Well, good evening. We don't,
uh, we didn't have the piano play to warn you that, uh, I
was going to start. So I'm just starting. So if you
would open your Bibles with me, first Peter chapter one, first Peter chapter one. We'll begin our reading in verse
18. For as much as you know that
you're not redeemed with corruptible things, the silver and gold,
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by him do believe God, that raised him
up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God. Seeing you've purified your souls
and obeying the truth through the spirit, and the unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is his grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. All right, Sean. If you would, turn to song number
280. Moment by moment. Dying with Jesus, by death reckon
mine. Living with Jesus, a new life
divine. Looking to Jesus, till glory
doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am
Thine. Moment by moment, I'm kept in
His love. Moment by moment, I've life from
above. Looking to Jesus, till glory
doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am
Thine. Never a trial that He is not
there, Never a burden that He doth not bear, Never a sorrow
that he doth not share, Moment by moment, home under his care. Moment by moment I'm kept in
His love. Moment by moment I fly from above,
looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord,
I am Thine. Never a heartache and never a
groan, Never a teardrop and never a moan, Never a danger, but there
on the throne, Moment by moment he thinks of his own. Moment by moment I'm kept in
His love. Moment by moment I fly from above,
looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord,
I am Thine. Never a weakness he doth not
feel, Never a sickness that he cannot heal. Moment by moment, in woe or in
weep, Jesus my Savior abides with me still. Moment by moment,
I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment, I've life from
above. Looking to Jesus, till glory
does shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am
Thine. Okay, and if you just turn one
page to song number 282, Hiding in Thee. O safe to the rock that is higher
than I, My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly, So sinful,
so weary, thine, thine would I be. Thou blessed rock of ages,
I'm hiding in thee, hiding in thee. Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm
hiding in thee. In the calm of the noontide,
in sorrow's lone hour, In times when temptation casts o'er me
its howl, In the tempest of life, on its wide-heaving sea, Thou
blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee. Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm
hiding in Thee. How often the conflict when pressed
by the foe. I have fled to my refuge and
breathed out my woe. How often when trials like sea
billows roll. Have I hidden in thee, O thou
rock of my soul? Hiding in thee, hiding in thee,
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. Or if you wouldn't open your
Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 8. We'll read the first 12 verses,
Genesis chapter 8. And God remembered Noah and every
living thing and all cattle that was with him in the ark. And
God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep
and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven
was restrained. And the waters returned from
off the earth continually. And after the end of the 150
days, the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh
month on the 17th day of the month upon the mountains of Arat. And the waters decreased continually
until the 10th month, In the tenth month, on the first day
of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came
to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window
of the ark which he had made. And he sent forth a raven, which
went to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were
abated from off the face of the ground. And the dove found no
rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into
the For the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then
he put forth his hand and took her, and pulled her in unto him
into the ark. And he stayed yet another seven
days, and again he sent forth a dove out of the ark. And the
dove came in to him in the evening, and low in her mouth was an olive
leaf plucked off. So no one knew that the waters
were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet another seven
days, and sent forth a dove, which returned not again unto
him. anymore. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow in prayer together. Our Father, how thankful we are
that you've given us another opportunity to meet together
and to worship your matchless name. Father, we thank you for
this opportunity to open your word, to read it, study it, and
have Christ preach to us. And Father, I pray that you would
send your spirit upon us and Give us a true worship service. I pray you deliver us from going
through the motions of religion. But Father, let us hear a word
from thee and have you by your spirit apply it to our hearts
that we might believe and rest in Christ our Savior. Let everything
that is said and done here tonight be said and done to the praise
and the glory of his great name. Father, we thank you for this
place. I thank you for this family of believers that you've called
together by your grace. You've called us out of the world
and given us an ear to hear, a heart to believe, gathered
us together. Father, it's only by your mercy
and by your grace and we're thankful. We pray that you would enable
us to serve you by serving our generation faithfully, by faithfully
preaching Christ to them and not getting our eye off the ball,
getting off on a tangent, but that Father, you might enable
us to serve by preaching Christ and supporting that preaching,
spreading it abroad in this community. Enable us to be the salt of the
earth as you've told us to be. And Father, we pray for those
who are hurting and sick, who are bereaved. Father, we pray
that you'd be with them in a special way. We continue to pray for
Novi that you'd Move in your will and purpose to give her
a kidney and enable that to go well. Restore her to health.
