Genesis 7:6 – And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

Genesis 7:7 – And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

Hello readers, new blog today. Look dad, we built an ark! Today I want to talk about Noah’s ark and in it will be a very important truth we must grasp on to, and a truth which is going to set you free. At the end of Noah’s journey of faith before the world was flooded, what did he have to show for his life’s work? An ark. It was an ark that not only saved him, but it also saved his family, a family which included his wife and his three sons and their wives. I’m sure when the ark was finally finished, they gazed at it and took it all in. Look dad, we built an ark!

It was a stupid ark wasn’t it? It was built seemingly for a dumb purpose. They had never seen rain before, they had never seen the floods come before or water shooting up out of the ground. It was built for something they’d not seen. But they believed it had purpose because God told them it had purpose. Why an ark? Surely God could’ve got something a little more up to date to save them in. Something a bit easier, something that would’ve helped them to fit in a little more. Having an ark in your backyard would be pretty difficult to hide wouldn’t it?

But the ark is Christ. And when you look at the ark you see many truths about Jesus Christ. The same truths which are so applicable to us today. It was a stupid ark wasn’t it? Well people scoff at Jesus Christ today, they despise his word, his word is stupid to so many people today, people try and point out errors in it, they say it’s so out of date, and if they don’t rag on it, well then their departure from and disobedience to it shows what they really think of it. Many people may not openly curse God, but live a life that curses God. Your actions speak louder than your words. They’d not seen rain before, and people haven’t seen the wrath of God before, they haven’t seen hell before… so the ark seems stupid right? Wrong… the only thing that will save you from hell and from the wrath of God against your sin is the ark. Only one ark, one set of instructions, one way to make it… because Jesus is the way… the ONLY way to God. He’s just as up to date today, and so his word, so up to date as he is alive today right this second at the right hand of God the Father, seeing if you will believe and obey him.

They couldn’t hide the ark from the evil world, and the ark preached to the masses who saw it and then told others about it. And Jesus said if you are saved that you are the light of the world, and you shouldn’t hide your light, or put it under a bushel, but instead let your light shine. Guess you can’t shine though if you don’t have any light in you? If you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, if you’ve never been saved, you have no light. You can only shine for God if you have Jesus, who is the true Light, living in you and shining through your life, through your words and deeds. We are living epistles known and read of men the Bible says. If Noah didn’t know God’s word and obey it he would’ve had no ark, and no witness… but the Bible says he was a preacher of righteousness… his life was a light because he had God’s word and he lived it.

But the thought I want to move on today is that at the end of it, daddy look what we built. And what did they build? An ark. An ark which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the ark was completed and they looked at it. They’d done what God told them to do. The world was about to end even as they stood there gazing at it, after the final nail had been driven into place. You see at the end of your life looking back the only thing that will matter is Jesus Christ. All that we can pin our hat on at our dying day is Jesus Christ. When the world is about to end and we look at our lives, and we look to the future where does our confidence lay, is there any hope? These guys had real hope, because they obeyed God. Often our confidence and hope is somewhere else other than in Jesus Christ, because we’ve spent our life on ourselves and our own way… and that just won’t hold up on the D-Day of our lives. It all fades away like the masses fading away in the waters of judgement. We need the ark. There is nothing else that can save us… there is noone else that can save us. There is no work we can do or have done, there is no worthiness or security we can muster. There is nothing, there is noone. When we face death, it may be the second before the impact of a car crash, it may be lying in a hospital bed as the last gasp leaves your lips, it may be something you never saw coming… just a pain in your chest or an explosion in your head… what will your final confidence be as you stand on the shore of eternity? What will there be at the end which you can hang your hat on or trust in? If you don’t have God’s word, and haven’t pinned your faith in Jesus Christ, you’ve got nothing. An empty, naked, meaningless, wasted, unfulfilled, bare, spent life.

God teaches us from Noah’s life the sole sufficiency of Christ, of how salvation is all Christ. And not just salvation, but a fulfilled, meaningful life here on earth. The ark was not just salvation, but it was their life’s work, it took work to build it as the years passed. There is a saying… Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. You see, your relevance, your eternity, your future, your meaning, your fulfillment, your purpose will all hinge on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is no wonder in Revelation they cry worthy is the Lamb! And they cast their crowns before him. What crown do we really have? Is there anything we can really proclaim about ourselves? No we are unworthy, it is all Christ. The Bible says the ungodly are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. That’s a life devoid of an ark. It’s not about us, it never was. We live in such a “me” centric world. But we were created for the Lord Jesus Christ, for his pleasure. It is his image we bore in the beginning before we chose sin. The ark is Christ. At the end of our life, whenever that is, and for many it will be before we expect it… at the end that’s all we will be able to pin our hat on. Imagine standing before God at the end of a Christ rejecting life and seeing how void, how empty, how fallen, how sinful, how nothing you are… having nothing to clothe that spiritual nakedness which only the precious, pure, clean righteousness of Christ can provide.

Today think about it. At the end of Noah’s labor… he had an ark sitting there. It all hinges on Christ. At the end of your life, is the ark in there? Is there a life consisting of an ark… is the ark what ties your life’s mission, goal, purpose, identity together? Do you have an ark? Have you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ? Noah obeyed God. Noah did as God said. Noah believed God. What gets you through the storm, the wrath, the flood is the ark. Noah’s work was worth it, and look we still talk about it today. We don’t hear about any of his other achievements before the flood, because what matters, what truly matters is the ark. Our lives can be so jam packed, yet so empty because Christ is missing. Our lives can be so occupied and busy and full of ambition and self will… yet they are all vanity, they are nothing. Ultimately we build a life that is all air, and one cannot begin to imagine the torment of wasting ones life utterly, of having rejected the only thing that mattered to ones existence.

Both salvation and service are the ark… we never grow up from Jesus Christ. The ark saved them. But the ark was also showing a life well spent obeying God, following God, despite all odds, despite the scorn, despite the questions, despite the doubt. The only thing that matters is Christ. One can imagine the three sons gazing up at that finished ark, so many years it took to build… yet when that first raindrop hit the earth, it was all worth it wasn’t it? The only thing that made it out that world was the ark, all the achievements, the glories, the pleasures, the deeds, the philosophies, the occupations of all the world before the flood erased. How much did their bank balances help them when the floods came? How much did their life of pleasure profit them? Not at all. It’s about Christ. At the end of it all, it was an ark. Look what we built dad. Obeying God… was it worth it dad? The scorn… was it worth it dad? The pleasures we missing out on… was it worth it dad? The sin we didn’t do because we feared God? The sacrifices we made? It was. The ark was worth it. That stupid, silly, dumb, nonsensical ark. But it was a meaningful life work and salvation. The only thing that matters is Jesus Christ. He alone is who we can and should pin our existence upon, our future, our plans, our lives, our souls… because he is the Creator and he is faithful, even when we are not. He is who we should trust and base our life upon, and that is what will carry us to and through our dying day. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith… it’s about him.

At the end, when all was said and done, they had an ark. Look what we built dad. That was the only thing that mattered. The rest of the world had nothing ultimately. Their life was one of building an ark. A life built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ is the only thing that matters. No wonder Jesus said in John 12:25 – He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. The times of Noah were full of people marrying and giving in marriage, eating, drinking, they were doing evil and seemingly getting by… they loved their lives, loved them too much to lose it for the cause of obeying and following God… yet only one man and his family were building a life of obedience to God. The ark was the only thing that mattered as the rain started to fall. It’s worth it to get saved, it’s worth it to be saved.

At the end of your life what will you see? Hebrews 2:9 – But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Noah and his family looked and saw an ark, it was the difference between life and death. And today the difference is Jesus Christ, because your whole life is going to boil down to what you did with Jesus Christ. Saved and unsaved, it’s all about the ark. When all is said and done it’s about the ark. You can get in the ark if you want today, Jesus wants to forgive and you save you. Maybe your family hinges on you, like they did on Noah, it’d be good for you to have sons and daughters who can say to you, look daddy, look mummy, we built an ark. Romans 10:13 – For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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