Alright, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Genesis chapter 6. I'm going to bounce around
a little bit and go back tonight. I thought that I might bring
a message tonight on the two witnesses of God, the raven and
the dove. The Lord has carried me elsewhere
back here to verse 18 in Genesis chapter 6. And I just couldn't
seem to get this text out of my mind, so I decided to go there
with the message tonight. And I titled this message with
the words that he said concerning this covenant. He said, I will
establish my covenant. I will establish." He says in
verse 17, And behold, I, even I, look what an emphasis he puts
on himself and his glory, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters
upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath
of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth
shall die. with thee will I establish my
covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons
and thy wife and thy son's wife with thee." Now in our last study in the
book of Genesis, I did the best I could do to show you the Ark
of Noah as a picture of Christ as he is presented to this world
through gospel preaching. God singled out this one man,
Noah, preserved him, kept him alive, caused him to experience
whatever he experienced as a young man, arranged all them situations,
and brought him to a saving knowledge of Christ, established here in
this book God's covenant with And he presented this gospel
before men for 120 years. The New Testament calls him a
preacher of righteousness. God made him a preacher and he
preached. And men were converted under
his ministry. The Spirit of Christ, Peter said,
went out and preached to the spirits that were in prison while
once the long-suffering of God waited while the ark was preparing
in the days of Noah. I am certain that this man Noah
was a preacher and that this ark as he presented it to this
world is a picture of that gospel that men take and God gives them
this revelation and they shape that revelation. They shape this
word of God. They take these things and they
present it in the doctrines that are revealed in this book. This
book is a mystery to this world. Average man can't pick this Bible
up and open it up and understand it. It's impossible. He cannot
do it. I'm going to show you that in
Scriptures tonight. I don't care how wise he is.
I don't care how much good sense he's got. I'm going to show you
tonight in the book of Isaiah where he talks about this, where
he talks about men, the wise men of this world, men who are
prudent. A prudent man is a man who's
He's conscientious. He's a man that's got a good
judgment about things. He's a man that can figure things
out. But he said, God has hid these things from the wise and
prudent and revealed them unto babes. It's a revelation of God. And God gave Noah a revelation
of Christ. He presented this ark piece by
piece. I think he understood, in general,
what this ark was to do. I think he understood, in general,
this overall design of God to preserve him from the flood,
but I don't think he had any idea of the detail of this thing. I believe that was a revelation
of 120 years, piece by piece, as he saw this thing come together,
and saw it form, and saw the door that God... God describes
it for him, in general, right up right up here in these verses
just above the verses I read to you. He tells him how wide
it's going to be and how long it's going to be and how high
it's going to be. Tells him it's going to have a window in it
and a door. Tells him it's going to have stories in it. First,
second, and third stories in it. But that still don't give
him the detail of this thing. God gives him those details,
Glenn, a little bit at a time. A little bit at a time. And as
he gives them, he gives them to his sons and his sons' wives
and his wife. And they take those things and
fit them together according to God's instructions to them. And
at last that thing stands there in its beauty and its completion.
And they see in that ark the sufficiency of God to preserve
them. And having confidence in it,
they walk inside and wait on God to shut them in. And I'm
not a novice. Understand that I'm not a novice
to preaching and I'm not a novice in the study of the word of God.
I'm not newly acquainted with the doctrines. I've studied these
doctrines for years. And I've sat a long time under
mature and wise pastors and evangelists. Sat under some of these gifted
men, some of the most gifted men in our country or in the
world as far as I'm concerned. whose ministries God has blessed
to an international status. He's blessed their ministry way
beyond this country, way beyond the states in which they live.
Don Fortner right now, his messages are being translated into Mandarin
Chinese and going into China and going out into these islands
and all over the world. He just blessed these men. And
Brother Mahan, same way. And both of them have written
books that's just invaluable to anybody who really wants to
know something of the living God and something of these doctrines.
And I hesitate to say anything to you that I've not come to
see in the Word of God and by my own experience and through
the ministry of these men that convinces me that what I'm telling
you is the absolute truth. I just don't do it. I don't read
something in here and go, whoa, I think I can fit that in. I
don't do that. I don't do that. Paul said he'd
renounce those hidden things of darkness, those things that
he once did as a Pharisee. He did that at one time. He made
his traditions, his traditions and customs to be commandments
of God. That's what he talked about. I don't do that. But one of these
things is gospel preaching. It took me a while to settle
in on this. Gospel preaching. Gospel preaching
is the way and will of God. That's why I'm trying to show
you this here in the book of Genesis. God establishes this
right up front. Right after the fall of Adam,
God came to him and reconciled him by the gospel. He came to
him and he slayed that lamb before him. I'm convinced he told him
what that lamb was all about, else he couldn't have told Abel.
