If you would, let's turn back
again to Genesis chapter 6. And I want to try and continue
on with God's Ark, not Noah's Ark. I know that's what the world
calls it, and I understand. And it does have a purpose in
the fact to keep it separate from the Ark of the Testimony. The Ark of the Covenant. even though they're both a picture
of Christ. But last week I started with God's design, God's plan
for this ark as it was revealed and given to Noah. And everything
in this had a place and had a purpose. And that's what I'm going to
try and start with today. But let me read Go ahead and
read verses 14 onward of Genesis chapter 6. Make thee an ark of
gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the
ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which
thou shalt make it of, The length of the ark shall be three hundred
cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it
thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the
ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the door
of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower,
second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And 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 heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die. But, 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. And of every living thing, of
all flesh, two of every sort, shalt thou bring into the ark,
to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and female."
And I'm just going to stop right there. What I want to start talking
about today is basically verse 17. That's where I want to start. Yesterday last week I talked
about the designated plan for the ark now here we have given
to Noah revealed to Noah the designated purpose for this ark
I Even I okay Every purpose true purpose for things that happen
in this world starts with God It starts with God It doesn't
start with us. It may end with us, but it doesn't
start with us. It may concern us. It's related
to us sometimes, some of its purposes. Not all of them. But
this one here was told to Noah expressly, I, even I, do bring
a flood. I didn't say shall. He says, I'm going to do it. You understand there's a lot
of people who think natural disasters are just that, natural disasters. That's exactly it, Mother Nature. And I remember the old commercials,
you know it's not nice to fool Mother Nature. Yeah, well it's
not nice to ascribe to Mother Nature the work of the Lord God. He said I bring this flood. I
do bring this flood. There's no question about this.
The flood was coming and the flood came and he is the one
that brought it. When the world is destroyed,
when the end of all flesh is at hand, it doesn't matter when,
understand this, I do it. I do it. He's the one that created
this world and he's the one that's going to end this world. And
there is an ending coming, with a new beginning after, but there
is an ending coming. Here is the end of this, the
antediluvian world as they called it, the world before the flood.
And it was coming because the Lord purposed it and the Lord
brought it. Now we've been promised that
this world later will be destroyed by fire. The earth shall melt
with a fervent heat. It's going to happen. Heavens
and earth are going to pass away. It's going to happen. It's been
promised. And I, even I, shall do that. It's his creation. He sees fit. The elements are going to melt
with a fervent heat. And the earth and also and the
works therein shall be what burned up. The heavens being on fire
shall be dissolved. But he's also promised more.
There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. And it's going
to be different than this one in this respect. And this very
important respect, wherein dwelleth righteousness. You can't say
this about this world here. No. This world does not dwell
in righteousness. But he said, I going to bring
a flood. I do bring a flood. And he tells
us why. To destroy all flesh. And everything that is in the
earth shall die. Now, I understand the human condition
because I am one. And I have been guilty of this. Because we, as fallen humans,
even believers, we have a tendency to think of this as a negative
thing. That's not the way God said it.
He didn't say it as a negative. Matter of fact, when he starts
his explanation, no, this is where he starts. He states it as a positive. I do bring a flood and I will
destroy all flesh and everything with life in it. Now we see this
from our human perspective as a tragedy. That's not the way
God sees it. This is his purpose. This is
what he's doing and he's doing it for a specific reason. God's works God's works are always
positive. Whether we see it or not, whether
we understand it or not, His work is always positive. You
know that saying that's in the book of Romans that Paul wrote
down, all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them that are called according to His purpose. The flood's included
in that. The death of all life is included
in that. That was for my good and for
his glory. The world doesn't understand
it at all and we are, I'm serious, it's not a negative, it's a positive. And that's why God states it
that way. Matter of fact, this is a reiteration
of what God said in verse 13. Verse 13, chapter 6 of Genesis,
and God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before
me. And he tells him why. Four, the earth is filled with
violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them
with the earth. Noah. As far as you know it,
the end of the world has come. The world that you were in before
is going to be gone. The earth is filled with violence,
and this word translates as violence, unrighteousness, and oppression. And by implication, I love that,
by implication, the earth was filled with wrong. It's just
wrong. And it was just wrong, and right
now it's still just wrong. The earth in the days of Noah
was filled to the overflowing with wrong, and behold, I will
destroy them with the earth." God's destruction, destroying
evil and wicked men, is a positive righteous act of a holy God I Will by no means clear the
guilty It may not be the most pleasant thought in the world,
but it is what God does And it's he that does it. I am the Lord
I kill I make alive Psalms 118 verse 24 One of them ones where it says,
this is the day the Lord hath made, we shall rejoice in it. Nope, sorry, that's the wrong
one. I went to Joel. And I know what he's speaking
of here. Verse 23 says, this is the Lord's
doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. This
is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be
glad in it. Now this is speaking of, I will
praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation.
