Thank you, Cheryl. Good morning. Let's open up this morning's
service in the softback hymnal number 69. Number 69, this is
our prayer. Prepare our hearts, oh Lord.
Number 69. If you all could please stand. Prepare our heart, O Lord, to
hear your word proclaimed. Your servant clothed with mighty
power and magnified your name. Remove all earthly care, expose
our inmost sin, and let us see Christ crucified to cleanse us
from all sin. Inspire our hearts with grace,
With gratitude and love, That we might live for Christ alone,
And here show forth His love. for sinners in our midst who
yet not know our God. We see your mighty saving grace
and pardon through Christ's blood. Above all else we ask that in
this place, this hour, Christ might be glorified and praised
for all his saving power. Please be seated. Good morning. That is our heart's
desire this morning, that Christ would be magnified, that he would
be glorified, and that we would find him to be all our salvation. If that is our heart's desire,
it's only because the Lord made it so. We're going to be looking at
a verse of scripture in Genesis chapter 8 this morning. Genesis
chapter 8. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, to
stand before you in his glory and in his perfection and intercede
for us. Lord, we pray that you would
send your spirit and power and that you would enlighten the
eyes of our understanding, that you would cause us, Lord, to
find our rest in Christ. to find him to be the arc of
safety for our souls. Lord, that you would cause your
word to be living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, that it would divide asunder the soul from the spirit and
thoughts from the intents of the heart. And Lord, that you
would cause us once again to find Christ alone to be our all
and to be in all. For it's in His name we ask it.
Amen. You have your Bibles open to
Genesis chapter 8. I've titled this message, Rest
for the Weary. Rest for the Weary. You see verse 9, but the dove,
the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot. and she returned
unto him into the ark, and the waters were on the face of the
whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and
took her and pulled her in unto himself into the ark." What a
glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ taking A weary soul
who can find no rest in this world, a world that has been
deluged with God's judgment and is infected with man's sin. And
Noah, Noah's name means rest. Listen to what David said in
Psalm 116 verse 7, return unto thy rest. Return unto thy Noah, that's
the word, it's the same word. Return unto thy Noah, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. The gospel of God's
free grace in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is only
for those who are weary of soul and need a place of rest. It's
for those who are broken. It's for the blind. It's for
the needy. It's for the weary. It's for
those who need to find a place where they can have their souls
comforted and their sins forgiven. And what a picture of our Lord's
grace in Noah here. reaching out his hand. This bird
is on its last leg. I mean, it's been flying around
looking for a place to light and it can't find any. Unlike
the raven, which the scripture says of previous verses, comes
to and fro. The raven just appears on the
ark and then disappears at its own whim. But the dove, almost
as if she's about to lose all strength. She can't fly another
flap of her wings, and she's almost home, but in order for
us to be there, Noah has to reach out his hand, give her, and bring
him to himself into the ark. What a picture of our Lord's
amazing grace towards sinners who can find no rest for their
soul anywhere else. Now I hope that you had a good
night's sleep last night and in so doing you got some rest
for your body. But however well you might have
been able to rest last night for your flesh, it will give
you no encouragement to your soul. I hope that you have an
opportunity to take a few days off, maybe go on vacation, maybe
get a little rest from the weary labors of your daily routine. But no vacation will satisfy
the need of a weary, sin-sick soul. The only hope, the only
hope that we have is that our rest The scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 4 that we are to labor to enter into His rest. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Sabbath. He is our Sabbath. He is that
place of rest. His accomplished work of redemption
is the only place a sinner can find rest for his soul. And here the Lord's giving us
a picture of this weary bird, clean as she was, desperate to
find a place to rest the soul of her feet, a place where she
can stand, a place where she can be comforted. The pleasures
of sin give no weary soul rest. We have Pleasure in sin for a
season. But if the Lord has caused you
to understand the need of your immortal soul, you don't get
any satisfaction from those things. The world cannot comfort you.
The world cannot give you rest. The law certainly cannot provide
a place of rest. The Pharisee finds comfort in
the law. He's deceived himself in believing
that somehow he's satisfied the demands of God's law, and he
presents himself in such a way as to intimidate others in his
keeping of the law. But the weary soul, the dove
of God's grace that has flown out over the destruction of God's
judgment and wrath, can find no place to find rest for the
sole of their feet except in the ark. There's nothing in the
law. The law, every bit of the law,
every letter of the law, we love God's law. And God's law is holy
and good. It's a picture of his very nature
and character. And yet we've never ever been
able to keep one jot or tittle of it for one moment. And when
we look to the law of God, God says, guilty, guilty. Guilty doesn't give me any rest. Guilty is a fearful condemnation. I need to know that there is
one who has satisfied all the demands of God's law in my stead,
and that he has presented himself before God as my righteousness. He's the only one. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
the only one that I can find rest for my soul when it comes
to the demands of God's holy law. He kept it. He kept it. Even what we're doing now. in
and of itself cannot provide rest for your soul. Your worship, your prayers, your
study of scripture, all the things that the Lord might move you
to do as means of faith, those means in and of themselves provide
no rest for the soul. The religious, the self-righteous
will deceive himself again in thinking that somehow because
I'm doing these things I'll be able to relax, I'll be able to
rest before God because I've worshipped God, I've prayed,
I've studied my Bible. But that dove that a survey and
the destruction of God's judgment knows that all the things that
God's put on his heart to do in and of themselves are only
means to an end. There's no rest in them. There's
no comfort. Even the fellowship that we enjoy
together. What a blessing it is for God's
people to be able to come together and fellowship in the gospel,
to share the experiences that God's given them in their hearts,
and to find that encouragement. But that in and of itself is
no rest for the soul. The only place, the only person
that can satisfy that need is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And these means that God has given us for faith, you know,
sometimes I read an article recently that talked about means of grace.
And it spoke of Bible study and fellowship and prayer and those
things as means of grace. They're not means of grace. There's
only one means of grace, and that's faith. Faith is the only
means of grace that there is. Now, God has given us those things
as means to faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the Word of God, and as the Spirit of God... By the
way, let me say this. If the Lord moves your heart
to pray, it is because He's purposed to
answer that prayer. Don't think for a moment because
you poured out your soul in sincere prayer to God that now God is
obligated to reward you for that prayer. If you poured out your
soul in sincerity before God, it's because he put that in your
heart with the intent to answer that prayer. You see, he gets
all the glory, doesn't he? But we, you know, we're so, We're
so prone to take our eyes off of Christ and to look somewhere
else, aren't we? This dove could find no place
to rest its weary soul. There was no place of rest for
its foot. It had to come back to the ark.
And in coming back to the ark, it was in need of Noah. It was
in need of Noah to reach out and take it in, take it in to
himself. Noah, the man of rest. Our good
works, if the Lord, the Lord, we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath ordained that we
should walk in them. And yet, what does the unbeliever
say? Oh, when I do something good,
it just makes me what? Makes me feel good. Makes me
feel good. And they find rest for their
guilty conscience in their works. There's no rest there. The rest
can only be found in Christ. When he cried from Calvary's
cross, it is finished. It was finished. Everything was
finished. Everything that God requires
of you and me was satisfied in the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He finished the work. He finished
the work of justice. God requires justice. He requires
sin to be punished. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the full wrath of God's justice in order to satisfy Him. It's finished. Rest. Rest. There's nothing left
for you to do. The righteousness that God requires
of us, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that
we might become the righteousness of God in Him. You and I are
in need of our Noah, our man of rest, to reach out from the
window of the ark and to receive our weary souls. You know, I'm
just convinced that if Noah had not reached out and helped this
poor dove into the ark, that dove would have fallen short
of getting to the ark and would have drowned itself in the deluge
that everything else was destroyed by. Isn't that the way it is? Aren't we just like the prodigal?
You know, taking our inheritance and wasting it on riotous living
and ending up in the pigpen of our own sin and of our own rebellion?
And finally, the Lord bringing us to ourselves and causing us
to realize that, oh, in my father's house, servants have got it better
than I do. I'll go home and I'll say to
my father, father, I've sinned against thee and against thy
God, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son, make me thy
servant. And as he came home, The father,
like Noah, reaching out the window to help this dove into the ark.
He knew the boy was coming home, didn't he? Knew exactly what
he'd been through and where he was and when he was coming. And
he ran down the road and he met him. Maybe that boy couldn't
have made the turn down the driveway. Maybe he had good intentions,
maybe he wanted to come home, but he was so filled with shame
and guilt that he wouldn't have been able to make that final
turn and come to the father. Had the father not come to him. And that's exactly what he did.
And he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him. And he
put the robe of righteousness on him. And he put the ring of
authority on his finger and shod his feet with the preparation
of the gospel and said to his servant, kill the fatted calf. This son of mine which was lost
has now been found. How many pictures of that we
have? Of our God reaching out All that
woman with the issue of blood in Mark chapter 5. She had spent
all that she had on physicians. You know, I'm thankful for modern
medicine. I was just reading last night
about George Washington. George Washington got a cold.
He got a cold. He was 67 years old. He got a
cold, and they called the physicians, and the physicians bled him to
cure him of his cold. They bled him. Two pints of blood.
And then they gave him something to induce vomiting and diarrhea.
In other words, the doctors killed him. He died. That next day,
he died. In their attempt to try to save
his life, You know, the doctors actually were instruments of
death for him. And that happened just a couple
hundred years ago. What would it have been like
2,000 years ago if these doctors had been doing? You know, this
woman had been to every physician. She had spent everything she
had. It's not a picture of medicine. It's a picture of the desperation
that men will go to in order to satisfy their need for a place
of rest for their souls. She had, like many of us, she
had practiced every form of religion that there was to practice, trying
to satisfy the guilt for her sin, trying to establish a righteousness
before God, unable to do so. And she crawled through the crowd
and thought, oh, if I could just touch the hem of his garment,
I'd be made whole. The Lord said, who touched me?
And the disciples were amazed at such a question. Lord, why
would you ask such a thing? You're in the middle of a crowd.
People are touching you all over. He said, oh no, no, no. One has touched me in faith and
virtue has gone out of me. And she knew that it was her.
And she told him all the truth. She told him all the truth. Oh,
she was on her last leg, wasn't she? She was desperate for Noah
to reach out his hand from the window of the ark and pull her
into that place of safety. What a picture of Christ the
ark is. The ark was the only place of safety in the deluge
of God's judgment against the world. Everything else died.
And the amazing thing is that the same water that destroyed
the earth and every living thing on it is the same water that
gave lift to the ark and saved the ark above the judgment. So
it is with the judgment of God's wrath upon our substitute, the
Lord Jesus Christ. It gave lift to his redemption. The judgment of God was fully
satisfied, and the father was not allowed to see his holy one,
to see corruption. And so he raised him from the
dead. We have life in Christ. Tell the disciples, Mary, tell
Peter that I have risen. Oh, what great hope. The Lord's always reaching His
hand out and bringing His children into the ark. And don't believe
for a moment the pictures that you see from Hollywood about
this ark struggling to stay afloat and Noah and his sons desperately
bailing water out of the ark. Not a drop of that water got
inside that ark. Not a drop of it. It was pitched
from within and without. That was no leaky boat. I've
had leaky boats. That wasn't a leaky boat. That
ark was dry. The wrath of God could not get
in. The word pitch there that's used in the scripture to describe
what Noah did for that ark is the same word for atonement.
It means a covering. And that's it. What a picture
of Christ. He's been pitched within and without. And the wrath of God's been satisfied
because of His holiness. Oh, sinner, if God has put on
your... Most folks don't have a concern
for their souls. They really don't. Oh, they may
have a passing thought of life after death from time to time.
but to be burdened with the immortality of their own soul. That's a work
of grace. That's a work of grace. If God
has done that for you, flee to the ark. Fly to the ark. Make your way back to the ark.
There's nothing in the world but destruction. And I promise
you that you will find Noah to reach out his hand And in your
desperate last breath of effort to come, he'll bring you into
the safety. Look what he says. He put forth
his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark. Now I've got in the margin of
my Bible that word pulled means caused her to come. He caused her to come. And that's
the only way you're gonna come. That's the only way I'm gonna
come. Is if the Lord causes us to come, we won't come any other
way. We'll make a covenant with death. We'll be in agreement
with hell. We'll satisfy our guilty conscience
with our good works. We'll deceive ourselves in thinking
that God's satisfied with us. He's pleased with us. We won't
come to Christ. We won't come back to the ark.
No, we'll be like that raven that was feeding on the carrion
that was floating in the water. The dead flesh. That's what we'll
do, won't we? But the dove, the dove can't
find anything out there to give rest to the soul of her feet. She's got to come back to the
ark. She's got to come to Christ. What a picture of that we have
in Mark chapter 10, in poor, dirty, blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus. Oh, the Lord was walking through
Jericho. He had heard the stories. He couldn't see, but he heard
the stories and he believed what he heard. Faith comes by hearing. He had heard the stories of the
Lord healing blind people, raising dead people, forgiving sinners. And he was desperate. Oh, he
is like this dove. He thought, I've got one chance.
The master's coming by, this is my only opportunity. This
is the desperation that the spirit of God puts on the soul of those
who need to find a place of rest. And he cried, son of David, have
mercy upon me. Lord, have mercy upon me. Bartimaeus,
shut up. You're just making a spectacle
of yourself, and you're embarrassing everybody around you. And he
cried all the louder. He wouldn't shut up, would he?