When Abel came to his altar, he brought a lamb and he slayed
that lamb and spilled its blood. He knew what it was because God
told his daddy what it was. And then he gave him the promise
of the coming Redeemer and showed him that dying lamb and showed
him that promised Redeemer. And he knew the Gospels, what
he knew. And he preached that gospel to Abel, and Abel in turn,
he still speaks of that gospel on his altars, what it says over
in Hebrews chapter 11, him being dead yet speaking. He's still
speaking. He's still preaching that gospel.
And that gospel is passed down to Noah. Gospel preaching is
the way and will of God. And over the years, I've met
two types of people in the churches that I attended up at 13th Street
and the church in Danville and these churches that I've visited
over the years, become affiliated with and concerned and known
to people, met the people, been around the people for years.
I've run into two types of people in all these places. Some of
them view the gospel, gospel preaching as an option. I met
a man shortly after I come down here to Louisiana. To him, gospel
preaching, I won't name his name, but to him gospel preaching was
an option. It's an option. If he's around
people who believe that, then he'll profess it, confess it,
and preach it. But if he's in an Arminian environment,
then he'll ignore it and go on to something else. Now, that's
when you view gospel preaching as an option. I don't see it
as an option in the scripture. I see it as a necessity. He said,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, here's
how important it is. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be dead. Gospel preaching,
that's what it says. Without exception, now listen
to me, I want you to look these up when you get home. I want
you to be convinced the same as I am from the word of God
that what I'm telling you is so. Without exception, Paul gives
testimony for every believing member of the church at Ephesus. Now this is where he stayed for
three and a half years, preached the gospel to them. He told them,
he said, I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel
of God to that church. I warned you day and night, he
said. He appointed elders in this church
and ministers in this church, and without exception, Paul gives
testimony for every believing member of the church at Ephesus
saying, ye trusted, ye trusted after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel, of your salvation. That's Ephesians chapter
1 verse 13. Here's when you trusted when
you heard. You didn't just trust. You didn't
just have an experience. You didn't just suddenly this
thing popped into your head like a light bulb. You heard. God
sent you a preacher, and you heard what he said. And now you
know what this gospel is. It's the gospel of your salvation. Now, that's Without exception,
not one member in there did he say anything else about. Now,
watch this. Without exception, Paul testified
of all the elect of God who were believing members of the church
at Thessalonica. I didn't go through all of his
epistles. I just picked out a couple who were believing members at
the church at Thessalonica saying, I know your election of God because. Here's why. Here's how I know
it. Because our gospel came not unto you in word only, but it
came unto you in power and the Holy Ghost. Our gospel. Our gospel. In James chapter
1 and verse 18, this glorious apostle of God says, of his own
will, talking about God, of his own will begat he us with the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to write."
Gospel preaching. The first chapter of Paul's first
epistle to the Corinthians is about preaching and preachers.
He tells us in verse 18 that the preaching of the cross is
to them that are perishing. It says to them that perish.
The correct meaning of that verse is to them who are perishing.
Foolishness. That's what it is. Foolishness. Why do you preach those things?
Why are you so dogmatic on these? Why do you stand up and declare
these things? Can't you find some other way
to present them other than just presenting them with such an
offense? Can't you find some other way
to say these things that don't just fingernail on the blackboard,
everybody that listens to it? No, sir, you can't. You cannot
preach a non-offensive gospel. You see, we're worried we're
going to offend somebody. Paul was worried that he wouldn't.
Read the book of Galatians. He was worried that he wouldn't.
