lived, be it in the Old
Testament or in the New Testament, they're either holy men of God,
that is, men that God has made holy, through the Lord Jesus,
men whom God has set aside, or he set them apart to preach the
gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus. There's one group of men,
and then he draws this unusual contrast to this other group
of men, which he identifies in chapter two and verse one as
being false prophets. These are men who bring in heresies. That's what he says. And he refers
to them as damnable heresies. And there's a reason that he
identifies these heresies, using the word damnable, is because
these are false doctrines that don't lead to life, they lead
to death. Now there's a possibility, and
indeed it is so, that within the kingdom of God and among
the holy men of God, and I know by the holy men of God today,
I certainly don't mean that we're in any way inspired. But God
has, he has made us holy in Christ Jesus, and God does have his
preachers. But we seek a message from God
and we deliver that message from God to those who are gathered
together by the Spirit of grace to listen to the message. But
there are false prophets. who speak heresies that are damnable. Now, I started to say this and
I want to finish the thought here. Within the kingdom of God,
within the ministry, there are minor differences that God's
preachers disagree over. There are some things that are, I would say insignificant to
the kingdom of God and insignificant to the salvation of sinners. And there's room in the kingdom
of God for some differences of opinion on these things. That's
not what Peter's talking about. He's not talking about things
that are just minor, minor. He's talking about major doctrines. And this is where error, Doctrine,
doctrinal error regarding the way God saves sinners, doctrinal
error regarding the identity of God, the person of God, doctrinal
differences concerning the dilemma that we're all in or concerning
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, those are
very serious issues. And if a man is not according
to the scriptures, if he doesn't preach according to the scriptures
regarding who God is, in all of his characteristics, if he
doesn't magnify God, if he brings God down and he does that by
lifting men up, then he's preaching damnable heresies. And we've
got to be very careful who we listen to always. Be it from this pulpit, or if
you listen to the radio, or if you watch on the television,
whatever the case may be, you must be certain that the man
you're listening to does not bring in to your home and to
your ears damnable heresies. If he's wrong about God, If he
denies God's electing grace, if he denies God's predestinating
mercies, if he denies the person of our Lord Jesus who is both
God and man, if he denies the efficacy of the death of the
Lord Jesus and that full redemption that he accomplished by his bloody
death, if he's wrong on, if he is in error about the work of
the Spirit of God, in regeneration, in the new birth, in the gifting
of both repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he's preaching up the
will of man, these are indeed damnable heresies. And Peter warns us of these. Like I say, he's not talking
about differences regarding what we'd call non-essential matters. We're talking about issues of
life and death. Life and death. We're talking
about issues of salvation and damnation. Very serious. He tells us these false preachers,
they infiltrate the assemblies of the saints or they seek to
do that and very cleverly, they introduce their error. They're
very, well, the scripture says that they're very pernicious
and they're very destructive. The second verse of chapter two,
many shall follow their pernicious ways, their destructive ways. by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of." What is the way of truth? Well,
it's the way of grace. It's the way of the Lord Jesus
only. It's the way of all of God in
salvation. But these men who speak contrary
to the word of God, who seek to bring in their lies among
the people of God, they try to slip it in. You notice what he
says in verse three, it's because of covetousness. that they with
what he calls faint words. You have any idea what faint
words are? That's flattering words, words
that flatter, fair speeches, great swelling words of vanity. And he says their judgment Now,
verse three says, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth
not, their damnation it doesn't slumber. In other words, it's
coming upon them very quickly. And then he uses illustrations. He presents three illustrations
to show what he's talking about. The difference between two groups
of people. Now he's already drawn this contrast
between holy men of God and false prophets. And then he gets down,
he's gonna give an illustration. He uses this illustration in
verse four of the angels. There are angels who didn't sin,
but there are angels who did sin. He says, for if God spared
not the angels that sinned, well, how many of the angels sinned?
One third of the angels, they fell in Lucifer's rebellion. They resorted to go against God,
to oppose God. And these angels, God cast them
down to hell. He delivered them into chains.
