[0:00] Now we shall turn for a few moments to the portion of scripture we read together in the epistle of Peter, the first epistle of Peter and the third chapter.
[0:18] And we shall read again at the 19th verse of chapter 3.
[0:34] By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.
[1:04] The like figure, wherein to even baptism, doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but by the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[1:22] Now I would like to draw your attention in particular to the 19th and the 20th verses.
[1:34] By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight persons, were saved by water.
[2:00] This passage of scripture has given a problem to those expositors of the Bible, and there are various kinds of interpretations.
[2:22] Some of them are rather strange, but one of them in particular is that Christ, when he died on the cross, that his soul went down to the abode of the lost, and declared the gospel to those who were drowned in the flood that came in the days of Noah.
[2:51] And this is not just a fanciful interpretation with some, but it is even accepted by evangelicals.
[3:08] But I think it is rather strange that anyone who has some knowledge of the scripture would accept such an interpretation.
[3:24] When there is a difficult passage of the Bible, there is no way whereby it can be properly understood, but by the light of other scriptures, which can shine upon it and give its interpretation.
[3:43] The Bible is its own interpretation. And we have every authority to accept that Christ did not go to the abode of the lost, that he ascended when he left this world physically, that he ascended to the right hand of God.
[4:08] He went to paradise.
[4:38] Great emphasis upon this. That the souls of everyone, believers and non-believers, and they have no such thing as we have as conversions and being regenerated in this world and passing from death to life in this world.
[4:57] They are all going into purgatory. And by the prayers of the saints, or certain prayers of the saints in heaven and the pleadings of the church on earth are somehow delivering them from that state that they can pass.
[5:15] After being cleansed in purgatory, they can pass to a state of glory. Now, all of you who know the scripture know that there is no such thing revealed to us in the scriptures at all.
[5:29] It's only the teaching of men. And we have again very prevalent amongst us and very active going from house to house, pleading and trying to make converts to the sect which is called Jehovah's Witnesses.
[5:50] Well, I must remind you, they are not witnesses of Jehovah. They have another gospel entirely. And they believe in what they called a second chance.
[6:03] And at the resurrection, all mankind will have another opportunity to accept the salvation that is offered in Christ.
[6:14] And if they refuse it at the resurrection, those who died without salvation, that if they refuse it at the resurrection, that they will be completely annihilated.
[6:30] They will go out of existence altogether. Now, that kind of gospel is very pleasing and attractive to the sinner in the world.
[6:41] He cannot lose. He'll have another chance. Well, again, those who are familiar with the teaching of the scriptures will know that that is a lie from the evil one.
[6:53] And that those who teach it are astray. Whatever amount of gospel they may have, they're heretical at the most important point in connection with our eternal salvation.
[7:10] The scriptures emphasize here and there and everywhere and throughout the whole of scripture that our eternal destiny is declared or binding at death.
[7:28] As the tree falleth, so shall it lie. And as a man is at his death, so shall it be. He's actually, death is appointed unto all.
[7:43] And after that, the judgment. The judgment follows immediately at death. And each one goes into his own place. And we find it in the parables of Christ.
[7:54] We find it in other places that the rich man and Lazarus, you remember, those of you who know are the parables of Christ. How the rich man opened his eyes, not in purgatory, but in a lost condition.
[8:11] In the outer darkness. In the outer darkness.
[8:43] And you can't call them heretical. But they leave large portions of scripture untouched. They think that such teaching as we have here concerning those who perished in the flood of Noah, that we shouldn't mention these things.
[9:02] And that we shouldn't talk about hell or about eternal destruction. The image they have of God eternal is that he's all love and all kind, full of mercy, and that he would never, never cast anyone into the outer darkness for all eternity.
[9:26] But such is the teaching of scripture that there are only two places. If we may call them places.
[9:38] Those who are saved through the Lord Jesus Christ and those who are lost by failing to believe. Now, I am fully aware of the difficulty that we feel in connection with the salvation of sinners when we think and when we believe that God is almighty, as he declares himself to be, that he has a purpose and that everything is working according to that immutable purpose.
[10:16] It doesn't change. He has power over all creation and over all beings. Everything is under his control.
[10:27] And when we think of the large number in the world who has never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and who is living in the darkness of heathendom, we cannot but wonder why.
[10:43] Why is not the Lord persuading missionaries and others to go everywhere throughout the world and die if it be necessary in order to declare the message, the wonderful message of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.
[11:04] Now, we have here stated what is mentioned in the other parts concerning the generation in which Noah lived.
