If you will, take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Genesis chapter six. Genesis chapter six is a summary
of the whole world from the days of Adam to the days of Noah. This is everything. Now from
Genesis six on, the whole rest of the Bible, talks about the
Lord Jesus Christ, it talks about Israel, his people, goes into
great detail about a lot of things. But up to Genesis chapter six,
he gives a brief, this one begat that one, this
one a genealogy, he gives us a brief genealogy, and then he
sums up everything that has gone on in the world up to that point
in just a few verses of Scripture. Everything from Adam to the end
of the world. Now Peter said, I wanna try to
draw a line here to show you what this verse way back yonder
in Genesis has to do with us today. And you can read about
it yourself in 2 Peter chapter three. Peter said, men who mock
and poke fun at the second coming of Christ And they're gonna do
that, the scoffers are gonna come, Peter said, they're already
here, they're already talking, Christ's only been dead just
a short amount of time and they're already doing it. If he was coming,
he'd already come. And Peter said of those men who
mock and poke fun at the second coming of Christ, they do so
being ignorant or giving no thought to the destruction of the antediluvian
world. That's what we're reading about
back here in Genesis 6, the world before the flood. He said they're
willingly ignorant of the fact that by the word of God, the
heavens were of old. God spoke those heavens into
existence. It never rained until the flood.
Water came up from the ground and watered things. They never
had a shower, never had a sprinkle, never had a thunderstorm. They're willingly ignorant of
the fact that by the word of God, the heavens were of old
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. What's he talking about? Well,
he's talking about back in Genesis 1-9. God said, let the waters under
heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land
appear. And it was so. How come there's some land that
you can walk on, Walter, and some's an ocean? How'd that come
to be? God said, that's the way it's
going to be. And that's the way it was. He commanded those waves. He said to Job, he said, who
shut up the sea with doors when it broke forth as if it had issued
out of the womb? When I made the cloud, the garment
thereof, and thick darkness of swaddling cloth, and break up
for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said,
hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shalt thou
proud waves be stayed. It's the word of God. Men and
women are ignorant of the word of God. They're ignorant of what
happened before the flood. Ignorant of it. They don't know
about it. What's it got to do with me?
That's what they say. The world that then was, was
kept, as it were, by the word of God. and the heavens and the
earth which are now. Here's what Peter, he's getting
to his point now. The heavens and the earth which
are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
God said in 120 years, I'm gonna wipe man out off the face of
the earth. I'm going to wipe out the animals
and the bough and every creeping thing. Nothing's going to be
left. I'm going to wipe it out. I'm going to cleanse this earth
of the filthiness of man. I'm going to wipe it out. Now,
Noah, build you an ark. Build you an ark. And he told
Noah what he was going to do and told him how long he had
before he did it. And this world now, Peter said,
is kept in store for the same reason. God has, he's declared
that he's going to destroy this world with fire. And everything
is reserved right now. Why? For the preaching of the
gospel. When Noah was a preacher of righteousness,
he preached for 120 years while he was building that ark. Probably
understood what the Ark represented and pointed to it as he was building
it, saying, this is it. This is the crowd. This is a
picture of him. Preacher Hunter said, well, what's
going on now? We're still preaching. We're
preaching. The end's coming. He said it
out. He said it out. And it's not
going past him. The world that then was was kept by the same word and the heavens
and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store
reserved under fire. So Genesis chapter six is a model,
if you will, a picture or a pattern of the day of grace in which
we're living up to the end of this world. It's a picture. He's already set it in place
that we might know without a doubt that it's gonna happen. Gonna
happen. And as the ark was the means
of salvation to Noah, so Christ is the vessel in whom God will
preserve all his elect. Why did God destroy the old world? Wasn't any different than it
is today. Was it? Same thing was going on then,
going on now. Well, we're under the same threat. Genesis 6, 5, And God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The word imagination comes from
the word image, or vice versa. Images are no more than forms
of a wicked imagination. They come forth from the minds
and hearts of men. And these images of his heart
and mind are things he relates to his God. Isaiah 44 9, just listen to this. They that make a graven image
are all of them vanity. The maker and the image, they're
all vanity. And their delectable things shall
not profit. They are their own witnesses. They don't have any basis from
God, no basis from the word of God to do these things. They're
their own witnesses. They see not nor know that they
might be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or molten
a graven image, that is profitable for nothing? What's it do, Russell? Hangs around your neck, you look
at it. It don't do anything to it. Behold, all his fellows shall
be ashamed, and the workmen that did the work, they're gonna be
ashamed. They're all of men. Let all be gathered together,
let them stand up, yet they shall fear and they shall all be ashamed
together. The guy who came up with the
idea, the guy who did it, the guy who overlaid it with gold,
and them that worshiped it. He makes his God even a graven
image, he falleth down unto it, he worshipeth it, and he prays
to it and he says, deliver me. for thou art my God. They've not known or understood
for God has shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts
that they cannot understand. Now this is the story of the
antediluvian world. It's the story of Cain and the
Canaanites. Adam taught his children, all
his children, Cain and Abel, he taught them. He taught them
the way of God. That way was set before him in
the Garden of Eden. A lamb had to be slain. Salvation
through a substitute, through a blood sacrifice. That's the
only way you can worship God. That's the only way you can serve
God. That's the only way you can be saved. They looked on
that lamb and then saw the promised redeemer. They knew. Well, here come the day when
the saints come to worship God, Abel brought his sacrifice, shed
its blood, worshiped God the way Adam taught him to, but not
Cain. Cain got off by himself somewhere
and he said, you know what? I don't like this whole thing
of blood. That's not my idea of God. The
way man ought to worship God is by his works. He ought to
work hard, sacrifice, devote himself to something. He ought
to raise these things. I'm a farmer, so I'm going to
raise my crops. And when I come in to worship
God, I ain't bringing no lamb. I'm going to bring the works
in my hands. I'm going to lay it out here before God. I'm going
to give him the best. And he did. Probably brought
in carrots that long. Brought in all these things,
he laid them all out before God and the Lord come by and just
looked at it and just kept on walking. Had no respect whatsoever
to that sacrifice. But he had respect to that sacrifice
of Abel. That boy Cain was mad. God just ignored his sacrifice. Ignored it. Just treated him
like he wasn't even there. And Abel knew his brother. He
felt sorry for his brother. And he went out in the field
to console his brother and try to convince his brother to bring
a lamb and show him the evil of his ways. And Cain got angry
at his brother. Because he couldn't get at God,
he got at his brother and he slayed him. And God put a mark
on him. And he sent him off to live.
He separated him from the children of God and he sent him off to
the land of Nod. And there was the beginning of
the Canaanites that you read about in the Bible. And they
were great men, men of renown. If you go back and read in Genesis,
you'll be amazed. They were the ones who invented
music. made instruments to play music.
They were men of renown. They were brilliant. They were
brilliant men. And they multiplied and multiplied.
Why did they multiply such? Polygamy. Polygamy. It doesn't take long. When you
turn your back on the way of God, when you turn your back
on the gospel of God, you're open to anything. You better hear what I'm telling
you. You turn your back on him, you say, well, you know, that's
OK, but maybe this is OK, too. Look out. Look out. Oh, I would never, I would never
accept this whole gay thing. Huh? Somebody did. And they said the same thing.
And here they are, participating in it. Oh, I would never do that. Oh, yes, you will. Yes, you will. You'd do anything anybody else
did except for the restraining hand of God. Yes, you will. And there they went. Worshipped
God in his own way, his little God. He just kept right on bringing
his carrots out and putting them out. Just kept right on pretending
that he knew God. Kept right on pretending that
he was worshiping God. And he taught all of his children
this, and his children did that. And his children come up with
even better ways. I said, why don't we just make
us a god? That's what we'll do. I'm an artist. I'll draw a picture. I'll take it down to the workman.
