Genesis chapter 7 this evening as we turn now to our Bibles and we're turning to verse 1 especially Genesis chapter 7 and verse 1 and as I said this morning just to say again I trust that you do have a blessed new year in the biblical sense of the word the world may do many things this evening but God's people and God's house there's no better thing to do nor to be in God's house and to worship him and to sing his praise And I certainly pray the Lord in the year ahead will give you much grace whatever lay ahead of you, whatever maybe the trials or tribulations may be, the Lord will give you sufficient grace. And you pray maybe for loved ones to be saved, may God answer those prayers, but let's pray the Lord will keep us near the cross, near to himself, and give us a more fervent love for him in these days. So in that sense, may the Lord give you truly a blessed and a happy new year. But as we come to an end of a year, it's always a solemn occasion. I believe that we should turn to Scripture which directs us to those sort of themes accordingly. Well, we're going to come to a very pivotal stage in the record of Genesis. It's well known to us, we know these portions so well, but I trust that there'll be a freshness about our message in the gospel this evening. The words of Genesis 7 verse 1, and the Lord said unto Noah, Come now and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Let's ask the Lord to bless his word and to speak to all of our hearts this evening. Lord, we turn unfilled to thee again this evening, crying out for the help of the Holy Spirit of the Lord, not a force and not an energy, and not he which is any less than the Father and the Son, but our God, one whom we worship We worship Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we pray that we would be filled with the fullness of God, and that the same thing, that there'll be no distraction, that we would not be filled with cares of tomorrow and concerns of another day, but rather especially if we know not Christ, the Lord will speak and if we are the children of God thou shalt confirm great truth to our soul and remind us what this gospel is yea the power of God unto salvation hear our cry and Lord help me now I long for thy help father I have no strength for myself and I have no ability left to the flesh I ask for help from heaven and the unction of God and may it be a sweet time around the word in Jesus name we pray Amen. While the days of creation along with the cross of our Lord Jesus and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus are rightly regarded as the key events in the Bible, I believe it's safe to say this evening that nothing has such a dramatic influence on the world in a physical sense in terms of changing the face of the earth physically than the flood in the days of Noah. A flood that we remember and we must contend for this evening that was global by its very nature. It wasn't a local flood. And a flood which came as a direct result of the judgment of God that was visited upon a world that was steeped. and filled to the eyes, you might say, with its sin and with its wickedness. Remember the assessment that when the Lord looked down from heaven, he saw the imagination of the hearts of men and women and that their desires and their intents and their wants and everything about them. The Lord says it was only evil continually. So we know why the flood came. These are simple, straightforward lessons in the Word of God. The flood features throughout the Bibles on various occasions, in terms of when it's referenced for different reasons. For example, in the book of Job and chapter 22 and verse 16, the flood is mentioned on that particular occasion. We read the words, whose foundation was overflown with a flood. And then we might think even of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's always good when we study our Bibles to remember that when the Saviour speaks of events in Genesis especially that we have a significant voice attesting to what we might call the historicity the factual reality of events which unfolded in time And there in Luke 17 in verses 26 and verse 27, our Saviour Himself speaks of the flood and we read His words, So the Lord Himself speaks of the ark, He speaks of Noah, and He speaks of the flood as a destruction upon all mankind. Peter takes up the flood. For example, if you read 2 Peter chapter 3, it's a significant part of his whole letter. And as he writes to the church, which is under pressure, and he writes to believers who are under the persecution, and he deals with people who are contending with others who show a willing ignorance regarding the acts of God in the past. And here are a people, Peter says, and they're mocking. And they're ridiculing, and they're laughing, and they're saying, well, where's the promise of the Saviour's return? Where's the promise of His coming? Because everything just continues, I'm paraphrasing the passage here, everything just continues as it was from the beginning. And Peter says, they're willingly ignorant. They're ignorant of the past, they're ignorant of the present, and therefore they're ignorant of what lay ahead of them in the future. And in Peter's words in 2 Peter 3 verse 16, he references the flood. And in his words he says this, that the well that then was being overflowed with water perished. And so time and time again the Bible makes this abundantly clear that what we read before our eyes here in Genesis 7 is affirmed and is attested to whether it's by our Savior, whether it's by Peter, or whether it's by other Old Testament accounts. And therefore, it is a pivotal occasion, and it is most significant. In many respects, if you apply Peter's thinking, it actually serves as a forerunner to the fiery judgment which is yet to be, when these walls shall be dissolved as an element. Well, this evening we want to look at something else as we turn to this occasion. And at the close of our year, as we come into the realms of 2024, I want us to look at the opening verse, which itself carries a note of great solemnity. A word that was very special to Noah, but in many respects it would have been a harrowing word for others outside of the ark and outside of salvation. Verse 1, the Lord says unto Noah, Noah, come now Come with all of your family. Noah, come with all of your house. And come into the ark. And as we draw ourselves to a close of this year, of all of the various experiences that you've gone through, and for some of you, happy and blessed and treasured occasions, and others maybe it's the loss of loved ones, and maybe even now it's the anticipation of further trials which are ahead. But surely there is nothing so necessary to concern ourselves with that we stand where Noah stood, that we are safe in the ark which is Christ, that we have come into the Saviour, that we are into the ark as well. What is it we can learn about this evening as we come to our gospel message? Well, just two simple thoughts I want to leave with you this evening. And first of all, I want you to consider with me God's call to Noah, and then as we finish, God's care for Noah. I know they're simple headings, but I believe they divide the text up in the way that we need to look at it. God's call to Noah. Now, I gave the question to the boys in gold, so this is where you should be listening to Stephen's age. Verse 7 teaches us that Noah was 600 years old. I don't mean you're 600 years old, Stephen. You can forgive me afterwards. But he was 600 years old when he and his family finally moved into the ark. a significant age, there's a part of me that's resisting exploring why people lived for so long. Now, my first response to that question, why did people live so long, is I just don't know. I know that they did, according to scripture. I think if you read creation websites, Answers in Genesis, they will talk about a bottleneck in the genetic makeup, they'll speak of mutations, They'll remind you as you trace the progression of events and generations unfolding. It's lesser and lesser as the years go by and as sin begins to lay hold of humanity. So these are all good arguments you can give. It doesn't really come into our thoughts this evening. The fact is that he was 600 years old when he moved into the ark. And this remarkable call that the Lord gave to Noah To come into the ark, it came at the close of many decades of building the ark. But I want to remind you of something else this evening that is often forgotten. It came at the close of many years of faithful believing and trust. We could easily gloss over other details of this chapter because we're drawn so much to the more standout features of Genesis chapter 7. Well, let's not do that this evening. Let's not gloss over the little details. Let me remind you of what the Bible says in verse 5 and there in verse 9, and Noah did according to all the Lord commanded him. That's the type of man he was. That's the nature of the individual. An obedience that was drawn out of a heart that loved his God and a heart that knew the grace of God. And there into verse 9, they went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God commanded Noah. It's all about the commands that God gives to Noah. And Noah following these things. Now I mention that for a reason. Because whether it's Noah's ark, or whether it's Jonah and Noel, or other events such as these, sometimes more when it comes to boys and girls It could be children's meetings, it could be Sunday school. We can be so taken up with, you know, illustrations in books and pictures that we tend to lessen the seriousness of the events. And we, you know, we think of a happy ark. I think, you know, creation ministries have done a very good job in trying to move us away from that sort of friendly looking boat with a giraffe popping out its head from the roof to a bit more of a realistic understanding of what the ark was like in the book of Genesis. But it's easy to be sort of, taken up with maybe how the world views these particular accounts as being maybe something akin to a nursery rhyme or a fairy tale. I know that we don't believe that. We hold these things to be true, living events. This is the Word of God. But there's something we miss so often, that these were not easy times. These were serious times. The sin of the day and the age was very real in the days of Noah. The hostility and the indifference and the carelessness, as we shall see, it was very real. And the work was hard to build the ark. These are skilled individuals. Again, the reason why he doesn't call upon his family members, no reason why others may be not even employed to build the ark with him. But this was hard labour, this was hard graft, we might say. The days were challenging, the years would go by. We're dealing with decades here. You can only begin to imagine what this meant and what this felt like. And then to throw it all into the mix, the Bible reminds us that here was Noah, a man that was a builder, but he's called elsewhere a