Turn with me now please for the book of Genesis. We're looking at chapter 7 verse 1 but to get our context I want to read before that chapter 6. Let's hear God's word as we begin reading it. Genesis chapter 6 verse 1. Now it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. And they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward. when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God, and Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 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. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it. The length of the arc should be 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the arc, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above, and set the door of the arc in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. and you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself, and it shall be food for you and for them." Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did. Chapter 7 verse 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." And may God add his blessing to his word today. Well, we are done with this series of sermons, kind of topical in nature, that I preached. The fact that God is able, God is able to do so many things. I want to start probably soon a fairly long expository series here in our early worship time, but I need to talk it over of course with our ruling elder as well. Until that time, which I hope will be about like next week, I had something in the interim and I thought it might be useful to consider the need for all to come into safety. Now, safety is something that we all crave. In fact, it is something that is somewhat of a madness almost in our day and time. We have all sorts of restrictions on our liberties that all too often we go right along with because we are crazy for safety. You see, we as a culture no longer trust in a God of providence. And we no longer expect that God is going to work all things for good. And so there are dangers on every hand, dangers in every place, for each of us as individuals, for the children, and for us as a society. Now just today, I was looking at the news on the internet, and I frequently do this on the Sabbath for sermon illustrations. And did I get an eyeful? All sorts of things which people are terribly worried about and concerned with their safety with. Don't try to diagram that sentence. In any case, we have weather worries. What shall happen if we get more rain? What shall happen if we don't get some rain? What shall happen if? Worries, worries, worries. Concern about safety. How should we live with this weather? How should we live in a grander scale with the climate? Why some think there is no safety with a warming earth, and others think there is no safety with a coming cooling earth. Worry, worry, worry, and they look for safety. That's just the weather and climate. Shall I name some other things? Of course I shall. worries about fuel prices and how shall we survive? How shall we be safe with that? Because of the fuel prices and petroleum prices, why it looks like to many people the economy is tanking or is about to do so. How can my job be safe? How can my financial security be safe? How can my family be safe? We have concerns about the political process. If Senator X gets elected, boo-hoo! How shall we be safe? Or if Senator Y is elected, how shall we be safe? Boo-hoo! I could name more, but you get the picture. Everyone is worried. How shall I be safe? There is a specter of fear stalking our nation. How should we be safe? All these things come flooding in upon us. All these things look as though they're about to overwhelm us. Neither political party seems to be able to help. The one says, I shall save you and rescue you, I shall bring safety, and all they do is bring in their friends to make lots of money and gain power over you. Then the other party comes in, declares that they will make us safe from the predations of the first, and they do the same thing. Safety is our concern in so many ways. Where should we find it? Sometimes it is even on the minds of our children. Now one of the most wonderful things, week by week, is, at least for me in the past, is PRAMI. Now we have to cancel it, sadly, far too frequently because of illness, at least in this past year. But one of the delights I have is when families who come to prayer meeting, a certain child will get old enough to start praying on their own. And I delight to have the children praying. The little kids. It is great. And I think of one who is sitting here in our front row today. who, when she was just a little smaller, used to be praying constantly on keep this person safe, and that person safe, and the other person safe, and 42 other people safe. And that seemed to be the most part of her prayer. But what a delightful thing, that she should be coming before God to be leading us in prayer for this, and that she was thinking that this great God, whom her parents were teaching her about, was one in whom she could trust not only herself as she brought her petitions to God, but this was the God in whom she could trust to keep her dear ones, her loved ones, safe. That's pretty good for a four-year-old kid at the time. Well, where should we find safety? This was a concern, of course, for Noah, as we have read here. Because God was about to destroy the earth. Why? Well, I lay particular emphasis upon verse 5 there in chapter 6 that we just read. Then the Lord, then Jehovah, saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, there's a lot in that verse. God had Moses pile up stuff there, but it gets at the heart literally of the problem. Man's heart since the fall is characterized this way. This isn't just Moses speaking this way in Genesis chapter 6 verse 5. This is the universal testimony of scripture. Man is depraved in heart. He is conceived in iniquity. He is born in sin as David testifies in Psalm 51. Anybody that says anything different is a fool and has not paid attention to people around him. We have, of course, all sorts of false religions based upon the thought, the wishful thinking of man, that he's just really not all that bad. That really his situation is not quite so critical as scripture would make it out to be. That God really doesn't worry all that much about it, and besides that, we're really not all that bad anyway. This is the basis, for example, this view of man is found in Mohammedanism. That man isn't really all that bad, so man can, by his own efforts, gain the attention of Allah. And who knows, because supposedly, because supposedly it was revealed through the Quran that God is merciful, God might pay attention to man being good enough for him. But we don't know for sure. We don't know for sure. But man's just not all that bad. He doesn't need redemption. This is why they see no need for a Christ who died on the cross, let alone being resurrected for the dead. This is why they see no need for a God-man mediator, because God, first of all, isn't all that concerned about sin sometimes. He just kind of overlooks it in their conception of mercy. He is not a just God. He is not an unchanging God. He is a capricious God. as taught in the Quran. This false god that was made up, not by Muhammad, made up by the so-called angel, probably was an angel, but a fallen one, that spoke to him. This is the image of man. God isn't too worried about it, and man's not too bad, but the Bible says quite differently. Man is a terrible sinner, and he needs safety because God is deeply offended and has determined to destroy sin, has determined to destroy sinners. There was a need for safety there in Noah's time, for judgment for this sin was about to befall all the world. Let's be clear, the Bible teaches a universal flood, not some local little thing, not some regional little thing. This isn't something that modern archaeologists, of course, believe, but it's true nonetheless. It was a universal flood that was about to go over all the world. Why was Noah and his family alone saved? Because God was gracious. God was gracious. He had set his eye upon Noah. He had set his heart upon Noah from before the foundation of the world. Noah found grace in his eyes as we saw there as we read along in chapter 6 there in verse 8. It is only because of that that Noah found safety, that God gave him safety by giving him instructions while revealing to him of the judgment to come and giving him instructions to build the ark that would save him and his family and those creatures which lived upon the land and in the air. In our time too, there is a need for safety. And we see all these things that I looked at on the news output there on the internet today. But underneath all those is a greater problem indeed. There is yet judgment coming upon sinners. We read in Romans 3.23 yet another attestation to the heart and wickedness of man. We read of His judgment in Romans chapter 6, verse 23. And we read, well, we've already looked at Genesis 6, verse 5 here. God will bring judgment. the judgment may be sooner than you think. And here I am not talking about Christ coming to end all things to judge the world. I shall in a second. But what I'm talking about right now is that in this life there is opportunity for safety. But when life ends, and none of us schedules that, none of us knows his own time. When life ends, it is after that the judgment comes. Hebrews 9.27 tells us that. It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. There is no interim probationary period. There is no place for a second chance in heaven, as some liberal so-called Protestants, unquote, unquote, have tried to state there is no room for that. When life is over, then things are cast. But then there is the final judgment. Jesus speaks of it in among other places, the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 verses 31 through 46. There is a final judgment coming when the works of the sheep and the goats are judged and assessed They're not judged for their works. No, it is the state of their heart that produce their works. Are they redeemed, or are they not? That must come to everyone, and this is what scares people about death. There is a sting, and that sting is judgment. There is a need. People deep down know this. There is a need. People deep down sense this. for safety from judgment. Well, what is the way of safety? It is God appointed, friends. Look here with what we see with Noah, with the flood and its judgment about to come. We read, 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. It was only by God's way that Noah and the missus, the sons and their wives, And the creatures that God had sent to go to the