Come Into the Ark — While that Door is Open
The word comes to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” Now you see all Noah’s neighbors and friends ridiculing him as he moves in. They say he certainly is mad. After he has moved in, the first thing that alarms them is, they rise one morning, and lo and behold! the heavens are filled with the fowls of the air. They are flying into the ark, two by two. They come from the desert; they come from its mountain; they come from all parts of the world. They are going into the ark. It must have been a curious sight. I can hear the people cry, “Great God! what is the meaning of this?” And they look down on the earth; and, with great alarm and surprise, they see little insects creeping up two by two, coming from all parts of the world. Then behold there come the tiger and the elephant, two by two. The neighbors cry out, “What does this mean?” They run to their statesmen and wise men, who have told them there was no sign of a coming storm, and ask them why it is that those birds, animals, and creeping things go toward the ark, as if guided by some unseen hand. “Well,” the statesmen and wise men say, “we cannot explain it; but give yourselves no trouble; God is not going to destroy the world. Business was never better than it is now. Do you think if God was going to destroy the world, he would let us go on so prosperous as he has? There is no sign of a coming storm. What has made these creeping insects and these wild beasts of the forest go into the ark, we do not know. We cannot understand it; it is very strange. But there is no sign of anything going to happen. The stars are bright, and the sun shines as bright as ever it did. The lambs are skipping upon the hillside, and everything moves on as it has been moving for all time past. You can hear the children playing in the street. You can hear the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the land, and all is merry as ever.” I imagine the alarm passed away, and they fell into their regular courses. Noah comes out and says: “The door is going to be shut. Come in. God is going to destroy the world. See the animals, how they have come up; the communication has come to them direct from Heaven.” But the people only mocked on.
One morning they are startled. They see that the great door of the ark is shut. The door of that ark must have been a large one. We are told God shut it. Perhaps it was so large no one could shut it. The same God that shut Noah in, shut the world out. It was a door of mercy and grace to those inside, but a warning to those outside. God shut that door, and shut them in. Matthew tells us that when the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, there will be no hope. Thank God the door of grace and mercy is open to-night. When that door is shut, there will be no hope for those outside of the ark of safety. “In a day that ye think not, the Son of Man shall come.” That door of mercy and grace may be shut at any moment. While that door is open, and God calls you, oh, be wise, and step into the ark!
The time is coming again when God is going to deal in judgment with the world. It is but a little while; we know not when, but it is sure to come. God’s word has gone forth that this world shall be rolled together like a scroll, and shall be on fire. What then will become of your soul? It is a loving call, “Now come, thou and all thy house, into the ark.” Twenty-four hours before that rain began to fall, Noah’s ark, if it had been sold at auction, would not have brought as much as it would be worth for kindling wood. But twenty-four hours after the rain began to fall, Noah’s ark was worth more than all the world. There was not then a man living but would have given all his living for a seat in Noah’s ark. You may turn away from this hall to-night, and laugh. “I believe in Christ!” you say. “I would rather be without him than to have him.” But bear in mind the time is coming that Christ will be worth more to you than ten thousand worlds like this. Bear in mind that he is offered to you to-night. It is a day of grace; it is a day of mercy. Do you know if you read your Bible carefully, that God always precedes judgment with grace? Grace is a forerunner of judgment. Now he called these men in the days of Noah in love. They would have been saved in those one hundred and twenty years.
God seeks to be merciful, and he wants to have you and your children saved. God said to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” Father, are you in? Then you should not rest until your children are in. The burden of my prayer is that God may save my children. What would have been Noah’s feelings if he had left one son out of the ark, when those judgment waves came against it? He would have said: “There is my poor boy on some mountain. Poor boy. Would to God I had died in his place. I would rather have perished on the mountain than had him perish.” It is a glorious sight to see a whole family going into the ark. God said to Noah: “Come thou and all thy family into the ark.” Hear the voice of God calling you into the ark, and set your face like a flint and say, “I will press into the kingdom of God.”
~ This is from “Come Into the Ark” in The Gospel Awakening
