Well, good afternoon, brothers.
We will be continuing—not in Greenlee’s reverse Bible—but by looking at the story of Noah and the flood.
As we come to look in God’s Word, I remind your heart, and I remind mine, of that indispensable principle of Bible study. It is the only principle that is absolutely indispensable. Other things will assist you and help you along the way, but at the end, you have got to trust the Lord. It is His book.
The Bible is like our Lord Jesus: it is human and divine. There is a human side. When Jesus lived on earth, some people only saw that side, and they missed Him.
We need the human side. We are not trying to glorify ignorance. You need to study; you need the human side. But you also need the divine side, and only God can unveil His Son.
Isaiah 50:4. The context of Isaiah 50 is messianic because, in that chapter, a few verses down from verse 4, He said, “I gave My back to those that smite, and I gave My cheeks to those that pluck out the beard.” It is talking about our Lord Jesus. It is a messianic passage.
In verses 3 and 4 of that messianic passage, we read these words:
The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of them that are taught,
That I should know how to sustain with words him that is weary:
He wakeneth morning by morning,
He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as a disciple.
That is messianic. Jesus trusted His Father to wake Him every day and to wake up His ear, to listen as a disciple.
If Jesus needed to have His ear awakened to listen as a disciple, may I suggest that perhaps we can pray that prayer: “Awaken my ear to listen as a disciple.”
So let us bow before the Lord and trust Him for that.
Our Father, we thank You that You are the One who gives understanding. Now, this afternoon, we would ask You to wake up our ears, that we might hear from You.
I pray that You would protect my brothers from anything I say that is not from You, but that their ears would be so tuned to Your voice. Thank You that You are going to guide us this afternoon, and we commit this meditation unto You.
We thank You in advance for the Holy Spirit, whose delight, pleasure, and ministry it is to show us Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Well, we are now in our third lesson in this great illustration of Noah and the history of the flood. It is an intensely spiritual story. It tells about our great salvation.
As Tom and I are presenting it, and as we believe the Lord has guided us, we are looking especially at present-tense salvation. I want to review just a little bit, because some brothers came in later.
We know the story of Noah illustrates how to get saved. There is no question about that. So we are coming with a large assumption—I hope it is true—that everybody in the room has already had present-tense salvation. You have received the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and He has come into your heart and delivered you from the penalty of sin. You are forgiven.
We are beginning with that. We are saved; we are justified; we are delivered.
The question we are raising is this: Is the same Christ who delivered you from the penalty of your sin enough to deliver you right now from the power of sin in your life? That is what we are looking at.
Justification does make you fit for heaven, but sometimes it leaves you quite unfit for earth. We need to enter into His full salvation so that we may be fit for heaven and for earth.
Sanctification is the technical word, and that is for now. God has made that provision in Christ.
Justification: God sees you in Christ. Praise God for that.
Sanctification: Others see Christ in you. That is another thing altogether. May God help us with that.
In our introductory lesson, we looked at the starting point of this truth we call present-tense salvation. I am going to read from Hebrews 11:7 again:
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house; through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
We suggested from the record that Noah, when he was 480 years old, received a revelation from the Lord, because it always begins with a revelation of the Lord. We have got to see the Lord, and we have got to keep on seeing the Lord.
This stage of our salvation, illustrated by Noah, begins with that revelation. Hebrews 11 tells us that he received a revelation of things not yet seen with these eyes. He saw it in his heart.
Once again, it is a revelation. Many Christians teach and believe that past-tense salvation is a decision that someone makes for Jesus. It may include that, but it is not merely a decision; it is a revelation.
I love Galatians 1:15-16:
But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace,
To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
It is a revelation of Christ.
What did Noah see when God revealed this to his heart? The answer is that he saw the same thing you saw when you got saved. He saw that God was grieved over the sin of the world and that He was going to judge the world.
He saw that there was one way of salvation: the ark, illustrating our Lord Jesus Christ. He saw that God, by grace, was going to receive him and his family into the ark, and he took all that by faith.
That revelation changed his life completely. For 120 years, after he saw God’s ark, he was occupied with the ark—every day, morning, noon, and night; every resource, everything. He was wrapped up in that which pictured Christ.