But there's another group of angels that didn't fall. They're
called the elect angels. So here's another contrast. Here
we've got holy men of God, and then we have false. And then
we have these angels who did not keep their first estate,
as Jude says, but they fell away from God. But there are two thirds
of the angels that didn't fall and they're called the elect
angels. Why didn't all of the angels fall? Because God had
chosen two thirds of the angels to remain faithful. to not enter
into the rebellion of Lucifer. Now, of course, Lucifer wasn't
the representative of the angels. They didn't have a representative.
They all fell individually, but God in his mercy, he ordained
that only one third of the angels would fall, but he would keep,
he would reserve the other two thirds of the angels to remain
faithful to him. So here are two kinds of angels.
Now look at verse five. And now he talks about another
group. Now he talks about a group, two
groups of people. He says, he spared not the old
world, which at the end of verse five, he says they're the world
of the ungodly. So when he speaks of the old
world, he's speaking about the world of the ungodly, and they're
contrasted with a man of righteousness who is Noah. Noah. So you got holy men of God, you
got false prophets. You got the elect angels, you
got the angels who kept not their first estate. You have the world
of the ungodly. the world of the ungodly, but
you've got over against that, you have one man, whose name
was Noah. Evidently, before God sent the
flood, only Noah was a righteous man. I believe that after God
sent that judgment, God did convert, He did save, He did reveal His
grace to others in Noah's family, but before God sent the deluge,
only one man was given grace, and I'll talk about that a little
bit more in just a few minutes. So here's Noah. He's contrasted
with the world of the ungodly. One man. One man versus the world
of the ungodly. You're talking about being in
the minority. He was in the minority, if the
figures that people who are a whole lot smarter than me have come
up with, that population then was six or seven, maybe eight
billion people upon the face of the earth. Let's say seven
billion people who are anti-Christ, anti-God, anti-grace, wrapped
up in false religion, all of them peas in the exact same pod,
and here is one man, and God calls him a preacher of righteousness. And then he has another illustration. In verses six and seven, here's
the illustration, Sodom and Gomorrah, which God turned into ashes.
The wickedness of those people, the ungodliness of those people,
and that's the word God uses for them in the end of verse
six, ungodly, and he delivered just lot. That is Lot who was
a just man, Lot who was a righteous man. God delivered him, so here's
another contrast. And let me tell you something,
no matter what age of this earth you're looking at, no matter
what period of time, no matter what period of history you look
at, from the very beginning, and this will be true all the
way to the end, there are but two groups of people. That's
all. There's the righteous and the
wicked. There's God's people, and then there are those who
are the seed of the serpent. There are those who come to know
God, and love God, and love Christ Jesus, and there are those who
despise God, who defy God. In the days of Noah, it wasn't
merely a case of, well, everybody was immoral and everybody was
outwardly wicked and ungodly, no. They were very much wrapped
up in religion. But theirs was a religion of
a man by the name of Cain. And there are two religions. There's the religion of Abel,
And there is the religion of Cain. Now let me focus on verse
five. And God spared not the old world,
but he saved Noah. So here's the title of the message,
God Saved Noah. Did Noah save himself? No. Did
anybody else other than God save Noah? No. The scriptures are
very clear. God saved Noah. And really the meaning is God
kept Noah. He kept him safe. God preserved
him. He preserved him from the error
of his day. He preserved him in the truth. He preserved him by teaching
him the gospel. By teaching him the gospel that
God had taught Adam and Eve. By teaching him the gospel that
Adam and Eve had taught Abel. By teaching him the gospel that
Adam and Eve had taught Seth. By teaching him the gospel that
all of those others that are listed in Genesis chapter five
that they came to know. God preserved Noah. Why didn't he go the way of all
flesh? Why didn't he go with the vast
numbers of people? Why didn't he remain on the broad
road that leads to destruction? The reason is because God spared
him. God preserved him from error. And if you believe God's gospel
this evening, if you look to the Lord Jesus only, the reason
you look to the Redeemer and not to your works and not to
your religion and not to your righteousness, the reason you
look only to Him is because God spared you. God saved you. God preserved you. This is the meaning of the text.
