Turn with me to Genesis chapter
7. Genesis chapter 7. We're going
to read the first 19 verses in this chapter. Yes. Genesis chapter
7, verses 1 through 19. And the Lord said to Noah, Come
thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt
take to thee by sevens the male and his female, and beasts that
are not clean by two, the male and his female. Fouls also the
air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon
the face of all the earth. For yet seven days I will cause
it to rain upon the earth, forty days and forty nights, and every
living substance that I have made will I destroy from off
the face of the earth. And Noah did according to all
that the Lord commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years
old when the flood of the waters was upon the earth. And Noah
went in and his sons and his wife, and his sons' wives, and
with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of
clean beasts, the beasts that are not clean, of fowls, of everything
that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two by two, two
and two, unto Noah and to the ark, the male and the female,
as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass, after seven
days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In
the sixth hundred year of Noah's life, in the second month, the
seventeenth day of the month, the same day where all the fountains
of the great deep broke up and the windows of heaven were opened,
and the rain was upon earth forty days and forty nights, And in
the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, Ham, Japheth, the sons
of Noah, Noah's wives, and the three wives of his sons with
them into the ark. They and every beast after his
kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every
fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went
unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is
the breath of life. And they went in, when in male
and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the Lord
shut him in. And the flood was forty days
upon the earth, and the waters increased and bare up the ark,
and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters prevailed. and were increased greatly upon
the earth. And the ark went upon the face of the waters, and the
waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high
hills that were under the whole heaven were covered." And we'll
just stop there. I could go ahead and finish reading,
but it's just a narration of what's happening with the rain
and the floods and the ark being beared up by the waters. When we look at this chapter
7, we're just going to look at a couple of verses. But before
we do that, look at verse 1 of chapter 7. And the Lord said
unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. So we
have this bidding. The Lord Himself bids Noah and
his family to come into the ark. But before we look at that, We've
got to go back to chapter 6. We've got to go back to chapter
6. You see, in chapter 7, God is speaking to one of His dear
children. He's speaking to Noah, and Noah
obeys Him. He's speaking to His dear children. But to start in verse 1 would
be to take out of context the thought and the import of this
lesson. Or to say it another way, many
false, most false, all false teachers are very cunning and
deceitful to use this book, the Bible, to say things that are
not contextually appropriate, nor are they accurate. They say
right off the bat, they stand up here without any introduction,
without any previous contextual thoughts, they just say, smile,
God loves you. Or they say, God is just, He
wants you to be saved, He's trying to make you be saved, He wants
to save you. They just come out, they just
come out. And I know I've talked to many pastors about this over
the years. They just come right out and they'll get one verse
or one thing and then they'll just say it. With no... contextual quality of what's
before the verse or what's after the verse. And what I'm saying
is this, nowhere in this book do you have a stand-alone concept,
a stand-alone verse or statement. It has to be taken in context.
And so for me, just to go to verse 1, chapter 7, and just
say, come. We don't know who we're coming
to. We don't know, and that's the
problem with false preaching. They skip a whole lot of the
character and qualities and attributes of God. But we do know, and repeatedly
is noted in this book, that the truth of God or of God's Word
comes, it's read or preached or meditated upon first. Then
comes the cry, come. Because we, you and me or us,
cannot come to someone we've never seen. We cannot come to
one that we've never heard about. And the Jesus that the false
preachers and teachers and deceivers are preaching is not the Jesus
of the Bible. So when they tell you to come,
You're not coming to the right one. And that's essential in
salvation. And if we don't come, and if
we don't told who Christ is, what He's done, where He's at,
if we don't qualify, just come. Come to what? We're just basically
going to stand still in our own self-righteousness. We're going
to stand still in our own self-righteousness. Henry Scott or these guys said
for many, many years, you can't come back from somewhere you've
never been. And the Word declares, and it
shines and reveals darkness. It reveals a need to come. It reveals a need to flee
from the wrath to come. I don't know anything about wrath.
All I know is Jesus supposedly loves me, and the Bible has a
little song that says that He does, and I believe that song.
I don't know any verses in the Bible but John 3.16, and that's
taken out of context. As I said, nowhere that I know
of in this book do you just have one verse that stands by itself.
It's wrapped in context. Freewillism, easy-believism,
fire escape from hell, that's what Jesus is to most people.
That's what's being preached. So, what we have here in verse
7, we've got to go back in chapter 6. And there's basically, we
could look at many verses, there's just two verses we're going to
look at briefly. the absolute depravity of man, verse 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." That's universal, total depravity. We are born that way, and if
God does not meet us in our path, We will continue that way. Men,
women, boys, girls were all exceeding sinful. Then verse 8, But Noah, but Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He didn't have grace. He was as wicked as everybody.
