If you'll open your Bible to
the book of Genesis, chapter 7, verse 7, I'll read my text. Genesis 7, verse 7. Now, I'm
speaking to you this morning on this subject, The Art, a Picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Art of Noah, a Picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Genesis 7, verse 7, the Christian
says, And Noah went in, and his sons and his sons' wives with
him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Now, my
friends, we expect a physician to be trained, skilled, experienced,
and dedicated in making people well. That's what you expect
if you go to the doctor, to a physician. You expect him to be a man who
knows his business, a man who's dedicated to making people well. And we expect a builder, if a
man's building a house for you, or building a building of some
sort, you expect him to be honest. You expect him to be knowledgeable
in his trade, and you expect him to be efficient. And if you
hire a builder, you have a right to expect these things of him,
or you will not have him do your work. And then we expect elected
officials to be experienced men, to be capable men, to be loyal
men, and we elect them to serve in public office. We expect this. And if men do not fill these
qualifications, then the next time we will not vote for that
person. Well, what about priesthood?
Do we have a right to expect something of today's priesthood?
Well, I believe there are three things that we must demand of
every preacher whom we hear. Our Lord says, take heed what
you hear. And we have a right to expect
some things of every preacher whom we follow. You better be
careful the person you follow. That person has better be following
Christ or the blind will be leading the blind. Now, here are three
things that I believe we have a right to expect of every preacher
whom we hear. First of all, we have a right
to expect that person to be knowledgeable. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. The reason he could preach justification by faith
is that he had been justified by faith. The reason the Apostle
Paul could lean heavily upon repentance is because he had
repented. The reason the Apostle Paul could
talk about conviction of sin and conviction of inability and
full and complete trust and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ as he
had come that route. A man cannot preach what he does
not know any more than a man can come back from where he hasn't
been. In the book of 1 John, John wrote this. He said, That
which we've seen and heard, declare we unto you. We've seen the word
of life. We've handled the word of life.
We've heard the word of life. And what we have seen and what
we have heard, we declare unto you. So this is essential. A
man cannot preach repentance if he's never repented. He cannot
preach faith in Christ if he's never believed in Christ. He
cannot preach to you to receive life through the Son if he has
never been brought himself to receive that life which is in
the Son. He's got to have a knowledge,
knowledge of himself, knowledge of the Son, and knowledge of
the Word of God. The second thing is this, that
which we must expect. We have a right to expect this.
Like I say, if you go to a doctor, you expect him to be a dedicated
and trained and efficient man in the healing of diseases. The
same thing is true of every other profession, a lawyer, a builder,
or whoever. We have a right to expect something
of priesthood. And the second thing is this,
that is sincerity. There's no substitute for sincerity. If we're preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ, our one object must be the glory of God and
the eternal good of our heroes. We must be dedicated to one object
and one goal, and that is the glory of God, whatever we do.
In word or deed, do it for the glory of God Almighty. Whether
we eat or whether we drink, do it for the glory of God. We must
be able to say to anyone who hears us preach, we seek not
yours, not your possessions. We're not greedy of your filthy
leeches. We're not looking for anything you have or anything
you can contribute to us in any way. God will meet our needs,
but we're seeking you. We're seeking that you might
know Christ. That is our object and our goal,
to glorify our God and to bring men who hear us the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like the way Peter spoke to
that man at the great hall, beautiful. He stopped and looked at this
lame, broken man, and he said to him, I don't have any silver
and I don't have any gold, but such as I have, give I unto you.
And we have the greatest riches in the universe, and that's Christ.
We have the greatest gift, the unspeakable gift. We have the
pearl of great price. We have the Lord Jesus Christ
to give to you. We're not asking anything from
you. We want to give you something, to give news, to glad tidings,
the unspeakable gift, the pearl of great price. We have riches
untold. We're not taking anything from
you. And that must be, we must be sincere in this thing. There
must not be hidden motives and hidden objectives and selfish
purposes. There must be an open ministry,
an open-handed ministry, dealing with the souls of men for the
glory of God and the good of those who hear us. I challenge
anybody listening to me who's making an attempt to preach the
gospel, if you cannot have as your one objective the glory
of God and the good of your hearers, You owe it to God and yourself
and everybody else to get out of the ministry just as quickly
as you can get out. And the third thing that we have
a right to expect as men who minister the gospel, knowledge,
sincerity, and simplicity. And there's no substitute for
sincerity, and there's no substitute for simplicity. The Apostle Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, God sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect." That's not our
goal, to preach the gospel with wisdom of words. And he said
in the next chapter, chapter 2, not with excellence of speech. And then he said in another verse,
not with enticing words, not with wisdom of words, not with
excellence of speech, not with enticing words, but to preach
the gospel in such a way That though men do not believe it,
at least in their heads they understand what we're saying.
Though men do not receive it, though they do not bow to the
royal claims of King Jesus, at least in their heads they know
what we're saying. The simplicity of Christ. The
Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3, said, I'm fearful,
lest, as the serpent beguiled our mother Eve, you should be
distracted or taken away from the simplicity of Christ. And
become interested in building great names for yourselves, or
building great monuments for your ministry, or building great
programs for your denomination, or building this building that
are building something else, or impressing men with your wisdom,
and impressing men with your theology, and impressing men
with your rhetorical powers, and impressing men with your
success. We're not trying to impress anybody.
We're trying to please God. And those are three things that
we have a right, I do, you do, every person has a right to demand
and expect of every minister of the gospel, a knowledgeable
person, I know whom I have believed, that which I've seen and heard
declare I unto you, and a sincere person, one who can be trusted
One whom we know his object is to glorify God, and to meet our
need, and to seek our good, our eternal good. And then contemplative. Putting the gospel down here
so that everybody, at least in their heads, can understand it.
You know, if you put the food up on a high shelf, the giraffe
can eat it, but the little squirrels and rabbits and other animals
can't reach it. But if you put it down here low,
Little animals can reach it, but the giraffe can, too, all
he has to do is bend down, bow down, bend his proud neck. So my subject today is plain
and simple. It is a parable. I'm saying that
the art of Noah is a picture, a simple picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, our Lord taught me
in parables Now, while I say that I'm using the art, a parable,
the art, a picture of Jesus Christ, I'm not saying that the art is
a myth. It's not. It's a fact. There
was an art. Noah built an ark. And the flood
of judgment is not fiction. It's reality. But we're using
this as a picture, the whole story of the building of the
ark and the judgment of God, the flood, the wrath of God,
and the floating of the ark upon that water is a beautiful picture
of salvation from the wrath of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to present to you eight
brief points, and I'm going to make them brief in order to cover
all eight. I'll bring eight brief points
to help you to see the mercy of God descended in the Lord
Jesus Christ, as pictured by the Ark of Noah. First of all,
the Ark was the only means of salvation. There was no other
way to escape the flood. The only way to escape the flood,
the whole world drowned. That's what the Word of God says.
The whole world was under the judgment and wrath of Almighty
God. Only those who were in the ark
were delivered. Only those who were in the ark
were saved. The water stood twenty-seven
feet above the highest mountain. That's what Scripture says, twenty-seven
feet above the highest mountain. So the mountain did not offer
to the people safety. And the caves were all flooded,
and every house was destroyed, and every tree was covered. There
was no place to be delivered from the wrath of God. When the
wrath of God flowed through the land, there was no place of safety,
there was no place of rescue, there was no place of deliverance
but one, just one. And that was the ark of Noah.
That was the only thing that survived, the ark of Noah. Would
you be free from your burden of sin? There's power in the
blood. With your evil, a victory win.
There's wonderful power in the blood. What can wash away my
sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole
within? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Would you be saved from eternal wrath? Would you be saved from
eternal judgment? Would you be delivered from the
wrath to come? Christ is the only Savior. He didn't say, I'm
a door. He said, I'm the big door. By
me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Christ said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. The Apostle wrote other foundations, and no man lays
in that which is laid, Christ the Lord. In vain do men flee
to the mountains, sinai, the law for deliverance. The law
is no refuge, it's no hiding place. Any more than the mountains
were hiding places in the day of the flood. In vain do men
build a refuge of work. They shall all be swept away.
In vain do men hide in ceremonies and ordinances and rituals of
religion. In vain do men build religious
organizations. Christ is the city of refuge. Christ is the rock in a weary
land. Christ is the hope of any who would be delivered, and the
only hope. The word of God preaches one way of salvation, and there's
none other known under heaven, given among men, whereby we must
be saved. So that's the first thing about
the Ark. It was the only ways of deliverance. That's the picture
of Christ. Secondly, the ark was big enough,
sufficient enough for all who came. In Genesis 6.15 we have
the dimensions of that ark. It was huge. It was huge. It was 450 feet long. That's as long as a football
field and a half of another football field. It was 75 feet wide. That's as wide as a football
field. And it was three stories high. And that ark was big enough,
that ark was sufficient to save all the different animals that
God purposed to save, and all the people whom God purposed
to save, plus all the supplies that they would need for the
year that that ark floated upon the water. It was a sufficient
refuge. It was a sufficient hiding place.
it was able to carry all whom God purchased to save. And let
me tell you this, our Lord Jesus Christ is a sufficient Savior
for all kinds of sinners. Just like in that ark there were
all kinds of animals, in Christ there are all kinds of sinners.
He says he has a people from every tribe, kindred, nation
and tongue unto heaven. Our Lord is sufficient, he's
able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him.
The hymn writer puts it this way, the cross on which Jesus
died is a shelter in which you can hide, and its grace so free
is sufficient for thee. And deep is its fountain, wide
as the sea, there's room at the cross for you. There's room at
the cross for you. Though millions have come, there's
still room for one. There's room at the cross for
you. His blood is sufficient. It's
sufficient to save, to cleanse, to atone. It's sufficient to
redeem. It's sufficient to keep. It's
sufficient to sustain. It's sufficient to perfect all
who trust him. You don't have to worry about
there not being room for you. And there's no little squirrel
or little bird or little chipmunk or no little snail out yonder
in the forest that has to worry about the ark being big enough.
It's big enough. It's strong enough. It's sufficient
enough. Just come. Just come. The third
thing about that ark is this. It was a safe refuge. Genesis
6.14 tells us that Noah was instructed of God, when he built the ark,
to put it within and on both sides. All of the ark, inside
and outside, was to be covered with pitch to make it a safe
and secure refuge so that the wind and the waves and the rain
and the storm and the lightning and all of these things would
be withstood. And everybody in that ark was
perfectly safe. They didn't have a thing to fear.
And everybody outside had the wrath and judgment of God to
fear. But in that ark, they were perfectly
safe. They were saved because they
were in the hand of God. God provided that art. God Almighty
planned that art. God Almighty secured that art.
God Almighty gave the dimensions for that art. God Almighty carried
out the building of that art through his servant Noah. And
all who were in that art were saved and they were secured. My friend, I'm telling you this,
all who are in Christ are secured. Now, being in the church is no
place for security. I hear people arguing all the
time about the security of the church, and the security of the
believer, the security of the religious person, the security
of this, that, and the other. I've got no time for that. No
man's secure in the church, no man's secure in a profession
of religion, no man's secure in an experience, any more than
those people back there were secure in their homes, which
they had built. which they had built, or refuges
on the mountain which they had built, but in God's refuge they
were secure. In God's art they were secure.
And in Jesus Christ, God's redeemment and God's atonement and God's
sacrifice and God's high priest and God's tabernacle, men are
secure in Christ. He said, My sheep, hear my voice,
and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish. neither shall any man pluck him
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. They're in Christ, they're in
God, and they're secure." Now, if you've made a decision and
you've got religion and you've turned over a new leaf and you've
joined the Church, you're no more secure than those people
who are outside the Ark. But if you're in Christ, redeemed
in him, loved in him, accepted in him, seated in him, reconciled
in him, you're secure, as secure as Noah was in that ark, because
God can't fail and Christ can't fail. Nothing, Paul said in Romans
chapter 8, verse 38 and 39, nothing can separate me from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. And then in the fourth
place, that ark had only one wonder, only one wonder. If you read Genesis 6, 6 and
It tells us that Noah was to build the ark and put in it one
window. And that window was not designed
for them to see out. That wasn't the design at all.
That wasn't the purpose of that window, to let them see out.
The window was designed that light might shine in. And so
no matter what position the animals or the people occupied in the
ark, whether the first Tsoi, second Tsoi, or third Tsoi, in
the forward part of the aft or starboard or port or wherever
they were, they all received light through one window. That's
the way the light came in. Whatever place or position they
occupied, there was but one window to bring light through them.
Now, there is but one window whereby believers get their light,
and that is the Holy Spirit. That's how we are illuminated,
that's how we are enlightened, that's how Christ is revealed
through the Holy Spirit. by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He is the light of God that comes down in times in our hearts.
Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us, he said, and when he, the Holy
Spirit, has come, he will not speak of himself. Whatsoever
things he shall hear, that shall he speak. He shall not glorify
himself, he shall glorify me, and he shall take the things
of mine and show them to you. And all who have been convicted
of sin, all who have been illuminated as to their inability and insufficiency,
Christ, and all who have been enlightened by God, have been
enlightened and illuminated by the Spirit of the living God.
Have you seen your sins when you seen them in the light of
the Word, but that Word came to you in the strength and power
of the Holy Spirit? Have you seen Christ as the only
Redeemer hanging on the cross for your transgressions and your
iniquities and your sins and by his criteria? When you saw
that, in the light of God's word revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit reveals to us the things of God. I have not
seen, e'er hath not heard, neither hath it entered the heart of
man the things God has prepared for them that love him, but he
hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. So that ark would
have been a dark place, a dismal place, if it hadn't been for
that one window. But because of that window they
had light, and they could see. And because of the Holy Spirit,
we can see. We can see our guilt and our
sins and our inability and our need of Christ, and we can see
the redemptive glory of Christ as the Holy Spirit puts light
on this world. And the Ark had many rooms, and
the word there in Genesis 6, verse 14, is nests, n-e-s-t-s,
many nests. Now, they were not all together
in the Ark. I've seen pictures of Noah's
Ark, and all the animals were running around in the same place,
and the people were trying to live among them. They weren't
in the same nest. They were not in the same room. There were
many rooms, many rooms in the Ark. The tiger didn't live with
the squirrels, and the elephant didn't live with the chipmunk,
and the snake did not live with the little They lived in different nests,
in different rooms. They were in the same ark, but
they were in different rooms. What are you trying to say, Preacher?
I'm saying this, that there are Baptists who know
the Lord, who are in Christ. There are Lutherans, there are
Presbyterians, there are Episcopalians who know the Lord, that there
are people in many denominations, that they may govern themselves
differently. They may have different ways of singing. Some may sing
the psalms, and some may sing the hymns. In our church, we
sing the hymns of the old Westlands, John and Charles. We sing the
hymns of the old Episcopalians, the Church of England, Isaac
Watts and John Newton and William Telford. These men knew God and
loved God. They were different. Perhaps
they couldn't see things eye to eye on government and on different
practices, and some had elders and some had stewards and some
had deacons, and some had pastors and some had preachers and some
had bishops, and some wore robes and some didn't, and some had
a choir and some didn't, some played a piano and some didn't,
and some sang the psalms and some sang the hymns. It doesn't
make any difference. I wouldn't want to be in a bird's
nest, but I don't imagine you'd be comfortable in my house either.
but we're still in the same heart. That's the question. Are you
in Christ? Are you in Christ? That's the
question to be settled. It's not what room you're in,
but whether or not you're in the Ark. It's not what company
you're keeping, necessarily, just so you're keeping company
with those who are in Christ, in the Ark. Now, six in the sixth
place. The Ark had but one door. Genesis 6, verse 6. They all
came through the same door. Paul came to the old tall giraffe. He had to bend his neck. He had
to bow down and go into the door. The swift, fleet horse, showing
off his strength and power, running down the hillside, he had to
stop and quietly go through that door. And the little snail, he
couldn't crawl in a crack. There wasn't any cracks. He couldn't
crawl in a hole. There wasn't any holes. He had
to come through the door. Just one door. Everybody came,
came through the same door, in the same way, up the same gangplank,
through the same entrance, and they were observed going in that
same door. Not one door in salvation for
the rich and one for the poor, and one for the learned and one
for the ignorant, one for the white and another for the black,
and one for the Jew and one for the Gentile, and one for the
lawyer and another for the laborer. They all come through Christ
the same door. Or they don't come. You may be the proud, arrogant,
stiff-necked, but you'll bend, you'll bow. You may be the stiff,
strong, zealous, you'll slow down. You may be the little,
crawling, insignificant snail, but you'll come the same way
to God. That's good practice. And then the art had several
stories. This is something I've never noticed before, until I
prepared this message. The art had a lower story, a
second story, and a third story. And you ever been in a ship?
I was in the Navy for a little while. aboard a ship for nearly
two years. And I started out, we had three
decks. We had the lower deck where the
bilges and engines were, and we had the middle deck where
all of the men slept and where the galley was, and we had the
upper deck where the sun was shining. I started out down in
the bottom of that ship. It was dismal and dark and depressing.
And then I got up to that second floor, and before I got out,
I was up there on the top floor in the quartermaster's shack,
and I was happy up there. Well, this lower floor in the
Ark reminds me of our poor, depressed brother. He's just never really
happy and never really confident and never really secure in Christ.
He goes a-mourning all the day, but he's in the Ark. He may be
sad that he's there. He may be depressed, but he's
there. He may be like the hymn writer who said, I mourn because
I can't mourn. And I hate my sin, but I cannot
turn. And I grieve, but I cannot grieve.
And I hear the truth, but I cannot believe." He's never very happy.
He's always down in the deluges. Then there's a man on the second
floor. He's confident, but not much. He's got assurance, but
not a whole lot, and he's sometimes up and sometimes down. And then
there's the brother who's always on the top floor. He's always
happy. He feels so near to heaven, he's
practically there. And every drop of rain just rings
a bell in his heart to praise the Lord. Well, I don't know
where you are on that, Art. You may be down in the valley,
You may be sometimes up and sometimes down. You may be happy all the
time, but just so you're in Christ, trusting and loving and resting
in him. And then last of all, the Ark was the home of the clean
and the unclean. That's right. Some of those animals
were unclean, and some of them were clean. And some of God's
people were unclean. He's had adulterers and blasphemers
and drunkards and whoremongers, and it's such were some of you.
But some of you were raised in the church. You never did do
those things outwardly in your heart, yes, but not outwardly.
You think you're clean. Well, the clean and the unclean
must come to Christ, because by nature they're all under God's
judgment and God's wrath.