Now, as I focus on this fifth verse, I'll give you several
words that kind of come to my mind. And as time allows, I'll
give them to you, five or six words about Noah, and what he
experienced. I think the first word that I
came up with is I reread today, Genesis chapter six. Here's the
first word, corruption. That's the first word that comes
to mind, corruption. The old world was full of corruption. Now, as you do your reading,
and maybe some of you will read Brother Hawker or maybe John
Gill or some other reputable writer, you will come across
this word, antediluvian. Antediluvian. They'll talk about
the antediluvians. Well, that just means people
who lived before the flood. people who lived before the flood
in the old world. That's the scripture words for
it, the old world. Now, what do we know about the
old world, the antediluvians? What do we know about those people?
Well, we know this, that after Adam fell, The evolutionists
are absolutely wrong because things didn't get better. Things
got worse. They got worse. As is evident
by the firstborn of Adam and Eve murdering his brother. And things began to go, could
we put it this way with kind of apologies to my beloved South,
things began to go South. things began to get worse, things
began to degenerate. And as you keep on going through
Genesis chapter four, you know, the Lord said he put a mark on
King. And I don't think, it's amazing,
some people have said it was some kind of grotesque mark that
God put on him so that everybody would leave him alone. No, I
think God just said, this man, I'll get him. But I will say
this, he did have the mark of the beast on him. He had the
mark of Antichrist on him. You know, the mark of the beast
is said to be the forehead, that is, the mind, the intellect. This man Cain, his intellect,
his mind is set against God, set against the gospel, set against
Jesus Christ. He is Antichrist. And those who
came after him in his lineage, they were also anti-Christ, and
anti-God, and anti-gospel. Because they, just like Cain,
believed in salvation by works. You see, there are only really
two ideas about salvation. One is by grace only, and the
other one is by works. And there is no mixture of the
two. And here's Abel. Abel believed in salvation by
grace. Salvation by substitution. Salvation by sacrifice. Salvation
by an innocent one dying in the stead of the guilty. That's what
Abel believed, and Cain murdered him for it. Because that's absolutely
the opposite of what Cain believed. Cain believed in self-righteousness. You make yourself righteous.
You lift yourself up to God by your own bootstraps, so to speak. And he passed that on to the
generations after him. And it wasn't long before his,
what, great, great, great grandson, Lamech, not to be confused with
Noah's father. But this is one of the offspring
of one of the great, great, great grandsons of this man, Cain. He took two wives to himself. And things just keep getting
worse. They keep getting worse. Because you see, if this matter
of error, if religious error isn't checked by God, it'll just
continue. It just continues to swell. It just gets bigger. And that's
what happened. And then we get, and if you want
to, go to Genesis chapter six with me. So as you get to Genesis
chapter six, it's like full-fledged corruption. And here it began with, in the
garden of course, that's where the corruption began, but the
corruption within religion, it began with Cain. And then it was passed down through
the generations of Cain, through the offspring of Cain, until
at last God said in Genesis chapter six, and look at verse five, God saw. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and things are the way God sees them. It doesn't matter how pretty
we try to make things to be. It doesn't matter how much we
try to dress up religion. Things are as God sees them. He saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. Well, what was it that man was
doing? What had man done? Look down
at verse 11. The earth also was corrupt before
God. The earth was filled with violence,
with unrighteousness, with wrong. Literally, the earth was filled
with error. Error. Look at verse 12. And God looked upon the earth
and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted,
watch this, his way upon the earth. All flesh had
corrupted his way. What is God's way? Grace. What is God's way? The Lord Jesus. What is God's way? Blood sacrifice. But all flesh had corrupted his
way upon the earth. Notice what he says in verse
13. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before
me. The end, the border. They're right near the end line. It's as though God had said,
I've drawn a line in the sand, and they're almost up to it now. In fact, he had said back in
verse three, in 120 years, they'll be there. In 120 years, they'll
reach the border, they'll reach the end line, and then that'll
be it. I'm done with them, that's what
God said. I'm gonna wipe man off the face of this earth. Verse
13 again, and God said, Noah, the end of all flesh has come
before me, for the earth is filled with violence. The word violence,
you know, we tend to think of, okay, fighting and sword fights
and wars and things of that. No, falsehoods is the idea here. Falsehoods. Oh, the falsehoods
in the world today. It was like it was then. And God said, I'm going to destroy
them with the earth. He says, the end of all flesh.