And in his first epistle here to the Corinthians, He begins
to talk about this thing, and he says, under them that perish,
it's foolishness. It's not necessary, it's not
vital, it's not a must. It insults their intelligence,
it denies their ability to figure it out. But to us which are being
saved, it is the power of God. Now, I want you to listen to
his argument, as it is written. Oh, how many times I've read
that and went on to read the rest of it and went on down the
line. Today, I looked it up to see where it was written. It's
written over in Isaiah chapter 29. Go ahead and turn over there. Isaiah chapter 29, and I'll finish
reading this here in 1 Corinthians. He said, As it is written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the
understanding of the proof. Now over here in Isaiah 29, in
this chapter, the wise men of Israel, he's talking about their
teachers and their doctors of the law, their wise men, their
elders among them, are being singled out. And he says of these
wise men down in verse 11, Isaiah 29, 11. And the vision of all
is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which
men deliver to one that is learned, and they say, Read this, I pray
you. And he says, I can't. It's sealed. It's sealed. And the book is
delivered to him that's not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee.
And he said, I'm not learned. I don't understand what it says.
Wherefore, the Lord said, forasmuch as this people draw near me with
their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed
their heart from me. Now listen. And their fear, that
fear of the Lord, is taught by the precept of men. They stand
up before men and use human logic and human reason and appeal to
your flesh, and they make their arguments based on their reasoning
and their logic pertaining to their flesh, and they reason
to yours. Flesh reasoning with flesh, that's
what he's talking about here. Their fear is taught by the precept
of men, men's reasoning, men's logic. I will proceed to do a marvelous
work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder.
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding
of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek
deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are
in the dark." And they say, who sees us? Nobody sees me. I can say whatever I want to.
I can make this book say whatever I want it to say. Ain't nobody
can see me. You can't see into my heart, so I'll just say what
I want to say. That's what the Lord said these
men would say. They can't read the book because it's sealed
to them. The people out there can't understand the book because
it's sealed up to them. And God's not giving them a revelation. And he said, here's what you're
going to say. You're going to skip right on because you're a priest.
Somebody told you you was, so you stand up. You're going to
go right on prophesying, right on preaching, right on with your
worship. Woe unto them that seek deep
to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in
the dark, and they say, Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? That
is what he is talking about over here in 1 Corinthians chapter
1. God is going to destroy your wisdom. He is going to destroy
your pride and arrogance. He is going to destroy your hope
in yourself to know the living God. This is part of that experience
of grace before God ever came and and made known His covenant,
established His covenant with Noah. Before God ever said Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord, God came to him with a
message. And the message was concerning
all mankind. And He said every thought of
man's imagination is only evil continually. Yours too. Yours too. Your wife too. your sons too, and your sons'
wives." He said that of all mankind. Look back here. And God saw the wickedness of
man, M-A-N, not men, not a certain number, but man, M-A-N. See it back there in verse 5
of that chapter, chapter 6? The wickedness of man was great
in the earth. And every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Now what he's
saying there is that he's talking about their reasoning. He's talking
about their logic. He's talking about how they figure
things out. That's what he's talking about.
How they arrive at their decisions. How their will is motivated.
How their heart. How these affections. All these
things. That's what he's talking about.
And he says it's just evil all the time. All the time. You ain't going to figure it
out because you're evil. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He found grace. And God said,
I'm going to bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Now, I'm back in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm going to bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Every thought
of the imagination of his heart, just as I And what is a prudent
man? He's wise in practical matters. He's careful in matters to his
own interest. He's a discreet man. He's one
that exercises good judgment. God's going to bring that to
nothing. He's going to bring that confidence.
He's a man, a prudent man is a man who goes through life.
And he makes this decision correctly, and he's careful with his investments,
and they pay off, and he pays off his bills, and he's a careful
man. He don't live loosely. He keeps everything tight under
rain, and he's a prudent man. He's careful. He don't just jump
out at things, but he studies things, and he's going to take
that confidence and obliterate it. He's going to bring it to
nothing. and your wisdom, you've graduated
and you've got all these D.D.' 's and B.D.' 's and all this
after your name up here, he's going to blow that into smithereens.
He's going to bring to nothing now. Bring it to nothing in the
believer. No confidence in his wisdom.
