We'll begin reading in verse
6 and we'll read down to verse 9. 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. See if they had dried up enough
where the dove could find rest. But the dove found no rest for
the sole 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 into the
ark, or as the margin says, he caused her to come in to the
ark. Now here we have an ark, a raven,
and a dove. Those are going to make up our
divisions. The ark, the raven, and the dove. Now normally I give you a main
point at the beginning of each message and then every point
I have in my message is aimed at that one point. But this time
I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to give
my main point at the end of the message. Let's begin here and
look at the ark. This ark, as we've discussed
many times, is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Inside
of that ark was all kinds of animals, all kinds of beasts,
all kinds of fowl. And that's a good picture of
Christ, because in Christ there are all kinds of sinners. He calls all kinds of people
into Christ. There's Jew and Gentile. There's
male and female. There's circumcision and uncircumcision. There's Greek, barbarian and
Scythian, which means there's a few Greek, there's a few wise
men. But there's more barbarians, unrefined. And there's even more
unrefined. There's Scythian as well. There's
bond and free. There's rich and there's poor.
Natural men like to elevate themselves using differences that can be
perceived with the natural eye. And it's sad, really it is sad,
but the truth of the matter is a sinner can be persuaded based
on the very superficial differences that we can see with the eye.
That can sway a person one way or the other. For some, it's
a mansion, it's a luxury car, something of that nature. For
some, it's a level of education, a position, a title. For some,
it may be a neighborhood they live in, whether they're from
the north or from the south. And religion loves it. Religion plays upon it because
Religion is very sensual. False religion is. It's based
on emotion. It's based on emotion, based
on what you can see with the carnal eye. Sin is a divider. That's what it is. It divides
men. And the commonality between all men, it doesn't matter who
they are, what station in life, where they are in this world. The commonality between every
man is every man is a sinner. At his heart, he is sin. That's
what he is. So there's really, before God,
there's no difference between us. We have all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's the case with every man,
woman, and child. But this sin divides based on
the flesh, based on works, and that's why God's house is not
a house of politics. We would be divided right here
into Republican, Democrat and whatever other groups they are
if we made this a house of politics. It's not a house of economics.
We're not trying to get richer and get richer above other churches
and above one another. It's not a house of entertainment.
We're not trying to keep people entertained to keep them here.
That's not what keeps God's people gathered together. It's not a
house of sensuality. We're not trying to appeal to
them in senses at all. This is a house of prayer. It's
a house of worship. It's a house of preaching and
praising of God. But when God chose a people in
Christ, He didn't look at these different things. He didn't.
He looked at His Son. And He chose a people in His
Son. Romans 9, 11 says, the children
being not yet born, having done neither good, neither any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand." And here's the purpose of God. Not of works, but of
Him that calls. It's of God that calls His people
into the ark, into Christ our ark. It's not based on bloodlines. It's not based on our works.
It's not based on any good in us. It's not based on any evil
in us. And if you'll get a hold to this, if you can, if God will
get a hold to you with this, and make you to see this. It's
a wonderful thing because when grace puts us in Christ, that
means nothing can take us out of Christ. Nothing about us put
us in Christ, nothing about us can get us out of Christ. Grace
puts a man in Christ and keeps him there, keeps him there. When
God regenerates the dead sinner, He makes us see all these carnal
things that we thought elevated us above another, it's just vanity. Because He makes us to put on
the new man. which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of Him that created Him. He gives us the image of
God, a new man, with that image of God on it that got defaced
in the garden when Adam sinned. And when He does that, He makes
us to see that in Christ there's neither Greek nor Jew, there's
not circumcision or uncircumcision, there's not barbarian, Scythian,
bond or free, but Christ is all. And He's in all. Christ is all
and He's in all His people. And He's in all things that we
do and everything around us. He's working in us, in His people. And yet like that ark, even though
we're still, we either have been called or still see that Christ
is all and that we're one in Christ, yet we're still different.
