Turn with me to Matthew chapter
24. Let me say an introduction that
Friday morning our world awoke to the news of a major catastrophe. and the aftermath of a major
earthquake in Japan. And at the moment, at that moment,
when I first saw it on the news, the main concern of all coastal
nations was the possibility of the tsunamis, which can travel
across the world. Warnings were given from the
coast of Japan to Hawaii and even to California, in which
they did reach and caused some major damage. And the images that I saw on
the news, especially of those in Japan, when the water that
flowed onto the coast land left nothing but destruction behind. It was amazing to watch that
water cross the ground and move cars and trucks and airplanes
as if they were nothing but matchbox toys. It looked like something
you'd literally see in a movie, but it was real. The authorities
have now claimed that thousands are missing after this 8.9 magnitude
earthquake after it hit Japan. You know, I never really knew
anything about tsunamis until that one in 2004 that was caused
by a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean. We all remember
that. quite well. I really didn't know
much about them before that time. And a series of these tsunamis
leading to casualties in at least 14 countries, creating waves
over 100 feet tall, brought the death toll to somewhere between
230,000 and 250,000 people. Amazing. Incredible. And in researching
the five worst tsunamis, there was one in 1908 in Europe that
brought the death toll to 123,000. There was another recorded in
1755 that was produced by three earthquakes in a mere ten minutes
that killed 100,000 to 200,000. In 1883, an Indonesian volcano
destroyed two-thirds of an island nation with 130-foot high waves,
killing 36,000. And then again in 1707, 30-plus
thousand in Japan were killed by erupting Fuji volcanoes. Now, I didn't total all those
up, but that's a lot of people. But now I tell you all that to
tell you this. Notice again verse 39 of Matthew
24. And knew not until the flood
came, speaking of in Noah's time, and took them all away. Took them all away. so shall
also the coming of the Son of Man be." Friends, this morning
I have told you many times that the Gospel of Christ preached
not only saves the lost, but it comforts God's people. I have no doubt that my message
this morning will not do the same. But today, I tell you up
front, I mainly speak to you that are yet without Christ.
Some of you have heard messages on Noah's Ark several times. Some of you have not. I preached
the message back in December of last year entitled, Christ
Our Noah's Ark. But this morning, Considering
all that's occurred in the last three days, I want you to look
at this subject as it was intended to be seen and explained by Christ
our Lord. Now, this is the Lord speaking
here. Do you have a red-letter Bible? You see that these letters
are in red. This is Christ Himself speaking. And these are His words. And
they're words of warning. First in verse 37, He plainly
declares, "...but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the
coming of the Son of Man be." That's our first warning. There
are some things in His second coming that would be very much
like God's flood of wrath in Noah's day. And this is how to
be when the Lord Jesus returns the second time. And in verses
38 and 39, the Lord reiterates what He had just said in verse
37. And He says, For as in the days
that were before the flood, what were people doing? They were
eating. They were drinking. They were getting married and
they were giving in marriage. Until the day that Noah entered
into the ark right up until the time of God's wrath and judgment
fail People were it was business as usual. It'll be the same when
Christ comes again That's what our Lord says and in verse 39
He says and knew not they knew not those that were destroyed
in the flood They knew not until the flood came and took them
all away And so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be It's
exactly how it will be when Christ comes again. Now my first point
to you this morning for consideration is just this. All of those outside
of Christ, God's arc of safety will perish. Our Lord says in
Noah's time the flood came and took them all away. How many?
