But look for now at verse one
again of Genesis eight. God remembered Noah. This doesn't mean that he had
forgotten Noah and then all of a sudden he remembered him. This
is in the same sense that the thief asked the Lord, remember
me, remember me, be mindful of me when you come into your kingdom.
everything concerning this ark we could have started much earlier
in the in the story and and seen the building of the ark and God's
command concerning the ark How that it says Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord he found great he didn't earn grace And
he it doesn't mean he was looking for it He just found grace in
the eyes of the Lord and The circumstances of the building
of this ark, the details of what happened in it and around it,
all written to set forth, to teach, to glorify God in the
gospel of his son. As we've quoted so many times
from the New Testament, in John 20, 31, it says that these are
written, the scriptures are written. that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through his name. And this ark is such a beautiful,
simple, simple picture. The flood, the 40 days and 40
nights rain that flooded the earth and destroyed everybody
except those in the ark. That was the judgment of God.
It was because God saw that the imagination of men's hearts was
only evil continually. And so he destroyed the earth.
But before he did, he shut Noah and his family in the ark. And they were safe. We see in
this ark and the record of it in God's word the same thing
Noah saw in the ark itself. God's willingness to save. That ark was salvation to Noah
and those who went in with him. We see God's wisdom to save.
What a beautiful and simple picture of the salvation of God's elect,
God's way of saving. And we see his work of salvation
in his son, Jesus Christ. Noah, in that ark, think about
this, the judgment of God was upon the earth, just like it
is now. He hasn't destroyed this earth
yet, but his judgment is already upon this earth. But where was
Noah? He's just floating along on the
providence of God. Carried along in a condemned
world, Wherever so wherever so ever God had purpose to take
him on a journey of grace He found grace in the eyes of the
Lord and there was no rudder on the ark. There was no wheel
on it He just went wherever God took
him But I'll tell you this Wherever
that ark went Noah was in it And he was safe He was safe and
sound. And that's us now. We live in
a condemned world. The ark is just a picture of
that. The flood is just a picture of that. But by God's grace, God remembered
Noah. He remembers all those who are
his in this world. And again, that doesn't mean
he forgot or it doesn't even mean You know, that we say, do
anything to cause him to, he just remembers his own. He loves
us. It means that he's mindful of us all the time. He's always
with us. The thief on the cross, he said,
Lord, remember me. And you remember our Lord's response.
Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. God remembered Noah
and every living thing. In a spiritual sense, the only
living things in this world are his elect. That's the spiritual
picture here. He remembers all those who are
alive in Christ Jesus. Most churches, so-called churches
and true churches, some are probably preaching on the resurrection
today. And that's good. We should preach on the resurrection
every time we preach. Christ lives and we live in him. And that's pictured here. Every
living thing God remembered. That's those who are in Christ.
He's the first begotten from the dead and we live in him because
of him. He that hath the Son of God hath
life. Every living one God remembers
and he sends his wind You notice where we read, he sent the wind
over the earth and the waters are swathed. That wind pictures
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, who, as he told Nicodemus
in John 3, the Lord Jesus said, the wind blows where it pleases.
And you can hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell where it came
from, you can't tell where it'll go. And so it is with everyone
that's born of the Spirit. Sends his spirit and the judgment
of God is assuaged That just simply means it goes
away with regard to us There is therefore now no condemnation
to them Which are in Christ Jesus now look at verse 2 The fountains
also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the
rain from heaven was restrained. That's God's judgment. When we're
in the ark, we're safe. And God, there's no judgment. There's no condemnation. From
off the earth continually and after the end of the 150 days,
the waters were abated. I always thought, you know, I
always thought about the 40 days and 40 nights. That was just
the rain. They were in that ark a lot longer than that, weren't
they? Which is gonna be important in a little while when we see
something. And the ark rested in the seventh month on the 17th
day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased
continually until the 10th month. And the 10th month on the first
day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen. 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. That's the last
you hear about that raven. It says raven one time. We don't hear anything about
him anymore. He never came back to the ark. But 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 sole of her foot. I guess the raven did. Even though
there were waters, there were things, and I don't want to be
too graphic here, but I'm sure there was a lot of bodies floating
around on that water. And the raven didn't mind that
a bit. He would land on that rotting flesh and be quite happy,
probably fed off of it. But the dove didn't want any
part of that. And she returned unto him into
the ark. I like the language there. She
returned unto him into the ark. That's what the ark's all about.
It's Christ. For the waters were on the face
of the whole earth, and then he put forth his hand and took
her. Boy, I like this language too, don't you? He put forth
his hand and took her. You remember what it said when
Simon was sinking beneath the way he was walking to the water?
