Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyvert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I'm preaching this morning from
Genesis chapter 6 on Noah's Ark. I would say almost everyone in
the United States has heard of the story of Noah's Ark. Well, let's read God's instruction
to Noah with regard to making the Ark. He said in verse 14
of Genesis chapter 6, Make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms
shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without
with pitch. That's a black tarry substance
made from some petroleum of some kind, oil. That's to keep it
from leaking. And this is the fashion which
thou shalt make it of, the length of the ark shall be three hundred
cubits. The breadth of it, 50 cubits,
and the height of it, 30 cubits. Now, there's debate as to how
long a cubit is, anywhere between 18 and 21 inches, but that gives
us some idea of the size of this ark. A window shalt thou make
to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. And the
door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower,
second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And behold, 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's in the earth shall die. 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." And he goes on to tell him about bringing all the animals
that would be preserved into that ark with him. Now, like
I said, most people have at least heard the story of God telling
Noah to build an ark, a floating vessel, very much like a barge,
probably shaped like a shoebox, because he was going to flood
the world in judgment and drown everything that has breath because
of the sinfulness of man. He said in verse 5 of this same
chapter, And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. That's God's testimony of man.
We read in verse 11, the earth also was corrupt before God and
the earth was filled with violence, cruelty. You couldn't go out
in the streets. And God looked upon the earth
and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth. No exceptions to this. And God
said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for
the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will
destroy them with the earth. And that is when God told him
to make this ark. Now this book is inspired by
God. I realize people could think
about this and think, well, how could so many animals be in this
one boat? That boggles my mind. Let me
say this. I feel a need to say this. This book claims to be inspired
by God. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And I believe everything in this
book. If you don't have inspiration,
all you have is my opinion and your opinion, and that's not
worth anything. But thank God he has revealed
himself through this book called the Bible. And I feel no need
to give a scientific explanation for anything in it. I believe
the word of God. As a matter of fact, if the Bible
said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe it. I believe
the Bible is the Word of God. Somebody says, how do you expect
me to believe that? Well, do you believe God created the universe?
I know deep down you do. The universe didn't just happen.
If God can create the universe, then he can inspire a book that
he has written, inspire men to write it, and keep it preserved. It's not difficult for God. If
you believe If you don't believe God, I can understand that there
is a God. If you're an atheist, I can see why you would be very
skeptical of the Bible. But if you believe God is, it's
very easy to believe that he has inspired this word. And in this word, we're given
this story about the ark of God, Noah's ark. And this ark is given
to represent the gospel. It's not just the children's
Bible story. we can learn the gospel through this story of
Noah and the ark. Now this ark is about salvation. The flood is about God's judgment
against man's sin, and no ark is needed to tell that story,
but the ark is about salvation. It's about God's gracious provision
of salvation. You see, this is the first ark
of the covenant. He said in verse 18 of Genesis
6, but with thee will I establish my covenant. You see, He covenanted,
He promised to save a people, and save a people by His Son,
and the Ark gives us an illustration of that. Now Noah, by nature,
was just as bad as everybody else. It's not like he was free
from sin, it wasn't like God saved Noah because Noah was a
good person. Noah was just as sinful as everybody else, but
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. and the Lord established
his covenant with Noah. Now, we read in verse 14 of the
construction of the ark, he said to Noah, make thee an ark of
gopher wood. Now, gopher wood was not a type
of wood like cypress wood or oak wood. It was cut wood. to fit the dimensions which God
gave him to make the ark with, gopher wood. Now, this ark was
huge. At least, if a cupid is 18 inches
long, it was 450 feet long. It was larger than a Titanic.
