It has been a while since we have been together. Isn’t it wonderful, as Christians, how you can have a long space and then pick up at a comma? You do not have to reintroduce yourself, and it is just like we have been together all the time. Amen.
I would like to begin by reminding you of a couple of things. But first, our Lord delights in you. You know that? Isn’t that wonderful?
As we come to look in God’s Word, there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable. I am talking about total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
At the end of the day, after we have done all the academics, done our donkey work, checked the commentaries, the atlases, the word studies, sermons, and all the rest, at the end of the day we come as little children before God and ask Him to dawn Christ on our hearts.
We need to see the Lord. I know that is why you are here, and that is certainly why I am here. Tom and I, together, have prayed and laid this before the Lord. We are here to see the Lord.
I want to share a verse before we actually get into what is on our hearts. It is Genesis 21:19, the story of the woman at the well—the first woman at the well, Hagar.
You remember the story. I am only going to give you the end of the story. In Genesis 21:19, she was out in the wilderness, expecting to die of thirst—she and her son.
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.
Just that part. She would have died of thirst with a well of water at her feet if the Lord had not opened her eyes.
Brothers, I am convinced that this weekend there is a well of water at your feet. I am also convinced that unless God opens your eyes, you are not going to see that well of water. You are not going to drink from it.
How we need the Lord to open our eyes to all the provision He has made for us in Christ Jesus. So, to that end, let us pray together and ask the Lord to open our eyes in order that we might see Him—not a Bible story, not some book of the Bible, but that we might see the Lord.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have not left us on our own in the study of Your precious Word, but You have put Your Holy Spirit—Your life—inside of us: a Bible Teacher whose pleasure, whose ministry, it is ever to turn our eyes to Christ, ever to reveal Him.
We pray this weekend, as never before, that You might open our eyes to the Lord Jesus Christ. We want a living revelation of Him. Then we want the grace to appropriate Him as You propose Him to our hearts.
We thank You in advance that You always over-answer prayer. So we expect this weekend that You will over-answer this prayer. Meet with us. Show us our Lord Jesus in a living way.
Also, Lord, we want this weekend to be a blessing to Your heart. We thank You that You have gathered every one of us, and we believe that each one here is here by Your appointment.
We pray, Lord, that it might be a blessing to You as we receive everything You have for us. Guide us now in this introductory session. We ask it because Jesus deserves it, and we come in His all-prevailing name. Amen.
We certainly welcome you to our gathering. As I have already suggested, we are here to see the Lord. We are here to know the Lord. He deserves our praise and our worship.
I hope you take advantage of every brother here, and of the Christ in every brother, that we might grow together. It is not all going to be in the ministry of the Word, but also as we fellowship together and touch one another’s lives. Let us be wide open to all that the Lord has for us.
I think the text that Tom and I have chosen to share this weekend, to present our Lord Jesus and lay Him before your heart as God has laid Him before our hearts, is a text with which you are already familiar.
Paul sent out an overview of it: Genesis 5:28 through Genesis 9:19. The Genesis record itself is ninety-one verses, so you know we are not going to touch on every one of those verses.
As far as the historical record is concerned, we are going to look at the story of Noah and the flood. The story of Noah, as you know, is literal. It actually happened. It is history, and we do not have to try to prove that to you.
It is actual history, but it is also Old Testament. The Old Testament is written in pictures, so it is redemptive. It tells a spiritual story. It is full of suggestive pictures, and we want to look at several of those.
The man Noah and his family are a picture. The ark is clearly a picture. The flood is a picture. The animals picture spiritual reality. The destiny of the ark—the path the ark took—is a picture. The dove, the raven, the rainbow, and the new creation are all pictures.
This is an amazing story, filled with spiritual significance. Even some of the Hebrew names become pictures. The name Noah means rest. They did not have rooms in the ark; they had nesting places in the ark. The dove wanted rest. There is so much instruction.
The Hebrew word for ark becomes a picture. We are going to look at some of the spiritual realities suggested in these pictures, but, as I said, there is no way we can touch everything here. It is just too full.
