Come Inside
Noah's Ark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Week 4: Come Inside
Week 4: Come Inside
Series Theme: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:37)
This Week's Phrase: "...up to the day Noah entered the ark" (Matthew 24:38)
week before last...
we stood on the job site.
We watched Noah build for years,
one board at a time,
while the world around him kept eating, drinking, and getting married.
we ended with this:
Noah finished obeying before it ever rained.
Some of you took a nail home as a reminder to keep building.
Well, the ark is finished.
So this week we ask this question:
what was THE ARK?
WHAT WAS IT FOR?
WAS IT REALLY JUST A GINORMUS BOAT
OR DID IT REPRESENT SOMETHING MORE FOR YOU AND I?
NOT ONLY THAT BUT...
WHAT DO YOU GOTTA DO TO GET INSIDE?
It starts with one word.
The word is tevah. (TE-VUH)
It's the Hebrew word Genesis uses for the ark.
what makes it interesting is how rarely it shows up.
You'll find it all through the flood story in Genesis 6 through 9.
Then it disappears.
It shows up in only one other place in the entire Bible.
Exodus 2.
WE SEE...
Pharaoh has ordered every Hebrew baby boy thrown into the Nile.
One mother (JOCHABED) hides her son as long as she can.
3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
That basket is a...... tevah.
OH COME ON....
Baby Moses' basket is the same word as Noah's ark.
IN FACT, KJV CALLS IT IN THE SAME SCRIPTURE WE JUST READ....
AN “ARK OF BULRUSHES”
BOTH A.....TEVAH
One of them is 450 feet long.
The other one you could carry under your arm.
the Holy Spirit gives them the same name,
and when you put them side by side,
you CAN see why.
WATCH THIS....
Both were sealed against the water.
Both were floating in waters where others were dying.
Neither one had a sail.
Neither one had a rudder.
Nobody inside could steer.
Both OF THEM drifted exactly where God wanted them to go.
AND WATCH THIS......
both carried someone God was going to use to save His people.
OH MY LORD...
DON’T TELL ME THATS A COINSIDENSE
GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE
AND GUESS WHAT.....
HE STILL HAS A PLAN TO SAVE
A tevah isn't really a ship.
It's a container of mercy.
You don't drive it.
You JUST get in it, and God does the rest.
OH LORD HELP US
That's what this week is about.
JESUS SAID....PEOPLE WERE....
38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT DAY.....THAT MOMENT
IF YOUR TAKING NOTES......I’M GOING TO BREAK THIS INTO TWO PARTS TODAY.....
Part One: What was the Ark
Part One: What was the Ark
It was God's idea
It was God's idea
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
I WANT YOU TO Look at the order.
First comes the judgment.
Then comes the word.... but.
I NEED YOU TO UNDERSTAND THIS....
Noah didn't come up with the ark.
He didn't pitch God a survival plan.
The flood was God's judgment,
and the ark was God's answer to His own judgment.
The same God who said "everything will perish" in verse 17
said "but you will enter" in verse 18.
OH COME ON CHURCH...
THATS GOOD NEWS
That's the gospel in two verses.
LOOK AT....
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The judgment and the rescue come from the same hands.
Here's something else to notice.
Genesis 6:18
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
THIS is the first time the word "covenant" appears in the Bible.
The first covenant in Scripture comes wrapped in a rescue.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY....
Before God ever made a covenant with Abraham, Moses, or David,
He made one with a man standing next to a boat.
AND From the very beginning, God's covenant has meant this:
"I will bring you through."
OH COME ON SOMEBODY.....
DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID....
I SAID GOD MADE A COVENANT
AND HE WILL BRING YOU THROUGH
LOOK AT YOUR NEIGHBOR AND TELL THEM.....
YOU GOTTA TRUST HIM
YOU GOTTA PERSEVERE
YOU GOTTA STAND....