It was shaped like a box. It was a barge. These pictures
of it being a sailing vessel are not true at all. It was never
meant to sail. It was only meant to float, as
God sent the deluge in judgment. And no doubt, it was the largest
structure up to that time. It took Noah 120 years to build
this ark. And you think of the intensive
labor that was involved in the construction of this ark. And
Noah didn't consult with architects or builders of that time. He
built this according to God's direction. This was God's purpose,
and this was God's design. Now listen to this. Everybody
in the ark, with that exception, was saved. Every man and woman,
every animal in the ark was preserved. All of the animals that were
not in the ark, all of the men and women, boys and girls that
were not in the ark were drowned and destroyed. Now, what's the
point? All in Christ are saved. All outside of Christ are lost. All in the ark were saved. And all outside of the ark were
judged. And you can bet there was not
a sign on the side of the ark when the waters were coming down
with the men and women outside of it, smile, God loves you.
That wasn't there. This ark was salvation from God's
judgment. Now, it says in verse 14, make
thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms shalt thou make in the ark. We're
not told how many rooms, but there were individual rooms in
the one ark. Now, what I thought about was
Ephesians chapter one, verse three, where it says, blessed
be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings, plural, in Christ Jesus our Lord. There are spiritual blessings,
and you know, really, the only kind of blessings there are are
spiritual blessings. People have a lot of money and
a lot of health, and they think, oh, I've got God's blessing.
Well, you might be under God's curse. Health and wealth are
not necessarily signs of God's blessing. God's blessings are
spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus our Lord, and
every believer has them. You think of the blessing of
election, being chosen by God before time began. There's a
room. What about the room of redemption,
where your sins are paid for by the blood of Christ? There's
the room of justification, where you're made perfectly just and
righteous before God's holy law, without sin before Him. There's
the room of regeneration, where God gives you a new heart. A
heart that was not there before, a new nature that causes you
to cry out unto Him. There's the room of acceptance. We're made accepted in the Beloved. I am completely accepted by God. I'm completely received by God. Near, so near to God, near I
cannot be. In the person of His dear Son,
I'm as near to God as He. Dear, so dear to God, dearer
I cannot be. For in the person of His dear
Son, I'm as dear to God as He. Oh, the rooms that are in the
ark, rooms of blessings, spiritual blessings. There were rooms in
the ark. Now, people have speculated that
there were stalls to keep the animals separated, perhaps, but
you know those animals in that ark, they had to be given a change
of nature so they wouldn't attack one another and eat one another.
Somehow, supernaturally, they were made to be the way they
were before the fall when they were all plant eaters. And somebody
says, well, there were rooms for Noah's living quarters. That may be as well, but this
is all given to teach us of the spiritual blessings that are
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And it also says in verse 14,
thou shalt pitch it. within and without with pitch.
Now after this wooden structure is built, they were told to take
a black tarry substance called pitch and cover the ark completely
inside and out. And that's to keep the water
out. But do you know that that word pitch is the same word translated
atonement, atonement with atonement, exact same word. You see, the atonement of Christ
is how God saves sinners. His death on Calvary's tree. Why did Christ die? Because he's
made sin. The sins of the elect became
his sins. He became guilty of those sins.
And the wrath of God came down on him because God is just. God
is holy. God is righteous. He can't just
accept sin. He punished sin in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that perfect obedience of Christ is given to every believer,
and that is how believers save the atonement of Christ. The blood of Christ actually
put away sin. Think about this ark. Everybody
in the ark was saved. Everybody in Christ is saved.