[11:19] And it appears from the scriptures that that generation was a wicked generation, a lawless one, one who defied the law of heaven and the law of me.
[11:32] And there was a cause for this. It's not, it doesn't, it did not happen just without reason and without means and things bringing, bringing the situation into which it came eventually.
[11:49] So godless, so indifferent to the voice of God, that the spirit of God ceased to strive with them. And that is declared in the word.
[12:02] My spirit shall not strive with you any longer. God had ceased to strive with those who rejected and challenged and went their own way.
[12:14] Now, if we look at our own nation, today and the present generation, we cannot but feel the solemnity, the danger within, the way in which God might reveal his anger and his indignation, or we may say his wrath from heaven.
[12:38] It is revealed in this way, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the present generation. And he reveals it in withdrawing his spirit, that is no longer striving with people.
[12:54] He allows them to go their own way, and their own way is the way to eternal damnation. That is the situation that confronts us throughout the nation.
[13:05] Though, in a measure yet, we have the gospel and the striving of the spirit in this island.
[13:17] But the influence that is working upon us, it worked upon others who were as faithful, and who had the gospel as much as we had.
[13:29] If you would think, and if you would know, some of the life of the Puritans in England, and of the Covenanters in Scotland, and these are just wildernesses today.
[13:42] A minister from England was telling me last summer, that he could count on his fingers, the number who are interested in the gospel, in the whole province of Northern England.
[13:56] And they don't go near a church, they go their own way. Now, the state before the flood was one that was produced, strangely enough, by the union of the church with the world.
[14:23] The world coming into the church, and the church going into the world. But a humanical spirit among them.
[14:33] It is stated in a strange way, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men. Now, the daughters of men meant those who came from Cain, and Jubal Cain, and these men.
[14:48] These, they were simply men. They weren't the sons of God. These, the descendants of Seth, followed the true religion, and eventually, there was a gradual coming together of the world, and of the church.
[15:09] Now, when you come, when you get a worldly church, when the Christians come to mix with the world, and the world come into the church, and they are accepted as believers, they get all, all the privileges.
[15:26] The, the, the, the office bearers are as worldly as, as could be, as anybody else. An elder was telling me recently, from the city, down south, that he has been made an elder.
[15:38] And he said, I hate the very, very, the very office. I would rather be climbing the mountains. But they insisted that I should take office. Now, you see, the lack of that situation is not an isolated curse, but many, many throughout our, our, our country.
[15:58] Now, that is the kind of situation that grew up in the, in the generation before the flood. And gradually, the Spirit of God ceased to strive.
[16:10] And when the Spirit of God ceased to strive, all kinds of lawlessness will come. And they are not, they are not prepared to obey any kind of, of authority.
[16:25] Everyone wants to do his own, his own thing. And they fail to obey high or low, or, or, there is no government that can, that can control them.
[16:38] Now, that is, that situation, kind of situation is gradually growing in our own nation that, if things continue as they do, we cannot differentiate, differentiate between right and wrong.
[16:55] We cannot know the difference from the right hand to the, or the left. Now, the situation grew so evil, and to such extent, as I mentioned, that the Spirit of God ceased to strive.
[17:14] And eventually, there was only Noah who kept hold of the, hold of, of, of the gospel.
[17:24] And we have to remind ourselves and you that it was the gospel. The gospel was preached when God called, called Adam and Eve to, to, to his presence and brought home upon them their need and their situation, the death that, that followed upon the sin they had committed and then gave them a promise of a Savior.
[18:00] The seed of the woman, not the seed of the man, not the seed of Adam, but the seed of the woman which pointed to the version through which the Savior was going to come into the world and that he would bruise the serpent's head.
[18:21] Now, we find that the, the, the, in the patriarchal system, they had a hold of that promise. For hundreds of years they were waiting for the Savior and Noah believed it and God made a covenant with him and eventually the long suffering as we have it here, the long suffering of God came to an end.
[18:48] when he said that the Spirit would not strive with him any longer and to, told by revelation to Noah to build an ark for the salvation of his home, for the salvation of himself and his, and his home.
[19:09] three sons and their wives and himself and his wife, that these were all, all that were to be saved out of that generation.
[19:21] Now, Noah, we gathered here, was a preacher of righteousness and in this passage by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.
[19:44] In the 19th verse, now if you look at the passage you will notice in the 18th verse, for Christ also hath once suffered for our, for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit.
[20:06] Now, it's by the spirit that Noah preached to that generation. He preached by the spirit of God.
