Genesis chapter 6, 7, 8, and
9 deals with Noah and his flood, the flood in Noah's day. And
that's the chapter we want to look at. We're going to glean
some things from it and see a picture, a beautiful picture, hopefully
of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, Noah's Ark. There's been
some evidence to prove the flood, but you know, you and I, We don't
need any physical evidence. And there is some. I think if
we looked at it closely, probably there'd be no doubt that some
of the sea creatures that they're finding on mountains now is probably
from the flood. But you and I, we can read the
Bible, and we believe it because it's God's Word. Without any
evidence, without any signs, without any feelings, we believe
that The flood is fact. Noah really built an ark. The
judgment came upon the world. God destroyed the old world with
water because the Bible says that happened. The Lord Jesus,
remember what He said in Luke 17 and Matthew 24? He says, As
it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of
the Son of Man. In the days of Noah, They ate,
they drank, they married, they gave in marriage, and they knew
not until the flood came and took them all away. So the Lord
Jesus tells us that the flood really happened. And remember
what Peter said in 1 Peter 3. He said, The longsuffering of
God waited in the days of Noah, wherein few, that is, eight souls,
were saved by water. So the Lord Jesus tells us the
flood is a fact. The art was really built, and
the Apostle Peter tells us that. So you and I are not relying
on physical evidence, but the Word of God is sufficient for
us. And the same Bible that tells
us of the flood, that the world was destroyed by a flood, also
tells us that this present world that you and I live in is reserved
unto fire. The same God that destroyed the
old world with a flood has reserved this world that you and I now
live in to the judgment of the great day. And just as Noah's
day was full of unbelievers, they didn't believe Noah. He
preached to them. He no doubt warned them of the coming judgment
of God because the Word says he was a preacher, doesn't it?
He's a preacher of righteousness. And every time he put a nail
or a peg in that boat, in that ark, That was saying judgment
is coming. There's only one reason He was
building that ark. That was to escape the awful
judgment of God. But you know the world didn't
believe, did they? Eight souls went into that ark. Why didn't
everybody go into it? They didn't believe, did they?
The Lord Jesus said they knew not until the flood came and
took them all the way. Why didn't they know? They should
have known. Moses warned them that judgment
was coming. Why didn't they know? You know
why they didn't know? They didn't believe. They didn't
believe. And we're told that in the last
days, you know, the days that you and I live in, there would
come scoffers. And they would say, where's the
promise of His coming? We've been hearing this now for
many, many years that He's coming again. He's going to judge the
world. But they don't believe it, do
they? If they believed it, what would they do? They'd do the
same thing Noah did. They'd be seeking to escape from
the judgment of God that's to come. But men didn't believe
it in Noah's day, and the host of humanity today does not believe
it. But Paul said, when they shall
say, peace and safety, then destruction's coming. Destruction is coming.
The first thing let's see then, here in chapter 6 of Genesis,
let's look at this. Let's see the need. Let's see
the need. of the ark. There's only one
reason they built this ark. No other reason but to escape
the awful judgment of God. Now look here to begin with.
Let's begin in chapter 6 and read a few verses. And let's
begin in verse 1. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 1.
It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the
And daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God, the
children of God, those who lived by faith, saw the daughters of
men, that they were fair, the unbelievers. This is a falling
away, wasn't it? And notice three things they
did. They looked upon these children of men, and they saw, they saw,
remember the lust of the eyes? That's what Eve did, and here
it is, we see it again. They saw the daughters of men
that they were fair, that they were fair. They were pleasant
to the eyes. And what did they do? They took
them, wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My
spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is
flesh. Yet his days shall be a hundred
and twenty years. Noah built on that ark for one
hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth
in those days, probably physical giants, intellectual giants,
accomplished so great tasks. And also after that, when the
sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bore children
to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of
renown. And look at this, God saw the
wickedness of man, that it was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,
and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast and creeping things, and the fowls of the earth, for
it repented me that I have made them." And look down in verse
12, And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt for
all flesh hath corrupted its way upon the earth. And God said
unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth
is filled with violence through them, and, behold, I will destroy
them with the flood. Verse 17, 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 is in the earth, it shall die. Now, remember what we saw
last week, especially the last study we had. We saw the effects
of sin. Remember what we quoted that
verse that asked by one man sin entered into the world and death
by sin. We saw the effects of sin upon
our first parents, how it made them ashamed, it made them fearful,
and they hid from the Lord. And then that passed right on
to their sons. Remember, both their sons were
sinners. One of them was a sinner and brought a sacrifice acknowledging
his sin, but the other was a murderer. Both of them were sinners. And
we come here to all of these years later, probably 1,500 years
or so later, and has things got any better? Look how sin has
spread. Not only Did it spread to those
two brothers? But now the whole earth, the
whole earth is corrupt through sin. And notice how far-reaching
it was. In verse 5, here the Lord said
this, The wickedness of man is great in the earth, and every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. How far-reaching is sin? It reached
the heart, didn't it? It reached the heart. And that
was the whole problem. Sin is in the heart. And what
happens if it goes unchecked? It leads to corruption. The whole
earth was full of corruption. But it doesn't stop there, does
it? See how sin will just keep taking you farther and farther
and farther? What followed corruption? Violence. Violence. And it always
does, doesn't it? We try to teach society, even
lawspeople, we try to teach, you're a sinner at heart. Keep
your sin in check. Don't let it break out. If it
breaks out, it'll corrupt you, it'll corrupt a family, and it'll
corrupt a nation. And then something else follows
the corruption of sin, and that's violence. And Paul said, in the
last days, perilous times shall come. Look at the sin that is
not being checked today. In all our system, in our school
system, our court system, in our homes, our government, sin
is going unchecked. And look at the corruption, and
look at the violence now that it's leading to. And brothers
and sisters, if something doesn't happen, to keep sin in check.
And it's only been by God's grace that this sin has been unchecked.
And when it goes unchecked, we'll see things getting worse and
worse, as it was in the days of Noah. And how was it in the
days of Noah? Sin went unchecked. Lust went
unchecked. And it corrupted society, and
then it led to violence. Here's the need of the ark. The
world was full of corruption of sin and the violence of sin. Here in verse 5 and verse 11
and verse 12, we see not only the corruption of sin, but we
see God the Sovereign Judge. He's the Sovereign Judge. And
I say the Sovereign Judge because, notice this, He sees everything. Nothing's hid from His eyes.
In verse 5, God saw the wickedness of man. But how far reaching
are those eyes? The heart. He sees the heart
of man where sin originates at. And look here what he says all
the way down here in verse 11 again. The earth was corrupt
before God. Before God. In verse 12, and
God looked upon the earth. The sovereign judge, he's the
one that came close and looked and saw and determined what was
going on. And secondly, not only did he
see everything that was going on, he determined the punishment.
Did you notice that? Here in verse 17, look at this.
Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy
all flesh. Can you imagine this? Somebody
says, is God not a God of love? Yes, He is. Thank God for it. But He's a just God, isn't He?
He's a holy God. And very, very seldom in the
Scripture does God ever let anybody determine the judgment that He's
going to bring. Very seldom does He give anybody
a choice of which judgment He's going to face. Usually it goes
this way. God determines the consequences. And here He determined the consequences.
a flood to destroy all flesh. But look in chapter 7 and look
here in verse 4, something else. Not only does He know man's sins,
and not only does God determine the punishment for that sin,
but you know when it's time to bring the punishment? You know
who brings it? God brings it Himself. Look what
He says in chapter 7 and verse 4. Yet seven days, and I will
cause it to rain upon the earth. for forty days and forty nights,
and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from
the face of the earth." It's God that brings the judgment.
The Lord Jesus says, don't fear them which kill the body, and
that's all they can do. But He said, I'll forewarn you
whom you shall fear. Fear Him. which after he has
killed hath power to cast into hell." Who is it that puts men
in hell? It's God, isn't it? It's God. It's a fearful thing. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of this living God, because when judgment comes,
it comes irresistible, because it comes from Him. There's the
need for the ark. See the need for the ark? Sin,
it had reached its peak. It had reached its climax. God
saw it all. He determined destruction was
coming, and He was bringing destruction. There's only one way of escaping
the judgment of God, and that was the ark. That was the ark.
Look here now in chapter 6 and verse 14. Here's the ark. And
we're just skipping these things. You'll have to meditate upon
them yourself, but I'm just giving you some thoughts for your meditation. Look in verse 14. Make thee an
ark of gopher wood, Room shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt
pitch it within, and without with pitch." And if you go on
reading in verse 15 and 16, it told him how long the ark would
be. The Lord told Moses how wide
to make it. There would be a door in the side, and there would
be a window above to let in the light. But we see here by this
that it was God's purpose. This was God's purpose to build
this ark. This is not something that Moses
set out and figured out himself. This is God's purpose. It was
God's idea, wasn't it? It was God's plan. And the ark
was made for one reason, and that was to preserve life and
to bring life from the old world into a new world. Look here what
he says in verse 19 and verse 20. of every living thing of all
flesh, two of every sort shall thou bring unto the ark." Why? To keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female,
of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, every
creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall
come unto thee to keep them alive. What was the purpose of the ark?
To preserve. It was to preserve. It was to
bring life, the life of humanity, Noah and his wife and his three
sons and their wives, and all those creatures in the ark. It
was to bring them from the old world that would be destroyed
into a new world. And look in chapter 7 and verse
23. Look at this. Look in verse 23 of chapter 7.
This was the flood. The flood, it came. It killed
everything. And look in verse 23 of chapter
7. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon
the face of the ground, both man, cattle, the creeping things,
the fowls of the heaven, they were destroyed from the earth.
And Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in
the ark." Noah only. Noah only. The ark was the only
means, it was the only instrument to get men and life from under
the judgment of God into the new world. Nobody else lived
in it. No cattle, no fowls of the air. Everything was destroyed
in which was the breath of life, but those that was in the ark. Now, isn't that a beautiful picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ? I wouldn't have to say a thing
to you tonight who know the gospel because you're already saying,
boy, that's Christ. That's the Son of God. Listen
to what the Scripture says. We have these things all through
the Bible. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
That's our sin, isn't it? And the world is guilty before
God. There's our guilt. Our sin, our
guilt before God. He sees it. He knows it. And
the Scripture says, God has appointed a day in which He'll judge the
world in righteousness. There's the same thing. It concerns
each one of us. Our sin, the judgment of God
upon our sins, and we're coming to judgment. And judgment's coming
down. But God has provided a way for our escape. He has provided
salvation, a way to escape the awful judgment of God. Listen
to these simple verses. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. That's the way of escape. God
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up. Delivered Him up on the
cross. delivered Him up unto death.
God's Spirit, not His own Son. How shall we escape? How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? He said, "...in whom
we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace." So God has prepared
a way of escape in His Son. But you know, there is no other
ark There's no other person in whom you and I can be saved.
Jesus Christ is the only way to escape the judgment of God. I am the way. Ain't that what
he said? I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to
the Father. No man comes to salvation. No
man comes to heaven except he come by me. There is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. We must be saved. From what?
The awful judgment of God. It's pending now upon every unbeliever,
and the wrath of God is coming to its uttermost. We must be
saved. And if we would go back to the
Father, and if we would wind up in heaven at last, there's
only one way, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the
shedding of His blood, There is no remission. God has given to us eternal life,
and this life is in His sight. The Ark was the only means. Christ
is the only means. He's the only Savior, the only
Redeemer. And that's the theme of the Scriptures.
The Old Testament and the New Testament, that's the theme.
Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer. Jesus Christ, the only Savior. Thirdly, let me ask you a question.
Why was the old world destroyed? Why was it destroyed? Sin. Sin. And God hates sin. And God dealt with sin, didn't
He? He destroyed the old world because
of sin. Okay, another question. Why was
Noah saved? Why was Noah saved? Look back
over in chapter 8 and look in verse Well, let me find it in verse
8. Look in verse 8. Chapter 6. Look here in verse
8. Why was Noah saved? Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Chapter 6 and verse 8. Noah found
unmerited favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now, we're told in
verse 9 that Noah was a just man. He was a perfect man, an
upright man, and he walked with God. But that's not why he obtained
grace. You don't obtain grace because
you're just and upright. If you're just and upright, you
don't need grace. His being just and upright and
walking with God was the effect of the grace that he obtained,
not the cause of it. And the Scripture says, by grace
are you saved through faith. It's grace that makes us new
creatures. It's grace that makes us just
and justified with God. It's grace that makes us walk
with God. By grace are you saved. And you
know what? If we're in Christ, if we get
in Christ, it's going to be because of grace. Because we've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. I love that passage in,
I think it's 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, 8 or 9 in there somewhere.
It says, God hath saved us. and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Why
was Noah saved? Grace. God's grace in Christ
reached out even to Noah and his family and saved them. So it's grace. God who is rich
in mercy for his great love for which he loved us, when, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
by grace are you saved." Grace. That's why Noah and his family
were saved. And I want you to notice this
in chapter 6 and chapter 7. I want you to see something else
about this. Not only the necessity of the ark, and that ark is Christ
and He's the only salvation. We enter Him by grace. It's by
grace. That grace that's in Christ.
But I want you to see something else about Noah and his family
and all these animals coming into the ark. Three things here
about Noah coming into that ark. The first one is chapter 6, and
look in verse 18. Three things. All flesh, he said in verse 17,
is going to die. Every living thing is going to
die. But with thee, with you, will I establish my covenant,
and thou shalt come into the ark. You shall come into the
ark. You, your sons, your wife, and
your sons' wives, will be. See the purpose here? Before
Noah ever came into the ark, what did the Lord tell him? You're
coming. You shall come unto the ark." That sounded pretty strong,
didn't it? That sounded pretty firm. You
think He's going to come in then? Ain't it a wonderful thing, brothers
and sisters, that before the Lord ever brought you to Christ,
He told you you were coming? All the Father gives to me shall
come? There's a host that's not come
yet. But the Lord said, They're My sheep, and they're coming. They're coming. You may be here
tonight and you don't even know your sheep. You may be a lost
sheep. But I'm telling you, there's a time way back yonder when the
Lord spoke in that covenant of grace and said, He's coming.
He's coming. He's coming. Now, look here in
verse 1 of chapter 7. Now it comes present tense. You
shall come. Now in verse 1 of chapter 7,
the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou. and all thy house unto
the ark. For thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation." Now he says, come. First he said,
you shall come. And now it's come time to come.
And what does he say? Come. Come. Come. See what God has purposed? He
always brings the fast. Always brings the fast. They
shall come. And there comes a day when they
do come. And does God drag them? Does He force them? Does He lasso
them and drag them into the ark? No. Look down here in verse 7.
And Noah went in. Noah went in. We know why he
went in, don't we? God said, You come. And the Lord
said, Come on. But then he went. Did he not?
He went. If the Lord has purposed a man
to come to Christ to be saved by Christ, I tell you what, you're
coming. And you're going to come willingly. You're going to want
to come. You're going to flee to Him.
You ain't going to come accepting. You ain't going to come making
a decision. You're going to come to Christ with all your heart
and all your mind to be saved by Him. You know, the door was
there wide open. The door stood wide open. And
everybody that passed by there could see it, couldn't they?
They could see the door. And I bet you when that rain
started coming and the lightning flashing and that thunder shaking
their breasts and those great fountains of the deep was busted
loose, water spouting everywhere, I bet you there's a lot of people
cussing themselves because they didn't go in that door while
it was open. Don't you imagine that? While they were trying
to swim, and some cleaved into the side of that ark until they
were swept away, climbing the highest mountains and the highest
trees, don't you imagine they were cussing themselves? Saw
that open door in their imagination. But none of them went in. And
don't you imagine there's a lot of men in hell tonight, cussing
themselves because they have the gospel preached unto them,
and the preacher says, come to Christ. Come and be saved. Come and enter Christ by faith.
But they went on about their worldly plans and business. Don't
you imagine they're cussing themselves? But you know, not everybody passed
by that door, did they? Noah went in. Noah's wife went
in. Noah's sons and their wives went
in. Aren't you thankful, brothers and sisters, for irresistible
grace? Aren't you thankful that God
gives you a desire, a will to come to Christ? If he hadn't,
what would you have done? You would have passed right on
by the door, wouldn't you? And soon it would have been closed,
and judgment would come. So God purposed. He done told
who was to come into this ark. And when it came time, He said,
Come. And He went. He went. He went into that ark. All that
the Father gives to me, He shall come to me. And I want you to
notice one other thing. Look in chapter 7. Look in chapter
7. And look in verse 16. I love
this. Chapter 7 and verse 16. Yes, chapter 7, verse 16. They went into the ark now. They
all went into the ark. Noah and his family and all the
animals. And they that went in, went in, male and female of all
flesh, as God had commanded him." And look at this, "...and the
Lord shut him in." Ain't that a wonderful thing? The Lord shut
him in. Why is that so wonderful? That
means nobody's coming out. Nobody got out, didn't they?
I just read it to you. Everybody that went in, stayed
in. The door was shut. I knew an old man when the Lord
first saved me. I knew an old fella, and he made
the statement to me one night. He said, I don't want a salvation
that you can't lose. And I was such a young Christian,
it shocked me. But I thought, why would he even
say that? I didn't know how to answer him.
He's dead and gone now, but I wish I'd have thought to ask that
man his motives behind such a statement. I don't want out of Christ, do
you? Would anybody want out of this ark? What was out there? Dark waters,
thunders and lightnings and raging sea and waves. What's outside
of Christ? Is there anything out there that
you want? The judgment of God is out there. The wrath of God.
God's frowning face. I don't want out of Christ, do
you? I love that passage. It said,
after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. You're sealed until the day of
redemption. And don't you bless God for that.
Somebody wrote this old song, and it goes something like this.
In Christ before by eternal decree, in Christ by experience, when
the Spirit called me, In Christ I dwell by God's sovereign will,
in Christ forever, in Christ forever, eternally sealed. In Christ I dwell by God's sovereign
will, in Christ forever, eternally sealed. I love that. I love it. God puts a man in Christ and
He shuts him up. He shuts him in. You know what?
Those angels that were in heaven, God didn't shut them up. He didn't
shut them in. And what happened to them? They
fell, didn't He? He didn't shut Adam and Eve up
in the garden either, did He? Look what happened to them. He
drove them out. But when He puts a man in Christ, when He put
Noah in this ark, He shut the door and said, Noah, you ain't
getting out. Nobody's getting out. Everybody that got in that
ark landed up in a new world. And I'm here to tell you the
Bible teaches that when the Spirit of God puts you in Christ, You'll
never get out of it, but you'll wind up in hell. And that's a
wonderful thought, that. That's a wonderful thought. Somebody
wrote this. Those in Jesus Christ be brought safe home to heaven
at last. He said it like this. Firm as
His throne, His gospel stands. My Lord, my hope, my trust. If
I am found in Jesus' hand, my soul can never be lost. His honor
is engaged to keep the weakest of His sheep. All that His Father
gave, His hand securely keeps. Nor death nor hell shall ever
remove His people from His breast. In the dear bosom of His love,
they shall forever rest. What a wonderful thought. And
I can't believe, brothers and sisters, that the Lord would
shut everybody in this ark as a picture of Christ, and seal
them in that ark, and then not seal those who are in His blessed
Son. I can't believe that. If you're in Christ, you're in
Christ forever. In Christ forever. One more thing,
and we'll close with this. Look at chapter 6 and verse 21.
Everything those in the ark needed was in the ark. Nothing outside
the ark did they need. Everything was supplied for them
in the ark. Look in verse 21. Take thou unto thee of all food
that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall
be food for thee and for them. Everything they needed to sustain
them was found in this ark. And you know, brothers and sisters,
everything you and I need is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is nothing outside of Him that we need. In Him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And the Scripture tells us that
He is full of grace and He is full of truth. And we are told
to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace. Where do we find grace? In Christ. In the Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you need life? It's in Christ. Do you need forgiveness
of sins? God has put it in Christ. Do
you need strength for the day? Do you need to be taught? What do you need? Do you need
encouragement? Do you need assurance? What do you need? You know something? Look no further than the Son
of God. Go to Joseph. Go to Joseph. I put it all in his hands. And
everybody went to Joseph. Brothers and sisters, you and
I need nothing. All we need is more of Christ.
And more that's in Him. That's all we need. More like
Jesus. I want to be more like Him, don't
you? Well, go to Him then. And look to Him. And live upon
Him. He's God's provision for us.
God will supply all our needs. All of them? according to the
riches of His glory in Jesus Christ our Lord. And there's one more thing. We
don't have time. I'm determined I'm going to try to stop a little
bit early. But there's another beautiful
thing here too. And that's a rainbow. When they
came out in the new world, there's a rainbow. He said, I'm going
to give you the bow in the clouds, and when you see a big rainstorm
coming, you're going to see that bow, and you're going to thank
yourself. Well, God is not going to destroy the world anymore.
And even old wicked Canaan could see that bow in the cloud and
know. And you know what that bow is? That's Jesus Christ.
You go to Ezekiel chapter 1, and that bow was His glory. And you go into Revelation chapter
4 and Revelation chapter 10, it tells you that the Lord Jesus
Christ has a bowl about His head, a rainbow. That's Him. And God
says, Moses, when I look upon that rainbow, I will remember
the covenant and I won't destroy the world anymore. And when God
looks upon Christ, what does He do? He has mercy on Clarence,
mercy on Larry and Sue. I'm not going to curse them anymore.
There's the rainbow. God sees it. And what do you
do? You see it. You see Him, don't you? The Blessed
Rainbow, the Son of God.