Barb, as she's recovering, and others who are sick and heartbroken,
be with your people, we pray. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name. In the name of Christ our Savior,
amen. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, Two Birds, Two Natures. Now throughout this
study of the Ark, we've seen how that every species of animal
was saved alive in the Ark, both clean and unclean animals. And
I think it's interesting, nearly 2,000 years before the law was
given to Moses, animals were already divided into clean and
unclean animals. I just think that that's very
interesting. That's what God called them, clean and unclean.
And no one knew which animals were clean and unclean. And both
clean and unclean animals were kept alive in the Ark. Have you
ever wondered, why did God spare the unclean animals? Why did
God do that? Well, believe I can tell you
why. Both clean and unclean animals were kept alive in the Ark as
the picture of two natures that are in every believer. In every
believer, there's a clean spirit and an unclean spirit. There's
the flesh and the spirit. The nature of flesh is what's
born in us when we're conceived, and we're born from Adam's sinful
seed. The nature of the spirit is what's born in us when we're
conceived, and we're born again from the holy seed, the word
of God by the Holy Spirit. And the raven in our text this
evening is the unclean bird. The raven is black. That's not
by accident. That picture's the black stain
of sin that's upon our soul, the black spiritual darkness
that we're born in. That black sinful nature is dead. It's dead in sin. It can't do
anything but sin. That black blind nature, it cannot
love God. It cannot believe Christ. It
doesn't even want to believe on Christ. It can't know God. It's impossible. The dove, on
the other hand, is a clean bird. The dove is white, which pictures
the pure sinless nature of Christ that's born into every believer
by the power of the Holy Spirit. That nature can never see. It can never defile itself. It
can never turn itself gray or black by its sin. It's white,
it's pure, it's holy, and that's what it will always be. If you
look over 1 John 3, I'll show you this. 1 John 3. That pure,
sinless nature That nature can only know God. It can only believe God. It can't
do anything else. 1 John 3 verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. It depends
on the seed from which he was born. If the seed that conceived
him is holy, he'll be holy. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. and he cannot
sin. It's impossible for that new
man to sin because he's born of God. And that's what the dove
represents, that holy nature that's in every believer. And
your scripture has a lot to say about doves. You know, the dove
is often given to us as a type of the Holy Spirit in scripture.
Remember after our Lord was baptized in John the Baptist, the Holy
Spirit descended and lighted upon him in the form of a dove.
In the song of Solomon, The beloved has a pet name for his beloved. He calls her my dove because
she's holy, she's pure, she's white. And the bride said to
the bridegroom, oh, his eyes are like dove's eyes. They're
holy, pure eyes. So doves are pictures of holiness. Now we got this dove and this
raven, both in the ark, both in the ark. That's the two natures
that are in every believer. One is pure sin. is pure holiness. And those two natures, the flesh
and the spirit, they're polar opposites of each other. They'll
never get along. Never ever will they get along.
They're going to fight and war against each other as long as
they reside in the same body. They're just, they cannot help
but fighting with one another. And if you look back at Genesis
chapter five, I'll show you a good illustration of this. The warfare. between the flesh and the spirit,
that civil warfare that goes on in a believer begins the very
moment spiritual life enters that believer. At that very moment,
that's when the warfare begins. Genesis 25 verse 21. And Isaac
entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the
Lord was entreated of him. And Rebekah, did I say the wrong
scripture out here? Genesis 25, what did I say? five. It's 25. Aaron was like, well,
I'm going to tell me what I did wrong. 25. Okay. Got it. Genesis
25 verse 21 and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because
she was barren and the Lord was entreated of him and Rebecca,
his wife conceived and the children struggled together within her.
And she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire
of the Lord and Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb. and two manner of people shall
be separated from thy bowels. The one people should be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. You know, Rebecca wanted children,
but everything was fine in her until she conceived. And then
the warfare began. And those two boys, their descendants
are fighting to this day. I mean, it's just, but that all
began the very moment that God gives life in the believer. That's
when the civil war begins that's inside of us. Now look over to
Romans chapter 7. Now both of these two natures
are me. I really am flesh that can't
do anything but sin, and I really am spirit that can never sin.
