Part 11
however mean you are! Yes, and the meaner you are, the more willing do I feel to invite you, for Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance! What a strange assemblage was there that morning! But Noah was positively commanded to bring all sorts of creatures into the ark. He might have thought some too vile and worthless to preserve, yet his orders were to bring them in. When Peter was commanded to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, God showed him in a vision, "all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air," and said to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." "Not so, Lord," said Peter, "for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." And, lo, "the Voice spoke unto him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call you not common."
In Christ there are some out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people who shall be saved to the praise of God and the Lamb forever and ever!
Moreover, it was a mysterious impulse by which God moved the creatures to come. The sight must have been imposing–the elephants, the camels, the giraffes, the rhinoceroses and all the huge creatures walking in side by side (as it were) with the timorous hares, the tiny mice, the lizards, ferrets, squirrels, beetles, grasshoppers and all such insignificant-looking little creatures. So it has been in the Church of Christ and so it shall be to the end of her history–"As many as were ordained to eternal life believed," though their characters, by nurture, were as various as this globe has ever witnessed–rude as barbarism's foulest sink, or polished as Grecian culture ever knew!
Now, dear Hearer, I do not care about asking you who you are, or what you are–that has nothing to do with me. What I ask you is– Are you in the Ark, or are you not? You are saying, perhaps, "Sir, I do not care for you–whyshould you enquire about my condition?"
But there will be a day when you will be like those who spoke to Noah and said, "Go along, old graybeard–build your ark on the dry land, like a fool, as you are–build your ark there on the hillside where the waters cannot come. As for us, we shall eat and drink and if, tomorrow we die, what will it matter, for we have eaten and drunk the merrier while we have had the opportunity." In vain did Noah warn them that the waters would surely come. He seemed to them as one to mock, and they laughed at him. Even so, when I preached to you, this morning, of the Resurrection, [Sermon #s66, 67, Volume 2–THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD– Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org ] some of you may have mocked and thought that I was but pursuing a wild reverie of imagination.Ah, but how different was their tune when the rain fell and "the same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up"! They doubtless changed their notes when the clouds began to empty themselves in fury, when the very earth did crack, and its heart was dissolved and the mighty fluid gushed up to devour them all! Did they think Noah was a fool when the last man stood on the last mountaintop and cried in vain for help?
I saw, some time ago, a picture which I think time will never erase from my memory. It was a picture of a man who had been climbing up to the top of the last mountain and the floods were coming around him. He had his old father on his back. His wife was clasping him round his waist and he had one arm round her.
She held one child at her breast and with her other hand she grasped another. In the picture one child was represented as just letting go, the wife dropping and the father clinging to a tree on the top of the hill. The branches were breaking and it was being torn up by the roots. Such a scene of agony I never saw depicted before– yet such a scene was likely enough to have been real when the waters entirely covered the earth. They had climbed up to the top of the last hill–and now they sank. False hopes gave place to fell despair–and so it will be with you, you careless ones, unless you take shelter in the Ark!
Do you ask me, "How can we do that?" You look anxious, some of you. Listen, then, while I finish, as I have often done before, with the simple statement which contains our authority to preach and your admonition to believe! Jesus said, "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned."
[PUBLISHERS' NOTE–It has been necessary, from lack of space, to omit nearly two pages. But, even in its condensed form, it is a wonderful discourse to have been delivered by a preacher only 21 years of age!] –Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307
PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON
TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS
CHRIST.
Ge 7:16 • Shut In or Shut Out
ERMON 1613
Shut In Or Shut Out
"The Lord shut him in."
Genesis 7:16
NOAH was a very different man from the rest of those who lived in his time, for the Grace of God had set a division between him and them. They forgot God and Noah feared Him. They lived for things seen and temporal and he lived in sight of the invisible.
When he was building the ark, he was in a miserable minority, as men count heads. And, even after 120 years of ministry, when his ark was built and his family entered it, they were eight against many millions–an insignificant few, as men would say–a pitiful sect among mankind. Who could imagine that the eight would be right and all the millions wrong? Where God is, there is the majority!
But very clearly there was a very marked distinction between Noah and his household and all the rest of mankind. Yet, great as that distinction was, throughout 120 years there was no impassable gulf between the two parties. Although Noah could not, would not go to them, yet they that would, might pass to him. If they would hear, believe and obey, they, too, might be among the company whom God had blessed and whom He would surely preserve from destruction. When the 120 years were over and God's Spirit would no longer strive with men, there stood the great ark with its vast door wide open and Noah still continued to preach and to declare that all who would pass within that open portal into the ark of safety should be preserved from the coming destruction.
Outside that door death would reign universally, but all would be peace within. When the last seven days of Grace had come to a close, the Lord began His work of justice by separating Noah. "The Lord shut him in." Then there was a more marked difference between Noah and the rest of mankind. He that opens and no man shuts. He that shuts and no man opens–even He had interposed an impassable barrier between Noah and those that believed not.
Mercy's gate was shut! The time of long-suffering had come to a close. Brothers and Sisters, the Church of God stands, at the present moment, in the world very much in the same condition as Noah and his family! The door of the ark is still wide open and it is our business to persuade, constrain and compel men, with all our might, to come in!
Not without success have our entreaties been, for many have entered the ark of salvation which is found in the Person of our Divine Lord Jesus. These make up with us the chosen family of God who shall be safe when the world is deluged with the last devouring fire. But the time comes–it comes to each man in death and it will come to the whole company of the ungodly in the day when the Lord Jesus shall descend from Heaven with a shout–that the door shall be shut and it shall be said, "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from here to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from there."
Character will become unchangeable! He that is unjust will be unjust, still, and he that is filthy will be filthy, still. My heart trembles as I think of this matter! There is a joy in being shut in with the saints, but a great grief in knowing that many will be shut out. I shall labor so to set forth this Truth of God that, perhaps before the door closes, a goodly company may cry, "We will come with you, for we perceive that the Lord is with you." Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come near unto the Lord–but until those water floods break forth they may come–and they shall find a glad welcome! For it is written, "Him that comes to Me I will in nowise cast out."