Everybody in Christ has their sins put away. Those outside
of the ark, they drowned. Those outside of Christ, they
will be destroyed. They will be cut off because
they still have their sins. Now when Jesus Christ died, understand
this, Jesus Christ died for the elect. To say that he died for
somebody who winds up in hell is to destroy the very foundation
of the gospel. That the blood of Christ is sufficient
to save without any of our help Hebrews 1.3 says He by Himself
purged our sins. And to say that He can purge
somebody's sins and they wind up in hell anyway is to take
away the Gospel and make salvation by works. No, all in Christ are
saved. All He died for are saved. He
made atonement for their sins. all outside of Christ stand before
God on their own. Now this word atonement, this
word pitch, it's translated by these different words, to appease,
to cleanse, to disannul. This is true with regard to the
sins of God's people. to forgive, to be merciful, to
pacify, to pardon, to purge away, to put off, to make reconciliation. And this pitch was pitched on
the outside to keep the water from coming in. And it was also
pitched on the inside. The reason our hearts persevere
if we're believers is because of the blood of Christ. It's
not because of something we do. It's because of the blood of
Christ preserving us. And that's the only thing really
that melts our heart. Law and terrors do but harden
when attended all alone, but a sense of blood-bought pardon
will dissolve a heart of stone. Now look in verse 15, and this
is the fashion which thou shalt make it of, the length of the
ark, shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it, 50 cubits, and
the height of it, 30 cubits. Roughly 450 feet long, 75 feet
wide, and 45 feet tall, about the height of a five-story building. The length of a football field
and a half with three different stories for the animals and for
the food. But what I'd like to point out,
this Ark of Salvation, And this ark is Christ, it's given to
picture him, the wrath of God fell upon the ark, all in the
ark were saved from the wrath of God. Now he gives the length,
the breadth, and the height of that ark. Now the length of the
ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's salvation, is from eternity to
eternity. It's an infinite line, it is
eternal. You see, all God does is eternal.
Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
So there's no beginning, there's no end to God's salvation. The width is it's wide enough
for the very chief of sinners, the worst man to ever live, it's
wide enough for that man, yet it's so narrow that if you have
anything other than Christ, you can't get through. The height,
it brings you all the way into heaven. What a glorious structure
this structure is. And then we read that it had
one window. Now in this huge ark, verse 16,
a window shalt thou make to the ark. One window at the top to
let light in. You see, Christ Jesus is the
light. He said, I am the light of the
world. He is the light as to how God
can save sinners. He is the light. When he said,
I am the light of the world, that's when they took that woman
who had taken an adultery in the very act. I mean, there was
no doubt about her guilt. And they brought her before the
Lord and said, Moses said that such should be stoned. That's
what Moses said in the law, but what sayest thou? You see, they
wanted to trip him up in his words. They wanted to condemn
him. They thought if he says stoner, we could say, where's
your mercy? If he says, let her go, we could say, where's your
respect for God's law? And so he said, he that's without
sin among you, let him throw the first stone. And he was talking
about that sin. I have no doubt about it. And they all, with shame, began
to leave. You see, anything you judge somebody
for, you're guilty of the same thing. It's an act of hypocrisy.
And these men, with shame, walked away. And the Lord looked at
that woman and said, woman, where are those Zion accusers? Hath
no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. Neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Now, here's
the light. as to how this woman can be guilty,
taken in the very act, and yet not condemned because there's
nothing to condemn her for. You see, Christ is the light
as to how this man Noah. can be righteous before God. He said, thee have I seen righteous
before me. Now, if you will go on reading
in this passage of scripture, the first thing he did when he
got off the ark was plant a vineyard and get drunk. And what happened
after that with his sons? This man was a sinner. But God
says, thee have I seen as righteous before me. Now, God sees things
as they are. He didn't pretend Noah was righteous.
When he saw Noah was righteous, it's because Noah was in fact
righteous. And the only light we have for that is the light
of the gospel. Christ is the light as to how
me, a sinner, can actually be righteous before God and God
can embrace me and receive me as one who's never sinned. That's the glory of the gospel.
Christ is the light of that. And the only way you could look
is up. Not horizontally, but vertically. You know, you look around at
what's going on and it seems like there's nothing but chaos.
But we look up, God is on the throne. God is ruling and reigning. He's in control of everything.
And we have peace. There was one light, one window
in that whole ark. And there was one door. There's
one way into God's presence. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. There was one door. There's one
way to the Father. Not two ways, but one. He said, I am the way, the truth,
the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Now you think of this door. A
door is given to let people in. A door is given to let people
out, set them free. A door is given to keep people
in. You know, the scripture says
the Lord shut them into the ark. The Lord was the one who shut
the door. And a door is given to keep people out. Anybody who
comes pleading their own works, you're not gained admittance.
