- Genesis chapter number
7 and verse number 16. "And they that went in, went
in male and female of flesh, as God had commanded him and the Lord shut him in." We, of course, are in a familiar part of the Bible. We are in the story, if you
will, of Noah and the ark. Noah lived in a day
according to chapter number 6 when the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and every imagination,
think about this now, every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. It was a time when corruption, the whole earth was corrupt before God and violence filled the land. It was no doubt a scary time
to be alive on planet Earth. And what they did not know
was that the judgment of God was looming over them. The Lord had told Noah, I'm sick of man and I'm gonna destroy him from
off the face of the earth. It was surely a scary time to be alive. Now we live in a day of depravity and when it seems that folks
cannot be sinful enough and wickedness and perversion
are running rampant. Now let me say this, hear me well, I do not, I said I do not
say that we are living in the days of Noah, but we, as Noah did, are living in some scary days. I'm telling you this is
a scary time to be alive. I never thought when I first
started going to church that we'd have to lock the doors, post armed guards, hire policeman and all to guard us, carry a
gun everywhere we went. When I was growing up on the mill hill, we had the hook and loop. We just hooked and looped the storm, we didn't have storm
doors, we had screen doors, we'd hook and loop that screen door and go to bed and leave
the front door wide open. Now it sound like Fort Knox at my house when I'm locking it up
in the middle of the day. It is a dangerous time. Remember the Bible said that in the last days, perilous,
dangerous times will come. They are here, this is a scary time to be alive, but I didn't come to preach gloom and doom. I come to tell you that
even in these scary times, in chapter number 7 with
the judgment of God looming, there's coming a day when God
will literally open up hell and pour it out on the earth. Those that have thumbed
their nose, ran their mouth, shook their fist at God will stand and give an account for their action. Our God is not some wimp
letting them push him around, but God will step out in his time and right every wrong and
judge every indiscretion and every sin. But even in these scary times, I find out in verse number 1 that there is salvation in scary times. Look at verse number 1. The Bible said in chapter 7, verse 1, "The Lord said unto Noah,"
what's these two words? "Come thou." Salvation is always by invitation. There is the invitation to salvation. Jesus said it best when
he said "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Even in our scary times,
there's still an invitation to come and be saved by
the good grace of God. The spirit and the bride say come. Let him that is a thirst, they come. Let whosoever will, come and drink from the water of life freely. Jesus still stands with open arms and calls folks to come. There's salvation in scary times. Notice that invitation. He said, "Come thou." He didn't tell Noah to go in. He didn't say get in, he said come. In other words, he was already in the ark. He said, "Come thou and all
thy house into the ark." I got that word ark
underlined and highlighted in my Bible, 'cause not only
do we see the invitation of salvation, but we see
the instrument of salvation. In Noah's day, the only
way you could be saved is get in that ark. And in our day, the only
way you can be saved is get in Jesus. Now I don't know how you picture it, but the Bible said that Noah pitched that ark with pitch within and without. I've read that that pitch was red, I've read it was this, but in my mind, you gotta remember I'm an old redneck from a little place in South Carolina and some of my family we
didn't live in mobile homes, we lived in trailers. If you don't know what a trailer is, that's a metal rectangle
box with a metal roof. And sometimes that metal
roof would get to leaking. We'd get this black tar-like substance. I don't see nobody nodding. Oh, I seen somebody nod their head. They know what I'm talking about. And we'd get upon that roof and we'd have to roll that black tar out on that roof and it'd
run over and it'd hang, anything it touched, it'd stick to. Sometime you'd ride by you
could tell every house, every trailer in the neighborhood that had a leaky roof, it'd have that old ugly black tar poured all over it and where it got a hole,
we'd rub that black tar. Nasty, ugly looking stuff, stick to everything. When I look at that ark sitting out there, I see it with all that
black tar looking stuff all over it. It's setting out in the middle of nowhere. I don't believe there's
ever been a cloud in the sky and never been a drop of
rain fall from heaven. The Bible said that a dew, a mist went up, went up from the earth
and watered them earth. Them folks look at it
and said, well, no matter what judgment is coming, that
ugly thing sitting out here in the middle of nowhere
probably not anywhere near any water that could float it. We don't know if it'll work, we don't know if it'll leak, we don't know if it's any good. We're not getting on that ugly thing for our salvation. Isaiah said of Jesus
that it had no beauty, or it had no calmliness