Our meditation will be arranged under two heads which may readily be remembered–shut in and shut out. They stand in very distinct contrast and admit of no third condition.
First, let us think of Truths of God which range themselves under the head of SHUT IN. This is a blessed text. Oh that the Spirit of God may help me to preach from it and you to enjoy it! Observe, then, that Noah was shut in–shut in the ark. Noah's condition as to an evil world was now one of permanent separation. He was severed from the world and his separation was beyond recall. There is a time in the human character when it has some good thing in it towards the Lord God of Israel and yet that good thing may be lost.
But there is another and happier time when the truly converted have stepped over the boundary and shall never go back to corruption. They are dead and their life is hid with Christ in God– hidden beyond further damage or death. They are, from then on, kept by the power of God unto salvation–crucified unto the world and the world unto them.
There was a time when, speaking after the manner of men, Noah might have given up his testimony and sided with the ungodly mass. But that possibility is all over, for the door is shut–the Lord has shut him in. There was no wish in Noah's heart to come out and he could not come out. The deed was done and could not be undone–the bolt was turned and could not be withdrawn. Noah was shut in by a hand which is not given to undo its own work! I believe that this blend of character and condition has happened to all Believers who can truly say that they are dead unto the world.
Dying unto the world is the way of our salvation! By this process we pass into newness of life. I dare say when that door was shut, the men of the world said, "Look at old Noah! He has gone into his coffin. He is as good as dead and buried."
Yes, that was exactly what they were meant to see and to say!
Peter says, "The like figure whereunto also baptism does now save us." He does not say that baptism saves us, but that it is a "like figure" of the way of salvation. The ark and immersion set forth the same Truth of God. The man is "buried in baptism," to signify that he is dead to the world, wherein, also, he rises, again, to show his fellowship with Christ in resurrection and the fact that he has risen to newness of life. Baptism is a picture of the way of salvation, just as Noah's ark was. Entrance into the ark and submergence beneath a 40 days' deluge of rain was a fit type of death and burial–and the rising of the ark above the waters fitly sets forth resurrection to a new life.
Noah underwent burial to all the old things that he might come out into a new world and, even so, we die in Christ that we may live with Him. This is the doctrine, but the experience is grand!
Beloved, it is a great mercy when a man can feel in his own soul that God has fixed, forever, his condition towards the ungodly. We have come out, my Brethren, from among men just as Abraham did when he left his fatherland and went into the land of which he knew nothing but that God had said that He would give it to him and to his seed. It is written concerning Abraham and the other
Patriarchs that, "doubtless if they had been mindful of the place from where they came out, they had opportunity to return," but they did not return–it entered not into their minds and hearts to do so. They had as fully left Padanaram behind them as if they had been dead and buried to it and their life showed, each one of them, to be a pilgrim and a sojourner with God.
Even so with Believers! The Lord has called us out and set us apart unto Himself. Therefore a door is shut behind us and we cannot go back. We are like Bunyan's Pilgrim–we must go forward, for we have no armor for our backs. There is no inducement to go back if we fairly consider the matter. The City of Destruction which we have left is to be burnt with fire–shall we go back to that? The enemies we have fought and encountered are left behind–shall we seek them to fight again, or to become their friends? Sin is bitter to us, it has already broken our teeth as with gravel–shall we go back to it? What inducement have we to return to the house of bondage?
No, by God's Grace, "Forward," is our motto till we come to "the city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God."
Brethren, I am always glad when I can feel, concerning any of you, that you have finally done with the world and may be numbered with the irreconcilables, for, alas, I fear there are too many who have so questionably come out of Sodom that their hearts are still there and they are apt to cast lingering looks towards the accursed city. Ah me! What if any of you should become pillars of salt! "Remember Lot's wife!" But when, like Noah, you are divided from the world's pursuits by God's own act, then is it well with you! Noah was shut in and could not follow after the festivities and worldliness of men. They were eating and drinking– marrying and given in marriage–but to Noah the dance and the viol, the feast and the revel called in vain! He could not now hoard up wealth, nor seek for fame among the sons of men. He was utterly exiled and excluded from all those things which charmed the minds of his contemporaries. He was out of the fashion, yes, out of the world!
He was shut out, too, from all their possessions. Even from his own farm he was now expatriated. Blessed is that man who, whatever he has, has it as though he had it not–he sets no store by earthly things and does not lock up his soul in his iron safe. He is shut out from the things which rust and corrupt, so that they are not his god, nor his treasure. Noah was divided from the evil generation among which he dwelt by an act of God–here was his safety! Adam was put in Paradise by God, but he was never shut in by God and, therefore, very soon he left his first estate and wandered among thorns and thistles. But Noah was both put in the ark and shut in the ark–and, therefore, he never left his shelter until the Lord bade him come forth to possess the new world.
Blessed are the men of whom the Lord Jesus can say, "They are not of the world." Such have passed by death into life and are members of a new race who shall go forth with joy and be led forth with peace, for they shall inherit the earth! Blessed is that man who has crossed the Rubicon, deciding to be on the Lord's side whatever others may do. Blessed is the man who has burnt his boats behind him, having landed in a country from which he will never retreat. I would gladly be one who can cease to be, but cannot cease to be a Christian! I would gladly be on who can die, but cannot deny his Lord! I would gladly be one who will, if necessary, go with Him to prison and to death–and cannot do otherwise–for the love of Christ constrains me. Then is the will most truly free when it is under the sweet dominion of infinite love! This is true liberty–to be led about in triumph in every place, bound with the silken cords of gratitude–a captive to the power of Grace! O happy man who can truly say that from now on he is "shut in" because he is born again and, thus, entirely changed!