Both of those two natures are me. And the warfare between the
flesh and the spirit, between me and me, between those two
natures, makes the believer miserable, just miserable, because the spirit
wants to do holy thing, wants to do righteous, has the desires
there, but he can't perform it. He can't do it because he's in
a body of sinful flesh. He's dragging that old dead flesh
along with him everywhere he goes. And beginning in Romans
7, verse 14, this is what the apostle Paul describes for us.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, what I want
to do, that do I not. But what I hate, that's what
I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent under
the law that it's good. Now then it's no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is
present with me, that will comes from the new man. But how to
perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would,
I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. For I delight in the law of God,
after the inward man, the new man loves the law of God. But
I see another law of my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity, to the law of sin which is in
my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. That civil war goes
on so long, every believer cries with Paul. Oh, wretched man that
I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's how I'll be delivered.
So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh, the law of sin. Now I know that all that sounds
very mysterious to the natural man. to hear of the new birth,
where there's a birth of a second nature, born in you, so that
in an individual believer, there are two different natures, where
there are two yous and you're not schizophrenic, you're not
mentally unbalanced. If you're a believer, there's
two yous, the flesh and the spirit. I know that sounds like a complete
mystery. It will be a complete mystery
to have two natures. Then it will become perfectly
obvious to you. Now our text tonight, Look back
in Genesis chapter 8. Our text tonight gives us some,
tells us some things about the new birth in picture. Gives us
some evidences of it so that we can leave here tonight knowing
whether or not we've been born again. And I hope to give you
something here at the very end of the message that will leave
you walking on air. Leaving with a bounce on your
step and a good hope. So number one, here's the first
thing. I'm interested in the new birth. How does it happen?
How does the new birth happen? Well, it happens by the will
and the power of God. In Genesis eight, verse one,
and God remembered Noah and every living thing and all cattle that
was with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over
the earth and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep
and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain From heaven
was restrained and the waters returned from off the earth continually
after the end of 150 days The waters were abated now verse
2 says the rain from heaven was restrained restrained and that
caught my attention and I thought about this I had sometimes there
are dark clouds you think oh my goodness. I mean it's coming
a storm You'll get drop of rain I mean, you know those dark clouds
got to be full of rain, but we don't get any rain. I tell you
the reason for that. God has restrained the rain. God restrained it. It's just
like God suspends the law of gravity and the water that's
up there in the cloud doesn't fall. Why wouldn't gravity just
pull it down? Doesn't. Because God restrains
it. God restrains it. And that's a picture of God's
His restraining power. Now remember this rain that fell,
the flood that came across all the earth, all that water was
a picture of God's wrath against sin. Well, the rain falling on
the ark, the flood waters bearing up the ark, all of that was given
to us as a picture of the sacrifice of Christ. Christ bore God's
wrath for the sin of his people. It fell on him. He bore it all
and not a drop of it fell upon them. Well now, the sacrifice
is over. The rain has stopped, the sacrifice
is over, and God restrains His wrath from the sin of His people.
And sometimes, even in our own sight, we feel so sinful and
so awful, we just go around being afraid God's going to strike
us with lightning from heaven, you know. Well, we deserve it! Why does God restrain His wrath
from falling upon the sin of His people? Why doesn't it destroy
you? You who believe, why does not God's wrath destroy you when
you come to this building tonight? Why not? Because God's wrath
against the sin of His people has already fallen on Christ
our substitute. He took it all. He bore it all.
The sacrifice is over. God's wrath has burned itself
up in Christ our sacrifice and there's none left for God's people.
And that's why God remembered Noah in the ark. God remembers
his people. He remembers, he thinks on them
in mercy and grace. And he thinks on them in mercy
because the death of Christ satisfied God's wrath against their sin.
And God remembers them. And God's people are born again.
When God remembers them in power, in mercy, and he sends his spirit
to them, The spirit blowing where it listed. You don't know where
it's coming from or where it's going. You see the evidence he's
been here. And he comes to give spiritual
life to God's people. And all of that happens at God's
power. According to his time, his purpose,
his will. When God sends the spirit to
his people, it gives them life. That's how the new birth happens.
All right, number two. Can I know that I've been born
There are four evidences here given in picture in our text.
The first evidence of the new birth is this. It's what you
can and you can't eat. Verse six, Genesis chapter eight. And it came to pass at the end
of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had
made and he sent forth a raven which went forth to and fro until
the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also, he sent
forth a dove from him. to see if the waters were abated
from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for
the soul of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark,
for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put
forth his hand and took her, and pulled her in unto him unto
the ark." Now Noah let the raven, he opened up the window, he let
the raven go out of the window. And the raven didn't come back.
The raven just went here and there and everywhere, just all
over the place. but never came back into the ark. And you know
why that is? The raven could feed on all the
dead bodies of people or animals or whatever, you know, floating
around on the water. That raven could feed on all those dead
bodies, all that dead carcass, all that dead stuff, you know.
And he was happy to do it. Happy to just, happy to feed
on all that dead stuff. And that's why he didn't come
back to the ark. But now the dove, she went out, she flew
around for a while, and she looked. She looked and looked and looked,
but she couldn't find anything to eat. She's not going to eat
those dead carcasses. She's not going to eat that.
She's not going to eat death. So she came back to the ark. See,
whether or not you came back to the ark or you never came
back to the ark all depended on this, what you could eat or
what you couldn't eat. Now many times in scripture,
eating is given to us as a picture of faith. It's a picture of what
you trust in to save your soul. You know, like the Jews wouldn't
eat certain things, wouldn't eat pork or wouldn't eat all
these, you know, these different things. Every single time I eat
a piece of bacon, I feel sorry for the Jews, you know, that
have that restriction in their diet. I just feel sorry for them.
You don't know what you're missing. What a shame that you think that
something is good for your soul, not eating this piece of bacon,
you know. That piece of bacon is not touching your soul. But
that's what they think. And all that is given to us as
a picture. That's what they're putting their
soul, they're trusting their soul to. What I eat and what
I don't eat. Our Lord said this though, this
is a spiritual matter, spiritually. John 6 verse 53. He said, except
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, You
have no life in you. Now, the Lord didn't mean you
have to be a cannibal and eat his flesh and actually drink
his blood. That eating is a picture of faith. It's taking Christ by faith,
laying hold on him by faith that he is all my hope. He's all my
salvation. It's having union with him. I
mean, it's just obvious. The only way a dead sinner like
you and me can live is if we have union with Christ, who is
our life. Now the opposite of that is what
scripture calls all the religious works that we do. Not eating
a piece of bacon. Now if you're not eating a piece
of bacon because you think it's going to make you holy, you know
what scripture calls that? A dead work. It's a dead work. It's a work that produces or
earns spiritual death. Now you who believe, before you
knew Christ, you could feed on those dead works, couldn't you?
You could trust those dead works to save you. That's the raven
feeding on those dead carcasses floating around in the water.
The dove, she couldn't eat those dead carcasses. I mean, that
raven did it all day long, but the dove didn't. She needs bird
seeds. She needs food that's fit for
her constitution. Well, that's the believer, the
believer who needs to hear the gospel. The gospel of Christ
is the only thing that'll feed my soul. It's the only thing
that will give a believer strength to continue. It's the only way
that my soul can be refreshed. I think about that especially
on Wednesday nights. For I don't know how many years
I went out and worked in warehouses and stores and different things.
It wears you out, don't it? I mean, it just wears you out.
It wears you down. You need to be refreshed. Eat
something for your soul. The world's just been sucking
you dry from Sunday to today. Your soul needs to be refreshed.
And the only thing that will refresh you is hearing of Christ
one more time. Hearing his gospel one more time.
Now if that describes you, you've been born again. The only way
a person can feel that way, that they can have that need of the
gospel and feel that refreshing of the gospel, is if they've
been born again. Alright, the second evidence
of the new birth. It's where you find rest for
your soul. Now, that raven went to and fro. It went a bunch of
different places, but it never came back to the ark. So it had
to find rest somewhere. More than likely, it found rest
on a dead carcass. It just landed there, and it
was fine by it. The smell didn't bother it. It
didn't bother him at all. He ate it and was happy to be
there. Now, physically, the dove could land on one of those dead
carcasses, couldn't she? Birds got skilled to do that.