ark, clean and unclean, were to be delivered. That was the only way they could be saved from the flood waters, the waters that would break forth from the breaking forth of the fountains of the waters under the earth, and the sudden cascading down of the terrible rain that came. And by the way, I wonder how many of you have been to Niagara Falls? And if you've been there, have you been to the Cave of the Winds? I think that's what it's called. The place behind the falls? You go down nowadays by this elevator shaft and they give you these relatively cheap rain ponchos. They're about like so-called engineer ponchos, garbage bags with holes cut out in them. But in any case, you go there and the rush of the waters, you're behind the falls, behind the Horseshoe Falls, and it's incredible the amount of water that's coming over. and it's not near what it used to be because a lot of water now is diverted around the falls to go through the hydro plant. But in any case, the amount of water cascading down in front of you is overwhelming. It is awe-inspiring. And that, anyway, the only time I have been there with Judy and the boys about eight years ago, why, it was stunning. Just stunning. It made me think of how it must have been at the time of the flood. There was no safety, friends, in any other place than the Ark. The rest of the peoples of the world, not to mention the creatures of the earth and the creatures of the sky, could not be saved by their own goodness. They could not be commended to God, could not commend themselves to God by their own goodness for again. As we see in chapter 6 verse 5, they had none. They had none. They could not be saved by their own striving. That would bring them no safety. What would help them? An umbrella? Yeah. Try standing under Niagara Falls with an umbrella, right? Okay? Their own striving could not save them. They could not swim for 40 days and 40 nights. They could not make it. The most clever plans that they were able to devise, the most advanced technology that perhaps they had was no defense no safety against the judgment of God. And their family connection could be no help whatsoever. There were only two main lines of people, and they're alluded to here in Genesis 6. There are the Cainites. Those who descended from Cain, who are called here the children of men. And then there are the descendants of Seth, Cain's younger brother, the sons of God. But you see those from the more godly line of Seth, the line from which Noah descended, by the way, were degenerating. And they had totally played out as far as a godly line. They had intermarried with their distant cousins in this ungodly line, who were real lookers, real hotties. They saw them and they wanted them and they forsook their God, they forsook their godly ways, they forsook it all for the pleasures of this world. All that was left was Noah and his family because God had preserved them. The very fact that they were related to Cain with his line of technical advancement was no help. Their relationship and the rest of them to Seth with his godliness and having the godliness in their ancestry of faith in it was no help. It was to no avail. It was only by God's way that Noah and all of his were to be saved, and it is the same way today. In our trying to avoid what is the judgment of God, it is only by the God-appointed way that there is safety today. Even today, as our society, even today as we as individuals face the judgment of God, the same ways of safety devised by and relied upon by man still don't work. People even yet cannot be saved by their own goodness. For as we read in Romans 3.23, all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. As we read in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. We cannot be saved by our own goodness, for we have none. Our own striving can bring us no safety. Oh clever economists have tried to figure out how to get us around the mortgage crisis and that has depressed the dollar and so oil has skyrocketed and so forth and so on. Our clever technology and our deep thinkers and all the ways that they have of devising plan after plan, they bring us no closer to safety from the judgments of God. and our family connections do us nothing. They are to no avail. We may have pride in America. We may speak on our bumper stickers of the power of pride, and we've all seen those around since 9-11. That does nothing for us. No, our only safety is in the God-appointed way of safety, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, as Paul goes on to say then in Romans 6.23. as Noah, and his wife, and his sons, and his daughters-in-law, and the creatures that God had brought to the ark. And by the way, I don't know if any of you children have little storybooks about Noah and the ark. Some of them are realistic, some of them are not. Noah did not have to go looking for the animals. Noah did not have to go fetch them. He was told to fetch food for them, but that was it. The animals were brought there by God. How could he, someone says, fetch all these little bugs and all these other little critters? How could he do it? He didn't. God brought them there. In any case, just as God brought them in. And God sovereignly, graciously saved Noah and his family, so he does even now. And where is the place of safety? What is the arc that keeps us from being