preacher of righteousness. And clearly it means to some extent he spoke to his friends, his neighbours, his loved ones, any who passed by. Did some mock him? I've no doubt that many did mock him. But you know what troubles me more than those that possibly mock Noah in his day? It's the fact that I believe that there were far more that just didn't care. And you say, well, how do you know that? And why would you say that this evening? I say it for very good reason. And it's the words of our Saviour in Matthew 23 and 38 when He talks about the days of Noah and He says, here were men and there were women and what were they doing? They were eating, they were drinking and they were given to marriage. There is nothing inherently wrong about those things. I know different preachers and different commentators will maybe view it with a different slant, but for me the thought there is that here are people just simply engaging in their life. And as they engage in their life, the Lord says in Matthew 23, 39, they knew not. They were utterly oblivious. And so you might say that there's one crowd of individuals in Noah's day, and they would have mocked, and they would have laughed, and they would have ridiculed, but I think the majority of the population just simply didn't care. And when we assess the world in which we live, we've reached, by the grace of God, another end of the year, 2023. And we ask the question as we survey our town, and we look at our cities, and our villages, and our nation, and our United Kingdom, and the world in which we live, I'm glad that we can hear of God working other places that we did the other evening with our brother Derek Maxwell. That thrills the heart to hear what God is doing. But that's not what the Lord is doing by and large in this part of the world. There is a terrible indifference towards the gospel. There is just not a knowing, neither a caring. And so long as we can cross the threshold into another year, and we can eat, and we can drink, and we can have our weddings, and we can have our celebrations, and babies can be born, and we can see milestones lived, as long as we fulfill something of a dream, we're fine. That was the environment of the days of Noah. They knew not, the Lord Jesus Christ says. That was the time in which the cold came. Noah, come into the ark. The time is now ready. And I say this evening, what is it we learn about this call that God gave to Noah? Well, there are many things, but let me just reduce them very simply. This call showed, first of all, God's long suffering and His patience. And this morning, for those of us who were here, we dealt with another aspect of God's goodness, the gentleness of our blessed Savior as He knocks on our heart. And what a lovely thought that is. But can I remind you this evening in the gospel, there's something else that's on show. It's the long suffering and the patience of God to sinners. And we say, well, where is this in the book of Genesis and here in chapter 7? Well, keep in mind, and you might have a bit of a fight with me afterwards on this one, but all I will say is see, again, Acts in Genesis, Creation International, see their arguments. I think they're very solid and they're very reasonable. The length of time it took for Noah to build the ark, I think many people assume it was 120 years. Well, the reality is it was probably in the region of 55 to 75 years. The 120 referred to read the first time the warning is given and when the flood comes. But there's families in between, there's lives which are left, there's a period of time which unfolds. So, there's no reason why it can't be around the period of 75 years. But that's still a significant period of time. I mean, we're dealing really in average terms of a lifetime, aren't we? Years of long suffering. Years of opportunity. Years for men and women to ask, Noah, Noah, what are you doing? Noah, what are you building? Noah, why? Why are you building this? What does it mean to you? It's strange. We don't need this. It's radical. It's extreme. Do you see the parallels with the gospel? Do you see the response that people give sometimes to the Christian message? We don't need it. Why are you doing it? We have no need of this. And year after year was an opportunity of patience and forbearance that the Lord displayed. And yet the time comes to a close. And here it seems in chapter 7 and verse 1, it seems now that last second has struck. The last minute has passed. And the last hour has gone. And the Lord says, Noah, you need to come into the ark. Ah, but there's still more time. There's still more time. Do you see it? Let me direct your attention to verse four and you'll see there's still more time for yet seven days. Look at your Bibles this evening. Read those words carefully. What, 75 years, maybe even more, around that sort of time has passed. Come into the ark, Noah. And yet still with that invitation and with that time which has all elapsed, seven more days, one more week, still there is time. What strikes me about this particular occasion, if you look at the rest of Genesis 7, is that they began to witness something they've never seen before. You see, maybe they had become accustomed with the ark being built for these decades upon decades, but now something else begins to unfold that they've never witnessed. Noah starts to move in. Noah and his wife, and the family members, they're moving in, and the animals, they start coming in. There's still time. There's this curious event which