Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3042
“And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.” Genesis 7:15.
CHRIST always taught by parables. Hence the popularity and the power of His teaching. The masses never were and perhaps, never will be, able to receive instruction in any other way than by parabolic illustrations. He who would be a successful minister must open his mouth in parables. He who would win the hearts of the multitude must closely imitate his Master and preach in parables which all men can understand. I believe there are few living men who are able to devise a parable. Those who do possess this rare ability are very scarce, indeed. Nor do I profess to belong to the honorable confraternity. I have sometimes endeavored to fashion a parable and though I found it easy, at times, to manufacture a figure, yet a parable I can by no means make. I am happy to say it is not required of me to do so, for God’s Word, if it is rightly used, is suggestive of a thousand parables! And I have no reason to fear that I shall be short of subjects for preaching when I am able to find such parables as I do in God’s Word.
I shall preach to you this evening a parable. It shall be the parable of the ark. While I do so, you must understand that the ark was a real thing—that it was really made to float upon the waters and carry in it Noah and his family and “two and two of all flesh.” This is a fact, not a myth. But I shall take this real fact and use it as a parable. Making the ark represent salvation, I shall preach to all who are within sound of my voice the parable of the ark. The ark, which saved from the floods of water, is a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ as the means of salvation, by whom multitudes of all flesh are preserved and saved from perishing in the floods of eternal Perdition!
I. First, then, in working out this parable I shall remark that THERE IS BUT ONE MEANS OF SALVATION.
No, Sir, but it does notsay any such thing! It says they are a multitude that no man can number who have been elected! And who knows but what you are one of them? Calvinism gives you ten thousand times more reason for hope than the Arminian preacher who stands up and says, “There is room for everybody, but I do not think there is any special Grace to make them come. If they won’t come, they won’t come, and that is the end of it. It is their own fault and God will not make them come.” The Word of God says they cannot come, yet the Arminian says they can. The poor sinner feels that he cannot, yet the Arminian declares positively that he could if he wanted to. And though the poor sinner feels sometimes that he would if he could, and groans over his inability, this blind guide tells him it is all nonsense! Whereas, it is, in truth, God’s own work. You must feel it and you may plead against yourself on account of it, but you shall come for all that. He will not plead against you, but He will put strength in you. There is more hope for you in the pure Gospel of the blessed God than there is in those fancies and fictions of men which are nowadays preached everywhere, except in a few places where God has reserved unto Himself a people who have not bowed their knee to the Baal of the age!
III. In the third place, note that THE ARK WAS A SAFE REFUGE.
Noah was commanded to make an ark of gopher wood and, lest there should be any leakage in it, he was commanded to “pitch it within and without with pitch.” The ark had no harbor to go to and we never read that Noah called up Shem, Ham and Japheth to work at the pumps, nor yet that they had any, for there was not a leak in her. No doubt there were storms during that year, but we do not hear that the ship was ever in danger of being wrecked. The rocks, it is true, were too low down to touch her bottom, for, “fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered.” Rising 27 feet above the loftiest mountains, she had no quicksands to fear—they were too deep below her keel. But of course she was exposed to the winds. Sometimes the hurricane might have rattled against her and driven her along. Doubtless, at another time, the hail beat on her top, and the lightning scarred the brow of night, but the ark sailed on, not one was cast out from her, nor were her sailors wearied with constant pumping to keep out the water, or frequent repairs to keep her secure. Though the world was inundated and ruined, that one ark sailed triumphantly above the waters! The ark was safe and all who were in her were safe, too.
Now, Sinner, the Christ I preach to you is such a refuge as that. His Gospel has no flaw in it. As the ark never sank, and the elements never prevailed against it, so Christ never failed. He cannot fail. All the principalities and powers are subject to Him. Those who are in Christ are sheltered from every storm. They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of His hands. Remember that God gave the pattern and Noah perfected the work of the ark before a single fountain of the great deep was broken up, or one drop of the desolating storm fell from the vengeful clouds. And it is not less true that our glorious Lord was set up in the counsels of eternity, a perfect Christ before the clouds of vindictive wrath began to brew on account of man’s iniquity! And His mighty work of mediation was finished before your poor soul was invited to take shelter in Him. Oh, I think as the angels looked out of the windows of Heaven upon the swelling tide and saw how securely the ark rode upon its surface, they never doubted that all who were inside were as safe as the ark itself—and is there any reason to doubt that those who are in Christ are as safe as Christ? “They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed, but abides forever.” They that trust in the Lord are blessed! They are like trees planted by rivers of water—their leaf shall not wither and whatever they do shall prosper. If you once come to Jesus and trust in Him, there is no fear of your sinking! There will be storms, tempests will beat around you—these you will be sure to have—but you will be too high up ever to strike on the rocks. If you are once on board the Good Ship of Salvation, you will be lifted up too high above the floods to be swallowed in the quicksands. With cheerful heart I can “commend you to God, and to the word of His Grace.” Christ will preserve you!