about the state of his soul. He replied, “ I thatched my roof in dry weather.” Noah prepared for the Flood in dry weather. He also got his family into the ark. He prepared the ark “ to the saving o f his house.” Today we are more interested in getting the children into busi ness, into society, into popularity, or else while we are busy here and there, they get away. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved AND THY HOUSE.” You cannot believe for them, but you can get into the ark yourself and use every appointed means to bring them in with you. Noah condemned the world, not by denouncing it, but by the testimony of a godly life and message. Nothing so shames the ungodly and shows up the wicked as a holy life. We are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them, not with Pharasaic censure, but by turning on the light of Christian example. We are so anxious to be hail-fellow-well-met, so afraid of being criticized or laughed at, that we lose our best opportunity to convict and convert sinners by the influence of a surrendered, separated and Spirit-filled Christian life. Noah became an heir o f righteousness. He be lieved and obeyed God and was justified by faith that looked to a coming Saviour. Today that Sav iour has come and the only righteousness God accepts is Christ Himself made unto us righteous ness. No righteousness of our own will do; it is only “ the good that is not good enough.” Noah accepted the plan God provided. Our ark is Christ, our refuge from the wrath to come. Noah was not only an heir but a herald of righteousness. He preached it for one hundred and twenty years without a convert. Righteousness is not a popular subject. People do not crowd churches to hear prophets of righteousness. They want peace and joy but righteousness comes first. They want to feel good but they do not want to get right. They want a sedative for their miseries but not surgery for their real trouble. They are like a man with a broken arm who wants the pain eased without setting the arm. Finally, Noah was on the right side o f the door of the ark when God shut it. We read that “ the Lord shut him in.” One is reminded of another verse: “When once the master o f the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are” (Luke 13:25). The storm is about to break. “ As it was, so shall it be” and so it is today. In the day of judg ment all that will matter is: Which side of that door is your side, when God shuts it ? Let me point to the door of safety: Our Lord said, “ I am the door: by me if any man enter in, HE SHALL BE SAVED, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” 13
5:24; Heb. 11:5). What a biography! What bet ter epitaph for any man’s tomb! It is still possible to walk with God, even in this missile age. It is not easy, it never has been, but by Divine grace it can be done. “Who walks with God must take Ms way, Across far distances and gray, To goals that others do not see, Where others do not care to he. “ Who walks with God must have no fear When danger and defeat appear, Nor stop when hope seems all hut gone, For God, our God, moves ever on. “Who walks with God must press ahead When sun or cloud is overhead, When all the waiting thousands cheer, Or when they only stop to sneer; “When all the challenge leaves the hours And naught is left but jaded powers; But he will some day reach the dawn, For God, our God, moves ever on.” And there was Noah. Right in the midst o f the description of the awful conditions of his time, we read: “ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” What kind of man was he to endure in such an age ? It will help us to know for “ as it was . . . so shall it be” and so it is with us today. We read: “By faith Noah, being warned of God o f things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Heb. 11: 70). Noah feared God. There is no fear of God before our eyes today. The Almighty has become a grandfatherly being, trotting His children upon His knee and winking at the wickedness o f the sons of men. We are to pass the time of our so journing here in fear, not dread but reverential awe. There is little preaching of hell and judgment lest we frighten people away. It is better to scare them into heaven than to lull them into hell. My father was converted through an old-fashioned, hair-raising sermon on, “He that being reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.” We need to get some of these texts out of the mothballs and back into circulation. Noah prepared an ark; he got ready for judg ment. It is appointed unto men once to die and after death the judgment. God has appointed a day; He has ordained a judge; He has commanded repentance. We have a date with Deity, an appoint ment with the Almighty. Another text that needs to be recovered from the mothballs is “ Prepare to meet thy God.” An old Scotsman was asked MAY, 1968
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