I DON’T CARE WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT YOU
I DON’T CARE WHAT FRIENDS YOU LOSE OR FAMILY TURNS THEIR BACK ON YOU
YOU CAN’T QUIT
I DON’T CARE WHAT THE DOCTOR SAYS
I DON’T CARE WHAT THE DIGNOSIS IS
I DON’T CARE WHAT THE PROGNOSIS IS TO MY DIAGNOSIS
I SERVE A GOD WHO CAN SAY OTHERWISE
I SERVE A GOD WHO IS IN CONTROL OF THE NATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL
AND I WILL TRUST HIM
OH COME ON SOMEBODY
WE GOTTA TRUST HIM
WRITE THIS DOWN......THE ARK WAS COVERED
It was covered
It was covered
Back in 6:14,
God told Noah to
"coat it with pitch inside and out."
The Hebrew word for pitch is kopher.
NOW WATCH THIS.....THIS IS CRAZY
It comes from the same root as kaphar,
THIS IS.....
THE word the Old Testament uses for atonement.
OH MY LORD.....
WATCH THIS.....
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
OH MY LORD...
JUST AS THE KOPHER...(PITCH)
COVERED THE BOAT INSIDE AND OUT
THE KAPHAR.....(ATONEMENT) COVERS THE SINNER......
Now think about what that meant during the flood.
The same water that destroyed everything outside....
IT pounded against the outside of the ark.
IN OTHER WORDS.....
The ark didn't avoid the judgment.
It took the full force of it.
But the water couldn't get through....WHY
BECAUSE OF THE COVERING
That's what Jesus did.
He didn't help us avoid judgment by pretending sin wasn't real.
He took the judgment on Himself,
and everyone who IS in Him....
is covered.
THEREFORE........OH COME ON.....
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
CAN SOMEBODY GIVE HIM SOME PRAISE
Notice Paul DOES NOT say
"for those who are good enough" or
"for those who feel close to God."
He says
"for those who are in Christ Jesus."
IT’S NOT ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL....
IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE....
It's about where you are.
WHERE ARE YOU?????
WRITE THIS DOWN...
It had one door
It had one door
16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.
Not a door on every deck.
Not an entrance for each family that might show up.
One door.
Only one DOOR can sound limiting,
even unfair.
But YOU KNOW WHAT...
a door isn't a wall.
It's an opening......(OPEN THE ARK DOOR)
In a world that was about to be completely shut out,
God built a way in.....(WALK THROUGH THE DOOR)
Jesus said,
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.
Peter said it this way....
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
CHURCH....
THERE IS ONE DOOR CHURCH....
AND THAT DOOR IS JESUS CHRIST
AND BY NO OTHER MEANS CAN ANYONE GET TO HEAVEN
HE SAID....
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Christians have been drawing this connection for a long time.
Back in the fifth century,
Augustine pointed out that the ark's door was in its side,
and he connected it to the side of Jesus that was pierced on the cross (John 19:34).
HE SAID....
The way into the ark was through its side.
The way into salvation is through the wounded side of JESUS Christ.
One door.
Not because God is stingy,
but because He paid for that door with His own Son.
LET’S LOOK AT....
Part Two: What It Took to Be Inside
Part Two: What It Took to Be Inside
WRITE THIS DOWN....
God said "Come"
God said "Come"
1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.
Some translations say
"go into the ark."
The Hebrew word can mean either one.
But I love that many translations chose "come,"
because it changes the picture.
THINK ABOUT IT.....
"Go" is what you say when...
you're sending someone.
AND JESUS JUST COMMAND US TO TO....GO
BUT......."Come" is what you say when...
you're already there.
OH MY LORD....
UNDERSTAND THIS....
God wasn't standing outside pushing Noah in.
He was inside the ark, saying
"Come where I am."
CHURCH....
That has always been God's invitation.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Salvation isn't God sending you somewhere alone.
It's God inviting you....
WHERE HE ALREADY IS
BUT HERE’S THE THING.....
WRITE THIS DOWN...
