I suppose one of the most beautiful
pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of scripture is a story
that most everyone is familiar with, and that's the story of
Noah's Ark. We were taught about Noah's Ark
when we were young, and it's always been a story that's lasted
through the ages, but I'm convinced that few have truly seen the
beauty in the story of Noah's Ark. You see, those who came
into the Ark that God commanded Noah to build were saved from
God's wrath. As the rain fell and drowned
all mankind, those who were in the ark were spared. Now that is a beautiful, beautiful
illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. All those dear friends
that are found in Christ will be spared from the wrath and
the condemnation of the holy and strict justice of God Almighty. Now there are many things about
Noah's Ark that picture what Christ is to the believer. God
from eternity had set his eyes upon Noah. And God from eternity
had determined to be gracious to him. The Lord made a way to save Noah. And the Lord has made a way,
dear friends, to save chosen, elect sinners in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is our ark. He is our Noah's ark. Though
God was resolved to destroy the world, it was the grace of God,
not the goodness of Noah, but the grace of God that saved this
man and his family from the flood of God's wrath. And it's the
same with me and you. It's grace, grace, marvelous
grace. that saves the sinner from God's
wrath. There's not anything good in
you, I can assure you of that. There's no goodness in any man
or woman that would cause God to be mindful of them. Gary just
read that passage over in our little men's meeting. What is
man that thou art mindful of him? Nothing but sin, depravity,
hatred towards God. All by nature. There's none righteous. There's none that doeth good.
There's none that seeketh after God. None! Grace is free. Grace is sovereign. Grace is
unconditional. God's grace toward me is not
dependent on my goodness, my love for Him. God didn't look
ahead in time and see that I was going to be a good boy and choose
me on that basis. No. No, not at all. Grace is something we don't deserve. You see, if we did, it wouldn't
be grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Unmerited. Now, if you would turn with me
to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. In these amazing
verses, we see, first of all, the great providence of God. and also the sovereignty of the
only true God. Now, what do you mean by sovereignty?
Oftentimes when you hear stories about a king, they'll say that
he's sovereign. You know, I'll break it down
for you real easy. It means that God does what he wants to, when
he wants to, how he wants to, to whom he wants to. That's pretty simple, isn't it?
That's what a sovereign God is. A sovereign God, the God of heaven
and earth, is not dependent upon anyone or anything. Absolutely nothing. And God determined
that He was going to destroy the earth and the wicked men
and women that lived upon it. And we live in a day, dear friends,
now where men preach that God cannot do much of anything without
the aid of man. Men need to read their Bibles.
Men better start preaching and believe in the gospel of a sovereign
God and a sovereign Savior, or they too will soon perish. This is serious business. Serious
business. And one day everyone is going
to see that it was serious business. There's going to come a time.
I know that in times past when I've talked to a friend or someone
about the gospel, they just say it was just a light thing. And
I can't help but to think, or to have thought at the time and
still think, one of these days you're going to see that what
I was telling you is the truth. Well, we can see from these first
few verses of chapter 6 in Genesis that these wicked men and women
who inhabited the earth were so evil that every thought that
they had, Scripture says, was only evil, continually evil. Men and women had no good thoughts,
no good intentions, no honor, no respect for God Almighty.
And it's pretty much the same among the masses today. Look
down at verse 5 of chapter 6, And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every, look at that
close, does that say every in your Bible? Every Imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It was all evil. Every thought
of the heart of every man and woman. Well, things had gotten
so bad and man so evil that in verse 6 it says, And it repented
the Lord, that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved
him at his heart. It grieved the sovereign Creator
so much that in verse 7, God Himself said these words, 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 repents me, it repenteth me that I've made them. Now let
me say this in passing. Does that sound like a weak,
pathetic, little tin God to you? A God that's trying to do something,
but you've got to let Him? I had to throw that in. Does
it? He said, I will destroy. It's the Lord that killeth. It's
the Lord that maketh alive. It's the Lord that bringeth down
and lifteth up. We'd better get this thing right. We're only going to get one chance
at it in eternity. Better get it right. Better read
our Bibles. No, sir, this is not a little tin God that men
preach today. Why men today act as if God cannot
do anything because He's bound by His love for everybody. I
hear men say, well, God wouldn't do that. He loves us too much. The only difference, my friends,
between the folks in Noah's day and time and the people in our
day and time was then and is now by the grace of God. That's it. Look at verse 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Noah found grace. That's the reason that this world
continues today. God would have already destroyed
it again. There are still some to whom
the Lord will give grace. That's right. I pray that it
might be one today. One here among you. If there
is, I'll tell you this, they were chosen by Him before the
foundation of the world. And He will in His appointed
time of love be gracious to them. You know what David Edmondson
