Well, turn with me to Genesis
chapter six this morning. Genesis chapter six, the gospel
shown in grace. all true followers of Christ
sense separation from the world. It's true. In a way, whilst you
try to be friendly and as much as in us is, aim to live at peace
with all men and be neighborly and all of those things, yet
there is a sense in which as a true believer, a citizen of
the kingdom of God, with hearts and affection set in heaven,
in the kingdom of God and of Christ. This world to us is an
alien place, and we live in a wilderness separation from the world around. There is an isolation. Yes, I
know there are things to enjoy, but generally speaking, there
is an isolation, there is loneliness. There are people all around us
but so few with whom we can share knowledge of our God in Christ,
the blessings of the kingdom of God, hope of eternal glory. You know, these are things that
are just alien to the worldling around us, to the people around
us that are in this world. I'm just going to pause just
for a moment because I'm afraid, I'm sure something's gone wrong
with our router and we're no longer broadcasting to, ah, maybe
it's come back. Apologies if this keeps happening
during this broadcast, we've had trouble with the router the
last couple of days, it keeps dropping out and if it does I'm
sorry but the thing is being recorded and it will be put on
the internet later. So as I was saying, we have this
distance from the people who are the people of God, true believers,
and those who are in the world, the world around us that has
no thought for God. We can't share with them the
hope of glory. We can't share the comfort of
eternal peace with them. Some people, some Christians
used to talk much of there being a great revival before the end,
but I'm afraid I just do not see it. Rather, it is much more
like the days of Noah. The days of Noah that Peter read
the chapter 6 of Genesis to us earlier, The days in which we
live are much more like those days. You say, how can they be?
We're so modern now, and yet Noah was thousands and thousands
of years ago, thousands of years before Christ came. How can you
compare the society and the world that we live in now with the
world that there was then? Well, it is exactly the same. If you look at Psalm 14, in Psalm
14 and verses 2 and 3, this is what the Word of God says about
how things are now. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. They are all gone aside. They
are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. They're all workers of iniquity.
That's the verdict of God on this world in which we live.
The verdict of God on this world is that it is a world full of
sinners, exactly as it was in the days of Noah. It was like
that, exactly the same in Noah's day. There had been the godly
line. You know, Adam was taught the
gospel at the end of chapter 3 of Genesis. And Adam taught
the gospel to his sons, and one son, Abel, believed it, and another
son, Cain disbelieved it and went in the way of Cain. And
then there was another son born, Seth, at the end of chapter 4.
And to him also was born a son called Enos. And then men began
to call upon the name of the Lord. They began to worship God.
They began to seek God. They began to do the will of
God. All of this happened then, in those days. And down the generations
came Enoch. And Enoch, we were seeing last
week, was a man who walked with God. And he didn't even see death. God proved that there was an
eternity, that there was a God. By taking Enoch straight from
this world, there was this godly line. And this godly line went
down through Seth and Enoch, and Enos and Enoch and Noah. Noah was a godly man. And then
we see in Genesis chapter 6 verses 1 to 4. It came to pass when
men began to multiply on the face of the earth. Do you know
there were a lot of people? Don't think there were just a
tiny handful. You say, how can that be? Think about the growth
of population in the world. I've said it before, and it staggered
me when I looked at it and I discovered it was true. Do you know, in
my lifetime, the population of this world has trebled For every
one person there was when I was a little boy in the 1950s, there
are now three people, going on for four people in the world.
That's how much the population has grown. I know it grew from
a base of a couple of billion or so, but nevertheless, Populations,
when the conditions are right, populations grow very rapidly. It was only when people died
a lot younger, on average, through the Middle Ages, that we don't
see huge population growth in those times. But there was a
big population. Men began to multiply upon the
face of the earth. We hear a lot about exponential
growth. Well, it was an exponential growth
of population in those days. And daughters were born to the
men. and the sons of God, meaning
the descendants of the godly line of Seth and Enos and Enoch,
that godly line which maintained the worship of God, which came
to where God had said to come, pointing the way to the tree
of life in the Garden of Eden. That way, when When that godly
line of the sons of God saw the daughters of the line of Cain
that rejected the truth of God, they were fair, they were beautiful
to look upon, and they took wives of them, and there was an intermarrying.