Noah had to step in
Noah had to step in
TO GET IN.... IT TAKES A STEP FROM YOU
7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
Then six verses later, Genesis says it again:
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.
Building the ark didn't save Noah.
Believing the ark would float didn't save Noah.
Knowing every measurement didn't save Noah.
Noah was saved when he walked through the door.
OH COME ON.....LISTEN TO ME
You can know everything about Jesus...
and still be standing outside THE BOAT.
You can admire Him,
defend Him,
and sing about Him
and never come INSIDE.
A lot of people in Noah's day probably could have described the ark in detail.
They'd watched it go up for years.
BUT UNDERSTAND THIS.....
Knowing about the ark is not the same as being in the ark.
WRITE THIS DOWN....
He stopped trying to save himself
He stopped trying to save himself
Lifeguards are trained for something most of us wouldn't expect.
(TALK ABOUT TRYING TO SAVE A PANICKING SWIMMER) DANGEROUS
Very often the moment the rescue really works
is when the swimmer stops fighting
and lets the lifeguard carry them.
That's how a lot of us treat God.
We're in over our heads,
and instead of letting Him carry us,
we keep SWIMMING.
WE DON’T THINK ABOUT ETERNAL LIFE
ALL WE THINK ABOUT IS THE PRESENT
IT’S ALL GOING TO BE OK
IF I JUST KEEP MY HEAD DOWN
AND JUST KEEP SWIMMING
JUST KEEP SWIMMING....
We tell ourselves,
"Let me clean up my life first. Then I'll come to Jesus."
One more good deed.
One more promise.
One more try at fixing ourselves.
And the whole time,
we're wearing ourselves out in water we can't beat.
Noah didn't swim to safety.
He wasn't saved because he was a strong swimmer.
He was saved because HE MADE A DECISION TO.....COME INSIDE SOMETHING GOD BUILT
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
LAST ONE....
....WORSHIP TEAM COME........
His safety depended on
His safety depended on
WHERE HE WAS,
WHERE HE WAS,
not on how he felt
not on how he felt
I'm sure there were nights inside that ark
when Noah didn't feel very safe.
The wood groaned.
The water roared.
The whole BOAT tossed back and forth.
Some days I IMAGINE HIS FAITH WAS STRONG,
OTHER days it was probably hanging by a thread.
But here's the thing.
Noah's feelings IS NOT WHAT KEPT THE ARK AFLOAT
Think about a roller coaster.
AS A DAD....IVE BEEN ON MANY ROLLER COASTERS....
WHEN THE KIDS WERE LITTLE......TERRIFIED
MY JOB WAS TO CALM THEM DOWN
I KNEW THEY WOULD BE OK
WE WERE HELD IN PLACE THE SAME WAY
WE ARE equally safe.
held by the same lap bar.
The bar doesn't hold ME any tighter than IT DOES MY KIDS...
Their safety was never about their grip.
It was about what was holding them.
OH MY LORD...
Some of you have been in the ark for years,
but you've been white-knuckling it the whole time.
You wonder whether God is really holding you,
or whether OR NOT your bad week WILL MAKE HIM CHANGE HIS MIND
I NEED YOU TO Hear this:
if YOU ARE in Christ,
you are as safe on your worst day as on your best day.....
HOW?
because your safety isn't based on your grip.
IT’S BASED ON HIS
Paul says,
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Hidden.
Like eight people inside a sealed ark,
with the storm on the outside
and the covering in between.
God's promise in Isaiah sounds like it was written from inside the ark:
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
Notice He doesn't say "if."
He says
"when."
The ark didn't keep Noah out of the storm.
It kept the storm out of Noah.
LET ME EXPLAIN.....Why This Matters... Now
We started today with one word:
tevah.
A basket and an ark.
Think about that mother in Exodus 2 one more time.
She can't protect her son anymore.
She can't stop Pharaoh.
She can't control the river.