He said, Lord, bid me come unto thee on the water. And the Lord
said, come. But he saw the winds boisterous
and the waves were tossing, and he began to sink. And what happened?
The Lord reached forth his hand and took hold of him and lifted
him up. That's what Noah did here. He
pictures Christ in this aspect of the passage. He took hold
of her and drew her into the ark. The Lord Jesus Christ said
it in John chapter six, no man can come unto me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him. That's the Lord taking hold of
dead sinners, otherwise no hope, no place to land. But he takes
hold of us and draws us to himself. He's loved us with an everlasting
love and therefore with loving kindness, he has drawn us, the
scripture says. pulled her in unto him, into the ark. What a beautiful
picture that is. Come on in here, get in here.
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 no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
And he stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove
which returned not again unto him anymore." The judgment of
God is gone now. And it came to pass in the six
hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of
the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth and Noah
removed the covering of the ark and looked and behold the face
of the ground. Was drowned now as the rain begins
to stop and the waters begin to receive no releases a raven
The word raven is where we get the word ravenous, and that is
the nature of ravens They just eat they fly around eating dead
things And that's a picture of us by nature We feed off of death
what we call life is death that which gave the raven life was
death and Spiritual death to the to the
unbeliever And that's all he does. He'll eat you if he gets
a chance He eats other birds and they're young Whatever he finds he'll eat and
Noah releases this Raven and we never hear about it again
The Raven pictures us by nature the natural man the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God He's got no interest
in the ark As soon as he's released, he's gone. He has no interest
in coming back. It benefits, the raven benefited
for a time from the safety of the ark and the comfort of the
ark that's designed for those with whom God has made a covenant.
The ark is designed and built for those who have found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. But as the scripture says, God
causes his rain, not the rain of judgment, but life-giving
rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Wow. So the just
will benefit from it. Well, how does the just benefit
from the rain falling on the unjust? The unjust may just grow
something that the just will eat. And he just causes his rain to
fall on this earth and gives life to the earth. But his world
is the world of his land. Field where he plants his wheat
according to the Lord's parables is this earth He doesn't plant the tares He pulls them up he roots them
up and so it was built for his people those that found grace
and This world stands, this world stands now, today, this morning,
because of God's purpose of grace and the salvation of his people,
his elect. Did you know that believers,
those who know God, are identified more as the elect than in any
other way? We're called believers, we're
called those of faith. We're called followers of Christ
and different names, but most of all more than any other name. We're called the elect of God
That means chosen You have not chosen me, but I've chosen you And this world stands because
of that and everybody else enjoys this earth as a result for a
time but being released From the confines of the ark, the
raven finds everything it desires outside of the ark. That's us
by nature. That's many of our loved ones
right now, this morning. It's this whole world. It begins
to make a feast off of the dead that float on the water of God's
judgment. It finds rest, perhaps even on
the ark itself. It may have rested on top of
the ark. but he has no interest and he refuses to come back inside
the ark. There was food in the ark, there
was provision and shelter and safety there, and the raven knows
it. He knows it because he was in
there. But he has, like those in Hebrews
chapter six, though he was once enlightened and tasted the heavenly
gift, with his natural understanding, but he prefers this present evil
world, and we see this played out before us every day. Our
loved ones are ravens, many of them are, and it's sad, it's
horrible to watch, and we pray for them, and whenever we have
opportunity, we speak to them about Christ and their need of
him, and his power to save whom he will, But they have no interest now
in the ark or the blessing of God associated with it. The raven
serves no good purpose in this world. You ever wonder why God
makes certain things? Why does he make ants? They serve no good purpose, do
they? But he has a purpose for them. Why did he make the reprobate? Everybody's going to glorify
him one way or the other, aren't they? Either in judgment or in
mercy. He didn't bring any message though,
like the dove brought a message. The olive branch, peace. There's peace with God in spite
of judgment, in the midst of judgment. There's peace with
God. The dove brings a message that
the raven cannot tell. He doesn't know it. The dove
is released for a time and she sees everything the raven saw.
She surveys the same world. She sees the death. She sees
the corruption, the filth, and the smells, the stench, that
which the raven delights in and feeds off of. And what does the
dove do? It comes right back to the ark.
Well, by God's grace, that's us, isn't it? We see this world. We see the same things the ravens
do. We work in the same world they do. We know about all of
it. We're aware of the corruption
of it. But instead of feeding on it, what do we do? We fly
right back to the ark. Just keep flying back to Christ,
back to Christ. For refuge, for comfort, for
sustenance. We have no sustenance in this
world. The dove comes back to the ark
first with this message. There's no rest outside the ark.
