OUR SECURITY

A. E. Dunne

Genesis 6: 13–22; 7: 17–24; 8: 1–14

I just want to point out several features from these very interesting scriptures which bear on our

security. This was a terrible catastrophe; you can feel it as you read of it. There was no escape for those who did not belong to Noah—no escape; that is what is emphasised. If anyone does not belong to Christ, there is no escape.

We read in Hebrews that Noah made an ark for the saving of his house. Now, whilst that is treated there as an example to believers, we cannot leave out of it our Lord Jesus, because He has saved His house, that is, all who belong to Him, but no one else. If I have not a link with Christ, I am outside the ark. It is emphasized that those who belonged to Noah—by natural ties then, spiritual ties now—were secure when wrath fell on mankind. That is in keeping with what the apostle says in Romans 5: 9, “we shall be saved by him from wrath”. It is by Him. We can think of eternal wrath, although I have a feeling that that scripture refers to the wrath that is coming on mankind in time. There is eternal wrath and there is temporal wrath.

Whatever it is, those who belong to the great Noah never perish, as the Lord Jesus said, “and they shall never perish”. That is the word of God. Those who belong to Him, who have trusted in Him for their salvation, are safe, but no others are.

Now this ark took some time to build—a hundred and twenty years—but as the time drew near for the flood to come in it would be very evident that it was a provision for the sea; it was a boat. You can think of men building a house, for example. At the start you see foundations, and there is no very clear indication to the ordinary man of what it is going to be like. The architect may know, but after a while it becomes clear to others what kind of structure it is. What I want to say now is that as we get nearer this terrible day of wrath that is coming on the world it is

becoming more evident what a precious provision Christ is to escape from it.

Whenever those antediluvians found themselves outside that ark, and the earth was covered with water, then they would know that the ark was the very thing needed for such a time.

There was the ark that could have saved them, but they were not in it. The situation became so apparent that even fools would not fail to identify that ark as the very thing for that catastrophe. And I am sure it is the same today for those who believe—and perhaps even for some who do not trust Him—how apparent it is that it is just the Lord Jesus Christ who is the One for the moment.

So as this ark was under construction it would become apparent as the hundred and twenty years drew near to completion that, at any rate, what was being built was a ship, and was meant to survive a large inundation of the earth. The evil men of the time did not think that it was going to happen, but God had said that it was going to happen, and Noah had told them so for a hundred and twenty years, and showed it by building the ark. He preached to them about it. The thing became more apparent as time went on that this vessel was the very means of escape from a flood that was coming, a perfect provision to save the people from being drowned in it. And the Lord Jesus is the very Person for our eternal security when we are in danger of losing our souls. That is what I want to say for a start.

Now this ark was built of a certain wood gopher wood. That is wood that is not corruptible and does not rot. No matter how long it is in water it does not rot. But that was not enough. It had to be pitched inside and outside with pitch. There was to be no possibility whatever that any water would get through the seams. And the word

“pitch” is related to the word “atonement” (or “cover”) in Scripture, which means there is a complete “cover” for sin, a complete obliteration of it. God’s judgment for sin can never reach or touch those who have redemption in Christ Jesus. There is no possibility whatever of Christ failing to be our Redeemer. How certain things are when it comes to our eternal security! It is wonderful to think that the thing that many say you cannot be sure about is the very thing God says you can be sure about—the salvation of your soul.

Then it had to be made, it says, with three storeys—with a lower, second and third storey. It was not that there was to be one great area in the ark where everybody was. It was made with divisions, and there were different levels. That is very interesting. Each kind kept to its own cell; there was to be no confusion; it was a scene of order and peace. And it also suggests what Scripture speaks of in the New Testament as the various families named of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3: 15). Not all are equal in their knowledge of Him, the blessed Person who will fill eternity. There are grades of apprehension and power to take in divine thoughts, and the cells in the ark reflected that. God, you see, does not just deal in generalities. He is specific and discriminating, and there are certain groups of saved persons that have higher places than others. But there is one thing that I must say, and that is that, although this is true, there was only one door into the ark. Everybody came in in the same way. Typically they all had to come in through our Lord Jesus Christ. One door was set in the side of the ark— only one. No matter where they came from—the lion from the jungle, or the eagle from its high nest, or even the snake making its way from the grass—all kinds came in, suggesting sinners of all sorts reaching their happy places of

safety. Israel will have a happy place; the nations will have a happy place; the assembly will have a happy place, but all come in by the one door. The assembly will have a unique place, being gathered now in the day of grace.

And it is not just a door in the ordinary sense. The Hebrew word suggests it is not a door with hinges. It is an opening in the wall of the structure of the ship. It is open of itself. The way of salvation is free, full, and for all. That is, until God shuts it when the day of grace is over. But it is a very wonderful matter that all will have come into blessing by the same way. The same Saviour has saved them all. Now that is very helpful to me. It lets me in; it is wide enough to let me in.

And then, as we go on, we find that Noah was to make sure that these persons and living things would be inside. He was to bring them in. But then it says in another section that they were to go in to Noah. That is a word for anybody who says, ‘I must wait until God does something’. No, indeed, God will do something, but you must do something. It says also they came ‘unto Noah into the ark’. Noah went in and his sons, his wife, and their wives, and all the others. So there are the two sides. God will look after His side, but you must look after your side. Make sure that you get to Christ!

