Welcome to the Plenteous Redemption podcast, where the cross and the culture are on a collision course for discussion. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews a stumbling block, under the Greeks foolishness, but under them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, here's your host, Thomas Ervin. Welcome this morning. It's a blessing to see so much life in the church this morning and little kids running around. And my children have been sick for the past few days, so today is a huge difference in them. In fact, they were so sick, I didn't even recognize them. My kids never sit still unless we make them sit still. And so Bethany would just go in the living room and just lay on the floor face down. Just lay there. They were just miserable. So they're doing better. Miss Pat had a cold and is doing better. And Miss Hazel had a cold and is doing better. And so praise the Lord, everybody's doing better. And now for a few weeks now, I've been telling you about these two young people who would be coming to be with us. And in case you didn't notice, they are here. Brother Blake and Miss Haley have been very good friends to us for A long time now. When did you come to DeLand to go to Bible School? Wow. So I met him, I mean I think we probably ran into each other before that, but I really got to know him when he came to DeLand in 2014. That's been 10 years. That means you're getting old. You married an old man. Every time I get up and announce that you're coming, we talk about your age, and I'm sure that I'm way off on how old you are. And my wife is probably exactly, she probably knows your birthdays. I've been telling people you're like 25. But my wife has probably been telling what is probably your real age. 27, okay. Yeah, I told you. I told you they're young and they look even younger. So, amen. Brother Blake is a blessing. This is a very talented couple. They've been very good friends to us. They have stayed in touch with us even while we were in Africa. My wife and Miss Haley talk all the time. Occasionally I see my wife on the phone doing something. I'm like, what are you doing? Texting somebody. She has friends. So, Bible says, you know, if you want to have friends you have to show yourself friendly. So that's how I keep them away. Yeah, I don't have time for you know, we used to when we were in our home church we would My wife and I got married, and we started making friends with some of the married couples. And they would invite each other out to things. And we were like, they never invite us. Well, then they started inviting us. And I was like, we don't have time for this. I wish they hadn't invited us. I don't want to just go sit around and do nothing and talk. And I mean, I got stuff to do. So anyways. Then we stopped complaining about not being invited. We tried to not get invited to stuff, because we didn't have time for it. But anyways, we're glad they're here, and that he took my invitation, because they are a blessing. I think you're really going to enjoy the Sunday morning service and the Sunday evening service today. And we'll find these two are unbelievably talented, and they are a dedicated and godly young couple. And you will greatly enjoy them. We had the Lord's Supper this morning. That was a blessing. Thank you for those who were here for it and partook with us. It was very good. First time as a church since I've been here. And public ministry went well yesterday. We got a little bit of rain. Miss Phyllis was probably scaring people. She was all bundled up in the corner behind the Coke machine holding a sign. People are driving, coming from the opposite side of that Coke machine, and there's a person there. It's like, what? What is happening? As the rain came in, it got chilly. So she was trying to stay warm. Talked to Miss Kathleen. Well, more like she talked to me this morning, and talked, and talked, and talked. Brother Hoyt is he's doing better, but that's relative to what where he was so Not great, but better his blood pressure spiked really high last night. They almost had to go to the hospital but they were able to get it back down and in a normal range and He is feeling better today. She said he is recovering strength, but it's just nowhere near where he was, he's just in a rough shape. So please keep praying for them. They're back and forth on whether to do this next surgery or not. They don't know if it'll be profitable to go through the surgery or if it will actually extend his life or if he gets the surgery done and then still dies. It's just one of those difficult situations to have to deal with. Please pray for them. They're trying not to get discouraged and they're handling it well, but there can be a breaking point with those things. So we don't want them to get discouraged. We want them to remember that we love them and we're praying for them. So please keep them in prayer and maybe stop by and say hello every now and then if you get a chance and just show your face and let them see you and vent. and talk. You know, you get locked at home for weeks and weeks and weeks because you're dealing with all these medical problems, and it's just nice to have somebody to talk to every now and then and spend some time with. So if you can be a blessing in that way and your ears are functional, or if they're not functional, it's even better that way. You can just You just see the mouth moving? No, don't do that. I do like people, they just don't tend to like me. That's the issues. Yeah, amen. All right, well, we're gonna sing hymns this morning. So it has been about a month since Brother Nathan took over as our song leader. It's been a blessing. It's been exciting. He's teaching us new hymns each week and taking us through the songs and leading them well. And he's been here faithfully every time. He even stood in for me while I was gone. I'm telling you, there are churches all over the country that would love to have just one person in their church who would do that for them. And so I am eternally grateful. Give your full attention to Brother Blake and learn something from the Bible. I don't want you to turn me off during the preaching. So I'll sing first. And if you stay for the afternoon, we might sing again. Maybe not. No, we're so happy to be here. And we're thankful for the invitation to come. And we love the Irvins. They've been a good friend to us and appreciate their friendship. And we are thankful to be here this morning. But vain pursuit will come to nothing. Time will erase whate'er we do. I want my life to count for Jesus, for earthly things will To worldly riches, I only seek eternal gain. Inside my heart, there burns a question. What was I playing? on earth here for it truly was to please the Savior to do His will and not