Now my text is that passage that
Brother Mark just read in Genesis chapter six, but just to keep
us up to date on what I'm doing, I'm actually preaching through
Hebrews chapter 11, this hall of faith. So what I wanted to
do is take these passages and go back to the Old Testament
concerning these great men and women of faith. And here we're
talking about Noah. It began in Hebrews 11 and verse
7. Where it says by faith Noah being
warned of God of things not seen as yet. He moved with fear. That's the godly fear. Now that's
not legal fear, but that's respect and reverence to God. He moved
with fear and how what did he do? He prepared an arc. to the
saving of his house. We're gonna talk about Noah's
ark as a picture or a type of Christ. Because that's what the
lesson is. It's not just a children's story.
It's certainly not a myth, it's a reality. So Noah prepared an
ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world.
What that means is that the ark was the one place of safety from
the wrath of God. and anyone who wasn't on the
ark drowned in the flood. We'll talk about that as it pertains
to Christ, the one way of salvation. And so Noah became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith, and that's the gospel righteousness,
the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, his substitutionary
righteousness as our surety, the surety of God's people. In
this passage, you know, there's about four chapters in the book
of Genesis dedicated to this man, well not dedicated to Noah,
but that deals with Noah as a dedication to Christ. But let me talk to
you about this thing of types. In the book on scripture interpretation,
it's one of the rules of interpreting the Bible. It's what we call
the rule of typology. A type is a Either a person,
in the Bible now, a type, is either a person, a place, an
object, or even an event. For example, Jim, we talked about
the feast days. Those were events, but they were
types. They were real holidays, as they
would say back then, holy days, to be set apart and to be under
the old covenant. But they typified, foreshadowed,
pictured something greater and better and eternal that has to
do with salvation by the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ
in his glorious person as God-man and his finished work of redemption
on the cross and the blessings of salvation. So it's an event. A type is a real person, place,
object or event that God ordained to act as a predictive pattern. It predicts something in the
future or a resemblance of Christ's person and finished work in the
salvation of God's elect. That's what a type is. Sometimes
we call it a shadow. I saw a video on the internet
where they had these little babies just learning to walk and they
were casting a shadow and they were afraid of the shadow and
they were running away from their shadow. running all over the
place screaming like man she's afraid of their shadow. Well
the shadow can't hurt, the shadow is not substance. Well these
types are shadows. They're not the substance of
the issue, the truth, the thing that it foreshadows. A picture,
we talk about a picture. I always use the illustration
of a wife whose husband has been called to war and he's away from
home and she's got his picture there. And she looks at that
picture and it brings up so many memories and so many desires
for her to have him home. Well, when he finally arrives
home, what does she do? She puts the picture down and
embraces her husband. She doesn't keep the picture.
You get what I mean? That's what a type is. It typifies
something better. Gospel truth, when we come to
Genesis chapter 6 and first learn about Noah, gospel truth has
already been established. Gospel doctrine has already been
set in stone and it will never change. The truth about God,
the Old Testament is a revelation of God. Everything in it tells
us who God is and what God is like and what He does. Especially in the salvation of
sinners and how God justifies His people. Sinners saved by
grace. That's what this book is about
from Genesis to Revelation. And in Genesis 3.15 you'll remember
God's promise to His people of salvation, how would it come? Through a future deliverer, Savior,
the woman seed, the God-man. And that created a forward-looking,
futuristic momentum to all the rest of what God was going to
reveal. In other words, what I'm saying is salvation was already
established as the grace of God through the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That was typified in Genesis
3.21 when he slew an animal and made coats of skin. His imputed
righteousness. Now anything you read or see
from that point on is going to fit right in with that gospel
truth. It's not gonna challenge it,
it's not gonna deny it, it's not gonna contradict it. And
if it does in your mind, you're the problem. If it does in my
mind, I'm the problem. Okay? So that's been established. You put both of these together,
we can say that God revealed himself as Savior through the
Messiah. Old Testament believers, that's
the doctrine of the gospel. I don't care what Noah did. I
don't care what you read about Noah. It's not going to change
that gospel truth. And really, the first thing you
see about Noah Establishes that what wasn't verse 8 there in
Genesis 6 Noah found what? grace in the eyes of the Lord
Noah Was not saved by keeping the law Noah was a sinner In
fact the gospel truth of man's sin and depravity our ruination
in Adam was already established we read that last week in Genesis
chapter 6 and God saw the wickedness of man was great. Here in the
passage that brother Mark read, he says in verse 12, and God
looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh
had corrupted his way upon the earth. That was Noah by nature. How do you know that? Because
Noah found grace and that's the only kind of people who need
grace. Let me tell you something. If Noah was saved because he
was a better man than the rest of that bunch, he didn't need
grace. He didn't need mercy. Noah found
grace. Why did God give it to Noah and
not give it to others? Well, you take that up with God.