He was given grace. He was given faith. Which you
can see that in Peter. It would go to New Testament.
The Old Testament. The Old Testament saints, they
understood Christ and His Gospel. They saw Him in type. And they
were looking for a better country. So once God makes us, His elect,
willing in the day of His power, because all we know is we've
got major problems, then we will come to chapter 7 and verse 1,
and we will come. Because there's a need. Like
I say, if we don't know who we're coming to, we're not going to
come. We have to know who God is, who
Christ is, what He's done. So now we get into chapter 7
and verse 1. And the Lord said to Noah, who
has grace, and grace has been imputed, And so it answers, it obeys God,
it answers back to God. It's the new nature, the new
creation in Christ Jesus. We're all like everybody from
birth. Imagination of the thoughts of
our hearts are evil continually. There's none that doeth good
and sinneth not. We've all together become unprofitable. None that seek God. No, not one. Why are you seeking God now? because He's given you grace,
and that, not of yourselves. And He says in chapter 7, verse
1, come. Now let's just go look at this
and another verse. This is almost the eternal security
of the saints. This is just absolutely beautiful.
And the Lord said to Noah, come, thou and all thy house into the
ark. Come. What a sweet prodding of
the Redeemer. and His gracious Spirit come."
Turn to Psalms of Solomon chapter 4. Songs of Solomon chapter 4 and
verse 8. Come with me from Lebanon, my
spouse. This is Christ speaking to His
church. Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse. With me from Lebanon. Come out from among them, says
the Lord. That's why we're not to be unequally
yoked with unbelievers. They don't understand the Gospel.
They don't love the Gospel. Come out from among them. The
words of our gracious Lord are here. Come. The Lord God. Come. Come. He did not say go,
but come. There's a difference. Go indicates
a departure, but come implies communion, fellowship with someone. He says in Matthew 11, Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Come unto me. Revelations 22, the Spirit and
the Bride say, Come. Come. He draws the sinner by the cords
of eternal electing love, and He asks us to come dine with
Him. Come into the ark. Come into
the ark. Come to Him. Come away with Him. Come only because He powerfully,
effectually, and tenderly causes us to flee from ourselves to
Him. And He says, where is He coming?
Come into the ark. That's Christ. We know that's
Christ. And this is interesting, this
is the first usage of the word come in the Bible. And I believe it's over 1,900
times besides. Blessed command of God, blessed
power to enable sinners to obey. Come thou and thy family into
the ark, for thee I have seen righteousness before me. Who's
our righteousness? The Lord God, our righteousness.
We have none. He is our righteousness. That
word, come, literally means cause to enter. And aren't we to enter
into the rest of Christ? Yes, we are. Yes, we are. One
thing I noticed about this coming, this calling, it's a sovereign
call, it's a personal call. Look at our text, verse 1, You can't be called for somebody
else. You can't get your children saved. The Lord has to call them
specifically. Has to call them personally. Come thou personal to the appointed
sinner who is chosen, who is called the elect, who is called
the remnant. And this supreme call cannot be thwarted by our
puny, fruitless wills. Come thou. Come thou. And so it is so. And also this
call, it has an end. He doesn't just call and then
leave us alone. There's an end in which the calling
is provided. The calling and quickening of
God is unto the ark. Come thou and all thy house into
the ark. Not to doctrine. Not to the church
specifically. Come to me. Come to me. He is the potter. We are the
clay. There is absolutely no unfairness with God. He does
all things well, says Mark chapter 7. Only those in the ark were
safe. You know the story. All others
drowned. All others drowned. Therefore,
we are to come to Him for refuge. We are to come to Christ for
healing. We are to come to Christ for
mercy. Ask Him to cause you to come. How do I come? Mom, Dad,
brothers, sisters, Dad, how do I come? Ask Him to cause you
to come. Ask Him to give you a heart,
to see what you are outside of grace, and ask Him to cause me
to come. Now, I will say, perhaps there
are some who hear my voice who have never really come to Christ.
Perhaps you've come to a doctrine. Perhaps you've come to flee from
hell. Perhaps you've come because someone
expected you to come. But you've never come to the
Lord Jesus Christ for the healing that is in His atoning death.
Come to Him now. Do not delay one minute. Do not
delay one moment. Come to Him. Come to Him. The second and last point, look
at verse 16. Moving on, verse 16, with His
calling will come guaranteed protection evermore. Look at verse 16, and they that
went in, they obeyed the command. And that's the gospel command.
