A Family Sermon

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the
ark…And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives
with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood." Genesis
7:1, 7.

GOD in infinite Grace had entered into Covenant with Noah that He would
preserve him and his family alive. The tenor of that Covenant you will
find in the 18th verse of the 6th chapter. "With you will I establish
My Covenant; and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and
your wife, and your sons' wives with you." There was a positive
foretelling of Noah's coming into the ark and finding safety. The thing
was fixed and ordained so to be, and yet, when the time came, Noah was
not carried into the ark by force, nor lifted into it against his will
by a benevolent violence. He was bid to come into the ark in the most
natural manner possible and he entered it voluntarily and cheerfully.
He and his family left their houses to find a home in the ark, and so
they were saved.

The Covenant promise and purpose were fulfilled, but Noah acted in
perfect freedom, as much choosing to go into the ark as others chose to
keep out. Now, Beloved, there is a decree in Heaven ordaining the
salvation of the Lord's chosen people. It is useless to deny that
decree, for even if it were not so, yet no difficulty would be
withdrawn, it would only be shifted to another place. Some of us,
instead of denying predestination, like to think upon it and find
rivers of consolation springing from the everlasting purpose of the
living God.

But, albeit that God has purposed and decreed the salvation of His
elect, yet this by no means prevents our speaking, in the Lord's name,
to all men. Nor does it set aside the necessity that those men should
cheerfully accept the Gospel of God and awaken themselves to obey its
command, by the power of Grace. My Hearer, I cannot tell whether your
name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation
of the world, but I can assure you that to you is the word of this
salvation sent and that it bids you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
with this assurance–that if you do so you shall be saved, for so has
the Lord most solemnly declared!

The method of the Divine arrangement involves an active consent on our
part and a willing obedience to the Gospel command. The purpose is
sure, but it is unknown and unrevealed till the Gospel is made known
and brought home with effectual power so that the heart accepts it, the
spirit obeys it and the man is saved–saved as a free agent. He is
saved as a voluntary being, yet not saved apart from the secret,
almighty purpose of the Most High–nor without the effectual working of
His Grace. And so we come here, at this time, believing that there are
some in this house concerning whom the Lord has purposed that they
shall be Christ's in the day of His appearing.

We address you all hoping that the Spirit of God will apply the Word
with special power to the chosen, that they may see that they,
themselves, must believe in Jesus–that they must be actively awakened
to repentance, to prayer, to a change of life, to confidence in Christ.
When this shall happen, then shall the Covenant purpose be known to
them and fulfilled in them, for they shall be saved from the wrath to
come! Not knowing, therefore, who is to come into this net, we cast it
into the sea, believing that Christ knows every fish in the sea and
what fish will come to the net. We do not wish to know this, ourselves,
for it is quite enough for us to know how to cast in the net and to be
fishers of men.

The practical work belongs to us, but the result we leave with the
Lord. There are two things in the two texts. The first is the
call–"The Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the
ark." The second is the obedience to the call–"And Noah went in, and
his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark."

I. First, then, THE CALL. We remark, at the outset, that it was a call
from the Lord. "The Lord said unto Noah." You see, Noah was familiar
with other forms of calls, for he had been the instrument of many. For
many years he was a preacher of righteousness, and the principal office
of a preacher is to herald his Master, to make proclamations and to

call upon men in the name of the Lord to obey the Lord's Word. "To you,
O men, do I call, and My voice is to the sons of men."

But it was not by such calls as Noah could give that men were to be
brought into the ark. For albeit we cannot doubt that he was a faithful
minister and an earnest preacher. And, no doubt, he pleaded with the
people day and night, yet, sad to say, not one beside his own family
entered into the ark through Noah's labors. Perhaps his preaching may
have been useful to his wife and to his sons' wives. If so, he had no
mean reward for his pains. But to all outside of his family his word
seems to have been powerless as to delivering them from death by the
devouring flood. But now he was to know something of another call,
differing in many respects–a call from the Lord of Heaven and earth
whose Word is with power.

The preacher can only give the general call and it is his duty to give
it to all around him. He is to stand in the streets and lanes of the
city and bid men come to the feast of Grace. Yes, he is to go into the
highways and hedges and, as far as he can, to compel them to come in.
But men do not come upon our compulsion or upon our call unless a
secret something goes with our pleadings–a mysterious power, quiet,
silent, omnipotent–making the voice of man to be the voice of the Holy
Spirit and hiding within the shell of the outward call the kernel of
the inner call! When the Lord said to Noah, "Come you," he did come.