How about that? That's his business, folks. Here's
what I read. Noah found grace. I want that
grace too, how about you? I want it. And if you really
want it God's way, that's a gift from God. And that's all I can
know on that issue. Why God saves one and not another,
that's up to Him, He's sovereign. It's in His hands, isn't it?
But I know this, I want that salvation, how about you? Well,
if we want it God's way, it's a gift from God. God has shown
His holiness. He must punish sin, His righteousness. He has shown us man's sinfulness
and depravity that even at our... and this is the way we got to
look at it or we won't see it. You have not, I have not repented
of sin until we come to grips with the fact that our best,
now, our best is not good enough. Our best still leaves us sinful
and deserving of damnation in God's sight. That our best cannot
make us righteous. So don't always relegate sin
to the dirges and scum of society. Sin refers to the best of the
best without Christ. The best person that ever lived
on earth, and I don't know who that is, I'm talking about among
fallen men and women. Maybe he hadn't been born yet,
I don't know. But the best person that ever lived on earth does
not have one ounce of righteousness before God based on his works
or her works. Is that right? That includes
Noah. And so God has established salvation
is by grace based upon justice satisfied. That's it. Grace based on justice satisfied
by a surety, a substitute. And there's nothing that man
can do to save himself. Look at verse 11. The earth also
was corrupt. Genesis 6, 11 before God. The
earth was filled with violence. God looked down upon the earth
and behold, it was corrupted. All flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth. God is a God of justice. He must
punish sin. And that's what he tells Noah.
Verse 13, God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come
before me. What is the end of all flesh?
Death. That's why we need to be born
again. That's why we need spiritual life, isn't it? We don't have
it by nature. You know these people that walk
around calling themselves Christians saying they don't sin anymore?
Well, why do they keep getting old? Why do they keep getting
sick? Why do they die? If I was a sinlessly
perfect person in myself, there'd be no death, there'd be no illness,
there'd be no trouble. You all wouldn't be able to stand
to be around me. You may not be anyway, but if
I, I'm not sinlessly perfect in my, I am sinlessly perfect
in Christ based on his righteousness imputed, charged to me. That's
before God. It's God who justifies. We follow each other around for
a day or two. We might wonder, are we really
Christians at all? Catch me at the right time, somebody
said. or the wrong time. God must punish
sin. But God has graciously provided
and commanded the one and only way of salvation. And look here,
he says, it's in verse 14, he's talking about salvation from
the flood here. He says, make thee an ark of
gopher wood. There's an ark. And then God directed and fashioned,
he directed Noah how to make it down to the nth detail, the
materials, the measurements, who was to be on the ark. So
we see here in this story of Noah, there was a real physical
man named Noah and his family and a real physical ark that
protected him from a real worldwide flood. But here's the point. There's
a whole, there's a real and greater spiritual lesson here shown in
the time. And let me show you this. First
of all, the ark. He tells us about the ark here.
Look at it, verse 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood.
Some scholars say that's cedar. I don't know. It doesn't matter.
Whatever wood it was, it was the wood that God ordained. You know, in another ark, you
know the word ark means a box. And that's why you see the Ark
of the Covenant, it was a box. And this boat was really shaped
like a box. Something like that. But in the
Ark of the Covenant, it was made of wood, chitim wood, overlaid
with gold. and the lid of the ark called
the mercy seat, it was made of Shittim wood overlaid with gold. And the gold represented, symbolized
the deity of Jesus Christ. He is God. But the wood symbolized
his humanity. He is God in human flesh without
sin. And that's the kind of person
that it took and it takes to save sinners. Hebrews chapter
2 talks about that. That he was made of the seed
of Abraham. That's the elect of God. Because
they were flesh and blood. And he had to have flesh and
blood. Why? Because he had to die. Justice had to be satisfied. God cannot die. You can't kill
God. Though men have tried. But this
person who is God did die, that's to be attributed to his humanity.