That revelation absolutely transformed him. But it was not yet seen. God told him; it was in his heart. God told him; it was in his spirit. He saw it all as clear as a bell in his mind, but his neighbors did not see it. They could not see what was in his heart.
When you got saved, Christ came to live in you. People looked at you, and they saw you, and they thought something strange was going on. But they could not see what you had seen.
What was in Noah’s heart and mind then became public. He began to build the ark and take that revelation that was in here and put it out where his neighbors could see it.
Day by day, as he put it out where his neighbors could see it, they looked out the window. At first, they saw Noah in a pile of lumber. Then they saw Noah getting smaller, and there was a shape to that pile. Pretty soon, that ark filled the whole landscape. It was more than a football field long, and Noah was so small.
Then, as Tom told us today, God called him into the ark. When his neighbors looked out the window, they could not see him anymore. All they saw was that which pictured Christ.
That revelation, which was unseen at first, now became visible, and all the neighbors got to see Christ.
That was sort of the end of my introductory lesson. I brought you to the place where revelation begins everything. Then Tom took us from there and pointed out that the background of all this was God’s heart—God’s broken heart.
God was grieved because people whom He had created in His image, to reflect Christ, who is the image of God, had departed from that. They had mixture. They began to be attracted to the world, and after a while they got all swallowed up in the world. It broke the heart of God.
God said, “Because I am holy, I have got to deal with that. It is a stern necessity of My holy character. I have got to deal with that.”
But because He was love, because He was compassion, He said, “I have got to provide a way. I love them. Though they have turned from Me and departed from Me, My heart beats hot for them.”
In the background of this whole Noah story is this heart of God beating hot in love—grieved, hurt, wounded. Those are just words that we use. We are taking the infinite God and crushing Him into our little syllables so that we can get some idea of what was going on in the amazing heart of God.
God’s heart was going out. He said, “As I provided past-tense salvation, it breaks My heart to see any Christian not entering into sanctification.” God is just as grieved today.
I took you from the principle of revelation to the time you abide in Christ. Then Tom opened up, by God’s light, what it means really to abide in Christ. It is the discovery of this liberating truth.
Brothers, if you have not learned it—if you are still trying to gather animals and find out the sex of insects—you are going to become exhausted trying to obey God. You cannot.
Everything God has ever commanded us is impossible. God gave two commands: gather them in by twos and sevens, and get in the ark.
Noah got in the ark, and one of the most amazing miracles of all time began: the great migration. The animals began to come in, just as God commanded him. It says they came in as God commanded Noah—not Moses. Noah.
He fulfilled a command by abiding in Christ.
If you have become exhausted trying to love your wife as Christ loved the church, trying to give thanks in everything, trying to give thanks for everything, trying to rejoice evermore, trying to turn the other cheek and go the second mile, trying to be filled with the Spirit, trying to know the will of God, trying to obey the Lord—if you have become exhausted, we invite you to this great revelation, this great discovery.
As you abide in Christ, God fulfills what God commands.
If you have not seen that migration, you have not begun to live the Christian experience. I tell you, it is a great dynamic, a great deliverance, and a great freedom.
For so long, I struggled trying to obey the Lord. I loved the Lord. I wanted to obey Him. I was beating my head against the wall trying to obey God. I sinned, I got up, I fell, I got up, I confessed—I was up, I was down.
Noah, get in the ark. Abide in Christ. “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
You say, “What do You mean, I can do nothing? I do a lot of stuff.”
Nothing that can be called fruit.
You can do nothing that can be called fruit apart from the life of Christ.
Some people have this idea: “I understand that I cannot do it in my own strength. God has taught me that. So I am not going to do it in order to earn a gift. I am going to do it because I love Jesus. That is why I am going to obey Him—not to earn anything, not for a reward, but because I love Jesus.”
Does not work. Does not work.
Someone says, “I am going to do it out of gratitude for all He has done for me on the cross. It is not to gain anything, but because I love Him and out of a thankful heart, I am going to obey Him.”
If God said, “Lift a thousand pounds or you are not going to heaven,” could you do it? You say, “All right, I will lift a thousand pounds because I love Jesus.” That is not going to work.
A thousand pounds is a thousand pounds. You cannot lift it, no matter how much you love Jesus. You cannot lift it because you are thankful.