All of them. Not 200,000, not 250,000, not
at another time 130,000, at another time 30,000. All of them. Every
single one. All of them. Every man, woman,
and child that were not in that ark drowned. Now it didn't merely
just sweep away some who were outside of the ark. It swept
and took all of them. Every single one. The wealthy
and prosperous man swept away. Regardless of how much silver
and gold he had acquired and accumulated, he swept away. No matter how much wealth he
had attained, houses and all his land gone, lost, and him
with them. It didn't matter how rich they
were with the luxuries of life. When the flood came, it took
them all away. And so it shall be when the Son
of Man returns again in wrath and judgment. No rich man will
escape with all his hordes of goods. Not one wealthy man, dear
friends, can purchase life with his extreme wealth. There will
be no compassion for the poor either. who outside of the ark,
even though they're hard-working, serious struggling moral men. They may work extremely hard
only to gain enough each week to live as we say paycheck to
paycheck and have food. But there's no reward from God
in their suffering for when the flood came it swept them all
away. Rich and poor alike. Death came
and judgment took the miser and the millionaire and it took the
poor and the poverty stricken. It took them all. All were swallowed
up in the angry flood except those that were in the ark. And
friends, that ark was Christ. Oh, God help me to see it more. Noah's ark is a picture and type
of Christ. And I must add that the judgment
also fell on those eight people in that ark. But they were safe
because they were in that ark. The judgment of God fell upon
that ark, but they were safe in it. What a picture that is
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your only safety, now
listen, your only safety, dear friends, is to be in Christ. That's it. No safety anywhere
else. Both the pauper and the prince
perished. The marvelous monarchs in their
palaces and the miserable peasants in their little huts swept away,
all of them. The healthy and the strong, along
with the sick and the afflicted, perished. And so it will be when
Christ comes again. The great man, he can't purchase
escape. No man will be delivered by his
poverty. The grace and justice of God
are independent of society, rank, state, condition. What does it
matter? Now let me ask, what does it
matter to God Almighty how much or how little a man has in the
way of material things? Is he not the giver of all things?
Is God impressed by how much you have? Or moved with compassion
on how little you have? When He alone is the one that
gives and takes away? The one issue with God Almighty
is, what do you think of my heart? What do you think of my Christ,
my Son? I'm going to tell you something
now. And you write it down. I'm not lying to you. Many have
heard the clear sound of Noah's hammer most of their lives. And they've scoffed and they've
ridiculed the warning of judgment. There are some of you today that
still do. You've heard many gospel messages
that have clearly sounded the gospel hammer of pardon by coming
inside the ark, but you still laugh and you make little of
what you hear. The soul that's unpardoned is
lost. Did you hear what I said? If
you're still without God's sinless substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ,
then you remain unpardoned and you'll be swept away. by divine
justice. There was a man not long ago,
there was an old evangelist, many of you know, Roth Barnard.
And they were considerably younger than Brother Mahan, but they
asked Brother Mahan, or they made the comment, they said,
boy, I remember hearing Roth Barnard, and every time I heard
him, he scared me to death. And Henry said, I was a grown
man and he scared me to death. And I say that to say this, maybe
we need to be preaching more hell and brimstone. I don't personally
believe that you can scare men into heaven. But let me tell
you this, Christ Himself said, those that are outside of Christ,
they'll all be swept away. Will that not get your attention?
Whether you're rolling in prosperity or struggling in need, you must
be born again. You must believe in Christ. What
do you think of Him? You must bow to Him as Lord and
trust in Him as the Savior. What am I saying? I'm saying
you've got to get in that ark. You must get into the ark. You
must be found in Christ or you'll be swept away. What about your
education? Your education will profit you
nothing. I guarantee you there were men in Noah's day who had
searched the stars. They may not have the insight
that men today have, but they deciphered the constellations.
They were wise men. There were those who had pierced
into the uttermost recesses of knowledge. Intelligent men. But when the flood came, It swept
them away. Every one of them. It swept them
away. But where's the great philosopher
now? I think I hear his dying gurgle. Where are the masters
of art, the doctors of the law, and the scholars and rabbis of
divinity? They're face down in the water.
Drowned. Dead. Knowledge of the things of the
world, they're no life buoy. And friends, religion is no life
raft. What did our Lord say? You'll
say unto me that day, Lord, haven't we done this? Haven't we done
that? And He'll say, depart from me. I never knew you, you workers
of iniquity. Religion won't get it done. Only
one thing will. You've got to be in that ark.
You've got to be in that ark. Christ is the ark of God. Down, down, down they'll go with
all their science, all their knowledge, all their religion.