Do you know how many times in the Scripture God tells his people
that their daughters should not marry the sons of the heathen
and the aliens and vice versa, because they will corrupt you,
and they will take your mind off the true God, and they will
cause you to worship idols and all of those things. They did,
and they had children. and they took wives of all that
they chose and the Lord said my spirit will not always strive
with man for that he is also flesh he is also going to die
basically is what that means yet his days shall be 120 years
you know this was in the days when men and women typically
lived hundreds of years, 950. Methuselah was the oldest, 969.
And yet his days shall be limited to 120 years. And in verse four,
you get this sort of picture. You read it and you sort of think,
wow, look at this. There were giants in the earth
in those days. And also after that, when the
sons of God came in to the daughters of men and their bare children
to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of
renown. Oh, great men, no. Great sinners is what it's meaning.
Great sinners, utterly corrupt. If you turn over a couple of
chapters to chapter 10, and we read in verse 8 of chapter
10 about Cush, who begat Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one
in the earth. He was a mighty hunter. Actually,
that's not a good translation. A rebellious panther is more
like it. He was one who hated the living
God and sought to create a kingdom which had nothing to do with
the justice and righteousness of God. And in verses 5 to 7
of Genesis chapter 6, God saw the wickedness of man. These
giants, these men of renown, they were not renowned in good
things, they were renowned in evil, sinful things. And God
saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And that,
listen, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. It was only godless continually. It was only unbelieving God. Because, you know, the greatest
wickedness is unbelief of God. Because why? Because unbelief
is calling God a liar. Calling the God of truth, the
eternal God of truth. If you don't believe Him, you're
saying, I don't believe you God, you're a liar. That's the greatest
wickedness there is, the scripture tells us. And the thoughts of
the heart of man, the imagination of it, was only evil continually. As Jeremiah says, the heart of
man is wicked above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know
it? The Lord knows it. The Lord knows
what it's like, truly evil. And it says, And it repented
the Lord that he had made man on the earth. He changed his
direction. And it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing
and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made
them. Why? Why would he destroy it
all? Answer, because of sin. Sin,
which was from Adam's fall, in Genesis chapter 3, from the Garden
of Eden. That perfect communion and fellowship
with God was broken. And that fellowship, God had
said, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. For dust you are, you were made
out of the dust of the ground, and to dust you shall return. you shall return to dust. God's
holiness demands that sin pays a penalty, and that penalty is
death, and that is the curse of the law. It is the demand
of divine justice. God cannot remain God in truth
and integrity, which of course God must be, He's the very definition
of truth and integrity, but He cannot remain that if sin should
go unpunished, if the debt of sin against His holiness and
justice should go without being paid. All, without exception,
are deserving of death, were deserving of death then, exactly
as all, without exception, are deserving of death now. And look
around you. Don't we see it? Every day, and
he died, and he died, and he died. And do you think you'll
be any better? You know it's appointed to man
to die once, and then the judgment. You think about it, it's appointed
to you to die once, and then the judgment. Dare you say that
you are ready to stand before Almighty God, outside of Christ,
and question His justice? You know what the law says, it
tells us in Romans 3 verse 19, the law speaks to everybody in
this world as sinners, that every mouth might be stopped. Nobody's
got any excuse to bring. All the world might be found
guilty before God. That's what the law says to people
everywhere in these days and in those days of Noah. And in
strict justice, God would be just, nobody could accuse him
of injustice, to execute righteous judgment on all without exception,
without any delay whatsoever. couldn't accuse God of injustice.
He would be right to execute justice on all without exception. Except. Except. There's an except. There's an
except that he would be unjust, he would be unjust if he executed
judgment on anyone whose sin debt is already paid. Is that
not what we just sang? Look at your hymn books, look
at your hymn sheet. What did we just sing? We sang
this. Payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand, Christ, when he died on the cross of Calvary, and paid
the curse of the law being made a curse, redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. Him having done that,
God can't demand payment again. because it's already paid. The
justice of God has already fallen. He says in the first verse, Have
you, O Father, put to grief your spotless Son for me? And will
the righteous judge of men condemn me for the debt of sin that Lord
has charged on thee? He's paid it. So how can it be
charged again? On the sinner in Christ? It can't. God would be unjust to do that.
