Hebrew 11:7.
THREE times the above quotation from Hab. 2:4 occurs in the New Testament: in Rom. 1:17, and Gal. 3:4. to show that believers are justified by faith, and by faith in contrast with law; in Heb. 10:38, to show that it is by faith believers live from day to clay; as Paul says, in Gal. 2:20, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.)
Dear reader, are you aware that you can be justified solely “by faith, without the deeds of the law "? Do you know that if you simply accredit God's testimony, that Jesus was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification, you are accounted righteous before God, and y on have peace with God? (Rom. 4:24; 5:1.)
“Oh!" you say, “does not every one believe that Jesus died for them?”
"Yes," I say, “they do in a general or historical sort of way; but the justified man does more than that. Not merely does he believe that Jesus died, but that Jesus died for him, and was raised again for his justification. Believing this, he know s his peace is made with God. Faith personally applies to ourselves that of which we are historically convinced.
Now let me say a. little about Noah. In Gen. 6:3, I find God's counsels; in verse 13, the revelation of those counsels to Noah. God had said to Himself, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. ''
Man is ever the same, whatever way you look at him. In the Garden of Eden, under law; with Christ openly manifested to him; with the Holy Ghost likewise present; or, as in this instance, left to himself, man has ever displayed the same characteristics that w, ere found in his seducer, Satan, at the very outset. Corrupt and violent Satan was, since the day iniquity was found in him (Ezek. 28:15-17, John 8:44); and corruption and violence characterize those who are under his sway. In Eve we find corruption; in Cain violence. In Noah's day "the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence (verse 11). Therefore God says," I will destroy man.”
Are you aware, dear reader, that another judgment is coming upon this earth; not the judgment of water, but the judgment of fire? Scripture tells us that "all flesh shall not be cut off any more with the waters of a flood"; but it also tells us that there will be another judgment, and a far more terrible one, that of fire.
See Rev. 20:11, where we read: " I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. "Mark these words: so terrible is the face of Jesus, then sitting as God upon His throne (tor all judgment has been committed to Him, (John 5:22) that actually the very heavens and earth flee from before Him. The cause of their departure we find here; the manner of it in 2 Peter 3:7, where it speaks of" the heavens and the earth, which are now. reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men... for the day of the Lord " (to Him a thousand years are as one day) "will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Is the reader one of those who are making themselves comfortable in the world, planting, building, marrying, giving in marriage? Let me tell you that your plantations, your houses, your lands, will all be utterly consumed in the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Ask yourself, then, Have I perfect title to take my place in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness?
How solemn to think that God's testimony to you may close to-day, and that instead of dying comfortably on your bed, as you expect to do, you may in a moment be taken away for judgment to pass eternity in the lake of burning. The moment for the passing away of the present heavens and earth is the moment for the final condemnation of the wicked. The whole of the old creation will pass away together. First the earth and heavens, the abode of Adam's race; and then that portion of the race that has died without God and without Christ. They receive their sentence, and they are damned. (Rev. 20:12-15.) How solemn to think that every one that does not receive the gospel here, that bows not to Jesus here, must bow to Him there. They despise Him as the Son of Man, the Saviour; they receive His sentence as the living God, their Judge.
Just as God revealed His counsels to Noah of the approaching doom of the earth, so are we not ignorant now of the coming demolition of both heavens and earth. And just as Noah saw that the end of all flesh had come, so do we know now that judgment is the end of Adam's race who die without faith.
Do not imagine, unbelieving reader, that the lake of fire will annihilate you. Oh no! you will pass eternity in the lake that “burneth with fire and brimstone," "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched "; there" the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever,” which is the same expression as in Rev. 10:6, "God, who liveth forever and ever." If the life of God is interminable (which I do not suppose you doubt) your punishment will be of equal duration, if you die an unbeliever.
Man's necessity, however, is God's opportunity. If judgment was revealed to Noah, so was the means of escape from it. It has ever been so.