Do you remember in Romans chapter 7, what the apostle Paul said of
the flesh? I know that in me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing."
And God Almighty looked upon all of the face of the earth.
Mind you, at that time it wasn't divided into continents, that
happened as a result of the flood. This massive land mass and then
the rest of the earth with water. And God, He surveyed with one
glance, with His omniscience, He surveyed all of the multitudes
of mankind. He said, they corrupted My way. His way is the way of His glory. His way of salvation is the way
that He's magnified. And God said, here are all these
billions of people, and what have they done? They corrupted
My way! And He's going to do something about
it. Oh, what corruption. And God said, the last statement of verse 13, I
will destroy. I will destroy. In Genesis 1,
he said, I will create. And now, over what, 1,556 years
or something between Adam's existence, Adam's creation and the flood,
after all these years, now God says, I will destroy. He says this, if you go back
to verse five, let me emphasize this, the last few words of verse
five, the thoughts of his heart was only evil, only evil. That's very powerful language.
Well, preacher, I believe there's good in everybody. God says only
evil. Only evil. All the time. Psalm 14, the Lord looked down
from heaven to see if there were any good. There's no not one. Not a one. Look with me in Matthew chapter
24. Matthew chapter 24. Let me show you what the old world
was like. The antediluvian race. Let me show you what the old
world was like. Well, no, I won't show you, I'll
just read it to you because our Lord Jesus tells us about it. Matthew chapter 24 and verse
36. But of that day and hour knoweth
no man. No, not the angels of heaven,
but my Father only. But as in the days of Noah, that
is Noah, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming
of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, and marrying and
giving him marriage right up until the day that Noah entered
into the ark and knew not until the blood came and took them
all away. Where did it take them to? It
took them to meet God. It took them to hell. So also
shall the coming of the Son of Man be. What were they do? What was this antediluvian race
doing? What were the people of the old
world doing? Eating and drinking. Hey, there's
nothing wrong with eating and drinking. We do that. Eating and drinking. And marrying
and giving in marriage. We had a wedding here Saturday. Marrying and giving in marriage. Who giveth this woman to be married
to this man? Her mother and I. Marrying and
giving in marriage. Nothing wrong with that. There's
no sin in those things. Here's what is meant. Before
God sent the flood, all men were concerned about was worldly things,
things that have to do with the flesh. And that's the way it
really has always been with the natural man. In other words,
with those people before the flood and with people now, and
it will be this way when the Lord Jesus comes back. No thought
of God, no concern for worship, no consideration of the Son of
God, His sacrificial death, the person and work of our God, No
diligence to make one's calling and election sure. No real interest
in eternity. No diligent study of the Word
of God. No careful thought concerning
the soul. Just caught up in things that
have to do with the body. What makes us happy? What makes
us feel good? and utter disregard for God and
His glory, and God sent a flood. And one of these days, our Lord
Jesus is coming back, and He will find a host of people eating
and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, and He's
gonna send them to hell, because that's all that's important to
them. That's all they're caught up
in. Here's the second word. Give
it to you quickly. Go back to Genesis chapter 6. The first word is corruption. The second word that I think
of here pertaining to Noah is the word choice. God made a choice. Because as our text said in 2
Peter 2 and 5, God saved Noah. Noah. One man. One man. God didn't spare the old world. He didn't spare the antediluvian
race, the world of the wicked, but He did save one man by choice. Isn't it evident that God made
the choice? There's a vast group of people
God did not spare. He did not spare them. Could He have spared them if
He would? Yes. If He had purposed to spare
the whole world, He could have spared the whole world. I would
never limit the magnificence of the mighty grace of God. He's able to save who He would.