And in that death, he satisfied justice. So this ark was made
of wood. It said, rooms thou shalt make
in the ark. Now let me tell you something
about typology. First of all, the type is always
inferior to the anti-type, that is the fulfillment of it. Whatever is amazing to you or
to me about this ark, it's nothing compared to Christ, our ark. That's what I'm saying. It's
always inferior. That's what the book of Hebrews
is about, you know, talking about the old covenant and all the
physical elements that were associated with it. Christ is better. His
blood is better. His sacrifice is better. His
righteousness is better. Everything. Don't hang on to
those types. Cling to Christ. Don't submit
to the law of the types. Submit to the righteousness of
God in Christ. So the type is always inferior.
Secondly, as my old pastor used to say, you can't make a type
stand on all fours. There are people who go into
these things and they will try to make something out of every
little detail. And that's a tough thing to do.
Somebody said, well, why are there different compartments?
I don't know. Doesn't say. But I know some people have an
idea. Now look, you can have your own
little thoughts on that, but they cannot challenge or deny
the gospel in any way. The Ark had three levels. I've
heard people talk about, in essence, saying almost like, well, there's
low-level Christians, mid-level, and high-level. I know it's not
that because that denies the gospel. You see, in Christ, we're
all equally saved, equally righteous. There's no big me and little
you in God's salvation. So you make of that what you
will. But here's what he said. He said, you make the anarchic
gopher wood, Rooms thou shalt make in the ark, and shalt pitch
it within and without. Now let me say this, number one,
the ark was the one and only way of deliverance from the flood
of God's wrath. There's no other way. The whole
world was drowned outside the ark. Look over at verse 17 of
chapter seven. Look over at chapter seven of
Genesis, verse 17. It says, the flood was 40 days upon the earth, and the waters increased, bear
up the ark, and it was lift above the earth. He says, and the waters prevailed
and were increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon
the face of the waters. The waters prevailed, the wrath
of God. That's what the waters, the flood
represents, wrath of God. And let me tell you something
now, God was not punishing innocent people here. He never does that. He always gives those who are
in sin what they deserve. That's why grace is such an amazing
thing. God doesn't give me what I deserve
in Christ. Grace is unearned and undeserved. He says, and all the high hills
that were under the whole heaven were covered. You see, run for
the hills. Won't do you any good. Only one
way, the ark. Verse 20, 15 cubits upward did
the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. All flesh died
that moved upon the earth. That's all flesh outside the
ark. Both of fowl, cattle, beast,
every creeping thing creepeth upon the earth, every man. And
in whose nostrils was the breath of life of all that was in the
dry land. died, every living substance
was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both
man, cattle, creeping things, fowl of heaven, even the birds
couldn't get away from it. And they were destroyed from
the earth. And Noah, look at verse 23, Noah only remained
alive and they that were with him in the ark. Isn't that something? The waters
prevailed upon the earth in 150 days. We'll talk about that sometime
in another message. But what does the ark typify? The fact that Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory, is the one and only way of salvation from the
wrath of God against our sin. That's it. He's the only, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. Do not, listen, do not fall into
the modern era of pluralism. There are many ways to God. That's
what pluralism says. You got your way, I got my way.
One way is just as good as the other. All ways are fine. No, sir. One ark, one Christ. Peter preached it. None other
name given among men, wherever we are, we must be saved. It's
Jesus Christ. Only one way of forgiveness,
the blood of Christ. Only one way of being justified,
being made right with God, the imputed righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, no other way. You say, but all those people? Think back on Noah and the ark.
Only those who were on the ark were safe from God's wrath. Only those who are in Christ,
washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness, and that
by the grace of God are safe from the eternal wrath of God.