No confidence in his judgments. No confidence in his ability
to understand. And then he asks this question
down here in verse 20, where is the wise? Now, he didn't just
pull that out of his hat. He's still talking about the
same thing. So in the light of what God is
doing and his purpose to do in the preaching of the gospel,
where's the wise? Where does that leave him? Where
is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? That man who likes to argue,
that man who likes to chattel, where's he at in the light of
all this? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." And that's
the only way you're going to be saved. Now that's just it. Now you can turn that any way
you want to turn it. I just read you six scriptures
and I could read you sixty more. The grace of God that appeared
to Noah and which Noah found came by way of gospel preaching. This gospel of Christ, of his
sufferings and death, is the method by which Christ went and
preached to the spirits in prison in the days of Noah." That's
not what I said, that's what Peter said. God spake, Paul said,
to our fathers through the prophets. And it's pictured in this ark
and how it was made and how it was furnished and how men come
to be in it. All of this we talked about last
week. But I want you to understand these things because this has
a lot to do with this covenant. Tonight I want you to see that
this ark is a picture of God's covenant mercies in Christ. And
I read those scriptures to you back here in Genesis 6, verse
17 and 18. And the reason for the things
that come in time, the reason why this revelation came to Noah,
the reason Noah found this grace, the reason Noah become a preacher
of righteousness is because God made with him an everlasting
covenant. He made it before Noah ever come
to be. He made it before Adam ever come
to be. He made it before he ever separated
the waters from the land. He made this everlasting covenant
of grace. And David said of God's covenant
with him that it was ordered in all things and sure. There's
nothing left out. There ain't no whatabouts. I
was talking to somebody this afternoon that's been corresponding
with me on the internet, and she finally called me, and I
had a good conversation with her. But here's the thing. There are no whatabouts. Not with God. Everything in this
covenant is ordered. It's ordered from the beginning. It's ordered in all things, and
it's sure. It's sure. Nothing's going to
fail. God told Noah, he said, but with
thee, I'm going to establish my covenant, and you're going
to come in my ark. You're not maybe going to come.
The door ain't going to be open for you to maybe come in. The
door ain't going to be open supposing somebody might come in. You're
going to come in, and your wife's coming in, and your sons are
coming in, and their wives are coming in. How come? Because God had a covenant. God
had a covenant. And it's his covenant. And until
God comes and establishes that covenant with a man, he's just
out there with the rest of them. That's all. That's all. David
said, I've come to see this in my lifetime, and this is my final
word on the matter. I'll die. I've got no reason
to lie to you. These are my last words. People
pretty much assume that when a man's last words would be taken
for the truth. These were David's last words.
Although it be not so with my house, yet God hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And he
said, this is all my salvation. and all my desires. I don't want
it any other way. Ordained of old in the council
halls of eternity. I use that phrase because I don't
know any other way to put it. Paul told Timothy that God has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And he said it was
made manifest by his appearance, and it was brought to light through
the gospel. And therefore, he said, he appointed
me a preacher. And I go and suffer, but I preach,
and God calls out his elect. Everlasting purpose of grace. given in purpose before the world
began. David said this everlasting covenant
was ordered. Paul said that the God of peace
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great
Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. It was ordered in all things.
It was ordered for that blood atonement. It was ordered of
God. This world was on the brink of
annihilation. But it said, Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And the Lord came to Noah and
established his covenant with him. A man told me one time, I was
talking to him about this doctrine of election, this doctrine of
particular redemption. Particular redemption and election
kind of go together. If God has an elect, Christ didn't
die for the world, he died for the elect. Actually, you really
understand more about election through particular redemption,
because he either did what he said he come to do or he didn't,
or just made an effort at it. But anyway, I was once told concerning
this doctrine of election and particular redemption, he said,
if I believed that, I wouldn't preach. If you really believed
that, you would. That's what folks say when they
say, if I believe. When you believe, you'll preach
it. You'll preach it. Election is not the reason. Now,
I want you to hear me. We got here in Ark. God comes,
establishes covenant with Noah. He said, I'm going to save you.
I'm going to save your wife. I'm going to save your three
boys. I'm going to save our three wives. That's all I'm going to say. Does that shut the ark off? Does
that shut the door? That door laid wide open until
Noah and those seven people went on board in it. It was wide open.
Wide open. It wasn't a closed door. It was
an open door. That door laid wide open for 120 years. Remember
how long since he opened that door on the ark? When he framed
that thing up and it showed that big opening, it laid right there. 120 years Noah stands preaching
this gospel. That door laid wide open. Election
and the covenant of grace is not a closed door to any man
who sincerely seeks the Lord. It's not a closed door. It's
an open door. You see, this world, when you
talk about election, they say, oh, that's a closed door. That's
not fair. You're closing out the world.
No, He already closed out the world. I read that to you just
a few minutes ago. He already condemned the world.
The world's condemned already. The Ark had nothing to do with
the condemnation of the world. The world was already condemned.