In the olden times a newly converted man who became an eminent saint was met in the street by a woman who had, at other times, tempted him to sin. He took no notice of her and at last she cried out, "Do you not know me? It is I." "Ah," said the new man, "but it is not I." No, he was not the man who could take pleasure in uncleanness. He could no longer sin, for he was born of God! Our inner life shuts us in to holiness and the wounds of Jesus seal the door. The goodness of God interposes a barrier between us and evil, for we say with Joseph, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" "How can we, that are dead to sin, live any longer in sin? Therefore our prayer is that of Toplady–
"Oh nail me to the sacred wood,
There tie me with Your Spirit's chain!
There seal me with Your fastening blood,
Nor ever let me loose again!
There let me bow my suppliant knee,
And own no other Lord but Thee!"
We must now remark, secondly, that Noah was not only shut in, but he was shut in by God. There was the excellence of it–"The
Lord shut him in." No man can shut in as the Lord can! I cannot shut professors into the ways of godliness as I would wish. Alas, with all my preaching, many wander and try to be members of the Church and citizens of the world, too! We have among us avowed lovers of Christ who act too much like "lovers of pleasure." I have preached no liberty to sin, as some do, but I have declared that, "strait is the gate and narrow is the way," but yet these men make excursions into the broad road. I would still hammer at the door of the ark, in hope of shutting it closed and keeping it so, but it is little that I can do. If Noah had shut himself in, he might have come out again. And if any of the world outside had shut him in, he would probably have burst open the door.
But "the Lord shut him in" and, therefore, sure work was made of it. Oh to be enclosed by Almighty Grace! The Lord has shut His people in unto Himself by His choice of them in Christ Jesus, by His redemption of them from among men and by His sanctifying them to be a peculiar people unto Himself. Yes, the Lord has done it–"The Lord shut him in." Take notice that this was very close shutting, so as to keep out the water. I fancy that if you saw a huge vessel lying upon the dry land where the floods would come to float it, you would be very anxious about that great opening in its side. It was evidently a huge doorway, for a pair of elephants had passed through it, so that it was a gaping leak which would take in enough water in an hour to sink the ark to the bottom!
How could the great door be closed? All the timbers are waterproofed and the ship is well caulked and pitched within and without, but all will go for nothing unless we can secure the big door. Merely to shut the door will be of no use. When the rain begins to fall in torrents from above and the waters leap up from below, and the ship commences to rise, she will take in any quantity of water at the points where the door fits into the wood.
Shipwrights will be needed and the caulkers and the men with the pitch must come. No shipwright could manage to shut so huge a door close enough for safety unless you give him time and call in the help of other workers. Therefore "the Lord shut him in" because nobody else could safely be trusted to shut such a door, against which a forty days' tempest was to beat most furiously!
What a mercy it is that when we get into Christ by faith and are shut in from the world with Him, that we are perpreserved in Christ
Jesus unto eternal life by the same Divine might. Beloved, there is no doubt about the salvation of those who are in Christ, for none can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Never has a soul perished trusting in Jesus and never shall a soul so perish, for though salvation is so difficult that the righteous scarcely are saved, yet when the Lord Jehovah puts His hand to the work, it is done well and done forever! In Noah's case the huge chasm that would have let in the water-floods was perfectly closed up. Even so, all the yawning leaks and openings of our fall and sin are closed by the Grace of God and, in Christ Jesus, we are secure– the Lord has shut us in!
That door was also shut very fast to prevent the entrance of enemies from the outside. For who can tell? I should fancy that when the waters began to rise, when they were up to the ankles, or knee deep, those who had, before, ridiculed the Patriarch's barge would assemble around that door and clamorously demand to be admitted, resolved, if refused, to force their way in. But it would have been in vain. God had shut the door and no violence could force it open–by push of crowd or leverage of strength. Even so it is with us–we are protected against every onslaught of the enemies of our soul. Come life, come death, things present or things to come–God has appointed salvation! Come temptations of every sort, come craft or assault of devils–none can force the doorway and come at us for our destruction.
"At evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. But I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning: for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto You, O my Strength, will I sing." This Divine shutting in of Noah was very necessary, for I suppose that no one else could have moved the gigantic door upon its enormous hinges. It was probably too massive to have been stirred by Noah or his united family. It must have been a moment of wonder and awe when that stupendous door began silently to move of its own accord, as though an invisible hand was carefully closing it so that not a crevice should be made through which water could penetrate!
The ark was soon as complete as if it had never exhibited an opening from stem to stern. You and I need shutting into Christ by a Divine hand or it never will be done securely. When a soul is brought to Christ it is by Divine Grace, but the whole is not done then–the grand difficulty is to keep us in Christ, for without continued Grace we shall still perish in spite of all the arrangements of redeeming love. How many have ventured to sea in the galleys of their own resolve and have perished there! How many have hoped to shut themselves in with Christ by the mere force of personal determination, but the leakage of their own depraved heart has drowned them! But, oh, when God has brought us into union with Jesus, He shuts us in and we are saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation!
The great door of Covenant faithfulness is shut behind the Believer and he is surrounded by the power and Grace of God, even as Noah was housed within the strong timbers of the ark.
There is no crack nor cranny through which the floods of wrath can penetrate–Omnipotent Love has shut us in! And the Lord did this not only necessarily, but graciously. I call your attention to the change of the names in the text, a very significant change indeed–"They that went in, went in male and female of all flesh: as God had commanded him: and the Lord"–that is, Jehovah–"shut him in." Elohim, as the Creator and Preserver, takes care of living things to preserve them, but the Lord, even Jehovah, the covenanting God, interposes in great mercy to protect His chosen servant!
It was Jehovah who entered into solemn league and Covenant with His servant, Noah, that He would preserve him in the ark and float him into the new world in it. And as Jehovah, the Covenanting
One, He shut Noah in. There is no security like that which is given us by the Covenant of Grace. The hand which was lifted to swear our safety has also been outstretched to effect it! The everlasting
Covenant, ordered in all things and sure, guarantees salvation to all who are represented by the great Head and Surety of that Covenant, even our Lord Jesus. Love and power cooperate with faithfulness and truth to keep the chosen from all danger. Dwell much upon the Covenant and note the immutable pledges by which it is secured and the immortal principles upon which it is founded! Try to suck out the delicious sweetness which is to be found in the hive of the Covenant, for if you are an advanced child of God, no form of the Truth of God can be more nourishing or refreshing to your mind.
