In Genesis chapter 6 and verse
8, we read that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. What
a blessed, blessed word, grace. This is the first time that word
is mentioned in the Bible. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. The cause of Noah's salvation
was God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. Noah, we are
not told that God found grace in the eyes of Noah, but Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It's never the other way
around. Salvation does not begin with
man. It begins with God. Grace is
not the result of something man does. It is not God's response
to something we do. Grace is God's work. God's gift,
God's intervention. Because God from eternity set
his heart on Noah, he was determined to save Noah. And he found a
way to save him, though he was resolved and determined to destroy
the world in which Noah lived. It was grace in God, not goodness
in Noah, that saved this man from the flood of God's wrath.
Now, grace is mentioned here in Genesis 6, 8 for the first
time by divine purpose. Here, the Lord has shown us man's
sin has reached such a climax of debauchery that he sees nothing
but evil in the thoughts of man's heart and that continually. The world was lost, but Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The world was condemned. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. The world was destroyed. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Thank God he always has his remnant
whom he will save. A remnant according to the election
of grace. Now, in this salvation, God provided
an ark. And the ark by which God saved
Noah and his family beautifully typifies our Lord Jesus Christ
and his sin-atoning sacrifice accomplished at Calvary. The
Lord brought Noah into the ark and shut him in. He commanded
Noah to seal the ark with pitch within and without. That word,
pitch, It's translated, I think, 70, 71, 72 times, atonement. It means a covering. You remember
on the day of atonement, the high priest would go into the
Holy of Holies and he would sprinkle the mercy seat with the blood
of the Passover lamb, making atonement for the people. And
the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, the lid of the Ark of the
Covenant, completely covered. God's broken law contained inside
that ark. That's atonement. God said, I'll
meet you at the mercy seat. Noah goes into this ark, and
he's completely covered with atonement. Inside the ark, Noah
is shut in with his wife, his sons, and their wives, and the
heavens break open. and the earth erupts from beneath,
and the flood comes upon the earth, and the storm of God's
unmitigated wrath beats against the ark, and beats against the
ark, and beats against the ark, until there is no wrath left. And Noah and his family passed
through the judgment. But the judgment never touched
them. It was the ark that absorbed all the wrath of God Almighty
on behalf of Noah. And so it is with you and I.
The wrath of God fell upon our blessed substitute who made atonement
for our souls. And when He bore our sin in His
own body on the curse tree, when He was made to be sin for us,
the whip of God's law wore itself out on His holy person. The sword
of justice was swallowed up in His holy side, and our Savior
put away our sins, made atonement for our souls. Now, when Noah
had endured all the wrath of God in that ark. As he comes
out of the ark, the Lord God assures him that he will never
have any reason to fear any flood of his wrath again and sets his
bow in the sky. And he assures you and I who
believe his son. shut up in Christ the ark of
salvation, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Now, turn with me if you will
to Genesis chapter 7. Genesis chapter 7. I have been in the last few weeks
reading again the book of Genesis and I woke up in the middle of
the night last night thinking about this passage of scripture
and came to it this morning and I want to show you, if God will
enable me, what the Lord has shown me. The title of my message
is Come Into the Ark. How I pray that God, our Savior,
will graciously cause you and me to come into the ark of Christ
Jesus. You who yet know not our God,
who have never entered in, come into the ark and find rest for
your souls. And you who have heavy hearts, difficulties that you, nothing
you can do to change them, would terrify you, come into the ark,
find rest for your soul. I spoke to my dear friend, Bessie
Matching down in Sylacauga last week, March, I'm sorry, Tuesday,
Friday it was, yeah. Her husband, Herman, died yesterday. She was talking to him. They'd
been married for a long time. Herman was in his 80s. Faithful,
faithful couple. She said, what can I do? How do I handle this? I said,
snuggle up to Christ and take refuge in Him and you will find
rest for your soul. He will give you rest. come into
the ark. Oh, may our gracious, great Noah
stretch forth his mighty arm of grace as Noah did to the dove
that was returning to the ark and bring us into the ark this
very hour. In the ark, Christ Jesus, we
find complete safety and all sufficient provision of grace
for our souls. in all times and in all circumstances. Now look at the verse one. And
notice this first. Noah was brought into the ark
by God's gracious call. The Lord said unto Noah, come
thou and all thy house into the ark. And if you come into the
ark, you will come because of God's call. And if you and I, in time of
need, come into the ark, we will come because of God's call. We
just won't come otherwise. We just won't come otherwise.