my own. I want my life to count for Jesus for I faith. No need to add to worldly riches. I only seek eternal gain. I want my life to count for Jesus, for earthly will quickly fade. No need to add to worldly riches. I only see eternal What is your life? It is even a vapor. It appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. What would it matter if we gained the whole world? And the Bible says, and lose your own soul. But for the Christian, thank the Lord, our soul is in Christ. We're not going to lose that, because that's the Lord's keeping. But what would it matter if we lived this whole life and lived in pleasure and accumulated wealth, and then we leave it all behind and have nothing to take with us into eternity, nothing to give back? and I'd sure hate that. But now we're going to sing about Jesus and what He did for us. Nobody else can do what Jesus has done for us. Who can come from heaven and be born of a virgin's womb? What king could die for all man's sin and be laid in a borrowed tomb? What man could raise up from the dead and ascend to heaven's throne? No one else can do what He has done. No one else can take the burden from me. No one else can melt this heart of stone. It took Jesus and the blood he shed on Calvary. No one else can do what he's done for me. Whose blood could take a wicked heart and make it white as snow? Whose love can take a ruined life and make it pure and whole? There is only one man who can set a sinner free. No one else can do what he's done for me. No one else can take the burden from me. No one else can melt this heart of stone. It took Jesus and the blood he shed on Calvary. No one else can do what he's done for me. No one else can take the burden from me. No one else can melt this heart of stone. It took Jesus and the blood he shed on Calvary. No one else can do. No one else can do. No one else can do. what he's done for me. All right, turn to Luke chapter 24. Get a little bit of context first before we go back to the Old Testament. Luke chapter number 24. I'll tell you this morning, I do not take it lightly to stand behind this pulpit, or any pulpit for that matter. And I understand this morning that I am young, and that's okay. because you're not gonna hear my wisdom, because I don't have much, but what we need is what God said. And I think if we can get what God said this morning, it'll greatly help us. If you would stand with me for the reading of the word of God, we'll just read a couple of verses together, then we'll pray, then you can be seated after that. Luke chapter number 24. And this is Jesus, the context is Jesus, after he rose again from the dead, and he told his disciples during his earthly ministry, he told them, I'm going to be betrayed. I'm going to be crucified and nailed to a cross, but then I'm going to rise again from the dead. And he did exactly just that. The problem was his disciples didn't believe him. In fact, when he told his disciples that he was going to do that, one of his disciples, namely Peter, took him by the collar. And the Bible says he took Jesus and began to rebuke him. He said, be it far from thee, Lord. This is not going to happen to you. I'll die with you. They didn't believe what Jesus said was true. So Jesus did exactly what he said he would do, whether they believed it or not. So the Bible says, when he rose again from the dead, look what he told them in verse number 25. He actually begins to rebuke them. Verse 25, then he said unto them, O fools, that's Jesus speaking, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the what? The Scriptures, the things concerning who? So Jesus told his disciples, when you look back onto the Old Testament and you look through the scriptures beginning at Moses, the very first book of the Bible, and you read all the way through the scriptures, you know who you're going to find? You're going to be reading about Jesus. That's what he said. Now look at verse number 44. Luke 24, 44, and he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning who? Concerning me. This Bible from cover to cover, it's about Jesus. And I'd like to look at that this morning. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the truth that you have preserved for us. You've inspired for us. And God, I'm glad that we have the truth and we hold the truth in our hands. Lord, we don't have to worry about knowing who you are or knowing where to find truth and being confused in this life about the purpose of this life, where we came from, why we're here, where we're going when we die. God, I'm glad that you have revealed your truth to us in this precious book. God, I pray that as we open it up, as unworthy as I am, God, I know that I'm not worthy to stand here this morning. But Father, please, I pray that you'd put me aside, and Lord, that your Holy Spirit would speak to your dear people this morning as only you can. Please minister to each heart, and God, I pray that you would get the glory out of all that's said and done this morning. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for standing. You may be seated. Grab your Bible. You can turn away from the book of Luke and go back to Genesis Chapter number six. Genesis chapter six. This passage has been a heavy passage on my heart for the last, really the last couple of months. And the more that I look into this passage, the more that I see, and we will, by the grace of God, we'll look at this passage of scripture, a familiar story, but we'll look at it from one perspective this morning, and then this afternoon, we'll look at it from a different perspective. But look at Genesis chapter number six. And look what the Bible says with me here in verse number five. And God saw. God saw. You think that you're going to get away with what you think no one else knows about, and you forget that God sees. You think, well, who's going to stop all this political issues, and all these government corruptions, and all these wars that are going on, and people are getting away with all? They're not getting away with anything, because God sees. Verse number 5, 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. Well, pastor, it's never been this bad. The Bible says it has. It has been this bad for a really long time. And so the Bible says in verse number six, And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Here's what we're gonna do this morning. As we look at this familiar passage of Noah and the ark, You can almost, if you were raised in church, you can almost picture the very first memories in your mind of a flannel graph, and you see the ark over here made out of wood, and you see Noah standing there, and you see maybe he's holding a staff, and maybe he's holding his hand out like this, and you see the animals that are coming in onto