We're still different amongst ourselves. We don't ignore the
fact that we come from different backgrounds and we're different
in ourselves. At that conference last weekend, If you noticed,
there was all different kinds of people there, all different
backgrounds of people there. It was from doctors to ditch
diggers, from opera singers to banjo pickers, all there together
in one place. And the thing that brought everybody
together was nobody was looking at each other, everybody was
looking at Christ. That's what He does when you're
called into the ark. Now, the second thing, and this
is the most beautiful way that ark is a picture of Christ, is
that that ark bore the flood of judgment like Christ did for
His people. All God's elect were shut up
in Christ when He obeyed the law. We were in Christ. Like Noah and those animals were
in that ark, we were in Christ when He obeyed the law. And we
were in Christ when He took the place of His people on the cursed
tree and became a curse for us and bore the condemnation for
us. We were in Him on that cross. The flood that you see in Noah's,
the story of Noah, the flood here is a flood of judgment.
The just judgment of God. That's what it is. Look back
at Genesis 6 and look at verse 5. This is what's wrong with
all of us. You see, this is going to happen
again. It's going to happen again. Not a flood. Not a flood. But
the final day of judgment is coming. And we're either going
to have been judged in Christ at Calvary when He bore the judgment
for us and put sin away for us, or we're going to answer to God
ourselves without a mediator, without someone between us. Now
watch this, verse 5. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Can you say
that about yourself? That's true of you, whether you
know it or not. It's true of me. Every imagination
of the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually. Everything about us that came
from Adam. That's the case. It's only evil
continuing. There is no good in our flesh.
Nothing. Alright? And it repented the
Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him
at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth. He created
him. It was his just right to destroy him. And he's going to
do that again. What you see here... I've heard
men look at the flood and say, that was just cruel. You ain't
seen nothing yet. Wait till you see the fires of
hell. There's going to be another judgment.
And in fact, believer, you look at the cross. and see right there
what Christ bore. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He was made the sin we are and
bore the stroke of justice for us. And there you see what God's
judgment will do. Alright, listen here now. He
says in verse 7, And the Lord said, I'll destroy man whom I've
created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and
the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For it repenteth
me that I've made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. In God's eyes, Noah found grace. These are the generations of
Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations and
Noah walked with God. What is it to find grace in the
eyes of God? God had chosen to save Noah.
God had, just freely. Noah was just like everybody
else in himself, in his flesh. But God chose to save Noah. And
God put Noah in Christ, his surety, in whom he was just and perfect.
He put him there before the world began. And God regenerated Noah
and gave him the Spirit of God. And Noah now walked with God
because of that. And he was no doubt just in his
dealings with men. But when it says here Noah was
just, It's how he was before God in Christ. He was just and
perfect in Christ before God. But read on. This is how God
sees men outside of Christ. Verse 11. The earth also was
corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And
God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all
flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto
Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me. For the earth
is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy
them with the earth." I'll destroy it all. The flood was God's justice
upon sinners who hated God. And that's what Christ bore for
all those that God put in Christ. Look down at verse 14. God told
Noah, make thee an ark of gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in
the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Pitch
it within and without, he said. Pitch was a slime that you put
on it, and when it hardened up, it sealed it off, so nothing
could get in or out. And the word is translated covering
our atonement, our ransom. That's what the word's translated.
God's justice must be atoned. God must be atoned before God
for God to remain just to save anybody. Therefore, Noah could
only be brought into a new earth. He could only be brought into
a new earth if he had died just like the rest of the people died.
Because God's justice has got to be satisfied. No way can He
clear a sinner. You see, the difference between
our gospel and the rest of what men say in this world, no matter
what religion they're in, and 99% of the people who are flying
under the Christian banner, the difference in our religion and
theirs is, the matter, the gospel, the critical point of it is,
God has got to be just, and He is the justifier. Salvation begins
at the ends of God. He gets the glory for choosing
whom He'll save. He gets the glory for coming
and redeeming them in the person of His own Son. And He gets the
glory for putting them in Christ Himself by regeneration in His
gift of faith. He gets the glory for this. He
gets all the glory in salvation. He gets the glory for keeping
us. He gets the glory for resurrecting us. He gets the glory for bringing
us into Christ's presence. At the end, He gets the glory
for this. So all had to die. Atonement had to be made. Noah
was covered. He was ransomed from the flood
by the ark. Everybody outside of that ark
died by the flood of justice directly descending upon them.