The doctrines which spring out of the Covenant are peculiarly comforting to believing minds. The promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus and can never fail nor change, since the Covenant stands fast forever and ever. Its tenure is free and Sovereign Grace and it cannot be disannulled. Here is a line of it, "I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me."
With such a promise does Jehovah shut us in with Christ Jesus in matchless kindness and unspeakable love. Notice, once again, that this deed was very instructive to Noah. It must have been so. Noah had ceased to live according to the mere senses of the body and had come to perceive his absolute dependence upon God, but he was made, by the opened door, to see that dependence most clearly. By Divine orders he had built an ark on dry land and when it was built, Noah might have said, "Now I feel safe." But he could not say so, for there was a gaping hole in the side of the ark–a vast aperture which he could not close up.
It was an occasion of mercy to mankind and Noah was probably glad to see it open that he might still preach righteousness and warn men to escape, saying, "The door is open! Come, you great sinners!
Enter, you sons of Anak. Come and be saved!"–
"Come to the ark, before yet the flood
Your lingering steps oppose!
Come, for the door which open stood
Is now about to close!"
Yet when he had done his sermon and went home, perhaps he said to his wife, "Beloved, how can this ark save us? That door, if ever the floods come, will be a dreadful danger to us. We cannot shut it!
What is to be done? We must leave it with God. We are still dependent upon a Divine interposition and Jehovah will stretch out
His hand and shut the door effectually so that we shall float above the deluge."
In this condition of daily dependence, the Lord would have His people abide, conscious to the very last that in Him, only, do they live! "Without Me you can do nothing." We are entirely dependent upon our faithful, loving God for everything! If I were to get up to Heaven's wall and gaze in through the pearly gates, I know that if God did not give me Grace to take the last step, I would die upon the threshold of the Celestial City! We rest upon God at the first for hope and pardon and the same is the case to the end. "My Soul, wait only upon God, for my expectation is from Him." You will never be able to throw your cap up and say, "I have done with further prayer and watchfulness, for I need no longer depend on God." Never will you cease to look unto the Lord for your salvation till you shall be safely housed in Heaven– "Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in."
Then joyfully will you confess that salvation is of the Lord and glorify your great God and Savior. Thus the text tells us that Noah was shut in and that he was shut in by God.
But now let us remember that he was shut in with God, for in the first verse of the chapter we read, "The Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark." This clearly shows that the Lord was already in the ark. O what a joy it is to know that when a soul is buried to the world it lives with Christ! "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." God is in Christ Jesus and we are in Christ Jesus–and thus we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus! The Tabernacle of God among men is the Person of Christ! And when we are joined unto the Lord and become members of His body, we are alive unto God and have fellowship with Him!
It is a blissful privilege to be hidden away in the Person of Christ, for, "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him." You are in Him, that is true, joined unto the Lord in one spirit. Oh the fellowship the saved have with God!
How cheering! How near! How elevating! How strengthening! God has left all the world to its own destruction, but in the ark, Christ
Jesus, there is joy, peace and fellowship–for God is there and all
His redeemed family are shut in with Him! Happy man, to be enclosed in the secret place of the Tabernacle of the Most High! He shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Next, notice that Noah's happiness was all the greater because he was shut in the ark with all his family. This is a great joy, to have all your household brought unto the faith of Christ. Some among us have one or two of their family still without Christ and strangers to His salvation. This is a great grief. I will not enlarge upon a subject so painful, but I know instances in which godly women have all their children with them in Christ, but the husband is still a stranger to the Covenant of promise. There is a Brother among us who joys to dwell in Christ, but his father and mother are still without God and without Christ! How often have we heard that dear Brother's prayer for his relatives! Perhaps his parents are here and, if so, I would tell them how much their son's prayers affect me. He cries as for his very life that God would save his father! Some among us never pray in the Prayer Meeting without strong crying and tears for their kinsothers of their house–I hope they never will! I hope
God will lay their kindred on their heart as a heavy burden till they are all saved in answer to prayer!
Noah would have been an unhappy man that day if his wife had been outside the ark, or if Shem or Ham had been outside, or if Japhet's wife, or any other had been left to perish. How joyful are they who can say that all theirs are God's. You are very pleased, some of you, to see your sons and daughters respectably settled in life. Thank God for His gracious Providence, but, mark you, if they were all poor and you saw them all saved–that would be the highest cause for gratitude! Better to see them regenerate than rich! Better married to Christ than to a fortune! Give your God no rest till it is so and if there is one who seems quite outside of spiritual things, pray for him as Abraham prayed for Ishmael, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!" It is better you should pray hard for them while they live, than that you should mourn bitterly over them when dead, as David did when he lamented aloud, "O Absalom, my son! Would God I had died for you! O Absalom, my son, my son!"
May the Lord, when He blesses us as He did Jacob, extend that blessing to all our tribes and cause all that are born unto us to be born again unto Himself.
Noah and his household were shut in, dear Friends, to be perfectly preserved, and then to come forth into a new world. The rains descended, the springs poured forth their fountains, the waters rose and the huge vessel began to leave the ground and to walk the waters like a thing of life. I think the little company might well have sung a hymn, but if they did, it is probable that the hymn was brought to a pause as they heard the cries of drowning men and women outside. I cannot attempt to picture the scene–they must have come clustering in great multitudes round the ark when they saw that in very deed the flood was descending and rising! As the fast-closed ark began to move, the inmates must have heard a chorus of cries, groans and shrieks of men and women as they perished in the insatiable waters!