He said, I'm going to destroy all flesh, and everything that
has life in it is going to die. The door ain't a closed door
to the world. The whole world, including Noah,
including everybody, is shut out. All shut out by sin. But
God said, I'm going to open the door, and I'm going to rescue
every soul that comes in. See what I'm saying? It's an open
door, not a closed door. If it wasn't for God's grace,
if it wasn't for this election, if it wasn't for this particular
redemption, not even the eight souls would have got on board. And that's why I preach. I believe
in particular redemption. I believe in God's sovereign
election. And I preach because I see it as an open door. Otherwise,
why would you preach? Why would I feel to you? Every
thought of your imagination, of your heart's only evil continuum,
there'd be no need for me to talk to you. You read the Word
of God and dismiss it, surely you're going to throw my words
on the ground. But God's opened the door. And there it lays,
wide open, wide open. Our Lord never hesitated. He told Jerusalem, that bunch
of self-righteous, arrogant, prideful, Stood down there, looking
down their nose at him, dismissing his gospel, slandering his person,
making up stories, hiring false witnesses and all that. And he
told them, he said, well, it's going to be easier for Sodom
and Gomorrah than it's going to be on you. Because if they
saw what you saw, they would have repented and sat flogged
in ashes. But I didn't show it to them. I showed it to you.
So it's going to be worse on you than it was on them. But
then he stood and looked. And he said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
how often I've gathered you like a hen gather her chicks. But
he said, you would not. You would not. You see that opening
up? I just read to you Sunday in
our Sunday school lesson where he said, on that last day of
the feast, feast is over. Feast of the tabernacles. They
came out of their little booths that they built, and the priest
came down with the water and poured it on the altar. It was
over. He stood up and he said, anybody
thirsty? Anybody? Anybody? Is any man thirsty? Come on. Over and over and over, all through
Scripture, you'll find. Come on. Come on. What's holding
you back? What's holding you back? Is election
holding you back? Uh-uh. Sin's holding you back. Sin's holding you back. Never
get this idea that God sends men to hell. Sin is what sends
men to hell. Sin. S-I-N-C. Your sins, he said, have separated
you between you and your God. Your sins. Sins. S-I-N-C. By one man, sin entered
into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all
men for that all had sinned. Sin is what sends men to hell.
Sin. God's going to send you to hell,
but he's going to send you to hell because you're a sinner.
And the only hope for a sinner is in Christ. And here it is.
You can't possibly view that ark as a judgment. You look at
that ark there, they're building this ark, and he's telling them
all along there's blood coming. Only people going to be saved
goes in that ark. You're outside that ark, you're
going to drown. The watch never rang. I don't care. God said
he was going to rain. God said he was going to flood
this world. Well, there was flooding. I don't believe a good God sent
this world to hell, do you? That's what they said. They said
that to the water about this deep, and then they quit saying
it. This world was on the brink of
annihilation. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And the Lord came to him and
established his covenant with him. Section's not a closed door,
it's an open door. It was a factual, particular
redemption. That's why these eight souls
were made with it. See, God must punish sin in order
to forgive. We used to have a little blackboard
in that church, and I don't remember what it was for anymore. That
church where I was raised, they had all kinds of little things
hanging up. But right about in here, they
had a blackboard. And I remember, he used to go
over there and make marks on that blackboard. He said, that's
your sins. Now, he said, when you come down to the front here
at the mourner's bench, you ask God to forgive you. He said,
that's their racism. But he still got that chalk in
his hand. Well, that do me in. I don't know about you, but that
do me in. As long as he had that chalk,
it would be over for me. God must punish sin in order
to forgive. God must punish sin in order
to satisfy His justice. God must punish sin in order
to pardon sin. And God must punish sin in order
to save sinners. He has to. They have to be punished. And the way God saves sinners
is in Christ. Now, if in fact their sins are
paid for and the redemption price is sufficient and God's justice
is satisfied, the sinner then must be treated as just because
he's a just man. He must be rewarded for his righteousness
because he's righteous. God tells Noah, here's why I
put you on the ark, because you alone was found righteous. And I guarantee you Noah looked
at God and said, found righteous? Me? Yeah, because I gave you
a righteousness. Found him righteous. There's
nothing, listen to me, there's nothing in the way of justified
sinners to prevent God from being reconciled to them. God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
sins unto them, their iniquities unto them, and has given to us
the ministry of reconciliation. There is nothing in them to deter
him from reconciling the sinner to himself. There is nothing
to prevent God from showing mercy or grace to any man for whom
Christ was appointed charity. And nothing in any way. He can
do it. He can do it. Because he sets
forth his son as a propitiation through faith in his blood. He
sets him on. He does it so he can be just
and justify those sinners. Election opens the door for sinners
because apart from God's eternal purpose of grace, nobody is going
to escape. Any man, any woman, any boy or
girl with a sincere interest to know the Lord is invited to
come. He tells them over and over.