Though God pours out His unmitigated wrath upon the wicked, He is
ever gracious toward His own elect. In wrath, He remembers
mercy. Before the flood sweeps away
the rest of the world, he provides an ark for Noah. Before the world
shall be driven away in everlasting wrath and destruction from the
presence of the Lord, the Lord God, our Savior, gathers his
jewels out of the earth and separates the precious from the vile and
is glorified in them that believe. The God of all grace who provides
the ark of salvation for our souls, not only calls us to enter
into the ark, but he sweetly forces us to obey his call. He doesn't stand out here and
say, go into the ark, but rather he stands in the ark itself and
says, come into the ark. But that's not all. He who spared
not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. He who so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that anyone
who believes in Him should not perish but might have everlasting
life, sends His Holy Spirit, sweetly seeing to it that those
for whom He gave His Son have that everlasting life. Christ
is the ark. And he sends his spirit causing
us to come to Christ, causing us both to will and to do of
his good pleasure. He shows us that Christ is the
way, the truth, and the life. And he causes us to come to the
father by him. But now watch this. I don't think
I had ever had these words to lodge in my mind and in my heart
until this morning. Hang on till you see. You're
going to see something here that ought to thrill your soul. Christ
came to call sinners to repentance. Our Savior tells us three times
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I came to call sinners to repentance. He said, they that are whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick. The hymn writer
said, not the righteous, not the righteous sinners Jesus came
to call. And the gospel is addressed to
sinners as sinners. And sinners are called to come
to Christ. But if you look at this first
verse of chapter 7 again, you'll see that the basis of God's call
is the righteousness of the one called. Look at it. Look at it. The Lord said to Noah, come thou
and all thy house into the ark for, the word is because, because. You come into the ark because
I have seen thee righteous before me in this generation. God doesn't
call sinners to Christ in order to make them righteous before
Him, but He calls sinners to Christ because He has made them
righteous before Him. He made us righteous before Him
in His eternal decree when He declared us accepted into beloved,
robed in Christ's righteousness in the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He made us righteous before Him. by the sacrifice of his darling
son when the Lord Jesus Christ died in our room instead and
God declares us just before him. He calls us in time to come to
Christ as he called Noah to come into the ark so that we by faith
may obtain and enjoy this righteousness, which is ours from eternity in
Christ. He doesn't call you in order
that you might become righteous. He calls you in order that you
might come into righteousness, in order that you might enjoy
righteousness. Look at verse 5. Noah was obedient
before he was called to the ark. And Noah did according to all
that the Lord commanded him. Now, there's no question this
has an immediate reference to Noah's obedience to God's command
in building the ark. He built the ark just like God
told him to build it. He provided things in the ark
just as God told him to do it. He brought the animals into the
ark just like God told him to do it. But there's more here
than mere historic fact. All who come to Christ in faith
are accepted in Him by God Almighty because of a perfect righteousness
we rendered to Him long before we were born. Did you get that?
When you came to Him and when you come to Him, you are accepted
of God in Christ because of perfect obedience to God Almighty in
all things. rendered by you long before you
were born. How can that be? Jesus Christ,
the representative man, our Redeemer, was completely and perfectly
obedient to the will of the Father, doing always those things that
please Him. And He didn't do it for Himself.