Down poured the incessant showers, beating on the roof with perpetual thunder. The bidden eight were in solitude, shut in from the all-enveloping sheet of rain. The waters continued to gather and still the ark rose. Though they could scarcely tell where they were amid the watery solitude, they knew that they were safe. When they looked out and saw no living thing, not even the top of a mountain, and they were floating on a sea that knew no shore, how strange must have been their sensations! But the Lord had shut Noah in, so he was perfectly safe. Noah knew that the Lord High Admiral of the seas was at the helm to steer the lonely ship aright. Then came a strong wind to evaporate the waters and how the ark must have sped before the gale, none knew where! It was tossed about, doubtless, for it is the nature of winds to raise waves–and where there was no shore to give the slightest shelter, the vessel must have felt all their force. Yet the favored family was safe– "Without deep calls unto deep, But all is peace within."
The waters subsided and, by-and-by, the ark came to a strange sensation, for its keel was touching the earth–it was coming to its rest. God remembered Noah and brought the ark to rest on the mountains of Ararat. But will the ark ground safely? Perhaps she will break her back on a rock, or slide down the side of a hill, or over the brink of a precipice! No, no. He who was her Architect will be her Preserver! God has found an anchorage for the stars and He can surely berth a ship! He found the ark a safe resting place and brought out all her passengers safe and sound. He is berthing many a vessel, now, in the everlasting harbors, and He has such skill in navigation that no vessel which belongs to Him shall ever come to an ill end! So far, Noah fared well and felt solid ground beneath him once again. Now the waters quickly disappear, but what a mass of mud–shall the rescued family run the risk of fever and pollution? They shall not be let out till the land is dry–when the earth has been fertilized by its own destruction and is ready to receive the seed from the sower's hand–and the grass has begun to grow for the cattle!
Then shall they come out into a new world. How fair the face of Nature so newly washed! How like a bride decked for her marriage day! God sets open wide the door and out they come–camels, elephants, sheep, lions–Noah and all his family rejoicing to range at liberty! A sacrifice is offered and God smells a savor of rest. So shall it be with us–shut in with Christ away from this world to which we are not conformed–we shall ride in safety as exiled beings out of this old world into another! A day comes when the new Heaven and the new earth shall be seen and then the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace! Then shall our sacrifice of praise be accepted of the Lord!
Blessed are they who enter into the ark of Jesus Christ and so die to the old life that they may live in newness of life, rejoicing in Him who sits upon the Throne of God and says, "Behold, I make all things new!" This is your lot and mine forever and ever!
II. I have purposely reserved only a very few minutes for the second and much more painful point of my discourse, which comes out of the words, SHUT OUT. To have the door shut is well enough for Noah and those who are with him, but as for all the rest, that big door, when it closed on its hinges, shut them all out! Shut them all out to perish with a swift and sure destruction! Who were they? I wonder if any of the sort are here! Well, they were a people that had been preached to–Noah was a "preacher of righteousness"–and fulfilled his office perseveringly. The men of his generation were not left to perish without the Light of God–they had been warned, they had been instructed, they had been entreated.
They were such as you are who have been habitual hearers of the Word of God, but hearers only. Of course, you have, none of you, heard the Gospel for 120 years from one man, but many of you have heard it quite long enough to have incurred great guilt in having rejected it so often. They were a people who had been prayed for. You will ask me how I come to know that. I answer that Ezekiel speaks of three men notable as intercessors, Noah, Daniel and Job–and I feel sure he would not have mentioned Noah in that company if he had not been a man of great prayer. I believe that Noah prayed much for his generation and yet they were not saved. I am sure, dear Hearers, that some of you are daily the object of earnest supplication.
On Monday nights I have had notes about some of you, and hundreds, and even thousands of us have joined together in praying for you! Beside that, you know the dear ones at home are earnestly interceding for you and some who are now in Heaven pleaded hard for you before they departed. Yet you will be shut out as sure as you are alive unless you flee to Christ and enter into His salvation very soon. They were a people who had, many of them, been associated with Noah in his work. It is hardly likely that Noah built the ark with his own hands all alone–he must have hired fellers of trees and carpenters, caulkers and shipwrights of various kinds.
None of these were saved. It is a sad thing that those who helped to build the ark were shut out of it!
Remember, however, that they shut themselves out! They chose their own destruction. Do I speak to any who have subscribed to build the house in which they worship? Who contribute their share to the expenses of the Church and to the help of the poor and to the education of the young–and yet have no part in Christ? I do not understand those of you who are zealous in promoting religion and yet have no share in the great salvation! Why will you resolve to be shut out? As sure as ever you sit on that seat, you will be shut out of Heaven and shut out of Christ forever unless you arise and go unto your Father confessing your sins and seeking His mercy! May God awaken you to flee from the wrath to come!
These people in Noah's time had seen great wonders. Half the world must have gathered to see the camels and elephants, eagles and peacocks, snails and worms–all come running, or flying, or creeping to the ark! Such a sight never could have been seen before! There they come in pairs–four wild beasts, two and two– and clean beasts by sevens! Voluntarily entering the ark! What a sight it must have been! Many saw it and confessed that God's hand was in it and yet they did not enter the ark, themselves. Oh, my Hearers, some of you have been here in times of revival! You have seen drunks saved! You have seen the most unlikely ones converted and yet you have not turned unto the Lord! Be you sure of this–you will be shut out of hope forever! May God grant it may never be so! But unless you repent, it will be the case.
Let me read you a passage from the Gospel of Luke. And as I read it, think of it and tremble–"When once the master of the house is risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us! He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not from where you are–then shall you begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Your Presence, and You have taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not from where you are! Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out."
Thrust out–pushed out, not permitted to enter the great door interposing between you and all hope of mercy!
Next, notice what they did. What they did was this–they were a people who took all their delight in worldly things. We are told in the New Testament that they "ate and they drank, they married and were given in marriage, till the day that Noah entered into the ark."
They were altogether taken up with this world–like some of you who have no regard for the world to come–but live as if this life would be everything. Prayer, praise and looking into eternal things are all a weariness to you–you look after the shop and the farm and the house–and forget God. I do not blame you for diligence in business any more than I blame these people for eating and drinking and marrying! But to make this the main thing in life is to despise God and Heaven and eternity! O my Hearer, remember your God! Remember your Savior! Remember your soul!
Remember death! Heaven! Hell! How little do you think of these thing! Be not like these ungodly ones who gave their hearts to worldly things!