is by nature? A wicked man whose thoughts and
intents of his heart is only evil continue. But David Edmondson
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, you put your name
in that slot if you love the Lord Jesus Christ. The only reason
that I'm saved is that I found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
And correctly, I should say that grace found me. Insert your name
there. Insert your name there. Tyler found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. No other reason. No other reason
is found in the scriptures for a lost sinner of being saved. Sure wouldn't by works of righteousness
that they did. God in infinite grace had entered
into a covenant with Noah and that he would preserve him and
his family alive. And the grace and mercy of that
covenant we'll find in the 18th verse of this chapter. Look down
at verse 18. But with thee will I establish
my covenant. and thou shalt come into the
ark thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with
thee." You see, this thing was fixed. It was determined. It was for certain. It was ordained
to be so, and yet when the time came, Noah was not carried into
the ark by force against his will, was he? He wasn't lifted up into the
ark and thrown in against His will. People aren't going to
go into heaven screaming and kicking against their will. God's
going to make them willing in the day of His power. That's
what God does. He makes His people willing to
come. Psalm 110.3, you look it up. That's what it says. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. You see, dear beloved of God,
God has purposed and decreed the salvation of His elect. And
they shall come into the ark that God has provided. And that
ark is Christ. Look at Genesis chapter 7, 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." And when the Lord
said that to Noah, He said, Come thou. He came. He came. He didn't put it off. He didn't
say, surely God meant Noah Johnson, not me. No, he felt it to be
a personal call. It was, come thou. He knew that
it was for him. You come, that's what he said.
You come, come thou. You see, that's the way God does
things. The Holy Spirit speaks home to
the soul when He speaks to save. There's no putting off His voice
as though it was directed to somebody else. Noah didn't feel
inclined to delay or object or make excuses. He didn't say that
he wouldn't come because when the Lord said to Noah, Come thou,
He came. That's how we know. He came.
And it's the same with God's people, dear friend. Men have
taken the commandment of the Lord, which is, Come thou. It's a commandment. It's a bidding. It's a sovereign
bidding, though. Men have taken it and made it
into a pathetic invitation. Not just a bidding. I know that
in one sense of the word that it is a gracious, divine invitation. But men have taken it and just
made it pathetic. They'd do anything to get a man
to raise his hand, walk an aisle, make a profession, get baptized. And most of the time, the intention
behind it is to get his money. Let's just be honest. What was
the message of John the Baptist? What was the message of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Repent! For the Kingdom of God
is at hand. Repent or perish! Does that sound
like a pathetic invitation to you? Repent or perish! Peter
preached, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Don't think about this. Well, you just go and think about
it. You may not have time. There may be no other opportunity
for you to think about this. Basically, religious folks have
reduced that to mean that it's needful to beg and plead, entice
men any way, shape, or form. Let's do something for the kids. That'll get them to come in.
Let's start a basketball team. That always works. beg, plead,
entice men and women. God's covenant says to His people,
come thou. And you know what? They come. They come. They come. Every single time. You know,
God's grace is irresistible, isn't it? God's call is always
an effectual call. That just simply means that it's
effective. God's call is effective. God
gives us the grace and the power, the will, and the want to, to
do all that He commands us to do. Isn't that amazing? No man
can come. Doesn't have the ability. That's
what it says in the Gospel of John. Yet God gives him the ability. And He says, in power come thou! And He comes. Every time. Every time. Isn't that what I
just read to you? God's people are made willing,
what? In the day of His begging? No! The day of His power, friends! God enables us and makes us willing
to come to Christ. One old writer said it like this,
when God calls, our resistance is sweetly overcome. Our will
is no longer headstrong and obstinate. And our judgment, which has always
been in darkness, becomes light. God does it. And He does it in
power. That's right. We've discussed
it many times how the salvation is personal. God said, come thou. That's the point I'm trying to
make. You come. Noah must come. No one could
come for him. Would it have done Noah any good
for somebody else to walk in the ark for him? He'd have drowned.
You come into the ark. You see, this ark was now Noah's
all and in all. That's right. All the food. that he wants and needs, Noah
must find now in the ark. Where do we come, dear friends?
We come into the ark, and that ark is Christ. You see, all that
Noah would need would be found in that ark. You see, his wife
pretty soon would no longer be able to gather food. His sons
could no longer farm and trade houses, lands, treasures, was
soon to lie deep at the bottom of the flood. All Noah has is
in the ark. It's his sole possession. It's
his all. It's his everything. Soon he
would suffer the loss of all things except for what God provided
in that ark. From the time of his entrance
into the ark, he is to find all pleasure in the ark. Christ is
the believer's ark of salvation. All we have, all we need, all
we desire is found in him and him alone. Whatever need might
arise, it must be met by the provisions that are within the
ark. All that we need is in Christ.
