THE DAYS OF NOAH

Aired August 21, 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Apostle Peter said, "And God spared not the Old World, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." The question seems to be, what were those people doing back there that was so wicked that God destroyed the world by the flood? This question is especially curious when we consider that the Lord Jesus said, " And as it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They ate they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and took them all away." The account of their activities is found in Genesis chapter six.
The first two verses tell us that the sons of God intermarried with the daughters of men upon the basis that they were fair to look upon. Paul speaks of the Christian marrying only in the Lord. When you marry be sure you get your prospective spouse in the Lord before you get them in bed. A child of God who marries a child of the Devil is going to have trouble with his father-in-law.
Verse three says that God said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with men." That is easy to understand. If you knock on some one's door and nobody answers, how long are you going to knock until you realize no body's home?
God had been knocking on some doors for a long time and nobody's home. God knows that if He lets some people live a thousand years they would never answer. In this case He was gracious enough to tell them He would give them  a hundred and twenty years to shape up and after that you have had it. Noah was called a preacher of righteousness and could not count one convert in one hundred and twenty years. We are not required to be successful; we are required only to be faithful in the proclamation. The fourth verse tells us that because of these marriages there were giants in the earth in those days. Just like the days of Noah there are giants in the earth now. Most of them are playing basketball. Oh, how we love our giants. There are giants today also of another kind. How about the giants of drugs, illicit sex, perversion, and violence? Of course we must not forget the other giants. The Apostle Paul was a giant. Stephen was a giant. As I look back over the last fifty years I remember the old days in Bible College, and can truthfully say, there were giants in the land in those days.

The fifth verse has an ominous thought. " And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The television programs are structured to stir the evil imaginations of our thoughts continually. The word image is in the word imagination. Only God can look into the heart and God saw the images in their hearts. He sees the images in our hearts too. It would be embarrassing if people could see the images that sometimes parade around in our hearts. A battle is going on even as we speak for the minds of men. Paul gives us the solution in Corinthians when he says, "For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the casting down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and ever high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
Verses six and seven say that God repented that He had made man was grieved in His heart and decided to destroy man whom He had created. Verse eight and nine lets us in on the grace of God. The first time grace is mentioned in the Bible is in the salvation of Noah. God mentions the name of Noah five times in two verses. "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Five times Noah. Noah, Noah, Noah, Noah!
Verses eleven and twelve say that God looked upon the earth. The earth might not look up to God but God was looking at them and he did not like what He saw. He said that all flesh had corrupted themselves and the earth was filled with violence. Violence and corruption is the best way to describe our life style today. So shall it be in the days of the Son of man sound like ominous words for the present day when we remember that Peter prophesied that this present world would be destroyed by fire as the old was destroyed by water. If God spares the present world from the destruction promised by Peter He will have to apologize to the people of Noah's day for drowning them.

Verse seventeen give God's plan for destruction. God said, "I will bring a flood of water and destroy all flesh." Someone asked George Bernard Shaw if there was to be another flood and you could pick the eight people to survive the deluge, who would pick. Shaw said, I'd let 'em all drown. God had a little more grace than that. He preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness when He brought the flood on the world of the ungodly. Ladies and Gentlemen, here is God's plan to deliver Noah.

ONE ARK

First God said to Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood." God told Noah to build an ark. He did not tell him to build a whole fleet of arks. Just one and only one. Sometimes the Church is called the Old Ship of Zion. Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build My Church." He never said He would build a whole fleet of Churches. He only mentioned one Church. I am not concerned about saying that I belong to that one Church and that others don't. I am concerned about taking inventory of my own life and asking, "Am I in that one Church that Jesus built?" The specifications of the ark are given. It was to be 300 cubits long or about 547 feet long. It was to be 50 cubits wide that would be about 91 feet wide. It was to be 30 cubits high or about 43 feet high. This ark was made because God told Noah, "Behold I, even I, do bring a flood upon the earth to destroy all flesh... This flood was to be a universal flood. It covered all the mountains. Water seeks its own level. If the water rose five miles high to cover Mount Everest it had to be five miles high everywhere. It was universal because all flesh wherein is the breath of life was to be killed. Only a universal flood could wipe out every body. It was a universal flood because Noah built an ark. If not universal it would have been easier to simply flee to higher ground. It was a universal flood because of the illustration that Peter gave about the flood. He said, "That there were heavens from of old and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water by the word of God by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished: but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire....
Since Peter compares the destruction of the whole world by fire to a former destruction by water it would not make sense to say the flood of Noah's day was a local flood. Hell is not going to be a local brush fire. Make thee an ark-one ark. I will build My Church-one Church.