He did not put it off and say that surely it was meant for others. He
felt it to be a personal call. It was "Come you." He knew that it was
for himself. God the Holy Spirit speaks home to the inmost soul when He
speaks to save–there is no putting off His voice as though directed to
another. Noah did not feel inclined to controvert, or plead for delay,
or object, or make excuses, or say he could not. When the Lord said to
Noah, "Come you," Noah came. The call was effectual, and resistance was
out of the question!

It is true the Lord had, in a measure, spoken to the rest of mankind by
Noah's ministry, but that form of the Lord's speaking in common
pleadings and invitations can be resisted to men's destruction. They
could close their ears against the common, or general call, and they
did, for it was true then, as it is now, "many are called, but few are
chosen." Myriads go to destruction with the honest call of God ringing
in their ears which they willfully reject–

"The worldlings willfully went on Rebellious till their day was past.
They forced the lingering deluge down And perished in their sins at
last." When that silent call comes, which we are accustomed to speak of
as "effectual calling," then, if there is resistance, it is sweetly
overcome. The will finds itself no longer headstrong and obstinate. The
judgment, darkened before, becomes light, and the soul, before
motionless, cries, "Draw me, I will run after You."

Happy are the men to whom such a call comes from God Himself! I ask
you, my dear Hearers now present, whether you have ever had God dealing
with you in this powerful, this inward, this spiritual manner? If not,
I am sure you have never come to Christ. If you have received no call
but such as I can give you, such as my Brothers who aid me can give
you, such as the most earnest evangelist can give you, you have been
called in vain and are yet in your sins. If you are, indeed, the people
of God, you must know that a voice in your souls, mysteriously
persuasive and overpowering, has spoken to you and said, "Come to
Jesus," and you have yielded to it.

Happy are you, tonight, if you have been so called, for it is written,
"Whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He
also glorified." Now, note that this call from God was of such a tenor
that Noah was bound, personally, to come. It was a call to personal
action. Noah must come. "Come you." It was not a call of this kind–
"Now, Noah, sit where you are and you will be right. Wait, Noah.
Patiently, quietly wait, and see what God will do." But, no! It said to
Noah, "Come you." Noah must come and he must come to the ark, too. For
him there was only one way of salvation–no more than for anybody else!

He must come to the ark which God had bid him prepare as the instrument
of safety–and he must come into it. It was of no use his coming near
it, but he must come into it. Within its wooden walls he must hide
himself. Within its vast chambers he must find a dwelling. And so, dear
Soul, when God calls you, He will make you feel that you must come to
Jesus–not wait and delay, but come by a distinct act of the soul to be
immediately performed! And you must come to Christ, too, for believing
in anything else will destroy, rather than save you! Your faith must
come and place her whole reliance upon the great Sacrifice of Christ!

You must come into Christ, too–so near to Him as to be in Him, to make
Him your hiding place and your refuge from the storm. You must have an
inward faith which takes you into the very inwards of Christ, hides you
in His wounds, conceals you within Himself. When God calls Noah it is,
"Come into the ark." And when God calls any sinner to Himself it is,
"Come to Christ; be hidden in Christ that you may be preserved as the
Lord's choice treasure." Come, make the Lord Jesus your refuge, your
deliverance and your habitation!

Now, it would have been of no use for Noah to have gone on making
preparations for his dwelling in the ark. That he had done long enough.
He had gathered all sorts of food for all the creatures that were to be
lodged in that marvelous menagerie and now that he is bid to enter the
ark, he does not say, "I must gather more hay and store up more corn
and fruits." No, "Come you into the ark" finished all his labors. He
must have done with preparing and actually enter the refuge. I know
some of you have been thinking about your souls and praying, and
reading good books, and attending meetings, and trying to get
instruction.

Well, so far, so good. But that is not the way by which you will find
salvation. The call of God to your soul is, "Come into the ark," or, in
other words, "Come now to Jesus and distinctly and finally commit
yourself to Him. Just as Noah put himself in the ark, to sink in the
ark or swim in the ark–to live in the ark or die in the ark. He
committed his whole future to the ark and that is what you have to
do–commit yourself and all that is about you entirely to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Considerations, resolutions and preparations must come to
an end and you must in very deed "come into the

ark."–

"O Jesus, Sa vior of the lost, Our ark and hiding place, By storms of
sin and sorrow tossed We seek Your sheltering Grace. Forgive our
wandering and our sin, We wish no more to roam; Open the ark and take
us in, Our soul's eternal home."

Neither would it have done for Noah to go round the ark to survey it
again. No doubt he had examined, before, that ark of wood and been
pleased to think its timbers were so sound. No insect could eat that
bitter wood. It was a tree that would not rot. No doubt he was pleased
with the architecture of the vessel, for he had built it with no
surveyor there but his God and, it was, therefore, well built. God was
the great Master of Noah's naval yard and had given him plans and
specifications. It was quite right that Noah should inspect the huge
vessel up and down and see to the caulking and make sure that it was
well pitched inside and out, and so on.

But now he must give up surveying and come to inhabiting. He must come
into the ark to remain in it. And so must I, like you, my dear Hearers,
to take an interest in the Person of Christ and in the way of
salvation! It is a very hopeful sign when you survey the Ark of
salvation and say, "How stoutly built, and how thoroughly well caulked
it is. Never were timbers better put together, there is no fear of a
leakage here! She will live out every storm that will ever beat upon
her. She is a true lifeboat upon a stupendous scale."

I like to hear a sinner say, "Christ is a great Savior! I perceive that
He is able to save to the uttermost and I wonder at the wisdom and the
goodness of God that He has devised such a way of salvation." So far,
so good, dear Friend, but all your admiration of Jesus will not save
you! You must come inside His ark! By a simple faith you must, at once,
give yourselves up to Jesus to be saved in Him. No longer look at
Christ externally, nor survey Him even with a grateful eye for what He
has done for others. But come, now, and commit yourself to Him. There
stands the door and you have to go through it, and enter into the inner
chambers, or you will find no safety.

Neither would it have been of any use for Noah to go up to the ark and
stand against the door and say, "I do not say that I am not going in
and I do not even say that I am not in already. I have got one foot in,
but I am a moderate man and like to be friendly with both sides. I am
in and yet not in. If the door was shut I do not know but that it would
cut me in halves. But, anyway, I do not want to be altogether out and I
do not want to be quite in. I should like to stand where I could hurry
in as soon as I saw the water coming up, but, still, while there is
another opportunity of taking a walk on the dry land, I may as well
avail myself of it. There is no hurry about it, is there?

"You see, if a man keeps his finger on the latch of the door, he can
pop in as soon as ever he sees the first drop of rain descending, or
the water coming up anywhere near him. But is there any reason for
being so decided all at once? Everybody likes his liberty, you know,
and does not want to be shut in before he needs to be, at any rate."
No, that would not do for Noah. God said to Him, "Come into the ark,"
and he went in at once. Noah must not hesitate, or linger, or halt, but
in he must go–right in.

And, O dear Souls, you that linger, you that are of two opinions. If
you were wise and did but know the danger of being outside, and the
bliss of being inside, instead of hesitating you would want to
penetrate into the ark's inmost recesses and to take your place in the
very center just as I desire to go right to the heart of Christ, into
the very center of His inmost love, for there, only there, shall I be
perfectly at rest! Do not hesitate! Decide! Decide at once! May the
Spirit of God lead you to do so. I know you will not delay if the
effectual call is now being given–you will be obedient to the heavenly
vision at once.

Now, go a little further. It is God that calls and Noah must, in very
deed, personally and actually come. It is said, "Come into the ark."
Now, notice that word, for it teaches us that in entering the ark, Noah
would be coming close to His God. "Come you"–Why did it not say, "Go
you?" Why, because God was inside and meant to be inside, in the ark,
along with Noah and, therefore, He said, "Come you." Oh that blessed,
"come"! We had it the other night, you know, when we preached from,
"Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden." "Come"–that is
the Grace word! But, oh, it is the Glory word, too, for Christ will say
at the last, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from before the foundation of the world."

