I had the pleasure of reading this book written by Dwight Moody and was so blessed that the Lord spoke to me many times through it. I know it would bless you too so I decided to post parts of it here. It is quite lengthy but PLEASE- bear with it because it is so appropriate to our present time. I trust the Lord will speak to you through this too. God bless...
Men say, " I don't believe in the story of the flood." Christ connected His own return to this world with that flood:
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."
I believe the story of the flood just as much as I do the third chapter of John. I pity any man that is picking the old Book to pieces. The moment we give any one of these things, we touch the deity of God. I have noticed that when a man does begin to pick the Bible to pieces, it doesn't take him long to tear it all to pieces. What is the use of being five years about what you can do in five minutes?
A Solemn Message
One hundred and twenty years before God spake the words of my text, Noah had received the most awful communication that ever came from heaven to earth. God said that on the account of wickedness of the world He was going to destroy the world by water. We can have no idea of the extent and character of the antediluvian wickedness. The Bible piles one expression on another, in it's effort to emphasize it.
"God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on earth, and it grieved Him at His heart...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 his way way upon the earth." Men lived five hundred years and more then, and they had time to mature in their sins.
How The Message Was Received
For one hundred and twenty years God strove with antediluvians. He never smites without warning, and they had their warning. Every time noah drove a nail into the ark it was a warning to them. Every sound of the hammer echoed, "I believe in God." If they had repented and cried as they did at Nineveh, I believe God would have heard their cry and spared them. But there was no cry for mercy. I have no doubt that they ridiculed the idea that God was going to destroy the world. I have no doubt but that there were atheists who said there was not any God anyhow. I got hold of them sometime ago. I said-
"How do you account for the formation of the world?"
"Oh! force and matter work together and by chance the world was created."
I said "It is a singular thing that your tongue isn't on the top of your head if force and matter just threw it together in that manner."
If I should take out my watch and say that force and matter worked together, and came out the watch, you would say I was the lunatic of the first order. Wouldn't you? And yet they say that this old world was made by chance! "It threw itself together!" I met aman in Scotland, and he took the ground that there was no God. I asked him,
"How do you account for creation for all these rocks? (They have a great many rocks in Scotland.)
"Why! he said, "any school boy could account for that."
"Well how was the rock made?"
"Out of sand."
"How was the first sand made?"
"Out of rock."
You see he had it all arranged so nicely. Sand and rock, rock and sand. I had no doubt but that Noah had these men to contend with.
Then there was this class called agnostics, and there are a good many of their grandchildren, alive today. Then there was another class who said that they believed there was a God; they couldn't make themselves believe that the world happened by chance; but God was too merciful to punish sin. He was so full of compassion and love that He couldn't punish sin. The drunkard, the harlot, the gambler, the murdered, the thief and the libertine would all share alike with the saints at the end. Supposing the governor of your state was so tender-hearted that he could not bear to have a man suffer, could not bear to see a man be put in jail, and he should go and set all the prisoners free. How long would he be governor? You would have him out of office before the sun set. These very men that talk about God's mercy, would be the first to raise a cry against a governor who would not have a man put in prison when he had done wrong.
Then another class took the ground that God could not destroy the world anyway. They might have a great flood which would rise up the meadowlands and lowlands, but all it would be necessary to do would be to go up on the hills and mountains. That would ve a hundred times better than Noah's ark. Or if it should come to that, they could build rafts, which would be a good deal better than Noah's ark. They have never seen such an ugly looking thing. It was about five hundred feet long, and about eighty feet high. It had three stories and one small window.
And then I suppose there was a large class who took the ground that Noah must be wrong because he was in such a minority. That is a great argument now, you know. Noah was greatly in the minority. But he went on working.
If they had saloons then, and I don't doubt but that they had, for we read that there was "violence in the land", and wherever you have alcohol you have violence. We read also that Noah planted a vineyard and fell into the sin of intemperance. He was a righteous man, and if he did that, what must the others have done? Well, if they had saloons, no doubt they sang ribald songs, about Noah and his ark, and if they had theatres they likely acted it out, and mother's took their children to see it. And if they had the press in those days, every now and then there would appear a skit about "Noah and his Folly". Reporters would come and interview him, and if they had an associated press, every few days a dispatch would be sent out telling how the work on the ark was progressing.
And perhaps they had excursions, and offered as an inducement that people could go through the ark. And if Noah happened to be around they would nudge each other and say: "That's Noah, don't you think he has a strange look in his eye?"
As a Scotchman would say they thought him a little daft. Thank God a man can afford to be mad. A madman thinks everyone mad but himself. A drunkard does not himself mad when he is drinking up all his means. Those men who stand and deal out death and damnation to men are not called mad; but a man is called mad when he gets into the ark, and is saved for time and eternity. And I expect if the word crank was in use, they called Noah "an old crank."
And so all manner of sport was made of Noah and his ark. And the businessmen went on buying and selling, while Noah went on preaching and toiling. They perhaps had some astronomers gazing up at the stars and saying,"Don't you be concerned. There is no sign of a coming storm in the heavens. We are very wise men and if there was a storm coming, we should read it in the heavens." And they had geologists digging away, and they said "there is no sign in the earth." Even the carpenters who helped build the ark might have made fun of him, but they were like lots of people in the present day, who will help build a church, and perhaps give money for its support, but will never enter in themselves.
Well, things went on as usual. Little lambs skipped on the hillsides each spring. Men sought after wealth, and if they had leases, i expect they ran for longer periods than ours do. We think ninety nine years is a long time but i don't doubt but theirs ran for nine hundred and ninety years. And when they came to sign a lease they would say with a twinkle in their eyes:
"Why this old Noah says the world is coming to an end in one hundred and twenty years, and it's twenty years since he started this story. But I guess I will sign the risk and lease it."
Someone has said that Noah must have been deaf, or he could not have stood the jeers and sneers of his countrymen. But if he was deaf to the voice of men, he heard the voice of God when he told him to build the ark. I can imagine one hundred years rolled away, and the work on the ark ceases. Men say, "What has he stopped work for?" He has gone on a preaching tour, to tell the people of the coming storm- that God is going to sweep every man off the face of the earth unless he is in the ark. But he cannot get a man to believe him except his own family. Some of the old men have passed away, and they died saying: "Noah is wrong.". Poor NOah! He must have had a hard time of it. I don't think I should have had the grace to work for one hundred and twenty years without a convert. But he just toiled on, believing the word of God.
Moving In
But I can imagine one beautiful morning, not a cloud to be seen,Noah has got his communication. He has heard the voice that he heard one hundred and twenty years before- the same old voice. Perhaps there had been silence for one hundred and twenty years. But the voice rang through his soul once again, "Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark."
The word "come" occurs about nineteen hundred times in the Bible, it is said and this is the first time.It meant salvation.You can see Noah and all his family moving into the ark. They are bringing the household furniture. Some of his neighbors say, "Noah what is the hurry? you will have plenty of time to get into that old ark. What is your hurry? There are no windows and you cannot look out to see when the storm is coming." But he heard the voice and obeyed.
Some of his relatives might have said, "What are you going to do with the old homestead?"
Noah says "I don't want it. The storm is coming." He tells them the day of grace is closing, that worldly wealth is of no value,and that the ark is the only place of safety. We must bear in mind that these railroads that we think so much of, will soon go down;they only run for a time,not for eternity. The heavens will be on fire, and then what will property, honor, and position in society be worth?
The first thing that alarms them is, they rise one morning, and lo! 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 the mountain; they come from all parts of the world. They are going into the ark. It must have been a strange 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 came cattle and beasts, two by two. The neighbors cry out "What does this mean?"
They run to their statesmen who have told them there was no sign of a coming storm, and ask them why is that those birds, animals, and creeping things go toward the ark, as if guided by some unseen hand. "Well...we cannot explain it; but give yourselves no trouble; God is not going to destroy the world. Business was never better than what it is now. Do you think if God was going to destroy the world He would let us go on prosperously 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 bright as ever it did. 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. Do you know when the hundred and twenty years were up. God gave the world seven days grace? Did you ever notice that? If there had been a cry during those seven days, I believe it would have been heard. But there was none.
At length the last day had come, the last hour, the last minute, ay! the last second. God Almighty came down and shut the door of that ark. No angel, no man, but God Himself shut the door, and once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, the doom of the world is sealed; and the doom of that old world is forever sealed. The sun had gone down upon the glory of that old world for the last time. You can hear away off in the distance the mutterings of the storm. You can hear the thunder rolling. The lightning begins to flash and the old world reels. The storm bursts upon them, and that old ark of Noah would have been worth more than the whole world to them.
I want to say to any scoffer this, that you can laugh at the Bible, you can scoff at your mother's God, you can laugh at ministers and Christians, but the hour is coming when one promise in that old Book will be worth more to you than ten thousand worlds like this.
The windows of heaven are opened and the fountains of the great deep are broken up. The waters came bubbling up and the sea bursts its bounds and leaps over it's walls. The rivers begin to swell. The people living in the lowlands flee to the mountains and highlands. They flee up the hillsides. And there is a wail going up:
"Noah! Noah! Noah! Let us in."
They leave their homes and come to the ark now. They pound on the ark. Hear them cry:
"Noah! let us in, Noah! have mercy on us."
"I am your nephew"
"I am your niece."
"I am your uncle."
Ah there is a voice inside saying: "I would like to let you in; but God has shut the door, and I cannot open it!"
God shut that door! When the door is shut, there is no hope. Their cry for mercy was late; their day of grace was closed. Their last hour had come. God had plead with them; God had invited them to come in; but they had mocked the invitation. They scoffed and ridiculed the idea of a deluge. Now it is too late.
God did not permit anyone o survive to tell us how they perished. When Job lost his family, there came a messenger to him; but there came no messenger from the antediluvians; not even Noah himself could see the world perish. If he could, he would have seen men and women and children dashing against that ark; the waves rising higher and higher, while those outside were perishing, dying in unbelief. Some think to escape by climbing the trees, and think the storm will soon go down; but it rains on, day and night, for forty days and forty nights and they are swept away as the waves dash against them.
The statesmen and the astronomers and great men call for mercy; but it is too late. They had disobeyed the God of mercy. He had called, and they refused. He had plead with them, but they had laughed and mocked. But now the time is come for judgement instead of mercy.
Judgement
The time is coming again when God will deal in judgement 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 the rain fall, Noah's ark, if it had been sold at the auctions, would not have brought as much as it would be worth kindling for wood. But twenty four hours after the rain began to fall. Noah's ark was worth for a seat in the ark. You may turn away and laugh. "I believe in Christ! you say; "I would rather be without Him than have Him."
But bear in mind, the time is coming when Christ will be worth more to you than ten thousand words like this. Bear in mind that He is offered to you now. This is the day of grace; it is a day of mercy. You will find, if you read your Bible carefully, that God always precedes judgement with grace. Grace is a forerunner of judgement. He called these in the days of Noah in love. They would have been saved if they had repented in those one hundred and twenty years.
* I hope you were blessed my friend. May the Lord help us in this day to see the truth, the Lord has prepared a spiritual ark and sent a prophet for this age to reveal Christ to us. Let us accept Jesus now as our true Lord and Saviour and walk further into the light and know about His word and His message for us in the last hour. There is still time to repent, today is the day of salvation. Don't put it off for another time as there might not be another. May the Lord Jesus help us all.