There is a world of sinners a world of sinners, by which I mean the
elect of God. God so loved the world, His elect.
Not everybody in the world without exception, but people from all
parts of the world who were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. An innumerable, multi-ethnic
multitude, loved with everlasting love. I have loved thee with
an everlasting love, says God to His people in the book of
Jeremiah. The people for whom the Lamb
of God, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world, the world of His people, His elect. Behold the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb of God who
was slain from the foundation of the world, says Revelation
13.8. He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. I looked and I beheld, says John.
in Revelation chapter 5. I beheld, and when he looked
at the lion of the tribe of Judah, what did he see? A lamb as it
had been slain. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Why was he slain? To pay redemption's
price with his own precious blood. And He came in time when the
fullness of the time was come, says Galatians 4 verse 4. When
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem those who were
under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. Qualify for the kingdom of God,
for the family of God, the passport into the kingdom of God because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for the people that
were united to him before the beginning of time. And all of
this is because God is merciful and gracious. You read again
and again throughout the scriptures that whilst God is a consuming
fire, whilst it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God, whilst God is angry with the wicked every
day, Nevertheless, God is merciful and gracious and kind and compassionate. And in His own time, He reveals
His saving, justice-satisfying grace to each one that He united
with Christ in eternity, until every last one of them knows
this, Christ died for me. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. but Jesus Christ is my all in
all. And so it was with Noah. Look
at verse 8 of Genesis chapter 6. But Noah, in this wicked,
wicked world, so similar to our day but for the technology that
we have now, in the hearts of men and women exactly the same
thoughts and passions and intentions and lusts and desires and sinfulness
and deceitfulness, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Justice demanded destruction,
but for the elect, God had paid the penalty Himself. In the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, who came in time,
made of a woman, to redeem those who were under the law, that
they might receive the adoption of sons, to make them the righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that there is therefore now,
Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. Do you hear that? Blazing it
from the rooftop. There is therefore now no condemnation
from the holy God who demands justice for sin and punishment
for sin. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the
flesh, but according to the spirit. So that was the situation then,
but let's look at what it says in verse 6. It repented the Lord
that he had made man on the earth. It's as if God changed his mind,
that it had been going along in a particular way and God suddenly
thought, you know, this just isn't working, I'm going to change
my plan. of course, that it repented. Repent means, you know, from
the French penser, to think, it rethought it. God rethought
it. It's an anthropomorphic term,
which means using a term about God, you know, like when we talk
about God having hands, and a face, and so on, all these people type
things, created people type things. It's an anthropomorphic term.
People are ones who rethink, who get it wrong and rethink.
God doesn't change in that way. God cannot change. The Word of
God is so clear. Malachi 3 verse 6, I am the Lord,
I change not, and the result of that is therefore you are
not consumed ye sons of Jacob. The fact that God doesn't change
is such a solid basis of assurance. He can't change His mind. He
has determined salvation before the beginning, and it will be
completed through to the end. Hebrews 13 verse 8, who is God
but Jesus Christ? Christ is God. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. God cannot change. So
what can it possibly mean that it repented the Lord that He
had made man on earth? God's eternal purpose is His
own glorification, that He be glorified. You say, how selfish
of Him. No, no, no, you're applying human
emotions to that which is God. It is right and just for God
to be glorified above all else. You know, the best form of government
is benign dictatorship, and there is no better, there is no higher,
there is no more glorious, there is no more blessed, benign dictator
of the universe than the living God, if I can use those terms.
And his eternal purpose is his own glorification, and that comes
Yes, he's powerful. Yes, he's almighty. Yes, he's
eternal. But show me your glory, said
Moses. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. The fact that God, who is holy
and cannot look upon sin, is gracious in salvation to those
who are by nature sinners, the children, the progeny of Adam,
is the greatest glory of God. And I've told you before, He
created the universe as the canvas, as it were, on which redemption,
salvation of His people, is displayed. But in the course of unfolding
redemption's plan, although God Himself never changes, His course
of action can change and does change. Man was created to populate
the earth, but now they will all be destroyed in strict justice. You know, they were created to
populate, but now they'll all be destroyed. It's a change of
direction. It isn't that God suddenly thought,
oh dear, I've got this wrong, I better do things differently.