He could have saved them all, just like He could have kept
Lucifer and one-third of the angels from falling. He could
have stopped that. He could have chosen them all
to be preserved. God chose one man. And here we
get into the sovereignty of God. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. God has made a difference. And
in the old world, in the antediluvian world, God made a difference. He said, I choose, I love, I
purpose to save this man. And all the rest of them, with
the exception of this man and his family that he represents,
all the rest of them, I purpose not to save. Isn't that his will? Isn't that his prerogative to
save whom he will? He says, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. And God was gracious to Noah.
The scripture says here in chapter six and verse eight, but Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. All men deserve to perish,
but God showed mercy and grace to one man. All men were justly
condemned, but God justified one man. He made one man righteous,
and He left the rest of them in their native unrighteousness. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All men had gone astray, but
one man was sought and found by the Lord. All men were unbelievers,
but God gave faith to one man. All men were wrapped up in a
deadly mixture of truth and error, but God taught the truth to one
man and preserved him. He kept him in the truth. That
one man was Noah. God made him different. And what
about you? Why is it that you believe the
gospel? Who made you different? Are you
smarter than others? More intelligent than others?
A deeper thinker? Wiser in the things of God than
others? Did you make the difference?
No, you didn't make the difference. God made the difference. And
He made the difference before He put this world into motion. He made this difference way back
in eternity. In fact, the distinction was
made from everlasting. That's why you're different.
That's why you love the gospel. Because God was gracious to you. And here's the third word I'll
give you. It's the word covenant. Chapter
six and verse 18. God said to Noah, he's talking
to Noah. But with thee will I establish
my covenant. This is not Noah's idea. God
says my covenant. It's my covenant, chapter six
and 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. I establish my covenant
with you and you will preserve your family as their representative. I make my covenant with you. Does that not put you in mind
of another covenant, the everlasting covenant? made between God and
the head of our family, the Lord Jesus Christ? The ones that God gave to His
Son in covenant grace and He purposed to save us? This is
covenant. You see, in the next chapter, in chapter
7, we see the Lord say to Noah, come thou and all thy family,
all thy house into the ark. And in our mind's eye here, we
see them going up, going up the board, walking up into the ark. They brought all these animals
in. Well, I don't know how in the world Noah could go out and
round up all those animals. Well, I don't think he rounded
them up. I think God brought them to him by effectual drawing
power. God made them all, God governs
them all. So I don't know how come the
lion didn't attack the lamb? Because they weren't meat eaters
yet. And God brought them to Noah. And here they all go into the
ark. Noah, send your wife in. Be in in a few minutes, honey.
There she goes. It's time for you to go in. There
goes the three sons in with their wives. And God said in chapter
seven, verse one, okay, Noah, time for you to come in. Time
for you to come in. In verse seven of chapter seven,
Noah went in. There he goes. He goes in. All because of a covenant. that
God instituted with him. Now, after the flood, this covenant
is more fully revealed. And we know that. But actually
was made with him and ordained even before the ark was made. And you see, God entered into
a covenant with his son. before his son ever came to lay
down his life a ransom for us? The covenant was already in effect. Well, what about the blood of
the everlasting covenant? It sealed the covenant. In fact,
that's the reason when you get to the end of chapter eight,
you find Noah, when he comes out of the ark, he offers these
sacrifices to God. And then upon the basis of the
sacrifices, then God repeats and goes into more detail about
the covenant. Fourth word I think of is the
word confidence, confidence. By faith, Noah being warned of
God, having confidence in God's word. warned of God of things
not seen as yet, built an ark to the saving of his house, by
which he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness,
which is by faith." He believed God. There in chapter 7, verse
7, Noah went in. He went in by faith. He has built
this. It's not a ship. It's not a boat.
