Genesis

[0:00] And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

[0:27] In the latter part of the sixteenth, and the Lord shut him in.

[0:39] These words that I have read as a text seem, both that in the first verse, as well as that word I have read in the sixteenth verse, seems to complete this tremendous and wondrous event that took place in this early time of history of man.

[1:20] And we can find undoubtedly, as the Lord may help us, a great many things from the book of Genesis that wonderfully revealed to us the gospel of God's wonderful salvation.

[1:40] We have here the first great demonstration of God as to his provision in the gospel that is complete and final and full and all glorious in its nature and reality.

[2:16] And I do hope that this word may be a word of encouragement to those of you that have put on a profession that some of you have in quite recent times put on a profession of true religion.

[2:38] I hope that you may find something in this message today that shall encourage you, strengthen your hands, and show you something of the greatness and wonder of that salvation that you've come to value and to realize in some measure at least in these beginnings of yours.

[3:12] I hope also that there will be others that shall be mightily affected and wrought upon by this word, that they shall be constrained by that love of which we were reading this morning in the fifth chapter of the Corinthians.

[3:32] Second Epistle, where we read these words, the love of Christ constraineth us. That's the great motivation for all ways and works and moves of sinners in the powers of the Lord.

[3:53] Where there is love, the love of Christ. And where that love is, it will take out of the path every kind of difficulty and all sorts of obstacles that are imagined and real.

[4:13] It will take out of their path everything that is in the way of an obstruction. And I hope it will reveal to us more clearly and more fully and more wonderfully the wonderful power of God in his gospel.

[4:44] Now, I want us first of all this morning to observe the commandments of God. And God first of all commanded Noah, his servant, to build an ark.

[5:04] We have that in the 16th chapter, 14th verse. He says to him, make thee an ark of God of wood.

[5:15] That was the first command of God. And this ark was directed as to its measurements, as to its structure.

[5:33] It was all under the direction of God. Noah acted in accordance with those directions.

[5:47] And they were very clear and very precise. There were no mistakes possible in the construction of the ark.

[6:01] And in particular, God said to Noah, pitch the ark within and without. And I want you to observe that very closely this morning.

[6:16] Because of this fact that in the Hebrew, the word that is used here for this pitch, Zophar, is also used every time almost in the Old Testament scriptures for the word atonement.

[6:40] It's the same word. And therefore, God would have us understand that his ark is covered within and without with atonement, with the power and blessedness and reality of atonement.

[6:59] Now that's a very wonderful thing in my mind, that God said to Noah, pitch this ark that is to be built, both out and within, with pitch.

[7:16] using the word which he was to use again and again throughout the whole of the Old Testament scriptures, to denote and set forth the wonderful word, one of the most wonderful words in all the scriptures, atonement.

[7:36] Now there were three ark in the scriptures, and they all had the same purpose.

[7:47] They were very different in structure and in use, but they all had the same purpose. And that purpose was preservation.

[7:57] This ark that God commanded Noah to make was for the preserving of mankind. Man and beast was to be preserved.

[8:12] And carried through the tremendous judgment that was to fall upon the face of the whole earth. There was another ark that we read of in the book of Exodus, that the mother of Moses constructed and pitched with slime, covered with pitch and slime, to make it secure and watertight.

[8:42] And into that small ark she placed her baby, who was found, as you remember, by Pharaoh's daughter, and who was called by that person, Moses, who became the mighty servant of the Lord.

[9:03] Now that ark was constructed by the mother's love in order to preserve her infant from the great danger that prevailed among the Hebrew people at that time.

[9:21] Because Pharaoh's decree had been that all male children of the Hebrews should be slain. It was a slender thing, but it was a preservation.

[9:33] And God saw to it that it did the work that it was designed to do. Then there was a third ark that God had instructed Moses to make.

[9:51] Beautiful ark, wonderful ark of shitting wood, hardest wood that could be found. And it was overlaid with pure gold. And this ark was for the preserving of God's law, for the law of God was within it.

[10:13] It was for the preservation of that law which God had given of all to his people. Now, those were the three ark, and they all had, in different ways, same purpose.

[10:35] And it was for the preservation, this one of mankind, the other of Moses, and the third of the sacred holy ark and oracles of God.

[10:53] Now, you see, there is something about this ark, then, that is of great importance to you and to me. We need preservation.

[11:08] And it is certainly true, obviously true, clearly so, more and more as we read into the word of God and recognize our own state and condition that there's preservation for us nowhere apart from God.

