You know, when for some reason
I think some people have a real misconception about the subjects
in the stories of the Old Testament, especially this subject of Noah
and the ark. And it's kind of like almost
that people almost think of it as a children's story because
we see a lot of that. And when we, when I was taught
it originally, growing up in my youth, that's the way it was
presented to me. Noah and the ark, bringing the
animals in two by two. Well, there's more to it than
that. Much, much, much more, isn't
there? And thank God that he's opened our eyes to be able to
see it. And I think about that going through the Old Testament,
how much different it is when the Lord gives you eyes to see
and you look at it through the revelation of Christ and the
glory of God in His face. I know that this story is a real
historical event. It's not a myth. There was a
real flood. that destroyed the earth with
the water. There's a real ark, a man named
Noah, all of that and his family. And all of this was historically
real. But we don't need to send archaeologists out to find the
site of it in order to prove that. And we don't really, you
know, a guy up in Kentucky, you know, he built a big replica
of the Ark. You know, I've never been there,
but a lot of people have. But I'll tell you something,
you know, and if you want to go there, that's okay. I mean, you
might like to seek stuff like that. But I don't need to go
to a replica of the Ark to see the real story. You know, I've
heard people say, well, they go there and they just get such
a spiritual feeling. I get it right here. They're
reading the word of God, you know? So, I mean, you know, I
don't know how they think about it, but that's up to them. But
think about this story of knowing the art. Look at verse 11. God
says here, the earth also was corrupt before God and the earth
was filled with violence. Now, you know, one of the things
that Christ said about the last days prior to his coming again,
his return, he said it would be as in the days of Noah. And,
you know, I've always made this point when we go through passages
like this, you know, people today, we look at our world and we say,
well, things are getting so much worse. And the fact is, if you
read the Bible, you gotta understand that things have always been
this bad. Now maybe we didn't see it. We
were kind of spoiled, I think, growing up in America in the
50s and 60s and all that. Our world was Father Knows Best
and Andy Griffith and all of that. We thought that was just
life. But other places in the world
were violent There was no freedom, there was all kinds, there's
always been wars and Christ said there'll be wars and rumors of
wars. And if you want my honest thoughts
about this, if you want to look at things getting worse, I believe
religion has gotten worse. I believe there is so much religion
today, and I was talking, I noticed on our TV program today that's
going through 2 Thessalonians 2, where he talks about a great
apostasy, a great falling away. What I believe that that's mainly
referring to is Christianity as it's known throughout the
world, what people call Christendom maybe. And what it is is Christian
in name only. But there's no truth. You go
to a church, they call themselves Christian, you go in and you
don't hear the truth. And I believe that's how it's
gotten worse. There's been more religion in the name of Christ
but denying the doctrine of Christ than there ever has been. And
it'll get worse even up until Christ comes. So if you wanna
talk about things getting worse, I believe that's, and Christ
said that, didn't he, in Matthew 24. Mark 13, you know, he said,
they'll be coming. They'll say, here's Christ, there's
Christ. Don't follow them. He said, some will be so close.
Remember he said this? He said, some will be so close
that if it were possible, that the very elect could be
deceived. And you know something? We all start out deceived, don't
we? And you, Hathi Quicken, who were by nature who were dead
and trespasses in by nature, just like the children of wrath.
And then one day God brings us under the gospel and turns on
the light, so to speak, and we see what we didn't see. Well,
that's the way it is with this Old Testament passage. He says
in verse 12, God looked upon the earth and behold, it was
corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Now God's
way is the way of the gospel. God's way is the way of Christ.
God's way is the way of grace, righteousness established by
the seed of woman, typified in the blood of animals, the sacrificial
system of worship, which the first one we saw was Genesis
3.21, when God himself slew an animal and gave them coats of
skin, and then an able who brought the blood of the lamb. And we're
gonna see that in Noah later on, And Abraham, you know, they
built an altar. Why did you build an altar back
then? It wasn't to create an idol or an icon. It was to sacrifice. And Abraham taught his son Isaac
that, didn't he? And that went all the way down
through. Well, Noah, when he gets off the ark, he builds an
altar. He's going to sacrifice. That's God's way. It's the way
of Christ. It's the way of righteousness,
which Noah preached, the imputed righteousness of the coming Messiah.
Because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You remember
that? That's the first thing we read about Noah. Well, why
would Noah need grace? Well, why does anybody need grace?
I'll tell you why. Because we're sinners. And we
deserve and have earned condemnation and eternal death and damnation.
And we cannot earn salvation. We cannot deserve it. It has
to be by grace. And that's what Noah found. Well,
the earth didn't change. You know, between the fall of
man and Adam and up until Noah's day, man didn't improve spiritually,
religiously. Got worse. That's the way it
is today. Well, look at verse 13. God said
unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth
is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy
them with the earth. This is God's just wrath. against the sinfulness of man.