Down they'll go in all their morality and good works and their
good intention. They're swept under the water
into the abyss of the flood of God's wrath. What about the illiterate? What about those that could not
read, write, or count without their fingers? What about those
who had never experienced refinery or eloquence? Swept away. Every one of them. Well, who
sent this horrible flood that would wipe out all mankind? Some would tell you it was the
devil. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 6 and keep your place
here if you can. Just quickly. I promise to hurry. Genesis chapter 6. We're just
starting verse 5. Who destroyed, who sent this
flood of wrath? 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. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, 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 are there. For repent me that I have made
them. Sorry I made it. I'm changing
my mind. Look at verse 8. But Noah found grace. in the
eyes of the Lord, Noah found grace, who destroyed this earth,
dear friends, the same one that's going to destroy it again. God. God's going to destroy it. And
if any man or woman are to ever escape the wrath to come, it
will be for the same reason that Noah was spared. It will be because
they found grace. They found grace. They found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. God was long-suffering to these
people for another 120 years. Did you know that? Look at chapter
6 again. Verse 3, and the Lord said, My
spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is
flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. Now,
we know that many men in that time lived five, six hundred
years old. He's not talking about men who live a hundred and twenty
years. He's saying that from the time he told Noah to build
this ark until the rain and the water came up from the ground,
that men had a hundred and twenty years to repent. 120 years. God was long-suffering. It brings
me to my second question. What think ye of Christ? Let
me ask it to you another way. What think ye of Noah's ark?
What think ye of God's ark? Now in considering human reason,
those in Noah's day must have considered Noah's mission a most
absurd thing. You know how I know that? I put
myself in their place. Men are men. I'm sure that the
word spread fast like a fire out of control. Do you hear about
what Noah's doing? Well, he's building this big
giant ship on dry land. It's not even close to a sea
or a river of water. And I can assure you that there
were some who laughed and called him a madman. He's just a madman. He's lost it. There were others
who must have said, what a lunatic. You've been called that because
of the heart that you possess? I have. Well, he's a lunatic.
He's gone off the deep end. He's a madman. Can you hear the jokes? Jay Leno and David Letterman
had been around then and later had a field day. All the jokes,
I'm sure it must have become a proverb or a saying that when
a man did something silly people said, well he's as foolish as
Noah. I bet it just became a saying. over that 120 year period. For
120 years they jeered, laughed, mocked, and ridiculed. And every
time that hammer hit that gopher wood, another snare came. But the flood soon silenced them
all. They were all taken away. So
will it be with any of you who have ridiculed the gospel of
Christ? Will you find in the great and
terrible day of the Lord that your laughter shall have no power
over death? Will you realize then you will
win no escape from the agonies of hell? There will be no room
for sincerity in that day. It will be too late. And God
will be all too real when He tears you to pieces according
to the Scriptures, and there's none to deliver. And His sentence
shall be pronounced, and His mighty voice of power, and He
says, Depart from Me! I never knew you. Never. But I got a message of love,
grace, mercy, and hope for you, dear wretched one. Behold you
that are still lost now, while yet there is still a day of grace
and light to show you to heaven. It won't last forever. A day
is coming. Eternal love. can still be obtained
for his wrath is not yet come. God still delights in showing
mercy. God still delights in saving
sinners from perishing in a devouring fire as Noah's despisers did
in the devouring flood. I believe that the day of judgment
is fast approaching. In Japan, did none of the thousands
that died and drowned and was swept away,
had any idea that that would be their last day. I'm just sure. They didn't know
that God was sending an earthquake. They didn't know that there were
going to be 100 foot waves. They didn't know that this was
going to happen. Friends, you can't continue to
put this off. Now, we're not pleading and begging. We're just warning. This book is God's Word, and
He's coming again, this time in judgment. All those that are not in the
ark will be destroyed. Today is the day of salvation.
