toward heaven. I was thinking
about the troubles, the difficulties of the people of God. And God
does in His everlasting purpose, He sends to His children not waters of a flood that will
wash them away, but He does send the storms of life. And these
storms of life, like the blood that God sent and Noah's gave,
they raise us up toward God. As Noah and his wife and his
son's wives were in the ark, I can just imagine flood waters
begin to rise and that arc begin to creak and to crack and lift
up upon the waters. And the waters just kept rising
that arc up higher and higher toward God. That's what our troubles
do. That's what the floods of afflictions
do, they lift us up toward God. They drive us to the Lord Jesus. Maybe I'm speaking to some of
God's children who are especially being troubled. Maybe God is
sending afflictions to you. Just remember, They're to raise
you up toward God. You see, the difficulties of
life, they don't ever harm us. They can't hurt the children
of God. Here's what they do, they lift
us up to the Lord. They, as one old writer said,
they drive us back to God. And anything that drives us to
God in prayer, anything that drives us to Him and we say,
Oh, God, help me. That's good. That's a good thing. And so as God took care of His
servant, Noah, and as He made abundant provision for the others
who were in the ark, so God makes abundant provision for all of
His children. Let me give you several things
about God's covenantal grace unto Noah. That's the title of
the message, God's Covenantal Grace Unto Noah. Number one, and I'll begin here,
God was gracious unto Noah. The Lord had said unto Himself,
In verse 7, I will destroy man. God made man, God created man
from the dust of the ground, but now out of God's own mouth. And the Spirit of God leads Moses
to write these words many years after this event happened. God said this within himself,
within his own heart. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit in communion with each other. God said, I
will destroy. I am going to send judgment. Well, the transgressions of men
deserve the judgment. I said this morning, God wasn't
too severe in sending this punishment. God is never too severe in sending
judgment upon the wicked. The wicked deserve judgment.
That which we're all deserving of by nature is the reward of
death. I said this morning, quoting
Romans 6 and 23, for the wages of sin is death. That's what
we've merited, that's what we've earned. We've rebelled against
God, we're born in opposition to God, were born as rebels. were born as guilty men and women,
and though we were but infants when we entered into this world,
we were still guilty through Adam's transgression, and then
we became guilty through our own transgressions. And none
of us are deserving of the mercy of God or the grace of God, otherwise
it wouldn't be called mercy. This is undeserved favor, the
grace of God. And the earth as a whole, all
of mankind, got just exactly what they deserved. But in the
midst of judgment, in the midst of pronouncing this judgmental
death upon the wicked of the earth, God remembered mercy. God remembers grace. You see,
grace comes forth from the very heart of God. God is gracious. Now He doesn't have to be gracious
to you and He doesn't have to be gracious to me except that
He fulfilled His own eternal purpose. But God is not bound,
God is not obligated to show grace to any particular person
or to any particular group of people. God shows grace to whom
He will. He said, I will be gracious,
I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. And out of all of
the multitude of mankind who lived in those days, the millions
and millions of people, billions of people it is estimated, who
lived upon the face of the earth, God purposed to show grace to
one man. And that one man was Noah. And
so he says in verse eight, but Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. This grace is for a particular
person. This is not a grace in generalities. This is not grace to like unnamed
people. This is grace to a specific individual. You see, the grace of God is
very specific in the ones who are the objects of God's grace.
God chose a people unto salvation. And He didn't choose us as a
group, He chose us individually. He had His heart set upon certain
of the sons and daughters of Adam. And to each one of those,
God showed grace in the Lord Jesus, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and
verse 9. says that as we quoted this morning. God deals in grace with his people
and he does so through one mediator, through the Lord Jesus. That's
why in that passage in 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul says God showed
us grace in Christ Jesus. All of God's grace is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. All of His mercy for His people
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of His salvation is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed, this great salvation
is typified and pictured and prefigured or set forth by the
Ark. The ark is God's provision. The ark was by God's determination. The ark was built according to
God's instructions. Noah had no input. I said that
this morning. Noah didn't provide any of the
details. He didn't provide any of the
building design of the ark. This is all of God. And the reason
it's all of God is because all of the glory for the salvation
and the preservation of Noah and his family and thus all of
the human race after them, all of the glory must go to God.