And that's the theme of all the scripture. Christ is the one
and only. There's one God and one mediator
between man and God. The man Christ Jesus. And this way of salvation, this
one way of salvation is the way of atonement. What is atonement? Well, in the Old Testament, it
was called atonement, which represents a covering. And it was satisfaction to law
and justice through a substitute, a surety to whom God had imputed,
charged, accounted the debt of sin. You see, the way of salvation
is a way of righteousness. And that's why it's connected
there in Hebrews 11, 7 when it talks about Noah. He became heir
of the righteousness which is by faith. What is the righteousness
which is by faith? It's the righteousness of Christ,
imputed. That's what it is. Why is it
said by faith? Because we believe in Him, we
rest in Him. We don't believe in ourselves.
Now listen to me, and you young people listen, we want you to
have confidence and be assured of yourself in a lot of ways
when you're dealing with things on earth. But when it comes to
a right relationship with God, we have no confidence in the
flesh, in self. Our faith is not in ourselves.
Our faith is not in our experience. You say, well, I've had a lot
of religious experiences. I have two and I don't have faith
in any of them. Some of them may have been right
and real. That doesn't matter. My faith is in Christ. My faith looks up to thee, thou
Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine. Remember we talked about in Hebrews
the faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. Faith has a foundation. It's
the word of God. By faith, Noah moved with fear. He believed what God said. Faith
has an object. The object of saving faith, which
is the gift of God, is Christ and his righteousness. And faith
has evidence. He moved with fear. He obeyed
God. Not to be saved, because he already was. The way of righteousness. Cain rejected it. But Abel, by the grace of God,
he received it. And he believed God. And he looked
to God. Now secondly, this ark was planned
and prepared by God. Noah didn't plan it. Noah didn't
prepare it. It was all by the power of God.
Most scholars would tell you Noah as a mere human being and
and he and his sons the only ones who really believed God
it would have been impossible for him to build this thing so
it was by the power of God and God alone but look at it now
he says in verse 14 rooms shalt thou make in the ark and shalt
pitch it within and without with pitch and I'm gonna talk about
that pitch in just a moment here He says, verse 15, this is the
fashion, this is the way which thou shalt make it up. The length
of the ark shall be 300 cubits. You see, there's the ark, land
of God. What is that, about 450 feet
long? Is that what you said last week,
Mark, or the week before? It says the breadth of it, 50
cubits. That's 75 feet wide, 45 feet
high, and the height of it, 30 cubits. A window shalt thou make
to the ark, in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. There was
one window and it was above. Light comes in through the window
from above. That's where light comes from
in salvation, isn't it? From above, doesn't come from
below. And in order to have salvation,
where must we look? To the earth below? To ourselves? No, we look above. We look to
God. Salvation's of the Lord. He says,
the door of the ark thou shalt set in the side thereof, with
lower, second, and third storeys shalt thou make. There's one
door in the ark. Christ said, I'm the door. You see how that
all comes about? Verse 17, 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 he says to Noah in 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, and then the animals, bring them in. It was all planned
and prepared by God. You know, I love this passage.
If you want to turn to 2 Timothy 1, I can read it to you. Salvation
is planned, prepared, provided by God, not by man. Oh, when he was talking about
all the troubles and persecution that he suffered in the ministry
of the gospel. How ironic that is. What a contradiction,
they might say. Here's a man who had the greatest
message that God ever revealed. The gospel of salvation by a
substitute and a surety who is none other than God in human
flesh who brings forth righteousness to his people. What a great message.
And it's hated by the world because it will not allow sinners to
bring anything into the ark but themselves as sinners, begging
for mercy. And Paul, when he was telling
Timothy about that, he said in verse 8 of 2 Timothy 1, he said,
don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his brethren.
Paul was in jail when he wrote this. Don't be ashamed. but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. Verse nine, who has saved us and called us with
an holy calling. That's the new birth, isn't it?
The holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace. Now listen to this,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. There it is. Prepared by God. The Lord in the Psalms and repeated
in Hebrews talks about a body that God prepared him. The second
person of the Trinity, the Son of God, had a body prepared for
him by God. Why? To die for the sins of his
people. So the ark was planned, well,
salvation in Christ, planned and prepared by God. Here's the
third thing. The ark was sufficient for all who would enter. Now this ark was huge, it was
an immense ship. There was room enough for Noah
and his family, two of every animal that existed at that time,
as we said, about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high. It was sufficient for all whom
God prepared it for. Well, Christ is the all-sufficient
Savior for everyone Everyone without exception who comes to
God by Him pleading His blood and righteousness. You see, God has never turned
any sinner away who as a sinner comes to Him seeking mercy in
Christ His way, His ark. I don't know, maybe others when
that rain came, they've never seen rain before. The earth was
watered from below and beneath. But maybe when that rain started,
maybe they started trying to build boats. I don't know, but
it wouldn't save them. Only one way that was sufficient
to save, and that was the ark that God prepared. And you know,
there was 120 years from the time God made that revelation. He's going to destroy the earth
until the flood came. Noah preached for those years. We saw that. He was a preacher
of righteousness. He preached the gospel. He didn't
preach, now you fellas straighten up or God's going to destroy
the earth. He didn't preach that. First of all, man won't straighten
up in a way that pleases God. And secondly, our straightening
up wouldn't do the job. Sin deserves death. We need Christ. We need grace. We need a righteousness
that we can't produce. Where are we going to find it?
Christ. And he's sufficient to save every
sinner who comes to God by him. And then fourthly, the ark was
a place of assured safety and security. Everyone who entered
that ark, they were safe from the storm. The flood drowned
the whole world outside, but in that ark, safety. Well, Christ
is the assured place of safety, the certain refuge, the ark for
all who are in Him. There is no wrath from God. They're
forever safe from the wrath of God against sin because God cannot
and will not charge them with their sin. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that dies. Yea, rather, is risen, seated at the right hand of the
Father. Go back to that Genesis 6 in verse 14. You know that
word pitch? He said, Make in the ark of gopher
wood, room shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it,
within and without, with pitch. That pitch is a Hebrew word that
means to cover or to take away or to make an atonement. In fact, it was used, I think,
about 70 times in the Old Testament to refer to the atonement, which
is a reference to the work of Christ, having our sins imputed,
the sins of God's elect imputed to him and his righteousness
to them and by his death. And it was a covering, this actual
pitch here was a covering which kept the ship from leaking. And
just as under the law of Moses, the blood covered the mercy seat,
and the mercy seat covered the broken law on the day of atonement,
so the pitch covered the ark." Well, that's a picture of the
blood of Christ. What can wash away my sins? What
covers me from the wrath of God? It's Christ. As long as we're
legally covered by the blood of Christ, satisfaction to law
and justice, righteousness imputed, not one of us, not one drop of
God's wrath can come upon us. Why, David said, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works.
We're pitched, as it were. We're covered. There's no leaks. That's because of our safety
in the ark, who is Christ. And all the storm of God's wrath
came upon the ark. Well, when Christ was made sin
for His people, He went under the wrath of God, and the full
measure of that wrath came upon Him. Look over at Genesis 7 and
verse 1. What is said of Noah here, about
getting on the ark, is said of Noah and all of God's elect as
we stand legally in Christ. having his righteousness imputed
to us. After Noah made the ark, he says,
And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into
the ark. For thee have I seen righteous. This is God speaking. This is
how God sees it. It is no fiction. It is no legal
fiction or play-like. This is the reality of every
sinner who stands before God washed in the blood and clothed
in the righteousness of Christ by the grace of God. You don't
even see me this way. I don't see you this way. I know
it's true, some of you, because of your testimony. You look to
Christ. But as far as my vision is concerned,
in physical things, like I said, you may catch me at the wrong
time. You may look around and you say,
well, if he's righteous, that's a joke. No, let me tell you something.
God sees me in Christ as righteous. For thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Anybody tells you that Noah did
not have righteousness imputed to him, take him to this verse
right here. Because that's what God says. If God sees you as
righteous, it's not because of your works. And let me tell you
something, it's not because you believe, even though you do believe.
If you're righteous in Christ, you will believe at some point
in time. But that's not why God sees you as righteous. It's because
Christ died. You say, well, Christ hadn't
died when Noah was getting on. Not yet, but it was sure and
certain to happen. And God knew it and planned it,
provided it, purposed it, and he imputed it to Noah and all
the Old Testament saints who looked forward to Christ. All
right.