There's nothing outside of that ark but death. That's all. There's nothing outside of Christ
but death. All his work, Noah's work was
now inside the ark. Oh, can you get a hold of that?
I can't work my way into heaven. Salvation is not but works. All
my work is now in my ark, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, don't
miss this beautiful illustration, dear friends. Beg God to show
it to you. For Christ, the ark, is the one
thing needful that you might be saved. Noah had nothing to
do now except that which was in that vessel. There were no fields to plow.
There wasn't any shops to keep. Nothing to do but what was inside
that ark. And friends, when a soul comes
to Christ, the believer commits himself to Christ for everything. Is that not right? Those of you
that know him. Everything is in Him. Christ must feed Him. You must
eat no longer anywhere but from the bread of heaven. Jesus must
become meat and drink to you, for His flesh is meat indeed,
and His blood is drink indeed. He said, those that drink of
this water will never thirst again. Therefore you see dear friends
Noah when he came into the ark. He left everything and yet he
found everything That's not right And it's the same in coming to
Christ For we forsake the world and Christ becomes our all-in-all
Now there was a door to that ark there's only one door and
friends it was a big door It had to be a big door for some
of those big animals to get in. And the best I can tell in reading
this whole account, that that door was open until God shut
it. I guarantee you no one of his
sons couldn't shut it. And you know, we're not told
that it had ever been shut since it had been made. There it stood,
picture it. This thing, 450 feet, I forget
the exact, it was three stories high. I mean, this was a massive
vessel. Had to be to house all that God
put in it. And food for a year. There that
door stands wide open. And we're never told of anybody
that ever went in that was driven out. We never hear of a single
beast or bird or even creeping thing that ever went in that
was cast out. So as long as the door was open,
whosoever came was welcome. Now, did they come? Not that
I read. You know, when Noel was building
that ark, I'm pretty sure I'm right on this, and if I'm not,
I'm sorry, but I think 120 years, those folks around him heard
the banging of that hammer. And they'll hear it, I am sure,
forever in hell. That was God's pronouncement
of judgment's coming. There's Noah again, beating on
that ark. Door was wide open. Did any of
them come? Well, if they did, they weren't
cast out, but I don't think they did. God's long suffering was
drawn to an end. Whosoever will come, let him
come to Christ." But friends, the time is drawing near. God's longsuffering is coming
to an end. May come to an end for you tonight,
today. The time was now come for Noah
to go in and the time is also near when the door must be shut.
And so when the Spirit of God comes to persuade men sweetly
in His divine effectual calling, it's always, always in the present
tense. Now what do you mean by that?
Well, the Lord never called any man by effectual grace to believe
in Christ next week. Never did. It's now, now, right
now. Today is the day of salvation. Oh, may God, the Divine Spirit,
be pleading in some heart right now. Right now. And say, come to Christ. Come now. Those of you who are
yet without Christ, why do you tarry afar from His love? Why? There's no promise of tomorrow
for any of us. That door may be shut for you. Notice also, and what a sweet
part of it this is, that the Lord said, Come thou and all
thy house into the heart. Now listen, how good is it of
the Lord to think of our children, our loved ones, Oh, that he should save us. My,
that's beyond my comprehension. And we must always bless and
worship him for that. But that he would have a word
for our wife, or our husband, or our son, or our daughter. What grace. What love. What overflowing mercy. Noah
came in the ark, and his wife, and his sons, and their wives.
Their obedience was unquestioning. We don't find them asking anything
at all about the reason for the command. They came as they were
bidden. They passed through the doorway
of that ark, and they were in it. And oh, that the Blessed
Spirit would put right now into your heart such a frame of mind
that you should at once yield to the divine precept which says,
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Haven't you asked enough questions?
Hasn't God not answered them? They went in, and God closed
the door. now to knowing his wife and all
his family. And I'm sure when that rain began
to fall, they realized that this was the most important event
that ever happened to them. When all of them passed out of
the world together to find their refuge where God had provided
it. Oh, what a glorious day it is
with men and women when they come to Christ. Now let me quickly
give you some things concerning the ark. I'll be as quick as
I can, but you consider these. You consider them well. For this
is your salvation. This is the only way that any
man or woman will ever be saved, coming into the ark of God, which
is Christ. The ark was planned, purposed,
and provided by God. You can find that in chapter
6, verses 13 and 16. Long before that flood came,
long before that first drop of water fell from heaven, the Lord
God provided the salvation of His own. The ark wasn't an afterthought. And friends, salvation in Christ
is not an afterthought with God. It was not hurriedly put together
after the waters began to rise, I can assure you of that. A lot
of times here we've had water, and I know before I came the
church has been flooded in some of the buildings. And a lot of
times we wait until the flood, until it gets right up to the
water and throw our pumps and stuff in, but that ain't the
way God does things. No siree. Long before that first
drop of water fell, God had made provision. It was something God
planned and purposed long before. God determined the size, the
shape, the material of the ark. God determined who would be saved
by that ark. It was designed, built, and stocked
to house a specific number of residents, both men and beast. And God determined where and
how and when the ark would be built. God's doing it. Are you getting the picture?