But inside the ark, they lived because the ark bore the justice
for them. That's Christ. That's what Christ
did. That's a picture of Christ. All, all, and only all who were
in Christ when He died, are atoned for. Their sin's been purged. They've been reconciled to God.
They have. And all outside of Christ shall
one day bear that justice of God directly themselves. Now,
how do men get inside Christ? How do they get in this ark?
Look down at Genesis 7, verse 16. The same way Noah and his
family got inside the ark, by God's grace. Noah found grace
in the eyes of God. God put him in Christ. Look here,
verse 16. And they that went in, went in
male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and
the Lord shut him in. Note verse 16. This is what all
God's people have in common. God put us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. God sends His gospel to us like
He told Noah to get in that ark. And by God's grace, working in
the heart, you know what His people do? They get in Christ.
They get in Christ through faith. They believe on Him. But it's
of God that they're in Christ. God gets the glory because He
did everything. Paul said, God chose foolish
things like the cross. He chose foolish things like
preaching. He chose foolish things like
gathering together a bunch of nobodies that are nothing, in
order that no flesh should glory in his presence. But, he said,
of God are you in Christ. Who of God, there's God the Father,
of God are you in Christ, by His divine election. Who of God
is made unto us, there's God the Holy Spirit, He makes Christ
unto us. And there's God the Son, Christ,
who's made unto us everything, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. And the result is, the effect
is, He that glories, glories only in the Lord, with glory
in the Lord. Well, so this ark is a picture
of Christ. Christ is so lovely. He is so
lovely. It's common for men to attempt
to get into Christ and appear to be into Christ who don't really
have a God wrought hunger in them for Christ. It's possible. And eventually they leave. That
brings us to the raven. Look at this raven now. Genesis
8 verse 6. Genesis 8 verse 6. 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.
This raven went forth and he didn't come back to the ark.
He went to and fro, but he didn't come back to the ark. He went
to and fro until the waters were dried up, but he didn't come
back to the ark. How? How is that? The waters
weren't dried up off the earth yet. How could this raven go
out there and go back and forth around out in this vast space
and not come back to the ark? This is sickening to think about.
But this is what we need to face about ourselves. Think of all
the dead bodies floating in that water. It had been over 40 days. You think of all the dead bodies
floating in that water, both of beasts and of men, bloated,
just floating around in that water. The raven went from one
to the other, to and fro, feasting on death. Feasting on death. The raven is a sad picture of
a sinner who appears to be in Christ but is really dead in
sin. Sinner, listen to me carefully
now. You whose hearts are yet black
as the raven, in sin and in death, you with no hunger for Christ,
you are feasting upon death. You fly to and fro from one body
of death to another body of death looking for something to satisfy
your hunger. Most feast upon the death of
pleasure. Sports, entertainment, pleasures
of sin. God warned us of this day that
we live in right now. He said men will be lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God. And that's what we see in
this world. Be honest with me now. Listen
to me. Why is it? I thought of this yesterday.
I watched my son play soccer yesterday. And I thought of this.
Why is it that you can run and sweat and give your full attention
to the ball game for well over an hour. But you can't get through
one 35 to 45 minute sermon without getting up and going to the bathroom
so you can waste some time and get some relief from hearing
Christ preach. Why is that? It's because your
hunger is for death. It's not for Christ alive. That's
why. When you meet God on the Day
of Judgment, do you think God will be concerned about how well
you played football or soccer? Do you think He's going to be
concerned about how many goals you scored? And yet, how many
hours will you spend this season alone practicing that? The only thing that'll matter
in that day is are you covered within and without in the atoning
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all that'll matter. What
you think of Christ. That's it. Moses chose rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. And Moses has been with God since
his day. Thousands of years. And he'll
be there for eternity. Enjoy everlasting eternal bliss
with our God. The others most feast upon the
death of the cares of this world and of riches. You may pay attention
on Sunday. You may come in and pay attention
on Sunday. That matters nothing, really. It doesn't prove anything,
nothing at all. What happens the rest of the
week? Are you feasting on Christ? Is your heart set on Christ,
on His Word, on His Gospel the rest of the week? Are you more
taken up with the cares of this world and with your riches? These are they which are sown
among thorns, the Lord Jesus Christ said. Such as hear the
Word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word,
and it becometh unfruitful. Moses esteemed the reproach of
Christ greater riches, greater riches than the treasures in
Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense
of the reward. What was that? His hunger was
that in the ages to come that God would show to him the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness to him through Christ Jesus.
That's where his hunger was. Most hunger for dead religious
works. Many go to and fro from one church to another because
their hunger is to go to church. Their hunger is to engage in
religious acts. You give them the bloated corpse
of a religious ceremony. You give them the bloated corpse
of being seen at a prayer meeting. You give them the bloated corpse
of being seen reading and studying. You give them the bloated corpse
of just being seen at church. And then some are fixers. Some
are fixers. Some show up and they cast their
pharisaical eye around and they go about to fix what they think
is broken. And all are just trying to soothe
their conscience. They're just trying to soothe
their conscience with some religious acts because they did deeds A,
B, C, and D. And like Noah's raven, they stay
for a little while. then they fly away and are never
seen again because they're content to go to and fro from one body
of death to the other, never full, never satisfied, feasting
upon death. And sadly, the earth is more
full of ravens than anything else. That's sad. Now let's look
at the dove. The dove, Genesis 8, 8. 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. And she returned unto him into
the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth."
This dove is a happy picture of a believer who God has given
a real hunger for Christ. She flew out, she looked around,
but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot. While the
raven rested on the floating corpses of death, the dove could
find no rest where the raven found it. She couldn't find rest
in the same place the raven found it. God puts a difference between
men. God's the only one who does put
that difference between men, but He does put a difference
between men. The believer's rest is Christ
our ark. Rest from the curse of the law.
We've got rest from condemnation. We've got rest in the complete
righteousness of Christ. Look at Romans 8. Romans chapter
8. Here's the rest we have and here's
why we have it. Romans 8 verse 1. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit. Just think of that,
believer. No condemnation. You mean ever? Ever. No condemnation. There is now no condemnation
at all. Why? For the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus, that being regenerated and given life
to see Christ, behold Christ, that law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death,
from the law of my flesh, my death, my curse, my condemnation.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh. I couldn't fulfill it and it's got to be fulfilled.
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit. That means by what Christ did,
you who've been born of the Spirit of God, you are as perfectly
righteous as Christ is. That's what it means. Without
you lifting a finger or a toe. Because salvation is not by works,
before or after conversion. It's all by Christ. All by Christ. Now look at this. Verse 5. They that are after the flesh,
they mind the things of the flesh. They go from one bloated corpse
to the next. But they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. The believers like that dove
in a whole lot of ways, a whole lot of ways. The Lord said, be
ye harmless as doves. And when He puts His Spirit in
us, we become like the dove. The dove is meek, the dove is
harmless, the dove is chaste. And that's what a believer is
by God's grace. Believers don't injure others. Believers aren't
trying to hurt other people. We don't. We do mistakenly in
our flesh, but we don't want to hurt anybody. Believers in
the inward man don't want to. We're the children of God in
the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That's what we are.
Doves make their nests in a rock. That's where we make our nest.
Our nest, our home, is in Christ our rock. That's where we nest.
They feed upon pure grain. They don't eat death. They don't
eat like the fowls of prey do. That's what we feed on. We feed
on the manna, on the seed that came down and was broken in the
earth from whom the vine grew up to God and from whom this
fruit, His children are born. We feed upon Christ the bread.
Doves love to be by the sweet springs of rivers of water. This
dove came back because the waters were covered over and all that
filthy water of judgment and curse and death was on all the
face of the earth. And a dove wants to be by a quiet,
running, clean stream and a clear river. That's where they want
to be. That's where believers want to be. We want to feed upon
Christ the water of life. We want to feed upon the water
of the Word, delighting in His mercy. There's a river, the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. That's the river we feed upon,
the river of the Gospel. The dove's eye. I like this one. She's always looking to her mate. Got her eye fixed on her mate.