Now another point, I want to draw your attention to is that it is said that this flood covered the mountains. It is interesting that later on it is said that as the waters abated the mountains were seen. They were covered until then. Now their “tops” were seen. I think in this scripture “mountains” suggest the purposes of God. There are the “ancient mountains” and the “everlasting hills” (Deuteronomy 35: 15)—the purposes of God. But the scripture tells us that these mountains were covered, that is, it seemed as if the purposes of God had been overwhelmed, swallowed up, by the necessary judgment that had to be passed upon sin. It looked like that.

Sin had come into God’s creation and affected man. The devil might have been heard to say to God that His purposes had been defeated; He must judge man, and God’s own judgment had apparently swamped His purposes. The creature with which His purposes were bound up, even though marked out for blessing before the foundation of the world, had become a subject of judgment.

Well, it is wonderful to see that the tops of those mountains appeared. Yes, God’s purposes stand and hold fast. The mountains were unaffected by the flood, although at one time they were covered over. We are specially told that the mountains were covered, but then the tops of the mountains were seen. It does not say by whom, but they were seen. They were seen when Christ arose from the dead. That is when the tops of the mountains were seen, not the whole of the mountains. Christ is the “first-fruits”, then later “those that are the Christ’s at his coming”, 1 Corinthians 15: 23. The tops of the mountains were seen when He arose from the dead. The rest of the mountains will be seen when all the saints are also raised from the dead.

Well, then, it says another interesting thing. “Fifteen cubits upwards the waters prevailed”. We have, no doubt, at times pondered what that means, and what I am going to say does not necessarily indicate that I have got the answer, but it strikes me that it could refer to the draught, as we speak, of the boat—fifteen cubits—as well as the height above the mountains to which the waters rose. The ark was thirty cubits high, and its draught was fifteen cubits, shall we say, that is, it was fifteen cubits in the water. Fifteen cubits of the boat were below the water and fifteen cubits above it. It was in the water to the extent of fifteen cubits—the draught of the vessel. Now I think that that refers to the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ was under the judgment of God in all the reality it involved. He was in the waters. He was not overwhelmed by the waters, but He was in them. Indeed, it tells us that the waters “prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark went on the face of the waters”. And, then, the waters “prevailed exceedingly”. The more terrible the wrath of God was that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ, the more He showed how suited He was to bear it.

The more it was, the greater was the exhibition of His ability to bear our sins.

It says in Isaiah 53, “and Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”—“laid upon him”. Do you know what that means? It is a word used in the original language for meeting people. Sometimes it is used of a soldier falling upon somebody to kill him—he ‘meets’ him.

And what this scripture means is that all the iniquities, all the sins, of those who trust in the Lord Jesus met at the cross. They all met there. God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. So the height to which the waters rose alongside the ark suggests that the Lord Jesus was really under God’s judgment when He bore our sins in His body on the tree.

And then you get references to the waters retiring, and so forth, until we reach the point where Noah opens the window of the ark. He wanted to know if things were changed, if the earth was ready for occupation again. And so he sent out the raven. But it was content in flying about whilst the anarchy of the watery waste was still present. This suited its temperament. It is what we are naturally; we are at home where the destruction caused by our sin, and God’s wrath against it, is.

Well, the second instance is the sending out of the dove, which is a type, as we know, of the Holy Spirit as One who is sensitive. He cannot remain anywhere but where there are lovers of Christ. It is a wonderful thing that the Holy Spirit has a place of residence even now in the assembly of God. He is at rest there when all around is death and what is displeasing to God.

But the time came when the dove went forth from the ark and from Noah and never came back again. Why? It was because the earth was now fully expressive of Christ, and it suited the dove to remain abroad. At the present time it does not suit the Holy Spirit to remain abroad, but there will be a time when the Holy Spirit will be abroad, as it says, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh”, Joel 2: 28. That is the world to come. The Spirit of God will be abroad. He will not have to consider whether His sensitive nature will be affected adversely.

All shall know God from the least to the greatest, as the knowledge of God fills the earth.

In verse 13 of chapter 8 it says something else happened, “the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark”. That is, a day will come when faith gives place to sight. The Lord will appear, to remove the covering. We will then see as we should see. We have not to look on the devastation. Even that which is horrible in the world, and what God will do in judgment, is not something for us to look at. There is a time in the book of Revelation when the seven thunders utter their own voices and John is told not to write what the thunders said. Of course, we know that the Lord has revealed what He is going to do in the book of Revelation, but there is the side of our not being informed of the awful details. But there is a day coming when we will be able to look out on this earth, even as God has made it naturally, and see it blessed under the feet of Christ. Noah took the covering away from the ark. That covering is not mentioned before. The window is mentioned—Noah opened it to let the birds out—but not until now does he remove the covering from the ark. It has done its work. There is a blessed time coming when faith will give place to sight. We will no longer be in our present condition, but happily be able to look out with joy on creation cleansed of sin.

The millennium will be a time when it will be right to go in for the natural on the earth, to enjoy nature at its best, the scenery, the flowers, for it will be the same earth, the same flowers, the same trees. It is not that time now. We are limited now as to the natural, and we should be limited. We should circumscribe ourselves as to the natural, but in that day the idea will be the opposite to this, because it will be a cleansed earth, and Jesus will be reigning as King. So it will be a wonderful day when God Himself, the Lord Jesus, we may say, by His own act will take the covering off the ark, and we shall see the fruits of what He has done in their fulness.

I think therefore that the story of the ark is a wonderful story of the believer’s security as belonging to the household of faith, Noah’s household. And it is a wonderful story of how God will ultimately bring about a scene in which the Holy Spirit is free to be at large.

Preaching at Londonderry
c.1985