ONE DOOR

Not only did God tell Noah to build an ark-one ark, He also told him as He gave the specifications-the door of the ark thou shalt set in the side thereof. God said, "The door..." How many doors is the door? One door is all the ark was to have. When you think of the Church-the Old Ship of Zion-how many doors does it have? How many ways are there to get in? Jesus answered that question for us when He says in the tenth chapter of John, 10:7, and "I AM the door of the sheep." If you don't get into the ark of safety through Jesus you don't get in. There is no other way. Remember what Peter said in Acts four, "There is therefore no other name under heaven that is given among men whereby we must be saved." The Church belongs to the Lord, it is His and you go in His way or not at all. When the ark was completed God said, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark." He did not say, "Go thou and all thy house into the ark." If He had said, "Go into the ark," that sounds like God is on the outside. Jesus is in His Church. He does not tell us to go in, He tells us to COME IN-come in and be with Him. His statement is very suggestive when He said, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them."
The mercy of God to the human race is seen in the statement of God when Noah went into the ark. He said, "Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth." After all was done, God delayed the judgment for seven days. God has striven with some of you for more than seven days. Some for more than seven years, but there comes a time when God will let you alone and you can go to hell. Some of you who are listening to this broadcast will never be bothered by the Spirit of God again. Remember Jesus is the door-the one door and the only door. We must go through Him. How do you go through Him? On the Day of Pentecost when the people were told to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins it is said that the Lord added to the Church daily those that were saved. Noah built one ark and the ark had one door.

ONE WINDOW

God told Noah, "A window shalt thou make to the ark." A window, how many windows is a window? A window is one window. Now isn't that something. Noah built one ark-it had one door and now we learn that it only had one window. How could one window be enough for a boat that large with three decks and many rooms? For one thing we don't know how large the window was but we can be sure that it was large enough for those on the ark to see all they needed to see. How many windows do the Church have? I know of only one way that we can get any light on spiritual matters. That one window is the inspired Word of God--Bible. The scripture tells us, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet." Peter tells us in his second epistle, "And we have the word of prophecy made surer: whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place..." The Bible throws all the light we need on any spiritual matter. It is the only light. It is the only window. It is the Bible and Bible alone. It may not give all the light we sometimes would like to have, but it has all the light that God wants us to have. Whatever you want to know about heaven, hell, the judgment, Holy Spirit, baptism, speaking in tongues or whatever; the Bible has all the information God wants you to have. Yet as true as this is, it seems that many people prefer to live in the dark. They pull the drapes on that one window. They never consult that book during the week.
The chorus of that well-known gospel song should be changed to:

 How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Saviour

Stumbling in the dark-stumbling in the dark,

How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Saviour

Stumbling in the dark!
Think of it, the Lord told Noah to build one ark. The ark had one door; the ark had one window; and then, marvel of marvels, the ark was made of one kind of wood.

ONE WOOD

God told Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood." The ark was to be of only one kind of wood. He could not make it of oak or pine or ash or hickory or chestnut. Tthe Lord specified gopher wood. An interesting question arises here: Of what kind of material does the Lord build the Old Ship of Zion?
You've got it-just one kind of wood. And what wood is that? We find the answer in Revelation, the twenty-first chapter, when we are told about those who go to heaven. "There shall enter into it nothing that is unclean or that maketh an abomination or a lie but only they who are written in the book of life." The Church is composed of one kind of wood-the wood of a saintly life. In Galatians the fifth chapter Paul warns that the works of the flesh are manifest. After he mentions drunkenness, immorality, sorcery, and many others he concludes by saying that these shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The warning that we find before the flood came, ought to be sufficient. The earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence. The imagination of man's heart was only evil continually. These were not allowed in the ark and they have no part of the New Testament Church.

ONE FAMILY

There is one ark, it has one door, one window and it has one kind of wood. Note also that the ark had one family in it. And Noah went in and his sons and his wife, and his son's wives with him-only one family. Wonder how many families there are in the Old Ship of Zion? In Ephesians chapter three we note, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." The Father names his family. Wonder why we can't be content with wearing the name that the Lord has given us? Christian is the name of the heavenly family. It is the name of the family of God on earth in the Church. Why can't we wear the heavenly name in the Church here on earth? It will be the name that we will wear in heaven. There will be no other family name there.
Can you go to heaven without being a Methodist or a Baptist or a Catholic? Most folk would say, yes. Can you go to heaven without being a Christian? Most religious people would say, no. If that be true why be anything else but a Christian and a Christian only? After all there is only one family in the Church. As for me, I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God. This may be getting monotonous but let me remind you that there was one ark, one door, one window, one wood, one family and now guess what? There was only one sign.

ONE SIGN

After the flood was over God told Noah, "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." That was God's sign. People might get worried later and think it happened once, it could happen again. God said, "When you see my bow in the clouds that is a sign of my promise that I will never again destroy the earth by flood." We have God's word on it. He has promised never again. He said this is the token that I have made with all flesh, on the earth. As long as the world shall stand, seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat day and night shall not cease. We have God's word for that. He has promised. Peter reminds us that the Lord is not slack concerning His promises. Has the one ark, the Old Ship of Zion, no sign? Yes, there is a sign.
That sign is the Lord's Supper. Paul said, "As oft as ye do this ye show forth the Lord's death until He comes." Every time we take the Lord's Supper we are reminded of the promise that He made when He said, "This is My blood of the covenant that is poured out for many for the remission of sins." If we sometimes forget the promise-the Lord's Supper on the Lord's Day-remind us of the promise of God; it is our sign. It is the sign of the cross. Until the day that Jesus comes again, like summer and winter, day and night, cold and heat, seedtime and harvest, there will be the faithful who will observe the feast until the last Lord's Day this world shall see, "Ye show forth His death till He comes." Ladies and Gentlemen remember the days of Noah! Remember too, that Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man." THERE IS ONE ARK, ONE DOOR, ONE WINDOW, ONE WOOD, ONE FAMILY AND ONE SIGN!