overwhelmed? by the billows and the waves of the judgment of God. It is the God-appointed way of salvation through Jesus Christ, as I already quoted from Romans 6.23. In Jesus alone is forgiveness of sin. In Jesus alone is safety from the judgment of God. He is our ark. As Peter speaks of in 1 Peter, I believe it's chapter 3. Forgot to put that in my notes. In Him alone is safety. But in Him truly and completely is safety. We have more safety in Jesus Christ than planks made of gopher wood. We have more safety in Jesus Christ than those planks even sealed up with pitch, with tar, inside and out. We have full and complete safety in Him. Now, just as the walls of the ark The walls of the hall, the walls of the decking and the roof protected Noah and his family and the creatures within. So, the atoning work of Jesus Christ and his mediatorial person protect us, shield us from the wrath and curse of God. just as God willingly revealed to Noah of the judgment to come, and willingly revealed to Noah the way of escape, providing to him the plan, the way of salvation. So the Father has graciously and kindly given us His Son, because He loved His people. God has graciously given us His only begotten, and that only begotten willingly came to deliver us by His life and death and resurrection. He is the one who shields us, as sometimes, I could have picked this out, we sing from Psalm 84, the second part, O God, look now upon our shield. The face of thine anointed see, I'm not sure why one of our young men picks that psalm. It's a favorite of his. When we have favorites, he sometimes picks that. But if it's for that reason, and there may be other good reasons, but that's certainly one good one, for it to be a favorite. He is the one who shields us because he has taken upon himself willingly He has taken upon himself, with the Father being willing that he should do so, the wrath and curse that you and I deserve. An umbrella cannot stop Niagara Falls. But the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, protects every one of his people who shelter within him from the wrath and curse of God. What are you to do? Well, in Noah's day they were to go into the ark and there they would be safe. They were to come out or to go out of the world and come into safety, come into the ark that God had provided. And now we are to go from our self-reliance Now we are to go from our own cleverness. Now we are to go away from reliance upon anything else. And certainly, we are to go away from our sin, and we are to come into Jesus Christ. Come to me, He says in Matthew chapter 11, verse 20, I think it is. Come to me, he says. So come to Christ for safety. God the Father is sovereignly working through Christ to save a people from sin, death, and judgment. He is working to save those whom He has loved for eternity from not an ocean of water, but a lake of fire this time. Come into Jesus Christ. Come into Him to be safe. Come into safety. Even as Noah was delivered and brought through to a new world, cleansed from sin temporarily, with the rainbow glistening above him in the sky, that mark, that sacrament, if you will, of the grace of God. And so, as you shelter in Jesus Christ, a bright new day shall arise before you. And you shall stand graciously delivered, with joy beyond what you can now imagine, before a throne where there is a rainbow as well. Come into safety in Jesus Christ. You who are in Christ, you have that safety now. Now, you read the same headlines, you see the same stories in your paper, and on the TV news, and on the internet. But just as Noah outside heard the water rushing about, heard the torrents falling from the sky, was bumped along by the fountains of the earth pushing forth, even as Noah, I trust, I imagine anyway, heard the thunder and saw the lightning. You see all this going on outside, but as Noah was safe, so are you. So are you. Fear not. For in Christ, into whom you have come, there is safety. You shall be delivered. Though the storms roll, though the earth be broken up, as we sometimes sing from Psalm 46, God is over it all, keeping you. You have come into Jesus Christ, and in Him you have safety. So, all of you, whether you be here physically before me, or whether you be listening to me at the very ends of the earth over the internet, if you have come to Jesus Christ, you are safe. There is nothing ultimately that can harm you. And if you be a sinner, if you sense that behind all these terrible providences that are coming, whether they be on the international scale or right local in your own backyard. You sense that behind these things there is a frowning God who is angry and offended at your sin. Well, come to Jesus Christ, for He is the Savior, He is the Deliverer, He is the safety for sinners. Come! Come to Jesus. Come into safety. Amen. We'll sing now, instead of Psalm 84, we'll be singing from Psalm 34, using portion B. Now, I picked out this psalm thinking of you believers, particularly verse 19, which most all of you know is one of my all-time favorites. In this metrical version we have it here, the righteous many trials has, from all the Lord sets free. There's the guarantee, a yet further guarantee, of safety that you have in Jesus Christ. Take heart then, believer, continue to put your trust in Jesus, you shall be delivered. Psalm 34, portion B.