No place to put her foot. There's nothing outside this
ark but judgment and death, let me in. And finding no rest anywhere
else, she returns unto him into the ark. You can know everything
there is to know about Christ and not be in Christ. By faith
we enter in. And that faith is not of yourselves,
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. It's the gift of God, not of
works, because you'd boast if it was up to you. And God's not
having it. You're gonna be saved in such
a way that you've got nothing to brag about. And you know what that way is?
Grace through faith. free, sovereign, electing, eternal
grace through faith in Christ Jesus. The dove represents the
Holy Spirit as well as the believer. As the Holy Spirit comes to the
believer with the truth, here with this message, this message
of peace. What did Christ say the Holy
Spirit would do? He'll teach you the things of
Christ. But this dove is also the believer because what the
believer does, how the believer acts, is what? It's the fruit
of the spirit. So it's not a stretch to see
the spirit and the believer in the same context. Because that's
who we are. We're born of the spirit of God.
And we bear the fruit of the spirit. Now as the Holy Spirit and the
truth he brings, this dove comes and the believer reaches out.
Noah pictures the believer too in verse nine and receives the
messenger and the message. And it isn't good news that's
brought back first. There's no rest outside this
ark. It isn't good news necessarily, but by God's grace, it's received.
It's received as the believer, the dove comes back And Noah
picturing Christ here as he also does all through this story.
You got to see both the believer and Christ. And again, that's
not a stretch because as he is, so are his people in this world. He takes hold of the dove and
brings her into himself. We do that too. Will you also go away? The Lord
asked. When you are released, When the
Lord says, are you going? You wanna go? You wanna be part
of this world? Will you fly to and fro and find
rest and meet in this world, sustenance in this world? There's
no rest here for the believer. And then the dove is sent out
again and comes back with another message. Look at verses 10 and
11 again. Again, it says at the end of
verse 10, 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, or that word leaf could also mean branch, plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters
were abated from off the earth. Now this is good news. The first
part of the message of the dove is that God has judged this world
and found it wanting and is destroying it. bit by bit, but there will
be a final judgment when this world will completely be consumed.
And God has condemned this wicked sin, cursed earth and everybody
in it. Before God shows you the savior,
he'll show you that you need one. And why you need one. The second part of the message
of the dove, though, is the promise of life in the promised redeemer. The dove will take the things
of man and show them to you, the Holy Spirit, the Lord said.
That's what this dove did. What is the olive branch in the
scriptures? Even the world uses that now as a symbol of peace. Because that's what it is in
the word of God all through. The olive branch. Jeremiah 23
five, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch. And the king shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth, that's
the flood. In his days Judah shall be saved
though, and Israel shall dwell safely, that's the ark. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Yes, God has executed
judgment in the earth and this earth is under his judgment and
condemnation right now He said if you believe not only you're
condemned already It's not a future thing you're already condemned But also there is peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ Judah shall be saved There is
life in this world of death and corruption. It's in Christ alone. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. There's a third part to this
message that the dove brings. First, there's no rest. Secondly,
there's peace with God. The third part is this, that
there is no other message. That one's kind of tricky, but
it's true. No other message. The Holy Spirit has one thing
to teach you, which is taught in a two-fold message. Judgment
outside of Christ. Outside of the ark. Nothing but
death, corruption, wrath. No food, no anything. Secondly,
peace in Christ. Peace by His blood. The Holy
Spirit simply shuts you up to Christ. The woman with the issue
of blood, she had spent all that she had and was growing worse.
There was one place. She said, if I can just touch
the hem of his garment. She had lost every other hope. She had spent every other resource
and it only made her worse. Holy Spirit leaves us shut up
to the Lord Jesus. Christ, the scripture says, made
peace by the blood of his cross. That olive branch comes at an
infinite price, the precious blood of God. So Noah is on this
journey in the ark. He's already safe in the ark
even before the message came. That's true of us too. We were
in Christ before we knew we were in Christ. How can religion says, well,
it's up to you. God's done a lot for you, but
it's all up to you. That's salvation by words. That's
corruption and death. Noah was already in the ark before
he ever got the message of peace from God. He was safe already. But he is brought under the absolute
sovereign control of God Almighty from the place of judgment from standing in the very place
of judgment all the way through to a new beginning, a place not
only where the waters of judgment were completely dried up, but
to a place where God had promised there would never be any judgment
again. Not for Him. Not for God's people. And think
of that again as a microcosm of this whole world. Those who
find grace in the eyes of the Lord are safe and always will
be. There'll never be another flood.
