Nail Scarred Ark of Safety — E.A. Johnston

The Three-Point Gospel Message

I read where Wilbur Chapman said he heard Sam Jones preach one time near Sarasota Springs, New York, and although 20 years had passed, he could still remember the outline from his sermon. Well, I have a simple gospel message for us today, friends, and it is my prayer that it sticks with you through the years, for my sermon has but three points.

Humanity's Sin and Need for a Savior

Point number one, man is a sinner in need of a savior. Point number two, God is a God who must punish sin. Point number three, Jesus is the ark of safety. A little child of eight can remember that as well as an egg-headed PhD.

I'll repeat it so you won't forget it. Man is a sinner in need of a savior. God is a God who must punish sin. Jesus is the ark of safety. Now that you've got it, we can begin. Let me pray, friends. I need help from above before I bring this message to us.

Prayer for Conviction and Salvation

Great God, you are the most high God who dwells in a high and lofty place among the cherubim. We praise you, Lord, for being a God of mercy, for being a God of justice. We thank you that we live still in a day of grace.

You take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but you long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I didn't say that. That's what your word says.

Your arm is not too short to save. Lord, I pray that you will use this message and that the preaching of your word will be a hammer that breaks up all false foundations of self-righteousness and good works, and that your word will be like a fire to smoke out any false refuge of an empty religious profession.

I pray, great God, that your spirit will come among us and disturb us, awaken us to our lost condition, in perilous position, outside of Christ Jesus, the ark of safety. And I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, for those of you who have your Bibles, you may turn to the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. The name Genesis comes from the Greek word meaning beginning. Genesis is a book of beginnings.

Creation, Humanity, and the Reliability of Genesis

In it is a description of the creation of the world by a supreme being, God himself. In it is the description of the beginning of the human race, where man was created by God in the image of God. Evolution is a false theory concocted by a mad scientist who mistook his great grandmother for a monkey.

When you begin with a false premise, you walk a crooked road of deception in the theory of evolution. We'll run you straight into a ditch. I'd rather believe God's account of creation and stand on his word and the Bible.

The Corruption of Noah's Generation

It's reliable, friends. Well, my message today comes from God's word in the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis, which speaks of a corrupt generation. It speaks of a man, a just man. It speaks of a terrible flood, and it speaks of an ark of safety.

This ark has come to be known as Noah's Ark, but it was always God's ark. Noah was just a passenger. He was just a sailor captain. In my message, friends, I will make much mention of this ark. In fact, the title of my message today is the Nail-Scarred Ark of Safety.

My oh my now, that's some kind of title, isn't it? Why do I call it a nail-scarred ark of safety? Because on close examination, that ark had human nail scars all over it, scratched up and down it where desperate, perishing people dug their nails into that gopher wood as they tried to cling to it, tried to get a firm grip on it as the waters rose, tried to climb up on top of it, tried to hang on for dear life as the swirling floodwaters rose about them and drowned them.

Yes, sir. By the time that generation drowned, that ark had nail prints, nail scars all on it. And that ark was an ark of safety to Noah and his family and all those animals that were on that zoo cruise.

The Coming Judgment and the Solemn Warning

Now, I ask for your attention today, friends, because although I have a simple message, it's a serious message and a solemn warning for each of you to be sure you have booked passage on that ark of safety for a day.

The trouble is coming. A day of wrath is coming. A day of judgment is coming where every mother's son we brought up to stand before a great white throne where the judge of all the earth will sit there.

Listen to me, friends. You better sit up straight. You better get the wax out of your ears and hear the word of God. Let's begin reading in Genesis chapter six, beginning in verse one. And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair.

And they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit should not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days, and they had a pretty good basketball league.

Wait a minute. That's not there in the text, but how do you know they didn't? Well, let's get back to our passage, friends. And also, after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and the bare children of them, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Well, that's kind of like the front page of our newspaper today, isn't it, friends?

God's Grief Over Sin and His Judgment

Now, here's where the scene described of this great wickedness takes an ominous turn into a divine judgment. We read in verse 6,. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Do you know, friends, that when we sin, we grieve God at his heart? Our sin makes his heart ache, like a father or mother would have an aching heart over a wayward child. Oh, friends, the blackness of sin, it grieves the father's heart.

And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For it repenteth me that I have made them. Now, comes two of the biggest words in this passage.

Here they are, but Noah. You know, God's up to something, friends, when he places that word but as a great divider of what he just said and what he's about to say. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Praise God. I love that. I will pause here, friends. We see our first point, and that's man is a sinner in need of a savior. God was bringing a great judgment on the earth, and the only place of safety was to be aboard that ark.

The Ark as the Only Refuge for Sinful Humanity

We read in verses 11, 14, the sad story. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.

And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me. For the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within.

And without which pitch I will stop their friends. So we see man is a sinner in need of a savior. Romans 1, 16 declares in the Amplified, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation from his wrath and punishment.

That's what salvation is, friend. It's salvation from God's wrath and punishment for sin. And that brings us to our second point. God is a God who must punish sin. God is a God of mercy, but also God is a God of justice.

God's Justice and the Necessity of Punishing Sin

We've seemed to have forgotten that today. We've made ourselves a little Santa Claus God. Just a God of mercy and love who only exists to bless his little darlings. But listen, friends, the God of the Bible is also a God of justice.

He is a just judge who will by no means clear the guilty. We get a stronger sense of this divine justice from 2 Peter, which states clearly under no uncertain terms that God is a God who must punish sin.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the city of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.

Noah's Obedience and the Mockery of the World

So God gave Noah instructions, friends, on how to build the ark. And Noah and his sons went to work out in the woods cutting wood and building that ark. And Noah was mocked by his generation why they thought it was the funniest thing, that old man out there building a boat when it never had rained before.

He was made fun of by the townspeople. He was an object of their ridicule. They rejected his warnings. He was the song of the drunkards, a mockery to behold. And any preacher who preaches righteousness to a sinful generation would be a mockery to them as well, friends.

But listen to me, God wanted that ark built. God wanted to preserve Noah. He was coming with an ark of safety. He wanted to give mankind another way to avoid that terrible judgment. But there was only one way, and that way was the ark.

And Noah got to work obediently on that ark, and there was an echo that came out of that forest. For every stroke of the hammer was an explanation point that God must punish sin. God must punish sin. God must punish sin.

The Closed Door of Judgment

Yes, sir, when that deluge came and the floodwaters rose, the only place of safety was that ark. And the antediluvians tried to find that ark when it began to pour, but the door had already closed. So they clawed and clawed at that ark, trying to get a grip on it, trying to hang on to it.

In their desperation, their nail scars were scratched all over that ark. Oh, friends, they were trying to get a grip on it, but they couldn't. The door of safety was shut. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou in all the house into the ark.

You see, friends, God was already in the ark. He didn't tell Noah to go into the ark. He said, Come. And he closed the door. And the invitation to come to the ark of safety runs throughout my Bible. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Jesus Christ as the Nail-Scarred Ark of Safety

Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they should be as wool. And this brings us to my third point, friends. Jesus is the ark of safety. Oh, let me tell you about this good news of the gospel.

And it is this. Jesus is the ark of safety. And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love.

Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Listen, friends, to this striking passage of Scripture from Matthew's gospel. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.

And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And then they spit on him and took the reed and smote him on the head.

And after that, they had mocked him. They took the robe off him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. And as those Roman soldiers fastened the Son of God to that cross, every stroke of the hammer was an explanation point.

God must punish sin. God must punish sin. God must punish sin. On Calvary, Jesus bore our sins as a sin substitute, and he is the ark of safety who has nail scars in his hands. He's why he's the nail-scarred ark of safety.

The Gospel Invitation to Come to Christ

God told Noah to come into the ark of safety, and God issues those same gospel calls to come. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye.

Buy and eat, ye come. Buy wine and milk without money and without price. And the old hymn says, Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou biddest me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Jesus is the ark of safety, friends. Flee to him for forgiveness of sin. Listen to this gospel invitation. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. So we've seen, friends, that man is a sinner in need of a Savior. God is a God who must punish sin.

The Final Call to Take Refuge in Christ

Jesus is the ark of safety. Oh, I hope you never forget it, friends. But I hope also, if you feel your need of him, that you'll come to him now, that you'll submit to him. Oh, turn your life over to the Lamb of God, friends, who died for sinners.

Listen, friend, to the last call of the gospel from the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Don't let the Savior pass you by, friend. Get to Jesus, close with him for forgiveness of sin, and own him as your Savior of the Lord.

Listen. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is the thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.