unfolds, which must, by very nature, stir the interest and the thoughts of individuals, means there's still time. There's still seven days. And at the end of those seven days, then it comes to a close. What does this say to us? There's long-suffering. We come to an end of this year and what is there, if I look carefully at my watch, what four hours or more still left until midnight strikes? Still there's time to get into Christ. The call demonstrated long-suffering. And in something else, the call strengthened Noah's confidence in God. And now we shift our emphasis here to what it meant to Noah as a believer and a man of God. And for those of us who are Christians, I hope this encourages you at the same time as it has done my own heart. If you go back to Genesis 6 and verse 18, the Lord gave this precious promise to Noah and to his family. given to Noah as what we call a Noahic covenant. So Genesis 6 and verse 18, But with thee will I establish my covenant, my promise, my agreement. And thou shalt come into the ark, thou and my sons, and my wife, and my sons' wives with thee. Noah, you must do this thing, and Noah, I will do this thing for you. I will establish this with you, Noah. My word is true. And do you know what Noah did? Listen, Christian. Do you know what Noah did? He lived and he built his life upon the firm word of promise that could never fail. Noah did not build the ark upon a whim. He did not take to himself planks of wood and hammer and hand upon simply a feeling. We don't live our Christian lives upon whims and feelings and fancies. If we've done that in the course of the year, how quickly they evaporate. Oh, we build our faith upon nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And that's how Noah built. Do you ever wonder how he built? I know we love the song, Mr. Noah Built the Ark. People thought it was such a lark and we sing it for the boys and the girls. But how did he build, I had to hold back from doing the hand motions there by the way, I was gripping onto the pulpit for dear life. How did he build? How do you build your life as a child of God? Upon the covenant and the promise, I will do this. That's what the apostle Paul reminds us of, doesn't he? In Hebrews 6 and verse 18, it was impossible for God to lie, so the apostle says we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge till they hold upon the hope which is set before us. That was Noah. God will not lie. I can trust him. And so I build. And so I go on. And then, as the time comes, And the Lord then speaks to Noah in verse 1 of chapter 7 and he says, come now and all thy house into the ark. We might say it was a confirmation of a word that was promised. Ah, what a blessed truth. Though years pass, God remained true to his promise and thank God that remains true to all of us in this present day. The call, just did one more thing before I move on to my last thought here this evening. The call highlighted the importance of the ark. The call highlighted the importance of the ark. Verse one, come, come now and all thy house into the ark. You know, as many of us know this evening, that the physical ark, it gives us a type and a picture of Christ. That's the whole point of it in many respects. The ark in Noah's day was the only place of refuge from judgment that was about to fall from the hand of God. And if men would stand by and admire it, the structure, and say, that's a great job you've done, Noah. Well done. That's no use to them. They must enter in. And if they stand by and they say, Noah, how have you done this? And what help have you received? And what about that part? That's a wonderful thing. It's a great piece of engineering. It's of no help. They must enter in. No use to end 2023 having admired the gospel and never entering into Christ. No use knowing about it but never knowing Him. Come thou and all thy house into the ark. I remember the call that was a call to come indicates that God is calling Noah to where God is. It isn't go into the ark, which often in Scripture, by the way, indicates departure, to go from the presence of God. The invitation is, come where I am. Come to where there is safety. Dear friends, come where there is salvation. Come unto me, Jesus says, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. The call of Noah. and the call that was given to Noah. What a gracious call it was. There's more we could say but I'll move on for the sake of time this evening. But I'll finish with this last thought very briefly here. Let's think about God's care for Noah. Can we see God's care for Noah? We can. Can I tell you where? Look with me at verse 1 and notice this, that first of all Noah was seen before God. Noah, come now in all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. I mean, there's more we could say about Noah. I think Brother Stephen preached to Noah a few weeks ago and may have touched on things in previous chapters, but let me just focus particularly on chapter seven and verse one because Noah's life leading up to this particular call was one that was integral without any dispute. Remember, that's not why he was accepted by God. He was accepted by God because, first of all, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The life of integrity, the life of obedience was evidence that he had found grace in God's eyes. And long before Noah stepped one foot into the ark, his heart first was made right with God. And that's how it has to be. Now with that said, and as I mentioned, what followed then