In fact, every part of your Bible does not have a bottom. You will be in heaven for a billion years and never come to the end of John 3:16. There is no end. As our capacity increases and He opens our eyes, we see more and more of our precious Lord Jesus.
We cannot look at everything, but we are here to look at something. Let me try to get that before your heart.
What is on our hearts to share with you? One purpose of an introductory lesson is to sort of home in, to focus on what we want to touch through the weekend. I may be here and there in a lot of different places, but I want to give you a sense of the burden—the strong burden that the Lord has laid on Tom’s heart and my heart.
I think it is important to rule out a couple of things we will not look at—things that you might think we are going to consider because we are studying Noah and the flood.
Almost all earnest Bible students, who study under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have seen in this story a picture of God’s salvation. I think almost all of us would agree that this is clearly pictured here: God’s salvation, especially from His grief over sin and His judgment on sin.
We see in the facts of the story a powerful demonstration of His salvation: the ark, one way. We see that clearly. The flood and the ark clearly illustrate God’s salvation.
Let me tell you a story. It is a true story—at least, it happened in the 1800s, so I do not know how true it is. I read it to be a true story.
At that time, the Salvation Army was very prominent in spreading the gospel. They had street meetings, handed out gospel tracts, and did all that kind of thing. I do not mean that they do not do that anymore, but the Salvation Army is sort of more social now.
Several years ago, I was in Peoria, Illinois, and they had a Salvation Army meeting on the street corner. I stopped and listened. They had the trumpet and the testimony. It must have been like it used to be.
But the meeting I am about to tell you about was not a street meeting. It happened in a railroad carriage. A Salvation Army girl was handing out literature and trying to witness to anybody who would allow the gospel witness.
One of the passengers in that railroad carriage was the famous Bishop Westcott. I do not know if you are familiar with him, but he was the Bishop of Durham and a professor at Cambridge—just an intellectual.
Today he is known for his translation of the Greek New Testament, the Westcott and Hort text. He worked with Dr. Hort for twenty-eight years preparing for that particular translation. He also wrote many commentaries. I have several of his commentaries.
This precious Salvation Army girl had no idea that this Anglican big shot was the one she approached. She approached him just as a sinner needing Jesus.
She said, “Excuse me, sir,” politely handed him a tract, and asked, “Are you saved?”
The girl never expected the answer she received. He did not say, “Yes, I am. Thank you for asking.” He did not say, “No.” He did not ask, “What do you mean by saved?”
Here is what he said: “Are you saved? Do you mean esōthēn? Or do you mean sōzomai? Or do you mean sōthēsomai?”
Well, he had a point. That poor girl—I am not sure that was not a little rude. It may have been unfair. But with those Greek words, he made a wonderful point, because he was trying to say to her that salvation is larger than you think.
You say, “Are you saved?” What you mean is esōthēn—past salvation.
Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace have ye been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not of works, that no man should glory.
But there is another word: sōzomai. Romans 5:10:
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son,
much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
You say, “I thought I was already saved. I received Christ. I trusted the Lord.” Yes, He was your Substitute in death, but have you ever been saved by His life? You see, that is present-tense salvation.
Or he asked her, “Do you mean sōthēsomai?” That means future salvation. Romans 13:11 says:
And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep:
for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed.
That sounds future. “I thought I was saved.” I have been saved, and then saved by His life; now he is saying salvation is getting closer than when you first got saved.
His point was that salvation is bigger than what theologians call justification—past-tense salvation. There is a present salvation, and there is a future salvation.
In the minds of many—hundreds, thousands, maybe millions—when they say salvation, they just think, “I accepted Christ. I am going to heaven. I am not going to hell.” I want to praise God for that.
The enemy has been very clever in damaging the precious word salvation by not allowing us to see its fullness. He has reduced it to a mere shadow of its reality. It has become just an academic thing: you make a decision, and so on.
There is a salvation past, and we praise God for it. Theologians call it justification. There is a present salvation, called sanctification. There is a future salvation, glorification.
I am saved from the wages of sin, the penalty of sin; but I can also be saved from the power of sin in my life. Someday I will be saved from the presence of sin. That is all one word: salvation.
I think there is a verse that summarizes all the tenses—actually two verses: 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10.
For God appointed us not unto wrath,
but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who died for us,
that, whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with Him.
What is salvation? Whether you are awake or asleep—that means whether you are alive or dead, whether you are here or there, whether it is now or then, whether it is on earth or in heaven—salvation is living together with Him in all of its tenses.
It is union with our Lord Jesus Christ. That is pretty much the background of what we want to share.
That is a whole lot different than, “I went forward in a meeting,” or “I signed a card,” or “I raised my hand,” or “I crossed a line,” or “I threw a stick in a fire,” or whatever. Praise God, because that is step number one. You have to have salvation past before you get to salvation present.
Salvation past will make you fit for heaven. But sometimes it is not enough to make you fit for earth.
There is a salvation that will make you fit for earth. Not only are you going to heaven when you die, but you are here now. They say, “In the sweet by and by.” Well, there is something for the sour here and now. That is what we want to look at.
There might be some brothers here—I do not know—who have been saved as that girl intended it. You may have accepted Christ as your Savior, and you are scratching your head, saying, “Why is it not working?”
“It is not working. I know I accepted Christ, but I have no power over temptation. I have no power over sin. I do not seem to have any deliverance, and this indwelling corruption is driving me crazy. Sometimes I am ready to throw in the towel.”
That is what Tom and I want to address this weekend, and we have found a marvelous Bible illustration of it.
There is no question that Noah and the ark picture salvation past. No question.
What could be a greater illustration of God’s everlasting judgment on sin than a shoreless ocean drowning sinners? That is a picture.
What could be a greater picture than an ark: one ark, one door, one window, one way of salvation? It is marvelously pictured.
What could be a greater picture of salvation than that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord? It pictures salvation past. We acknowledge that and see it. There is no question: it is esōthēn. It is salvation past.
But I am sure that if we look closer into that history, we can see more that God has intended. It is possible that the same story that so gloriously pictures esōthēn also pictures sōzomai.
That is your Greek lesson for this week: sōzomai. That is what we are going to look at.
God has provided more than deliverance from guilt and the penalty of sin. He has done that. Maybe I am wrong, but I am going to assume that you brothers have come that far—that you have entered into salvation past.
But if you are serious about the Lord, knowing the Lord, and living together with Him, then way down in the heart there is something that cries out for more than an insurance policy that is going to get you to heaven.
You are living on the earth now, right in all the situations in which you find yourself. Is there any provision? Has God made any salvation for victory over sin in my life today?
We are starting off by telling you right away: there is. There is a glorious provision. I am sure many of you are living in the thrill and fullness of that.
We are suggesting that this same history, which so beautifully pictures salvation past, is also a picture of salvation present. Though we are not going to touch it, it also pictures salvation future. This is one marvelous picture.
Let me just spiritualize for a moment. Genesis 6:13:
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 earth.
When God said, “The end of all flesh has come before Me,” we know what He meant: the end of human flesh, the end of bird flesh, the end of beast flesh—maybe throw the plants in there. There was going to be death, the end of flesh.
But let us go to sōzomai. Would you not love to hear the Lord whisper to your heart, “The end of the flesh has come before Me”?
I am suggesting that it is there. It is Old Testament, it is seed form. You look at the acorn, and it is hard to see the oak, but it is there.
The end of flesh is what we want to talk about this weekend.
Is it spiritualizing or allegorizing? Then we will not call it a type. I am not going to say God planned it to picture that. I am just saying it is a fine illustration, and it lines up with the balance of Scripture.
You are going to see these truths all through Scripture. We are dipping into this as a picture, but the reality is all through Scripture. We are going to insist on the principles. If you cannot handle the picture, scrap it—but do not get rid of the principles.
In the story of the flood, there is not only a picture that the end of flesh has come. God was so grieved; His heart was so burdened. There was a day when He buried the world and took Noah and his family far above the world.
Is that possible? That the end of flesh could come, and God could lift you above this world? We are suggesting that it is there.
Noah and his family rose high above this world and finally, in the ark, rested high above all of it.
Now, it is not our purpose to get into theological debates. We know the problem with Genesis 6:1-2:
It came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them,
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair;
and they took them wives of all that they chose.
We have read the arguments about the sons of God. Are they angelic beings having sexual relations with the daughters of men? Is it the godly line of Seth intermingling with the ungodly line of Cain? I am not going to get into that.
But I want to ask: is it possible? Sōzomai. Is it possible that God has made a provision, that the end of flesh has come?
Is it possible that God can lift you above the world when the world, and even those called the sons of God, are going down? We are suggesting that it is not only possible.
It is God’s heart. That is what He wants to do.
That is the burden on Tom’s heart and my heart: to present this marvelous story and show you God’s deliverance in a present-tense salvation.
We want you to go with us as we follow Noah into Christ, the ark. We want to watch him in the ark, watch him rise, watch him get out of the ark, and watch him live under a new covenant in a new creation. That is present-tense salvation.
That is how we want to look at this story. I pray that God will allow us, as we touch the principles along the way, to help you enter into that salvation, if you have not entered in. It is part of your redemption.
Do not just settle for, “I am not going to hell; I am going to heaven someday.” God has made provision for you now to be free from this pull of the flesh and indwelling corruption. That is what we want to look at.
That, dear brothers, is pretty much the theme of what we want to consider.
Before I share the outline we are going to follow, which was on the paper our brother sent out, I want to back up and give you a principle that touches every tense of God’s salvation—past salvation, present salvation, or future salvation.
At every stage, from start to finish in God’s salvation, from A to Z, every part of God’s salvation includes this truth: it is impossible for man to save himself.
That is true of salvation past. That is true of sanctification. That is true of the future. It is impossible for man to save himself.
If you want to follow along in the Bible, turn to the Genesis record. I want to show, by the power of God’s illustration—the flood—a dynamic illustration of how impossible it is for man to save himself.
Use your sanctified imagination as I read Genesis 7:11-12:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life,
in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month,
on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened.
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Do not read that, “La, la, la.” The fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell for forty days and forty nights.
The water came from two sources. According to the Bible record, the water came from beneath, and the water came from above.
We sort of read these things, “La, la, la.” It looks as if the world was returning to the pre-creation chaos, before the six days, when the water above was not separated from the waters beneath.
Try to picture in your mind what it was like when the fountains of the deep were opened and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Subterranean reservoirs came crashing through the crust of the earth. Everywhere you looked, there were gigantic geysers coming up out of the ground—upheavals everywhere, tidal waves, tsunamis.
It is an amazing picture of what God did. It was turbulent. It was catastrophic. The earth was opening up. There were earthquakes and violent gushes of water.
Add to that that the floodgates of the sky were opened. I think we have all experienced heavy rain, now and then, and sometimes for a long time.
I know I have put sandbags in front of my garage, trying to keep water out of the garage, and that is just a little bit of rain. This was more like the first wash when a dam breaks. This was like a levee giving way.
The floodgates of the sky were opened, and unrestrained rain poured—not for an hour, not for three hours, but for forty days and forty nights, without intermission.
Genesis 7:19-20:
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth;
and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail;
and the mountains were covered.
If you do not use the tabernacle cubit, the average cubit is a foot and a half. At the very minimum, the water level was twenty-two and a half feet above the highest mountain.
The flood may have changed the terrain and all the rest. But if the mountains then were as high as the mountains now, that means twenty-two and a half feet over Mount Everest, in the Asian Himalayan range—twenty-two and a half feet, six miles above sea level, this tremendous water.
Then add Genesis 7:24:
And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
You know what that means? That is flood stage. The water did not start to go down for five months. It stayed twenty-two and a half feet above the highest mountain for five months.
Anybody think they can save themselves?
When you think about what an illustration this is of the stupidity of man trying to save himself—I grew up with the mental image that the flood came up to your ankles, then your knees, then your waist.
Then you saw it was going to get deeper, so you climbed on the roof. You saw it keep coming, so you jumped off the roof and swam to a tree. You climbed the tree, and it kept coming up. You came down from the tree, found a hill, and then it kept coming up. You got off the hill, looked for a mountain, and went up and up. That is how it came across to me.
That is not how it happened. They did not run anywhere. They were surprised. This thing came all at once.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:39:
And they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away.
It was all at once. I used to picture them banging on the ark door, saying, “Open it up! Open it! Let me in! Let me in!” There was no time for that.
The floor caved in, the roof caved in, the ground opened up, and there was this tremendous catastrophic destruction beyond any imagination.
Jesus used the flood in Noah’s day to remind us of His coming.
Jesus never said—and it is not in the Bible—that Jesus is coming soon. I hope you do not teach that Jesus is coming soon. People have taught that for years and have been found to be false teachers.
The Bible does not say He is coming soon. It says He is coming quickly. It says He is coming without notice. It says He is coming like a thief in the night. It says He is coming unexpectedly.
Do not say He is coming soon. We do not know when He is coming. We do not know the day or the hour. They had plenty of warning—one hundred and twenty years of warning—but they did not know the day and the hour.
When that day and hour came, there was no second guessing. I think it is dangerous to teach that Jesus is coming soon because it gives people the wrong idea. We do not know when He is coming, but be ready, because He is coming quickly.
We know the season, though. You cannot look at the olive tree and not think He is coming soon. But we do not know when He is coming.
When you look at the power, according to the Bible record, of the flood, no one in his right mind would suggest that there was any possibility of human salvation outside the ark.
All attempts at self-salvation were futile. You could not run. You could not tread water. There was no holding on to driftwood. There was no canoe or boat you could make to survive all of this. We laugh at the thought that someone could survive outside the ark.
You are familiar with Dr. Ironside? I think many of you are. I was reading a book by him called Full Assurance, one of those old Moody colportage books, from 1937 and so on.
In that book, Ironside loved to tell stories. He was just a storyteller, and he had quite a vivid imagination. He told a story about the ark that you will not find in your Bible. It is not in my Bible. It is not in anybody’s Bible.
But with his graphic mind, he painted this image. He said God spoke to Noah just before he got into the ark and said, “Noah, I want you to get eight iron spikes and drive them into the side of the ark.”
“One spike is for you, one is for your wife, and the other six are for your sons and their wives. Here is what you are supposed to do: as soon as you feel the first drop of rain, grab hold of that spike and hang on. Hang on with all your might. If you are hanging on when it is all over, you will be saved.”
Try to picture that. The rains come, the fountains of the deep are opened, the skies begin to drop their water, and all of this gush and go takes place.
The ark is not just floating. The ark is being tossed from crest to crevice. It is being thrown all around, and you are hanging onto a spike on the outside of the ark.
Then, for five months, while it is at flood level, you are still hanging on—without food, without sleep. You are hanging on. Can you save yourself?
The answer is clear. In esōthēn, you cannot save yourself. It is just as certain in sōzomai: you cannot sanctify yourself.
You want deliverance from the power of sin? There is no way any man can achieve it by spiritual disciplines. You get up early, read your Bible, fast, pray, find a good fellowship, get involved, support missions, and become a good steward—you are hanging onto that spike, and it is not going to work.
None of Noah’s family would have survived if they had tried to save themselves.
What is amazing to me is that every Christian I think I have ever talked to, who is truly a Christian, agrees that esōthēn—salvation past—is all by grace. God does it. You cannot have a part. It is by grace and there are no works. You just trust the Lord.
Then they look at the future and say that is all by grace, because you are in the grave. What are you going to do? Even if He comes before you die, jumping lessons will not prepare you for the rapture. We cannot be prepared in that way.