In the same way that Israel as a nation was once greatly blessed
of God, now Israel, along with the rest of the unbelieving world,
is cursed as far as divine favor is concerned. I know there are
a whole load of people that think people that call themselves Jews
living in the Middle East are somehow specially favored by
God outside of the Gospel of Grace. It's a complete and utter
fallacy, an utter lie. There's zero basis in Scripture
for thinking that. It's a total misunderstanding
of the Scriptures to think like that. But you see, it's all part
of God's plan, where the direction changes under His eternal sovereign
purposes. But this is what this says to
our generation. We need to learn the lessons.
These things, says Romans 15, are written for our learning
upon whom the ends of the earth are come. This is written for
our learning. We need to learn from this. Jesus
told the people listening to him, learn from what happened
in Noah's day. God's judgment against sin is
perfectly just. It's inevitable. It's unavoidable. God cannot remain God and sin
go unpunished. It is coming. It is unavoidable.
Look at Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24 and verse
36. He's talking about the end coming.
He's talking about the days in which we're living now. But of
that day and hour, remember the foolish virgins weren't ready?
The bridegroom's coming, but they're not ready. Nobody knows
when he's coming. But of that day and hour knoweth
no man. No, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were,
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. It'll be just
the same. When the end of this world comes,
it will be just as it was in the days of Noah. Everybody in
unbelief, going about their sinful business with no thought of God
or His justice or His worship or anything at all to do with
Him, populating overflowing the earth with their sin. exactly
as it is today. For as in the days that were
before the flood, look what they were doing, they were eating
and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, just life
going on as normal, until the day that Noah entered into the
ark and knew not until the flood came. There they were one day
and the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming
of the Son of Man be. You know, we see news items in
bad stormy weather of floods coming seemingly out of nowhere
and sweeping people away to their deaths. You know, that's for
one or two. A couple of people here, a couple
of people there in very bad conditions. Look, it's talking about everywhere
and everyone. There shall be two in the field.
One shall be taken, the other left. Two, and women shall be,
is in italics, that isn't in the original. Two people grinding
at the mill. I think when the translators
translated this, who else would it be other than women grinding
at the mill? Two grinding at the mill, one taken and the other
left. You see, exactly as it was in
the days of Noah is how it shall be. Don't doubt God's seriousness. He did it then, he will do it
as he has said again. Do I believe it? Do I believe
that God flooded this world and took all life away? Surely you
can't think that, can you? Surely we've got to rationalize
it all, because, you know, modern science tells us that it's just
a myth, it's just a fairy story, you know, there are these myths
of floods all over the world in ancient tribes, and you just
don't believe this one. Well, I'll tell you why I believe
it, absolutely, literally, as the scriptures declare it. God
has spoken from heaven. and by His Spirit inspired the
writers and given us His Word. And if He has spoken, God cannot
lie and will not lie." But not only that, they say, well, the
science completely refutes it. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't.
I am 100% sure that geology, if you look through the eyes
of gospel grace and the Spirit of God enlightening us, geology
all around confirms it. I don't do it now, but I used
to read books and magazines from the Creation Research Society,
and there was a book by Morris called The Genesis Flood, and
another one by Wickham called, Wickham and Morris I think it
was, The World That Perished. And it was all about geological
evidence. Do you know that the Grand Canyon cannot possibly
have formed the way that modern geologists tell us it did? It
cannot. It just can't. It's impossible. It's fairy stories. It's not true. It's science.
Do you know what the scripture calls much of our modern day
science? And by golly, when we look at
the way that our so-called scientists are managing this so-called pandemic,
it applies equally well to that. Science falsely so-called. It's not true. And it denies
it. Why? Their reason is this. to avoid accountability to God. What did I say before? It is
appointed to man to die once and then the judgment. All evolutionary
thinking is an attempt to deny the truth of God. Why did God
wait while Noah built the ark? Peter tells us, 1 Peter chapter
3 and verse 20, he says this, which sometime were disobedient,
the people of those days, when once the long-suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein
few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. In other words,
there was a building of the ark that went on for a long time,
and the purpose of that was to give opportunity for people to
come in. to come in. And the gospel goes
out now. Judgment is promised. The gospel
goes out now. Hear the gospel. Today is the
day of salvation. But judgment is promised. Verse
13 of chapter 6. I will destroy them. Behold,
I will destroy them. The end of all flesh has come
before me. The earth is filled with violence. and through them,
and behold, I will destroy them with the earth." It's all going
to be destroyed. So how will Noah and his family be saved? Answer? You know it. You know
it. So well known, the story. The
ark. The ark. Make thee an ark of
gopher wood. Gopher wood was particularly
rot-proof. Make you an ark of gopher wood.