Whatever she's doing, whatever she's going about to do, she
might be building her nest, whatever she's doing, but she's going
to keep looking and make sure she sees her mate. Make sure
he's there with her. That's a believer. No matter
what a believer's doing in this world, we got our eye fixed on
Christ our mate. Christ our husband. Thou hidest
thy face and I was troubled, David said. Hezekiah said, I
did mourn as a dove when I couldn't see my mate. Doves like to keep
company together. Doves love to keep company together. They fly like a cloud and as
doves to their windows, that is to the house of the church
of God. That's what's said about His people. We fly like doves
to His house. Here y'all are today, a covey.
Come in here today to hear the gospel preached. and how sweet
and how beautiful it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. I've
been thanking God more in the past two years, more for this
than anything else. I've been thanking Him that He's
given us the unity He's given us together in Christ. I'm so
thankful for that. That is a valuable thing, a valuable
thing. And doves are often attacked
by fowls of prey. And when they are, they have
no defense. You know what they have to do?
Fly. That's their defense. Fly. So
when Noah's dove found no rest among the ravens, what'd she
do? What'd she do? She took flight. Where'd she
go? Look at verse 9. The dove found
no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into
the ark. That's where we fly to. That's
where we fly to. Because Christ is our defense. At what time I'm afraid, I'll
trust in thee, the psalmist said. The believer doesn't look upon
himself as secure unless we're in Christ. The name of the Lord's
a strong tower. The righteous run into it and
are safe. She flew back to the ark. You
know, a long time ago they used doves to carry Messages and stuff. And a dove, they would train
them by a dove would fly to a dove coat. They would fly to their
nest. They would make a nest where
this dove would fly to that nest. She wouldn't go anywhere but
to her nest. And so when they sent a message with it, they
knew the dove was going to go into her nest. It was called
a dove coat. Christ is our dove coat. When
we're free, been freed now, freed from the law, oh happy condition.
Now where are you going to go? You're going to run out to the
world, to the death and feed upon that? Not the believer.
The believer is going to go to her dove coat. We're going to
go to Christ. We're going to fly straight to
Christ. She had everything she needed in the ark. This dove
had everything she needed in the ark. The ark was her dove
coat. Believer, we have full provision in Christ. He's given
us His gospel. We need justification, we're
justified in Christ our justification. Justified from all our sins from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. We need
righteousness and we're righteous in Christ our righteousness.
We need acceptance with God and we are accepted in the Beloved. We need a safe place to rest
with our brethren with all our daily provision so that all our
daily provision will be provided for us. That's what we need.
Christ keeps me as the apple of his eye and hides me under
the shadow of his wing. That's what he does. So, why
on the earth would the dove keep looking when she knew all that
she needed was in the ark? Why would she just keep going
and flying? She didn't. She turned right
around and went back to Christ. Why? Right back to the ark. Believer,
is there not enough in Christ? Why keep flying over the waters
of death amongst the ravens? Why leave the fountain for the
broken cisterns? Why leave the clear crystal streams
of God's salvation in Christ Jesus and go out and drink of
the polluted stagnated still water? Now here's my proposition. Here's
my main point that I usually give in the beginning. Men may
give all kinds of excuses. for leaving the gospel of Christ.
But the simple fact is, men who are ravens can leave the gospel
of Christ because they have a hunger to feast on death. While men
who are doves keep returning to Christ our Ark because in
Him alone is our life. That's the truth. You can give
me a very secondary foolish reason you want to give, and they can
too. That's the truth of the matter. The truth of the matter.
Let me tell you what you should do. I'm going to tell you what
you should do. Well, preacher, don't you want to know what my
problem is? Nope, I don't. Because I've got the solution
to your problem, whatever it is. Whatever the problem is.
Fly like a dove to Christ. Fly like a dove to Christ. And rest in Him. You'll be saved. Will He ever refuse one who comes
putting their trust in Him? I'm such a sinner. I know that
everything I've done is wrong. I know everything I've ever tried
in religion was just vain. It was vanity. Will God receive
me? Will Christ receive me if I fly
to Him like a dove? Will He receive me, one that's
such a sinner? My righteousnesses, not just
my sins, my righteousnesses are filthy. Will He receive me? He's
never yet refused one of His precious doves that flew into
His arms. Look at the last verse. Verse
9. Look at the end. Then He put
forth His hand and took her and pulled her in unto Him into the
ark. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren.