Let us then return to that portion of scripture we read in Genesis chapter 7. We shall choose there verse 1 for our text. Verse 1 of Genesis chapter 7, which reads, 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. Come thou and all thy house into the ark. And the title is taken directly from the verse, Come in to the Ark. Come in to the Ark. It has been our practice in recent Lord's Day mornings to go through the early chapters of Genesis. We have decided that we're going to go through Genesis until the end of chapter 11 because the chapters after we have looked at on previous occasions and it has been a privilege for us to go through the early chapters of Genesis for these chapters are the very foundation of the Christian faith and all who are Christians will want to be established in their faith And we are to earnestly contend for the faith. And how can we possibly contend for the faith if we're unsure of the faith? Or if we're unsure of the foundations of the faith? Well we shall get the foundations here in the first book of the Bible. and it has been our privilege to look through these early chapters. And last Lord's Day we looked at chapter 6 and our text there was verse 22. Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him, so did he. And we looked at that under the title of preparing for the flood. Well Noah prepared for the flood 120 years we think he was preparing. We cannot be absolutely dogmatic about that but it was certainly two or three generations he was working, preparing for the Ark. But what happened? Well this is what happened. The Ark was completed and everything was all ready and God now says to him, come thou and all thy house into the Ark. You know, he didn't step in by himself, by his own initiative. He waited for God. He was one who was obedient to God continually in everything that he undertook. He waited for the Word of the Lord. He didn't rush in. He didn't think, well, I can do this. This is for me. No, no, no. Noah was a humble individual. He was one who was declared righteous in his generation and he showed his righteousness by being obedient, waiting for the Lord. Oh friends, there's a lesson here for us. How many Christians run on and do things that they should not be doing. They should be waiting for the Lord. because he may never call them to do what they're seeking to undertake. It's a mark of unrighteousness to go out and to do what the Lord has not told you to do. Well the day came, the time came, all the procuring of workmen and materials was over and the ark was now complete. Then God calls Noah and his family to come into the ark to be saved. What a day that was friends. What a day. The ark was complete. Then it was in some kind of plane. It was upright. It was erect. There wasn't a drop of water there. Not a drop. But the edifice was complete. According to the specification that God had given to Noah, it was now complete. Everything was in place. And you can just imagine, can you not? Those who had watched this thing come to life. Where is the rain, Noah? Where is the flood? Not a drop. Nothing whatsoever. But the rain did come. And that day, friends, everything stopped. Everything stopped. They began to see the rain, the rain from heaven, torrents of rain, absolute torrents falling down upon them. And what you can imagine, they would say, oh, well, this is just a passing shower. We don't need to do anything. It's not going to be a flood as Noah had prophesied and preached. No, no. It's just going to be for a day or two. Well, the rain kept dropping and once more the fountains of the deep opened up. Oh, they didn't know about this. Well, they didn't know about rain and they didn't know that in the bowels of the earth there was water and the Lord was releasing that water so that the rain was coming down and the water was coming up. And still they said to themselves, it's only temporary. They didn't heed the preaching of Noah. No, no, no. We're not going to heed the preaching of Noah. But what happened? What happened? The water began to rise. It was getting deeper and deeper, and it continued for 40 days and 40 nights. Well, long before the end of the 40 days and the 40 nights, what would have happened? We're maybe going ahead of ourselves a wee bit here, but by this time, Noah was in the ark. He was in it. And you can just imagine the people there surrounding the ark. Here was salvation right before them, but they couldn't get into it. They were climbing up on the ark, but there was no use. They were crying out, Noah, Noah, open the door. But Noah couldn't open the door. Why? Because God had shut him in. And God had shut the door. And when God shuts the door, no one can open it but God. And he wasn't going to open it. God who is merciful, God who is gracious, God who is long-suffering, wasn't going to open it. And you could hear the cries, you could hear the screams, and so could Noah. He would have heard all of that. What a terrible experience for Noah. He heard it all, but he could do nothing about it. Nothing whatsoever. men, women, children, animals, elephants, tigers, sheep, cattle, everything floating around in the water, all destroyed, everything, all life. That's the way it was. And on that day, friends, you can be sure there will be plenty of people articulating it or thinking it, if only if only we had listened to