Sin demands death. That's a precedent that was set
back in the garden when God said in the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die. Sin justly demands death. People quote it all the time,
Romans 3.23. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And then they'll jump to Romans
6.23 and say, the wages of sin is death. And if we have salvation,
what is it? It's a gift. The gift of God
is eternal life. And how does that come? By your
free will or by your descent? No, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So this is the shape of the earth. Back a few months ago, there
was a fellow who was so adamantly advocating what they called the
Flat Earth Theory. The Earth's flat, not round.
Now, I don't want to think, you may think the Earth's flat, all
right? That's up to you. But I had a fellow that was constantly
emailing Wanting me to get into that stuff and I finally told
him his name was Robert not you Robert But I said Robert I said frankly
son, I don't care if there's flat round triangle or what? Here's the shape of the earth
right here Seeing this earth is cursed It may be a flat earth. It's a cursed flat earth. It
may be a round earth. It's a cursed round earth. Who
cares what shape it is? I told him, I said, the part
I walk on is pretty flat. But that's okay. I mean, whatever
you want. Whatever floats your boat on that issue, you know.
The earth, this is a cursed earth. And God, in this act of destroying
the earth with a flood at this time, was just showing another
grand worldwide testimony that we're sinners and we deserve
nothing but death and hell. And so he says, I'm gonna destroy
this world. And justly so. Wasn't God throwing
a temper tantrum? It wasn't God changing his mind
or looking down and saying, whoa, what happened? No, nothing's
taken God by surprise. This is all according to God's
predestinated providential will, isn't it? Somebody says, well, how could
God do that? Really, if you ever, if the Holy Spirit ever shows
us our sinfulness, what we're gonna really say is how could
God not do it? How could God let this earth
linger? And of course, we read in his
word that it's his forbearance because he has chosen a people
already before the foundation of the world, just like Noah.
And he gave them to Christ and he intends to save them from
their sins. That's the elect of God. Noah
was among that number. And so verse 14, he says, make
thee an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark,
and shalt pitch it within and without, and this is the fashion
which thou shalt make it of. The length of the ark shall be
300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, the height of it 30
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, Verse 17, and behold,
God says, 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. Somebody asked me one time, you
said you think the fish has died? I think they did. Didn't he say
here, everything that is in the earth shall die? Everything outside
the ark now. I don't I can't describe that
to you physically or scientifically, but I just know what this book
says Verse 18, but with thee will I establish my covenant
and thou shalt come into the ark Noah coming into the ark
was based on a covenant And he says, 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 that's the only two genders there are. You do know that,
don't you? There's nothing in between there. Anyway, verse 20, of fowls after
their kind, cattle after their kind, every creeping thing of
the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto
thee to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all
food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and
it shall be food for thee and for them. And this did Noah according
to all that God commanded him to do. Now if you, I've got this
listed in your lesson here. If you look at Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 7, the hall of faith, here's God commanding Noah to
prepare an ark for him and his family and for the animals. And
here's how God's word tells us about that. Noah obeyed, Noah
did according to everything that God commanded him to do. And
it says in Hebrews 11, 7, it says, by faith, Noah. Now what does that mean? That
means Noah He found grace in the eyes of the Lord, never lose
sight of that now. You know, nothing that's happening
here is based upon Noah's goodness or efforts or holiness or anything
like that. The covenant that God makes with
Noah here is not, now Noah, if you'll just cooperate with me,
we'll get this thing done, no. By faith, no, it means Noah had
the God-given gift of faith. Because if you have faith, true
faith, that's a gift from God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works lest any man should boast. And then the second thing it
means is that Noah acted upon God's word. He didn't act upon
his own sinful reasoning. He didn't go around and ask everybody's
opinion, what do you think, is it gonna rain today or not? They've
never seen rain. God said it, that settled it
for Noah. And if that's the way it is with
us, in believing the gospel, in coming to Christ, it's because
of God-given faith and it's because God said it. Christ is the way. Christ is the Savior. Salvation's by grace. And that's
what that means. And then it says, by faith Noah
being warned of God of things not yet seen. You know up until
this time it had never rained. Now scientists have said this,
and this seems to fit with the biblical revelation, that there
was waters below that came up from the earth, and there was
water, it was like a greenhouse, and that's how the plants were
watered and all of that. But Noah didn't act upon what
he saw, he acted upon what God said, and it says he moved with
fear. Now Noah didn't want to die in
the flood, But it was more than that. This
fear here is the fear that comes from faith, knowing God, believing
God. It's a reverence and a respect
for God. When we act in faith, we move
with fear. The Bible says that by nature,
there's no fear of God before our eyes, Romans 3, 18. And somebody
said, well, the preacher put the fear of God in me this morning.