Even so, all of the glory of salvation must go to God. He
is the architect of salvation. He is the one who drew up his
purpose of grace He is the one who laid the foundation for grace. He is the one who provided all
the details of grace, and he's the one who brings grace to pass. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Those of us who are the recipients
of the grace of God, remember we were chosen in grace unto
salvation. We were redeemed by grace. God has called us by his grace. God preserves us by his grace. We're justified by His grace. We're forgiven by His grace. We're sanctified by His grace. And we're sure to be glorified
by His grace. In fact, the certainty of our
glorification is such that in Romans chapter eight, it's spoken
of in the past tense, right? As it's already done. Because
as God has purposed it, as God has willed it, thus it shall
happen. And nothing and nobody can change
that. God was gracious to Noah. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. My wife was telling me as we
ate lunch today, she said, you know, as you were preaching on
that this morning, she said, I just read my name there instead
of Noah. And I said, that's a good point.
That's a good point. You put your name here, where
Noah's name is. But Jim found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. But Bill found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. But Phyllis found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. And I go around this auditorium,
and those of you who are watching, you a believer? You're resting
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's your only hope. The blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. His own substitutionary
death. Put your name there. You have
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You weren't looking for
grace. You wasn't expecting grace. You couldn't barter with God
for this grace. Grace was given to you before
the world ever began in Christ Jesus. And once God gives his
grace, and it is an everlasting gift, he's not gonna take that
grace away. And grace shall accompany you
throughout the endless ages of eternity. God was gracious to
Noah. Consider this in the second place.
God spoke to Noah. Look at verse 13 of chapter six.
And God said unto Noah, he said, the end of all flesh has come
before me, for the earth is filled with violence. The word violence
means falsehoods, falsehoods or unrighteousness. Either one's
a good definition. The earth is filled with violence
through them. And behold, I will destroy them
from the earth. Falsehoods. What kind of falsehood? Religious falsehoods. And unrighteousness. The righteousness that men looked
to was nothing more than unrighteousness. You see, man's own righteousness
is his filthy rags. Isaiah chapter 64 and verse six
says that. And indeed, the religion of Cain
is a religion of self-righteousness. It promotes self-righteousness. It promotes this idea, the more
you do for God, the more God will do for you. That is unrighteousness. And the Lord, as He viewed all
of mankind, He said, the earth is full of
violence. It's full of falsehoods. It's
full of unrighteousness. And he says, and behold. And
whenever you see that word behold, you know, pay special attention
to what's being said. It's look, listen. Something of great magnitude
is about to be spoken. Behold, God says, behold, I will
destroy them. I will destroy them with the
earth. Don't tell me that God isn't
a God of judgment, that God isn't a God of wrath, that God isn't
the God of the storms, that God isn't the God of the catastrophic
events that happen in this world. While the most horrible thing
that has ever happened in this world is when the Lord Jesus
was mailed to a cross, when men found him guilty on trumped up
charges, found him guilty of blasphemy, found him guilty of dividing Israel from Rome or
seeking to divide them from Rome and lead them in rebellion against
Caesar. That's all falsehoods. and they killed the Son of God.
Was there ever a greater crime in this world? Peter said, you with your wicked
hands, you have crucified the Lord of glory. You did it. You did it. And right side by
side with the sovereign purpose of God. It was all according
to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, right side
by side with that. He says, you're guilty. You're
guilty. Because you see, men did exactly
what they wanted to do. God didn't coerce them or force
them. Men exercised their wills. And man's will is dead set against
God. Man's will is not free. Man's will is bound by sin, by
wickedness, by depravity. And he gave vent to his real
feelings against God. The only time in all of creation's
story, the only time God has ever let man get their hands
on him, they killed him. And if he came today again, they'd
kill him again. Sure, false religion would. And
but for the grace of God, we'd be with Him. We'd be lifting
up our hands against Him as well. But in the midst of all of the threats of God to destroy, God spoke to Noah. He spoke to
Noah. And he said to Noah, the end
of all flesh has come before me. The word end means a border. Kind of like a line drawn in
the sand. Think of it that way. Man has
gone as far as God says is I'm going to permit him to go. This
is it. He's reached the border. He's
reached a finished line, as it were, and it will be the end
of them. The end of them. And God spoke
to Noah. God has to speak if we're to
know him. Do you know that? Because a silent
God is an unknowable God. God made Himself known to Noah. Thank God that through His Word
and by His Spirit, God speaks to us. And in these last days,
God has spoken unto us through His Son. Just like God spoke
through the ark. God was speaking, He spoke to
Noah and He was speaking through the ark. What was God saying
to Noah and what was He saying through the ark? He is saying,
man is vile and contemptible and deserves to die. That's what
God is saying. God is saying, I will destroy
the wicked. That's what God was saying. And
God is saying to Noah, make thee an ark of gopher woods, God is
saying there is one way of escape of this judgment. That's what
God's saying. There's one way and it's my way. It's not your way. It's my idea. It's not your idea. This is my
salvation. This is my deliverance, God said. That's what he's saying when
he spoke to Noah and when he spoke through the ark. God was saying, in effect, judgment
is coming. The ark will be the only refuge. What was God saying when Christ
Jesus came into the world? God was saying by the coming
of the Son of God, man can't save himself. If there was ever
a declaration of man's inability to deliver himself, from sin,
from all the consequences of sin, and all the penalty of sin,
it's in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has spoken. If there was another way, if
there was a way by which you could be saved, by which you
could be spared the judgment and the wrath of God, the Lord
Jesus wouldn't need to have come. In the coming of the Son of God,
The Father has spoken. He is saying, man can't make
things right between himself and me. God was saying by the
coming of his Son, the sins of my people must be punished. God
was saying justice must be satisfied. The innocent must die for the
guilty. And God is saying, there's salvation
for the sinful. God was saying, release them
from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. God speaks to us through His
Word, by His Spirit, and He speaks words of life. Thirdly, not only
was God gracious to Noah, not only did God speak to Noah, but
God called Noah. Chapter 7 in 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. Back up to chapter 6 and look
at verse 18. God said in speaking to Noah,
and I'll again remind you that Noah has nothing to say. No words of Noah are recorded
to get to the very end of Genesis chapter 9. God is speaking. God is speaking. Let's close
our mouths and open our ears. Blessed are those who hear the
voice of God. Blessed are those whose ears
are opened. Because you see, the seeing eye
and the hearing ear, the Lord hath made them both. The sooner God shuts our mouths
and opens our ears, the better off we'll be. Noah has nothing
to say. He has no input. God says in
verse 18, But with thee, Noah, With thee will I establish my
covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark. I love that. Don't
you love the shalls and the shouts of the Lord? And thou shalt come
into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives
with thee. And in chapter 7 we read that
God said, come thou into the ark. And then later on we read
in verse 7, of chapter 7. Remember, God said, Thou shalt
come into the ark. Now chapter 7 and verse 7, and
Noah went in. Why did he go in? And his sons
and his wife, and his sons' wives with him into the ark. Why did
all the rest of them go in? Because God said they'd go in.
Here's the fulfillment of the purpose of God. Thou shout, and
when God has a shout, you can bet the bank that He's gonna
fulfill His Word. God called Noah. This is the
effectual call of grace. Now to be sure, earlier in chapter
six we see a general call of God. And those of us who've been
under the gospel for some time, we know that through the scriptures,
and indeed this continues to this day, there is a general
call of the gospel to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. to
receive the gospel of God's grace, and then there is an effectual
call. The general call doesn't get the job done, but it is a
genuine call. It is a real call. And I really
call on you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit
of God uses His servants to speak to people and say, come to Christ. The general call of the gospel
is set forth in chapter six and verse three. And the Lord said,
my spirit, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that
also he is flesh. Yet his days shall be in 120
years. And if he just remains flesh,
if he just remains corrupt, If the Spirit of God through the
preaching of the Word and through the providential events of life,
if the Spirit of God doesn't issue more than a general call
through His servants' preaching and through the warnings of life,
nothing of any lasting value will ever happen. It isn't that
it's not an earnest appeal by the preachers of the Gospel.
It isn't that it isn't a general call or a genuine call of the
gospel to come to Christ Jesus. I do genuinely call you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. But the general call will never
get the job done. It never will. There must be
the effectual call of grace. Such as, and this is typified
by God's call to Noah. In chapter seven, verse one,
God says, come thou and all thy house into the ark. That's a
call that gets the job done. And when we speak of effectual
grace, a simple definition of effectual is it works. It's successful. You see, my
calls to you, though made in earnest, and the calls of other
preachers as we direct you to Christ Jesus, they're genuine
calls that come forth from us as we're led of God to preach
the gospel of redeeming grace, of substitution and satisfaction. We are in dead earnest with you. We appeal to you. Come to Christ
Jesus. But my words will never get the
job done. It's my job to warn. It's my
job to compel you to come to Christ, the only Savior. It's the Spirit of God Himself
who must come to you. Come to you. Come to you. He'll come to you and say to
you, come thou into the ark. And when He comes after you,
He'll come to you again individually. He'll come to you personally
because you'll notice there in verse 7, and the Lord said unto
Noah, the Lord knows your name. He wrote your name down in the
Lamb's Book of Life for the foundation of the world. And He comes to
you through the gospel, through the preaching of the Word, through
the Word of God itself. And He says to you, He issues
to you this successful effectual call. Come into the ark. The ark being Christ Jesus. And
you know what happens when you get that call? I'm coming, Lord. I'm coming. You know, the word come is a
key word, a key gospel word. Our Lord Jesus said, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Anybody laboring under the load
of sin, he issues the call, come. When
he issues the call, it'll be successful. Our Lord Jesus passed
by, or he came to the tomb of Lazarus. Everybody's weeping,
he wept himself, John 11, 35. He came to the tomb of Lazarus. Scripture says he cried with
a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Now what do you think happened?
When Almighty God issues the effectual call to come forth,
the dead must give up its prey. Satan must give up his prisoner. Grace is always triumphant. God never tries to save anybody. He never puts forth an effort
to raise the spiritual dead. He issues the call, come forth. And the scripture says, Lazarus,
he just came forth, bound hand and foot. And he said, loose
him and let him go. God said in Isaiah 26 and verse
20, come, my people, enter into thy chambers. Perhaps an allusion
to the ark. Come, my people. God says, incline your ear and
come unto me. Here and your soul shall live. And then fourthly, here's something
else. God kept Noah safe. Chapter 7 and verse 16 says that,
and they went in, The day that went in went in, male and female
of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. The Lord didn't leave it to Noah
to close this deal. Well, Noah, I've told you all
the rest of the things. Now, here's the final step. You shut the door. Oh, no. You
see, the preservation, that salvation, that deliverance within the ark
of those eight precious souls, which pictures salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ, is all of God, including the building of
the ark, the provision of the ark, all the necessary things
in the ark to allow these people to live in there for about a
year. And before God sends a drop of rain, He shuts them in. I'll tell you, we're shut in
by God. Oh, how wonderful is that? God
has shut us in. God has preserved us. Jude says
in Jude verse one, there's only one chapter to Jude, we're preserved
in Christ Jesus. Everybody in the ark, they were
preserved. You see, not one person in the
ark suffered any judgment of God. And not one person outside of
the ark lived. And I'm telling you, everybody
in Christ Jesus, we're safe. Outside of Christ Jesus, you've
got no hope. You've got no hope. God kept
Noah safe. He's kept by the power of God.
1 Peter 1 says that. Our Lord Jesus said, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Noah and
his family, they're not going to perish. Why not? Because they're in the ark. That's
why. Why is it that you're not going
to perish? Well, it isn't because you don't
deserve to perish because of your own sinfulness, but it's
because God has shut you in to his salvation in Christ Jesus. kept by the power of God. No
wonder Solomon said in Proverbs 12 and 21, there shall no evil
happen to the just. Doesn't say you're not going
to have trials, you're not going to have troubles, and you're
not going to have afflictions, but I'll tell you what won't
come your way, evil, wrath, judgment. That ark was so watertight and
water resilient that not one drop of water got on Noah or
anybody in the ark. Why not? The ark took it all. The ark. It wasn't that they
weren't in the midst of the storm. It wasn't that they weren't involved
in the flood. Yes, they were. There they were.
But they're in the ark and all the storm of God's wrath, all
of His vengeance, it fell on the ark and never touched them. And that's the way it is with
the people of God. The judgment of God's not going
to touch us. How could the judgment of God fall on Christ Jesus first
and then fall on us? That'd be double payment of the
same debt. That's never going to happen.
We're safe in the Lord Jesus. And I'll say again and quickly
concerning the afflictions of this life, the people of God
are often afflicted by the storms of life. but they can't destroy
you. Isaiah 54, 11, the Lord spoke
of, oh, afflicted, tossed with the tempest. Sometimes we're
tossed by the tempest of life. Our troubles and afflictions,
they may be great, but they're only temporary. and they cannot overwhelm us. They're far good. God brought Noah and all within
that ark through judgment. Judgment fell on the ark and
not on them. And let me go to this too. Look
at chapter eight in verse one. Here's the next thing. God remembered
Noah. I love this. God remembered Noah. It's what
it says, chapter eight, verse one. And every living thing and
all the cattle that was with him and the ark, and God made
a wind to pass over the earth and the waters were assuaged.
God remembered Noah. Do you think God would ever forget
his people? There's that little ark floating. Just an old, rather unattractive
rectangular box. And there it is floating on the
water. And all around is death. Throughout this entire world,
there is only that one box and eight souls alive in the box. You are begging God to forget
them? You reckon God would forget Noah? You reckon God's going to forget
you? May I put it this way? He has
a lot invested in your life. He sent His Son for you. He gave
the best He could give. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. And don't be like David who said,
has the Lord clean forgotten me? He hadn't clean forgotten
you. He can't clean forget anything
except our sins. That's the only thing he's clean
forgot. And that's because Christ Jesus died for us. Oh, God remember Noah. He remembers us every day, for
He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we're dust. Don't you find yourself sometimes,
I do, find myself being like that believing thief, and I just
say, Lord, remember me. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Remember me! It's almost like
the Lord, through His Word, by His Spirit, whispers back to
me, I'll never forget you. Your names are written on the
palms of my hands. Can a mother forget her sucking
child? She might, but I'm not gonna
forget you. The Lord remembered Noah and God blessed Noah, chapter nine,
verse one. God blessed Noah. He spoke to
Noah. He remembered Noah. And He blessed
Noah. God blessed Noah. He blessed
him with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world. He blessed Noah with
a Savior. He blessed Noah with a perfect
righteousness because God looked at that man and said, The only
have I seen on the earth who's righteous. You're the only one. God blessed him. And we say, Oh Lord, bless me. You are blessed. I tell you,
what we need to stop praying is, Lord, bless us and pray,
Lord, bring the reality of your blessings to my mind and to my
heart. Because we've been blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Do we
lack anything? He has given to us His Son. He's given to us a perfect righteousness. He's given to us absolute forgiveness. He's given to us His presence. Oh, we're blessed. Oh, Noah was
blessed, wasn't he? And then God made a covenant
with him. What is the covenant? A pledge, an agreement. And He made it with Noah on behalf
of everybody else who was in the ark and all the animals and
everybody who had ever lived. The covenant was this. I'll never
again destroy the earth by water." And to verify his promise that
he made to Noah, he said, I'm going to put my bow in the sky. As a reminder, I'm not going
to destroy the earth with water anymore. A rainbow is a curved
line that God put in the sky. A token of the covenant. And
I tell you, this covenant that God made with Noah sure is, it's
a beautiful picture of the everlasting covenant of grace that God made
with Christ Jesus on our behalf. God is speaking to Noah. He's
speaking to Noah. God's speaking to Noah by name
and to his sons, who are the recipients of this. And God said,
this is what I'm doing. Again, Noah has no input into
this. And in the covenant of grace,
man has no input. The only part we've got in the
covenant is being the recipients of the grace of the covenant.
The covenant was entered into by God with Himself before He
ever made the world. It's a covenant of grace. It's
an everlasting covenant. And Noah being the mediator of
this covenant is a picture of the Lord Jesus who's a mediator
of the new covenant. God dealt with him, God promised
him, God pledged to him all of the blessings of salvation and
everlasting life for all of his people. Noah stood for the whole
human race after him, even as Christ Jesus before the world
began stood for all of his chosen race. And God made this covenant with
him. We read in Revelation chapter 4, that a rainbow encircles the
throne of God. Again, in Revelation chapter
10, a rainbow is over the head of our Lord Jesus Christ. That
rainbow is God's promise of His everlasting love for His covenant
people. God made a covenant. Why'd God
make a covenant with Noah? certainly would not pry into
the fullness of the purpose of God, the reasons why He entered
into this covenant, or why God made a covenant with Christ Jesus
on behalf of all of His people. But I would say this, number
one, to give Himself glory. You read in Revelation chapter
4 of the covenant, the token of the covenant, the rainbow, around the throne of God. As
if to say, the deliverance of sinners, the salvation of the
guilty. This is my greatest glory. Behold
what I've done. What I've done. It brings God
glory, and He has a loving interest in His people. a loving interest. He'd been taking care of us since
before he ever made the world. And he entrusted us to Christ
Jesus. The foundation for this covenant,
it's very interesting because you go back into chapter eight,
the foundation of this covenant really, the sacrifices that Noah
offered. and the very foundation of the
covenant of God. What's it all dependent upon?
The bloody sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is called
the blood of the everlasting covenant. That sealed the covenant,
you see. It can't be broken. And then there's the rainbow.
And I've said a few things about it already, but what does the
rainbow tell us? Well, it tells us judgment is
over. That's what the rainbow says. It says judgment is over.
It's a bow, but it doesn't have an arrow. because the heirs of
God's wrath and God's judgment have been spent. It's as though
the quiver that would have held the heirs in the hands of God
Almighty has been emptied. All of the heirs of His judgment
have been shot into the heart of Christ Jesus. It's a bow without
heirs. A bow without heirs. And furthermore,
this bow, it isn't even pointing toward Earth. It's pointing toward
God. Pointing toward God. A reminder. The issue has been
settled. It's a reminder to us. Salvation has been accomplished. The glory goes to God. The blessings,
wow, they come to us through Christ Jesus, the ark of our
salvation.