Noah. Here we were, we were building it with Noah. Here we were, we gathered the wood with Noah. We spent many times with Noah. We could see how hard working he was, how diligent he was, how he followed the plan that God had given to him. Oh, how we wish that we had listened to Noah. If only we had listened, if only we had heeded the warning, we would be in the ark. But no, not now. Too late. It's like the foolish virgins that we looked at a few weeks ago. They had no oil in their lamps and they went to get some oil at midnight and when they came back they wanted to join the wedding party but it was too late. Too late. So it was on that day If only we had listened to Noah, poor Noah who was laughed at, poor Noah who stood in the street corner telling them, repent, telling them to believe that this flood was going to come and it was going to destroy the whole earth and all life. You've lost the plot Noah. You're an enthusiast. You're reading too many books. Get a life, Noah. It's not going to happen. Noah stood there and he rebuked that wicked and corrupt generation. He preached his heart out to them. But they did not listen. If only we had. Will this be your testimony at the end? If only we listened. That poor preacher, he got excited sometimes. That poor preacher told you about hell. That poor preacher sought to tell you you must be born again. That poor preacher told you friends, he told you that you need to repent and believe the gospel, that you need to be found in the ark that God has provided for us, and that ark is the Lord Jesus Christ. This ark that we're looking at today typifies and points to the ultimate ark, the Lord Jesus Christ. And friends here it is clear and plain to you, you must be in him. It's not enough to be in the Free Church of Scotland continuing. It's not enough to sit at the communion table. It's not enough. You must be in Christ. That's your passport to heaven. That's your escape from the wrath that is to come. Oh, there's no wrath coming, say the scoffers. Is that not what they say? Is that not what Peter reminds us? Where is the promise of his coming? Well, the promise of his coming is in the word of God. And that coming will come one day. When Christ comes, friends, we're going to move on, but when Christ comes, things will happen. What will happen? Well, he'll come first. Then there shall be the resurrection, and then there shall be the destruction of this present world, not by water, but by fire. Hear the scoffers, where's the fire? Don't you realize that the bowels of the earth contain fire? You've heard of volcanoes. You've heard of them erupting. You've seen the damage that they can do, the devastation that they bring. That's just a preview, friends, of what will happen at the end. People laughed at the water. People laugh at the fire. It's all there. It's all there. It's just waiting for that moment when this present world will end. Well, before we look at this I want to establish with you that the flood covered the whole earth. It covered the whole earth. Because there are some who would like to maintain that the flood was a localized flood. We don't believe that. I'm going to present one or two arguments to you. I'm not going to elaborate upon them. I'm simply going to state them. You can investigate this yourselves later on. I don't think it would be appropriate to go into establishing these arguments in a sermon. But nevertheless I do want to state, simply state one or two arguments that would determine to us that this flood was no localized flood. We've had many localized floods. since the great flood. But this was a unique flood because this flood covered the whole of the earth. One or two arguments then. The depth of the water for instance. The depth of the water. Verse 19. What do we read here? verse 19, and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. That verse is telling us the universality of the flood. The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, not just part of the earth but the earth, and all the high hills, again universality, that were under the whole heaven were covered. But Verse 20, 15 cubits upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered. Now what that verse is telling us is that from the highest mountain at that time, the waters was 15 cubits above the highest mountain. Why is that so important? If you just go back to Genesis chapter 6, what we looked at last week, verse 15, here we have the Lord laying down the specification. Now we're not going to get into details here, but the height of the ark was to be 30 cubits. The waters covered the highest mountain by 15 cubits. That was to cover the draught of the ark. Now, what's the draught? Well, as you will know that we have one in our membership who would be able to explain this effortlessly without hesitation if he was here. And also we do have normally with us somebody else who would be able to explain this without a problem. But the draft is the depth of water needed to float a ship and the depth is determined by the weight of the ship or the vessel and the load that it carries. When the ark was built and when it was filled with all the occupants it needed a draft of 15 cubits. That's exactly what it got in order for it to float around the world if necessary. You see, the ark was not designed to sail in. The ark was not designed to go