It's only those who have nothing that are received freely and
that walk through the door. There was only one door. And I'm thankful for that one
door. And look what the Lord said to
him. He said in verse 18, but with
thee will I establish my covenant and thou shalt come in to the
ark. He didn't say you'll go into
the ark. He said, you'll come into the ark. And look what chapter
seven, verse one says, and the Lord said unto Noah, come down
all thy house into the ark, not go into the ark, come into the
ark. Now, if you're outside, you'd say, go into the ark. But
if you're in the ark, you'd say, come into the ark. This is God
speaking to Noah and his family. Come into the ark. And this is
the message of the gospel. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 22, 17 says the spirit
and the bride say, come. This is the message of the Holy
Spirit and the church. Not go and do and make yourself
ready. Come right now as you are. Let him that heareth say,
come. Let him that's a thirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. You're to come into the ark. Somebody says, am I invited?
No, you're commanded. You're commanded to come into
the ark. Now, if you come in, you'll find
out that it was because he caused you to come, but right now, the
message of the gospel is not go and do, not go and make yourself
ready, come into the ark just as you are. Not trying to make
yourself worthy to come, come as a sinner into the ark and
find the complete salvation that is in Christ Jesus. And the next
thing that I would notice about this ark is a window shalt thou
make to the ark, a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the
door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower,
second, and third stories. Thou shalt make it. Now, why
three levels? Why not two? Why not four? I
don't have any doubt that this represents the Trinity, the three
persons of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit. Now, that's what the Scripture
teaches concerning the character of God. He's one God and three
distinct persons. And all three persons of the
Godhead have their salvation. God the Father elects, before
time began, who will be saved. He gives His Son to represent
the elect. God the Son redeems them. He
works out a perfect righteousness for them, puts away their sins.
He redeems them. God the Holy Spirit regenerates
them. He's the author of the new birth.
It's a Trinitarian salvation. But none of that is understood
unless they're all understood in the light of Christ. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In that ark, in the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ, is all the fullness of God the Father, is
all the fullness of God the Son, is all the fullness of God the
Holy Spirit. Oh, the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Him. And you really don't have any
understanding of the Trinity. of God, unless you see that it's
all embodied in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, somebody
says, explain that to me. I couldn't possibly explain that. I can't explain how God is one
God and three distinct persons, the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit, and all the fullness of the Godhead dwells
in the body of Jesus Christ. I can't explain that, but I believe
it. It's what God says to us with
regard to himself concerning his word. And then in verse 21
of chapter six, let me read this verse. And take thou unto thee
of all food that's eaten, and thou shalt gather to thee and
it shall be food for thee and for them. All food that was needed
was found in the ark. Noah didn't have to go out every
once in a while and fish to get food for the inhabitants of the
ark. All of the food that was needed
was found in the ark. Now, I just quoted Colossians
2, verse 9, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
It says next, and you are complete. You are full in Him. You lack nothing. My dear friend, in Christ Jesus,
there is complete salvation. There is the lacking of nothing. You are perfect in Christ. You
have all you need in Christ. There's nothing outside of Christ
that you need or even want. You are perfectly accepted in
the Beloved. You have all you need. You're
lacking nothing. There's nothing you need to strive
for, reach for. All the believer is called upon
to do is rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God says, come ye
into the ark. Oh, what a glorious type of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And God says, come to my son. Now this is a command. You can't
save yourself. If salvation's up to you, you're
in trouble, I am too. We can't save ourselves. But
the Lord, because of his covenant, has provided the ark, and everybody
in that ark is saved, and everybody outside of that ark. is lost. The ark is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we would like to invite you
to services at Todd's Road Grace Church. We begin at 10 30 this
morning, six this evening and seven on Wednesday evenings.
And we have this message on DVD and CD. If you call the church
right or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen.