41. "God established a covenant with you: enter to His salvation," Genesis 6:11-22

 41. "God established a covenant with you: enter to His salvation,"

Genesis 6:11-22 Now the earth was corrupt in Godʼs sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sonsʼ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

Here is Noah, who walked with God, being righteous and faithful in the midst of the wicked people, so he recieved the revelation of God, "So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood... But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sonsʼ wives with you. (Genesis 6:13-14, 18) Then Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

I. The Building of the Ark

Genesis 6:14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

What is the implication of the building of Ark of Noah to us, new believers of God. We are also recieved the revelation of God, in His second coming is also the judgment of the ancient serpent, demons and all who joined with the forces of God's enemies, but God will spare our life even though who are not found righteous and faithful but because of His grace, we are given the priviledge by believing and obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The ark is a type of Christ (1 Pet. 3:20-21 "to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,")

-The ark is not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the church, which is the Body of Christ and the new man: (1 Corinthians 12:12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 

The one Spirit operates all the various aspects of His manifestation, distributing them to many believers individually. This is just like our physical body in its being one and having many members. Referring to the corporate Christ, composed of Christ Himself as the Head and the church as His Body with all the believers as members. All the believers of Christ are organically united with Him and constituted with His life and element and have thus become His Body, an organism, to express Him. Hence, He is not only the Head but also the Body. As our physical body has many members yet is one, so is this Christ. This simbolizes from the many parts being used for the building of the ark. 

Also read Ephesians 2:15-16 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 

-It means that Christ broke down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles by abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances. When He was crucified on the cross, all the ordinances were nailed there (Colossians 2:14 "having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.").

How He done it? Jesus' flesh became the object of condemnation that subjected to us sinners. 

-Because mankind became flesh and was therefore kept from God and His purpose, God ordained that His chosen people be circumcised, that they put away the flesh. The ordinance of circumcision was instituted because of man’s flesh. It was in the flesh that Christ was crucified. When He was crucified, His flesh, which was typified by the veil separating the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the temple, was rent (Heb. 10:20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,).

Jesus saved us from the condemnation of the law, now we are not under the law. This is not the law of the moral commandments but the law of the ritual commandments, composed principally of the practice of circumcision, the observance of dietary regulations, and the keeping of the Sabbath. These ordinances were the main “columns” of Judaism. The moral commandments will never be abolished, but the ritual commandments were in force only during a particular time dispensationally and are therefore not permanent. Those ordinances such rituals, the forms or ways of living and worship, which create enmity and division. To practice the proper church life, all ordinances should be rejected and dropped.

Christ created the one new man, the church, by working God’s divine nature into humanity. The working of the divine nature into humanity was something new. Hence, it was a creating. In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man. In the creating of the one new man, however, God’s nature was wrought into man to make His divine nature one entity with humanity.

Christ is not only the Creator of the one new man or the church, but also the sphere in which and the means by which the one new man was created. He is the very element of the new man, making God’s divine nature one entity with humanity. The Greek word rendered in here can also have an elemental significance, meaning also with, implying that the new man was created with Christ as its divine essence. The Jews and the Gentiles were separated to the uttermost by the separating ordinances. But both were created in Christ with the divine essence into one new entity, which is a corporate man, the church. 

The churh of Christ signifies as an built ark of Noah are all one even are with many members. The church is not only the church of God, the Body of Christ (the fullness, the expression, of the all-filling One), and the household or family, the house, the temple, and the dwelling place of God, it is also the one new man, which is corporate and universal, created of two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, and composed of all the believers, who, though they are many, are one new man in the universe.

Let's all be clear with this, God created man as a collective entity (if we're looking back in the book of Genesis 1:26). The corporate man created by God was damaged through man’s fall; hence, there was the need for God to produce a new man. This was accomplished through Christ’s abolishing in His flesh the ordinances and through His creating of the new man in Himself. By Christ’s abolishing in His flesh or by dying on the cross, the separating ordinances, that is, His slaying the enmity, and by His creating the Jewish and the Gentile believers into one new man, peace was made between all believers.

-We, the believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, were reconciled not only for the Body of Christ but also in the Body of Christ. What a revelation here! We were reconciled to God; we were saved in the Body of Christ. Before we were without God and we had lost God in our life. But through the cross, with the blood of Christ, we have been brought back to God in the one Body.

In Colossians 3:10-11 it says, "...put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.). Our new self is our life with Christ as our sphere, center focus and source of everything. 

The building of the ark typifies the building of the corporate Christ, with the element of Christ’s riches as the building material, by those who work together with God (1 Corinthians 3:9-12 For we are co-workers in Godʼs service; you are Godʼs field, Godʼs building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ;

God are building with us, like Noah who have had working with God in creating the Ark, 2 Corinthians 6:1 As Godʼs co-workers we urge you not to receive Godʼs grace in vain.

And here indicates that even the apostles as the ministers of the new covenant, had been commissioned with the ministry of reconciliation for the Lord’s new creation. Apostle Paul telling us how they worked. They worked together with God by a life (not by any gift) that was all-sufficient and all-mature, able to fit all situations, that is, able to endure any kind of treatment, to accept any kind of environment, to work in any kind of condition, and to take any kind of opportunity, for the carrying out of their ministry. The apostles not only were commissioned by God with their ministry but also were working together with Him. They were God’s co-workers (1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are co-workers in Godʼs service; you are Godʼs field, Godʼs building.).

The grace of God always brings us back to Him. Not to receive the grace of God in vain, means not to remain in any condition that is a distraction from God, but to be brought back to Him.

We are saved by this grace and we must to preach to all people in the whole world about this grace of God that are freely giving to all so they will reconcile with God ; as apostle Paul declared in Ephessians 3:8-10 Although I am less than the least of all the Lordʼs people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, ; Ephesians 4:12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.)

-By building the ark and entering into it, Noah was not only saved from God’s judgment on the evil generation through the flood, but was also separated from that generation and ushered into a new age (1 Peter 3:20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,). Water was the medium through which the saving was accomplished. The ark saved Noah and his family from God’s judgment, the destruction of the world by the flood. But the water saved them from the corrupted generation and separated them unto a new age, just as the water of the Red Sea did for the children of Israel (Exo. 14:22; and 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.) and the water of baptism for the New Testament believers ( 1 Peter 3:21 "and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,).

Likewise, by building the church and entering into the church life, we will be saved from God’s judgment on today’s evil generation through the great tribulation whivh is now is at hand, (Matthew 24:36-42 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 

 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."

; Luke 17:26-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 "for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.")

And after these, the overcoming believer will be separated from that generation and ushered into a new age, the age of the millennium.

(Luke 21:36; Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” ; 

Revelation. 3:10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

In the time of Noah, on that hour of trial the salvation revealed from God is to enter into the ark, but in our time, of the coming of the hour of trial -the great tribulation- God revealed to us how to be save, only through entering into Christ, that we must be in Christ through believing and obeying, we must to repent to our sins then we must to be baptize in the water for the remession of our sins and we must to recieve the Spirit of Christ, that process revealed by God through His apostles is the process of entering to our salvation, only through Christ Jesus. 

II. The Characteristic of Christ as our Ark 

A. Gopher or cypress - Christ is our strongholds.

Genesis 6:14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make rooms in the ark and shall cover it within and without with pitch. (Revise version) Or Genesis 6:14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. (NIV)

-Gopher is a kind of cypress, a resinous wood that can withstand the attack of water. It is a figure of the crucified Christ, who can withstand the waters of death (Acts 2:23-24 "This man was handed over to you by Godʼs deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.").

B. Pitch -Christ's blood is our covering from our sins

Genesis 6:14 "...make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out."

The root of the words pitch in this verse and expiation elsewhere in the Old Testament means primarily to cover. The pitch here is a type of the redeeming blood of Christ, which covers God’s building within and without 

(Hebrews 9:20-28 "He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in Godʼs presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."). 

The pitch within the ark was for the peace of Noah and his family, and so Christ as a pitch for us is our peace for He cleanses also our conscience from the evil doings that will result to death through His indwelling Spirit unto us (Hebrews 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!), whereas the pitch without was for God’s satisfaction. Noah and his family were saved from the judgment of the flood by the pitch on the ark, signifying that the believers in Christ are saved from God’s judgment by the redeeming blood of Christ 

(Romans 5:8-9 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from Godʼs wrath through him!).

 In order for the pitch on the ark to be effective, Noah and his family had to be in the ark, in union with the ark. Likewise, in order to apply the redemption through Christ’s blood, we must be in Christ, in union with Him by:

-We will be one with Christ through believing unto Him. (John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.)

-Recieve Christ as we also recieve wisdom from God. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30)

-Live in Christ. For " in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of Godʼs grace" Ephesians 1:7). 

When we believe in the gospel, Christ is put upon us as our covering righteousness, and we are put into Christ, making us one with Christ. Since we are one with Christ, whatever He has accomplished on the cross becomes ours. To believe in Jesus Christ is to be one with Him, to enter into a union with Him. In such a union, whatever Christ is, whatever He has, whatever He has done and will do, and whatever He has attained and obtained are ours. 

1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

 The Lord Jesus is a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins, not only for our sins but also for the whole world. However, this propitiation is conditioned on man’s receiving the Lord by believing in Him. The unbelievers do not experience its efficacy, not because it has any fault but because they do not believe.

Noah believed from the way of their salvation that God revealed to him, so we must also believe to the process of salvation that revealed through His disciples, Read Acts 2:37-38 "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?(to be saved)” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

 

In such verses apostles was telling about the way of Salvation accordingly to God's revelation. Thus, Noah built the ark not according to his own imagination but absolutely according to God’s revelation. And the end of verses of Genesis 6:11-22, Noah did everything just as God commanded him. "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith."-Hebrews 11:7; likewise this is God's commandment for us, that we must to have faith with Jesus, we need to condemn the sin in this world as we repent to our own sins, have faith that Jesus will save us from death. For Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you... I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved."(John 10:9) 

There is only one door, one entrance into the ark of Noah. (Genesis 6:16) This one door typifies Christ. It means there is only one door for our salvation, only through Jesus Christ. So, have faith with Jesus, enter to Him by believing and obeying the way of salvation. Amen. 

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