In just the same way, the Lord God of heaven and earth planned
and purposed the salvation of His people by Christ and His
eternal purpose of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ was provided
and set forth in the purpose of God from eternity. Revelation
says He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
I've heard men say God's sovereign and He had a backup plan. God's
never had a backup plan. He doesn't need one. Remember
what I told you in the beginning? A sovereign God is one that does
what He wants to, when He wants to, how He wants to, and to who
He wants to. Not an afterthought with God,
and our salvation is definitely not an afterthought with God.
He made provision for our salvation in Christ before the world began. Christ the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. Long before we sinned in Adam,
dear friends, the Lord God planned the salvation of His elect in
Christ. And the plan of salvation, as
men often use it, that terminology. Let me tell you, it's not a path
you follow to find God. Never has been. I don't know
where men have gotten that. It's a path God follows to find
His elect. It's an eternal plan. God determined
from eternity who he'd save. You read 2 Thessalonians 2.13. God purposed from eternity that
he would save his elect by a substitutionary sacrifice. And that was his own
dear son. He is our ark. We better get
in. The door's going to be shut.
In the fullness of time, God provided His own dear Son to
be the salvation of sinners. The ark was God's provision for
Noah. Christ is God's provision for
sinners. As the ark was a provision of
pure, free grace, so Christ is a provision of God's pure, free,
and sovereign grace in Him. The ark which Noah built was
an all-sufficient refuge for all those that entered in. Even
so, the Lord Jesus Christ is a great and mighty Savior. He's
an all-sufficient refuge for sinners of every kind. Only one
door in the ark. That one door is enough. If you'd
be saved, you must enter in by that door, and Christ is that
door. Only one way in, through Christ. Oh, all that enter in will be
saved. There's only one window in the
Ark of Noah, but that one window was enough. It gave light to
all and gave all the light that was needed, and that window represents
the Spirit of God in which Christ, the light of the world, the Son
of Righteousness, shines into the hearts of men and women that
He knows and loves and calls by His grace. There's plenty
of room in that ark for all who came into it. And you can be
sure of this, every needy sinner who comes to Christ finds all
his needs abundantly supplied in him. There's enough grace
to go around. There's an old hymn that says,
is there mercy enough reserved for me? There's plenty of mercy. There's plenty of grace. The
ark which Noah built beautifully represents our salvation for
sin in Christ. Noah was commanded, I'll leave
you with this, he was commanded in verse 14 to pitch the ark
within and without. Now you gentlemen that do roofs,
you know a little something about pitching, the pitch of a roof
and how to keep it from taking on water. And the word pitch
here refers simply to a word that means to cover, to cover. Notice also that the storm of
God's wrath fell upon the ark with all the fullness of its
fury. It didn't rain hard and the water
rise. They said it came from under
the ground even. They'd never seen rain like this
if they'd seen rain at all. I've heard men say that up until
this time it had never rained. But as these rains descended
and the depths of the earth were broken up at the angry and the
merciless act of God's wrath, it beat down on that ark too. Now we can be here in New Caney
and James and Desmond can be over near Conroe and we get rain
and not rain there. I'm going to tell you that wasn't
the case here. That rain fell hard on that ark as it did everywhere
else. It beat down upon that ark. And
everyone that was in that ark went through that terrible storm
of God's wrath and judgment But the ark took all the punishment. I've said this before, too, and
I'll just throw it in. You see these bumper stickers,
God loves, smile, God loves you. Can you see that bumper sticker
on the back of the ark? It's people drowned. Smile, God
loves you. You better get ready to deal
with a holy God who's angry with the wicked every day, who will
punish sin. He will, friends, He will. And His wrath fell upon that
ark and everyone in that ark, but the ark took the punishment.
And that's the picture I want you to see. When Christ was made
to be sin for us, the terrible storm of God's wrath fell full
force upon Him. It beat Him to death without
mercy until God's justice and wrath were fully satisfied. Our Lord said, it's finished.
It's finished. And God's wrath was fully satisfied
and totally expended. God was done. Satisfaction was
made. All who are in the ark, my dear
friends, are perfectly safe. If you're in Christ, You're perfectly safe. You know
why? God has set you in. God set you
in, and you're safe.