You need the life of God Himself. That is the exchange life. That is Christ living in me.
That is what Tom was laying before us: God, with a wounded heart, has made a provision. Noah, by entering in, learned and discovered the great beginning point of sanctification: “I can please the Lord. I can obey Him as I learn to abide in Christ.”
That is where we left off, and that is where I want to move on. Assuming that you have had the revelation of Christ Himself, assuming that you have come into Christ in abiding, assuming that you have learned the great liberating truth that you can obey the Lord by abiding in Christ and trusting His life to do through you everything He has asked you to do—assuming you are there—what is next?
We move from revelation to abiding, learn the secret of abiding, and now, as Tom suggested, I would like to take you from abiding to rest.
What I am about to present—the order in which I present it—do not put a lot of weight on that. The order might not be God’s order, because I am unique, you are unique, and God is certainly unique.
I am not going to say that God always does it this way. I think He usually does it this way. I think we have seen a pattern. But because you are you, God always deals with us as and where we are in order to bring us where He wants us.
Generally speaking, the next step is this: I have been delivered from works. I am not going to try to gather animals. I am not going to try to determine the sex of individual animals. I am not going to try to figure out which seven to bring. I am not going to get into that.
Now I know I will abide in Christ. Now, what is the next step?
Since it is not works, I am in the ark, and God shuts the door. I am suggesting that this becomes a time of light, a time of teaching. Let us use the word doctrine. It is a time when you begin to learn.
Noah did not have the Bible. But once you learn that you abide in Christ and are able to fulfill His commands, all of a sudden your Bible becomes very alive. You cannot put it down. You have to study. “I want to know His heart. I want to know His ways. I want to know His will.”
We begin to drink in knowledge. Noah is in the ark now. He is not witnessing to his neighbors anymore. He has been delivered from all that, and now he is in the ark, where it becomes a time to learn.
We begin to study and pray and meditate and think and knock and seek and look, and so on.
I am going to ask you to use your sanctified imagination and come with me. I want to tell you what I think Noah learned inside the ark as his new experience began.
For those who like logical connection, I would like to show you seven doctrines that I think Noah learned when he was inside the ark—seven doctrines that the abiding Christian begins to learn. Again, do not put an order on this.
The first doctrine I want to mention—and what a precious doctrine it is—is identification with Christ.
I believe they began to see, in a way they had never seen before, identification with Christ. That is illustrated by the ark being a picture of Christ.
I do not know how long it took, but after they entered in and after God shut the door, I do not think it would have taken them too long to realize that they were sharing the destiny of the ark. Whatever happened to the ark happened to those who were inside the ark.
Think New Testament, because what happened to the Lord Jesus happened to you who are in Christ Jesus.
I know this is Old Testament seed form, and it may look like I am trying to push things in. But what I am trying to push in is what I have seen from the New Testament. I know that is in the seed, and I look for that in the seed.
There are three arks mentioned in the Bible. There is Noah’s ark; there is the ark of the covenant; and there is the basket in which Moses was placed.
When Jochebed and Amram made the basket for Moses, it was the same word as “ark.” Moses was put in an ark. The Hebrew word for all three is the same. It is a chest, a box, a crate.
The ark is just a box. I do not think we would miss God’s heart if, in this case, we pictured it as a box—a coffin. This is a three-story coffin, but it is a coffin.
When God closed the door, God closed the lid. It is a coffin, and Noah died with Christ.
As that ark began to rise, do not forget that the storm had not happened when Noah entered. He was in Christ before the storm. The ark then began to take the brunt of the storm.
Noah and his family were in Christ Jesus, and the storm—the judgment of God—was beating against the ark. They were identified with the ark.
This is, in New Testament terms, Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
They were not only identified in His death, but also in His resurrection. Genesis 7:17-18 says:
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.
And the waters prevailed, and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
There they were in the ark—the coffin—and then it began to rise.
Does that say anything to you about New Testament truth? They were in Christ, dead with Christ as He took the brunt of the storm. As the ark began to rise, they began to rise. Up and up and up they went, twenty-two and a half feet above the highest mountain on the earth.