from one port to another port, from one shoreline to another shoreline. No, the ark was designed to float. And in order to successfully float above the whole of the earth, its draft had to be 15 cubits. And that's exactly what it was. Now you may well say, where did all the water come from? Well, as we said earlier, the water came from above. It came in torrents. It may well have come in sheets. And it came from the bowels of the earth. And that's where all the oceans have come from today. Another reason for us to realize that the flood covered the whole of the earth was the duration of the flood. According to scholars, the flood, not the raining, but the flood itself lasted for 371 days. The flood was upon the earth for 371 days. That's just over a year. It does not say that it was raining for that period of time. But the flood remained for 371 days. If we read it, if we read, closely read chapter 7 and 8. Another reason for us to realise that the flood covered the whole earth was the geology of the flood. The oceans were formed. The landscape, or the more technical word is topography, as we know it, was now formed. In other words, the flood changed the surface of the earth considerably to what we know it today. And that did not happen overnight. It took a long period of time. It took for the flood to be on, to cover the whole of the earth. The size of the ark itself is another reason for us to believe that the ark, that the flood covered the whole of the earth. Why did he need such a big ark? If it was only localised, he could get off with a much, much smaller vessel. And again, related to this, if the flood did not cover the whole earth, was there any need for the Ark at all? Could Noah not just have gone to a place where the flood had no influence or effect? Could he not have gone to a dry spot? Could the Lord not have said to him, Noah, your locality, for 100 miles around your locality is going to be flooded. To escape this, you just simply have to go 200 miles away and you won't be affected by the flood. He could easily have done that. But he didn't, because the flood covered the whole earth. We go to the New Testament for another argument to support the fact that the flood was universal. We go to Peter's account. I'm not going to read it to you, but you'll find it in 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 3 and 7, verses 3 to 7. There, what do we find? Peter is drawing an application from the Noah's flood to what's going to happen at the end of the world. And as the former world was destroyed by a universal flood, so Peter says that this present world is also going to be destroyed universally, not by water, but by fire. And the last argument that would tell us that the flood was universal, that it covered the whole of the earth, is the whole of mankind was corrupt and the whole of mankind perished. Adam and Eve were our first parents but in a secondary sense Noah is the head, the new head of the human race because all others were destroyed apart from those who were in the ark. Therefore, this was total destruction, universal, affected the whole of the world without exception. Well, as time permits, we want to look at one or two things for our edification. First of all then, from our text, we have the call of God. What does the text tell us? The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. It goes on to say, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. We are not to assume that everyone in Noah's family was righteous in the sight of God. We do know as we will go through it, as we will come to it shortly on another occasion, that his son Ham was wicked. Yet he was saved here. We might well call that a temporal salvation. Why was he saved? Why did he not perish in the flood? Was he any different from the others who had perished? And the likelihood is that he wasn't. But he was saved friends because he was Noah's son. And because of his relationship to Noah, He was saved temporarily. We have no indication that this would declare him to be righteous in a biblical sense in the sight of God. Now, maybe your mom and dad are righteous. Maybe they are Christians. Maybe they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you have been brought up in a Christian home, in a Christian family, with a special and a prized Christian upbringing. But maybe you're not saved. Maybe you're like Ham. Maybe you've enjoyed the privileges and the blessings of a Christian upbringing, but your heart is still unmoved. It has not been broken. You've not known that circumcision of the heart. The Holy Spirit has never opened your heart to such an extent. that you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. You are in some sense benefiting from your parents but you have no living and lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for yourself. Well friends it's time to wake up, it's time to seek the Lord, it's time to be found in him, it's time to close in with him. This is what it would tell us Because at the end of the day, on Judgment Day, you'll not be able to plead that you had a godly granny, or grandad, or mother, or father. You need to be godly yourself. You need to make personal application to the Lord Jesus Christ. What else can we derive from the fact of the call of God? Well, Noah here, he left everything behind. He left everything. He took