Unsinkable Saints | Part 2

Guest (Male): In this sinful world, we are desperate for God's grace. Listen closely to Adrian Rogers.
Adrian Rogers: The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 37 that as it was in the days of Noah, it's going to be just before he comes back again. And I want to say to you that the days of Noah have returned to us right now. And the same sins that produced the flood in Noah's day have reached up to heaven today, and God is going to judge the world one more time.
Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring profound truth simply stated by pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers. In Genesis chapter six, God was brokenhearted over the gross and numerous sins of Noah's generation. The same sins committed then are being committed today. As God warned Noah's generation, he's warned ours as well. But as Noah found grace before God and provision from the flood, so can we find his grace and be saved from the wrath to come. If you have your Bible, turn to Genesis chapter six. We'll begin in verse five as Adrian Rogers shares part two of "Unsinkable Saints."
Adrian Rogers: Now Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah, it's going to be just before I come. Now, what were the days of Noah? Well, number one, they were days of apostasy. Then people were believing ungodly philosophies. But not only was it a day of apostasy, it was a day of anarchy. Violence filled the earth. And it was a day of wicked ideas. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us, look in verse five: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Now, the word "imagination" here does not mean daydreams. It means wicked schemes. It speaks of philosophies. There were philosophers and idea people and politicians who were trying to remake and remold society in that day. And I'm telling you, we have that today in a way that we've never had before, don't we? You know, somebody was talking about a well-known politician, and they said, "When it comes to a press conference, how can you tell whether he's telling a lie or not?" How can you tell whether he's lying? They said, "Well, he's really a good liar, so it's hard to tell whether he's lying or not, but we've watched him enough. If he puts his finger up here beside his nose, he's telling the truth. If he reaches up and holds an earlobe, he's telling the truth." They said, "Yeah, but how do you know when he's lying?" They say, "When his lips are moving." We've come to a day when a man's word means absolutely nothing, whether it's a treaty between nations, a marriage contract, a business contract, or a political speech. The imagination of men's hearts were wicked continually before the Lord. And it had reached such a level that God says, "I'm sorry that I made them. I'm going to have to judge the earth." And the same sins that produced the flood in Noah's day have reached up to heaven today. And God is going to judge the world one more time. It was water the first time; it will be fire the next time. But what did Jesus say that the days of Noah were like also? He said they were marrying and giving in marriage, eating and drinking. That is, they were going on with the same old round of life. And the problem in our society is today that we're standing right on the threshold of imminent judgment, but nobody seems to care. We just yawn in the face of God. Well, in these dangerous days in which we live, we need and thank God we have God's amazing grace. The grace of God. I love verse eight, where verse eight says, "But Noah found grace before God in the eyes of the Lord." Did you know that the Old Testament is one great illustration book of the wonderful, saving, amazing grace of God? And you'll never see salvation pictured more clearly than you do in Noah's ark. Genesis chapter six and verse eight: "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Look if you will in verse 18: "But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." Now, I love—and if you want to put a scripture by this, just put Romans chapter three, verse 22, by this. Where Romans three, verse 22, says that we are justified freely by his grace. We're justified freely by his grace. The only way that anybody has ever been saved in the history of the world is by grace. Do you agree to that? I hope you will. God only has one plan of salvation from beginning to end, and that is grace. What is grace? That means that God just saves us apart from any works of our own, by any effort, by any good deeds. You're not saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, you're not saved by giving your money, you're not saved by being a good boy or girl, you're not saved by the sweat of your brow, but by the grace of Almighty God. Grace—G-R-A-C-E—just simply means God's riches at Christ's expense. It's by grace, folks, that you're saved. By grace. By grace. But now wait a minute. By grace through faith. You have got to get on board the good ship Grace. If you don't get on board, you're going down. You will not be an unsinkable saint. Now, in chapter seven and verse one: "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and thy house into the ark." Now, when he came, he came by faith. Just put your bookmark there and turn to Hebrews. Turn if you will for a moment to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. And look at verse seven. If you don't think that God put the plan of salvation in Noah's ark, you better read verse seven. Look at it now. Hebrews 11, verse seven: "By faith Noah, being warned of God of 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 the heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Which is by faith. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And how did Noah respond to that grace? It is by grace through faith. Have you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? You need to do so. Now, go back to our story again in Genesis, the early chapters. Now, look if you will in chapter nine of this same chapter and look if you will in verse nine. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." Now, you see, we're not saved by good works; we're saved to do good works. Good works are the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation. He says to Noah, "Now Noah, I've brought you through this flood. Be fruitful and multiply." We're not saved by faith and works; we're saved by faith that works. Be fruitful now and multiply. The good works that we do are not in order to be saved; they are simply because we have been saved. And so what have we said about unsinkable saints? We've said that grace provides a Savior and grace provides salvation, right? Right. Noah was saved by grace through faith unto good works. That ark was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's the third and final thing I want you to see. Not only does grace provide a Savior and not only does grace provide salvation, but folks, grace provides security. Grace provides security. Do you think that Noah was safe in that ark? Well, you don't even have to think about it. You know that he was safe in that ark. Remember, I just read to you in Genesis chapter seven and verse one, where God said to Noah, "Noah, come thou into the ark." Now he didn't say, "Noah, go into the ark." He said, "Come into the ark." Now, if I stand outside of a room and I say to you, "Go into that room," that means I'm out here, you go in there where I'm not. But if I stand in a room and I say, "Come into the room," that means come in where I am, right? He didn't say go into the ark; he said come into the ark. What does that mean? God was in the ark. God was in the ark. God is in Christ. Christ is the ark of safety. You want me to tell you when I'm going down? I'm going down if Jesus goes down. You want me to tell you when I'm going to lose my relationship with God the Father? I'm going to lose my relationship with God the Father when Jesus ever loses his. He can't lose his. How safe are you when you're in the Lord Jesus Christ? You are as safe as you can possibly be because you are in Christ. Look in chapter seven and verse 16: "And they went in." And they went in. They went in. They're in Christ. Security is in Christ. The Bible tells us clearly and plainly—and I love it—in 2nd Corinthians chapter five and verse 17. Here's what it says: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." If any man be in Christ. You know, when God put Noah in the ark, the Bible says that God shut the door. You know what the Bible says about those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? After that you've believed, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Not only did God shut the water out, God shut Noah in. Now you say, "What if I lose my salvation?" How could Noah have lost his salvation? God shut the door. Noah may have fallen down several times inside that ark, but he couldn't fall out of it. A lot of folks get the idea, "Boy, you know, one of these days I'm going to be secure. I'm going to be secure when I get to heaven." "I'm going to get to heaven, slam the door behind my back, wipe the sweat off my brow and say, 'Oh boy, I made it. Now I'm secure.'" Now wait a minute. If you don't believe in security down here, what makes you think you're going to have security up there? I read in the Bible where angels fell from heaven. Security is not in a place; security is in a person, and his name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. They were in the ark. And I submit to you that Noah was as safe as that ark was safe because Noah was in the ark. It had atonement on the outside, it had atonement on the inside, it had sufficiency on the inside, and God shut the door. Not only are we saved by grace, but we're kept by grace. I mean, grace provides a Savior, grace provides a salvation, and grace provides a security. It's amazing grace. Now, you know the kind of thing that some folks believe in, the kind of salvation some folks believe in? Can't you imagine the story this way? If God said to Noah, "Now Noah, it's going to be a rough flood coming here. And you've got this ship built, so I want you to take some broomsticks and make some pegs on the side of the ark. And one peg for you to hold on to, and one peg for Mrs. Noah to hold on to, and one peg for Ham, and one for Shem, and one for Japheth, and one for their wives." "And when it starts to rain, Noah, get a stepladder, get up and get hold of those pegs and hold on with all your might because it's going to be a terrible flood. And just hold on, and Noah, if you can hold on until all the floodwaters go down, Noah, you will be safe." You think that's much salvation? And you could see Noah holding that slimy peg and saying to his wife, "Sweetheart, pray for me. I'll hold out faithful to the end." That's the salvation a lot of folks think they have. They think that they're kept by holding on to him. Friend, we are kept because he holds us. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." Why have I been kept all of these years? Because I've been a good boy? No, I've got a great Savior. God's amazing grace. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And grace provides a Savior. That ship was a picture of Jesus. And grace provides salvation. The Bible says that Noah was justified by faith when he entered the good ship Grace. And grace provides security. You see, if you're saved by works, you have to be kept by works. But if you're saved by grace, you're kept by the grace of God. Now, God destroyed the world the first time by water. How's God going to destroy the world the second time? You take your Bibles and turn to the New Testament. And look with me, if you will, in 2nd Peter chapter three. 2nd Peter chapter three and begin reading in verse three. Peter's talking about the end days. And he says, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts." And every time you find a person who scoffs at God's word, you're going to find a person who's walking after his own lust. You find a man who mocks God's word, I'll show you a man with the devil's initials carved on his heart. You show me a woman who scoffs at God's word, I'll show you a woman covered with the slimy fingerprints of sin. Scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, "Where's the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Ho hum, same old thing. Verse five: "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." That's the Old Testament story. Now listen to us. "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Water the first time, fire the second. You say, "Well, pastor, it's been a long time." Well, listen to what Peter says: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." You say, "Well, it's been 2,000 years since Jesus went away." But it's only been two days in the eyes of God. Only two days. A thousand years is a day. Now listen to me. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Why is this world not yet suffered a baptism of fire and judgment? Because God's waiting for somebody in this building to be saved. God wants you saved. The Lord doesn't want you to perish. Did you know why Methuselah lived to be 969 years? Because God said, "When Methuselah dies, the flood will come." I can show you from the word of God that the flood came exactly the day that Methuselah died. And the reason that Methuselah lived was not that he had good genes, but that God had great mercy. And God kept letting him live, God kept letting him live because God did not want anybody to die and perish in that flood. So God kept giving one more opportunity and one more chance. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise," verse nine, "as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." But now notice verse 10: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." Have you ever had a thief call you up and say, "I'm coming tonight"? You say, "Well, I don't think he's coming today." Well, that's a good sign that he might be, because Jesus said, "In such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh." The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. When Peter wrote this, people didn't know anything about nuclear fission. And they said, "That's ridiculous. Dirt burning, elements burning, air burning." It's not ridiculous today. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. The word "fervent" literally means fever heat, internal heat, nuclear combustion. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Now, here's the question for all of us today. Listen to it. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." What's all of this saying? Listen, folks. Listen to me. God wants you saved today. And God says don't yawn in the face of God and say, "Well, it's been 2,000 years." The judgment is not coming as surely as I'm standing here; the judgment is coming. The earth is going to melt with fever heat. And you better be in the ark of safety, whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you better know the grace of Almighty God. God's amazing, wonderful grace. I can imagine a little boy back in Noah's time coming home to his dad and saying, "Dad, Daddy, listen. Do you know where I've been? I've been over to Mr. Noah's place. And Dad, Mr. Noah is building a boat that you won't believe how big that thing is." "And Dad, Mr. Noah has been preaching. Every now and then he'll put the hammer down and he'll turn around and preach to those people who are watching. And Mr. Noah says that he has it from God that God is sick and tired of the way people are living and God's going to judge this world and God's going to send a flood. And Dad, Mr. Noah says that everybody's got to get on board that ship because if they don't get on board that ship, they're going to drown." And this father just begins to laugh. And the little boy has a tear in the corner of his eye. And the daddy sees it. "Oh," he said, "Son, I'm sorry, Son. I wasn't laughing at you, Son. If I was laughing at anything, I was laughing at myself. You see, Son, let me tell you something." "Noah has been building that boat for a long time. When I was a little boy, I went out to see Noah building that boat. Son, he told me the same story. It scared the wits out of me. That's why I was laughing; I was really laughing at me. And Son, here's the funny part. I went home and I told my daddy just like you told me." "You know what my dad said? My dad said when he was a little boy, he went out there and that crazy old man told him the same story. When your granddad was a little boy! Son, don't let that old religious fanatic scare you. Go into the house, Son, and eat your supper." As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be. They'll come in the last days, scoffers, saying, "Where's the promise of his coming?" You say, "Well, I don't want to give my heart to Jesus; I want to save my life." You're the one that's going to lose it. I believe when Noah put that last nail in the ark, it was probably the last thing he ever had. He went into the ark a pauper. But when he came out of the ark, he owned the whole world. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Just as God said to Noah, "Come into the ark," I am telling you today on the authority of the word of God that you need to come into Jesus. You need to be saved, and you can be saved. I promise you, I promise you that you can be saved because it is by grace, it is by grace, it is by grace through faith. You need to put your faith in God's grace. You need to come up the gangplank of faith right now and trust the Lord Jesus. And if you're not absolutely certain that you're saved, I want you to pray this prayer right now. Dear God, I am a sinner and my sin deserves judgment. But Jesus, you are my ark of safety, and the waters of God's wrath beat against you that they might not beat against me. I come in. I come in right now. I receive you, Lord Jesus, into my heart as my Lord and Savior. And I come by faith into you, the ark of safety. I give you my life right now. And help me, Lord Jesus, that I'll never be ashamed of you. Give me the courage to make it public. In your name I pray. Amen.
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