THE STORM IS COMING,
DESTRUCTION IS COMING
AND THERE IS NOTHING SHE CAN DO TO STOP IT...
So she does the only thing she can do.
She puts him inside what will hold him,
sets HIM on the water,
and lets go.
And God DOES THE REST.
WE SEE THAT....
The basket ends up exactly where it needs to be.
GOD’S GOT A PLAN....
IT’S A CRAZY PLAN....AND IT INCREDIBLE
Pharaoh's own daughter
THE SAME PHAROAH WHO ORDERED ALL THE CHILDREN TO BE KILLED.....
SHE FIND THE BASKET AND OPENS IT UP,
the Bible says
6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
The boy who was supposed to die in that river
HE IS PLANTED IN THE MIDDLE OF WHERE GOD’S PEOPLE ARE ENSLAVED
HE grows up AND LEADS God's people out of Egypt.
Noah lived the same story on a bigger scale.
He didn't steer.
He didn't row.
He didn't have a map.
He JUST got inside,
and God took it from there.
STAND TO YOUR FEET WITH ME
That IS what salvation is.
It's not you figuring out how to beat the water.
It's not you steering your own way to heaven.
It's you getting inside THE BOAT (JESUS CHRIST),
and God taking it from there.
OH COME ON....
Some of you have been trying to steer for a long time.
Your marriage.
Your kids.
Your past.
Your future.
You've had both hands on a wheel that was never there,
and you're tired.
Jesus said people kept living normal lives
"up to the day Noah entered the ark."
The same DESTRUCTION was coming for everyone.
The only difference was....
WHO MADE THE DISCISION TO GET IN THE BOAT.
TO WALK THROUGH THAT DOOR
I WANT TO ASK ALL OF MY PRAYER TEAM AND LEADERS TO COME TODAY
TRANSITION TO ALTAR CALL
EVERY HEAD BOWED AN EYE CLOSED
THE QUESTION TODAY IS THIS:
"ARE YOU inside THE BOAT?"
And if the answer is no,
or you're not sure,
God is saying the same thing He said to Noah:
"Come INSIDE"
Response
Response
There's a door frame standing open up here.
It's not a magic door,
and walking up here doesn't save anybody.
But it is a picture of what God has done for you.
He built a way in,
He paid for it,
and He's saying, "Come INSIDE."
AND MAYBE YOUR HERE
AND you've stood outside for a long time.
You've watched other people go in.
You know the measurements,
the songs,
and the stories.
But you've never stepped through IT yourself.
Today you can stop swimming.
You can come in.
A COUPLE WEEKS AGO
WE SAID....THE HAMMER IS STILL MAKING NOISE
THERE IS STILL TIME
THIS WEEK....
THE HAMMER IS DONE
THE BOAT IS FINISHED
BUT THE DOOR IS STILL OPEN
AS LONG AS IT’S OPEN....THERE IS STILL TIME
BUT NO ONE KNOWS WHEN THE DOOR IS CLOSING
If you want to give your life to Jesus today,
or come back to Him after a long time outside,
I WANT YOU TO...
come stand IN FRONT OF this door.
WERE GOING TO pray with you AND LEAD YOU INTO THE ARK.
PRAYER FOR SINNERS
Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner,
and I need a Savior.
I believe You died on the cross for my sins,
and I believe You rose again.
Today, I turn away from my sin,
and I turn to You.
Forgive me.
Wash me clean.
Make me new.
Jesus, I give You my life.
I receive You as my Savior,
and I choose to follow You as my Lord.
From this day forward,
my life belongs to You.
Thank You for forgiving me.
Thank You for saving me.
Thank You for making me new.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
LIFT YOUR HANDS....LEADERS JUST BEGIN TO PRAY FOR THEM RIGHT NOW.....
LET’S WORSHIP
Closing
Closing
Next week we come to the hardest phrase in the passage:
"they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away."
We're going to look at the flood the way Genesis describes it.
It's heavy, and it should be.