He didn't need to. He did it for you. And His obedience has made us
righteous before God. And now we are robed in the garments
of salvation, robed in perfect righteousness, the righteousness
that Christ brought in by His obedience unto death as our substitute. Look at verse 7. Here we read,
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives
with him into the ark. because of the waters of the
flood. God said, Noah, come into the
ark. Well, I wonder what's going to
happen. Noah's going into the ark. And when God Almighty comes
to you by his spirit and says to you, come into the ark, Oh,
blessed, sweet, irresistible, compelling grace, into the ark
you will come. Noah came into the ark because
God called him into the ark. And he went into the ark, look
at this, because of the waters of the flood. We ought to come to Christ. because
we want to glorify Him. We ought to come to Christ because
we love Him. We ought to come to Christ because
we must have Him and just our hearts are wrapped up in Him. But you won't find in yourself
any love for Him, or any desire after Him, or any desire to glorify
Him. until you come into him by faith. And I'll tell you, that which
is the most compelling motive for coming, the waters of the
flood. I wish I could say otherwise,
but my experience tells me this is so. When first I came to Christ,
I came because God made me aware of the impending judgment and
wrath of God hanging heavy as a dark cloud over my soul. I could hear the fires of hell
roaring in my soul. I came because I had to. I had
to. I had to. And when trouble comes now, when
difficulties arise, God, forgive me, but it's so.
I come to Him because I've got no help anywhere else. I have
to. I have to. Noah went into the
ark, and when he did, he went into the ark with all God's elect. All God's elect are represented
here by Noah, who, as I said earlier, typifies our Lord Jesus
Himself. And he also went in with Shem
and Japheth, God's elect among the Jews and God's elect among
the Gentiles, represented in those two men. All God's elect
come into this ark, Christ Jesus, and they come into Him continually. Grace sees to it. He's the only
ark of salvation there is. Listen to these scriptures. You
don't need to turn to them. You'd be turning to Proverbs 18. Listen
to this. David said, God, the God of my
rock, in Him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my savior. Thou
savest me from violence. He said, the Lord is my rock
and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I
will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high
tower. He said that he's the only refuge
I have, my goodness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer,
my shield, and he in whom I trust, who subdueth all my enemies under
me. Now look at verse 10 of Proverbs
8. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower, a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. I love that word, runneth. It
implies a constant need of refuge. And as long as we are in this
world, of sin and woe, we will have constant need of refuge
in Christ. But it implies more than that.
It implies a constant fleeing to Christ for refuge. Run, O
my soul, run away to the throne of grace, to the ark of salvation,
Christ Jesus the Lord, and obtain mercy and find grace to help
in every time of need. Now, in the rest of the seventh
chapter, Noah experienced redemption, deliverance, grace, and salvation. The ark was built and provided. and stocked with every provision
he needed before ever he was called into it. But Noah could
never experience God's deliverance and could not feast upon God's
bounteous supply in that ark until he came into the ark. So it is with us. The Ark of
Salvation Christ Jesus was provided by our God in eternity, stopped
with all sufficient grace before the world began, and indeed the
Ark was provided for us and grace was given us in Christ in eternity,
but we could never experience it. We could never experience
God's salvation, God's redemption, God's righteousness, God's goodness,
and God's provision until we are brought to Christ by faith.