"Come." "God is in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world unto Himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them." And he that comes to Christ
comes to God! If you find rest in Christ you will only do what the
great God has done before you, for He rests in Christ Jesus! He smells
a sweet savor of rest in the Redeemer's Sacrifice. If you delight in
Christ you will only do what God has always been doing, for He delights
in His Son–"This is my Beloved Son," He said, "in whom I am well
pleased." There is no coming to the Father but by Christ–and he that
comes to Christ has come to the Father–and he has seen and known the
Father. Coming to Christ is coming to God!

Now observe that what is meant here is this–dwellers in Christ are
dwellers with God. To live in the ark was to live with God. Dwellers in
Christ are under the protection of God, for to dwell in the ark was to
have God for a guardian. Noah did as much as say, when he passed into
the ark, "God is here and I have come to live with Him. God is Master
and Protector, here, and I am come to be protected by Him." O Soul,
when you can say, "I trust in Christ," then you may go on to say,
"Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations." You may
"joy in God through Jesus Christ, by whom, also, we have received the
Atonement." Ah, how near to God that man is who dwells in Christ! When
Christ is All in All to you, the Father Himself loves you and you may
rejoice in a consciousness of communion and fellowship with

Him.

Now, notice that when Noah came to the ark, he must come there to find
his all in it. All the food he needs he must find in the ark. Mistress
Noah cannot go out to market any more. Her daughters can no longer go
to the shops and the stores. Noah's sons cannot farm or trade, or hunt
or dig for gold. Houses, lands, treasures will soon lie deep at the
bottom of the flood. All Noah has is in the ark. It is his sole
possession, his all, for which he has suffered the loss of all things
and rejoices to have done so. From the time of his entrance he is to
find all his pleasure in the ark. There are no outdoor amusements for
himself or his family.

He cannot even find pleasure in the scenery, for that is blotted out by
the deluges of rain. The valleys have vanished and even the hills have
disappeared as the deluge has increased. If he is to find any pleasure,
he must find it inside the ark. It was a melancholy prospect, indeed,
if he could look out the window–but his joy and delight lay within the
chambers of the ark, for there was he saved–and there he dwelt with
God! All his food, also, to supply his necessities he must find inside
the ark. He had no barn nor warehouse to look to, and there was no port
at which he could touch to take in cargo. Whatever need might arise, it
must be met by the stores within the ark, for there was nothing outside
but death.

All his work was inside the ark, too. He had nothing to do, now, except
within that vessel, no fields to plow, no shops to keep, nothing to do
but what was inside the ark. Now, when a soul comes to Christ, it
commits itself to Him for everything. Christ must feed it–you must eat
no longer for your soul anything but the Bread of Heaven. Jesus must
become meat and drink to you, for, "His flesh is meat, indeed, and His
blood is drink, indeed." Now you are to find your

pleasure in Him–your choicest delights, your sweetest joys–all in
Christ Jesus who is our hope, our crown, our delight, our Heaven.

And now, from now on, your service must be to Him only. "You are not
your own, you are bought with a price," and all that you have to do in
this world now lies within the circumference of Christ's will. The most
common duties of life are now to be brought within the sacred circle.
You have nothing to do outside in the waters of sin and self and Satan.
You need neither fish in the waters of sin, nor go boating upon the
waves of worldliness–you are in danger if you do. You are inside the
ark, shut in with God, dead to the world and only alive in Christ
Jesus, that you may be floated in Him out of the old world into "the
new heavens and the new earth wherein dwells righteousness."

Thus, you see, Noah, in coming into the ark, left everything and found
everything–even as by us the world is forsaken and Jesus becomes our
All in All–

"Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave, and follow You. Destitute,
despised, forsaken, You, from now on, my All shall be. Let the world
despise and leave me,

They have left my Savior, too: But my Lord will not deceive me, And in
Him my all I view."

Again, Noah must come into the ark never to go out again. "Come you,"
says God, "into the ark." He is not to make a visit, but he is to be
shut in. As far as that world was concerned, Noah was to be in the ark
as long as it lasted. When the new world came, then he walked out in
joyful liberty. But you and I, dear Brothers and Sisters, are in
Christ, not to be there for a time, but to abide in Him forever and
ever!

If any man thinks to get any good by a transient profession of Christ,
that man is grossly mistaken! If you imagine that you can take up
religion and put it down again–that you can be Believers today and
unbelievers tomorrow, you know nothing of the Grace of God, for the
Grace of God begets a life and that life is incorruptible and lives
forever– nothing can destroy it or remove it. He that is really in
Christ is like Noah in the ark–he is shut in by God's own hand. "None
shall pluck them out of My hand," says Christ, and, truly, none shall
ever take a soul out of the grip of Jesus Christ who is once within it.

You come to Christ to be married to Him! You take Him to have Him and
hold Him from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for
poorer, in sickness and in health–and death, itself, shall not part
you. "Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord?" Noah, according to the Lord's command, must come in at
once. "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come you into the ark"–come at
once, "for yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth
40 days and 40 nights. And every living substance that I have made will
I destroy from off the face of the earth."

There was a door to the ark and that door was open. Indeed, we are not
told that it had ever been shut since it had been made. There it stood,
wide open. We never hear of anybody that ever went in and was driven
out. We never hear of a single beast or bird, or even a creeping thing
that there was but ever went in was cast out. So long as the door was
open whoever came was welcome, but long-suffering was drawing to an
end. The time was now come for Noah to go in and the time was also near
when the door must be shut. And so, when the Spirit of God comes to
persuade men sweetly in effectual calling, it is always in the present
tense.

The Lord never called any man by effectual Grace to believe in Christ
next week. He calls them to believe in Christ directly, and one of the
ways by which the effectual call may be judged is its presentness and
its pressing character. It is "now, now, NOW!" Oh, may the Divine
Spirit be pleading in some heart at this hour, saying, "Come to Jesus
now, before the next word has left the speaker's mouth. Put your trust
in Jesus before this service ends and you shall go your way to your
chamber and to your bed justified and saved." The Spirit of God sweetly
puts it, "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Even
as He did with Noah, who never dreamed of delays, but, when bid to
come, came then and there–

"Come to the ark, the waters rise The seas their billows fear!

While darkness gathers over the skies,

Behold a refuge near.

Come to the ark, all, all that weep

Beneath the sense of sin.

Without, deep calls unto deep

But all is peace within.

Come to the ark, before yet the flood

Your lingering steps oppose!

Come, for the door which open stood

Is now about to close."

And now notice, once more–and that is a sweet part of it–that the
Lord said, "Come you and all your house into the ark." How good it is
of the Lord to think of our children! That He should save us, oh, we
must always bless Him for that! But that He should have a word for our
wife, a word for our son and a word for our daughter–this is
overflowing mercy! I have heard of a man who was unkind enough to say
that he married his wife, but he did not intend to marry all her
family. And it sometimes happens that your love to a person is a good
deal tried by that person's relatives and friends–but when the Lord
Jesus Christ takes to His heart the master or the mistress of a house,
He is willing to take all the household!

He came to the jailor's house at Philippi and He looked on him with
love, but He did not stay with Him only, He blessed all his
household–so blessed them that they were all brought to believe in the
Lord–and they were all baptized then and there! There have been other
households upon which the Lord has looked in the same way. "Come you
and your house," is it not? Am I reading correctly? Look at the
passage! Look at it! It is not merely, "Come you and your house." We
will read it again. "The Lord said to Noah, come you and all your house
into the ark." "ALL." Oh, that blessed comprehensive word, "ALL!"

Then Ham was not left out! Japheth the elder, as he is called in
Genesis 10:21–I know not much for him or against him, but he had faith
enough to enter the ark and he was saved like the rest. Shem, the
second of the household, if I may judge from his descendants, was
always a religious young man, devout and attached to the worship of the
true God. He also entered the ark and was saved. As for Ham, the
scoundrel of the family, it might have been feared that he would not
come in–but notwithstanding all that the Scripture tells us against
him, he was assuredly saved in the ark.

And here was the mercy–that to Japheth, the elder, and to Shem and to
Ham, the promise extended! "Come you and all your house into the ark."
My dear Brother, when you are converted, yourself, it is a blessing
that you have so far a hold of the Gospel, but go on to grasp more of
it! "What must I do to be saved?" asked the jailor. And Paul replied,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your
house." Many cannot get to the second part of the promise. They seem
satisfied if they, themselves, are saved. But oh, for that faith which
takes all that the Gospel is prepared to give and pleads with God that
not only I may be saved, but my house, yes, and ALL my house, without
exception!

II. Here is the call, then. The Lord called effectually Shem, Ham,
Japheth and their wives, so that they all came into the ark. Of that we
are going to speak for a few minutes on the second head, which is THE
OBEDIENCE. Noah came into the ark and his wife, and his sons and their
wives. Their obedience was unquestioning. We do not find them asking
anything at all about the reason for the command–they came as they
were bid. They passed through the doorway and they were all in the ark.

Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and their wives,
daughters and their husbands, and all of you, oh that the blessed
Spirit would put you, now, into such a frame of mind that you should at
once yield to the Divine precept which says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved!" Have you not asked enough questions?
You have had some of them answered, but every answer has only helped
you to invent another dozen! Oh, those questions! Those quibbles! Those
debates! Those doubts! They are ruining thousands! Have you ever heard
of the man who sat at the table and could not eat till he knew the
pedigree of the bullock from which the joint was cut? And then he must
know how it was cooked and comprehend the influence which fire has over
flesh to make it eatable!

Next he must understand anatomy and know how the stomach acts upon the
food and what the gastric juice is made of, and how food is
assimilated. Unless he could get plain answers to every enquiry, he
would not eat. He said, "Plain

answers, mind, plain answers to all my questions, or I will never put a
mouthful between these lips again." Now, there was a poor countryman
who came out of the field and saw the meat and potatoes, and he ate
them all up while the man was asking the questions! And very wise he
was, too. I suppose it was his hunger that made him so sensible. May
the Lord give you a hunger after the Gospel! And when you have it, may
He grant you Grace to feed upon it and receive it into your soul. May
you take what is set before you by infinite love and leave quibblers to
their own folly.

I, myself, have a lot of questions, for the questions I have been asked
by skeptics I have put away along with a lot more of my own which are
far more difficult than theirs. I mean to bring them out one day, but
not until I get to Heaven and carry all I can with me! We shall have
light enough there to see! It is like reading in the dark down here. We
will leave these questions till we get into the blaze of Glory and,
perhaps, they will then answer themselves! Noah and his wife and his
sons and their wives did not worry themselves about mysteries, but
obeyed the plain command and went into the ark and were saved. They
went in at once, but I will not dwell upon that. The whole eight of
them passed in at once!

To get eight people to agree to go anywhere is a difficult thing. But
here they were, all agreed and all ready to start. And they all went
into the ark then and there. It is wondrous that Mistress Shem did not
say that she could not leave all her acquaintances and forsake her
father and all her relations at once. How could she tear herself away?
Good Mistress Japheth might have felt bonds which hold her to her bosom
friends. But so it was–the effectual call went through all the
family–men and women, and they took up their separated position,
coming out of the world at once when the command came. O, blessed
Spirit, give such a call as that to whole families! All these eight
people came away once and for all. They could each say–

"Farewell, vain world, I must be gone!

You are no home, no rest for me.

From now on my heart must dwell alone,

And have no fellowship with thee.

Farewell, poor world, for you must die!

Even now the floods begin to rise.

I die to you without a sigh,

Save that I mourn your blinded eyes." There was a closed door between
the family of Noah and all the rest of the world. They went in to be
the minority and turned out, before long, to be the majority! Oh, that
men would be willing to be the minority in a wicked world and to be
counted fools! People say, "If you join that Church, you just shut
yourself out from all society. Nobody will ever know you anymore. You
might as well be dead and buried." But, truly, when a soul gives itself
to Christ, it feels itself to be dead and buried to the world and says
to it, "Adieu, we are, from now on, strangers." The regenerate pass
straight away from communion with this world to hold all their
communion inside the ark–to have all their fellowship in connection
with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Now to Noah and to his wife and to all the family, this was the most
important event that ever happened to them. When all of them passed out
of the world together to find their refuge where God had provided
it–it was a great day with Noah's household! What a glorious day it is
with men and women when they come to Christ! Their birthday is
noteworthy, but this is better! They were only born to sorrow and death
at first–now are they born to Heaven and eternal life! Their wedding
day? This is better! They were but joined to a mortal in bonds that
death will sever, but now they are married to Christ in everlasting
wedlock!

Moreover, simple as the act of going into the ark may seem, it was one
of the most remarkable events in human history. When Noah and his
family entered into the ark, it was a more important day than when
empires rise or fall, for there would have been an utter end of the
human race if it had not been for their decided action on that
memorable day! So, when men give themselves to Christ, they do not know
what mighty things they are doing for their posterity and for those
immediately around them. Time and eternity quiver with the force of
their deed! These converts will be a blessing to the town in which they
live, a blessing to the society in which they move! The salvation of
that woman will be the salvation of her grandchildren and of their
children and so forth!

Who knows, when a man is born to God, but that there shall spring from
him in future years a godly seed that shall become ministers of Christ
and missionaries of the Cross? It is a grand event when a family is
saved! I heard some music in the street just now and it seemed to me to
be playing in good time to keep tune with the joy we ought to feel when
father,

mother, sons and daughters enter the ark of Christ and find salvation
there! Oh, if households enter into Christ, the very bells of Heaven
may ring again and again and again with a joy that has many joys within
it!

Now let us go into details. The first fact is that Noah went in. This
was right! Noah was the leader. The husband is the head of the
household, or ought to be, and he should go to Christ first. Whether
his wife comes in, or Shem, or Ham comes in, whoever will come in, or
stay out, Noah goes in first, for he would obey the Lord. Head of the
house, are you in the ark? Are you in Christ? You are a father. You
have sons grown up around you, are you decided? You wish your family to
grow up in the fear of God–I hope you do! But how can you expect it if
you are not saved? If Noah had not gone into the ark, I should not
expect to read that Shem and Ham and Japheth went in.

you that are heads of households, your position is very responsible!
You will have to bear much blame if your children go astray. Unless
your example is decided for the Lord, they will be able to say at the
Last Great Day, "Our father was half-hearted and how could we be
expected to give our hearts to God?" Next, his sons are mentioned.
"Noah went in and his sons"–three fine fellows. A happy father is he
who has sons that will go with him in the things of God. Sons are
called in Hebrew, "builders," because they build up a man's house. May
the Holy Spirit build them into the Church! I would to God there were
more young men joining the Church–that more sons were decided!

You cannot expect, can you, to see the sons' wives brought unless the
sons are on the Lord's side? But, I am sorry to say, they are often
opposers and, when the women are brought to Christ, there are the
husbands standing back and even acting as a hindrance to the religion
of their wives! God grant it may not be so in any case here! O son of
Noah, go into the ark with your father! O child of a godly parent,
follow your father to Christ, that you may follow him to Heaven! Let
Abraham's son be an Isaac and Isaac's son be a Jacob, and Jacob's son
be a Joseph–and so may it go on from generation to generation!

The next person who is mentioned is the old lady–namely, Noah's wife.
I give her that name because she was, no doubt, somewhere about 600
years old and she was assuredly an eminent woman. We usually describe
persons who have grown sons by that name in our family circles. The
wife of the father of three sons comes into the ark. I think of her as
of a queenly dame with her sons and their wives. I see her coming
boldly forward with a quiet grace and firmness to go with her beloved
husband–to sink or swim with him. She is casting in her lot with him
not only because he is her husband, but because he had cast in his lot
with God. Oh, beloved woman, advancing into years, with a grown family
about you– if you have not come to Christ, I trust you may–that in
your family the saved ones may be as Noah and his sons and his wife.

Last came the son's wives and what a happy circumstance for them! I was
thinking, as I turned over the subject, how painful it would have been
if one of the boys had not come in. And then how grievous it would have
been if one of the wives had not come. If Noah had been obliged to know
that one of them should be left out and he had to have the dreadful
selection, whom do you suppose he would have left out? I cannot
imagine! I have heard of the Irishman with his seven or eight children,
and someone was willing to adopt one. But the question was–which was
it to be? One is to be taken out of the family and they are not to see
it again. It is to be brought up and taken care of by a stranger–the
father and mother could never agree which it should be.

1 hope, dear fathers and mothers, you will never agree to have one of
your children lost. Make it your daily and nightly prayer, your
incessant effort, your hourly desire that not only Shem and Ham and
Japheth may be brought, but their wives, too–till not one shall be
left behind–but the whole family shall be saved in Christ Jesus!

Now, all this was done by the sweet, effectual calling of the Divine
Spirit. And let us pray tonight, each one, that the same call may be
given to all our friends, kinsfolk and all assembled here–that we may
be all in Christ, both now and on the Last Great Day! Amen.
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