[20:18] Now a person can preach a wonderful sermon, he might have great learning and great training and have wonderful elocution and preach very, very powerfully, but he might be without the spirit.
[20:41] And this was the, this very thing was, was, I might say, that the apostle Paul was somewhat afraid of this very thing.
[20:54] He could preach, he was a, he was an elegoan preacher, he was, he was, he had a horrific zeal for the gospel, but he continually wanted the church to pray for him.
[21:09] not to pray that he might be, that he might be kept, or that he might be kept, or saved from his enemies, and all these, and all the troubles he had, but that he might be able to preach the gospel in the power of the spirit.
[21:28] And this was his fear in every place. We see when he came to Corinth, that he was trembling with fear, and the Lord spoke to him, do not to be afraid, that he has many people in this place, to preach the whole gospel, and he was asking the church to pray for him, because he was afraid, he didn't know really how to begin, or what method to take, in order to address these learned philosophers, to whom he was to preach the gospel, and he knew so well, though he would preach with the tongues of men and of angels, he would be like sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.
[22:16] No allocution, no training in the world, nothing could meet the situation in Corinth, but the spirit of God, and we are in the same situation.
[22:27] Our preaching will be as vain and as useless as singing a song, unless we have the spirit of God. And this is what Noah had.
[22:41] And when the spirit of God takes possession of a person and preaches in the power of the spirit, if that is rejected, the sinfulness of rejecting them is far more serious than ordinary sins.
[23:03] We have the authority of Christ for saying this, how Tyre and Sidon and how others and Sodom and Gomorrah and these cities would rise up in the judgment and condemn the people in Capernaum and in the cities, in the northern cities in Galilee, who heard the Christ preaching and who saw his miracles.
[23:34] And when you think of the situation that some of these people had, the brother of Christ himself, Jameis, the brother of Christ, was brought up in the same home.
[23:48] He was here in Christ praying, he was seeing his life, he knew him personally, he was with him and he was always in the spirit. And yet Jameis continued unconverted.
[24:02] And it was after his death it appeared that Jameis came to the knowledge that his own brother was the Messiah.
[24:14] Now, what I'm getting at is that Noah was preaching in the spirit as we have it here and that these people resisted the spirit of God.
[24:28] And you might be in a similar situation. The spirit of God might be striving with you. It was through the spirit of God striving with you that brought you into this building this evening and this day.
[24:43] Whether we know it or not, perhaps you never thought of it, that you were drawn effectively to the means of grace. but yet you might still come here and resist the very striving of the spirit.
[25:01] There is such a thing as what we call effectual natural striving of the spirit and effectual striving of the spirit of God. And it's rather difficult to differentiate between them unless you came to know it yourself.
[25:18] Those who have been brought up in a godly home or under gospel influences might have strivings perhaps different to others.
[25:29] But they can know and they can point to the time when actually the natural striving which was through their upbringing and other ways that it became a striving, an effectual striving of the spirit of God.
[25:47] And what makes it effectual? is that the spirit of God through the knowledge they have of the scriptures brings new knowledge into their minds.
[26:00] And the new knowledge is not just the fear or the guilt of sin as such but their own inability. The sinfulness of the nature and they don't realize that it is the sinful of their own hearts that is producing the situation they're in.
[26:22] But they feel that they cannot do anything. They come to this knowledge that they are unable to save themselves. Now that their prayers will not save them nor anything though they would give their substance poor and give their body to be burnt that yet that wouldn't meet with the situation they feel when God is convicting them in what they are.
[26:50] Not what they have done but what they are in themselves. That they are astray from God and that they are therefore without the needed salvation.
[27:01] And they have nothing they can when it becomes effectual they come to God and they have nothing to offer but seek mercy. Have mercy upon me the sinner.
[27:15] And the sinner is the state they are in, in particular. And no one can teach them that but the Spirit of God. That they have an heart which is alienated from God and that they themselves are astray and that they are without a foundation upon which they can stand.
[27:38] And there is no foundation but the foundation that is laid already Jesus Christ the rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.
[27:52] Now these sinners to whom Noah preached resisted the Spirit of God resisted that striving and the long suffering of God came to an end.
[28:08] he gave a he told in other words we don't know how God conveyed this knowledge to Noah but he said he gave them 120 years and conveyed to Noah to build an ark ark.
[28:33] For for the salvation of himself and his home and his family. Now that is a long period measured by the years people live today.
[28:47] But Noah himself was nearly 900 years old when he began to build the ark. And you can imagine those who were born 120 years before the flood came they were seeing Noah laying the foundation of the ark and building it year after year and preaching all the time.