When the cities of the plain were destroyed, there was still a Zoar for Lot. When judgment hung over Egypt and Jericho, still there was a mode of escape for Israel and Rahab. And so here. The ark was the display of God's love to Noah, at the moment of his greatest need. God's heart had planned it; God's care provided the materials; God's love unfolded it to Noah.
None but God would ever have thought of such an expedient. It was at once the place of Noah's perfect security and perfect delight. When once the Lord's hand had shut him in, not a doubt crossed his mind as to his perfect safety. One hundred and twenty years of careful labor had led him to know that his craft was perfectly weather-tight and sea-worthy. Had it not been so, he never would have entered it; but in perfect confidence he committed himself and all that was necessary for life, and sacrifice, and food, to it; and calmly gazed, through the window above, to the home where his God abode.
Is Christ the ark to y on? Can you say, Christ is to me the One in whom I have perfect confidence and absolute satisfaction; His blood has purged my conscience, and His person occupies m\ heart?
Noah had turned his back upon the world. It was a judged, a doomed, thing to him. He had preached righteousness in it, and behaved in it as one that was manifestly dead to it. He had new hopes, new joys, new, interests. His joys were centered in the ark; with delight his eye ranged around its spacious chambers, and surveyed for life, and sacrifice, occupied them. He had everything he wanted there, there was no necessity to go outside for anything.
Is Christ everything to you? Have you learned the true value of the water He gives (John 4), so as never to thirst; to thirst for nothing; neither for thing temporal nor for things spiritual; so that things temporal have no attractions for you now, because you have a new life that delivers you from them, and now if you have food and raiment you can be content, and things spiritual you do not thirst for, because you have them. If you have Christ you thirst no more; you have got even thing, “all things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. 3:22, 23.)
The circle of Noah's interests was the ark.
The circle of the believer's is Christ.
It I go outside of Christ for anything, if I indulge my self in anything of the world beyond what the body actually requires, I am denying the fact that I have a life that never thirsts.
Noah entered the ark, and found perfect security and satisfaction. It you believe in Christ, you find rest tor your troubled conscience, and peace tor N our weary heart.
But mark another point.
Noah and the ark were absolutely identified together. Together they passed through the waves of judgment; together they emerged from them; together they rested on Ararat's summit. I grant you that the type tails here; for Noah was unchanged throughout, Noah was the same person throughout. But still I learn from this that, belies ing on Christ, I am entitled to know that my old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed; as Paul says, " I am crucified with Christ." He, blessed be His name, passed under the waves of judgment for me; ls He says (Psa. 42), “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy ways and thy billows have gone over me "; or again (Psa. 88), "Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves." What! I say, have all God's waves gone over Him, my blessed Saviour? Then there is no condemnation for me. I see in Christ upon the cross the end of myself, the judicial end of my Adam nature, the end of my “old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." (Eph. 4:22.) I reckon it dead, I believe what God says, that I am “dead." (Col. 3)
But more than this. The ark bore Noah safely till it rested on mount Ararat, and there it sets its burden down. Where has Christ set me down?
God raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies. I was dead in trespasses and sins, but He has quickened me together with Him, raised me up together with Him, and made me sit together in Him in the heavenlies. (Eph. 3)
What perfect rest this gives me. Noah was not sorry, I am sure, to exchange the rolling motion of the mighty ship for the firm standing of the mountain's top. I can bless and praise God that Christ has ascended up on high, and led me, long Satan's captive, His own captive, and given me a life that is hid with Himself in God His Father. I have already by faith my place in heavenly places; for I have my place in Christ, the Head of the new creation, the Head of all principality and power.
And now what is my occupation? Why, like Noah, to build my altar, and to joy in God, by whom I have received the reconciliation while the bow in the cloud tells me there is now no condemnation for me, for Christ has borne it all. (Rom. 8; Rom. 5)
Dear reader, can you say the same?