And then they did not believe. That was the point. Whatever
Noah might say they replied, "Poor old man, you have entered on a second childhood. Perhaps when we are 500 years old, we shall talk nonsense, too." When the Patriarch came to be 600 years old, they said, "That greybeard is always telling us these stories," and they jested at the old man's fable. Alas, some of you do not believe the Gospel and, therefore, do not seek its salvation! But it is true and you will acknowledge it to be so when you get breast deep in the fire-flood, as you will be before long! Oh that you would believe and escape from the wrath to come!
They despised the long-suffering of God! They said, "Here has Noah been telling us these 120 years that a flood is coming and where is it?" Among ourselves it is a common proverb, "Christmas is coming," but in Noah's days there must have been more sting in the proverb, "The deluge is coming." They would not believe that such a thing could ever be. Some say, "I have gone on very well. I have had no religion and yet I have always prospered. I have seen godly people getting poor, but I have always added field to field and house to house. I do not need religion. I am comfortable enough without it." If we say we pity them, they reply, "We do not want your pity." Just so! But the tables will be turned before long and then you will demand our pity, though it will avail you nothing, for the door will be shut!
Once let God shut the door and there will be an eternal separation between the ungodly and all hope and happiness. What came of it, then? The door of hope was shut and the multitude perished without hope! When I was thinking this over I fancied that I could preach about it, but I cannot. When I realize the fact that any one of my dear hearers could be shut out of Heaven I cannot bear it! I need to find a secret place to weep. If an angel should say to me, this morning, "All your hearers shall be saved but one and you must pick out the one who shall be shut out of Heaven," I should run my eyes anxiously up and down these lines of pews–and I should take up many an hour and at last cry–"No, I cannot take the responsibility of marking out the doomed man!"
I would keep you here, I think, till I died, before I could make the horrible death-choice. I would say, "Lord, save everyone." And as for the marked man, I would cry, "Spare him! Do spare him!" Oh, my Hearers, will you do for yourselves what I could not dare to do for you? Will any man choose for himself to be lost? Will he count himself unworthy of eternal life and take it from himself? Then I must shake off the dust of my feet against him! I will have none of the responsibility! If you will be damned, you must do it yourselves! I will not be a partaker in the crime. Your blood be on your own heads! Go down to the Pit if you will deliberately choose to do so, but know this, that Christ was preached to you and you would not have Him! You were invited to come to Him, but turned your backs upon Him! You chose for yourselves your own eternal destruction! God grant you may repent of such a choice, for Jesus
Christ's sake. Amen.
Ge 8:9 • The Dove's Return to the Ark
ERMON 0637
The Dove's Return To The Ark
"But the dove found no rest for the soles of her feet and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark."
Genesis 8:9
THE sending forth of the raven and of the dove have furnished ready materials for numerous allegories with which Divines in different ages have sometimes edified and more frequently amused their hearers. We cannot afford time to mention many of them, but one of the host may serve as a specimen. Certain expositors have fancied that the mission of the raven prefigured the sending forth of the Law, which was black and terrible and which came not back to man bearing any token of comfort, or sign of hope. And that afterwards the Lord sent forth the Gospel, foreshadowed by the dove, which by-and-by came back to sinful man, bearing the olive branch of peace.
Thus they illustrated the great Truth of God that there is no peace in the terms of the Law, for that raven can only croak hoarsely and fiercely. But there is peace in the ground of the Gospel, for the dove bears the olive branch in her mouth. Such far-fetched allegories as these, at the time when they were contrived and carried out, may have had their value and have been instructive to an undiscerning age. It is not, however, to be regretted that the Church of today has far less taste for such childish things.
We are quite as willing as any men to see allegories where they are really clear, for we remember the words of Paul concerning
Hagar and Sarah, "which things are an allegory," but we are not ready to follow the quaint and strange inventions of spiritualists whether ancient or modern. The clue must be evident or we had rather not enter the labyrinth. There is one adaptation of the incident before us which seems so naturally to suggest itself that I can not help using it this morning. The dove may well picture the Believer's soul. That soul sometimes flies abroad to and fro and takes a survey of all things–but it finds no rest for the soles of its feet anywhere except in Christ Jesus. And, therefore, however long in flight, it is sure, eventually, to return to its own proper resting place.
The child of God can never be content out of his God–he who has once had Christ in him, the hope of Glory, can never be satisfied to rest or glory except in the Lord Jesus. Let us, this morning, carry out that one thought and look at it in the various lights which this picture of the dove may throw upon it.
First, LET US LOOK AT THE DOVE SETTING OUT UPON HER VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. She has been perfectly safe in the ark. Other fowls have perished–cattle and creeping things have all been destroyed by the flood–but this dove, with other favored ones, has been happily secured. She has wanted for nothing–for the God who put her into the ark has taken care of her there and that righteous man who was made the means of her rescue has constantly provided her with her daily food.
She has nestled in the ark and been happy and comfortable there and yet she is about to stretch her wings and fly away from the boat of safety. Why does she act thus? Well may we ask this question of ourselves–we have been saved in Christ Jesus, many of us–saved when the floods of sin covered the rest of our kinsfolk–saved when our doubts and fears threatened eternal ruin to us! We have been provided for in Christ Jesus and housed in His salvation. He has been no wilderness to us–we have found enduring rest and seasonable provision in Him. How is it, then, that we can stretch our wings to fly, or even open our eyes to look abroad?
My Soul, is there not enough in Christ? Why will you seek elsewhere? Why leave the Fountain for the broken cisterns? Will a man leave the fertile fields for a barren rock, or forsake the running waters for pestilential pools? Remember the mischief that Dinah gained unto herself when she left her father's house to go to the tents of Shechem. Think how Why do you go abroad where all is empty and void and waste? Yet we must all confess that these hearts of ours are apt to bear us away from Christ and these minds of ours are prone to forget Him and to look abroad after some other love.
