I want to begin a series of sermons this morning entitled Handling God's Dark Room.
Since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, mankind has been tempted to think more highly
of himself than he ought to think.
Shakespeare has this notion in the monologue in Hamlet when he writes, what a piece of
work is man?
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving, how express and admirable,
in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.
The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals, and yet to me what is this quintessence of
dust?
The Victorian-era British poet William Ernest Hensley's last line in his famous poem Invictus
writes, it matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I
am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
This morning I want to strike all of the aforementioned as the rubbish that it is.
It's impersonal idealism, it's secular humanism, it's evolutionary naturalism, wanton hedonism,
and uniform atheism.
Here is what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 6, verse 5 and 6 about who we really are.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he made man on the earth and it grieved him and his heart.
Although the flood is the single greatest judgment ever to hit the planet earth, COVID-19
not withstanding, it was also God's greatest type of foreshadowing of salvation because
it leads directly to Calvary and Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness
of our sins.
But with great dispatch, brothers and sisters, I want to impress upon our hearts this morning
that before God can deliver us, he must first develop us.
Before God can deliver us, he must first develop us.
Film that is exposed to light is ruined, thus it must be developed in a dark room.
The reason God may have some or all of us in a dark room is best described by Dr. Rick
Warren, the retired pastor of Saddleback Church in California of purpose driven life fame.
Dr. Rick Warren says, trouble comes in our lives for one of three reasons.
God wants to protect us from it or God wants to prepare us for it or he wants to develop
us in it.
Dark rooms are because God wants to protect us from trouble, prepare us for trouble or
develop us in trouble.
Let us look this morning with fresh eyes at this old story to learn the lessons of the
sinfulness of man and the grace of God and how God through a dark room saved the whole
earth because one man believed and it was accounted under him as righteousness.
As a sidebar this morning, brothers and sisters, I read the passage from the King James Version
because other translations I think get it wrong when they say God said to Noah, go
into the ark.
I believe an accurate translation is in the King James when God says to Noah, come thou
and all thy house into the ark.
The word come is used some 1,972 times in the Bible, Genesis chapter 7 verse 1 being
the first.
It is both a command and an invitation.
Even though this invitation was given thousands of years ago, God is still inviting people
to enter the ark of safety, but before Noah and his family could be saved, they had to
come in.
He built the ark, but building the ark couldn't save him.
He had to come in.
We built Leningroth church, but building a church won't save you.
You got to come in.
Not only do you have to come into the church, but you got to come into Christ because you
can be in church and never be in Christ.
But if any man be in Christ, I wish I had a Bible reader.
He's a new creation.
All things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
Walk with me around the text.
In this dark room is sanctuary, sanctuary.
The ark must have been an unusual and impressive site as it sat in an ancient field.
It was built in Mesopotamia.
It was a wooden ship 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
Built by Noah and his three sons who worked on it 120 years.
While building the ark, he preached his message that a torrential rain and a terrible flood
was coming upon the earth.
Surely people thought Noah and his family was crazy.
After all, it had never rained on the earth.
They'd never heard thunder.
They'd never seen a clap of lightning.
They'd never even heard of a storm because God watered the earth with a miss.
But brothers and sisters, the ark was to be a sanctuary against a storm of wrath that
was brewing against the sin and evil on the earth because the ark looked strange and unusual
in a place that you would not expect to see an ark.
This church looks strange in this community.
With all of the urban blight around us, with all of the drugs being sold in our neighborhood,
with all of the broken down cars and yards and broken windows and houses and people with
no jobs and people with no schedules, poor people in this community.
This community looks run down and people are leaving and running away because of the urban
trouble in the neighborhood.
This church looks unusual.
People thought I'd perhaps believe that we were crazy for putting all of this money in
a church in a run down community.
But the place that the church belongs is in a run down community because when life turns
on them on the outside, that's sanctuary on the inside.
And we need a church in the community for people to run to to find sanctuary in times
of crisis.
People pass by this church and think that it's a city of Houston building.
And some who are curious will turn in and ask, what kind of building is this?
Is this the city of Houston?
Build this building.
And I hasten to say, I rush to tell them, black people built this building.
Christian people built this building.
Not to show off to the community, not to be anything but a sanctuary.
Now people can run in times of crisis because if we let the church be the church, God will
send men and women, boys and girls who are lost and on their way to hell to come to this
place that looks unusual in this spot.
But where else would you put a church but in a poor community?
You ever thought about this?
They don't ever say it's too many clubs in the community.
They don't ever say it's too many gambling houses in the community.
It's a church on every corner.
It's a joint on every corner.
Talk back to me if you can.
It's a crack house on every corner.
Why can't there be a church on every corner?
We don't have enough churches for all the sin that's going on in Houston.
There is no center shortage, so we need a sanctuary to capture those who are on their
way to hell.
Genesis at chapter six and verse number eight says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of
the Lord.
One man among all the men on the earth was still walking in the ways of God.
Noah was not a sinless man, but his faith was in God, and God counted him righteous
on the basis of his faith.
You can never say you believe in God unless you obey God, because what belief is, is motivation
to obedience.
Now listen to me, beloved.
You are free to adopt any religion you choose.
You can follow any plan you wish, believe in a doctrine you want, and follow any teacher
you like.
And if you want to be saved from the wrath to come, you must receive Jesus Christ as
your Lord and Savior.
Yes?
It sounds like a narrow plan, because it is a narrow plan.
Acts chapter 16 and verse 31 says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved and your household.
Ephesians chapter two and verse 18 says, for through him we both have access by one spirit
unto the Father.
First John chapter five and verse 12 says, he that has the Son of God has life, but he
that hath not the Son hath not life, and the wrath of God abided upon him.
The ark was a sanctuary.
But not only do we see sanctuary in this ark, in this dark room that Noah is in, we also
see secondly sovereignty.
Now brothers and sisters hear me as a hurry.
The ark was not Noah's idea.
He built it, but it wasn't his idea.
It was God's idea.
The one word that made the difference in Noah's life, the one word that makes the difference
in my life and in your life is the word grace.
Because he was a sinner, Noah still deserved nothing from God but judgment and damnation.
But God reached into Noah's darkness and extended grace to Noah, but Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord.
Perfect, precious, powerful grace.
If you are saved today, you are saved because God extended his grace and you graciously
accepted his extension.
We did not come to him on our own because the very faith we needed to believe had to
come from him.
Can I run that by you one more time?
The very faith we needed to believe, we had to go get it from him.
Let me see if I can make that and make sense.
When my daughter was a poor college student and a little less poor adult, a poor college
student but a little less poor adult, when she wanted to buy me a Father's Day gift or
a birthday gift, she called and said, Daddy, I'm going to come buy and get some money so
I can go buy you a gift.
She was a broke college student.
She meant well.
She wanted to please me.
So she said, I'm going to come by and get some money to go buy you a gift.
She wanted to make me happy.
She wanted to please me.
She wanted to make me smile.
But the only way she could please me, she had to come to me to get from me what she
needed to go buy me a gift.
She didn't have any money.
So she said, Daddy, I want to buy you a Father's Day present, but I got to come by to get some
money from you so I can buy you a gift.
She wanted to please me, but she did not have the financial wherewithal to please me.
A broke college student, bankrupt, had nothing, but she said, I want to give you a Father's
Day gift.
I want to please you.
I want to make you smile so she would come get from me what she needed to go buy us a
gift or something for me.
Can I help somebody here?
Without faith, it's impossible to please God, for you must first believe that he is and
that he's a rewarder of them who diligently seek him.
You got to go get from him what you need to please him.
I wish I had somebody to help me preach it.
You ain't here because you're so holy.
You not here because you got a large print Bible and a cross around your ankle all around
your neck.
The very faith you needed to come to church, God had to give it to you.
If you was left by yourself, you would be in hell this morning.
We would be held bound this morning if the faith we needed to come to Christ didn't come
from Christ.
You're saved because God looked beyond our dead, darkened, deceived, doomed condition
and he reached out to us by his grace.
I want to confess this morning.
You are looking at the chief of sinners.
I'm a crook.
I'm a wretch undone and left to myself if I'm in a room by myself.
I'm in bad company.
I am a sinner.
In the hallelujah.
I'm saved by his grace.
By the grace of God.
I wish I had somebody else here.
I need two or three other crooks in here this morning who know that if you in a room by
yourself, you in bad company, I need somebody here who knows that if the Lord had not rescued
you, if the Lord had not taken you off the streets, took you up and turned you around.
If the Lord had not changed your heart and changed your life and changed your mind, you
looking good this morning, but we should have seen you 15 years ago.
Somebody here who has been delivered saved by grace.
Stop acting like you made it by yourself.
It was nobody.
I don't want to holler right here.
I'm not ready to holler yet.
I got more sermon than I got time.
So let me cut across the field and tell us that in that arc is not only sanctuary, but
sanctuary and that arc is not only sovereignty, but in that arc is security.
Now the reason I read it to us from the King James version is because God did not say,
go into the arc and I'll be watching you.
He said, come into the arc and I'll be with you.
He did not say, go in.
I'm watching you.
He said, come in.
I'm waiting on you.
Listen, sisters, God was in the arc with no ability because the safety was not in no arc.
The safety was God in the arc.
The Bible says this arc that Noah built had one door, one window, and three stories.
450 feet long, 75 feet high, 45 feet wide, one door, one window, three stories.
One door, meaning there's only one way in.
One window, you got to look up.
Three stories because salvation is the plan of God executed by the Son of God, kept perfect
by the Spirit of God.
I was so low down that it took the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost to say, I need another
crook here this morning to help me testify that no school teacher or principal could
save me, no money or college could save me.
I needed the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Father thought about my salvation.
The Son executes my salvation and the Spirit keeps me safe.
Here it is.
I'm through.
I'm getting ready to holler, brother.
God shuttered me.
He controlled the door.
And he determined who went in and who stayed in.
Ephesians 4 and 30 says we are sealed until the day of redemption.
The Bible says Noah built the ark and the ark rested with Noah and his family inside
two animals of every kind seven days before it started flooding.
People laughing.
People walking by shaking their head.
Hooranor, what a fool.
How crazy he is to get in this wooden box.
What a fool he is to be in this place.
But then the Niagara's of heaven opened up.
And not only did rain fall, but oceans overflow.
Rivers and streams came out of their banks because waters came down and waters rose up
because it was a supernatural event.
It is recorded that the flood rose 22,000 feet higher than Mount Everest.
But like my nephew said, check this out.
The higher the water rose, the higher the ark rose.
When you are in Christ, the higher the flood waters in your life, the higher you rise to
new heights.
Somebody ought to help me preach it.
Because you and others around you can't understand how you keep rising with all the stuff going
on in your life, with all the flood in your life, with all the rain in your life.
You are in Christ.
And since you're in Christ, when the waters go up, you go up.
I'm trying to quit here.
But you went up when you got divorced.
You went up when you lost your job.
You went up when you got out of the hospital.
You went up when your enemies thought they had you trapped.
Frap not yourself because of evil doers.
Don't be envious against the workers of iniquity.
They shall soon be cut off like grass.
I'm through.
The higher the water went, the higher the ark rose.
Because Romans chapter five and verse 20 said, but where sin abounded, grace didn't much
more abound.
I'm really through now.
I can't say it but six times.
Because you don't think I'm lying if I said the seventh time.
The ark was made of gopher wood.
Gopher wood is cypress.
Almost indestructible wood.
In fact they had to cut trees down to build the ark.
Wood is a type of humanity in the Scriptures.
And in order for the ark to be built, wood had to be cut down.
In order for you and I to be saved, they had to cut some wood down.
And make a cross on a hill called Calvary.
After the ark was built, it was covered with pitch.
That word pitch is translated in Scripture as atonement.
The word pitch in the Bible literally means covering.
The ark was built, but in order for it to float, it had to be pitched.
It had to be atonement.
You and I are saved by the blood of Jesus because his blood is pitch.
It covers us.
I wish I had one or two more witnesses.
While we slept last night, there was a blood mark over our door.
And you got up this morning because you are pitch.
Not because you teach Sunday school.
Not because you are a tither.
Not because you're speaking tongues in your prayer time.
But because his blood covers you.
You gonna help me close this, won't you?
Brothers and sisters, the ark was big enough to hold all who desired to enter in.
Jesus is big enough to hold everybody who wants to come in to his safety.
The ark was not shaped like a boat.
It was made like a floating coffin.
Meaning if Noah and his family was going to get in, they had to die to everything that
was outside.
If you gonna get in Christ this morning, you gonna have to die to everything that is outside.
You gonna help me finish this, won't you?
The ark came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month of the Hebrew calendar.
You might think that that's insignificant.
But the 7th month is when the Passover takes place.
Jesus died as they were offering the Passover on the 14th day of the 7th month.
He was raised three days later.
The 17th day of the month.
He died on the 14th day of the 7th month.
Stayed in the grave three long days.
But on the third day, he came out of the grave.
The 17th plus three is 17, meaning that just like the ark rested, everybody who comes to
Christ can find rest in him.
Come to Jesus while you have a chance.
Find the Lord while he may yet be found.
You gonna help me close this, won't you?
I'm through right here now.
But nor built that ship.
And he and his whole family got on board that ark.
Now I understand that many of you here at Lily Grove love going on cruises.
Carnival cruises.
Disney cruises.
You like getting on these ships.
God bless you.
I appreciate that for you.
I hope you have a good time.
They'll never get me on one of those ships.
They'd have to dope me up real good with cocaine to get me on one of those ships.
My family says you'll never know you're on the ship.
I said, can I drive home?
They said, no fool, you can't drive home.
I said, well I don't know that I'm on a ship.
I'm not getting on no carnival cruise.
I understand there are casinos on the cruise.
There are nice restaurants on the cruise.
There are suites and beautiful state rooms on the cruise.
You can have dinner with the captain on the cruise.
Carnival cruises.
Right here in Galveston you can get on a cruise whenever you feel like it.
A carnival cruise is one.
A Disney cruise is another.
A princess cruise is one.
You can go for seven days or 14 days.
However long you want to spend on the ship.
There are casinos on the ship.
State rooms on the ship.
Suites on the ship.
You can dine with the captain on the ship.
Carnival cruises.
Disney cruises.
Princess cruises.
Have a good time.
I ain't going.
I don't care how much they cost.
I don't care what you do to get me on there.
You can have anybody you want singing on the cruise.
I ain't going on no ship.
They say Reverend you don't know you're on the water.
I say can I drive home?
It's an awful you can't drive home.
I said then I don't know I'm on a ship.
There's state rooms on the ship.
There's suites on the ship.
There are casinos and restaurants.
You can dine with the captain for seven days or 14 days on a carnival cruise.
On a princess cruise.
On a Disney cruise.
Seven days for one or 14 days for another.
But the thing about a carnival cruise.
The thing about a Disney cruise.
The thing about a princess cruise is when the cruise is over you got to get over that
ship.
I don't care if you had dinner with the captain.
I don't care what you did at the casino.
I don't care what restaurants you ate at.
When the cruise is over you have to disembark.
I'm not getting on no cruise.
They say you won't know you're on the water.
I say can I drive home?
They say no I'm on the water.
I'm not getting on a carnival cruise.
I'm not getting on a princess cruise.
I'm not getting on a Disney cruise.
But there is another ship that I got on one Wednesday down in Eunice, Louisiana.
There's the old ship of Zion.
She has landed many a thousand.
She will land many more.
And once you get on this ship you can sit down with the captain.
King Jesus.
King Jesus is our captain.
You better get on board.
I know it's not a Disney cruise.
I know it's not a princess cruise.
I know it's not a carnival cruise.
But it's the old ship of Zion.
Ain't no danger in the water.
King Jesus is the captain.
Is there anybody here?
Got on board.
Why don't you grab somebody?
Tell them I'm on board.
King Jesus is my captain.
He died.
Didn't he die?
But Sunday morning he got up.
Didn't he get up with all power?
I know he's alright.
He walks with me.
He talks with me.
He tells me I am his own.
And the joy.
Joy.
Do you have joy?
This joy that I have.
The world didn't give it.
The world can't take it away.
Have you tried it?
Won't he fix it for you?
Thank you.
Thank you, Jesus.
I know he's alright.