And by faith now, we have peace with God. By faith, we receive
the atonement. By faith, we experience redemption
and forgiveness, righteousness and sanctification, grace and
salvation. When Noah entered into the ark,
he found everything he needed. in that ark. The Lord's destroying
the whole world. But everything Noah was going
to need, the whole time he's in that ark, God put it in the
ark just for him. Everything he needed. Everything
we need, Christ is and is in Christ. God teach me that. Everything. what an inexhaustible
barrel of goodness and mercy Christ is. In Him, that sure
and everlasting covenant founded upon His blood and righteousness,
in Him there is bounteous mercy, boundless grace, infinite love
to meet every need we have in this world and in the world to
come. And my God shall supply all your
need, all the time, according to His riches, listen to these
words, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That's how He cares for us. He
will give us grace for grace, so long as we need grace, and
then glory too. Yet, though Noah was in the ark,
There was an enemy in the ark with him, a secret enemy, lurking in darkness
and in deceit, an enemy who would destroy him if he could, and
he proves it later. Along with Noah and Shem and
Japheth was this enemy, Noah's other son. His name was Ham. When he comes out of the ark,
Ham, this ungodly wretch, uncovers his father's nakedness and publishes
it. That's what ungodly religious
folks do all the time. But Ham, the Lord God said, would
be servant of servants. to Shem and to Japheth. And Japheth would possess the
tents of Shem. That is, the Gentiles would be
made heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, fellow citizens
with the children of Israel who believe Christ, all one in Christ
Jesus. And their most implacable enemy
will serve them all the time. All the time. All the human race
And all God's creation, God graciously calls us to serve our good. But with us in the art Christ
Jesus, there's an enemy lurking. Always there. And he would destroy
us if he could. That enemy is the flesh. Our corrupt nature. Why on earth
did God send Ham into that ark with Noah? Why? Because Ham was what Noah needed
for the present time. Why doesn't God take from me
that which I love? Why doesn't he take from you
the evil you despise? Why? Why does He leave us at
constant warfare with the flesh? Why? Because for now, that's
what we need to keep us ever looking to our Redeemer. That's
why. That's why. Still, Noah was completely and
perfectly safe in the ark, and all who enter into the ark, Christ
Jesus, are completely and perfectly safe in him, though our hearts
still are only evil continually. It is written, there shall no
evil happen to the just. Noah was kept perfectly secure
in the ark while the earth was being destroyed. And we are preserved
in Jesus Christ all the time. I love that chorus we sing once
in a while. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
while the ages go. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
though the thunders roll. Safe though the world may crumble.
Safe though the stars grow dim. Under the blood of Jesus, I am
secure in Him. I've told you many times about
the last conscious words. One of the deacons in the church
at Lookout, a dear believer, the last conscious words he spoke,
I was sitting by his bed. He said, Mother Dawn, it is good
to know everything is under the blood. It is good to know everything
is under the blood, everything. But not all who went into the
ark with Noah were believers. As it is written there, not all
Israel which are of Israel. Many by virtue of professed faith
in Christ are mixed with God's people in this world, found in
the visible church of Christ, just like this one. They are
partakers with us at the ordinances of Christ. And they are, by virtue
of being outwardly professed believers, they're recipients
of temporal mercies with us. As Ham was in the ark with Noah,
but not in Christ. As Judas was among the apostles,
but not among the saint. So there are many who profess
faith in Christ, who do not possess Christ in His grace. Tares will
be found in every wheat field. Wherever God gathers His sheep,
Satan sends in his goats. And the Lord God has so ordained
it. And He tells us to do nothing
about it. He says those things shouldn't
surprise you and they shouldn't alarm you. Let the tares grow
together with the wheat. In His own appointed time and
in His own appointed way, He will separate the tares from
the wheat and the sheep from the goats, and He will make a
distinction and make it manifest between the righteous and the
wicked, between Him that serveth God and Him that serveth Him
not. Now look at chapter 8. In verse 1, God remembered Noah. Oh, how thankful we ought to
be, to be reminded that our God ever remembers his own. He ever
remembers to be gracious. He never forgets to be merciful. He never forgets the objects
of his love. After destroying the world in
the flood of his wrath, God remembered Noah and he brought Noah out
of the ark into a new world and gave him dominion over it. In
the last part of verse one, we read, and God made a wind to
pass over the earth and the waters assuaged. How many times have I had conversations
with folks, some of you, before God gave you grace to enter into
the ark? and you're looking for something, some assurance of
peace, some assurance of acceptance with God, hoping that now that
I've gotten some assurance, some knowledge, some peace, some confidence,
now I can bring something with me and enter into the ark. You
can't enter in that way. No, no, no. When you enter into
the ark, Christ Jesus the Lord, God Almighty sends the sweet
wind of heaven into your soul. and causes the waters of his
wrath to assuage." What's that mean? There is therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. To them
which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Look at
verse four. After the waters were assuaged, the ark rested
upon the high mountains and arat. Blessed, blessed rest of faith.
When God Almighty sends His Spirit and speaks peace to the soul,
then we're at rest. And then there's very instructive
lessons to be gathered from the two birds Noah sent out of the
ark. First he sends out a raven. What'd that raven do? Stayed
out there. How come? Because the raven,
the black, dirty, vile creature, finds everything he craves in
the dead carcasses of the cursed world. And so it is with men by nature.
Though they profess faith in Christ, there's nothing in the
ark for them. Nothing to give them joy and gratification, nothing
to really satisfy their souls. And they can get along perfectly
well without it. But the dove is another bird.
Noah sends out the dove, the heaven born soul. And he
goes about in the earth and finds no place where he can rest the
soul of his feet. So he comes back to the ark and
he's got something in his beak, got an olive leaf. He comes back
to the ark for peace and with peace. When Noah was brought out of
the ark, he built an altar. Look at verse 20, chapter 8. Noah built an altar unto the
Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl
and offered of burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled
a sweet savor. The Lord accepted Noah's sacrifice. And he gave Noah a word of promise.
He said, Noah, I won't ever do this again. I won't ever send
judgment again. I will never send a judgment
of water to destroy the world again. And to show it to you,
I set my bow in the cloud. In chapter nine, in verse one,
God spoke a blessing to Noah. In verse two, he put the fear
of Noah upon every creature. Did you know God has done that
for you? God has done that for you? Oh yeah. He says to all
creation, don't you touch my anointed. This is mine. This is mine. In verse 3, He
told Noah that the whole earth belonged to Him. Go out and take
anything you want to, it's yours. Blessed are the meek for they
shall inherit the earth. For the Lord God is a sun and
a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk
uprightly. Now, look at verse 9 of chapter
9. Back in chapter 6, we're told
that all this transpired because of a covenant. In chapter 9,
verse 9, God begins to explain the covenant and tells Noah what
he can expect. He says in verse 9, Behold, I
establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you.
He told him in chapter 6, I'm going to establish my covenant
with you. Now I'm doing it. Verse 12, God said, This is the
token of the covenant which I made between me and you and every
living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. Verse 13, I do set my bow in
the cloud. Verse 14, it shall come to pass
when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen
in the cloud. You know what? If I could, if
I could, I would never willingly see another cloud. if I could. All I would see all the time
is the bright, shining noonday sun, if I could. But that's not
best for me. If I never saw another cloud,
I'd never see another bow. The only way you see the bow
is through the dark, misty cloud. Now, he says, when I send a cloud,
I'll set my bow in the sky. It'll be seen in the cloud. and
I will remember my covenant. He doesn't need to be reminded
of it. He's telling us, when I set my bow in the sky and you
see my bow in the cloud, you will know that I will remember
my covenant. And God set his bow in the sky.
I never read this chapter, but what I delight to think about
God's covenant mercy. Oh, how sweet is that mercy. When our ever-gracious God hangs
His bow in the sky, it is to remind His bleeding children
that He never forgets to be gracious. To remind us of His covenant
grace and His sure promises of mercy. To assure us that He will
do us good. Only good. All the time. No matter How things appear to
the contrary. He fixes it, Lindsay, so we just
have to walk by faith. We can't walk by sight. Well,
I need to understand this. God's not going to let you understand
most things. I need to know what's going on. God's not going to
let you know what's going on for the most part. But He'll
let you know what's going on. And He'll give you to understand
His ways. See his bow? He said, I'm gracious. When John was called up to heaven
in Revelation 4, the first thing he saw was God on a throne. Oh, what an awesome sight. Remember
the second thing he saw? He saw the bow of God's covenant
encircling the throne. Oh, what a blessed sight. The
Lord God sets upon the throne of His sovereignty, and He declares,
everything I do, everything I do, everything that comes to pass
is according to this covenant, which I have made, and now I've
established it for you. Everything, everything. He will
do us good all the time. Come into the ark, and you shall
find rest unto your souls. Amen. Listen to Him, brother. That's it.