The stone which the builders refused has become the head of
the corner. But I'm going to tell you something. This day
of the flood, and we'll see this here in just a minute, is a day
of destruction and a day of salvation. It's at the same time. Because
here, the next verse tells us the separation, the other part
of the purpose for this. He starts with Noah telling him
this, that I'm going to destroy. I do bring a flood to destroy,
but he doesn't leave Noah there. Verse 18 starts with the word
but. But with thee will I establish
my covenant Thou shalt come into the ark This is all the purpose
of God both parts and both parts are positive with thee Whatever this is because of that
conjunction the word but It's different than what then what's
going on in verse 17 the destruction The death of all life, then he
says but with thee Whatever it is, and it's a glorious thing,
it's not the same as what's happening in verse 17. God makes the separation
according to his purpose and to his grace. And then he tells Noah that it's
my covenant. There are those who don't like
And I understand what some people call covenant theology. But our
God is a covenantal God. He has made promises. He has
established a covenant. And he has made promises from
that covenant which he established. But here, just as he tells Noah,
it ain't your covenant, it's mine. The covenant was made between
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Now it included Noah. But it's still God's covenant. This is the purpose of God for
Noah. This is the purpose of God for
his people. And thou shalt come into the
ark. Now is that a question? Is God asking? Is God predicting? He looked into the future and
he saw Noah would go in the ark. Yeah. God is not a foreseer. God foreknows. And what God foreknows
is His work from the beginning. He's telling Noah, with thee,
I'm going to establish my covenant. Thou shalt come into the ark
and thy house thy wife thy sons and thy sons wives and all those
animals they're coming into the ark there is a Salvation from
the destruction of the world there is Life in the ark The covenant is just as real
as the destruction of because the God who saves is
the same God who destroys others. God wasn't asking, God was telling
Noah, you're going to come into the army. You're going to. That's the designated purpose
and the designated purpose of grace. for this ark at this time. And that ark is Jesus Christ.
He is our salvation. He is our ark. That's what this is an illustration
of. In Genesis 7-1, we see the designated application. As I
said it last week, the plan doesn't say The plan is perfect, it's
glorious, it's gracious, it's merciful, it's true. Every detail
was laid out that we need to know. But the plan doesn't say. The
art had to be built in order for Noah to go in. But here the application. 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 one of the things I do want to point out here Very closely In chapter 6 verse 13 on it says
and God said unto Noah, that's Elohim But when it come time
for Noah to come in the ark, the capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D said come into the ark. Yahweh. Now I know it's a nitpicking
thing and some people don't like that sort of thing, but there's
a difference here. When it comes to the salvation call, when it
comes to the calling of the Lord, It is the Lord that calls. Salvation is of the Lord. When the Lord speaks, it's important
because He is salvation. Paul quoted it, wrote it, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Well, that
actually is a quote, a reference, from Joel 2 and verse 32. And
I had it marked. You don't have to turn there,
but I'm going to read it. Verse 32 of Joel 2, it says, and it
shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord, capital L-O-R-D, shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion
and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said. in the
remnant whom the Lord shall call And that you spoke to Noah here
and told him come into the ark It is Yahweh the great I am And
he called Noah by name Now I do want to say this Because
an Armenian pointed this out to me, a book I've got. The Lord
doesn't tell Noah here to go into the ark. He says, come. Now, the fellow went on to say,
well, this is the first time the word come is used in the
Bible. Well, it ain't. I looked, and
it wasn't hard to check. Yeah, but this part was good.
He said, come into the ark. Why? That ark was Christ. He's in the ark. He is the ark. He didn't say, go into the ark
and I'll watch out over you from the outside. That's not what
he said. That's not what he said. He said, come in. I'm here. You're going to be in me. Now, he was on the outside also.
That's not denigrating that at all. But this is the thing. You're
going to join with him, or you're not going to be in the ark. Come. I thought about Cody preaching
that message. Won't you come? You will when the Lord calls
you. And you will come. Christ said
it. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Now sure, he qualified
it. Labor and heavy laden, I'll give
you rest. If you're not laboring, if you're not heavy laden, he
wasn't talking to you. That's alright, because if you're not
laboring and you're not heavy laden, you won't come. You won't come till you know
your need and you won't know your need until he reveals it
to you. But here, the Lord told Noah, come. Again, this is not
a question. This is not an invitation. This
is not a plea. This was a command. He's gonna tell us that later,
but I'll tell you that now. It's a command from God to come
into the ark. And commands from the Lord. When
the Lord speaks, what's he say? My voice, my words shall not
return unto me void. If he tells you to do something,
if he really tells you personally to do something, you will do
it. He will see to it. Why? How do
we say that? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. This is a word of command, this
is a word of power, and that's what it takes when it says, even
everyone that the Lord shall call. It's a word of power. I call my sheep by name. Noah, come thou into the ark. Not go into it, come into it.
Come in here. I'm here. Come in. It's time. And in the designated time, and
in the designated place, our Lord will call every one of his
sheep, and they will hear his voice, and they follow him. That's
a guarantee, not from me, but from God. I can't guarantee anything,
but he guarantees everything. His word will not return unto
him void. Now why was this blessing given
to Noah? God wanted to. God purposed it. God planned it. But it does say
here, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Now there's a lot of people that go on to talk about, and I've
read stuff about this, that, well, Noah was a good man. that
Noah was a wonderful man. And he was. It says here in verse
9 of chapter 6, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was
a just man and perfect in his generation and Noah walked with
God. But you got to read verse 8 first
before you get to verse 9. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Then it says he was a just man
and perfect in his generation. Now that's complete. That's not
sinless. That's complete. He was a whole
person and he walked with God. But still, after all that, even
after God saying this, you know, and it's written down here, you
look at verse seven and I want to point out this one thing that
most of the world and most religious societies will ignore. He didn't
say, for thee I have found to be righteous. For thee art righteous in your
generations. He said, I've seen you to be
righteous. Now there's a world of difference between being righteous
and being seen to be righteous, even in the eyes of the Lord.
He didn't say that Noah was righteous. He said, I've seen you righteous. I have seen you righteous. He calleth those things which
be not as though they are. And in Christ, we are righteous. We have his righteousness. Of God are ye in Christ, who
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
God sees us as righteous. That message, that wonderful,
glorious message preached by that reprobate, Balaam, I've
not seen iniquity in Jacob. I'm not saying it's not there. But when God looks at his people,
he sees Christ. He sees the righteousness which
he gave us, which is Christ's righteousness, which is Christ. He gave us Christ. I have seen
thee righteous. Now, the designated result of
this designated application is found in verse 5 of chapter 7. And Noah did according unto all that the Lord,
what, here's the word, commanded him. God commanded, Noah did. That's
the order. That's always the order. God commanded, and Noah did.