Those outside are dead already. They may not even know they're
dead, but they're dead in this world. But a place of blessing, look
at chapter nine, verse one. God blessed Noah and his sons
and said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth That's what that's what Adam
was to do right then Adam fell But here those who find great
and think about that Noah was just another he was standing
on the same earth Everybody else was in the beginning of this
story The the condemned Earth. Sin-wrecked Earth. And the only
difference between him starting there and ending in the place
of God's blessing was grace. Grace. Noah found grace. And it was based upon, look at
verse 20 of chapter 8. Chapter eight, verse 20. And Noah built an altar unto
the Lord. This is what we do now. We find
grace in the eyes of the Lord. And what do we do from then on? God's wrath is taken away and
we're promised it'll never rain again. The earth won't be destroyed
again by rain. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No flood, no judgment, no wrath
to those in Christ. And then what do we do? Noah
built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast
and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. That's Christ too. That's what
we're doing this morning, not offering animals. The Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled all of that. There's no animal sacrifices
anymore. Paul said the blood of bulls
and goats could never take away sin anyway. That wasn't the purpose
of it. The purpose of it was to point
to Him who does take away sin as it pleases Him. He can take
your sins away if He's pleased to do so. That's why we come begging There's just really no
other way to say it. Begging for mercy. Mercy beggars. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. He offered sacrifice. Blessing,
chapter nine, verse one, but based upon chapter eight, verse
20, the precious blood of Christ. There's no blessing from God
anywhere else. Outside of Christ is only wrath,
condemnation, judgment, destruction, eternal, eternal wrath. Inside Christ, there's nothing
but blessing. Even what you think is not a
blessing, to you in this world, it's a blessing. Even what we
call the bad stuff. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are thee
called according to his purpose, to those he reaches up and takes
hold of and brings them into the ark. And can you imagine when that
dove returned with an olive branch in its mouth? I suspect, because
remember, it wasn't just 40 days and 40 nights. We're talking
about months and months here of watching and looking, and
the tops of the mountains appeared. But that's a good sign. But then when that olive branch
came, I imagine they shouted for joy, don't you think? A little party going on inside
that ark. Oh, man. And when the ark landed, and
think about this, man, all of their homes had been wiped away. They had to rebuild everything.
But before they did any of that, before Noah built himself a house
or did anything else, he built an altar. And the Lord, it says in verse
21, look at verse 21, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And
the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore
for man's sake. For the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite anymore
every living thing as I have done. Justice God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding Savior's
hand and then again at mine. His judgment fell on the ark.
Now we're thinking just in terms of God's people because there's
no hope anywhere but in the ark. God's judgment fell upon the
ark and God said, there isn't any more judgment left. He poured
out every bit of it on his son. Instead of falling on those people
inside of Christ, God's judgment falls on their substitute, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when that happens, God's
judgment and wrath are spent. He poured out every bit of wrath
he has for his elect on Christ in their place. And they go free. And not just free from judgment,
but blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. I hope this is a comfort to you
this morning. That's what I came here to do this morning, is comfort
you. If you're in the ark, God's wrath has already fallen on him. And we've been spared
and blessed. That's key now. Not just spared.
We're not just going to get by. We're not just going to squeak
past. Every good thing that God has
is in Christ Jesus. So he built the altar first and
offered to sacrifice. And God smelled a sweet savor,
the Lord smelled a sweet savor, verse 21, and he said this, when
he smelled that, he said, no more curse, no more judge, no
more wrath, it's over. Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, how did he do it? Being made
a curse for us. You know, the doctrine of substitution
can be quite complicated. I've read books that thick on
the doctrine of substitution, but here's how simple it is for
us. What Christ did for us, that's
substitution, in my place, in my stead. And then Ephesians 5.2, I'll
close with this. Listen to this. Walk in love
as Christ also hath loved us. You see, the gospel, it permeates everything that
we are and everything that we do. Our lives should be characterized
Not just an element of our life. Our lives should be characterized
by love for one another. As Christ also hath loved us. How did he love us? In that while
we were yet sinners, he gave himself for us. It's easy for
us to talk about loving sinners until somebody actually sins.
And then it gets tough, doesn't it? It gets tough. May God give
us grace to forgive even as we've been forgiven, and to love as
we've been loved, and hath given himself for us an offering, and the sacrifice to God for,
you may not remember the last part, I probably wouldn't have
either, but for what? A sweet-smelling savor. There
it is in our text right there. God just had grace on Noah and
those that were with him. And he closed them into the ark. And as Noah pictures him, he
brought us into the ark. He laid hold of us and brought
us in and there's no more condemnation. And God smells a sweet savor
of Christ. when He sees us. May we take great comfort in
Him this morning. Amen.