was a life of unflinching obedience. It wasn't perfect by any means, but what a life it was. And as the Lord looks at him, as he looks at this man of God, as he looks at one who lived and stood so faithfully and loved the Lord and labored, he says, Noah, I've seen you righteous before my eyes in this generation. You know, there's a lovely thought there of Christ. in the highest sense of that truth. The Father looks upon the Son incarnate and says, Thee have I seen righteous in mine eyes in this generation, securing for all who believe that perfect righteousness. And notice as we think of this first scripture that the necessary detail is this, it's before me. Noah, as I look at and stand before me, Not how you stand necessarily before others, although that has a place and really there's an argument to live our lives before others, but it's first and foremost before Him. We need to close the year before God. We need to enter the year before God. We need to close our eyes and rest our head this evening, knowing that as I stand before a holy God, I'm righteous, not because of me, but because of Christ. Because he's altogether lovely. And so let me live for him all the days of my life. In the words of Horatius Bonner, a lovely, Horatius Bonner's lovely hymn, on a life I did not live. And upon a death that I did not die in another's life, and another's death, I stake, as Noah did, my whole eternity. Noah was seen by God, and lastly, Noah was shut in by God. This was great care. Closed in. Closed in. I'm trying to desperately think of maybe illustrations so you can think of one and tell me afterwards. The only one I can think about is when the kid's in the car, I'm trying to shut the door as hard as I can to keep them in. I'm not really shutting them in. That's maybe one example. You can think of other more affectionate ones yourself. Maybe there's nothing really that rivals this or compares to it. God, shut him in. That's a lovely theme, isn't it? Verse 16 gives us that to us. Look at verse 16, we read that earlier on. And they went in and it was the man and the female of all flesh as God had commanded and the Lord sort of brings it all to a crescendo. He says, you're safe. You're safe, you're shut in. You're ready. Nothing can touch you. You'll be shaken and the storms will blast and the fury of the winds you'll feel. You sense the floods, but you're safe. You're safe. It was in the very same day he entered and was closed in. The Bible says the rain fell and the floods did come. Maybe a little bit of poetic license here, but you'll allow it for me this evening. Did Noah see the dark clouds gathering behind him? Everyone safely in. The animals are all in. And he looks behind and dark skies begin to form. No way of knowing, of course, from Scripture, I'm just speculating here, but the rain came from somewhere, of course. And as the dark clouds began to gather and that feeling of heavy weather, of something in the air was about to take place. We don't know ultimately, but I just leave those things with you. What matters is in that moment he was in, He enters, as God calls him, and the Lord gives us the word that really confirms it all. He shut him in. Remember, this evening, brethren, sisters, and all who are here, the ark, though built by Noah, was designed by God. And it was watertight, and it was sure, and it was ready. None would physically perish in sight. What comfort to everyone in sight. Oh, in the hands of a never failing Savior, I can assure you if you're not saved this evening, the Lord Jesus Christ gives you a promise. None will pluck you from the Father's hand. But you say, Pastor, sometimes I feel as if I'm being plucked. Sometimes my troubles and my tribulations and my stresses and my fears, there's so many that I feel as if I'm plucked. Well, the Savior says, in the hand of the Almighty Christ, in the Father's hand, double security, you'll never perish. You're shut in. That door's not opening. It's not budging. What blessings to be inside. What a way to finish our year this evening. Come now and all your family, Lord, save them. Save them! You know, I was going to mention this earlier, but it was in my notes, but I'll bring it to this particular point here. Noah's family, they were safe physically. They were in the ark, and they had great privileges of being safe physically. The reality is, when they came out of the ark, we know, especially from Ham, well, Ham doesn't really give us much encouragement as to where he was spiritually. And he came under the curse of his father. And there's something of a very significant lesson there, and it's to do with the Christian home. They benefited from being under the umbrella of the godliness of a Noah, and we trust the godliness of Noah's wife and others with them. But that was not enough in a spiritual sense. They themselves, each son, each daughter-in-law, they had to enter in spiritually. They had to go themselves. What blessing for you this evening that you can say, I'm in Christ by faith. But what a horror. What a horror to be outside. What a horror one second after the door closes. Because there God closes the door that no man opens. No man opens. And that being what happened in Noah's day, and on the authority of Peter's letter, a more significant day is ahead of everyone. God calls to us even now, come thou, you, you come, you come, and come with all your heart, come praying, come pleading, and come to Christ, and come into the May God bless His word to our hearts. Amen.