the ark, two by two and seven by seven. Well, you never see that, but that's what happened. And then you see the rain falling and you see the waves starting to come up. And as that flannel graph changes throughout the Bible lesson as you were a child, you see that God rains down judgment upon the earth for sin. And what we see in this passage is one of the most beautiful pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have in the whole Bible. It's a beautiful picture of Christ. And that is what I'd like to see this morning. When Jesus opened up this Bible with the disciples, he said, everything that you read in this book, It's about me, and that's what I'd like to draw from the passage this morning. First of all, we see that there is judgment for sin. In every age of history since man fell in the Garden of Eden, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. There is punishment for sin. God is love, but God is just. God is merciful, but God is also righteous. God is long-suffering, But He is also holy, and all of those things have to work together. God is not going to remove His character of righteousness and justice and holiness to accommodate for our sin. God cannot do that. And so what he has done here is the Bible says, okay, the earth is so wicked and it's so horrible that there is going to be a penalty. My wrath, the Bible says that God, even in this context, God was long suffering to the world at this point. He did not want the world to get what they deserved. He wanted them to repent, but they did not want to repent. They loved their evil, they loved their wickedness, and they would not turn to God. And so God said, I'm through, I'm done, my mercy is over, I've got to give them what they deserve. And it's the same for you and I today. The wages of sin is death. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment, and we will stand before a holy and a righteous God, and He is going to view our life. And we all deserve the wrath of God. We all deserve that. But I'm glad that every time in your Bible, from the very first sin in the Garden of Eden, every time that man had sinned against God and deserved God's judgment, God always provided a way of escape if they wanted it. And that's what we see here in this passage. So the Bible tells us in verse number Verse number eight, 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. Now, that doesn't mean that Noah was sinless. But it just means that Noah was just and perfect in his generations. He was complete, okay? We might look at that a little bit this afternoon. We'll go into more detail on some other things about the story this afternoon. The Bible says in verse 11, the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. The Lord said, here's the way I want you to go. Man said, I don't want it. The Lord said, here's the right and just way. I put it even in your own heart. And man said, I don't want that. I want to seek out my own inventions. Verse 13, and God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. First thing I'd like to see here, a comparison between this ark and the Lord Jesus Christ, is that both the ark and Jesus Christ is the way of salvation that was provided by God before the judgment came. Before God ever sent the rain, God provided an ark. Before God ever broke up the foundations of the earth and the waters began to flow up upon the earth and destroy everything in its path, God provided a way that they could be saved from His judgment if they wanted it. And listen, before you ever came to Jesus, He already came to you. Before you ever came to God, He already sent His Son down to this earth to die on the cross for your sins and rise again from the dead and offer a way of escape if you want to escape. He sent people into your life to give you gospel tract. He sent you a mother and father to teach you the Bible. He sent you a church in your hometown that would tell you the truth if you wanted it. Before God would ever send judgment, He provided a way of salvation. And that is also true of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because God is righteous, He sends judgment. But because God is gracious, He always sends a way of escape. A second thing I see here about this, and I don't necessarily have any numbers or particular order, but here's another comparison we see. God did not tell Noah to go out into the desert somewhere and build the ark in secret. God didn't tell Noah to say, hey, go find a giant cave and build the ark in a cave. Well, that had been really bad when the flood came up. But anyway, he didn't want him to do it in secret. He said, hey, you just take that ark right where you are and you build that ark right where you are and let everybody see it. Let everybody look at it, because the way of salvation has always been made plain. God wants everyone to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible tells us in John chapter 3, right before verse number 16, the Bible tells us that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. When those people were dying by those serpent bites and he said, hey, I want you to take a serpent of brass and I want you to set it on a pole and I want you to lift that thing up high for all to see. I want everybody to know even if they don't want it, there is a way of escape. There is a way of escape. And that's what God is doing here. He's making the way of escape so big and so plain that anybody who wants to be saved could come to the truth. And I'm glad that He did that for us as well. Now look back again with me at verse number 14. God told Noah to make thee an ark of gopher wood. Now, I don't know the exact importance of the type of wood that it was. I know that God told him to use gopher wood, so I think there's some significance to it, but the fact that it's wood. You know what that tells me? At one point, what we view as the ark, it wasn't the ark. It was a tree. You know what a tree starts out as? It starts out as a seed. And then that seed finds good ground, maybe a squirrel digs a hole and shoves it in the ground, or maybe an acorn falls in the ground, maybe somebody planted it, I don't know, but seed goes into the ground and it dies, but then that seed begins to produce forth fruit, and it begins to grow, and it grows eventually into a big, beautiful tree. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, He is a seed. He's of the seed of David. The Bible says he's the root and offspring of Jesse. In fact, the Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 53 that Jesus would grow up before God as a tender plant. But you know what? God didn't tell Noah. He said, hey, Noah, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna send a flood and I'm gonna send the rain and there's not gonna be any ground anywhere. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to find a gopher tree and I want you to climb up that tree. No, that wasn't the way of salvation. You know what he said? I want you to take that tree and I want you to cut it down. I want you to cut that thing off. I want you to use that tree to make the ark that's going to provide a way of salvation. Listen, I'm glad for the life of Christ. I'm glad for his miracles. I'm glad for his teachings. But I spent a lot of time talking with Muslims and they believe Jesus was real. They believe in the life of Jesus. They believe in his miracles. They believe that he was a good prophet. They believe that he was a good teacher, but that's not enough to get you to heaven. If Jesus was just a good man and just a good prophet and just a good teacher and just lived a good life that we could follow in his steps, that's wonderful and great, but that doesn't do anything for you when you face the wrath of God. Jesus had to die. for our sins in order for us to have a way of escape. And we see that pictured here in the Old Testament. The Bible tells us in the book of Isaiah, chapter 53, again, that the Bible says that Jesus Christ would be bruised for our transgressions. He would be bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace would be on him by his stripes were he healed. The book of Daniel in chapter nine, the Bible says that there would be a Messiah and that he would come through that line of Israel But the Bible says that when that Messiah came, he wouldn't be coming to set up a kingdom, not the first time. He would be coming so that he could be cut off, but not for his own sin, for the sins of the people. And that's exactly what Jesus did for us. He was cut off for our sins. So verse 14, make thee an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark. Another thing we see here is that there was only one There's only one way to escape the judgment. There wasn't the independent Baptist arc, and then the Mormon arc, and then the Muslim arc, and the Hindu arc, and whatever you want to be arc. All roads lead to heaven. No, there's one door and only one, and yet the sides are two. I'm on the inside, or which side are you? There's only one way. You know what the Bible says? What does John chapter 14 verse number nine say? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Jesus is the only way that you can escape the wrath of God that we deserve. He's the only way. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. If you think you can climb a ladder to get to heaven, you're not gonna get there. If you think your church membership's gonna get you heaven, you're not gonna get there. I'm so thankful to be in a church where we do the Lord's Supper like God asked us to, but drinking grape juice and eating a wafer is not gonna get you to heaven. It's gotta be through Jesus alone and what he did for us on the cross. There's only one way, and it was in that ark. You know, I was doing some genealogies. I was just kind of trying to trace and study, and just, I'm a very visual person. Is anybody else like that? You're a visual person, okay. So I'm trying to draw out the genealogy, starting from Adam and going all the way until we get to Noah. And as you draw out those genealogies, it's really interesting, okay. You have Adam, and he lives 900 and something years, and they keep, it's around 900 years is the average. And they would have children, their firstborn son would be somewhere around 100 years old when they had their firstborn. How many of you want to sign up for that? Okay, we're in a different day. But you know what's interesting is as you follow the genealogies, there's the average lifespan of around 900 years. And then of course you have Methuselah, and Methuselah lived a really long time. And then you have his son Lamech, and Lamech died early. Almost 200 years early. Can I give you a little bit of practical application here? If Lamech lived long enough to live to the average lifespan in that day, if he didn't get on that ark, he would have died. Maybe God spared him of the judgment to come by letting him die early. Maybe you got family in your life, you have people in your life, and they're no longer here, and you thought they should have lived a lot longer than they did, and we would like them to have, but maybe it's God's mercy in sparing them from what was to come. I hate abortion. I'll tell you that right now. I hate, I hate abortion. But what would be worse? A child being murdered in the womb and going to be in glory. Or that child to be born into a family where there's no love and no mercy and grow up to hate God and grow up to hate their life and end up killing themselves and end up straight in hell. Maybe it's God's mercy. I'm not condoning abortion, but I'm just saying maybe God's sparing them. Okay, there's more than one way to look at that. Okay, but you know what's interesting? Methuselah, the longest man that ever lived, the same year that he died was the same exact year that the flood came. See, so now what I'm seeing in my mind on this picture is you have this graph and it starts out with Adam and begins to spread out with all these different people and all these different ages. And you know what happens? There's a cutoff line. Literally, there's a cutoff line and there's nobody else except Noah and his sons. And they're the only ones that make it through that flood. Why? Because they were on the ark. There's no other way to God but through Jesus Christ. Absolutely no other way. So here's another thing we see about that ark. Not only was it made plain, not only was it a plan that God made, not only was it made out of wood, and not only was that tree cut down so that it could become the salvation of those who wanted it. Not only was there only one way, but the Bible tells us in verse number 14, Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. You see what he just said? Now, when you finish building that thing, I don't care how beautiful it looks, if it don't float, it's no good. I don't care if the craft in the ship is beautiful, if you have beautiful trim, if the wood is just the right, it doesn't matter. If that thing don't float, it's not gonna be secure, it's not gonna be safe. So God said, I want you to pitch it. And what did he say? I want you to pitch it within and without with pitch. Nothing from the outside would ever cause the water to get in. And even, listen, why would you put pitch on the inside? Because nobody on the inside, even if they wanted to get through, they couldn't. God is preserving them within and without. And you know what the Bible says in the book of Ephesians? The Bible says that when we received the Lord Jesus Christ, we were not only placed into Him, but His Holy Spirit