Come on. Come on. Come on. I read that to you,
and I think it's Revelation chapter 22, verse 17. He said, the Spirit
and the bride, you won't find one without the other. That body
of Christ. Everybody in that body of Christ,
by the inspiration of the Spirit, is going to cry the same thing.
Come on. Come on. They stand and they say, Come
on. Come on. Come on. And let him that heareth,
That member of that body that's not yet called, as soon as he
hears, you know what he's going to say? Come on. Come on. He ain't going to say, hang on
now, hang on. They didn't go up that rack. There's a big sign
there on the side of the ark that says, from members only.
That door was wide open. There was no sign on the door.
Come on. Come on. The Spirit of the Bride
says, come, and let him that hears say, come, and whosoever
will. Anybody willing? Whosoever will,
let him take you to the water of life, really. Point him to
the pool. But you cannot find a universal,
unqualified invitation in the Word of God. I challenge you
to find it. You can't find it. It ain't in there. It ain't in
there. He said to thirsty souls, come
and drink. Didn't he? He didn't say ever
souls. He said thirsty souls. Hungry
souls, come and eat, come and dine. Weary souls, he said, come
and I'll give you rest. Winning souls, come and take
the water of life freely. When God establishes covenant
with a man, that man receives all the benefits and means ordered
in the covenant. This is what's going on here
with Noah. When God establishes his covenant with a man, he gives
him everything he's got. God don't come and just give
you one thing, Russell. In Paul's arguments for assurance
there in Romans chapter 8, he said, he that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
also with him? If he didn't spare him, what's
he going to spare? A hot dog? What's he going to
spare? A month's rent? A new coat? What's he going to spare? If he's sparing out his own son,
he's not going to spare anything. When God comes to a man and establishes
this covenant, he gets everything in the covenant. Everything.
the Spirit of God, the providence of God, the Son of God. Paul
said, oh, what are you over here arguing about who was saved and
under who and who was saved? He said, all things are yours,
whether it be Christ or Paul or Cephas or the ministry. If you have the covenant, you
have everything. You're joined heirs with Christ,
heirs of God, children of God. You're entitled to the full inheritance. And I just know this, all the
whosoever wills will. And they will because He will.
That's what He says. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. That's basically what He's telling
Noah right back here. I'm going to establish my covenant
with you, and you will come into my ark. You will. And all that comes to me, he
said, I am not going to cast him out. Everything in this man's
experience of life has been arranged to bring him into the faith of
God's elect. Paul's testimony to the Galatians
was that the God of glory who separated him from his mother's
womb also called him by his grace and revealed his Son in me. And
he did it so I could preach his gospel to the heathen. There was a man, you can find
the account over in the Book of Acts, I forget exactly where,
but there was a man who journeyed from Ethiopia to Jerusalem. And he had the Word of God in
his possession. He had the scrolls right there in his chair. It
doesn't say this, but I know that he did because he was a
sincere seeker. He read that thing all the way
to Jerusalem. When he got to Jerusalem, he went in there where
they were having all the feast days and all the things, and
he sat there and he listened to the priests as they read the
Scriptures. He listened to them. And he listened
to all the details of the feasts, and he watched and he saw what
all these things were about and what was killed and what wasn't
and all that. And he went away just as ignorant
as he was before he went down to Jerusalem. And he was still
out there in his chariot and still reading the word of God
and still seeking God. And he was reading over there
in Isaiah chapter 53. And God separated Philip. And
he said, I want you to go out here. I've got somebody you need
to talk to. Seen him way out there in that
wilderness, out in that desert. And there's this little band
of people traveling along in this chariot. And this man standing
up there reading. Philip went up there and joined
himself to the chariot. And he said, what's up there
in that guy's reading them scrolls? My dad, he was a black man from
Ethiopia. He was reading these scrolls.
And Phillip said, do you understand what you're reading? Do you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I? How can I? Except some man guide me. How
am I going to understand? And Phillip said, well, if you
just scoot over, I'll just come up here. And he sat down there.