Today, God has again clearly put forth Christ before you. Do you desire to remain in darkness? For men and women by nature love
darkness rather than light. John said, if we walk in the
light as He's in the light, we have fellowship with one another
in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses us from all
sin. Are you in the ark? That ark
is His Son. Come into the ark. There you'll
find safety from God's wrath. His wrath will fall on the ark,
but His wrath has fallen on Christ in your place. And you're in
the ark of safety if God grants you to come. Why do you tarry? Why do you linger? It appears to me that when the
flood came, it found them all eating and drinking and marrying
and giving in marriage according to the text that we have in Matthew
24. As in the days that were before
the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving
in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark. And
is it not, I ask you, a very solemn thing, that even now,
without any exception, the mass of mankind are still neglectful
of their souls. Still busy about their fleeting
interests. Still negligent of eternal realities. All that a man has, he'll give
for his life. I guarantee you. I tell you,
if a man is in a room, now you tell me if this ain't true, and
that room catches on fire. And he thinks he's about to perish
in that fire. Do you have any idea what kind
of cries he'll make? You will hear him for blocks
away. Get me out of here. Somebody help me. I'm going to
tell you, he'll make an effort to get out of that room. If he's
going to jump through a window, break through a wall, he wants
out. If a man's near to drowning,
oh, I'm going to tell you, he kicks and he struggles. If he's
sick, oh, what does he do? He heads straight to the doctor.
If he's really sick, he heads straight to the doctor. And I
tell you, he's anxious. He's anxious to get the best
advice that he can receive so that his life may be preserved.
I'm giving you the best advice I know to give. Come to Christ.
Get in that ark. And yet it seems the preservation
of man's spirit, this thing we call life eternal, seems to be
to men a matter of no consequence at all. Why is that? Well, I
know God's got to make you aware. God's got to shake you. And I just can't help but think
that every thinking man must feel that his true self, his
soul, his spirit, that he must understand that this body, it's
not the real thing. It's not the real being. How
many times have we seen men pass away and that body lives lifeless
and we go, that's not him. His life is left. It's just a
shell. It's just a garment he wears.
It's just a house in which he lived. And yet men spend their
time from morning till evening finding clothes and food for
this outside house when the tenant that dwells within is quite forgotten. That's odd, isn't that odd? Shouldn't
that prove that man is degraded into something less than a reasonable
creature by his sin? So that he acts like a beast?
When a man's happy to live but a little time in this world,
he wishes to be happy in it. But friends, unless God Almighty
intervenes, he doesn't give thought or consideration to what lies
ahead in eternity. I stand before you today, he
just turned 55 years old, and I'm telling you, it seemed like
yesterday I was an 18 year old kid. Where's the time gone? This
life's like a vapor, it's here for a moment, and then it fades
away. But it's just a drop in the bucket
compared to eternity. I'm telling you, Christ is coming
again in judgment. And it's sad but true, but not
one man or woman believed Noah. Noah was an honest man. Some
of them had known him for many years. Some had known him for
over a hundred years. I can't tell you. They all lived
so long back there. And he spoke like an honest man.
He preached with power. But not one believed him. Not
one soul believed him as to escape from the wrath of God to come.
Not one. Why? Because Christ says they
were all taken away. Whichever one of them. I leave you with this, dear friends.
All who were in the ark were saved. Nobody fell out of that
ark. Nobody was dragged out. Nobody died in it. Nobody was
left in it to perish. All who went in came out unharmed. Is that not right? They were
all preserved in it. They were all safely brought
through the dread of the catastrophe. The ark preserved them all and
so will Christ preserve all in Him. Now you have no other place
to go. There's no other place that you
can find this refuge. And whosoever may come to him
shall be secure. None of them will perish. None
shall any pluck them out of his hand. Christ is coming again. And you may turn your nose up
and down and say, I don't believe that preacher. One day my words
will echo in your mind and in your soul. Will you not come
into the ark? Why won't you come? Well, our Lord said in verse
39, In Noah's day they knew not until the flood came. Friends, the door is still open.
You see, it wasn't until the day the rain fell that the door
was closed. When God's Son comes again in
judgment, that door will be shut. He'll be shut forever. No chance
then. No hope then. Come into the ark
while there's still time. Did you know you can come without
moving? Do you know that you confess Him as your Lord and
Savior without talking? You can look. Behold the Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the
world. He is the ark of safety.