[29:12] Preaching in the power of the spirit that there was a flood coming. That there was a the wrath of God was to be revealed from heaven in a certain way that they would perish unless they would repent and turn to God in faith.
[29:33] And he could point to the way by which they could return by the promise of the Messiah who was to come and to bruise the serpent's head and he knew the way of salvation the very same as Abraham afterwards.
[29:52] came to know it perhaps in a clearer way. But Noah knew it and eventually the time had run out.
[30:06] The wrath of God appeared from heaven in a strange way. The ark was built not near the sea where it could be launched into the sea or on a big river.
[30:20] it was built on the land and everyone could see the foolishness of that old man building a queer strange vessel. They never saw anything like it.
[30:32] And especially those who were intelligent enough to hear the message that he had, they would laugh him to scorn. And so do the wise men of the world today.
[30:43] They just laugh at the gospel and those who believe it, they think it's old wives' tales. And we have passed the stage where anyone could believe in these things.
[30:54] We have grown into manhood and we don't believe these childish things any longer. You find such views throughout our island as well as anywhere else.
[31:07] Well, they would have another story when those who were alive, when the ark was ready, when the time allotted had come, when 120 years had run out, and there was no sign in the heavens above or on the earth below that anything was going to happen, when God closed Noah and his family in the ark.
[31:37] And he himself closed the door. It was a door. God closed it. And no one in heaven or on earth could open it. he closed them in and the flood came and carried them all away.
[31:56] Now, Christ himself preached from this text that I have here. He preached a very effective sermon, how the people of that age lived.
[32:08] And you will see that they lived for the pleasures of sin for a season. they were planting and buying and selling and marrying and being given in marriage till the day that Noah entered the ark.
[32:32] all that Christ tells us, they are things of the world, their minds were entirely taken up with the things of time and with the things of the world and their pleasure were in spoke and in enjoyment and in all these things.
[32:48] They were given entirely to the enjoyment of the flesh. And we see that in our day. We see this in the Sabbath day which God had set apart and which he sanctified.
[33:02] It doesn't belong to us, it's God's day. We see it taken from him and used for sport and pleasure and enjoyment of themselves.
[33:13] And God is not blind to these things. He is seeing you and he is seeing me and he is seeing everyone else, how we are and what's our attitude to these things.
[33:26] Well, they were carried away. And now we see here where they are. They didn't go out of existence.
[33:40] The statement which God made concerning Adam and Eve is that they came out of the dust and they would go back into the dust and the dust that was in them it as it were polluted the whole dust of the world.
[34:00] The dust of the world, the earth became as it were cursed through the sin of Adam. He was made of the dust of the earth and back into the dust he told him he would go.
[34:16] That was part of the punishment of sin or rather the curse of sin. Now although the body went back there, the soul of man didn't.
[34:30] God breathed into Adam a living soul and he became a living soul and the soul is made in such a way that it cannot perish.
[34:43] It lasts forever and ever and ever. And the soul would go either to dwell with God in fellowship with him or go into the outer darkness where is wailing and gnashing of teeth.
[35:07] Now there is only the two places and we read here that by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison they are in prison.
[35:22] The situation they are in it's it's a situation out of which they cannot come. It's a spiritual it's a spiritual prison and it's a state where the soul is really aware of what it had been, what he had rejected, what he had been doing and everything like that just as I mentioned already about the rich man and Lazarus.
[35:49] The rich man was blind to what Lazarus enjoyed though he was sailing and full of wounds and hungry and everything and dependent to a large extent upon the rich man yet the rich man died and had a great funeral no doubt.
[36:12] But it was in the outer darkness that he opened his eyes. And the light which he saw when he opened his eyes was terrifying. He saw that he was lost forever, that he was in utmost misery, that he was without God and he was without hope, he was in nobile despair and there was nothing he could do about it.
[36:39] He was even imagining pleading to Abraham that sat at his gate to send him with a drop of water to cool his tongue.
[36:53] That is the prison they were in and there was no power in heaven or in earth that could deliver him out of that prison. Now that is what the Spirit of God says through the Apostle Peter here by which also he went, that is the Spirit of God, went in the days of Noah to preach to those spirits who are now in prison, in a lost eternity.
[37:27] it is not only here that that is taught, but it's taught throughout the Scriptures in the New Testament.
[37:38] And it says why they're in prison is which sometimes were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.
[37:50] That is why they are in the stake they are in. They were disobedient to the preaching of the Spirit of God through Noah.