He'll overlay it in gold. The carpenter will shape it,
and then I'll take it down there, they'll overlay it in gold. Man,
this thing gonna be something. We're gonna set it up, and how
we gonna work? Oh, I know what. We'll all dance
naked around the calf. Huh? You think I'm kidding, you
read the Bible. Read the Bible. Moses was gone
40 days. He come back down, and all Israel
was dancing naked around a golden calf. And they threatened to
kill Aaron if he didn't let them. Oh, I'd never do. That's what
they said. That's what they said. I just
want you to get some idea of what was going on in the world.
But here's the crux of it. Here's the crux of it. Every
imagination, every image that those men conceived of God was
only evil continually. That's what he's talking about.
He's not talking about their adultery, and yeah, they practiced
adultery. He's not talking about their
polygamy. He's not talking about these things. He's talking about
their conception of God. And every thought of their imagination
was only evil continually. And God said, I'm gonna wipe
them out. These men lived in spiritual
adultery, idol worship. And they instructed your children
and their children's children and so on until at last they
just practiced these things and didn't think anything of them.
You know, I can remember when they first started talking about
this gay stuff and men and women using the same restrooms and
trying to force that. And man, people were just up
in the air. They was angry as man. It's acceptable now. That's what happened then. All
these things that were gross, wickedness, become everyday practice. When I was a kid, if you heard
that word queer or gay, that guy, if they knew who he was
or who she was, they'd be blackballed out of the community back in
the 50s. Hear it today, don't even raise an eyebrow. Common,
it's acceptable. All of these things. And then
something happened. Something happened. The sons
of God. Now we're talking about believers.
We're talking about men in God's church, their children, just
like you all been raised in here. That's who he's talking about
here, the sons of God. They took notice of the daughters
of men. They were fair, they were beautiful,
they were alluring, they were sensual, they were attractive. They were carefree. They were
forward. Their dress was inviting and
revealing. And they were friendly. They
were friendly and affectionate. They were warm, loving. You talk
to them, they talk to you. And they took them wives of all
which they chose. And the downfall was that they
ignored the warning concerning these women, these daughters
of men, concerning their religious beliefs. God warned Israel over and over
and over and over not to take wives of the Canaanites and the
Hittites, but they did anyway. And oh,
how women can influence their husbands. in matters of God,
matters of faith. I knew a man, a faithful member
of a grace church for a long time. Long time. Just the nicest man. I recall
the last message I preached over there was on Noah. Talking these
same things I'm telling you. And it wasn't long Wasn't too
long. He married a woman. She had kids
by another husband. And in time, one of her boys
came out and said that he was gay. Everybody knew it. Well, things went along okay
until the preacher came to that subject in the scriptures. And
of course, he taught what the Bible teaches about those things. That it was a gross sin. And
the woman got angry. And she told her husband, said,
we're gonna leave that church. Well, why didn't she just stay
home? No. He's coming with me. And he did. And you know what
happened a week later? God killed him. God killed him. I went to his funeral. The sons of God looked on the
daughters of men, and they took to them wives. And their wives
become an influence in their worship, and where they went
to church, and how they acted, and how they lived in the community.
Had a great influence on them. And this is exactly what's going
on here in chapter 6. The world had become a mixed
race of beings, no godly separation, no true place of worship. No sitting under a man who can
watch for your souls. We'll just live out there. We'll
just live out there. And here's the end of it. Every
imagination of the thoughts of men's heart were only evil continually. And God said, I'm going to destroy
them. I'm going to wipe them out. It's all defiled. He said even
the creeping things. He's gonna kill the caterpillars.
He's gonna kill the snakes. He's gonna kill everything. He's
gonna wipe it all out. It's all wicked from man's influence
upon it. The whole outfit's wicked. And you know, that's exactly
the thoughts of God's heart today. Exactly. This is exactly the
condition of this world in which we live. This world, this world
that now is, is kept in store, reserved under fire against the
day of judgment. Now listen, and the perdition.
