46. The Glory of God in the Gospel Pt 3

The Glory of God in the Gospel Pt3. The Gospel in Noah’s Ark

1Pe 3:18-22  For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  (19)  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,  (20)  who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.  (21)  And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (22) who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

When we looked at this text last, we asked the question why Peter, through the inspiration of the Spirit, included the narrative of Noah in his letter. One of the reasons is Noah was the preacher of righteousness for 120 years while he was building the ark God commanded him. His preaching preceded the judgement of God by the flood. God promised never again to judge the earth by means of the flood but there is indeed another judgement coming. Therefore, the command was given to be ready to give an account of the hope that is with in you. Part of the application was being able to give your testimony of how God, in Christ, saved you. I hope you have worked on that in the couple of weeks since then.

Brother Jeff made this statement from his sermon on the measure of Christ’s gift. “The OT is the NT concealed and the NT is the OT revealed.” The focal point of the OT was the coming of Christ. The focal point of the New is the resurrected Christ. 1Pe 1:10-12 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, (11)  searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.  (12) To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

Another reason this is included is because the Ark narrative is a picture of God’s ultimate salvation in Christ.

There are 3 Points in verse 20-22: 1) The Type of the Ark 2) The Antitype of Baptism and 3) The Reality as seen in the Resurrection. This morning we will address the first point.

Introduction - A Type – Is a person, place, or thing that points forward foreshadowing the Christ.

I. The Type of the Ark

The Ark Taken from Gleanings in Genesis by A.W.Pink.

1. First, the Ark shows God’s provision of salvation in Christ.

Gen 6:13-14  And God said to 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.  (14)  Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.

Before the Flood came, God had ordained that Noah and his family should be saved in the Ark. Noah was told to construct it before a single drop of water fell. So, also, salvation through Christ was not something God thought of after man sinned. From eternity past God had purposed to redeem a people unto Himself, and therefore, in the counsels of the Godhead, Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The Ark was God’s provision for the salvation of Noah and his family, as Christ is God’s provision for the salvation of sinners and has been so in the mind of God “from the foundation of the world.”

2. Second, the Ark shows that we are spared from God’s wrath through Christ, our substitute. The Ark of Noah was a place of safety. It protected its inhabitants from the outpoured wrath of God on a sinful world.

Rom 3:24-25  being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  (25)  whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

1Jn 2:2  And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

1Jn 4:10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Propitiation is the work of Christ on the cross in which He met the demands of the righteousness of God against sin…satisfying the requirements of God’s justice. The prophet Isaiah shows the meaning of propitiation graphically, when he says of Christ,

Isa 53:10  But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

In His propitiatory work on the Cross, Christ bore the wrath of God. God bruised Him in our place. God put Him to grief on our place, so the wrath of God fell on Christ in our place. Thus the wrath of God was propitiated by Christ’s vicarious work on the Cross, where God “bruised him” and “put him to grief” in our place, when the judgment that should have fallen on sinners, fell on Christ, our vicarious substitute. The punishment that should have fallen on us fell on Christ instead.

Thus the propitiatory work of Christ on the Cross means that He was punished by God, and tasted the wrath of God, as a substitute, in the place of sinners, who receive salvation because Christ bore the wrath of God on Himself in the place of sinners who are reconciled to God by the substitutionary work of Christ on the Cross.

This is certainly typified in the Ark of Noah. The judgment of God fell on the Ark (the type of Christ) not on those within the Ark. Those in the Ark typified those today who are sheltered from the wrath of God because they are in Christ, as Noah was in the Ark. Thus, they could not be subjects of God’s wrath because it had fallen upon the Ark, instead of them. What a wonderful picture of Christ the Ark is. It bore God’s wrath in the Flood, while Noah and his family were preserved inside, just as the true Christian is preserved when he or she is “in Christ Jesus” (I Corinthians 1:30). No judgment can fall on the one who is “in Christ” because the wrath of God falls on Jesus, not on the true Christian, who, like Noah, is safe in Christ – just as Noah was safe in the Ark. The wrath of God falls on Christ, just as the wrath of God fell on the Ark rather than those inside, for

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Those outside the Ark had to bear the full force of the Flood. God’s wrath was poured out on them in full measure because they were not in the Ark. So it will be to all who are not “in Christ” when the judgment of God falls on them.

3. The Ark shows that Christ is the only way to enter salvation.

Gen 6:16  "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

The Ark had only one door in it.

They all had to go through that single door to enter the Ark. One door was all it had. Noah and his family, as well as all the animals, had to enter the Ark through that single door. Likewise, this points to the fact that there is only one way to escape from the wrath to come.

Joh 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

The type is the one door to the Ark. Christ said in Joh 10:9  I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

4. The Ark shows the atonement of Christ.

Gen 6:14  "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.

The word “pitch” is translated from the Hebrew word “kaphar,” which means “to cover.” “Kaphar” is translated seventy times in the Bible as “to make atonement.” The simple meaning of “kaphar” is “to cover.” The atonement was made by the Blood of Christ, which provides a covering of sin. Sin must be covered by the Blood of Christ.

Rom 4:7  "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED.

When you come to Christ, your sins are covered by His Blood, as the Ark of Noah was covered with pitch.

5. The Ark shows the absolute security of those who are in Christ.

Noah and his family did not have to preserve themselves. They were protected from the Flood by the watertight Ark which was covered “within and without with pitch” (Genesis 6:14). No matter how hard it rained, or how high the water rose, all of those inside the Ark were safe. This speaks typically of the convert’s eternal security in Christ. As Noah and his family were safe in the Ark, so “your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Once you are “in Christ Jesus” (I Corinthians 1:30) you cannot lose your salvation!

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Gen 7:16  And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed it behind him.

Once Noah was in the Ark, God Himself “shut him in.” What a wonderful thought this is! Once you have entered into Christ, you are “kept by the power of God” (I Peter 1:5).

Joh 3:36  "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Joh 10:28  and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.

1Pe 1:5  who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6. The Ark shows our resurrection in Christ.

Gen 8:16-17  "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you.  (17)  "Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

As Noah and his family went through the judgement waters safely in the ark, the sin that provoked God is removed. Noah and his family step out into, figuratively speaking, a new creation. Such is the imagery of Noah and his family entering in a new creation that God restates the command given to Adam and Eve. Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

2Co 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Just as Jesus, in His resurrection, was no longer clothed in mere corruptible flesh but incorruptible; Him being the first fruits of the Resurrection, so we will be like Him when we too are raised from the dead.

1Co 15:51-52  Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—  (52)  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

We all know the limitations of the bodies we now have. The changes we go through as we age remind us of our mortality. We are frail and these bodies will one day fail us. But that is nothing to be discouraged by or to fear because for those in Christ how something greater to look forward to. 1) We will forever be in the presence of our Lord. 2) We will have incorruptible bodies fit for the rest of eternity that will not be bound to the limitations of this one. The weight of our current mortality will be lifted off.

And going back to what the Lord said to Noah and his family, “Be fruitful and multiply.” We too, as new creations in Christ Jesus are to be fruitful and multiply in the spiritual sense. We are all to be Noah’s warning not only of the judgement to come but also God’s provision of deliverance from it. The ark saved Noah and his family from the waters of judgement. Christ saves us from God’s fire of judgement to come. Our brother Tim has come through the trial of having gum cancer, he also knows the reason why he got it in the first place. He is warning people now of the dangers of dipping and chewing. He is passionate about it and why would he not be? God brought him through dark waters that he thought many times he would not be able to get through. God has brought us through our own dark waters and that of sin. How fervent are we in declaring the dangers of sin and God’s salvation from the consequences of sin He has made in our Lord Jesus Christ?