But she couldn't bear to stay on that dead carcass. I mean,
it was gross to her. It was revolting to her constitution,
to her makeup, you know. And she couldn't stay there.
She went back to the Ark because she needed a place to rest. And
she knew, I can rest in the Ark. I've been doing it all this time.
I'm going back there. That's where I can rest. Now,
the ravens didn't believe her. The unbeliever is just fine resting
on his own works. Even though God calls them dead
works, works that produce death, the unbelievers very happy resting
in those things and they get very active. Now, if you're going
to rest in these things, you're going to depend upon these things.
You better do a lot of them, hadn't you? I mean, you don't
know, you know, the scales God's going to, you know, the way that
God's justice is described to them. You're not exactly sure
what God's scales are. You know, God's scale is absolute
perfection. It's gotta be perfect. But the
way, you know, what they're told, they don't know that. So, well,
I don't know how much God will require, so I'll just do everything
I can. And boy, they get busy. They get busy just doing everything
they can do, as many works of righteousness as they can possibly
do. And they're hanging their souls
on the fact that God will accept them, because I did as much as
I could. I did as much as I could. Look at what I did. And you know,
all that is spiritually, It's resting on the carcass of a dead,
bloated animal. That's what that is. But that's
not the dove. That's not the believer. The
believer finds it impossible to rest upon our works. Now,
we still got that flesh in us, and it's always whispering here,
look at that good work you did. Look what you did there. Wasn't
that good? And you think about that. The new man, he listens
to what the old man says. He says, well, that was good.
You really did good there. And the believer thinks about it.
I can't rest there. It wasn't good enough. It wasn't
good enough. Even if it was truly helpful,
yeah, I like being noticed because I did that. And the believer's
just ashamed of himself for feeling that way. You can't rest in your
works because you know that they're not good enough. does want to do as much as we
possibly can in the service of our God, in the service of his
kingdom, but we're not going to rest in those words. We can't,
we know they're not good enough. The believer can only rest in
Christ. Don't give me the law and tell
me I got to, you know, if I live by the law, this is how a believer
is supposed to live because the law gives no rest. The law never
tells you that's enough. You can rest. Never. All the
law does is make you weary. Christ the Savior says, come
unto Me and rest. All year labor it. Come and rest. That's the place where we can
rest. And the way we rest is by hearing of Christ preached.
And the believer needs it. I mean, the believer needs it.
Because it's the only way our soul can find any rest. I've heard it before. But if
I'm going to have any rest for my soul, I'm telling you, I need
to hear one more time. Christ did everything God requires
of me. Better than that, I need to hear
this. Christ is everything God requires of me and I'm completing. I need to hear that. I need to
be constantly reminded of that. I just, I just have to hear Christ
preached. And I thought of this illustration.
I've told y'all before Jan puts sedatives in our, in Sunday dinner.
And man, by the time Sunday dinner's over, I mean, I'm telling you,
I sit down in my chair and I don't care what's going on. I mean,
I don't care what's going on. The kids can be there talking
and stuff can be going on. And I mean, I cannot hold my
eyes open anymore. I just got to take just a little
nap, you know. Well, that's what the believer... go through my life and do everything
I was supposed to do, but I've just got to hear Christ preached. Because this world gives my soul
no rest, no comfort, no assurance. But hearing Him does. And that's
what gives my heart rest. Now, if you find yourself able
to rest in everything that you've done, all the good things you've
done for God and what you've done to show other people what
a good Christian you are, then my friend, I'm afraid you're
the raven who hasn't been born again, you're feeding on dead
things. But if you find that you can only rest in Christ,
you can only get any rest for your soul hearing who Christ
is and what He's accomplished for His people, then you've been
born again. You know, if hearing Christ preach
just makes you feel refreshed and relaxed, the pressure's off. He did it all. He's all you need. The pressure's off. then you've
been born again. Because only the believer who's
been born again can find rest in Christ. The unbeliever's gonna
need something else. And I would ask you, do you need
rest for your soul? I mean, are you weary? Are you
weary of trying to be good enough to make God happy with you? Then
come to Christ and rest. That's where we have rest. All
right, here's the third evidence we've been born again, is I still
need Christ. Noah let that raven go and the
raven never came back. The raven simply didn't need
the ark. The raven was just fine, living on stuff, floating around
out there in the water, the dead carcasses and stuff. That raven
took off and looked out in that water and I'm just imagining,
I don't know, I'm just imagining there are dead carcasses floating
in that water. You know what that looked like to that raven?