The gospel command is for you to repent. And repentance is
coming to Him. Repentance is turning from former
lusts and ways. Turning. It's coming. It's causing to come. And then we obey. Because we
can't help it. We're His children. They went
in, male and female, all flesh, as God had commanded Him. He's
talking about Noah. And the Lord, the Lord, shut
Him in. The Lord shut Him in. He, by Himself, will secure everything
necessary for our keeping. The Lord shut Him in. And I don't
know if I've ever seen that. The Lord shut Him in. What more
comfort do we have? What more comfort do we need? This is His sovereign keeping. It's effectual grace indeed.
We're sin abounded. Grace did much more about. Why?
Because of the dispenser of grace. It's God the Father through God
the Son, enabled by God the Holy Spirit. We, according to His
infallible Word, do not have to keep ourselves or to take
care of ourselves. Yes, we need to be responsible,
but in the end, He keeps us. He shut the door. He shut us
in. The Lord, He is responsible for
the keeping of all His dear sheep. No goats. He doesn't keep goats.
It's His sheep. His sheep. Turn with me to 1
Peter 1. 1 Peter 1 and verse 5. In Christ Jesus, verse 4, we
have an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away,
reserved in heaven for you, we who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Romans chapter 8, starting in
verse 35, Who is He that condemneth? I'm
sorry, verse 34, it is Christ that died, yea, rather is risen
again. Who is even at the right hand
of God who also makes intercession for us? Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Distress? Persecution? How about famine,
nakedness, peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, for we are counted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we, who? The sheep, we,
are more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded.
Neither death, life, angels, principalities, powers, are things
present or things to come. You don't know what's going to,
we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow in this country or in any other
country in this world. We're all upset about it. But
be persuaded like Paul. Ask God to give you grace to
be persuaded that no more things to come, nor height, depth, or
any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in, and only in, and only by, and only through
Christ Jesus our Lord. John chapter 10. John chapter 10 verse 27, 28,
and 29. John chapter 10, My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. They come to
Me. They come unto Me for life everlasting. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all. There's God's sovereignty. Right
there. He's greater than all. He's greater
than all. He's greater than this president,
the last president, the president before him. He's greater than
Congress. He's greater than the Senate.
He's greater than the Supreme Court. He's greater than Russia. He's greater than China. Greater than all. What does that
include? Everything. There's your security. That's being shut in. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. No man can do that. Robert Hawker
said this about this passage. And I thought this was very interesting.
It was as impossible for Noah to get out of the ark as it was
for those that perished to get in. Let me re-read that. It was as impossible for Noah
to get out of the ark as it was those that perished to get in. The Lord, He shut those in, those
eight souls, and He shut out everybody else. That's sovereignty. As I said, God will not be dictated
to, we know God is merciful, He's compassionate, He's also
just, holy, but He's ever wise, He's omnipotent, We know that
what He does is correct. So, we ask Him, Lord, cause me
to come. Cause me to come. Cause me to
enter into Your rest. I have no strength. I'm like
that woman with the issue of blood. I've tried and I've tried.
I went to doctors. I went to this person and I've
spent everything I had. Everything I had going to the
wrong person for cure. Because if I can touch the hem
of Christ's garment, I'll be made whole. That's what I'm saying.
Come to Christ. I don't care if you've been listening
for 40 years to Sovereign Grace and you think you know something
and I think I know something. We come afresh and anew. I love
what Tim James says. There's the three tenses of salvation.
We are saved, we're being saved, and we shall be saved. The believer
never stops coming. I could go to 1 Peter. Unto whom
coming? Just remember that. If we ever
stop coming, we've never came. We're kept through covenant agreement. We're kept by the blood-sealed
work of redemption. We're kept by His glorious Spirit. We are kept by the will and purpose
of God the Father. Blessed Lord of all and over
all. I love that in John. There's
not anything, all. There's everybody subject to
Him and He's subject to no one. So I close. It's a simple two-point
lesson or thought out of Genesis. Has He shut you in? Has He shut
us in? Nobody has the right to say unto
Him, what are you doing? Matter of fact, the Scripture
says, Thou openest and none shut, and Thou shuttest and none openeth. That's probably what Robert Hawker
got his saying. God opens and none shuts, and
He shuts and nobody opens. Are you shut in to the grace
of God? Are you shut in the ark? May
we be shut up together with Christ, our beloved ark. In that ark,
they're riding up one way, going down another, they're going through
storms of life, night time, day time, but the whole time, they
were kept under the loving shadow of His sovereign wing in the
ark. May He draw us. If He draws us,
we will come. And if we come, He will keep. That's His promise to us. Nathan, would you close us?