of God was placed into us. And the Bible says that we are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption. You could never there's never anything that would come in your life that would cause you to lose your salvation because you're sealed with the Holy Spirit promise. In fact, listen, there's a lot of people think, yeah, there's nothing in the outside that could cause you to lose your salvation. But if you know if you do something bad, you can get out of your salvation not happening because the Bible says you're sealed with that Holy Spirit promise. You can't even lose your salvation. Praise God for that sealed within and without with pitch. It was safe. It was secure. and it was something that God had provided for them. Verse number 15, the Bible says, and this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of. You know what's interesting? He uses the word fashion, and we use the word differently today than they would back then, but I think it's ironic because there was nothing comely or beautiful about this ark. In fact, has anybody ever been to the Ark in Kentucky? They built a replica, okay, I've been there. It's beautiful. It's got this big wing on the back and it's got this beautiful bow on the front and it just looks like a modern day ship. I don't know if that's exactly what it looked like. You know what I think it looked, it might have looked like a giant coffin. But it wasn't comely, it wasn't beautiful, but they didn't care, you know why? To them it was still beautiful because it was the way of salvation. The Bible tells us, again, in Isaiah 53, there's so many correlations here. The Bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ, he had no form nor comeliness. And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. You know what the Catholic Church has done in other religions and nominations? They made paintings and pictures and figurines of Jesus. We don't know what he looked like. There's nowhere in the Bible that shows us what he looked like. But the Bible does tell us that he wasn't beautiful. He had no form nor comeliness. But I'll tell you what, if he's your savior, he's the most beautiful thing you'll ever see. To those people who got in the ark, it was ugly. People mocked Noah, people ridiculed him and his family for even building that thing. But to them, most beautiful thing they'd ever seen because it was the way of salvation. So then the Bible says here in verse number 16, A window shalt thou make in the ark. We'll get back to that. And in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. Amen. There's one door. Yes, sir. And only one. And again, this door is the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John chapter 10 that I am the door. What a blessing. Now, what's interesting about this, when you look at the details of how God said to make this ark, all right, look with me at verse number 15 again. He's giving them all these details, what wood to make it out of, the rooms that they'll make, pitch it within and without. Verse 15, and this is the fashion which thou shalt make it. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, and the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits. That's still the exact same ratio they're using today to build ships. Same exact ratio. God knew what he was talking about. But look what happens. So he's giving specific details. Look at verse number 16. A window shalt thou make in the ark. What kind of window? In a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The exact measurements. And the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. Wait a minute, Lord. How big? How tall? How wide? God doesn't give us that information. All we know about the door of the ark is, guess what? If a little bunny wanted to get on the ark, it was big enough. If a big old elephant wanted to come hobbling along and get through that door into the ark, guess what? It was big enough. Listen, I got saved at a young age, and I'm thankful for that. I've done my worst sinning after I got saved. And guess what? That door was big enough for me to get into. And listen, there are some of you this morning And you didn't get saved till later in life. And there's a lot of things in your life before you met Christ that you regret. And guess what? When you came to Christ, no matter how big your sin was, Jesus was bigger. He had a way that you could get in if you wanted it. And it was big enough for any and all who wanted to come. I'm so thankful. What a blessing. Now let me keep knocking stuff over. I gotta stay focused here. The Bible tells us in verse number 16, At the end of the verse, the Bible tells us, Now commentaries go back and forth on the meaning of this or the interpretation, so I'll just give you two of the main ones that I see. Maybe you can make them applications, maybe not, but I think it's true when you come to Christ, it's true for sure. Jesus did not just die for your past sin. He didn't just die for your present sins. You don't have to keep coming to Jesus every time that you sin and get saved again. The Bible says that when Christ Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree, he died not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. You know what that means? Jesus' blood on the cross was not just for those people living in that day. Jesus' blood was enough for every sin that had ever been committed before that time, during that time, and any time ever in the future. Jesus Christ's blood is enough. Past, present, and future. Now, to keep your relationship with the Lord sweet, you've got to confess your sins to Him, and you've got to repent. But you're not getting saved again. That's already taken care of. The Bible also tells us that the salvation that's in Christ, the Bible says it was good enough. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't just save our soul. He saved our spirit. And the Bible says He even saved our body. Now, right now, we're still suffering the consequences of sin. But one day, listen, when Jesus died on the cross, He took care of that, too. Because one day when you die, you're going to get a glorified body. It's already taken care of. It's waiting for you. Past, present, future, body, soul, spirit, it's all taken care of. Those three stories already prepared for anybody who wants to come. Thank the Lord for that. Now let's go back to that window. Verse number 16 says, a window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it. What's the next word? Above. There are three levels on this ark. There's the bottom level, there's the second level, there's the top level. And here's what God didn't say. He didn't say, all right, I want you to make a porthole and I want you to put it on the very lowest one so you can see underneath the water. That's not what he said. If you could do that back in that day, you know what you would see? All you'd see is death. Think about it. The foundations of the earth are being broken up, and every living thing on the entire earth is going to die. When you looked in that water, the only thing you'd see through that murky water are dead bodies. So, okay, let's put it on the second level. That's about eye level to the waterline. You know what? All you're gonna see when you look out there is floating bodies, death, destruction, wrath. So the Lord said, I want you to take that window and I want you to put it above. I don't want you to look down into that water and see the judgment. I don't want you to look across and see all the destruction and all the damage. I want you to keep looking up. And listen, I'm being as respectful as I can this morning. How you use your time is up to you. But listen, there are so many of God's people and they spend so much time watching the news. And they spend so much time watching, oh, the world is so bad. And look at all the wickedness. And did you hear what they're doing in the schools? And did you hear what they made legal in our town this week? And did you hear what this government person did? And you're focusing on death, death, death, destruction, all the horrible things going on in this world. And what God is asking us to do this morning is to look up. It's no wonder we're in despair. It's no wonder we're so despondent. And God is asking us, hey, don't look down at that judgment. Don't look down on the wickedness and the death and the destruction and the wickedness of this world. Look up to the God who provided a way of salvation and promised that he would get us through. Keep looking up. That's why I told Noah, I want you to put that window in the top. I want you to put it up. How much time do you spend with your Bible in comparison to the news? that'll probably tell you where your view is, where your vision is, where your heart is. If you're discouraged, if you're depressed, if you spend more time with the TV and on Facebook than you spend with your face in the book, that's probably the reason. I wanna encourage you, keep looking up. The Bible told us that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I believe it's God looking down and seeing a man who was living right, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. When he looked up, he found grace. And the Lord is trying to encourage him to keep looking up, even through the judgment, even through the destruction, just keep looking up. Verse number 14, there's something we missed back here, and I wanna get it now because I think it'll tie in better The Bible says in verse number 14, make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms shalt thou make in the ark. Okay, again, how many? How many rooms should I make? How many places should I have prepared for those who want to come in the ark? The Lord didn't say, this is the cutoff number. like our Jehovah's Witness friends. Oh, there's only 144,000, that's it. What happened, my dear friends, when your denomination went above 144,000? Now some of you aren't elect. And if you're a male and if you're not a male and you're not a virgin, then you're not elect either. Oh, I never heard that before. Okay, read your Bible. God had a place for anyone who wanted to come in We got a place for you. Come on, giraffes. We got a place for you. Come on. Come on, you little doggies. We got a place for you. Cats. No, we don't allow cats in here. I'm just kidding. I just offended half of you. OK. You know what's interesting? In the book of Revelation, God is giving us all throughout the book of Revelation, all these details, days and weeks and months, and he's giving us exact timeframe, and he's giving us exact numbers. And then when he's talking about the new Jerusalem, he's giving us exact measurements and exact, he's doing all of these things, exact numbers. And then when he gets to how many people are gonna be in heaven, He says, I just want you to write down a thousands of thousands of hundreds of thousands and millions of thousands and more than that, because I don't have a set number on who's gonna make it to heaven. Whosoever will may come. And it's the same thing with the ark. God had a place prepared for any and all who wanted to come. John chapter 14, Jesus said, I'm gonna go away. but I'm gonna go away to prepare a place for you. Well, how many rooms do you have? How many mansions do you have? The Lord said, in my father's house is where the mansions are. That's a big house. It doesn't matter the number. God said, if you wanna come in, I'll have room for you. There's room at the cross for you. And I'm so thankful. So he didn't give him a number. Now let's look forward. and draw our minds to a close here in this picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look down with me at not only were the rooms prepared, and not only were the animals to come in and have a place, and all the people that wanted to come, they had a place, but look down at verse number 21. The Bible says, actually verse 20. The Bible says of fowls after their kind and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing that the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come into thee to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten and thou shalt gather it to thee, it shall be for food for thee and for them. Listen. every need would be supplied. Between the time that they get on the ark until the time that God takes them wherever they're going to go, God had every need already supplied. The Bible promised to those who are faithful and those who love the Lord, and there are a few things, but here's what the Lord said, I shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. If you're serving the Lord and you're giving and you're faithful to Him, God's already got it covered. He's already got it covered. Spiritually speaking, The Bible says in the book of 1 Peter that God has already given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Listen, everything that you need to be the greatest Christian you can be, God's already provided it for you. You don't need a better pastor. You don't. You don't need a better Holy Spirit. You don't need a better Bible. Everything that you need, God's already provided it. You don't need a better Savior. Everything that you need to live this life for the Lord Jesus Christ, God has already made provision for it. All you have to do is come. All you got to do is come. What a blessing. Aren't you glad all this is to lost people? None of this applies to us. We're off the hook. Not exactly. But before we get to some preaching, and I promise you that preaching will not take long, I want to get