Leaves Of Gold

A Call To Return To The Teaching Of The Bible

A ministry of Evangelist James A. Nelson   jan23@cox.net

Year III, No. 10                                          OCTOBER                                                      2009

 

 

Master Outlines Number Forty-five, taken from "The Christian Life Bible", Thomas Nelson Publishers, with notes by Porter L. Barrington

 

Noah, the Man Who Built the Ark

                The apostle Peter said, "God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:20-22). In these verses Peter said that all of God's prophets preached the first and second coming of Jesus Christ "since the world began:' According to this Scripture, Adam was God's first prophet to proclaim the gospel of the grace of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

                Adam and Eve experienced the grace of God in the Garden of Eden, when God shed the blood of innocent animals to cover their nakedness, and promised them that the "Seed of the woman;' the vir­gin-born God-Man (a biological miracle), Jesus Christ, would crush the head of Satan and provide salvation by grace through faith for all believers (Gen. 3:15, 21). Now we know that the peo­ple who lived before the Flood, the antediluvians, had the grace of God preached to them from Adam to Noah.

                There are three ways in which God revealed to Noah the gospel of the grace of God and His will for Noah's life.               .

(1) By Word of Mouth. "God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets" (Acts 3:21). And God continues to speak to the lost by word of mouth, person to person. It is the most ef­fective way to take the gospel of the grace of God to a lost world (Rom. 10: 13-17). It is very evident that Adam preached the gospel to his descendants. Consider Cain and Abel; they came at the same time, to the same place, for the same purpose-to worship God (Gen. 4:1-5). Who taught them to worship God? It was Adam, God's first preacher. We know that Cain killed Abel and that another son was born to Adam and Eve, whose name was Seth. Seth had a son whose name was Enoch. "Then men began to call on the name of the LORD" (Gen. 4:25, 26). Who taught Seth and Enoch to call on the name of Jehovah? God's first prophet, Adam.

                Noah could have received God's Word from Methuselah, who could have been taught by Adam. When Adam died, Methuselah was 253 years old. This means that Adam, God's first prophet, had 253 years in which to indoctrinate Methuselah. Methuselah lived 600 years after Noah was born; he was Noah's grandfather. He had 600 years in which to teach Noah, his grandson. By word of mouth Adam taught Methuselah, and Methuselah taught Noah. So Noah found grace, in the eyes of the Lord.

(2) By Written Records. Who is to say that Noah, who descended from Adam through Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, was not heir to all the records from Adam to Lamech? Jude tells us that Enoch prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all" Jude 14, 15). This prophecy was written in the days of Enoch, who was born 622 years after the creation of Adam. When God created Adam, he was perfect in every way-spirit, soul, and body. This means that Adam, though never having learned, had perfect knowledge of all things related to this creation (Gen. 2:18-20)·. In this he is a type of Christ, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). When God created all the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, he brought them to Adam, who gave each of them their names. Adam did not memorize their names, he named them. He was created with a language and a vocab­ulary to express his every thought.

                Therefore, it does not take a great faith to believe that Adam could have invented an alphabet of letters or other characters with which his spoken language could be written. Or God could have given him the alphabet of letters or characters when He created him. The people who lived before the Flood must have had a system of keeping written records. Noah must have had some of the writ­11m records from Adam to Lamech.

(3) By Revelation. God revealed His will to Noah. He said to Noah, "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood" (Gen. 6:14). When the ark was ready, He spoke to Noah and told him to enter the ark. When the Flood ended and the land was dry, God told Noah to come out of the ark. God speaks in many different ways to man.

                Today, He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit and His written Word. However, in the past six thousand years, He spoke to man through dreams, or a voice from heaven. He often revealed Himself to man in the form of a man, or as the Angel of the Lord (Jesus). We are not told how He spoke to Noah; all we know is. that He revealed His will for Noah's life. Noah obeyed all of God's commandment.  "Noah walked with God", Genesis 6:9.  God knowing that Noah and his family would be the only survivors of the Flood, entrusted Noah with the knowledge of all His acts from Creation to the Flood.  In so doing , Noah was able to pass these truths on to his descendants down to Moses, who wrote under the inspiration of God the first five books of the Bible.

 

45-A. Noah: A Man Convicted (Matthew 24:37-39)-"And the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever'" (Gen. 6:3). The Holy Spirit began His ministry of convicting mankind of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:7-11) in the age before the Flood. He has continued to "strive with man" in every dispensation, and will continue as long as there are lost souls on earth. God began to strive with man in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve fell, the Lord came and called to Adam saying, "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:1-10). Thus, God began His ministry of reaching out to lost humanity. From the first He was "Longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9).

                When the Holy Spirit convicted Noah of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, he repented and "found grace in the eyes of the LORD" (Gen. 6:8). The question is often asked, how were the lost saved before the death of Christ on Calvary? The answer is, they were saved by grace through faith, looking forward to the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we are saved by grace through faith, looking back to the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way anyone can be saved is through the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:10-12; Rom. 3:25).

                 Now, the people who lived before the Flood had the gospel preached through prophecy and through typology. Therefore, those who rejected the gospel, which was preached by Adam and his descendants, were without excuse (Rom. 1:20).

(1) The pre-Flood people had the gospel preached through prophecy. When Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord cursed the serpent for allowing Satan to possess it and speak with Eve, tempting her to sin (2 Cor. 11 :3). Then the Lord said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Gen. 3:15). This is the first promise of the virgin-born Redeemer. There is no seed of a woman. The woman produces the egg and the man the seed. This prophecy is a biological miracle. No woman can reproduce without the seed of the man. Yet the Virgin Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ while she was still a virgin (Luke 1:30-3). Those who lived before the Flood had the promise of the Savior who would bruise the head of Satan.

(2) The pre-Flood people had the gospel preached through typology. God in His grace provided <J covering for the nakedness of Adam and Eve: "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Gen. 3:21). They did not need a theologian to tell them that the innocent had died to atone for the guilty. Before God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden, He gave them the gospel in prophecy: the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. And the Seed of the woman would shed His blood to atone for lost souls.

                This gospel was handed down from Adam to Cain and Abel; Cain rejected the gospel, but Abel accepted (Gen. 4:1-16). Then Seth was born; Adam gave him the gospel, and Seth believed. "Then men began to call on the name of the LORD" (Gen. 4:25, 26). Adam gave the gospel to each of his descendants. He lived on for 243 years after Methuselah was born, and Methuselah lived 600 years after Noah was born. Adam had 243 years in which to give the gospel to Methuselah, and Methuselah had 600 years in which to pass it on to Noah.

 

45-B. Noah: A Man of Vision (Proverbs 29:18)-"Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint" (v. 18). As a consequence, people fall apart; they lose all consciousness of righteousness. They go to pieces spiritually and morally. The last verse in the book of Judges illustrates: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judg. 21 :25). The Lord is saying, as it were, "Where there is no vision (revelation) of God in all His love, power, and glory, the people perish, fall apart and turn to spiritual anarchy." Jesus said, "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the ' of Man be" (Matt. 24:36-39).

                At the second coming of Christ, and this could be at any moment, history will repeat itself. Noah's family is a type of the body of Christ--- those who have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Those who drowned in the Flood were comparable in that day to those who will have heard and rejected the gospel of salvation in the day to come. Without vision of God in His coming glory, they will perish.

                Noah was a man of vision. The word "vision" is not found in the Bible until Genesis 15:1; it is found over a hundred times in the remaining Scriptures. It suggests a supernatural experience; it is something or someone seen other than by natural sight (Acts 16:8-10). Noah had a vision of grace of God; he found grace and knew it. How did he know? By faith. Noah had a vision of God's plans the ark. For 120 years he was true to that vision. He worked on the ark and walked with God. He had supernatural vision of the unseen that was more real than anything seen with his natural vision (2 Cor. 4:18

.

45-C Noah: A Preacher of Righteousness (2 Peter 2:5)- The Scriptures tell us that Noah was "a preacher of righteousness" (v. 5). He heralded the righteousness of God.

                The righteousness and justice of God are revealed in two ways:

(1) By punishing the wicked for rejecting the righteousness of God in Christ (Ps. 11 :5, 6);

(2) By rewarding the righteous who were made the righteousness of God through Christ (2 Cor. 5:20, 21).

                The righteousness of God is that attribute which assures man that God is just and will always do what is right. The righteousness and justice of God are manifestations of His holiness. To say that God is holy is to say, that He is wholly pure and separate from sin. In eternity past, present, and future, He is pure. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).

