Are You In Or Out?

Are You In Or Out?

Verses to read: <Genesis 7>

1 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.

16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

1. Only those IN the ark were saved.

1) The ark is the ONLY way of salvation.

• Ark: Christ
• IN Christ: Live; Outside: Perish
• Majority may not win
• Inside the ark (Christ) is everything we need

2) Who can go into the ark?

• Multitude – God wants to save many (ark was huge)
• Diversity –  Dangerous, meek, disgusting, cute, magnificent, ordinary creatures
• Any repentant sinner, regardless of background
• God elects > speaks to chosen people > they hear > they believe > they obey

3) The ark is the separator.

• Life / death; peace / unrest; forgiven / unrepentant; saved / unsaved
• No matter how “kind”, outside ark > dies
• No matter how vile, inside ark > saved
• Even without the flood, those with sin unresolved will eventually perish after accumulating more years of sin

2. Once in, cannot come out.

• <Gen 7:16> The Lord shuts Noah in the ark.
• Once the door is closed, those inside cannot come out, and those outside cannot go in.
• Even if Noah (Christians) suddenly yearns for the world, or feels discouraged in the ark, he cannot come out.
• For those in Christ, the Holy Spirit also keeps us away from sin and temptations; Christ’s blood covers us.
• He will “lose none of all those belonging to Him” <Jn 6:39>.

3. Even inside the ark, still need continuous faith.

• Even if already inside the ark, still face potential dangers (winds, rock, leakage, etc).
• Still need to exercise faith and rely on God’s grace.
• Is it really safe once we self-declare we are Christians, or come to church, or listen to a powerful sermon?
• Without continuous grace of God and reliance on Him, it is not safe.
• No one can say they have no more need to pray and be watchful.
• We are both saved and preserved by God.

4. The critical “7 days” <v 4, 10>.

• After 7 days, flood came, door shut (irreversible).
• Before the 7^th day, still can enter the ark.
• Urgency to evangelise.