There is nothing we can do. We say, “I know there was nothing I could do there. I know in the future, if He does not raise me from the dead, I am dead. It has got to be God.”
But somehow we get this idea: “Now, for my sanctification, I can do something. I can help out. I can contribute. If I pray enough, study enough, tithe enough, die to self enough,” and all these kinds of things.
There was no self-salvation in salvation past, in justification. There is no self-salvation in sanctification. There certainly will be none when God glorifies you and takes you to heaven.
We want to look at salvation present. I say there is a lot of stuff in here that we are not going to examine, but I am trying to get you to see where we are going.
How can I live victoriously now? Let me give you an outline that we are going to follow. If you think in terms of present salvation, you will see this clearly.
I want to give you this evening the first principle. It is the basic principle—so foundational, so cardinal, so rudimentary. You have got to begin here for sanctification.
I will tell you what it is: the revelation of Jesus Christ. You have got to see the Lord. I have got to see the Lord. It all starts there.
Tonight, I would like to take you from the time Noah first sees the Lord until the time God calls him into the ark. The ark, throughout this weekend, will be a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first lesson concerns the time Noah first sees the Lord until he abides in the ark.
The second lesson will take us to Noah in Christ Jesus. You died in Christ, and then you began to rise in Christ. We are going to watch the ark go up until it rests. We want to show you how God takes us from abiding to rest.
Then, after rest, Tom is going to show you how He takes you from rest to the place where you can live under the rainbow covenant in a new creation.
Do you see where we are going? That is what we want to do. Praise God, it pictures salvation past. But we want to focus on salvation present: from revelation to abiding, from abiding to rest, and from rest to living the new-covenant life in a new creation.
May God help us with that.
Tonight we are going to be looking at Genesis—from the opening revelation through abiding—Genesis 6:13 to Genesis 7:16.
Then, from abiding to rest: Genesis 7:16 to Genesis 8:14.
Then the final step, living under the rainbow: Genesis 8:4 to Genesis 9:17.
So we abide in Him, we rise in Him, we rest in Him, and then we learn to live in union with Him under a new covenant. May God help us.
Now I am going to ask you to turn to Hebrews 11, or follow along as I quote it. This is the beginning. It has to start here. Every step of sanctification follows this one. This is number one. This is the beginning.
Hebrews 11:7:
By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet,
moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house;
through which he condemned the world,
and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
The story begins when Noah is four hundred and eighty years old—a young fellow. When he was four hundred and eighty years old, he received a revelation from God.
Hebrews tells us about that revelation: “about things not yet seen.” It was a revelation, but you could not see it with these eyes.
He received a revelation in his heart, a revelation in his mind, and a revelation in his spirit. It was not something you could see with the natural eye.
You say, “What did he see?” The same thing you saw when you got saved.
You saw that there was a holy God and that He wanted to judge sin. You saw that there was one way to be saved: through the ark. There was no other way. He showed you that it was all by grace.
That is what Noah saw. But it was in his heart and in his mind. It was invisible. Nobody who knew Noah could look at him and say, “Wow, what a revelation you had,” because it was hidden. It was in his heart.
In simple words, he had a revelation that Christ was the only way of salvation for him and his family. He saw the sin of man. He saw the judgment of God. He saw the salvation of God: one ark, one way, one window, one possibility of salvation.
Now, what happened when he got that revelation? The same thing that happened to you when you got that revelation.
With great interest, we read of the next one hundred and twenty years of Noah’s life. Noah was completely occupied with the ark.
First Peter 3:20 says he spent the next one hundred and twenty years constructing the ark.
You know the dimensions: a big ark—four hundred and seventy-seven feet long, seventy-nine feet wide, and forty-seven feet high. It was the size of a football field, plus a little more than the end zones.
He saw the ark in his heart. For one hundred and twenty years, he ate the ark, lived the ark, and slept the ark. All he could talk about was the ark.
The ark became his very life. All his resources were spent on the ark. All his time was spent on the ark. The ark was his job. The ark was his hobby. The ark was his food and his drink. It was his entertainment, his mission, his goal, and his destiny.