That is the designated result of this application. Come now,
my family, into the ark. Come, Noah. Come. Come. What
happened? Noah came. Noah did. What? According to what the Lord
commanded him. How did Noah do this? Ah, there's
a question. Well, he was a righteous man,
he was just, he was perfect in his generations. The writers of Hebrew says it
differently. He says by faith. By faith. Where's faith come
from? Faith is the gift of God. If
you wanna argue with that, you can argue with that. I don't,
you know, I ain't gonna argue anymore about that. We are saved
by grace, Noah found grace, through faith, by faith Noah. That's
what the writer of Hebrews, by faith Noah, being warned of God,
of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. Prepared an ark to
the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness, what? Which is? by faith. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord and Noah believed God. And Noah did as the Lord commanded. Faith always results in action. God commands, we act. He acts and we act. He just told us in verse 18,
I just read it, thou shalt come into the ark. That's what he
said. And thou shalt come into the
ark. Then he says, come into the ark. Then it says, Noah did. God told him what he was gonna
do, then God told him to do it, and Noah did it. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And for it is God. It says work
out your own salvation with fear and tremble. Work it out. And
people jump on that with both feet. They don't read the next
verse. For it is God that worketh in
you both to will and to do. His good pleasure We are his
workmanship created in Christ Jesus what that's part of that
salad saved by faith through grace Saved by grace through
faith excuse me. Let's get it right Unto good
works God commands and we do God acts
in us and we act and That's part of the designated
result of the application of this art. The purpose and the
plan. Verse 16 of chapter 7. And they that went in, went in
male and female of all flesh as God commanded him. The Lord shut him in. You understand, I talked about
the door last week. It doesn't give any dimensions of the door.
It doesn't tell you how big it is, no cubits, no nothing. Now
I'm sure he told Noah, but he didn't tell us. But I did say
this, the only reason, it doesn't matter what the dimensions are.
To us, all we know now is that ark was exactly big enough. That
door was big enough to fill that ark to capacity, design capacity. And everything that needed in
the ark got in the ark. And the only way in that ark
was through that one door. That's all there was, was one
door. But now Noah went in the ark as the Lord commanded, but
he didn't say, go on in and shut the door. Because Noah wasn't in control
of the door. Jesus Christ says, I am the door. The entrance into
the ark is not under the control of man, whether it's open or
shut. We have nothing to do with it.
When everything was in the ark that was going in the ark, the
Lord shut the door. The Lord shut him in. And you'll
read in Revelations, he's the one that opens, and no man shuts. And he's the one that shuts.
And what? No man opens. Once God's shut the door, the
door is shut. He's the one in charge of the
door. He is the door, as well as being the ark. The Lord shut him in. Well, what about all the poor
sinners out there? Yeah. God says, I do bring a flood,
and I'm going to destroy. But that ark was designed to
save eight souls. And it did save eight souls. The Lord shut him in. We are not, just as Noah was
not, the door warden. We are not the door guard, we
are not the door opener, and we are not the door shutter. The Lord shut the door and actually
more descriptively, the Lord shut him in, not out. There were some shut out. When
that door is shut, That's, you know, when my door's shut at
my house. If I'm in, I'm in and you're
out. Now you may be in your house somewhere else, but I don't care.
I'm in my house and my door's shut. When this ark is shut,
there are people left out. There is coming a day, and it's not one of those pleasant
things to think about, but it is true when the fullness of
the Gentiles be brought in. There's going to be a cutting
off. Because there's going to be a
fullness to those who were chosen before the foundation of the
world. Verse 21 says, and all flesh
died that moved upon the earth, both the fowl and cattle and
beasts and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
And, at the end of that statement, every man, all in whose nostrils was the
breath of life that was in the dry land, died. This is a designated
result, just as designated as Noah being shut in that ark,
in the ark. The flood came, and everything
outside the ark died. All flesh died. What's that mean? That means all flesh died. This
was the expressed, spoken purpose of God which became one of the
designated results of that ark. See, this is the thing. We don't make a difference. God
has made the difference. God puts in the ark who he wants
in the ark, and he leads out of the ark who he leads out of
the ark. Who maketh thee to differ? That's
the question. It's not me. It's God. It's not
you. It's God. See, the world doesn't
want to acknowledge, even, that there is a separation. They don't want to know. They
don't believe it. But there is the people of God,
and there's not. I mean, that's just the way it
is. And we, as fallen creatures, we see it as a tragedy because
we don't know. But I do know this from His Word.
God is saving Every child he has Every one of his children
Every one of his people every one of the family of God Will
be saved in the ark in Christ You're either in Christ or you're
gonna die Physically and totally Christ said it this way. He said,
fear him which is able both to destroy body and soul. Both the soul and body in hell. The salvation of some necessitates
the damnation of others. I mean, that's just the way it
is. Calvinists can deny that all
they want to. And they'll call us hyper-Calvinists.
And yeah, I am. If that's the definition, I qualify.