He wouldn't shut up. Bartimaeus, be of good cheer. He calleth for thee. He's reached
out his hand. He's taking you into the ark. You can't get to him. but he's
reaching out to you, he's bringing you to himself. What would you
have me to do for you, Bartimaeus? Oh Lord, that I might see, that
I might see. He threw off that old dirty robe,
the only piece of clothing he had, he threw it and left it
at the curbside, he went to Christ. Oh, isn't that what God does
for us? Lord, I'm so dirty, my righteousness is not acceptable
before, I need a clean robe. I need you to save me. The Lord did give him sight,
didn't he? And the scripture says that he followed after Jesus. He didn't leave his side. Oh, that Ethiopian eunuch. He had
been to Jerusalem. He had heard all the way down
in Ethiopia. The captain of the treasury of
Candace, the queen of Ethiopia. This was a man of influence.
This was a man of power. This was a man of education.
And he had his entourage take him all the way to Jerusalem
because he had heard about the God of the Jews that they called
Jehovah. And he had participated in all
the sacrifices and all the services as far as a Gentile could. And
he had acquired a copy of the book of Isaiah. Oh, what a rare,
precious gem that was. How much more we should be grateful
for the fact that God has given us the full canon of his scripture. The Lord sent Philip. He reached
out his hand, didn't he? That Ethiopian had no way to
understand what he was reading. No way to understand it. He said,
when Philip asked him, he said, do you understand what you're
reading? And the Ethiopian said, how can I unless a man should
guide me? The Lord knew where that Ethiopian
was. He knows where all of his sheep
are. He's going to get the gospel to him. Philip had been involved
in a revival up in Antioch, and the Lord took him out of that
revival, sent him down to Gaza, the south side of the desert,
the backside of nowhere. Lord, you know Philip was wondering,
well, Lord, what are you sending me here for? Because I've got
one lost sheep. One lost sheep. He's in a chariot. He doesn't
look like a sheep. He looks like a man of influence
and power, but he's a dead dog sinner. And I'm going to send
you to him to tell him about Christ. And beginning right there
in Isaiah chapter 53, when the Ethiopian said, does the prophet
speak of himself or does he speak of another? He preached unto
him, Jesus. preached to him the gospel, told
him about this place of rest, told him about the ark, told
him about the place of safety, told him about a God who gives
a firm foundation, a stone on which to stand your weary foot. A God that will reach his hand
out from the ark and bring in that weary dove. and give him
a place of safety and rest, a forgiving God, a merciful God, a God that
heals the blind, enables the lame to walk, gives life to the
dead. And the Ethiopian heard this
story about the Lord Jesus Christ and he said, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? Oh, I wanna follow after this
God. I found no help. in what I experienced
back there in Jerusalem. All the lawmongers of Judaism
did was tell me more things that I needed to do. And so I'm sure
that this Ethiopian was going home figuring that he would just
add Judaism to the plethora of religions that he had and somehow
satisfy his soul, but no, he couldn't, he couldn't. If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. I believe that Jesus Christ,
that one you just preached to me, is the Son of God. And I believe that with all my
heart. Do you believe that with all
your heart? He's the only place of rest you
can find. Like that dove, you have flown
over the waters of God's judgment in this world, and you can find
no rest for the sole of your feet? Solomon. Oh, Solomon, like that Ethiopian
eunuch, was a man of great wealth and great influence. And you
just read Solomon. Solomon indulged himself in all
the pleasures of this world. Wine, women, and wealth were
to excess in his life. He had whatever he wanted. And
what conclusion did he come to? Like that dove, he flew over
the judgment of God's wrath and he came back to the ark and said,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity. There's no place to find rest
for the soul of my feet there. David. We read Psalm 51 in the
study before the service this morning. David couldn't find
rest for his soul, could he? Oh, the guilt of his sin. For
over a year, David did everything he could to hide his sin. Don't
you know that when David said in Psalm 51 that if sacrifices
and offerings is what you would want, I would give them? Don't
you know that for the past year, David had been doing just that?
I bet he went to the temple every day. I bet he sacrificed more
lambs and more bullocks that year than any man had ever sacrificed. What was he doing? He was trying
to clear his guilty conscience. And he could find no rest for
his soul until Nathan said to him, thou art the man. Thou art the man. Then and only
then, God sent Nathan as the hand of Noah to reach out and
bring that weary dove into the ark And David cried, Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
unto thy multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly. Cleanse me
of my sin. Try to acknowledge my transgression. My sin is ever before me. The bones which thou hast broken,
Lord, make them to rejoice. make them to rejoice. Psalm 116,
verse 7, return unto thy Noah. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Let's take a break. Thank you.