one more nugget about Jesus. The ark, in fact, look back at verse number 17. In the middle of him, God telling Noah to build this ark and how to build the ark, Look what he says in verse number 17. Listen, when they got in that ark, And the rains came down, and the floods came up, and the wind beat against that ark. The ark took the beating of everything that God had, all the judgment that God had against this earth. The ark took all of that. There was not, listen, Mrs. Noah, we don't even know her name. Not one piece of her beautiful hair was blown out of place by that wind. You know why? The ark took it. Not one of Noah's sons would fall overboard because of the ways, because the ark would take all of that beating. Amen. Yes, sir. You know why we come together and remember the Lord's death till he come? Because Isaiah 53 again tells us, it pleased the Lord to bruise his son. Think about that. When Jesus went into that garden of Gethsemane, right after the passages that pastor talked about this morning, and he tells his disciples, come and pray with me. And he takes Peter and James and John. He says, come a little further. Let's pray. And then he goes further than that. And he falls on his face before his father. And he says, father, is there some other way? Let this cup pass from me. The word of God tells us that cup is the wrath and vengeance of God for all the sin of all the earth, listen, that we didn't get, even though we deserve it, because he's been storing it up to give us an opportunity to repent. But somebody's got to take that punishment. And Jesus, Said, Lord, I'm paraphrasing. I want sinners to be saved. I want to save the world. I came to seek and to save that which is lost. But Father, is there some other way that they can be saved? I do not want to take the wrath of God. And there's no answer. So Jesus said, Father, not my will, but thine be done. And he willingly took that cup. And the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God for every sin that we commit. Jesus took the beating. Jesus took the bruising and the punishment so that we could go free. I'm so glad I'm in that ark. I'm so glad I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ so I don't have to get the punishment that I deserve. Jesus did it already. If you could get to heaven by being a good person, why did Jesus have to die? All right, now let's get to the good stuff. Look at verse number 19. Verse number 19. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee, they shall be male and female, of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive. He gives us more detail in the next chapter, we're not looking at that. But he says to keep them alive. Listen, all of these animals, Before they came into the ark, some of them were mutual enemies. Before this, this is just how the world works. They would literally bite and devour one another because that's how it works. It's the food chain. But when they got on that ark, and the Bible told Noah to bring them, but it seems like the Holy Spirit of God somehow drew them. The Bible told us to go out into all the world and preach the gospel, but somehow the Holy Spirit of God works to draw us to the Savior. And when those animals, by two and two and by sevens, when they came into that ark, it was perfect peace and perfect unity. No biting and no devouring, very different animals. But when they got into that ark, something was different. And church, listen. When we all come together to this place, we're all coming for one reason, because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. And before we got to say, listen, we're all different. We bite and devour each other, and we fight against that political party. Uh-oh. And we don't like those people because they're different than us, and they live different, look different, and act different. But in Jesus Christ, we're different. And there's no more biting and devouring, because now we're in Christ. Listen, everybody in this room's not always gonna do everything that you think they should. But in Christ, we can get along. Your pastor, I know he loves you. He's not always gonna do everything right. But you can still love him, and he'll still try to love you. And Jesus still loves us when we don't do right. Now, here's the last thing. I'm destroying everything in your church this morning. Look at chapter 7 and verse number 1. What's the next word? Come. Anybody who wants to be saved, come. Whoever doesn't want the wrath of God, come. If you don't want to get what you deserve, if you want a new life, come. That's what God said, come. That means God's in that ark. He didn't say, go into the ark. He said, come. Because that's where God is. Look at verse 17. And the flood was 40 days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bear up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. Oh, this is wonderful. Let me give you this and I'll come back. We're gonna end at one more verse in the New Testament. When they got into that ark, the Bible says that God shut them in. They're safe, they're secure. And guess what happened? Judgment came. But as soon as that judgment came, you know what it did? The Bible says that those waters, it bear up the ark. Listen, that ark was taken up and it was above all of that judgment. And then as soon as that judgment was over, it rested back down and they could open up that door and walk into a new world. I'm glad that God's people aren't going through the great tribulation. God's got a place prepared for us where we can get above that. He's gonna take us out before that judgment comes and as soon as he's done, he's gonna rest us back down, new heavens and new earth. I'm glad I'm in that ark. Now look at Revelation 22, we'll finish. Revelation 22. Are we okay this morning? Glad to be saved? Amen. Revelation chapter 22. Jesus told us when he was here on this earth, he said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, here's the last thing that God wanted the world to know as he closes the page to his Bible. Revelation 22, verse 17. And the spirit and the bride say, what? Come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. God's last words to us in his book is come. He's got a place prepared for you if you want it. I'm so glad that I'm saved. I'm so glad that Christ did all the work and all I've got to do is come. And I'm glad that he will preserve me blameless till the day of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. the truth that we find in it. God, we're so thankful this morning for, even as we started in Sunday school, with the remembrance of the broken body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, we're so thankful that you provided a way that we could escape the judgment that we deserve. And Lord, this