Ephesians 1:20-21 says:
Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
In Ephesians 2:5-6, we learn that we were raised up with Him and seated with Him in heavenly places. In every way, they were identified with the ark.
They died in Christ. They rose in Christ. Then Genesis 8:4 tells us that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. They rested in Christ. Identification truths.
I cannot fly. But if I am in the plane, I fly.
My wife washes my pants. My money is in the pocket. My money is washed because it is in the pants.
My briefcase is lost. My passport is in the briefcase. My passport is lost.
You see what I am saying? Whatever is true of Christ is true of those who are in Him.
Brothers, you know that you died in Christ Jesus, that you were raised up with Him, and that you were seated with Him in heavenly places. I am simply suggesting that those inside the ark, experiencing the ark taking the brunt of the storm, might have thought, as they would not have before, “I am identified with this ark, and the destiny of the ark has become my destiny.”
Hold that, and let me show you another doctrine that I think Noah became aware of. I think he started to think about election, the doctrine of predestination, and the sovereignty of God.
Genesis 7:16 says:
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.
When God shut the door, I do not think they would have thought much about this beforehand. But after God closed the door, and they were locked into the ark and identified with it—after they had prepared the ark, gathered the food, and finished preaching to their neighbors, because Peter said Noah was a preacher of righteousness—I think they may have begun to wonder.
I do not know if they heard people crying for help. Some people say Noah could hear their cries: “Have mercy! Open the door!” Maybe all he heard was God’s thunder against sinners. I do not know.
But sooner or later, it must have hit him, as it has hit me and, I would imagine, as it has hit you: Why me?
Why am I in this ark? How come my family is in the ark, and my neighbors are going down? My friends are going down. Many who are called sons of God are being swallowed up in the world. How come God had so much mercy on me?
Perhaps he looked around and said, “I wonder why those seven cows and not the others. How did they get picked? How come there are seven deer? Why those seven deer and seven doves? Why were they chosen?”
It seems logical to me that he would have had those questions in his mind.
When I look at my family and see how God has blessed my family, you ask the question: “God, You have been so good. You have been so gracious and merciful to me and to my family.”
Then, after a while, you begin to think: Did those animals come up that plank on their own free will, or did God draw them up that plank?
I cannot understand how it was these seven and not another seven. Is He a respecter of animals? Does He choose some and not choose others?
I think, in their minds, that doctrine of election, sovereignty, and free will may have been developing.
Brothers, I am not telling you anything you do not know. You have observed what I have observed: after someone learns to abide in Christ, they get wrapped up in identification truth. They read identification books, hear identification talks, get all excited, and want everybody to know that you are identified with Christ.
Whatever is true of Christ is true of you. He is the Son of God, and you are a son of God. He is an overcomer, and you are an overcomer. You are in Christ Jesus. He is perfect, and you are perfect. They go on and on.
You have got to learn that. Then, after a while, they are taught the sovereignty of God and the free will of man—Calvinism and Arminianism. We have got to talk: “Do they have a free will? Did God force their will? Did He draw them up?”
“I can understand how this chicken came up, but that donkey—what is he doing here? How did he get here? He is naturally so stubborn.”
I am just suggesting that perhaps this was going through their minds, because after you abide in Christ, God begins to open things. Doctrine, learning, and understanding become very big.
I think there was a third doctrine that Noah and his family learned. I have no doubt it became very precious to Noah. I am talking about the doctrine of security.
I wonder, when they first entered the ark and the door was shut, when the wind began to blow and the ark began to rock, if they felt safe.
I wonder whether those carpenters—Noah and his sons, who had put it together—were thinking, “Do you think these walls are going to hold? That wind is blowing, and that storm is getting bad out there.” I wonder whether they were looking for leaks. I wonder whether this thing was impervious to God’s judgment in God’s floodwaters.
After a while, perhaps they discussed it and said, “Remember what God told us in Genesis 6:14?”
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
The pitch is tar; pitch is asphalt. Pitch made it watertight.
They did not know that the Hebrew word for pitch was kaphar, which meant covering. After a while, it was used as a covering for sin, and in the book of Leviticus, it would be translated atonement.
That ark was covered inside and outside with atonement.