If any preacher does it, you're in trouble. It's God who puts
the fear of God in us, and how does he do that? He shows us
his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. In light of our sinfulness
and depression, he shows me my need of a righteousness that
I can't produce. And we move with fear and trembling,
not doubting God or not believing God, but knowing this, if I don't
have Christ, where does that leave me? Where does that leave
you? If you're not washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness, oh, my soul. Just like Paul said,
oh, to know him and be found in him. That's what I want. That's
our desire. He prepared an ark to the saving
of his house, and by the which he condemned the world. How does,
you know, people say, well, you know, we can't condemn any, listen,
when we preach the gospel of God's grace in Christ, wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed, what are we saying? We're saying
this is the only way of salvation and any other way is condemnation. That's what Noah said. Here's
the ark. This is the only safety from
the flood. Outside of this, you're condemned.
That's right. And that's what he means there.
You see, the gospel is a judgment. Somebody says, well, I don't
judge. The gospel's a judgment. And here's what it judges. That
if you come before God without Christ, without his righteousness,
you're condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already, the scripture says. And Noah became the heir of the
righteousness which is by faith. I love this. Noah didn't earn
righteousness. Noah didn't deserve righteousness.
He was an heir. And what does an heir do? He
receives that which is bequeathed to him based upon the death of
somebody who bequeathed it to him. And who is the one who died
and bequeathed to us all the salvation, Christ? Hebrews chapter,
what, nine speaks of that? Seven, eight, and nine? We are
heirs and joint heirs with Christ, Peter said. We have an inheritance
incorruptible and is reserved in heaven for us. And so the
righteousness of faith here is the righteousness of Christ.
It's the merits of Christ. How do you know that? Well, I
know it first because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
And grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And I know it secondly because
Noah received it as an heir, not as one who worked for it.
And it's the righteousness of faith, that is the righteousness
which we receive by God-given faith. Faith with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness. That means he looks to Christ
for righteousness, for satisfaction, for grace. And so we see all
that about Noah. Now look over in Genesis 7. It says in verse one, and the
Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark,
for thee have I seen righteous, justified. That's what that means,
just before me in this generation. That means Noah was already considered
righteous in the eyes of God based upon a work to be done
in the future. That is the blood of Christ. Listen to what it says, come
down all thy house and therefore thee have I seen righteous before
me, before God now. And how is a sinner made righteous
before God? What does that mean? That means
all our sins are forgiven. And because it's called righteous,
it means it's just, it's on a just ground. What is the only just
ground upon which God forgives sins? The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sins. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That included Noah. And to be
righteous is to be declared so in the eyes of God, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect. Noah was a man who
was a sinner, but God did not impute his sin to him. Blessed
is the man whom the Lord imputed, not iniquity. And what does that
mean, Romans 4, 6, where David described the blessedness of
the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
Now, are you going to say, well, God does that now, but he did
it some other way in the Old Testament? No. It was always
the same way, the same grace, the same ground, the same Christ.
But it was so sure and certain that Christ would come and do
that great work of redemption that Noah, that God laid it to
the charge of his people even before. And David expressed that
on his deathbed, didn't he? Second Samuel 23, that God has
made a covenant with me that is ordered in all things and
sure. And he said, this is all my desire
and all my salvation. Well, how come it is so sure?
It's because Christ is the surety of the covenant that God made
between himself and the Father and the Son and the Spirit before
the world began. And so Noah came into the ark. You can read the rest of those
scriptures, but you know, Noah willingly entered the ark because
God made him willing in the day of his power. We willingly come
to Christ because God makes us willing in the day of his power.
By nature, we're not willing. We're just like the world who
refused to get on the ark. Except one day God changed our
will, didn't he? He gave us a new will. Well, this is certainly a picture of
Christ, this ark. Let me give you several ways
in which that, and I'll be brief on these. Number one, the ark
was the only way of deliverance from the destruction of the flood.
