Hark The Ark! Series

Intro:

1. "Come to the Ark; the waters rise,

The seas their billows roar;

While darkness gathers o’er the skies,

Behold a refuge near.

Come to the Ark, ere yet the flood,

Your lingering steps oppose;

Come, for the door which open stood,

Is now about to close."

2. What the Ark was in the days of Noah; Christ is in our day - the only place of safety from the coming storm.

3. God’s Gift - the Ark.

Trans:First lets understand this is not a loccal but a universal flood:

(1) First, there was a continual downpour lasting 40 days and 40 nights, along with, a bursting forth of water from the foundation of the deep (7:11-12). That much water would cause more then a mere local flood.

(2) Furthermore, building such a huge Ark would be absurd if it were just a local flood. If it was a local flood, why not move them?

(3) Next, it says that "all the high hills under the earth were covered" (7:19b); and "the mountains were covered" (v.20). This included the moutains of Ararat, the highest peak, of which reaches, 17,000 feet which would hardly be true of a local flood (8:4).

(4) Fourthly, it says that "all flesh died," if it had been merely a local flood, people could have escaped by going to another area. In local floods today, most people survive.

(5) No local flood continues to rise for 150 days.

(6) Even after 4 months of the water receeding, the dove Noah sent out, could not find dry land and had to return to the Ark (8:9).

(7) It was over an entire year (7:11; 8:13) before the land was dry enough for them to leave the Ark.

(8) God promised never to sent another flood like that one again - if it were a local flood, then the promise would be a lie.

(9) Finally, later Biblical writters acepted the idea of a universal flood (Job.12:15; 22:16/Psa. 29:10; 104:6-9/Isa.54:9/1 Pet.3:20/ 2Pet.2:5; 3:5-6/Heb.11:7).

I. FIRST, THE GIFT OF THE ARK WAS SALVATION. 7:1

The Ark is a picture of salvation...

"Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.

A. There was only One Ark with only One Door. 6:16b

"You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks

There is only one way of Salvation, with only one entrance into it - Jesus Christ.

"1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. 7 So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." John 10:1-10

Jn. 14:6/Ac.4:12...

"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," 1 Timothy 2:5 (NASB)

I lived in Germany, serving in the Air Force, for 2 years and discovered the road system was totally different then ours. It is not uncommon to find that a road just dead ends.

Once we had to ask a man for directions to a certain place. He told us what road to get on, we were running behind and so I asked, "Is that the fastest way to get there." He said, "It’s the only way to get there. If you take any other road you will sooner or later end up back here!"

Jesus is the only way to get to heaven - if you go any other way, you end up right back to where you started - lost!