[11:27] Yes, we need preserving. We need preserving from God's wrath.

[11:40] We need preserving from ourselves, from our own fallible judgment. We need preserving from hasty actions and indiscipline of life and character and all such things and many others.

[12:02] We need preservation. And preservation can only be found from God by his provision.

[12:14] And his provision is glorious and wondrous indeed. Now, this is the first command then.

[12:28] Make thee an ark. Very simple, but oh, how very wonderful. And why was it made?

[12:43] As I've already indicated, it was made eventually to preserve this family of Noah and species of every, members of every species of creatures on the face of the earth.

[12:59] And, it was an ark for this great purpose then.

[13:13] God and I would have you notice this, that God lengthened out the days.

[13:24] He was angry with this generation. He looked down upon man as man existed in the days of Noah and he saw only one thing and that was evil.

[13:44] And God repented him that he had made man on the face of the earth. Now, that's a terrible thing to have to be declared in the word of God.

[14:00] It simply shows to us the enormity of man's sin and evil. It shows us how desperate, desperately wicked man was against God and against everything that was right and holy and just.

[14:24] They had violated all principles of honor and decency and integrity. and God had determined to take away man from the face of the earth and to renew what he had so wonderfully made and to cleanse the whole face of the earth from the awful pollution that had taken place through man's wickedness and man's rights.

[15:10] Now, God did not do this at once. I want you to notice this. The long suffering of God is most wonderful. The mercies of God as it were poised against his judgments are some of the most magnanimous and glorious things that ever could be considered or received.

[15:40] He lengthened out the time of his patience for 120 years.

[15:51] Now, what is 120? it's three times 40. And you know, 40 is in the scriptures a period of time of trial, of testing.

[16:10] God gave us to defy Israel, the children of Israel, before God raised up David to come and slay Goliath.

[16:25] You read in the book of Judges again and again how 40 years were used by God for the judgment and correction of his people.

[16:40] 40 years long did the children of Israel travel through the wilderness. 40 days the Lord Jesus Christ was in the wilderness being tempted of the devil and overcoming by the word of the Lord.

[17:00] You see, in scripture, 40 is a very highly significant number. And it always points to test, to trial, to the proving by God of whatever he is determined to teach.

[17:19] Now, God did not just deal with these people for 40 years, but thrice 40 years, 120, all the wild of which this ark was either being built or had been built, but what was more, Noah was preaching righteousness.

[17:45] You say, how do you know Noah was preaching? Because the word of God tells me so. You find it in the New Testament, Noah, a preacher of righteousness.

[18:00] Well, he wouldn't be a preacher of the gospel unless he was a preacher of righteousness. No man can really preach the gospel who is not a preacher of righteousness.

[18:15] This is the very essential, the basic principle of all preaching of the gospel. It's the righteousness, the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of man.

[18:27] man. And Noah was that kind of preacher. And he went on preaching for 120 years.

[18:39] And all that preaching, all that it meant, all the results of it, were eight souls that are now, according to our text, called by God, to come into the ark.

[19:00] My dear friends, these are very solemn things. God may lengthen out by his wonderful precious, his warnings to men.

[19:16] He may so do so in such a way as to cause man to think God will never carry out his judgments. He will never do anything different from what he has done.

[19:34] But the day will come. Noah didn't know when it was. Noah had no idea, no thought, or indication whatever, when that hour would come.

[19:55] All Noah could do was to go on preaching, preaching righteousness, warning man of the pending judgment of God.

[20:07] All he could do was to urge sinners to seek refuge and reconciliation. God and he did that faithfully.

[20:23] God testifies to the faithfulness of his preaching, for he was a preacher in righteousness. There's another thing I want you to notice also about Noah, and that is this.

[20:41] The New Testament tells us, Peter tells us, that Noah was the eighth person.

[20:53] Have you ever noticed that? Noah was the eighth person. Now we are told in the New Testament that Enoch was the seventh from Adam, man.

[21:11] But Noah was not the son of Enoch. He was a generation further down the line. Now why does the scripture say therefore, Noah was the eighth person?

[21:30] I believe it is for this reason, that as forty is a very highly significant figure in the scriptures, so is the figure eight.

[21:44] And the figure eight represents the resurrection. It was the eighth day that the Lord Jesus rose again from the tomb.

[21:57] That glorious day when he rose triumphant over death and hell and sin. And here we have in the Old Testament, a man of the resurrection, a man that had the power of the resurrection.