morning, God, from my heart, I'm so thankful that you let me in. and not just let me in, but asked me to come and said, come. And God, I'm so glad that you shut the door and you sealed me safe and secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can never be lost to the judgment that I deserve because that arc, the Lord Jesus Christ has taken the beating and the punishment in my place God, thank you for the promise that one day you're gonna get us through and bring us back down again when your time into a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. There's someone here today, Lord, who is not 100% sure of their salvation. God, maybe they're still climbing trees. Maybe they're still making a raft. Maybe they're trying to climb a ladder or come in some other way. God, I pray that they would see that Jesus is the door. And Jesus is big enough for anyone to come unto him. Pray that you'd work in hearts this morning, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Pastor, will you come? Amen. Wasn't that a blessing? Amen. Now, I want to give you an opportunity to come. I hope you got the idea that he so clearly laid out that Jesus Christ is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. But that's not just a saying. If you're not certain your soul is saved this morning, you don't know, you are but a step away from death. You could lift up your eyes, by nighttime tonight, you could lift up your eyes in hell being in torment. Or you could make certain before you leave this building that your soul is saved and secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without fail, without mistake, you are safe in that ark. You are safe from the storm. You are safe from the coming judgment. You need to make sure. Now, if you know that you're saved or you think that you're saved, the Bible still tells you repeatedly, make sure. Re-examine yourself. Don't just assume based on previous experiences, information that you know that you're saved. Make sure. Now, to be clear, here's the requirement. I don't want anybody to be talked into being saved again. You have to trust in the death. the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as payment for the penalty of your sin. We talked about it this morning in Sunday School. It's laid out very well, very clear and repeatedly this morning. Jesus Christ is the Savior. He will save your soul if you will come to Him right now. So we're all going to stand together and we're going to sing number 345. And while we sing this, if you need to come to the altar, now is the time. If you need to get something right with God, now is the time. This is your opportunity. It's available to you. It's here for you. Now, if you can't come forward now, then you need to see somebody before you leave this church building. Don't toy with your soul. It's a very serious matter, and I want to give you an opportunity this morning to get right with God and leave here with all things well, secure in Jesus Christ. Number 345, verse 1. All my life long I had panted for a draft from some dear spring that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within. Hallelujah, I have found Him whom my soul so long has craved. ♪ Jesus satisfies my longings ♪ ♪ Through his blood I now am saved ♪ ♪ Feeding on the husk around me ♪ ♪ Till my strength was almost gone ♪ ♪ Longed my soul for something better ♪ ♪ Only still to hunger on ♪ Hallelujah, I have found Him, whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings, through His blood I now am saved. Poor I was and sought for riches, something that would satisfy. But the dust that fell only mocked my soul's sad cry. Hallelujah, I have found Him, whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings, through His blood I now am saved. Well of water ever springing, bread of life so rich and free, untold wealth that never faileth, my Redeemer is to me. Hallelujah, I have found him, whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings. Through his blood I now am saved. Amen. Miss Pookie? And anyway, when I left, the Lord told me, don't go home. And he brought me home. I didn't know that there was a place here. He just told me to come here, and I did, and I've been coming here ever since. Amen, praise the Lord. Well, we'll be happy to have you and we'll let everybody, if you don't mind after the service is over, just hang out here and with everybody come by and give you a hug and tell you thank you and shake your hand and give you all that good stuff, so. I'm sorry. You just write it with a pen. There's no such thing as a promise of letter. I don't care about any of that stuff. This woman has a desire to, she has a desire to join the church. We have no reason not to have her. So she is welcome to be here. Amen. All right. Praise the Lord. Let's pray together. And then everybody's welcome to stay for lunch and partake and join and do all those good things together. And so it was a great service this morning. I look forward to this afternoon. Brother Blake is a blessing. I'm very excited about what the Lord has for his future. He just has an unbelievably promising future. And I'm going to ask you to pray with me that we could steal him. But you know, he, no, he may, he might. You have not because you ask not. Or you have not because you ask a miss. But it don't hurt to ask. So no, he's got an incredible future ahead of him. And I'm very excited for these three. and just hope you'll keep them in their prayers. They will be back, he'll be preaching again this afternoon and I look forward to it and I'm excited about it. Let's pray together and we will dismiss. Father, we sure love you. Thank you so much for Jesus Christ and all he's done for us. And Lord, as we saw this morning, the realities surrounding all that Christ has done for us, it's just endless, limitless. It's far beyond our comprehension. We don't have enough time in this world to gather all together all the incredible things just written in your book about what Christ has done for us. But we sure praise Him. We sure thank Him. And Lord, you're so good to us. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for the wonderful service this morning. Please impress it upon the hearts of our people. Help it to strengthen us, build us, unite us, and we sure thank you for it. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Come tell Miss Pookie, welcome and enjoy. We hope you enjoyed this podcast. You can learn more about our ministry by visiting www.plenteusredemption.com. You can hear more Plenteous Redemption podcast audio at www.plenteusredemption.media. Please comment below if this podcast has been a help to you. Also, inform us of future topics that would interest you. Thank you again for listening to the Plenteous Redemption podcast.