                Noah was a preacher of righteousness and justice. It is not possible to declare the righteousness and holiness of God and not proclaim His justice (Jer. 23:5,6). This preacher of righteousness warned the wicked of their ways for 120 years (Ezek. 33:7-9). It has been said that Noah never had a convert, but this is not true. He preached the righteousness of God; his wife and his three sons and, daughters-in-law were saved by grace through faith. During the 120 years that Noah preached the  righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit was striving with the lost (Gen. 6:3). Some could have been Isaved and died before the Flood. However, he certainly won seven souls to faith in "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 23:6,).

 

45-D: Noah: A Man of Action.  (Genesis 6:22)-"Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did" (v. 22). Noah was a man of action-God commanded, Noah acted! (Ps. 37:5). Once he knew the will of God for his life, he obeyed. In the Genesis account of the Flood, we learn of Noah's ingrained, unwavering, active obedience to God's revealed will. He was conformed to the purpose of God (Rom. 12:1, 2), but not to the ways of the pre-Flood world system; for he had nothing in common with that wicked generation (2 Cor. 6:14-18). "Noah walked with God" (Gen. 6:9, above). He walked in fellowship with God and found the spiritual strength to resist the temptations of that day.

                Paul tells us that all temptations are common to man; so don't think that you are the only believer that has been overtaken by temptation. You may live in a situation where there is obviously much to tempt you, or you may live where there is apparently little to tempt you. Regardless of your circumstances, you will be tempted; there is no escape. But we have good news: God has promised that He will not allow us to be tempted above our spiritual capacity to resist, and that He will make "the way of escape" (1 Cor. 10:13). "He [the Holy Spirit] who is in you is greater than he [Satan] who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

                Noah, a man of action, resisted the temptations of that age as he walked with God. He found:

(1) Saving grace through faith (Eph. 2:8,9).

(2) Justification by faith (Rom. 5:1).

(3) Peace with God by faith (Rom. 5:1).

(4) The righteousness of God, which he preached by faith (2 Pet. 2:5)

(5) Perfection in his generation, because he found it by faith in God (Col. 1 :28).

                God commanded Noah, saying, "Make yourself an ark ofgopherwood" (v. 14). He gave Noah the plans for the ark, and Noah went to work.   It was a monumental undertaking in many ways:

(1) Consider the size of the ark-300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. But how long is a cubit? The Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans defined it differently, from 17.5 inches to 24 inches. Using an 18-inch cubit, we see that Noah's ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It has been calculated that the ark had the cubic capacity of more than 500 freight cars. It was three stories high and was divided throughout into rooms, or dens.

(2) Noah and his sons needed skilled help to build the ark. The trees had to be felled, sawn into thick boards, and dried in the sun or in a kiln. For that huge amount of lumber, much of it must have been transported many miles. The ark was covered with pitch inside and out to make it waterproof; this must have taken tons of pitch.

(3) Noah took enough supplies to last a year and ten days for his family and all the animals while in the ark, as well as enough to last until first harvest (Gen. 7:11, above; 8:13-19).

(4) Noah assumed the total cost of the ark and all the supplies. He must have been a wealthy man. Yes, it cost Noah dearly to build the ark; but consider what it would have cost him if he had not built the ark. If yourfaith has never cost you anything, you have faith that is dead (James 2:17, 18).            When King David wanted to buy Araunah's threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord, Araunah offered to give it to the king, and David said, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing" (2 Sam. 24:24). Noah had faith that cost him every material thing, but it also gave him and his family every eternal thing-salvation by grace through faith (2 Cor. 4:18).

 

45-E: Noah: A Man of Faith. Hebrews 11:7.  In this brief text the Holy Spirit reveals seven elements that embody faith.  Noah had great faith.  Noah "walked with God", Genesis 6:9, lived, worked, and preached righteousness for 120 years. The world was so corrupt that the Lord said "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5)

(1) The foundation-being warned by God. The only foundation for saving faith is the infallible Word of God. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Faith not founded upon God's inerrant Word is vain belief (1 Cor. 15:1-4). By faith Noah was triumphant over the evils of the people who lived before the Flood, which ended in the judgment of God (Gen. 7:20-24).               .

(2) The measure-he believed "things not yet seen." Paul tells us that "God has dealt to each one [believer] a measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3). Real faith does not have to see to believe: "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40). For 120 years Noah believed "things not yet seen"; then-he saw the prophecy of the Flood fulfilled. Noah did not look at visible things, but by faith he looked at invisible things, because they are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). By faith N9ah and his family came through the judgment of the Flood, and saw God's glory.

(3) The power-he was "moved with godly fear." He was moved to act with godly fear in reverence that led to repentance, resulting in salvation by the grace of God. Noah not only believed God's promise of grace, but also His promise of judgment. Those who do not believe that God will punish sin in the impenitent sinner do not know saving.faith. Noah, like all lost sinners, had a choice: he could accept the gift of God, which is eternal life, or he could choose to live in sin and collect its wages, which are eternal separation from the mercy of God (Rom. 6:23). The power of Noah's faith moved him with holy fear to obey God and build the ark. He believed that God would judge man, as He promised, saying, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth" (Gen. 6:7).

(4) The proof-he "prepared an ark." To those who lived before the Flood, Noah was a fool. He was building a huge ark of gopherwood on dry land, which seemed senseless. The ark was the evidence of Noah's faith; he had a living, working faith. His faith provided the working force that "prepared an ark." Faith that does not motivate works is dead (James 2:17).

(5) The fruits-"for the saving of his household." Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and his labor was not in vain. He ministered to his wife, three sons, and three daughters-in-law. All seven believed, and were saved by the grace of God.

(6) The function-"by which he condemned the world." The gospel of the grace of God will do one of two things when proclaimed by faith:

                (a) It will bring salvation, when believed (Acts 16:31).

                (b) It will bring condemnation when rejected in unbelief (John 3:36). To illustrate, the sun will melt a hard chunk of ice, but also harden a soft lump of clay. The gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit will save or condemn.

(7) The recompense-and "became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." When we were saved by faith in Christ, we were made righteous with the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21), even though we remain in this body of flesh which is under the curse of sin and death (Rom. 7:24, 25). God sees us as righteous because we are in Christ by faith. However, there is a righteousness that we cannot know until we stand before Him in our resurrected, glorified bodies; then "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).

                The reward that God promised Noah was that he would become "heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." God tells us that we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). None of the saved of the Old or New Testament have entered into their inheritance. Noah, along with all the saints, must wait until Jesus comes and resurrects the bodies of all believers before he can enter his full inheritance as an "heir of the righteousness which is according to faith."

                How does your faith compare with Noah's?   The next study will appear in November.

 

 

The Doctrine of Repentance , taken from the book "Baptist Doctrine" by E. C. Gillentine, published by Bogard Press, Texarkana, Ark. TX.

 

                The "Doctrine of Repentance" is as old as man; it has existed ever since the first man found out he was a sinner and had sinned against God. Notwithstanding the fact that the doctrine of repentance is· as old as man, in the last few years it has grown to be one of the most unpopular doctrines known to man. Many preachers have ceased to preach it; many churches have ceased to demand the evidence of it on the part of those who offer themselves for membership. As a result of these two facts, many sinners, and may I say, many church members, know nothing at all about it. The people have been educated away from it be­cause they have not been taught the importance of it.

Let us consider it first from the standpoint of the necessity of it.

1. THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF REPENTANCE.

1. Jesus taught the necessity of it, Luke 13:3, 5: " ... Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It is repent or perish. Read also Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15.

2. John the Baptist preached it and refused to bap­tize those who did not bring evidence sufficient to prove they had repented, Matt. 3:2, 7-10; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3-8.

3. Christ commanded His disciples to preach it, Mark 6:12: "And they went out, and preached that men should repent"; Luke 24:47: "And that repent­ance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

4. Christ thought enough of its importance that He called sinners to repentance, Mark 2:17: " ... I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Read Luke 5:32.

5. Two things are necessary before one can attain to a repentance and a blessed forgiveness:

(1) A knowledge of what sin is: (a) How serious it is. (b) How full of peril it is. (c) How displeasing to God it is. (d) How exceeding sinful it is.

(2) A knowledge of what we are by nature: (a) That we are born with a sinful nature. (b) That we must repent or be forever lost. (c) That all men every where are commanded to repent. (d) There must be a recognition in the full light of the consciousness of

our own lives and deeds.         ,

(3) When we blend the above two conviction to­gether we have a third step which enables us to see our own: Lives, thoughts, and deeds which cause us to realize that we are sinners before God without any excuse.

Millions of people are willing to acknowledge that they sin, and that they hate sin, but claim it does not condemn them. Read Rom. 2:17-24. Many men will condemn practices in others that they allow in themselves. They call the sin of others by their· real names; but they call their own sins by false, simple and sometimes beautiful names. One's heart may be as black as Satan himself, and yet looking at himself he thinks he is a man of honor. How deceitful the heart and mind of man is! For an example, look at Judas, objecting to the ointment being used on Jesus as a pretense that it might have been sold for a large amount of money and given to the poor.

 

II. WHAT REPENTANCE REALLY IS.

Repentance is composed of three elemer;ts:

1. An intellectual element-A change of view. Or it may be said that repentance is a change of mind. This intellectual element includes a recognition of sin as involving personal defilement and utter helpless­ness. This does not merely mean the experience of sin as:

                (a) Hardened Pharaoh who said, "I have sinned," Ex. 9:27.

                (b) Double-minded Balaam who said, "I have sinned," Num. 22:34.

                (c) Remorseful Achan who said, "I have sinned," Josh. 7:20.

                (d) Insincere King Saul who said, "I have sinned," I Sam. 15:24. None of these confessions were sincere; they merely confessed because they were caught and not because they were sorry. I fear we have too many in some of our churches today who are like these.

                This intellectual element causes the sinner to change his mind about God; he sees God in altogether a dif­ferent light; he changes his mind about the Bible, about Christ, about heaven and hell, and about him­self. He sees the goodness of God and the sinfulness of himself. This leads him to the next step.

2. An emotional element-A change of feeling. He becomes sorry that he has sinned against God and against justice; he sees himself as an enemy to God, hateful to God, and he sees sin as hateful in itself. He realizes his unfitness for heaven. True repentance does not think of consequences; it does not think of other men and wonder what they are going to do; it does not plead hereditary as an excuse; but it thinks of sin as transgression against God. It thinks of per­sonal guilt and defilement of the inmost being. It is while one is experiencing this element of repentance that he becomes determined to exercise the third element of repentance.

3. A voluntary element-A change of purpose. In this element there is a voluntary, inward, turning from sin and a disposition to seek pardon, forgiveness and cleansing. Read Luke 15:14-19; Luke 23:39-43; Luke 18:13.

 

III. THE RESULTS OF REPENTANCE.

1. The primary result of repentance is pardon. This the sinner receives the moment he acknowledges his sins and cries unto God for mercy. To be pardoned means to be forgiven; it is to treat one as if he were never guilty. In Eph. 1:7, we read: "In whom (Christ) we have redemption through his (Christ's) blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his (God's) grace."

2. The secondary result of repentance is "refresh­ing from the presence of the Lord," Acts 3:19. These refreshings will come when we exercise our liberty as children of God, in making our testimony for the Lord. It is the duty, obligation and responsibility of God's child to tell others what the Lord has done for him. In Mark 5:19, we read of what Jesus told a young convert to do: "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."

3. The ultimate result of repentance is exper­ienced, or will be experienced,.when we get home with the Lord. This will take place after the reSlJrrection and we ,receive our new bodies, and are enjoying the presence of the Lord and all the redeemed in heaven, when we shall inherit all things, Rev. 21:7: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." Read also Col. 3:20, 21; Eph. 2:6, 7, et al.

 

IV. WHO SHOULD REPENT?  "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent," Acts 17:30. Read in this connection: Matt. 5:20.; Matt. 18:3; John 3:3, 5, 7; Luke 13:1-5.

 

V. SOME BIBLE EXAMPLES OF REPENTANCE.

(1) The Ninevites, Jonah 3.

(2) The thief on the cross, Luke 23:39-43.

(3) Saul of Tarsus, Acts 9:1-15. The whole course of this man´s life was completely changed.  If one can´t see the evidence of repentance in this example, he is surely blind.

(4) The publican, Luke 18:13.

(5) The sinful woman in Simon´s house, Luke 7:37-50.

(6) The three thousand at Pentecost, Acs 2:41-47.

(7) The Philippian jailer, Acts 16:25-34.

 

QUESTIONS

How old is the doctrine of repentance?

What about the absolute necessity of repentance? What did Jesus teach about it?

What did John the Baptist demand?

What did Christ command His disciples to teach? What two things are necessary before one can attain to repentance?

What are the three elements of repentance? Discuss each one fully.

What are the results of repentance? Discuss each result fully.

Who should repent?

How many Bible examples of repentance can you name?

What about the neglect of the doctrine of repentance? Is it, preached much or little?  End of study.  These will continue.

 

 

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