Rooms or nests shall you make in the ark. Compartments for
creatures to live in. And you'll pitch it with in and
without with pitch. And all the details of how it
was to be made are given. You know there are three arks
in the scripture. And all of them speak of salvation. There was Noah's ark, this one.
There was the little ark in which Moses the baby was put by his
mother in the bulrushes by the River Nile in Egypt, when he
was found by Pharaoh's daughter when she came with her maidens
down to bathe in the river. And there was this baby in this
little ark which saved him from the death that was coming at
the hand of Pharaoh on all of the male children of the Israelites
in Egypt at the time. And then, after Sinai, there
was the Ark of the Covenant, which they carried with the tables
of the law, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the pot of manna,
the manna that fed them all those years, and on the top of it,
the golden mercy seat with the cherubims, that is such a picture
of salvation, that Ark of the Covenant, and they all picture
Christ. These are they, said Christ,
these scriptures are they which speak of me, in that they speak
of salvation from just condemnation. They speak of the justice of
God being satisfied in a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. We read
that Noah was a just man, verse 9. These are the generations
of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations,
and Noah walked with God, so surely that was why God showed
him favor. No, he was a just man because
he was justified. You have to, you know the best
commentary on the Bible is the rest of the Bible, and you have
to read the rest of the given Word of God. Noah was a regenerated
sinner. He was one who was in the line
of Adam, and Abel, and Seth, and Enos, and Enoch, and all
the way down that line, that came to the place where God had
specified the way to the tree of life would be shown. which
was between, it's at the end of chapter 3, end of chapter
3. You know, look, just let me remind
you, because it's so important, the last verse of chapter 3,
God drove out the man from Eden, from direct access on his own
to the tree of life. and he placed at the east of
the garden, let me read the Jameson, Fawcett and Brown translation
again, right? He drove out the man and he,
God, dwelt at the east of the garden of Eden between cherubims
as a shekinah, a fire sword. to keep open the way to the tree
of life. There is only one way to the
tree of life, and that one way to the tree of life is the one
who is the way, the truth, and the life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the one. And worship there was conducted
on a regular basis with a lamb slain, picturing the Lamb of
God who would come. to be slain and shed his blood
in time when the fullness of the time was come. Noah sided
with God regarding righteousness and justice unlike anybody else
in his day. He was a preacher of righteousness.
He called on people to join him in the ark for safety from the
just judgment that was coming. In 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 5
we read that God spared not the old world but saved Noah, the
eighth person, I think it means one of eight people, who was
a preacher of righteousness. While that ark was being prepared
for a hundred years or more, he was a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Consider
how the ark is such a clear type of Christ in saving God's elect
from condemnation. Firstly, firstly, here's just
a few points. Firstly, the Ark was planned
in every detail. It wasn't an afterthought. It
wasn't an, oh dear, what should we do now? It was planned in
every detail. So the covenant of grace in Christ,
which was sealed between the members, the persons of the one
God, the Godhead, the triunity of God, in eternity before the
beginning of time, that covenant of grace in all of its performance
was determined then before time began, before there was ever
a creation, before there was ever man on the earth, the whole
thing was determined. As we read in the New Testament,
in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9, where it tells us that God
has saved us with a holy calling, saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works. He didn't call Noah
according to his works, but he saved him as he saves all his
people, according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus. It was sealed and certified and
guaranteed and made utterly unchangeable in Jesus Christ when? Before
the world began. Before ever the clock of time
began ticking. Before ever the clock of this
universe began ticking. That was determined by God, and
it was for this ark. Secondly, it was sufficient. The ark, you say, one boat to
preserve life on a planet that was overflowing with people and
life, and it's all going to be destroyed, but one boat is going
to be enough for it to be repopulated. Yes, it was sufficient for all
that God saved from judgment. You know, I believe that there's
some remarkable things. You know, we observe hibernation
in a lot of animals, that when it's winter they go to sleep
and they don't eat for months and months on end. You think,
how would all the food for all those cattle and bears and, you
know, whatever else it was, how would they all get in the ark?
Well, I believe that hibernation probably played a great part.
I have no difficulty in believing what God has said. It was miraculous,
but God has said it, and God did it. It was sufficient for
all that God saved. The nests in it, the rooms in
it, were sufficient for all, for all life. And you note, it
was the kinds not the species, it was, you know, the gene pools
were big, the speciation of, you know, all the different types
of finches, you know, which don't interbreed now, all come from
a common ancestor, a kind, and so I believe it was. It was sufficient,
but so is the salvation that God has displayed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, God himself could not
suffer. As a spirit, God could not suffer
and pay redemption's price in the place of man. And any one
man was utterly limited by his own inadequacy and his own personal
sin. But when God became man, made
of a woman, not of a man, made of a woman, made under the law,
conceived of the Holy Ghost, the God-man. When he came, he
had the capacity of infinite God. He was in the likeness of
sinful flesh, but without sin. He was able, it says in Hebrews
7.25, to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him.
Thirdly, I'd better hurry up. It was a place you had to enter
willingly. Come into the Ark. And so is
Christ. You must come willingly. Come
unto Him. Come unto Me, all you who labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And He makes His
people, Psalm 110 verse 3, willing in the day of His power. He is
the door into the ark, just as the ark had one door, He is the
door. John 10 verse 9, I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. Do you hear the certainty of
that? This is the Son of God who cannot lie, speaking. I am
the door. He is the ark. I am the door.
If any man enter in, he shall be saved. Look at Genesis 7 and
verse 1. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation. He'd made him righteous before
him in that generation. And verse 16 at the end, And
the Lord shut him in. God shut him in the ark. For over a hundred years, Noah
preached righteousness and the only way of escape. He preached,
here's the ark. It's the only way of escape from
the judgment that God is sending. Believe God, believe God's Word
and come in. The door is open. Come now. Here's
Christ. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. Behold Him. Come to Him. Come
to Him. Come to Him. See the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And then, fourthly, the ark was to be pitched, that is, with
a tar, a waterproofing substance, both inside and out, so that
no water could possibly leak between any of the joins between
the planks of wood. The pitch covered the ark inside
and out, and the pitch kept out the storm of God's wrath in the
flood outside, and so does the blood of the Lamb. The blood
of the Lamb, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, cleanses us
from all sin. He said in Psalm 42 verse 7,
and this is how to read these Psalms, this is Christ speaking
on the cross, all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
The waves and billows of the storm that the flood pictured
is the wrath of God against sin. And Christ said on the cross,
as his blood was poured out, all thy waves and thy billows
are gone over me. And that blood covers the people
that were in him. And the storm, the waves, and
the billows of the wrath of God don't come near his people because
of that. Fifthly, it was the only safe
place in the flood. There was nowhere else safe.
You couldn't look for any other piece of land. There was nowhere
that wasn't covered. The earth, I believe, underwent
the most monumental changes in its geological structure. God
puts his people. What did he say to Moses when
Moses wanted to see his glory? He said, you can't see me and
live. I will put you in a cleft of the rock. That rock was Christ.
That broken rock was Christ. Christ is the rock. Rock of ages,
cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. And
he said, I will cover thee with my hand till I have passed by.
And sixthly, There was only one ark. And Christ is the only way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. There is a man, Isaiah 32 verse
2, and a man shall be as an hiding place. He is like that ark. A
man, Christ, shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, the wind of God's
judgment against sin, against your sin. He, a man, shall be
a hiding-place, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place. and as a shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. And the eyes of them that see
shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
Oh, that God the Spirit might give us ears and eyes to see
and to hear, that we might see Him. There's no other name under
heaven, said Peter, given among men whereby we must be saved.
No wonder Christ preached in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself. Those disciples, what he came
back to at the end of Luke's gospel, he opened their understanding
that they might understand in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself. This is the gospel, the good
news. Christ is the gospel. He is the
good news. Outside of him there is no good
news. And he says tenderly, he says
tenderly, come unto me. This God who is a consuming fire
says tenderly, come unto me and I will give you rest. Will you
listen? Will you follow his call? comment.