And he started right there in Isaiah 53, I think it's verse
7. He started right there in Isaiah 53, 7, and he started
telling him and preaching Christ to him. And they just went just
a little ways. And he said, I want to be baptized.
Now, he didn't bring a message on baptism. He preached Christ
to him. He didn't warn that man, cause that man to fear, come
to something like he's going to hell if he wasn't going to
be baptized and all that. That man loved Christ, heard
Christ, believed on Christ, and wanted to be baptized. He said,
what does sin to me? What do I got to do to be baptized?
He said, there's water. There's water. Do you believe?
He said, I believe he's the son of God. Down there he's baptized. Put him back on the chariot,
and away he went. Away he went. This covenant that God establishes
with His elect is a covenant confirmed in the heart, confessed
with the mouth, and demonstrated in the water, and manifested
in your daily walk. God's covenant is not a legal
document that men point to and say, I believe in the covenant.
I can recite the covenant. I've memorized the covenant.
It's not a legal document. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10, and I'll wind this thing up. Judgment had already been declared.
The condition of all flesh was made known. Man was doomed whether
he knew it or not. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He found grace because God gave
him a desire to look for it. Noah found grace because God
brought it to where he could find it. And Noah found grace because
God purposed for him to find it. and the means to bring it
to pass. Now, Hebrews chapter 10, if you're
not aware of what the book of Hebrews is all about, is kind
of the summation of everything that is thus far said in the
book. He's talked about the priesthood. He's talked about the sacrifices.
He's talked about all these things, the tabernacle. He's talked about
all these things, how there were pictures and patterns of things
to come, shadows. And it's kind of a summation
of all that Paul had said concerning these Old Testament types of
Christ. And he points to Christ's sufficiency, the sufficiency
of his person, his offices, his accomplishments as the fulfillment
of all these types and shadows. And he declares here in Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 12, that this man, this God-man, mediator,
this high priest, This man, the surety of the New Testament,
the New Covenant, this man, this man of which the volume of the
book had been written, talking about that body that God would
one day make and send among men, this sacrificial body, this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, Not year by year continually,
as he says up in the beginning of this chapter, but one time
forever sat down at the right hand of God. He sat down because
his work was done. He cried on the cross, it is
finished. He was through. Ain't nothing
to add to it. It's done. He sat down because
his work was sufficient. He sat down because his work
was effectual. He sat down because his work
was victorious. He had sat there expecting his
enemies to be made his footstool. And he says in verse 14, for
by one offering, one all-sufficient, all-satisfying, all-fulfilling
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now
watch this. This is the key to this whole
thing. whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. For after that he said before,
that is, this is the meaning of what he said before, this
is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them. Not a law to be obeyed,
but one satisfied. One law satisfied, honored, and
exalted, not a law to produce a righteousness, but one obeyed
in a representative unto divine approval. And their sins, he
said, and their iniquities will I remember no more. Why? Because I put them away. I put
them away. And where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. When you come into a
church and that man stands and he begins to obligate you for
things and threatening you with hell and judgment and all those
things, he's practicing what this says is not practiced. There is no more. Where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. You come in here and you give
your offerings. There's no more offering for
sin. We don't offer it for sin. We come in here and we don't
give our offering. There ain't no more offerings for sin. We're
not made righteous by what we do. We're not made more acceptable
by what we do. Where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin. All that was required to
be on this ark, now I want you to listen to me, the only thing
required to enter through the door was to go on board. That's it. In my hands, no price I bring. Ain't that what the songwriter
said? Simply to thy cross I cling. All you had, when Noah and his
family entered that ark, all it says is they went into the
ark. They didn't take anything with
them. They didn't take a goat and slay
it on the ramp on the way in. This thing's all been satisfied. This thing's all been prepared.
It's all been finished. Just go in. That's what faith
does, enters in. It enters in. Verse 19, having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter in, see that? To enter
in to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is
to say, His flesh. Here's the new and living way.
It's already wide open. The door's standing, all you
got to do is go in. You know what brings a man in?
This everlasting covenant of grace. Ordered in all things
and sure. God comes and makes it with you.
How does He do it? Through the gospel. How does He make men to understand
the gospel? By His Spirit. Spirit of God. Wherefore the
Holy Ghost also is a witness of these things. He comes in
and tells you that. and makes you jealous. I can't
make you jealous, only he can.