What's that talking about? That's talking about a man that
God has sent strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned.
He turned him over to himself to be satisfied in a false god
and a false religion. And he'll dance up and down and
run aisles and speak in tongues and anything else they tell him
to do. And he'll love it. And he'll be convinced to the
day he dies, even on his deathbed, he'll have peace, believing that
he knows God. To believe a lie and be damned
for believing it. Men and women in the millions
inhabiting the world and living in open unrestrained adultery
and polygamy and sin. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Noah. You mean you think this little
group here, that God has chosen this little group here out of
all these people all around here? Yeah, that's exactly right. And
if we hadn't found grace in his eyes, we'd be just like them.
Most of us were. In the same churches, believing
the same things. Huh? Standing up on Wednesday
night, Wednesday night testimonial, stand up. I remember the day
and the hours, you know. No one found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. So what did this grace have to
do with the destruction of the world? It set the time of it. It set the time of it. God determined
and allotted a time for the preaching of the gospel and the gathering
in of all that he purposed to say. That's what the 120 years
was for. He allotted 120 years. Grace allotted the time. He talks
about the end of time now in Matthew 24. You need to go read
about it. Here's what he said. Except those
days be shortened, even the elect would be destroyed. But for the
elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. What was that end time all about?
His elect. the gathering in of all that
God purposed to save. Grace allotted the time. And
then secondly, this grace incorporated all the means. God gonna save
them. And it incorporated all the means.
God could have given him gills. You ever think about that? God
could have just given him gills. They could have swam through
the flood. They swam around like a fish. He could have put them
on Mount Ararat, that was the highest mountain in the day,
that's where the ark landed. He could have put them up there
and just brought the waves up so far. Destroyed everything
but them. But neither one of them things
would have pictured Christ, which is what creation and man is all
about. Neither would typify the person
of Christ in the way of salvation. He told This man who found grace
in his eyes, Noah, he said, verse 14, Genesis 6, make thee an ark
of gopher wood. Make some rooms in it. Pitch it within and without.
That's an interesting word. In the original, the word is
kephar. You know how it's interpreted everywhere else in the Bible?
Atonement. That ark was sealed inside and
out to house God's elect from the wrath of God by the atonement. When I studied this years ago,
one of the writers that I read said that gopher wood is not
talking about the species. You know, we talk about oak.
Make then ark of oak. Make then ark of hickory. He
said make then ark of gopher wood. Always, when I'd read that
before, I thought he was talking about the species of wood, and
maybe he is, I don't know, but this man said no. This man said
he's not talking about the species, he's talking about what Noah
was to do with the wood. Gopher wood means formed wood,
shaped wood. Not a bunch of timber roped together.
but wood carved and fashioned to make a seagoing vessel. God
would give Noah the pattern, and he in turn would tell that
pattern to his sons to prepare. And his sons would go out, and
they'd shave those pieces exactly like they was told, and they'd
bring it back, and Noah would help them, and they'd join it
all together. They'd join it all together. The ark wasn't
a big raft with a roof. It was a three-story ship with
a large door, window, and rooms. It had a design. It had a purpose. This vessel was designed to save
all that God chose to save. This vessel must protect and
save what's in it by bearing the wrath of God. He's not gonna
relinquish his wrath, he's not gonna hold back on it, he's gonna
pour out the full wrath of God on man, and he's gonna pour it
out on that ark. But that ark's gonna take it.
And he's gonna preserve everything God put in it. We preach Christ
crucified. And as we set forth the Son of
God our Savior, God enables his elect to put together the pieces.
I sat up here and preached the doctrine of Christ to you. Been
preaching it to Larry now for what, about two years or three.
What do you do with it? You put it together, don't you? His righteousness, his atonement.
God come into the flesh, you put it together. What do you
get when you get done? The image of God. The image of
God. And we don't run around with
an image according to our imagination. Now we know the image of God.
