Last Call

Last Call?

10/18/03

Have any of you ever ridden on a train?

I have never been on a train before but I have seen shows and movies where people get on a train.

You see all of these romantic movies where the man and the woman are standing outside the train holding hands, And the man comes around and yells,

“All aboard”

What is that?

Why is he saying that?

Well, it is the last call.

If you plan on being on that train, you better get on board.

I have also never been on a ship.

I have been on a boat, like a small ferry down in Biloxi Mississippi…

But I have never been on a ship.

One of my dreams in life, and I have many, but one of my dreams is to take a cruise ship to Alaska. I think this would be absolutely beautiful.

Now, it will probably never happen but I can dream right?.

But again, I have never been on a ship, but I have seen them on these programs, and you can hear someone call out,

“All ashore that’s going ashore”

There it is again,

A last call.

I am going to change the subject now for just a moment.

How many of you remember the story of Noah and the flood?

Most everyone knows that story don‘t they.

GOD was grieved over the fact that he had made man because man was so evil.

The Bible says that man, God’s creation, had become so wicked,

Man had become so vile, Man had become so evil,

That God had pain in his heart.

The Bible says that every inclination of every thought of man was evil.

Every thought was evil.

Men were beating other men,

Men were robbing other people

Murder had become a common occurrence.

Man had just become wicked.

The word of God says that man was so evil and so wicked, that God decided to wipe man off of the face of the earth, God was going to do away with his creation, God was going to get rid of mankind, except that one man found favor with God.

This mans name was Noah.

Genesis 6:9 says that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his people.

Noah was so righteous that God decided to repopulate the earth, after the flood, with Noah and his family.

Now we all know the part of the story where God gave Noah exact information, measurements, etc. that Noah used to build the ark.

Even while everyone around him was scorning and mocking him, Noah still kept doing what God told him to do.

Noah was willing to be obedient to the Creator.

Now turn with me in your Bibles to Geneses chapter 7 and verse 1. I am going to read through verse 12.

READ GENESES 7:1-12

Again, we have just read part of the Bible that most everyone knows.

But what I want to show you today is something that is all to often overlooked in the Bible.

I noticed this in my studies a few years ago…

After I noticed this and studied it, I talked to a friend of mine who pastors a Church in Mississippi.

He is 76 years old, and when I talked to him, he said that he had noticed the same thing for the first time in his life, just a week or two before I mentioned it to him.

Isn’t it wonderful how God’s word continually has something new for us all throughout our lifetime?

Notice that verses one- three say for Noah and his family and all of the animals to go into the ark.

Then look and see what verse 4 says.

Genesis 7:4

Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."

Now look with me and see what verse 10 says.

Genesis 7:10

And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

After the seven days.

Have you ever noticed that the Bible says that?

Have you ever heard that when you hear the story of Noah and the ark?

We are shown here in the Bible that God left the ark sitting still on dry ground for seven days after all of the animals had gone in.

After Noah and his family had finished the ark, and had entered the ark as God commanded.

Think about it.

Noah had been obedient to God.

Noah had done everything God had told him to do.

Can you picture the progress of the work?

First, all of the trees had to be cut down,..... By hand,

Then the trees had to be cut up into planks and lumber.....by hand.