Maybe some of Noah’s sons and daughters-in-law did not have assurance. I know my wife struggled so much with assurance. Even after we were married for a couple of years, she struggled. Every time we had a service, she wanted to get saved again, and again, and again.
She grew up in a Christian home, and she could not find a date in her life. She could not nail it down. She was always uncertain.
So I am not blasting these doctrines. This whole idea of identification with Christ—I love it, and I hope you love it too. This whole idea of the sovereignty of God is a resting place: I came, but He drew me. I cannot put that together, but I think about it. We discuss free will and not free will, how God is sovereign but does not violate human volition, and so on.
Then there is security, eternal security: “Am I safe? Is God going to keep me?” I think that became very important as they were rising in the ark.
Romans 8:1 says:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
When that truth comes to full blossom, we read in Romans 8:31-39:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth;
Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Closely connected to that is another doctrine: separation. Shut in implies shut out.
They were shut into the ark, but they were also separated from the earth. At this point, when you are abiding in Christ, it is almost a greenhouse condition.
They could almost say, in a proud way, “I am separated from the world. I am in Christ; I am separated from the world. I am not like those sons of God who are going down with the world.”
Once again, there becomes a great emphasis on holiness and separation. It is a wonderful doctrine of separation.
Noah illustrates that as he was in the ark and rising. Identification with Christ became real to him. Election—that God had put his family there—was a marvelous truth. Security was wonderful. Separation—that God had delivered him from the world and that he was not going down with all those sinners—was a precious doctrine.
Let me mention a couple of other doctrines that I think he learned in the ark. I think, in a fresh way, Noah had light on guidance and the will of God.
I pointed out that this was a box. It was a three-decker box, a crate, a coffin. It was not a sailing vessel.
Noah’s ark had no mast, no sail, no rudder, no oars, no helm, no steering wheel, and no compass. Noah was not the captain of this ship. He was a passenger. He was a passenger on the ark of God.
The path that the ark took was determined by the will of God, not by the will of man.
Noah and his family had no control whatsoever. But I am sure, somewhere along the way, they asked this question: “Where is this leading? Where are we going? What is God doing? Where is He taking us? What is the end of all this? There must be a goal. There must be something that God is doing. What is the future?”
This idea of trying to find the will of God became important to them. It enlarges, of course, in the New Testament to finding God’s will.
Christians today are often locked into this. Because they are abiding in Christ, they want to obey Christ. Because they want to obey Christ, they do not want to make a mistake.
“What is God’s vocation for me? Where should I go? Who is God’s life partner for me? What is my ministry? I need to know God’s will for my ministry. What are my gifts? If I have gifts, what are my spiritual gifts?”
People begin to think, “Where is God taking me? What is His plan? Where are we going?”
Some Christians are consumed with discovering the will of God, trying to figure out all these strange twists and turns the ark is taking. Sometimes it is up, sometimes it is down; sometimes we rise, and other times we are in these dips.
“What is God doing? Where are we going? What is the end? What is His ultimate purpose?”
They do not know, because there is no steering wheel, no oars, and no compass. They are locked into Christ, and Christ says, “I know where you are going. You do not know, but you are in Me. You are up, you are down, you are here, you are there, you are scratching your head.”
The will of God becomes a very important thing.
Let me give two more, and then I will try to wrap it up. Another doctrine they learned—using Tom’s word for this—is body life.
Tom pointed out the possibility that the animals might picture the Jews and the Gentiles, those elect, those who will end up in Christ Jesus: the whole church.
Some teach that God used hibernation so that they could control the animals during all that time. I do not think that is true because of Genesis 6:21. God told Noah to gather food to feed the animals while they were there, and animals do not eat during hibernation.
Animals being animals, I do not suppose that, even though the ark was large to the neighbors, it felt large when you were there with all those animals. I do not think it was a picnic in those close quarters.
Tom says it might have been like a zoo. I know in your assembly there are no stubborn donkeys, right? There are no squawking hens, no screeching monkeys, and no animals trying to devour other animals. That would not be true.
Galatians 5:15 says:
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Some animals are restless, some are loud, and some are selfish. If the animals picture the whole body, then perhaps the family pictures the elders.
It is your responsibility, elders, to keep them fed and fat and happy and separated, and so on. After a while, I think that becomes all-consuming.