A smorgasbord. If you're of a certain age, you
remember Ma Perry's smorgasbord. I remember the first time I went
in that place. I mean, I could not believe they had that much
food in one building. I mean, it was just, and man,
a teenager walks in that place and says, let me at it, buddy.
I'm getting my money's worth, you know. That's what that Raven
thought. Look at all those dead bodies.
It's a smorgasbord. The dove flew up, saw the same
thing. and came back to the ark. The rain had stopped. It wasn't
raining anymore, was it? But she'd still drown. She'd
still drown in the floodwaters. She needed the ark. There was
no dry land yet. And the unbeliever is the raven.
The unbeliever sees man's religion like a smorgasbord. I travel,
you know, different places and talk to people, and they tell
you how they first came to hear the gospel, how they first came
to know Christ, And it is a common theme for them, somebody to tell
you, I tried everything. I mean, I tried it all. I was
a Buddhist. I was a Catholic. I was a this. I tried it all,
you know. That's the unbeliever. They're
satisfied. I'll get a little here, a little there, a little
of this religion, a little of that religion, a little of this
preacher, a little of that one, you know. The unbeliever can
be satisfied with that because it's all the same to them. It's
all the same. But the believer can't do that.
The believer doesn't want a smorgasbord. I need one message. I need one
bread. I need one drink. I just need
one. The one message that satisfies
a believer is Christ and Him crucified. That's the only message
that will satisfy. He was crucified for me. He was crucified for my sin. He bore justice for my sin so
that I can go free, so that I can live. That's the message that
God uses to save His people. But you know what? The believer
continually needs to hear that same message over and over and
over again. Absolutely. Christ has saved me by bearing
the wrath of my sin. He absolutely has. He saved me. It's a salvation I cannot lose.
But I'm telling you, I still need Him or I'm going to perish.
I still need Him. I need to hear it. My soul longs
to hear him preach. I need to worship him. I need
to. Last year, whenever it was, I
was in the hospital and all kinds of different things. It was three
months almost to the day since I'd been in the public worship
service. And I came back here one night. First time I'd been
back in three months, Brother Nyvert was preaching. And man,
I wish he'd have gone on all night long. I mean, being with
you all and hearing the gospel not on a screen, but for a man
right here come to preach to me. Oh, I needed that. That's what the believer just...
It's the only place I can feed. It's the only place I could rest.
Yes, He saved me, but I still need Him. Yes, He saved me by
His grace, but I need more grace. Yes, He saved me by His mercy.
I need more mercy. Now if you find you can be satisfied
with a little bit of this, a little bit of this, matter of fact,
I need a little bit of this, a little bit of this over here,
because I just get bored with one message. And my friend, I'm
afraid you've not been born again. But if you find you can only
be satisfied with Christ, you can only be satisfied hearing
him preached over and over and over again, that's a pretty good
indication that you've been born again. And just to be sure that
we don't make this thing of faith and resting in Christ out to
be a work, you know, that we do, let me give you something
to help prevent us from thinking, you know, I've done this, given
some sort of evidence, doing this myself, you know, I've been
born again. Let me ask you this, when you consider your own salvation,
who gets the credit for it? Who saved you and who keeps you
safe? You know, I know a lot of people
that say, well, you know, God saved me, but I've got to do
this, that or the other in order to keep it. Who saved you and who keeps you
saved? See, the new birth is a work
that God, the Holy Spirit does in me. It's a work that God has
done. It's a work that God is pleased
to do. And it's a work that God keeps me. Keeps me. Keeps me
in Christ. And that's pictured here in the
ark. Did you notice that at the end of verse 9? Then he put forth
his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark. See, that's what God does for
all of his people. And that word pulled means caused
her to come in. God causes all of his dove, he
causes them to come to Christ. lays hold upon His people and
He pulls them in. He doesn't wait for them to make
the last move or first move. He causes them to come in. Actually,
I said that right. He doesn't wait for them to make
the first move. He doesn't wait for them to make the last move
either. He calls them to Christ and He lays hold of them and
He pulls them in. He pulls them in. God did it
all. And that's an evidence of being born again. Has the Holy
Spirit drawn you to Christ? Has He showed you Christ so that
you're drawn to Him? But if God saved you, tell you
what the Spirit's gonna do, He's gonna keep drawing you to Christ.