He's not a ship builder. He's an ark builder. Just a huge
rectangular box. It's not made for navigation.
It's made for safety. It's made for salvation. It's
made for deliverance. And Noah is confident He walks
by faith and I'm sure that the rest of the people around there
made fun of him and mocked him because he built an ark in the
desert. It's going to rain. God's going
to send a flood. You've got to be righteous to
be accepted by God. He's a preacher of righteousness.
And we read in 1 Peter chapter 3 that He preached. The Lord
preached through Noah. The Lord preached through Noah
to people who later perished in hell. The Lord preached through
His servant. Repent of your false religion
of what you've done to my truth and believe the gospel. And all of them said, you are
absolutely crazy. And Noah walked up, and maybe
he turned around and said, goodbye. Goodbye. And the scripture says, in verse
16 of chapter 7, the Lord shut him in. He sealed. under the day of redemption. That's what the Spirit of God
does. He seals us to the day of redemption. You're talking
about somebody who's safe. God saved Noah. And he's inside that ark. And
he goes through the judgment of God. As we did, we went through
the judgment of God at the cross of Calvary. and the rain of God's
wrath, it fell on us, representatively, because we were in the Savior.
We're in the ark. We were in the ark. And he bore
all of the storm of God's wrath. And I'm telling you, not one
drop of God's wrath will ever touch your forehead. It can't
be. Because the wrath of God, the
storm of God's judgment, it fell on our ark. And we're safe. I'll tell you, Noah had confidence.
He believed God. He believed God. And I see a
fifth word here, it's the word calling. Verse one again of chapter seven,
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."
God called him righteous. You've heard this expression,
beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Right? That's what we say. We've
all said that. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And you look at yourself in the
mirror, spiritually speaking now you
say, Boy, I tell you, there's not much to me. Yeah, but wait. God says, I see you righteous.
I see you beautiful. I see you glorious. How can that
be, Lord? Because I see you in my son. God called him righteous. God
called him a righteous man. And he was safe in the yard,
which brings me, I'll give you this last word. And I try to
keep them all with a C, continuance or preservation. Well, what happened
to brother Noah? Well, we get to chapter eight
and verse 18, and Noah went forth. God said, you can leave now. Been in there over a year. Noah
went forth and guess what? Everybody who went in came out. Noah went forth, his sons, his
wife, verse 18 of chapter eight, his son's wives with him, every
beast, every creeping thing, every fowl whatsoever creepeth
upon the earth after their kinds went forth out of the ark. Some, wise guy, asked a preacher one
time, said, well, what happened to all the fish? Did all the
fish die? Everything that breathed air
for life was spared of their kinds in the ark. The fish just
lived on in the water. But everything and everybody
who went in the ark kept safe. And you see, that's the real
meaning of there in 2 Peter 2 and verse five, that God saved Noah. He preserved him. He kept him. And doesn't the scripture say
we're kept by the power of God? Who keeps us looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith? The Lord does. He
does. Oh, bless the name of God. God
saved Noah. God saved Jim. And God saved Terry. God saved
David. God saved Ron. Go all the way
around the room. All the people of God in here,
just remember that God saved me. He didn't do it. You didn't do it. He did it! God be the glory, great things
He hath done. Amen. Well, we'll gather again
this Lord's Day. I trust you have a good rest
of the week. And we'll see you, the Lord willing,
Sunday morning. Bless, Father, the words that
have been spoken. Bless them to magnify and exalt
Your glorious name. Oh Lord, help us always to preach
You up, to exalt our God with every breath that we have, and
to abase man, all men, us, everybody else, and to make our boast in
You and in Your salvation. What a glorious, glorious truth. God saved Noah. And Lord, I bless you that you
saved me. Thank you, Lord, for saving our
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making us
whole. Thank You, Lord, for giving to
all of Your people Your great salvation, so rich, so full,
and so free. For Jesus' sake, receive us in
our prayer. Amen.