There was no other way. The water rose above the mountains. You can read that in this chapter
seven, 17 through 21. And there was no way, no way
of escape. You could have been on top of
Mount Everest during this time and would still get you. There
was no high place you could go to, only the ark. Well, isn't
that our Savior? Christ, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the light. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. There are not, there's not just
one God and many ways to him. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The way of salvation. It's the
way of the cross, no other way. The way of salvation, the way
of righteousness. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. The way to God is the way of
holiness. Christ is our holiness and there's
no other way. The ark was planned and prepared
by God. He didn't say, now Noah sit down
and draw up a blueprint for me and I'll see. No. God gave him
specific instructions on the ark of the materials, the measurements,
the dimensions, the inside, one door and the window. This is
God's ark. We call it Noah's ark. But it's
really God's ark, and really, I'll put it to you this way,
God is really the one who built the ark. Noah was just the instrument. It's like when I think about
Christ. God prepared him a body, Roman
Hebrews 10 says. Man had nothing to do with the
constitution of the person of Christ who is our ark. Even in
his humanity, it was the Holy Spirit who implanted that holy
seed in the womb of the virgin. And he was born not of the efforts
or aid of man, but of God. And he was fully human, but without
sin. But his humanity was the work
of God. He said, a body hast thou prepared
me. And just like this ark here,
This wasn't Noah's work. Listen, I recognize that Noah,
whatever he used, hammer, nails, or whatever they had back then,
but God is the one who planned it, prepared it, and gave Noah
the commission and the power to do it. So Noah was the instrument
of God. And then thirdly, the ark was
sufficient for all who would enter. There's room enough for
Noah and his family and for two of every animal. And we can talk
about the dimensions of it. But here's the thing about it.
Think about what Christ said in John 6, 37. He said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Now we know that everyone
whom God chose before the foundation of the world and everyone for
whom Christ died on that cross, will come to Him. They will be
saved. They will be brought to faith.
They will be kept. And they will enter glory. He
said, This is the will of Him that sent Me, that of all which
He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. There's no doubt about that.
Isn't that right? But then He said this. He said, All that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Him. and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. You know who's going to be saved?
Anybody who wants to be saved God's way. I hear people when
they want to argue against election, they say, well, it doesn't matter
what I do then. If I want to be saved, if I'm not elect, God
will turn me away. Oh, no, you're not reading the
scriptures correctly. If you ever want to be saved
God's way, You know who put that want to
in you? God did. That means you will be saved.
Christ has never turned away any sinner seeking salvation
his way, the gospel way, the way of grace, the way of righteousness. But it's God who makes us willing
in the day of his power. Christ is sufficient. I don't
believe in what they call, you know, they say that about his
death it was sufficient for all, but efficient for all. I don't
believe that. I think that's a perversion of
the gospel. I know it is. But here's the point. Christ has never turned away
any sinner who comes to him God's way. But every sinner who comes
to him God's way is one who has been brought by God. in the power
of the Spirit, who's been given life, you must be born again
and given faith. Fourthly, the ark was a place
of assured safety. Everyone who was in that ark,
Noah and his family, those animals, they were completely safe and
secured. I didn't put this in the lesson,
but you know, God put them in the ark. He said, Noah, come
into the ark, and they came in. And it was God who shut the door.
He didn't even let Noah shut the door, God shut it. Because
this is God's work. But everybody who was in that
ark, they were safe from the wrath of the flood outside. Well,
everybody who's in Christ, again, washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness, is perfectly, fully, eternally, unchangeably
safe and secure from the wrath of God against sin. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ, just like no one in the ark. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather He's risen. Everyone
who's in Christ, we're washed clean from all our sins. That
means they've been put away. The debt's been paid. Clothed in his righteousness,
one that cannot be defiled or corrupted or taken away. In Christ, we have the payment
for all our sins. He's our advocate. He pleads
our case before the court of God's justice. He's our mediator. And the ark by which no one,
his family, that beautifully represents our salvation from
sin by Christ. Let me give you this one thing.
Back in Genesis 6 there, I'll just give you this, where he
talked about make thee an ark, verse 14. He said, make thee
an ark of gopher wood, rooms that shalt thou make in the ark
and shalt pitch it. You know that term pitch it,
underline that. That term pitch, it had to do
with a pitch, a conglomeration that they made that they could
put in between the boards and it wouldn't let the water in. And so Noah was commanded to
pitch the ark inside and out. And that word pitch means to
cover or to take away. And 70 times in the Old Testament,
it's translated literally to make atonement. That's what that
word means. And so here it is, a covering,
which sheltered Noah and all who were in the ark from the
water outside. It kept the ship from leaking, kept the ark from
leaking. And just as under the law of Moses, the blood covered
the mercy seat, and the mercy seat covered the broken law of
God on the day of atonement, so the pitch covered the ark.
And that's a picture of satisfaction. from sin by the blood of Christ.
As long as we're covered by the blood of Christ, not one drop
of God's wrath can come upon us due to our sins. That's what
that means. Now we will suffer chastisement,
but the chastisements that we suffer are not manifestations
of God's wrath against us. Do you know what they are? If
you read Hebrews 12, they're manifestations of God's love
for us. And it's an evidence that we're
sons, Hebrews 12 says, and not bastards, illegitimate sons. Because God is simply dealing
with us as children, correcting us. Well, like I said, we could
say a lot more about the Ark. The Ark only had one door. Christ
is the door. He's the only door. The Ark only
had one window to let light in. Christ is our light. You could
go on and on about that, couldn't you? It's a beautiful picture
of Christ, and I hope we can all see that. Okay.