I can't ignore Romans 9. I've read it. I've looked at it. I've studied
it. It says what it says. There are some vessels unto honor. There are some vessels unto,
and this is the word, dishonor. And they try to say, oh, unto
common use. Make it not sound as bad. And
I understand. They're trying to be nice. But
that's not what the scripture says. The scripture says he's
made vessels unto dishonor. I can't argue with him. I'm not
going to argue with God if I can avoid it. I have argued with
God. And guess what? I lost every
time. Yeah, you will. If you can win an argument with
God, you're not talking to God. You don't know who you're dealing
with. That's another story. Because it says on in the next
verse that there are those who are fitted to destruction. There are a lot of people who
want to ignore it, and I understand. I do understand why. But when
you're teaching a lesson here, when you're trying to preach
the truth of God concerning the ark, you've got those in the
ark, but you also have those not in the ark. You have those with Christ, in
Christ, And you have those without Christ. I didn't make that difference,
God did. And there's coming a time when
it's going to happen. It's not going to happen by water,
but there's coming a time. He's going to show it. And this
is the designated result of the ark. And Christ said it's going
to be like it was in the days of Noah. There's going to be
some in, and there's going to be a lot out. Because there were
a lot more out of that ark than was in it. There was eight people. Well, God can't be that picky.
No, God is that purposeful. Does that mean there's only going
to be eight people left at the end? I don't know. It doesn't
matter. All I know is it comes to the
end when God's finished. He's going to bring in the fullness
of the Gentiles. He's going to bring in the remnant of the Jews.
He's going to bring in exactly as many as he gave to his son. They're going to be saved and
they're going to be in the ark. They're going to be in Christ
or they're not. If they're not, they were never
supposed to be there. Chapter 8 and verse 1, a designated
result. God remembered Noah. Now God
didn't forget Noah. This is after everything's been
flooded and all that, but it just wanted to, what does actually
the word translate? Mindful. God was mindful of Noah. Where was Noah? In the ark. God had Noah in mind. People
say, isn't that nice? Well, yeah, it is. It's a lot
nicer than most people think. There are people, you read in
the scripture, it says God didn't know him.
Now, we preach a God, we tell of a God, this Bible teaches
of a God who knows all things. Well, God saw him, but he didn't
know him, because he knows his children. That word know is the
relationship. And God was mindful of Noah,
and what did God do when God was mindful of Noah, thinking
of Noah? Well, he acted again. God made a wind to pass over
the earth, and the waters assaged. The waters Withdrew the waters
went away And the and the ark landed I'm
not gonna go into that I gotta quit But when God is mindful of you
God acts And that is grace that is mercy that is compassion and
that is love for his children and He acts on their behalf, for
them, to them, upon them, and in them. And God spoke unto Noah
and said, go forth. And Noah went forth. And Noah
built an altar and offered a sacrifice. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor. He said, I won't curse the ground
this way with water. I won't destroy the earth by
water. He's gonna destroy it by fire, but he's not gonna destroy
it again by water. But those to whom God acts, for
whom God acts, in whom God acts, those people act. Believers act. By faith, Noah moved with fear
and built an ark, prepared an ark to the saving of his household. by faith, the gift of God. God purposed, God planned, God
revealed His plan, and God implemented His plan. What we see later, still in our
past, is that God implemented the plan of salvation with his
son as our substitute, our sacrifice, and our surety, our safety. Jesus Christ is that ark. Noah
and his family were as safe as they were in the hands of God
in that ark. Why? Because he was in the ark and
he was the ark. And Noah worshiped God. He offered
a sacrifice and to the Lord it was a sweet savor God acts and
his people worship him Walter I think you read it last
week a While back when the hour cometh and now is when the true
worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth
for the father seeketh such to worship him. That's a designated result of
the ark. You will worship him. You will worship him. You'll offer the sacrifice of
praise and glory to his name for the great salvation which
he has given. Our Father, we are thankful again
for this time, this place. Most of all, thankful for you
who gave your son, who shed his blood and paid for
our sins, and gave his life, and raised him from the dead
as acceptable, the acceptable sacrifice for sin, and have forgiven
us in have given us life in Him, have brought us into Him, and
are keeping us in Him. Thank you. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen.