ONE ARK, ONE CHURCH — BOB PRICHARD

God “spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:5).

THERE WAS ONLY ONE ARK.

Noah did not build arks. He built one ark. Jesus built one church. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling” (Ephesians 4:4). God “hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).

THERE WAS ONLY ONE PATTERN FOR THE ARK.

“Make thee an ark of gopher wood” (Genesis 6:14-16). “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Genesis 6:22). We must do all God commands us to do concerning the pattern of the church, found in the New Testament (Romans 6:17).

THERE WAS ONLY ONE LIGHT SOURCE.

“A window shalt thou make to the ark” (Genesis 6:16). Our light today is the light of God’s word which reveals His Son, the light of the world. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).  

THERE WAS ONLY ONE FAMILY IN THE ARK.

“While the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:20). “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

THERE WAS ONLY ONE WAY INTO THE ARK.

“The door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it” (Genesis 6:16). “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9). “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. … Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5).

THE ARK SHOWS GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES.

“And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:12-13). 

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:38-39).

THERE WAS ONLY ONE DANGER!

The danger was being outside! Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37-39). We must be in the ark [the church], and remain there for safety!

(Adapted from Jack McNiel)