But why did the dove fly away? I answer first–a very simple answer to give, you will say–because she had wings. A creature with wings feels within itself a natural instinct to fly and, having been in the ark so long where she had little space for flight, I daresay her liberty at first was very sweet to her. What are these pinions for–why are they covered with silver and the feathers there with yellow gold, if I may not clip through yonder cloud and cleave these earth-mists and see what there is to be seen?
And, therefore, because she has wings she flies. And so it is with us. Our soul has many thoughts and many powers which make the spirit restless. If we were without imagination we might be content with the few plain truths which we have so well known and proved.
But having an imagination we are often dazzled by it and we want to know whether certain things which look like solid verities really are. If we had no reason, but could abide entirely in a state of pure and simple faith, we might not be exposed to much of the restlessness which now afflicts us.
But reason will draw conclusions, ask questions, suggest problems, raise enquiries and vex us with difficulties. Therefore, because our souls are moved by so vast a variety of thoughts and possess so many powers which are all restless and active, it is readily to be understood that while we are here in our imperfect state our spirits should be tempted to excursions of research and voyages of discovery, as though we sought after some other object of love besides the One who still is dearer to us than all the world besides.
Possibly there was another reason. This dove was once lodged in a dovecote. When children we saw men throwing up carrier pigeons into the air laden with missives and we foolishly wondered how the dove knew the way to go with the letter, dreaming as we did that it flew with it wherever the person chose to direct the envelope. We soon learned the secret. The dove bears the letter to her own dovecote–she will go nowhere else with it–and it is not in the wit of man to make the dove fly in any other direction than towards its own home. The dove is thrown up into the air. She mounts aloft, whirls round and round and round, looking with eager eyes. At last she sees the place where she has been known to rest and where her little ones have been reared and she darts straight to the spot.
Before the ark was built, no doubt, this bird frequented much a chosen spot where it had built its nest and reared its young ones and its heart went towards it. Though it had been in the ark so long, it had not forgotten the past. And therefore no sooner has it liberty than it seeks to fly in the direction of its own dovecote, although that cote had been swept away forever.
Ah, and you and I, before we knew the Savior, we had a rest.
Before we had experienced the sweetness of His love we found joy in sin. We built our nest and we thought in our heart that we should never be moved. We were satisfied once, after a fashion, with the vanities of this present world. We had our loves, our joys, our pleasures, our delights. And that carnal old nature within us is not dead! When it gets its liberty it is sure to look out for its old haunts.
Have you not, even when singing God's praise, remembered a snatch of an old, perhaps lascivious song? Have not you frequently, when in the service of God, had brought to your recollection a dark scene of sin in which you had a share? And though you have loathed it with the new nature, yet has not the old nature tended towards it?
And has not that base heart within–which will not die until flesh becomes worms' meat–whispered to you to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt and once more to partake of the garlic and leeks and onions which were so sweet in the house of bondage? Yes, the dovecote still has its attraction. The best of men have still within them the seeds of those sins which make the worst of men so vile.
The old serpent still creeps along the heart which has become a garden of the Lord. Our gold is mixed with dross. Our sky bears many a cloud and the clearest river of humanity still has mire at the bottom.
I marvel not that the dove flew away from the ark when she remembered her dovecote. And I do not wonder that at seasons the old remembrances get the upper hand with our spirit and we forget the Lord we love and have a hankering after sin. Yet it would not be fair to forget that this dove was sent out by Noah–so that whatever may have been the particular motives which ruled the creature, there was a higher motive which ruled Noah who sent her out.
Even so there are times when the Lord permits His people to endure temptation. What does this passage mean concerning the Savior–"After He was baptized, He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil"? What? Led of the Spirit?
Where will the Spirit lead Him? Will not the Spirit lead Him to His Father's temple that He may join in its hallowed exercises? Will He not lead Him to the mountain where He may proclaim glad tidings to the people? No. The Spirit led Him into the wilderness "to be tempted of the devil." We are taught to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." And very stupid people have tried to alter the petition into, "Leave us not in temptation."
The Savior never said that. It would be a very proper prayer, but it is not what He said. His words are, "Lead us not into temptation."
It appears, then, that sometimes God may allow His people to be led into temptation, or otherwise we need not say, "Lead us not into temptation." Such temptation produces excellent results in being overruled by Divine Grace for the lasting benefit of the Lord's people. The dove would love the ark far better than before, after taking its dreary flight above the watery waste. She would nestle more peacefully than ever in Noah's hands after having seen and known how impossible it was to find rest for the soles of her feet anywhere else!
Thus the Lord permits His people to gad abroad in their thoughts and to go flying about in their minds that their after repose may be sweeter and more enduring. He takes away from them the light of His Countenance and familiar fellowship with Himself that the darkness may make them prize the sun. They fly from vanity to vanity learning the emptiness of all and then they cling to their own real bliss–their God and Father in Christ Jesus! And throughout life they have to bless God for that dark and bitter experience which yielded so good and comfortable a fruit that it compelled them to know that there was none upon earth for them but Christ and none even in Heaven to fill their souls but their Lord Jesus.
So when I see the Christian taking wing in his thought away from the ark, I will be grieved to see him in the temptation, but I will pray the Lord to overrule it that he may come back again and say, "Return unto your rest, O my Soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." Beloved, it is a bitter but a precious lesson to learn, that all is nothing out of Christ and that Jesus alone can give us rest. May you all learn it thoroughly and learn it soon.
II. Now MARK THE DOVE AS SHE FINDS NO REST. She has plumed her wings and she hurries in her search after a home. The mountain tops, I think, according to the preceding verses were just visible, but this was all. She flies over them and between them, as they rise like islands in the midst of that vast shoreless sea. At last she tires–even the dove cannot fly forever. She needs to rest. Where shall she end her flight? The raven yonder is comfortable enough gorging himself upon the carcass of a huge beast which was floating by. The dove, however, cannot rest there–her nature loathes putridity and she flies away from the reeking mass.
Yonder is a tree–one of the mighty monarchs of the forest has been broken off in the great tempest which drowned the world and is now floating high with branches lifted up like the masts of a vessel. She tries to light upon it but it is covered with thick mire and filth. The wet and slime suit her not and she takes to her wings again. Further off another object attracts her and she speeds to it as well as her weary wings can carry her. But there is nothing there for her to rest upon.
She turns east, north, south, but her wings grow weary for she can find no place where to rest the soles of her feet. As we observe her flapping her wings so languidly, I think we have a picture of a Christian in pursuit of an earthly object on which he would desire to set his heart. Forgetting that here we have no continuing city, the pilgrims of God at times wander in the wilderness hoping to find a settled habitation there. But their desolate hearts are soon faint within them, for there is no rest for their feet on earth. The Savior very beautifully said, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."
What kind of rest did the Savior mean to give? I take it that He meant rest to all the powers of manhood. The intellect seeks after rest and by nature seeks it apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Men of fine education, men of great mental powers are apt, even when converted, to look upon the simplicities of the Cross of Christ–I may not say with disesteem–but still with an eye too little reverent and loving. They are snared in the net in which the Grecians were taken–they have a hankering to mix philosophy with Revelation.
The temptation is with a man of refined thought and high education to go away from the simple Truth of Christ Crucified and to invent a more complicated, as the term is, a more intellectual doctrine.
This it was which led the early Christian Church into Gnosticism and bewitched them with all sorts of heresies. This is the root of Neology and the other fine things which in days gone by were so fashionable in Germany and are now so ensnaring to certain classes of Divines. Brethren, I care not who you are nor what your education may be–if you are the Lord's people you will find no rest in the teachings of philosophy–or philosophizing divinity. You may receive this dogma of one great thinker, or that of another profound reasoner–but what the chaff is to the wheat–that will these be to the sure Word of God! All that reason, when best guided, can find out, is but the ABCs of the Truth of God and even that lacks sureness and certainty–while in Christ Jesus there is treasured up all the fullness of wisdom and knowledge!
All attempts on the part of Christians to be content with systems such as Unitarian and Broad Church thinkers would approve of must fail! True heirs of Heaven must come back to the grandly simple reality which makes the plowboy's eyes flash with joy and gladdens the pious man's heart–"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Christ satisfies the most elevated intellect when He is believingly received. But apart from Him the mind of the regenerate discovers no rest.
The heart, too, wants satisfying. Every one of us needs an object to love. I suppose there can hardly live on earth a man so monstrously selfish that he can be perfectly wrapped up in himself and care for no one. Some of the grossest villains who have ever defiled the name of manhood have had one point in which they could be touched. Their hearts have gone out after one dear object– it may be a little child, long dead–and yet the recollection of that little one sleeping beneath the turf has been a link to goodness.
Many a hardened man has remembered his mother and her name has touched his heart. We must love something, or someone. Man was not made to live alone and therefore no man lives unto himself.
Our heart must flow like a river, or it corrupts like a stagnant pool.
Some have great hearts and they require a great object on which to spend their love. They love fondly and firmly–too fondly and too firmly for earthly love. These are they who suffer from broken hearts. They have so much love that when they set it upon an unworthy object they reap a proportionate degree of misery and disappointment.
Now let me say solemnly that no heart of a child of God will ever be satisfied with any object or person short of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is room for wife and children, there is room for friend and acquaintance and all the more room in one's heart because
Christ is there–but neither wife, nor children nor friends, nor kinsfolk can ever fill the Believer's heart. He must have Christ
Jesus–there is no rest for him elsewhere. Do I address any Believer who has been making an idol? Have you set up any god in your heart? Have you loved any creature so as to forget your Savior? Be it child, or husband, or friend, take heed of the sin of idolatry!
Ah, you cannot, you shall not find rest for the soles of your feet in the creature, however fair that creature may seem. God will break your idol before your eyes, or if He suffers that idol to stand, it shall remain to plague and curse you, for thus says the Lord, "Cursed is he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm." "Cease you from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted?" Give your hearts to the Lord Jesus and He will never disappoint you. Lean on Him with all your weight of affection, for He will never fail you. Come here, all you fond and doting, you lovers, and love with all the lavish wealth and fervent heat of your spirits! Kindle your hearts until, like
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, they glow seven times hotter–here is a fuel with which you can maintain the flame forever!
You whose love is like the sea, too deep to fathom, come to the Savior and give Him all and He shall not waste a drop, for He deserves all you can give and He will give you back a love which, compared with yours, shall be as the ocean when compared with the dewdrop that twinkles on the bough. So there is rest for the heart in Christ Jesus, but nowhere else.
Man has also judgment. And judgment, when exercised upon things right or wrong, is called conscience–and the conscience is a very difficult thing to quiet when once disturbed. Conscience is like a magnetic needle which if once turned aside from its pole will never cease trembling. You can never make it still until it is permitted to return to its proper place–
"In vain the trembling conscience seeks,
Some solid ground to rest upon.
With strong desire the spirit faints,
Till we apply to Christ alone."
We shall never be able to find lasting peace for conscience till we cast ourselves upon Christ Jesus!
The child of God may sometimes so forget himself as to endeavor to base his hopes upon his experiences, his feelings, his joys, or his repentances. He may try to assure himself that all is well between God and his own soul because of his graces or his good works.
Now, Christian, you know, or you ought to know by past experience, that you will never enjoy lasting peace here. You must come to Christ as you did at first with nothing of your own and take Him to be your All in All. And if you do not do this your feet shall know no rest, for you shall fly wearily on till you shall drop with despair.
Christ Jesus in the preciousness of His besprinkled blood! Christ
Jesus in the glory of His snow-white righteousness! Christ Jesus in the prevalence of His intercession! Christ Jesus in the power of His arm and the love of His heart must be the sole and solitary dependence of every heir of Heaven! And if you try to mix anything else with Christ, then your conscience shall accuse and Satan shall find an echo in your heart when he rails at you–and what will you do then?
Let me say, dear Friends, that for the entire man–we cannot stop this morning to take all the different powers with which man is endowed–but taking the whole together there is nothing that can