When you think of the ark and the animals, you wonder if they had time for anything else. The doctrine of taking care of these people, keeping them fed and keeping them happy, probably took up most of their time.
They had to adjust to living with this variety of living creatures. They were all so different.
In this connection, I suppose after a while Noah looked around and said, “Hey, you know what I noticed? Everybody in this ark is family.”
Talk about body truth: family. It is all family. We become a family. Here we are in the ark, and we are all one family.
That is doctrine. That is the body. That is the truth of God: the desire for unity and the desire to see that we are all family.
Let me give you one more, and you will see why it is the final one.
I am identified with Christ. Praise God for that. I am chosen in Christ. Praise God for that. I am safe in the Lord Jesus. Praise God for that. He has separated me from the world. Praise God for that. He is going to guide me into His will. Praise God for that. I am one with the family of God. Praise God for that.
Now, finally, we read Genesis 8:4:
And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
Brothers, the ark did not crash. It rested. That is an important word: the ark rested.
I suppose after their trip they had the sense of arriving—that they had arrived. They had now come to rest. Finally, they were saying, “Now we are going to see what the end is, what God had in mind. Finally, we are not rocking anymore. We are not up anymore. We are not down anymore. We are at rest at last.”
“We are so glad that before we got to rest, we got to understand identification. We got to understand sovereignty. We got to understand assurance. We got to understand the body, fellowship with the body, separation from the world, and all the rest.”
I remember when God opened my heart and my eyes to rest. I thought I had arrived. What is after rest? When you come to rest in the Lord, where do you go from there?
You abide in Christ. Finally, you learn all this wonderful truth, and then you rest. You stop. Now what?
Brothers, let me lay this before you, and may God awaken our ears to hear. I do not want you to miss this. May God help us to see what I am about to share.
I have no doubt that they were very thankful for all they had learned along the way on the trip. They probably said, “Lord, thank You for this light.”
But actually, in the picture, it was dark on the ark.
There were no windows—there was one window, and it was covered. I do not know how dark it was, but it was dark on the ark. With all that darkness, they were in the dark.
Rest, according to this record, is not all that it is cracked up to be. What was supposedly light actually turned out to be darkness, and their rest turned into more of a standstill than a rest.
I am sure, as they reflected on all that doctrine, it must have hit them along the way: “We are just drifting. We are just drifting. We are going here; we are going there.”
Ephesians 4:14 speaks of drifting with every wind of doctrine.
In that chapter, Paul talks about maturity. In the verse before, he talks about attaining to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ—not like a child, drifting with every wind of doctrine.
Not false doctrine—true doctrine. Drifting with every wind of doctrine.
Trust me, I am not knocking these great doctrines: identification, security, assurance, being kept by God, being separated from the world, and the body of Christ. I am not knocking that.
In one sense, they could have said, “Now we are in a mountaintop experience.” Literally, they were on a mountaintop, but I am not so sure it was such a sweet experience.
I think it was dark in there. I do not know about the ventilation. I do not think it smelled too good in that ark. I do not think they had a lot of room to play ping-pong or whatever. It was cramped in there.
Now they were sitting high above the world that grieved God’s heart and condemned God’s heart, excited because they had finally come to rest.
What is next? There was no word from God.
Let me give you a little math. Genesis 7:11 says:
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.
In the 600th year of Noah’s life, second month, seventeenth day, the flood began.
Genesis 8:4 tells us when the ark rested:
And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
That was five months after the flood began. The ark finally rested on the mountain.
God also tells us in Genesis 8:14:
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dry.
That was in the 601st year of Noah’s life. In other words, they were in the ark for more than a year. Some commentators nail it down and say a year and two weeks. Some make it a year and a month. I do not know—more than a year.
Why do I bring that up? Because they finally arrived. They finally rested. And there was no word from God for 200 more days.
They just sat there—resting—without a word from God.
Do not read that “la, la, la.” I am promising you that one of the most difficult experiences you will ever have in your life is learning all this stuff and thinking you have arrived, only to find there is no word from God. He is not talking. He is not speaking.
It is a life-changing discovery to learn that all that direction you thought you had through all that nice teaching was really just drifting. All that light you thought you had was just darkness. The rest you thought you had was just a standstill.