And here's how He'll do it, by giving you a need for Him. So
that you keep needing Him, so that you keep needing to hear
of Him, so that you keep needing to be in His presence where He's
preached. If you find that God's the one that had saved you, and
God's the one that keeps you saved, He keeps drawing you to
Christ. Pretty good indication you've been born again. All right,
here's the fourth evidence. where you find peace. Verse 10,
and he stayed yet another seven days. And again, he sent forth
the dove out of the ark and the dove came into him in the evening
and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew
that the waters were abated from off the earth. Now this time,
the third time Noah, or the second time he sent her out, the dove
came back and she brought an olive leaf with her. So no one
knew that the treetops are above the water. Now she landed on
this olive tree, and she plucked the leaf off and brought it back
with her. And you know, it wasn't an accident what tree she landed
on. She landed on an oak tree. She landed on a pine tree. She
landed, and not on a sycamore tree, on an olive tree. She brought back that olive leaf.
Isn't the olive branch, that's the universal symbol of peace,
isn't it? Peace. The dove bringing back
that olive leaf is a picture of God, the Holy Spirit, bringing
peace into the hearts of God's people. And you know how the
spirit brings peace to the hearts of God's people. Does he just
tell you everything's okay? Everything's okay. Does he make you say nothing's
wrong with me? Nothing's hurting me. Nothing's
bothering me. You know, that's like the emperor's
new clothes. Yes, it is. Something's hurting. I mean, something's hurting me.
Something is devastating me. Something's made me sad. Yes. Yes. I'm in a trial here. I feel like I'm in the flame.
I'm getting just pressed. So the spirit doesn't make you
say everything's okay when it's not. And the spirit doesn't just
kind of make the storm go away. Buddy, when you come to Christ,
your troubles are just beginning. Not only are you going to have
that civil war going on within, but our wise Heavenly Father
tries His people. He tries them in the refiner's
fire. No, the storm's real. The fire
is real. It's got to be real or it's not
going to burn off any draws. It's got to be real. It's got
to hurt or it won't teach us anything. So here's how the Holy
Spirit, that's how He does it. Here's how he does. The Holy
Spirit brings peace to the hearts of God's people by applying his
word, by applying the gospel to our hearts. The Holy Spirit
draws us. He keeps drawing us and keep
making us come back, doesn't he? Come back to the worship
church. He makes us come back and hear the gospel one more
time. And he makes us hear it. I mean hear it. Hear with ears
of faith. He applies it to our heart. And
we enjoy peace. We have peace and we enjoy it.
even though the storm's still raging. The physical pain, the
physical fleshly trial is still there. Caused as much pain as
it ever did, but now we enjoy peace. Peace in the heart. As
long as we live, we're going to be trapped in this body of
sin. And we're going to suffer all
the effects of sin. But my soul has peace. My soul
has peace. If you haven't been to this place
yet, you will be probably right soon. But you can say it's not
well with my body. It's not well with my mind. But
it's well with my soul. It's well with my soul. That's
what our Savior meant when he said, my peace I give unto you. My peace, the peace that God
gives his people is the peace. that our Lord Jesus Christ purchased
with the Father, with his own precious blood, with the blood
of his cross, when he died as a sacrifice, as a substitute
for his people. The dove was the only one who
could tell Noah about peace. The dove was the only one who
could bring that olive leaf back to him. You are the only one
who can tell God's people about peace, and actually bring it
to their hearts, is God the Holy Spirit. And he doesn't do it
in a mysterious way. I mean, I guess it's mysterious,
but it's a way that's well known. He does it through the preaching
of the gospel, the preaching of Christ, which is a mystery
to the natural man, but it's not a mystery to you who believe.
That's how he brings peace to your heart. And if you find that
you have peace in your heart from hearing of Christ crucified
again and again and again, pretty good indication you've been born
again. All right, now here's the third thing. This is the
last thing. It's something for you who believe,
something for you who've been born again to look forward to.
Verse 12. And he stayed yet another seven
days and sent forth a dove, which returned not again unto him anymore. Now, apparently there was finally
enough trees and seeds and dry land and so forth that the dove
could live outside of the ark. Now, I first read that, I thought,
well, you know, the picture's not perfect, because no picture
is. A believer never leaves Christ. A believer never lives outside
of Christ. But this is such a glorious,
comforting picture. If you remember, we're kind of,
we're looking at this as the ark is the picture of the believer.
These clean and unclean animals in the ark, two natures inside
of, two different natures inside of one believer. Right now, the
believer's dove. That new man, he's trapped in
this clay prison, isn't he? He's just caught in here and
he's fighting this civil war inside of us. But that's not going to last
forever. That's not going to last forever. God's going to
bring an end to that war. You know, it talks about the
Lord making war cease to the end of the world. Men are never
going to quit fighting on this earth. I mean, if there's an
end to the war and there's a treaty somewhere, I mean, I know the
Lord did it, but I'm just convinced of this. Till the day the Lord
returns, men are going to be fighting each other, going to
be bashing each other, going to be firing weapons at each other and so
forth. But the Lord's going to make this civil war cease for
all of his people. One day, he's going to say it's
time to come off the battlefield. The Lord's going to call his
child home, and that dove, that new man, is going to fly away.
he's never going to return. He's not going to return to this
sinful dead body anymore. He's going to fly away and forever
be with the Lord. And then we're not going to deal
with this body of sin anymore. We're not going to deal with
the effects of sin anymore. We're not going to deal with
the nature of sin. We're not going to deal with the presence
of sin. No more will we even need faith. We won't even need
to rest by faith in Christ. I won't even need somebody to
come and tell me of Christ again. I won't even need to hear Christ
preached again. I won't need some man to come
to me because you know why? I'm going to see him face to
face. I won't need faith. I'll see him face to face. I
won't need hope. I'll have him. I'll have him.
I'll be in his presence forever. I won't need somebody to tell
me stop and rest. I'm going to be with him. There's perfect
rest and perfect peace. And if you've been born again
by God's Spirit, you got that to look forward to. That's pretty
good stuff, isn't it? That's pretty good stuff. All
right, I hope the Lord will bless that to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. How we thank you for the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful we are that you
do not leave us to ourselves, to our own devices, our own wills,
but that you save your people by your will, by your power,
and that you make your people willing in the day of your power. Cause us to be born again. And
Father, until that day comes where you call us home to leave
this body, forever be with the Lord, to forever leave this body
and nature of sin behind, we pray that you would keep drawing
us, keep drawing us to Christ, keep drawing us to look to him,
keep drawing us to come back together in the public worship
service. If you'd be pleased, enable us to serve our generation
by faithfully preaching Christ to them. Father, bless your word
for your great namesake, we pray. It's in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, for his sake and his glory, we pray. All right,
Sean. Okay, if you would turn to song
number 474 and stand as we sing. Only a sinner. Not have I gotten, but what I
received. Grace hath bestowed it since
I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Once I was foolish, and sin ruled
my heart, Causing my footsteps from God to depart. Jesus hath found me, happy my
case, I now am a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner, saved
by grace Only a sinner, saved by grace This is my story, to
God be the glory I'm only a sinner, saved by grace Tears unavailing,
no merit had I. Mercy had saved me, or else I
must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's
face, but now I'm a sinner. Saved by grace, only a sinner
saved by grace. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows. Loving His Savior to tell what
He knows. Once more to tell it would I
embrace. I'm only a sinner. Saved by grace Only a sinner
Saved by grace Only a sinner Saved by grace This is my story
To God be the glory I'm only a sinner Saved by grace