DON’T… MISS… THE BOAT!

Genesis 7:12 “And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”

Genesis 7:12 “In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;”

… Don’t miss the boat!

You ever heard the saying “missed the boat”? We use that saying to refer to when someone has been too slow to take advantage of an opportunity… and now that opportunity has gone and that person missed out… permanently.

This saying originates from and ultimately refers to the story of Noah’s ark. And while we have made that child’s play, while we’ve mocked it, belittled it, scorned it and trivialized God’s word like the Roman soldiers did clothing Jesus in royal purple while they beat him to a pulp… yet the story of Noah’s ark remains the gold standard for God’s authority, righteousness, holiness, wrath, judgment, grace and mercy which his Son Jesus and apostle Peter both referenced so keenly… an example to retain as your guiding star in the days we live in…the Bible is written so you do not need to miss the boat “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.”

God is not lying to you, Satan is, and his ministers… and he’s got a lot of them, this world that is under Satan’s deception is lying to you and will persecute any and all who contravenes his directive. Jesus said there is no truth in the devil, he is the father of lies. If you are plugged into his PA, well he’s “the prince of the power of the air” and you’re being fed a total line of bull. He’s telling you it’s ok and you’re ok. And any Christian dare warn you is a crazy idiot “Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?” He’s convincing you God and the Bible is a load of phooey and not worth your time. He’s promising you the world, but he’s going to take you to hell if you’ll let him.

If you die unsaved, you will have missed the boat forever. There are no second chances. There was ONE way of salvation, ONE truth, ONE path to life, ONE ark in Noah’s day. There was no other way. There was no sexier truth. There was no better option. And when you die, there is no respawn “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. In death, you will not find out that God was wrong. You will not cease consciousness. And while you feel confident with the agreement you seemingly have made with death like they did in Isaiah 28, you will be shocked to find that this covenant is completely disannulled when the veil of deceit and the security even of the most audaciously vain religion that has covered your soul is finally removed to reveal the true extent of your eternal and irrevocable loss “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death” and Jesus said “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

I don’t want that for you. Any man of God even most pathetic in your sight warns you not to miss the boat. If your pastor has not, he is no pastor. Please. Do not die and go to hell. And please, do not waste your life living for what those already richer, smarter, higher, brighter, more popular, more successful, more women, more merriment, more pleasure … they have already found what you strive for to be totally unfulfilling, vain, empty, and pointless “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” The people who already have what you are striving for like it would give you meaning and fulfillment are not happy with what they possess. You cannot find life in drugs, alcohol, sex, houses, cash, stocks, bonds, acclaim, fame, nowhere, nothing… there is no life outside the ark… if you are not in Christ, you will not step out into the new heavens and the new earth that God has promised… you won’t make it out this old world, you will never make it to where God gave his very own only begotten Son so you could be. Don’t miss the boat.

And make no mistake, not a single one of us is excepted from this truth. None of us are too special, too important, too invaluable for God to make an exception for. There is one man for all eternity who pleased God, it wasn’t you or I, the heavens did not open upon me and say “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”… neither for you either… but the heavens did open upon God’s precious only Son, OUR ARK, as God the Father himself from heaven bore witness himself of the only human being ever to gain his approval. He told us to hear him, he told us he would glorify his Son’s name… and his Son’s name is just like Song of Solomon says, “thy name is as ointment poured forth”. How Jesus can change any situation of any life! And whatever part of life Jesus is not in, your life is poorer for it.

Noah was saved simply because he boarded the ark. That’s it. So simple, so straightforward, so easy, but so necessary and of such serious consequence. Being in or being out was the difference between life and death, light and darkness, salvation and damnation. That’s the stakes you’re playing with. And you can’t opt out. “Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? ” This is just unbelievable that the Roman governor left his own salvation to someone else. But are you doing the same? Would you make such a poor decision with your soul to delegate your duty to Christ to someone else? So many people never get on board because they look around and not many other people are going up the gangplank through the one door… and because others aren’t, their buddies, their peers, the people they spend their whole lives trying to please and never will… because they aren’t boarding you won’t either.

You will only be saved if you board the ark. Are you on board? There were plenty and plenty of people who never boarded the ark. They saw it. They saw it being built. They heard about it being built. So it wasn’t a failure of knowledge. It was a failure of belief to act. It was a failure to surrender to God’s truth. It was a failure of vision to see further than a temporary life and unpopularity of Jesus. But it wasn’t because they didn’t know, it was because they didn’t believe what they heard and knew. God gave them a preacher, Noah was a preacher of righteousness the Bible says. He preached what was RIGHT. Don’t underestimate the importance of being right. John Baptist the greatest man born of women according to Jesus sent his disciples from jail to go and ask Jesus if he was really the one, he was wanting to make sure he was RIGHT before he died. Make sure you got it right reader. Judgment is an exam you cannot afford to fail on.

The world of Noah’s day heard the preaching of the builder who was working on it. They were aware it was there. But they cared not for it. They just never got on board. Satan might get you through negligence. Procrastination. Maybe you’re not “that bad” but you just don’t have time to fit God in. You just don’t really believe it’s as urgent and polarizing as God’s word makes it. See, people didn’t get on board because they just weren’t convinced enough to act upon that God’s word was right. If you cannot agree with God that his word is right you will NEVER get saved. If you are too busy, too full of this life, too high on this life, you will not abide God’s wrath. See many people of Noah’s day weren’t going around killing people, they were just consumed with, as Jesus said, building, marrying, planting, hanging out, meeting up, they were just to busy with this life. None of it, and no matter how much sense you have made for yourself of this life, no matter how much purpose you have imagined into what you are doing, none of it even the least bit changes what God has said and just how relevant the gospel is.

The Bible says “fools make a mock at sin”… because when you take sin lightly and like it’s not a crime and trespass against Holy God, because you use his breath, and walk on his earth to do so… you are accruing God’s wrath against yourself. Jesus said he didn’t come to condemn us in John 3… because God’s wrath already abides upon us… and we spend our lives heaping up his wrath upon ourselves. And when you sin and keep sinning and keep sinning and go even further in sin, and nothing seems to happen, you may take that as validation your godless radar is serving you well, but all you are experiencing is God’s longsuffering… it was a LONG time before that rain came and the ground broke up beneath their feet… but it wasn’t because it wasn’t coming, it was because God gave a wicked world every single chance and even some more to get on board before it was too late “when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah”. What a good God, but how long have you kept him waiting, how long do you really reckon he should keep the door open for you and delay all his plans and even his own wedding so you can be part too.

Maybe those people of Noah’s day thought they could handle flood waters should they ever come. And no doubt they ran for the high ground and may have even thought they could weather the worst of it and get through. But the waters just kept getting higher and higher. … and higher… and higher! And soon, nothing was high enough to escape God’s flood waters “For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.”

When I sat down to write today, I wasn’t planning on writing this, but this is what God gave me to write. Salvation is urgent business people. You will miss the boat if you think salvation and serving God is anything less than top priority. God always slips down our priority list, even saved people battle to keep him highest in a life where there are so many high demands placed on us… but there is nothing requiring greater haste than believing and obeying the gospel… making sure you’ve got a place on board.

And when we get saved, it’s because Jesus has made a place for us “I go to prepare a place for you”… Jesus said that because we DIDN’T have a place in heaven before that, none of us would have a place in heaven if not for his death, burial and resurrection. But he promised to make a place for us, a place we have, a seat at the table we never could deserve… but a seat we must have reserved and kept for us. … If you do not have a place in heaven, Noah had a place on the ark… there will be no place for you. And it’s not very nice to go to a restaurant that you’ve made not booking beforehand and they have no place for you and turn you away while you see everyone else sitting down clinking glasses, talking merrily among each other and there is no provision made for you.

See, you don’t die and then they organize a place for you after. The time to reserve your place in heaven is now. If you are not in the family of God before you leave this world, you have no inheritance in Christ, you have no part in him, that’s why it’s called outer darkness. You will forever be on the outs with God. Because you were never in the only safe place, the ark, HIS ark, Jesus Christ. Being saved is being IN CHRIST JESUS. And in him, he shares his inheritance with you, you have a part, you have your part in Christ Jesus “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,”

You will miss the boat, dear reader, if you fail of God’s grace. The Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord… in amongst a violent, corrupt, wicked world… sound like any world you know? … and you know… we all enjoy the grace of God. Every single person on the planet enjoys the grace of God. God’s given you enough grace to be saved. Even those who do not attribute God’s grace and goodness to God still enjoy it and abuse it. And God’s grace is spent by you at his expense. His precious Son’s blood that buys you time… you walk on it! We truly know not what we do. But you and I and every person enjoy “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,” But if you fail of this grace that beckons you to Christ, that teaches and enables you in how to live and walk, that takes you home to glory… there will be but one person to blame, you can find that person in any mirror in your house.

You will miss the boat if you never take hold of God’s grace that has been extended to you, you will miss the boat if that grace never takes you to salvation in Christ, grace that agrees with God’s word and doesn’t fight it, grace that moves a soul to obey God’s word in life, grace that saves yourself and your house as it did Noah. There’s a lot of grace out there floating around in churches these days which resembles nothing of the true grace of God scripture bears witness of.

…You will miss the boat if you get caught up in doing what everyone else is doing. You will miss the boat if you do not believe and obey God’s word. You will miss the boat if you do not get IN the ark. It’s not enough to know the ark exists. It’s not enough to believe the ark exists. You must get in. And in Genesis 8, God called Noah into the ark with the simple word “Come”. And that’s what God is saying today, while the clock ticks down to the next promised event on God’s calendar, while his grace and longsuffering and mercy you have been consuming for so many years… he still says come into the ark. Will you? Or will you miss the boat.

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