There you are.
You say, “Well, I have seen the revelation of Christ. I have learned how to abide in Christ. Now that I am abiding in Christ and am not concerned with all those works, I am learning, studying, and being educated.”
“Ask me about identification—I will tell you about identification. Ask me about the sovereignty of God—we will discuss it. We will have a theological bull session about the sovereignty of God. I have some ideas, and we can chew it over.”
“Ask me about security—I will tell you about eternal security. I will tell you about separation. I will tell you about the church and the body of Christ. I will tell you about unity, and I will tell you about the family of God.”
And there we are, sitting on a mountain with no word from God.
Identification truths are beautiful, but brothers, it is not Jesus. It is not Jesus.
Election is a beautiful thing. It is not Jesus. It is not Christ.
Security—how I love it, especially since my wife entered in. I love the truth of security. But it is not Him.
The will of God is not the God whose will it is.
Body life might be missing the Head. Might be missing the Head.
The Christian life has got to be more than legalism. So you say, “All right, doctrine.” But there comes a time when, knowing all those great truths, you are just sitting there on a mountaintop and your heart is saying, “There has got to be more than this.”
“There has got to be more than knowing all this truth. I have studied this; I have studied that. My head is full. I know it all. But where is the Lord? Where is the Lord? Where is relationship with Him?”
To know all that and be a stranger to the One who is being pictured by this—there is no spiritual pain that I have ever experienced that is greater than no word from heaven.
He has got to speak to you. He has got to minister to you. He has got to reveal Himself. But when heaven is closed, it is a hell on the earth.
Brothers, I hope you know where my heart is and what I am trying to tell you: all these doctrines, all the teaching, and all the light could be simply drifting and being carried about with every wind of doctrine. Your heart is saying, “I have got to have more.”
Noah did not know what to do, so he did nothing for two and a half months. Then he said, “We have got to do something.” So he went up, took the cover off, and looked out. He said, “You know, things are starting to dry up.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I am afraid to do anything. We are not going to do anything.”
Three weeks later, there was still no word from God. He said, “Well, you cannot just sit here forever. God is not coming. What are we going to do? Let us send out a couple of birds. We will send out the raven and the dove.”
He sent out the birds. You know the story; Tom will touch on that. The birds came back, and there was still no word from God.
So he waited another month. See, we just read this “la, la, la.” He waited another month with no word from heaven, and his heart was crying out for more.
At least when Noah was outside the ark, he was busy ark-building. He had something to do. When he was rising in the ark, he had something to do: he was learning stuff, learning doctrine, learning teaching, gathering all this information.
But now he was just sitting there. Where do you go from here?
It was cramped. It was dark. It was smelly. “I need some elbow room. I need some liberty. There has got to be more.”
Doctrine had fallen short of what he thought, what we think, it should be.
I want to close with one verse: Genesis 8:15.
And God spake unto Noah, saying,
After 255 days, God spoke to Noah. What did He say after all that time?
All right, Tom is going to pick it up there. We are going to close with, “God spake unto Noah, saying”—the cliffhanger.
I want to leave you there because what I want you to see is that we need the revelation of Christ. We need to learn to obey the Lord by abiding in Christ.
As we are identified with Him, rise up with Him, and rest with Him, doctrine is a wonderful thing. But it is not Him.
Until you have that union, that relationship with Him, you do not enter into sanctification.
Revelation, abiding, teaching, sanctification.
I do not know where you are in that little picture, but I know a lot of brothers who cannot get past doctrine. That is all they want to do. “We have got teaching. We have got to learn. We have got to enter in. Let us learn this and learn that.”
It is all cerebral, while the heart is crying out, “I want the Lord. I want to know Him. I want to have an intimate union with Him. I want to have the abiding that leads to a fruitful life.”
Well, Tom is going to take us on the final step. Let us pray together.
Father, we thank You. Thank You so much for everything You have taught us. In no way do we want to belittle the truth of God, but we also do not want to be children tossed around with every wind of true doctrine.
Open Your heaven. Speak to us, Lord. Do not give us silence. We need You to speak.
Take us forward in a heart knowledge of Christ. Thank You for this illustration, and we pray that You would work its reality in our hearts. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.