himself, he took all the animals that God had told him to take, but he didn't take his possessions. Nothing. He left everything. When the call came, everything was left behind. And it's exactly the same when we're called into the kingdom of God, when we're called to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to leave our old lives behind. We are to take up the cross and we are to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not to turn back to our old lives. We are to make a clean break with everything. We are to follow Him. Now it doesn't mean for us that we have to surrender our possessions. I'm not talking about that at all. You can see what I'm talking about. I'm telling you, the Bible would tell us we must leave our old life behind. That's repentance. That's what it's all about. Leave the world. This is what Noah did. Left everything. As he walked up the steps to the ark. And poor Noah too, this righteous man who had the grace of God and the smile of heaven upon him. Noah needed to submit to the confinements and inconveniences of the ark. Have you ever thought what it would be like to spend a year in this ark floating around? The stench of the animals? I don't need to elaborate. But what would it be like to live in close quarters with his wife, their sons, their wives, and all these animals? It wasn't going to be a holiday. It wasn't going to be some kind of foreign cruise or nothing like that. It would not be easy for him. And so it is with the Christian life. The Lord Jesus has not promised us a garden of roses. There's hardships. There's difficulties. There's things that will test us. There will be occasions that are contrary to flesh and blood. We all like to have an easy life. And we're so used to an easy life in the 21st century. But you're not promised an easy life following Jesus. No. It's take up the cross. As someone reminded me some time ago, a couple of weeks ago, you're following the most hated person in the whole world. Who's that? That's Jesus. the most hated individual that ever walked upon this world. The Christians following him. Do you think it's going to be easy? I don't want to put anyone off. But it's not going to be easy. It wasn't easy for Noah. But there was no other way for him to be saved. And poor Noah, he brought as many as he could into the ark. On Noah who preached, Noah who preached for a hundred and twenty years, who sounded his voice out in the open air for a hundred and twenty years, what kind of ministry had he got? How well did it go? Noah, no doubt, will be like any other preacher. After being out preaching, he would sit back and say to himself, what good am I doing? What good am I doing? Who's listening to me? Only his family. Well, what a blessing to have only your family listen. But what if your family don't listen? That can happen, friends. That can happen to preachers. That can happen to Christians. No one listens. But he would have Many come into the ark but they would not come. It takes a lot for someone to go out day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, to go out and to preach and no one listens. You know people ask me, you see your open-air work, does it do any good? Now that's a good question, I don't mind people asking that question. Your open air work, does it do any good? They mean, and nothing wrong with it, they mean. Do you get people coming to church? Do you get bottoms on the pew? That's what they mean. Well, it's a good question, and I have no problem with it. But, why confine it to open air preaching? Why do they not say to me or to other ministers, what good is your pulpit preaching doing? What good is your pulpit preaching doing? That's another good question. It's a question that the minister should ask. It's a question that the office bearers should ask. It's a question that all people should ask. What good is your pulpit preaching doing? Well as far as open air work is concerned, and as far as pulpit preaching is concerned, I have to say that I don't think it's doing any good whatsoever. whether it be in the street or whether it be in the pulpit. Noah would have known that. But Noah's heart was such that he would have people come into the ark, his neighbors, his friends, his extended family. He would invite them, but they wouldn't come. He would have been despondent and despairing on many occasions. But the time came when he was shut up, not to preach anymore. Verse 16 for instance, what does it say? At the end, and the Lord shut him in. Your ministry's over, Noah. You have been faithful. You've done what you should have done. You've discharged your message, my message that God has given. Nothing more is required of you. You're righteous. You're safe. People haven't listened. That's their responsibility. Now, they cannot be saved. What a thought! Oh, what a thought! Here you are today, you've come to the house of God, and something in the back of the mind is, well, I can be saved. The day might come when God will say, you cannot be saved. I cannot tell when that day will be. You cannot tell when that day will be. But God can. And that's what happened here. A faithful, godly preacher of righteousness was silenced. Shut in. He was going to be saved. And all who did not respond would perish. My time's up. we may revisit. May God be pleased to bless his word to us. Let us pray together.