[38:02] Noah was faithful to God, he was in covenant with God and he knew the covenant, the new covenant that God had made with Adam after he had restored him, after he had sinned.
[38:16] And that was passed on generation after generation right down to the days of Noah. And in the days of Noah there was another change.
[38:28] Noah came as if it were into a new world. What went off before was called the old world. Not that it was that the rocks and the earth and things like that changed, but the kind of world that was seen and the new kind of life that they were to live.
[38:47] It came down through the ages of these promises that were given at the beginning and the wrath of God revealed in connection with those who rejected him.
[39:00] all these came down to the days of Abraham when he was set apart to be the father of the faithful.
[39:15] And it says, my spirit shall not strive with you any longer. Now that present state is they know of it.
[39:27] But that is not the end. there is another day when the body that turned into dust, the body of that generation that was swept away with the flood, that they are to rise with those believers.
[39:53] Christ is going to come again with the voice, with a trumpet sound, and with a shout that will shake the whole world and will open the graves and the sea will bring forth those who are in it and the graves will bring forth those who are buried there and all will appear before the great white throne.
[40:20] He is going to sit on the great white throne from which from its presence heaven and earth shall fly away but not mankind.
[40:33] They will be called before the great white throne and every one of us will receive as he has done in the flesh and in the world and with their opportunities and everything.
[40:45] They will receive as they have done in the world whether it be good or evil or good or bad. That is the teaching we have in the scriptures that we have all not just the believers only but there is a resurrection of the just and resurrection of the unjust and the body that will arise who will join with the soul that perished without salvation they will be condemned according to what they have done in that body and how they acted and the opportunities they rejected and the striving of the spirit that they had in the days of their flesh and they will be turned away and it will be a terrific oh we cannot just understand it at all when we hear the sentence of condemnation coming from the great white throne and the one who is on that throne is the lord of glory who was despised and rejected by them and he shall say unto them depart from me ye workers of iniquity and to that place prepared for the devil and his angels and he'll say to the righteous to the believers come my blessed of my you blessed of my father come and inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world now
[42:31] Christ himself has stated these things it's not the theory of men or of the church but supposing it was the apostles who said it it had the same authority as Christ it was very recently that I took note of the fact that the apostles never quoted the Lord Jesus Christ they never said that the Lord Jesus Christ said such and such they preached themselves and do you know why the same spirit that spoke through Christ spoke through them they were saying not what they heard themselves in the world but what the spirit was saying through them and that is what we have here the apostle Peter is under the influence of the spirit of God it's not his own views his own theories but the spirit is giving the thoughts and the words exactly and he declares the mind of God and this is this is what is going to all of us will see on their own with their own eyes you'll be at that great white throne and we know so little about it and I was reminded of that recently
[43:57] I met quite a scholar in Potri recently and he was converted by two essays that two children had wrote out for him and they had placed something there that he couldn't understand and I was telling this to one person in particular how a child can lead a person to Christ a child would lead them and he said I'm not surprised he said I know one in Glasgow a teacher and a child wrote something I think the essay was upon why don't you do certain things what keeps you from doing certain things and this child wrote that because the one who was to sit on the great white throne and he couldn't understand what in the world was the great white throne where was the white throne and he went from room to room among the teachers in the school and no teacher could understand and never heard of it he had to seek out where could he find who put up a white throne and who was on the white throne or where was the white throne he had never heard of it this is recently you would think a teacher would know sufficient of the bible that they would know that it was to be found in the word of god and he also came under conviction of sin and saw that he would be among those who would be blessed when Christ sits on the great white throne as he is going to sit now
[45:48] Noah's ark although it was made of wood and built by a man was also a symbol a symbol of Christ as most of the old testament was they were concerning Christ and in the ceremonial law that Moses gave it was largely ceremonial they were shadows of what Christ was going to do Christ now was pictured or a symbol really of Jesus Christ in this case and it is very edifying to know that symbolical teaching that we find throughout the old testament and refer to in the new that Peter refers to it in a strange way and it has been confusing many many a person when he says by which which sometime were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of
[46:59] Noah while the ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water the like figure where into even baptism does also know savers not by putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God now the difficulty that appeared there was the flood of Noah and the water of baptism how could these two be related or how could the baptism be any symbol of the flood and many a person has been confused over this thing well it's not the water of the flood and the water of baptism that is compared to one another here at all it is they all understood that baptism was actually a symbol of regeneration or of the new birth or of cleansing away of our sins what happens when a person believes there is a baptism not of water when you believe if you would believe now you see there would be a washing away of your sins and that is symbolized in the washing of water that your sins have been washed away through the merits of the