that we should desire him, but if you're gonna get in, if you're gonna be saved, if you're gonna void the
judgment of almighty God, you'll come through him
or you'll go to hell. You'll face the wrath of almighty God. There's salvation in scary times. When we get to verse number 5, we'll see that there was service in scary times. Look at chapter 7, verse 5. "And Noah did," as an action word. We all doing the will of
God to hear us tell it, but some of us sitting around not really getting anything done. Noah did all, that's an action word. He "did according unto all." I got that highlighted
and circled in my Bible. He did according to all
that the Lord commanded him. You say what are we
gonna do as God's people in these scary times. We're gonna serve just like Noah did. We gonna do means we're
gonna be in action, means we're gonna keep working, we're gonna keep preaching, we gonna keep living, we gonna keep singing, we're gonna keep praising, we're gonna keep worshiping, we're gonna keep witnessing. We're just gonna do, we're gonna do, we're gonna do all that
the Lord commanded. I was in a meeting one time,
big time evangelist got up and they wasn't preaching from this text, but he was preaching from another text and the word all was in it. He come across that
word all and he said now that word all here doesn't
mean what you think it means. He went to describing how
all kind of only included all of a certain group. Tore me up. I was a young preacher
back then starting out, nobody, not that I'm anybody now, but I was definitely a nobody. I didn't know anything, so I went home, I got out every dictionary on, every concordance, I
called every reference, went to the library, I looked it up and I wrote a theological definition to the word all. And some of y'all ought
to write this down. I put a lot of work into this. Here's the theological
definition to the word all. All means all. (congregation cheering) I preached that in a meeting and a young preacher
came up to me and said, "Now, Brother Weaver, that's great, but that wasn't long enough to be a theological definition." So I went back and wrote a
longer theological definition. The word all means all. It means all all the times you use it, it means all all the way you use it. All means all and that's all all means. (congregation laughing) Noah did all, did according to all that the Lord commanded him. If he'd have done part of
what the Lord commanded him, he would have drowned
with the rest of the world and it wouldn't have put God out to go to another mud hole and
drag out a ball of clay and form another man and
breathe in his nostrils the breath of life and start
all over if he wanted to. In these days we're gonna get busy and we're gonna keep doing
what God called us to do and we're gonna do all
that the Lord commanded. But the message tonight is
found in that last phrase of verse 16, "And the Lord shut him in." Not only do I find
salvation in scary times, not only do I find service in scary times, but I find security in scary times. For a few minutes, I'm a
preach out of that phrase on that thought. Security in scary times. First of all, I find security in a person. Look at that little phrase. "And the Lord." Now I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but my wife's
a certified school teacher. She told me that that little
word the in your Bible in the English language is what is known as a definite article. It puts whatever comes after it in a class all by itself. Now I'm not trying to change the Bible, that word the means the one and only. I don't know about you,
but I'm just serving a god, I'm serving the God. I'm not just protected by a god, I'm protected by the God. I want you to notice that word Lord. Talking about his person. He's absolute God. Absolute, the Lord. Not only is he the absolute God, he's the authoritative God. Look at that word Lord
in your King James Bible. Now, it's, now if you got
one of them other Bibles that might not be that way in this, but in the real word of God,
it's all capital letters. Notice, Lord is all capital letters. That is not a misprint. It is that way for a purpose. That word Lord with all capital letters is speaking of Jehovah. It is speaking of Jehovah God. Jehovah God is the self-sufficient God. Now this might not set well in this day, but God is God all by himself. He doesn't need you
and he doesn't need me. He doesn't need anybody
else to make him God. Have you ever wondered
why those guys shake their fist and say,
"Well, if there's a God, why don't you strike me
down in front of everybody and prove you're God," and God doesn't strike him down. You ever wonder why he don't do it? 'Cause he ain't gotta do it
to prove he is who he is. He doesn't need your approval. He's the Lord, he's God all by himself. He can do everything without you. He can do whatever he wants, when he wants with who
he wants, how he wants. He doesn't have to get permission. He doesn't have to run it by a board. He doesn't have to put
it up for a vote, amen. They won't impeach him, they won't pull him off his throne. He is an authoritative Lord. He is God all by himself. He is God and besides
him there is none else. He is the self-sufficient one. He doesn't need anything
or anyone else to be God. Give you an illustration. In the days of Samuel, the
Philistine Army came up against the Israeli army, the Israelites and they overthrew the Israelites. Now what the Israelites would do is they had a little box called
the Ark of the Covenant. Now the Ark of the Covenant was not God, but it was a visible symbol
of the presence of God because he had said where that ark is I'll meet you in between the wings of the those cherubims on that ark. So when they'd had a bad battle or had a bad situation,
they'd pick that ark up because they believed
wherever that ark was, that's where God was. Now give me a little liberty
for illustration's sake. When the Philistines come up there, they overthrew the army of Israel and God didn't lift a finger to stop them. And in their mind, they
stole Israel's God. When they got that ark, they felt like they had Israel's God. Now that was not God, but for illustration
sake, they stole our God and they marched him back down there in the land of the Philistines and they put him in the
temple of their god. Their god's name Dagon. He was a half man, half fish statue and they set God in front of Dagon. God hadn't lifted a finger, hadn't spoke a word, hadn't make a move. If you'll let me, God
just stood down there in front of Dagon, down
there in Dagon's temple. They came in the next day,
you know what had happened? Dagon had fallen flat on his face. Their god was laying prostrate on his face worshiping our God. When you got a idol you have to do this, you have to pick him up. They had to lift their God
up and set him back up. They went out and they
come in the next day, guess what happened? Their god had fallen flat on his face before our God. Our God hadn't done anything,
just stood down there, hadn't spoke a word,
hadn't moved a finger. Isaiah 40 and verse 12 said that he did his hand like that and all them milky ways and galaxies and stars and moons and solar systems went into existence and
started to rotate in orbit just at the span of his hand. But it ain't done a thing down there. And the second day, Dagon
was laying face first, worshiping our God, but this
time his head had broke off and his hands had broke off
and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Dagon back together again. And the priest of Dagon said that's too much God for us. Get him and take him
down there to Ashkelon and they picked him up and
took him down to Ashkelon and set God down. God hadn't done a thing,
hadn't spoken a word. He just stood down there
in the land of Ashkelon and disease broke out
and folks started dying and they said wait a minute,
that's too much God for us. Get him and take him up there to Gath where all them giants are and maybe they can do something with it and they picked God up, if you will, and moved him over to
Gath, set him down in Gath. God hadn't done a thing, just standing in Gath. Disease broke out, folks started dying. They said too much God. Get two milk cows and a cart, we gonna send that God back, make some gold offerings for him, let's get him out of here. He's too much God for us. And they destroyed the Philistine land. He humbled the Philistine army and he didn't do a thing. I'm afraid too many of us are looking for a mighty rushing wind. We're looking for thunder and lightning. We're looking for God
to really do something. But I come all the way to
Hurricane, West Virginia to tell somebody that the Lord we serve, the God we serve can do everything without even doing anything. Hallelujah, he can just step in the middle of your problem and stand there, not
move, not say anything, heal your diseases, pay your bills, put your family back together
and never do anything. I'm talking about I
find security in the God that can do everything
without even doing anything. Security in his person. I don't know if that's
helping you tonight, but it's helping me. One of my preacher friends says, "Ain't no God like our God." Not only to find security in a person, look at the next words of our text phrase. Said, "And the Lord," look
at these two words, shut him. Not only do I find security in a person, I find it in protection. That word shut means to enclose. It means to envelop. It means to engulf. It means to encamp round about. You can have the Secret Service. I got my own personal protection. The psalmist said that the
angel of the Lord emcampeth roundabout him that fear him. Most people stop right there, but the rest of the verse
says to deliver them. I'm talking about powerful protection. Listen, listen, I'm gonna
go ahead and say it, you wanna get a shot, get a shot. Wanna wear a mask, wear a mask. If you don't, you do you and I'll do me, but when it comes down to it, I'm not relying on science, I'm not relying on some government, I'm not trusting in gold
or guns or government, I'm relying on God. He is my protection. He is encamped round about me. I got a hedge built about me and nothing can get through
it unless almighty God allows it to come through
his providential hand. I'm talking about being
powerfully protected. But what's this word? It said that he shut him. Now I went to church enough to know this. There was eight people
that got on that ark. When the waters abated, there
was eight folk got off of it. But the verse does not say
that the Lord shut them. It says that he shut him. Well, somebody stand up right fast and tell me why it said that he shut him. All right, well, I'll
tell you what I think. God wanted Noah to know it was not just a collective protection he was enjoying, but it was personal protection. You may not think you're somebody, but if you're a born again
blood washed child of God, you're somebody to him and he's not just protecting us because we are an assembly together. He's not just protecting us because we're part of a local church. He's protecting me because
I'm special to him. I'm personal to him. I've got a powerful protector, but I've got a personal protector. He walks with me and talks with me. He goes everywhere I go. He goes through everything I go through. He stays up on the sleepless nights. He stands guard. He has shot me. Thank God, powerfully God cares about me. God doesn't love pastor
more than he loves you. God doesn't love me
more than he loves you. He doesn't love you more than he loves me. There's no grandchildren with God. There's no picks, no favorites. We're all on the same
level in Christ, hallelujah and the way he'll take care of Daniel and the three Hebrew boys
and Paul and Simon Peter, he'll take care of us. We're just as important
to him as anyone else in his family. I told you this morning, my
dad was a police veteran. He started policing in
1970 back in the day. I was born in 1968. My dad was still a road patrolman. I was 10, 11, 12 years old. Insurance and all wasn't like it is now. I would put on his police jacket and ride around on second
and third shift with him, just like I was a policeman. We'd get out and go to domestic calls and fight calls and I know up here in the big cities, y'all
have sports bar and grills. Down there in Redneckville where I'm from, we had beer joints. I'd go in the beer joints with him and get the drunks and the fighters and all that, man. I remember one night, my
dad loved movie popcorn. He didn't love going to no movie, but he loved the popcorn, so when he'd start a shift on second, he'd pull up there and
get a bag of popcorn and he had done some
things and got up there and got that bag of
popcorn and got us a drink. I was riding with him,
all of a sudden big fight had broke out in one of
our local beer joints. The dispatcher said they're
fighting all in the building, all over the parking lot. Every officer respond. My daddy looked at me and
said, "Dump that popcorn out." I dumped it, not the bag,
wouldn't believe in littering, dumped the popcorn out,
dump them drinks out, put your seatbelt on and we took off toward the beer joint. He kicked that I don't know
one engine from another, we called them interceptors. Y'all ever heard a police
car when it takes off, (imitating engine), it did the whoo whoo, pinned me back on the seat. I was trying to buckle up my seatbelt. He's telling me what he's gonna do. He said now reach over there
and roll up your window. Now you young folk'll have to Google this, but there's a time in this country... (congregation laughing) When you roll up a window with a handle. You didn't push a button
or you rolled up a window. So I reached over there
and rolled up my window. Then he said, "Lock your door." You don't believe this,
you didn't push a button. You pushed a toggle down. When you wanted to unlock
it, you pulled it up. He said, "Lock your door." So I reached over there and
pushed that toggle down. He reached down running
about 120-mile and hour and he rolled his window up. He said now when I get
out, reach over here and lock this door. What I'm gonna do, there's only one road into that beer joint and one road out. He said, "I'm gonna slide
the car up sideways. I'm gonna step out of the car and pull my slapjack out
and when I shut the door, you reach over and lock it and I'm gonna stand in
between you and that crowd and do what I've got to do." I said, "Daddy, what if they get by you? And what if they get to me?" He said, "To get to you,
they'll have to get by me and that ain't as easy
as you think it is." All of a sudden we slid up
and blocked that driveway. My daddy jumped out. Some of you old time policeman will know, he didn't have that
round oval head slapjack. He had that, we called them head patches. Had a steel ball wrapped
in leather on the end with a spring. He reached and pulled that
thing out of his back pocket, jumped out and shut that door and I reached over and
knocked that toggle down, slid over in the driver's seat. They was a-fightin', my daddy was standing in that road. I know this don't go over good in this soft generation we live in, but my daddy started grabbing them and popping them on the head and they couldn't get
nowhere near that car. He was a-knockin' them down. He was a-throwin' them everywhere. It got so good I reached
up, rolled the window down about that far and said, "Get 'em, Daddy, you're doing a good job. I'm proud of you." I come by to tell somebody that the Lord has shut us in and he's standing between
our enemies and them that we're in and he's pulled
if he will the cross out and he's knocking enemies down and he's throwing, I said we're protected. He's got us shut in and to get to us, they've
got to come through him. I find security in a person. I find security in protection. I'm down to one little word. In. The Lord shut him in. I find security in a position. In. When I got up that Sunday morning, made my way to an old-fashioned altar, knelt repentance in faith, you know what God did? God cut the back 40 off of heaven and put it back in my soul, what he done. You can walk around pooched