We know who He is, Christ. And then secondly, everything
God purposed to save, He put it in the ark. Man and beast
and seeds and food and clothes and on and on it goes. Everything
needed to preserve the lives of those in the ark was committed
to the ark. Nothing was saved outside the
ark. Nothing survived outside the
ark. All provision was vested in the
ark. Listen to this, Ephesians 1.9.
Paul said, God has made known to us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself,
that in the dispensation, the stewardship, the delegated responsibility
of the fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things
in Christ. That's what he's doing. Everything. Everything. And everything else
gonna be destroyed. Everything else. In whom we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.
And then thirdly, the ark must bear the wrath of God. Justice
has to be satisfied. Sin demands punishment and there's
no way around it. God put all his elect in Christ
who bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He didn't relinquish
his wrath. He didn't cut back on his wrath.
He poured out the full wrath. upon his son, and his son bore
it. And he saved all that was in
him, all that was in him. He died, the scripture said,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. When
the day came, God caused a destructive flood to cover the earth, and
only those in the ark survived it. He's just and justified. And then fourthly, the ark landed
safely in a high place. Didn't have a motor on it. Didn't
have a sail on it. Well, how'd it get to where God
wanted it to be? The same way it did when our
Lord stepped in that mission. They'd been rowing all night.
They hadn't got two furrows. row and row and row and that
storm and the waves beating down on it and they couldn't get nowhere
until Christ stepped into the vessel. Read about it, Owen John.
What happened? When the Lord stepped into that
vessel, it was at its desired destination. How on earth did
he get there? God took it there. Same way the
ark. Same way the ark got there. Oh,
Paul said, He raised us up together. made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. And when everything is done,
when judgment and justice has been dispensed, our ark shall
open its doors. You know, God showed to me, and
this is a three-level door to this huge ark. Big, wide, big
enough for two elephants to walk up side to side. It's a big door.
Nobody could shut that door. No mechanism gonna shut that
door. They walked in and they said, God shut them in. How'd
he get out? God opened the door. He put us in Christ. And when
our Savior shall appear, then shall we also appear with him,
now listen, in glory. In glory. When he opens the door,
Russell, we'll step out into glory. We're in him. And here's my last point, and
I hurry. Once God reveals his redemptive will to Noah and revealed
it to his house, all earthly concerns came to an end except
the ministry to which God committed to Noah. He had no other interest. I'm not talking about necessities.
He had to eat, and he had to wear clothes. I'm not talking
about that. Noah believed God. There was no need to build a
house. God was going to flood the world. He was going to destroy
everything. Why would I want to build this big elaborate house
and tear down my barns and build bigger barns? You know what this
world is concerned with. Huh? He believed God. 120 years ago, God was going
to wipe this place out. He believed that everything outside
the ark was gonna be destroyed just like what God said. Well,
what about you and I? Peter said, back in 2 Peter 3
again, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought we to be in all holy behavior and godliness
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God?
Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and
the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. Do we believe
that? Then we ought to live that way.
That's what Noah did. Our Lord said, lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt,
where thieves break through and steal. Lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and
where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure
is, there's where your heart is also. Those who have the revelation
of God, who found grace in his eyes, they believe God. And believing
God, this world ceases to be their treasure. They look beyond
the deluge. We look beyond the crisis, whatever
it is. We look beyond those things. And then I'll say this and I'll
quit. The appearing of the ark was the only sign that they had
that God intended to save. Our Lord appeared on this earth.
You know what that tells me? Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. His appearance
on this earth tells me, guarantees me, that God intends to save
somebody. That's what that ark did. He
pointed to that ark. He used to get pointed to that
ark. Kept preaching Christ, preaching Christ, pointing to the ark.
We got the same thing except we're just pointing people to
Christ. That's what I'm trying to do when talking about this
ark. I'm trying to point you to Christ. There's no other way
except Christ. None other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. In Christ, in Christ. May the Lord reveal this to all
our hearts. all of our. Thank you.