[22:18] He had power to believe in God, he had power to believe that God would carry out what he had said he would. He did not deny or doubt the sovereignty and integrity of God's word, he believed in it, he was a resurrected man.

[22:36] God's love to be among God's eight, the eighth person. Oh, this is what we do want to be among God's eighth person, those who have been raised up together with Christ, raised from the dead by a glorious resurrection of the power of God.

[23:10] So then Noah preached, and in spite of all the discouragement, and you may depend upon it, in the face of all kinds of scorn and derision and contempt that must have been showered upon him by his fellow men of his generation.

[23:35] What is this fellow doing? He's building a ship here, a massive ship on dry land, far from the ocean. It will never float, never see the sea.

[23:52] He's a madman, why take any notice of him? Why listen to his message? Turn away from him, ignore him. He's going on and on and on, 120 years.

[24:08] Let us depart from him and leave him alone. He'll come to his senses one day. He'll realize what a fool he has been all along, building this great, massive structure right in the heart of the land and nation.

[24:28] day of the day is coming when that structure of Noah's and what is more all the preaching of Noah will come to be verified by God.

[24:48] The day of judgment. you know, my friends, there are two great purposes in redemption, to return for a moment to the very nature and structure of the ark.

[25:07] There are two great purposes in redemption, and one is to provide a refuge for sinners from the judgment of God.

[25:22] That's one great glorious purpose of redemption. It's a refuge for sinners. Have you ever sought it?

[25:33] Do you feel your need of a refuge? If you do, you'll fly to it. You won't be like these people of the Noah generation and say, this man's a fool.

[25:46] he does not know what he's doing. We need not take the slightest interest in what he's saying, because there he is in the very heart of the country building a ship.

[26:06] But if you are in any way concerned and made interested in the well-being of your never-dying soul, by God, you will feel your need of a refuge.

[26:22] And that refuge can only be found in the redemption of Jesus Christ. Nowhere else. Then the second thing it so wonderfully provides is this.

[26:37] It's a reconciliation by God of man. God reconciles man to himself by atonement and by atonement alone.

[26:54] God. And what a glorious thing that is, to be reconciled to God. We were reading this morning Paul's great message and it seems to my mind as if Paul rises to the very climax of his whole life and ministry in that word when he says, we are ambassadors for Christ.

[27:22] We beseech you in Christ's head, be ye reconciled to God. He knew how vital all important, all so precious it was for poor wretched man who had gone so far away and so wretchedly had fallen into displeasure and disgrace to be reconciled to that God, that holy God.

[27:50] How can a man be reconciled? by the atonement of Jesus Christ. Oh, I do hope I'm making things very, very abundantly clear this morning.

[28:08] This is a marvelous message, a wonderful message, a message of hope. God, I am a man who has been to the Lord.

[28:21] You have to preach for 120 years, the same preaching, the same message, very little variation, but oh, how important it is.

[28:37] if only these poor wretched people had taken heed to it, instead of the flood sweeping them away to perdition, they would have been saved.

[28:55] There's the great difference. And you know, these things are still prevailing today. the gospel today is like it was in the days of Noah.

[29:10] There are plenty of people to despise it and to turn away from it and to corn it and to treat those that preach it as if they were the off scouring of the earth.

[29:29] They say these people are fools. need not take any notice of what they're saying. They're building up something which will never be required.

[29:48] And so men go on into perdition with the sound of the gospel in their very ears. My dear friends, this is a day in which man despises God and his truth and those whom he sends to preach his holy word.

[30:10] They turn their backs upon him. Many of those that seem to have some regard to his truth are lukewarm, insipid in their attendance and in their devotions, in their interests and in their concerns.

[30:36] But the two great purposes of redemption is to provide a refuge for sinners and to give ground for God to be reconciled to his people.

[30:54] Now let us come to the second great command of God which is in our text. The Lord said unto Noah, come, come, thou and all thy house into the ark.

[31:14] I want you to notice this word, come. You see the significance of it, do you not? God doesn't say to Noah, say to Noah, go into the ark which you have made.

[31:33] He says, come into the ark. That means, you see, God was in the ark or there's something very, very wonderful here, my friends.

[31:48] God's command to Noah to come into the ark. What a quiet, what a encouragement that must have been to Noah when God said to him, come, into the ark.

[32:11] He was there. A child, we might take this illustration, a little child.

[32:25] There's a house there, perhaps a very great house and a beautiful house. Someone says to that child, go into that house.

[32:39] Do you think they'd go? Oh, no, they would shrink back. They wouldn't dare to go. But if they heard the voice of their parent, their father or their mother calling from the house and saying, come, they would run as eagerly and as readily as anything could be.

[33:03] that's just what happened here. Noah had built the ark, it's true, but he had built it under God's directions and measurements.

[33:16] it must have been almost a fearful thing in the eyes of Noah when he had constructed it. It was a massive structure, you know.

[33:31] Modern critics say how could the whole of the animals of the world get into that ark of Noah? Well, if you come to measure it, according to the measurements of the temple and the scriptures, they would find that it was adequate to a degree to take in and house all the species of all the animals of the world and take in their food necessary for the time which they would have to spend enclosed within its confines.

[34:12] Yes, God never makes any mistake. He says to Noah, come into the ark. Now, there's a very beautiful teaching here I want you to observe.

[34:27] It means this, Noah had built the ark, God identifies himself with it. That's the great teaching here, it's a very precious one because it shows us that it's a portrait really of how God identifies himself with Jesus Christ.

[34:52] The ark of grace and all that his atoning work performed, God identifies himself with it and he says to sinners, come to Jesus Christ.

[35:08] the ark. That is what God's message is to poor sinners who are out of the gospel and out of salvation.

[35:23] God says, come to Jesus Christ. he that better knows than we bids us unto Jesus flee.

[35:39] Yes, come, he says to Noah, into the ark. What a precious invitation as well as a command it was.

[35:51] How strengthening and heartening it must have been to Noah. I tried to portray the situation. Here was a man, he'd been 120 years waiting and waiting, preaching and wondering whenever the day would come that God told him of when he would destroy the whole earth.

[36:17] Would it be a thousand years? It might be. He knew nothing of the ark and God never informed him as to when it would.

[36:27] He must go on, he must go on preaching. And then all of a sudden, God says now is the time to come into the ark.

[36:40] This is what God does to his people. You know, he comes to a soul, that soul has been going on and on and on in their own ways. Ignorant of God, careless about him, unconcerned about his truth and about their own state and salvation.

[37:00] And all of a sudden, God says to that sinner, come, come sinner, now is the time, now is the day of salvation for you.

[37:17] Now is my accepted time. It couldn't have been before. it won't be delayed now. It's now is the accepted time. And God says, come, come into the ark.

[37:32] ark. And how many came into the ark? Eight souls.

[37:44] Out of all the great, vast numbers of humanity, eight souls. And eight souls saved ark.

[37:58] By God's provision. By the provision of this ark, which he had commanded his servant Moses to make.

[38:15] And my dear friends, you know, there's no salvation without, outside of Jesus Christ, the ark of God, the ark of grace, no salvation without him.

[38:30] There must be only one thing pending for every sinner that knows nothing of Jesus Christ, and that is the judgment of God.

[38:46] The awful, terrible judgment of God. it fell upon this generation because of their wickedness, and it must fall upon all those who are out of Christ, that have no hope in Christ, that have no desire to know him and to believe in him, who never find and never hear, this is the great thing, never hear in their own consciences the call of God, the command of God, come thou into the ark.

[39:28] Oh, my dear friends, may the Lord be pleased to so work in us by his mighty spirit, that we may rejoice as Noah must have rejoiced when he heard this voice from heaven speaking to him.

[39:47] Now is the time now is the moment of salvation, Noah, come into the ark, this that thou hast painfully constructed of such care and pains over such a period of time, this that has been a monument before the eyes of men, of God's judgment to come, this that has been the great warning to all who had witnessed it, and it also had been a great enigma, no doubt to Noah himself.

[40:35] the time has now come, Noah, for you and your family to enter into this ark, to come in, come in to me, come in to my protection.

[40:51] It was after all God's protection that saved Noah, even more than the ark itself. The ark was the instrument, God was the preserver, yes, he must have been made to rejoice exceedingly with great joy when he heard this sentence.

[41:21] You think of it, after 120 years waiting, at last to hear, some of you had to wait quite a time perhaps, hoping for the moment when you could really enter into the things of God and be assured that he was your God and know that he had commanded you to enter into that glorious place of saving.

[41:54] But the hour comes, comes with every real believer, when God says to them, come into the ark. I hope and pray that the Lord may say that to some of you here this morning, come into the ark, the ark of Christ, the ark of the glorious gospel, where you will find, like Noah did, safety and peace.

[42:26] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[42:37] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[42:50] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.