You cannot even mention Noah’s name, even to uninstructed Christians. You say, “Noah,” and they say, “And the ark—and the animals.” That is what they think of.
Even though he lived two hundred and twenty-nine years after the flood, he is still connected with the ark, because it consumed his life. All who knew him knew that this guy was just wrapped up in the ark, and that was all that mattered.
Now remember, we are looking at the reality. The ark was not a big boat. The ark was Noah’s salvation. The ark was his best friend.
When he was all wrapped up in the ark, that was his deliverance. He was all wrapped up because the ark was his hope for life and salvation.
That is how the Christian life begins. We call it first love. You remember when you first came to know the Lord? You were all occupied with Christ. You wanted everybody to know about Christ and what you had discovered.
They looked at you, and you looked weird, because it was inside. They could not see it. You just looked real dumb, trying to share this.
A big burden on my heart after I got saved was testimony. Second Peter 2:5 calls Noah a preacher of righteousness.
I do not have any doubt that he was preaching to his neighbors as he was building this ark. Jude tells us that in the days of Enoch, ungodly sinners spoke harsh things against the Lord. I am not surprised if they were mocking Noah as he built this boat.
Some say there was never rain before this. “What in the world are you building?” They would ask, and all that kind of thing.
But Noah’s real testimony was not preaching. No doubt he prayed for his neighbors, but Noah’s real testimony was not prayer. He was not handing out literature and trying to saturate the neighborhood with the message of salvation.
I remember so well, in 1958, when I first trusted in the Lord. Oh, I drove my family crazy. I drove many people away with my zeal.
I was a walking tract wreck. I witnessed everywhere I went. I tried to tell everybody. I am sure Noah had that.
But according to the Bible, Noah convicted the world not by his preaching, not by his praying, not by personal contact with his neighbors. Hebrews 11:7 says:
He prepared an ark, by which he condemned the world.
His great ministry was ark-building. The power of his life was in ark-building.
You say, “Well, if the ark is Christ, how do I build Christ?”
Let me make a suggestion. When God first revealed Christ to Noah, what was in here was deep in his spirit. Nobody could see it.
They just saw a crazy man with lumber in his yard, and his sons cutting down trees. They did not understand. They did not see anything. But Noah saw it. God had opened his eyes. He had the revelation.
Building Christ—building the ark—is taking what is in here and putting it out where the neighbors can see it.
That is what he did. As he began to build that ark, they would look out the window, see the ark, and see Noah. “There is that crazy man again. He is doing something.”
Every day, as it progressed—do not forget, one hundred and twenty years—he was working on this thing.
Every month and every year, as they looked out the window, Noah got smaller and smaller, and the ark got bigger and bigger.
He got smaller and smaller. “Where is that guy? Oh, there he is. See him behind that?” The ark was getting so big.
One day God said to Noah, “Get in the ark.”
Then the neighbors looked down and said, “Where is that little man?” He was gone, and all they could see was Christ.
I am suggesting that if you want to understand sanctification, it begins with the revelation of Christ, an occupation with Him, being saturated with Him, and being so occupied that one day God will open your eyes and you will understand what it means to be in Christ Jesus.
I am going to stop there, because that is the first principle.
Lord willing, tomorrow morning Tom will pick up there and show you what it means to abide. We know we are not giving you anything new. We are just reinforcing and confirming those great truths, those realities, which you have known for years.
May God quicken us and revive us again. We need to see the Lord. We need to have Him become our very life.
We need to build Christ, so that the revelation He has put in here becomes public and Christ is manifest, until there is no more you. There is just Him.
Then it begins.
Let us pray together.
Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word and this marvelous illustration in the Old Testament.
Lord, we call upon You to deliver any brother who has not understood present-tense salvation: that You have made every provision in Christ to put an end to the flesh, to lift us high above the pull of this world, and to seat us on high with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, open our eyes, as You did for Hagar, that we might see the well, drink, and live.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.