lips if you want to, but I got joy, joy, joy down in my heart. I got a little heaven to
go to heaven on, amen. But God put himself,
Jesus moved inside of me, person of his spirit,
meaning where I go he goes. That's what that book said. Christ in you, the hope of glory. If he ain't in you, you ain't going. He's in me. But do you know what? I'm not gonna argue about when he did it, so it can get in a deep discussion, but not only kneeling
there did he put God in me, put Christ in me, you
know what else he did? He put me in Christ. That might not mean anything to you. Let me just go ahead and tell you. If you've ever doubted your salvation, the biggest word in the Bible for security of our faith, security of our salvation is this little word in. If you ever learn what in means, you won't doubt no more. God not only put Jesus in me, but he put me in Christ. It's positional. See, I got two lives. I got a practical life. I'm practically standing
in this pulpit trying to preach to you the word of God. But positionally I'm somewhere else. Christ has got a practical life, he's got a positional life. Positionally, he's in me. Everywhere I go, he goes, right? If I go to a bad place, he goes with me. If I'm going to the wrong place, the right place, he goes with me. People say we need to pray will come and be in the service. Don't worry, just invite me. He'll come in when I come in. 'Cause he's in me. But I'm in him. Now if positionally he's in me and a person of the Holy Ghost, where is at practically. Let me make it simpler. Where is Jesus in his
body of flesh and bone? He is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God. So, if I'm here and he's in me, and he's there and I'm in him, one of these days you
may hear Brother Weaver fell over dead. Don't you believe a word of it, I ain't gonna die. You know what's gonna happen to me? My practical is gonna go and catch up with my positional and I'm gonna go be where I already am. How you know you gonna get to heaven? I'm already there. I'm there in Christ. I'm not there practically yet, but my practically, you
ever heard them old-timers, up until this morning, I was a smart Alec, but I quit this morning on the way to church being a smart Alec. Them old timers used to say, "I woke up this morning homesick for a place I never been." I never said, you can't be homesick for a place you never been. It's impossible, you can't do it. If you ain't never been there,
you can't be homesick for it. And then God showed me what in meant. You know why you get homesick for it? 'Cause part of you's already over there. Your positional life's already, your life is hid in
God with God in Christ. I'm seated at the right hand. When God looks at him,
he sees, glory to God, if you ever get a hold of that, we'll have to tie you
down to preach to you that you're not gonna die, you're just gonna let
your practical catch up with your positional
and you're gonna go be where I already am. I'm talking about the truth about it. Let me give you the trust of in and I'm finished. When God gave the instructions to Noah, he said "I'm gonna drown the earth and flood the earth and drown everybody and kill everybody. You believe me?" Noah said, "I believe you." He said, "Well, if you don't wanna drown, you better build a boat
450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high." He didn't have a windshield on it, so he couldn't see where he was going. Didn't have a rear view
mirror or side view mirror, so he couldn't tell where he come from. Didn't have a gas pedal to speed it up or a brake to slow it down. Didn't have a rudder or a steering wheel so he had no control over it. He couldn't do anything about it. He didn't control where it was going, how it was going, when it was
going, where it was going. He had no control over it at all. The only thing God, you know, the only thing God give him? He had a window, right in the top of it. It was about 18 inches square. He couldn't have got out
of it if he wanted to. When he let them birds go, all he could do was stick his arm up and let them birds out, put
some fruit or something, a bird in his hand, hold it up there and see if the bird would come back to it. He couldn't have got out that window. Had a little old window. In other words, all he could do, when that ark finally came to rest, he couldn't get out, he couldn't move. All he could do is open
that little old window and stand right in the middle of the ark and look up at him. Now I'm here to tell you some of us need to quit trying to steer it because you ain't got the wheel. You said God's my co-pilot. Get out of his seat, amen. God's leading this thing. All Noah had was a window. All he could do was stand
in the ark and look up. I'll tell you when you're
in you're in, hallelujah and we ought not to be
biting our fingernails off to the elbows, drinking
Maalox and eating Tums, shouldn't need a nerve pill. No matter what's going on, I'm in. I think I'll just stand
here and look at him. There is security even
in these scary times. Let's bow for prayer. Father, thank you for
the truth of your word and the power of the Holy Ghost. Take the word of God in the spirit, feeble after thy servants,
speak to thy hearts, do what only you can do. We'll say God did it all and to God be all the
glory for Jesus' sake.