[48:40] Lord Jesus Christ you were saved and quite often the apostles refer to baptism when they actually mean the salvation they have received what baptism really shows that we are united to Christ and that we are cleansed thereby from our sins we are in an ark we are saved in Christ alone and there is no other salvation there is no other ark but Christ and it says that Noah was saved by water now in a sense you will all know that it wasn't the water that saved him it was actually the ark that saved him but the higher the flood came down the more the flood came down the higher the ark rose up towards God and it was Noah and his family in the ark that were kept safe from the flood of water and the water that was destroying the others was carrying him up and up and higher and nearer
[49:51] God and he was closed in not a drop would come in of that curse of God that was in the flood because it was it had been sealed with pitch inside and outside and so it is concerning the believer who is baptized with the baptism that Christ gives as John the Baptist preached again that one he was preaching he was baptizing with water but there is one coming after me greater than I and he will baptize you with the spirit and it is this baptism of the spirit that is compared to the ark of God when the spirit comes savingly he unites us with Christ and we are saved from the curse that came upon the world and came upon sinners we are entirely saved in Christ Jesus and from the curse and the wrath that came upon that generation who resisted the striving of the spirit and who perished outside the ark and whatever crying and shouting they would do and knocking at the door and running to the ark that Noah was building yet
[51:13] Noah couldn't open it God had shut him in and he was he was saved and we can imagine how the the the the meditation the Lord God almighty so near to him in the ark and feeling the blessing that he received and the sense of his own unworthiness when he and his family were saved in that ark well the ark is a symbol and the baptism is a symbol also outwardly the water of baptism there is no efficacy in it that is the very same as we mentioned at the beginning that is another fallacy of the church of England and of the church of Rome and we are afraid that is creeping in into the other churches as well that that there is such a thing as baptismal regeneration by sprinkling a person sprinkling a child in in his infancy that it is regenerating him and making a Christian of him as if the words of man and water natural water had any effect in cleansing away one spot of sin but it's symbolical of the spirit of God water is and that is what is compared the ark and the regenerating power of the spirit of
[52:49] God in uniting us to Christ and he's able he's willing to do it he's mighty to save even to the uttermost and he's whether you're listening or not he's striving with you at this very moment concerning your own eternal salvation has whether you're accepting and believing Christ has the ark prepared for sinners and it's not confined to a family but to the family of God that is where they're brought into the true ark into Jesus Christ and he's mighty to save he's willing to save and he's the same yesterday today and forever so you see Christ was the savior of the patriarchs before the flood he was the savior after the flood he was the savior in Moses day and onward there was only the one
[53:57] Christ through the since man sinned at the beginning till he comes again and you ask yourself where where is your or what is your relationship to Christ is he is he your personal savior remember no one else can do this for you it is a personal thing you have to commit yourselves wholly to Christ and he cannot be bought he cannot be deceived he cannot be anything he knows you as you are and just tell him what you are tell him that you are lost and tell him that you don't know whether you'll have another opportunity or not that now is the accepted time that now is the day of salvation and you have the offer
[54:57] Christ is as if he were knocking at your conscience knocking at your heart and knocking that you might knock at his door before his striving will cease and will and will go away and knock no more perhaps you're in that condition that you remember quite well when there was striving of the spirit with your conscience with your life and they have been getting weaker and weaker and weaker as you were rejecting the call of God to you and the striving of the spirit with you that you hardly now come to church but occasionally you take any excuse to stay away and you follow the world and your whole mind is on sport and enjoyment without realising that here we have no continuity we are pilgrims and our years are spent as a tale that is told we'll soon be out of this world but where do we go have we have we have we made sure that we are heirs and joint heirs with Christ of God and that death has already passed we have died in
[56:24] Christ if we believe in Christ he has died our death and we'll have a glorious resurrection we shall be with Christ forevermore well won't you say what Joshua said to the Israelites when he was pleading with them just before he died he said for me and my house we will serve the Lord as he would say whatever you'll do this is my choice and this will I do I will serve the Lord and he did so to the very end may the Lord bless our meditation let us pray oh eternal God the glorious Jehovah who provided a way of salvation and who comes knocking at our door and who calls from the seat of glory and we thank thy name that we are assured that
[57:35] Christ is on the right hand of the majesty on high and that he that he intercedes there and may we know that he's interceding for us by a groaning in our own hearts every hold that