And I shall be whiter than snow,
whiter than the snow, whiter than the snow. I go back to Genesis eight with
Genesis chapter a story of Noah and the Ark is a true story familiar one to everyone in here. It's a true story. This is not
an allegory. This is not a parable. This is a true story. Story of
God's anger and wrath. God's judgment against an ungodly
world. Which he destroyed by water. And This is a wonderful story
of God's sovereign electing grace and mercy upon a few, those that
were in the ark. Noah and the ark represent, as
you know, they represent Christ and his church. God, who has
not changed, has promised another final judgment upon this unbelieving
world. Not an allegory, not a parable,
but fact. Peter wrote that it will be in
the last days and it will be by fire. And as they surely laughed and
mocked Noah in that day, Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness,
God's. They laughed and mocked at him,
saying, I'm sure, things like this, Noah, God's not like that. And so in these last days, Peter
also wrote, scoffers will come, saying, where is the promise
of his coming? But we go right on preaching this, don't we?
We go right on preaching, as Noah did, a holy, just, and righteous
God who will by no means clear the guilty, who is angry with
the wicked every day, but God is also rich in mercy
and grace and a savior to all that are in the Lord Jesus Christ
who is God's ark. Noah represents him. All in Christ are and will be
saved. Look at verse one. God remembered
Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that were with
him in the ark. What a picture of Christ that
is, Noah and his Ark, Christ and his church. The name Noah
means rest. When his father and mother named
him, I'm not sure they knew why, but God led them to name Noah,
Noah, which means rest or comfort. They said for the same, this
child shall give us great comfort. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
was born, they said, call his name Jesus, for he shall give
us rest, our Savior, our Lord of Sabbath. The ark was filled with animals,
clean and unclean animals, sheep as well as goats, doves as well
as ravens. And the ark in our story tonight
represents The visible church or that is those who seem to
be. The church professors like Israel
of old. They were not all Israel they
were of Israel. And the visible church is filled
with both. Wheat and tears sheep and goats
and I think you'll know them tonight by this story I look
at verse six here is our story. It came to pass at the end of
forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark. There was
but one window as there was but one door. You see, Christ is
all of this. Christ is all and in all of these
things. Christ is the door, isn't it?
Christ is the window. A window is the only source of
light and fresh air. Well, Christ is the light of
the world. In verse 7, he made the window,
and at the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window, and verse
7, he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro until the
waters were dried up from off the earth. Sent forth a raven,
and this raven, it flew back and forth, and it never really
came back in the ark. clear that that raven did not
come in back in the ark. It may have come to the ark and
rested on it, but it wasn't in it. But it went to and forth
throughout the earth looking for something to feed on. Now,
you know what ravens feed on. You see these blackbirds on the
highways and so forth, feeding on carrion. That's dead flesh,
isn't it? That's what ravens feed on. And
the raven here is a picture of the professor of the worldly
out there, the professor of religion or the worldly, who is back and
forth, but not in the beloved, not in Christ until finally,
like this raven, gone for good. They found something to feed
on, dead flesh, a world. Well, verse 8. Also, Noah sent
forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from
off the face of the ground. Noah sent forth a dove. Now,
this dove is our subject. This dove is every true believer. This dove represents the believer. Stay with me. I'm quite sure
you'll get a blessing from this. The dove throughout Scripture
has often represented the Lord Jesus Christ himself, hasn't
it? When Solomon wrote the canticles of the Song of Solomon, the church
says of the Lord Jesus Christ, thou hast eyes like doves. Have
you ever looked at the eyes of a dove? They're very clear and
very innocent, aren't they? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ in
his purity, that turtle dove, and his innocence and his holiness
has eyes like the turtle dove doves were often used in the
offerings weren't there throughout the book of Leviticus and and
Exodus turtle doves were used in the sacrifices of Christ is
all of them and more but the dove also represents the believer
in the song of Solomon Christ said to his church. He said,
open to me my sister, my love, my dove. So the believer represents, or
the dove represents the believer also. And here in this story,
God help me now, Noah is Christ, a picture of Christ, and the
dove is every wandering believer. And if you are a believer, you
are prone to wander, and you will. But if you are a believer. You will return. OK. Verse eight so he sent forth
the dove from him. And verse nine says but the dove
found no rest for the soul. The dove goes out. The dove has
been cooped up for five months. You know This story of Noah and
the Ark is even more remarkable, a story of God's wonderful grace
to Noah, when you consider the fact that he was on that ship
one year. Most of us, I thought at one
time, just 40 days or so, or a few months at the most. One
year. So long journey was on that boat. Well, after a while, Noah sent
out this dove and he says in verse nine, the dove found no
rest after being cooped up for many months, five months, six
months, seven months, seven months. This dove is ready to stretch
her wings and she flies off. She leaves the ark. Place of safety. Place of food. Place of fellowship. Her mate
is there. Her shipmates are there. There were seven doves. Noah
was there. And all her fellows. Now why
would she do that? Why would she leave? Where would
she go? How could she leave? Why would
she leave such a place? But here are a few reasons. Number
one, she had wings and she longed to use them. Man, every believer,
has wings in the form of an imagination, which often takes flight, doesn't
it? Look at the last Well, the next to last verse of this chapter
also says this before the flood, but after the flood, there's
only Noah and his family, right? The redeemed. Well, here God
says in verse 21, the Lord smelled a sweet savor. That's Christ,
isn't it? Said in his heart, I will not curse the ground anymore
for man's sake, for or though the imagination of man's heart
is evil. Now, he said that of the unbelieving
world before the flood, and now he says this of Noah. Noah had
an imagination, as did Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their wives.
And every believer has this imagination, which often runs wild, doesn't
it? It runs away. And we need to
pray, Lord, don't let my imagination Take flight. Don't let it have
its way. Why did she leave the ark? Why
did she leave Noah? Why did she leave? Brother Spurgeon
said that she remembered her dove coat. You dove hunters, you know what
a dove coat is, don't you? Doves, like many birds, have
a nesting place to which they return. They build one, they
often return there over and over again. And this dove, before
she was one of the elect doves, she was an elect dove. Before
she was one of the elect dove, she had this dove coat, this
home, this former nesting place where she found all her happiness
and all of her contentment and so forth. And that's where she.
That's what she began to think about. And before the arc, that's where
she was and she began to think back on that and again, I wonder
if it's still there. I think I'll go back, see if
it's still there. And every believer before we
were, well, I can't really say this, before we knew we were
in Christ, perhaps we should date our lives
that way, B.C. Before we knew we were in Christ,
before faith, every believer was out in the world, satisfied,
Paul wrote, having pleasure in unrighteousness. old friends,
old places, all old haunts, old cronies, and sometimes our imagination. And you're a liar if you don't
say this is true. Sometimes you wonder. I wonder
if what that would be like. Like the like the Israelites
who lusted for the flesh parts of Egypt didn't want to go back
where they came from. They forgot. They forgot. I wonder I thought about it. It's no wonder that this dove
left the ark, really. A dove has wings. A dove has former home, which
she thought about. It's no wonder. The miracle is that she came
back. And it doesn't surprise me when
people leave the gospel. That doesn't surprise me, does
it? You know, you're feeling prone to wander. Lord, I feel
it prone to leave the God I love. The great wonder and God's great
grace and mercy is this. He brings them back. Why did she leave? Why did she
leave? Why did she leave the ark and
Noah? Now, listen to this. Listen to me. Noah center. This was a test. It was a test. Noah sent her
away from the ark, the Lord Jesus Christ as a man. When he became
a man, 30 years old, the first thing that's written and recorded
of him in scripture, it says. And he was led of the spirit
into the wilderness and tempted by the devil, 40 days and 49
as a man. Tempted in all points, like as
we are, yet without sin. He's our substitute. He was tempted. He didn't fly away. He faced
the foe. He faced those temptations, but
he was led away into the wilderness of the Spirit of God. The Holy
Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan as our
substitute. But now listen, he tells us to
pray. He tells us to pray. When you
pray, pray after this manner. Our Father, lead us not into
temptation. Now, God does not tempt man,
cannot tempt man, cannot be tempted, neither does he tempt any man
with evil, yet he tries us, his people. And he does it not by
tempting us, but like he did with Simon Peter. Just let him
go for a minute. Just let him go. See what he'll do. What will
he do? If the Lord takes his hand off
of us for a moment, we'll fall. Sin is like gravity. The world
has sucked us in. Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit
from me, David said. Lead me and guide me by thy Spirit.
Lead me not. Lord, don't let me face temptation
alone. I can't do it. I'll fly away. But sometimes he does. Like this
dove, he does this, and we fall. We wander, don't we? Time away from him. And it's
a sad time, as we're going to see in a minute. A sad time. It's a bad time. A time of temptation,
sin, shame, loneliness, emptiness. This dove found no rest for the
soul of her feet. And yet that time away from knowing
the ark made that ark sweeter than it was before. Like David when he was in exile
from from the temple said, Oh, my heart cries out. I want to
be a bird. I just want to be a bird in the
rapture. So the dove flies away and it
says the dove found no rest. She flies here and she flies
there. She flies to and fro. She sees this, she sees that.
She finds no place to rest, no place to land, no place to stay,
no place to lie. And she's getting tired and weary,
and she needs to rest, but she can't find anything or anywhere
to rest. Thank God. Solomon, the Lord
had Solomon, who was the wisest man on earth, act a fool. The Lord allowed him to try everything. It was an experiment that the
Lord let him fall into for our sake, for our learning. These
things are written for our learning. Solomon said, I tried folly.
I tried riches. I tried wine. I tried laughter.
I tried mirth. I tried riches. I tried it all,
he said, and this is what I came to the conclusion. It's vanity
of vanities. There's no rest. There's no happiness. There's sympathy. Well, this dove, she doesn't
find any rest. She finds none there. And she
sees the raven. She's out there looking for something. She knows not what. She sees
the raven. The raven has found what he's
looking for. The raven is on some dead, bloated
carcass, putrefying flesh. The raven has found something
which to feed on, that it really enjoys. But it's repulsive to
the dove, isn't it? She can't eat that. Maybe the raven invited her. No, I can't. I can't do that. That's repulsive to her. She
spots a tree floating by. There's a place of rep. Tree. Limbs from it. And she tries
to land on that floating tree, and it's full of muck and mire
and clay, and she gets her wing nasty. Her wings are all covered
with dirt. Now they're heavier than they
were before, and her feet are stuck in the miry clay, and barely
she flies off. And now she's heavier than she
was when she left. Heavy laden, needing rest. Brother Spurgeon said this. He
said, why can't the dove find rest? Why can't the dove find
rest? Well, he said, it's not for wants
or lack of will. She wanted to. She wanted to
find rest somewhere, but she couldn't. And every believer
still has within them an old nature, an old man that wants
to find something out there. Every believer has this old man
that wants and wills to find something else. Why could the dove find rest?
It wasn't for lack of will. It wasn't for lack of an eye
to see things. Doves have clear eyes, don't
they? They have good vision, like most
birds. Well, she saw many things, perhaps
many things that appealed to her. And the believer is a human being,
and we still see things that are attractive to us. We still
see things in this world that appeal to us. There's still some
things, some places, some people that are attracted to us, aren't
there? That appeal to us. The disciples,
I thought about the disciples one time. They were in awe of
the temple. Do you remember? One day they
were walking around Jerusalem and they were in awe of that
temple and they wanted to show it to the Lord. I have to laugh
at that. The Lord who left heaven and
the disciples said, Lord, would you need to come look at this,
this man-made building? They were in awe of it and so
are we. We're in awe of man-made things, aren't we? You know,
I thought about this someday when we're with Christ in glory,
we will wonder, what did I ever see in any of that? She had an eye, it wasn't for
lack of a will, it wasn't for lack of an eye to see things,
it wasn't for lack of wings. She was free. Noah opened that
window and said, go, and she went. She was free. One time
the Lord was preaching and after he preached John six, I believe
it is. And he preached some hard sayings
that his sayings that were hard, difficult sayings of his sovereignty
of God's. You know, sovereign claims and
his own. And the narrowness of the way who he was, his person,
his work. Well, it says after he preaches
his many. of his disciple, those who seem
to be his disciple, walk no more with him. They said these are
hard saying who can hear them and they walk no more with him.
We won't have any. We're leaving, getting out of
here. And he turned to his disciple and said, will you also go away? There is a door. You're free
to go. And that door back there, nobody
It forces you to stay here, doesn't it? It's hard to say nobody forces
you to come. But it's not for lack of or want of wings. So the dove couldn't find rest, not for want
of will. She wanted to. Not for want of
an eye. She saw some things that appealed
to her. Not for want of freedom or wings. Why couldn't she find
rest? She's a dove. She's a dove. That's why. Not a raven. Oh, my. You find any rest in
this world? I mean, any real rest? You've
wandered. If you haven't, you will. She
was a dove. She's a dove. She has her mates.
She has her new dovecote. Noah made her a better one, a
better nest. She has a new dwelling place.
She has a new master. She has a new home. So what does
she do? She turns. She turns. 180 degrees. She's heading for
home. Scripture says, Turn us, O Lord,
and we'll be turned. Not until then, huh? Turn away
mine eyes from beholding vanity. It's of the Lord's goodness that
leads us to repentance. Turn. It's the Lord's goodness,
isn't it? And send us back to Christ. So
this little turtle dove turns and heads for home, heads back
to Noah and the ark. But by now, she's tired She's
weary, and she's flown a long way off. She's filthy, her feet are laden
with clay, her wings are weary, and she's a long way off. But
she looks, and she spots that ark, and she thinks, if I can
just get back there. If I can just make it. That old brown boat. That ark
hadn't changed. Hasn't. No old brown boat. The
raven didn't find much beauty in it that he desired. No comeliness,
no former comeliness. But ah, now to this weary laden
and heavy laden dove. It's the most beautiful thing
she's ever seen. She's got to get back. She's so weary now, I don't think
she can make it. I don't think she can make it.
She's gone too far. She's too dirty. Maybe the window
is closed. Maybe Noah's forgot about it.
He's got six other ones. Maybe if she comes, he won't
have her. But she's got to try. She's got to go back. She must
try to find rest where she first found it. Where she first found
rest. There is no other place. She
tried everything else, and there is no other place. So she flaps
her weary, dirty wings, and she approaches the ark, and look,
lo and behold, the window's open. And standing in the window is
Noah himself. And look at verse 9. It says,
he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in
unto him, into the ark. There now, my love, my dove,
what did you think you were going to find out there? Look at you
now. Got to wash you, don't I? Where have you been? What have
you done? You can't find any rest out there in me is that
this is your home. These are your mates. Oh, listen
to Psalm 116, listen to David in Psalm 116, he says, Return
unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. Thou hast delivered my soul from
death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Scripture
says of our blessed Lord, He waits to be gracious. He'd been
gone a long time. He waits to be gracious. Doesn't say how long the prodigal
son was gone, does it? Aren't you glad? Could have been
years. He waits to be gracious. Scripture
says He's ready to pardon. Scripture says His arm is not
too short. to bring in the wanderer. There's
none too far off, says he's able to say to the uttermost, them
that come unto God by him. Someone said the gutter most.
Oh, the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height of
the love of God that's in Christ. Isaiah 30 says, in returning
and rest shall you be saved. And quietness and confidence
is your strength. That's coming to Christ. To whom
coming? We wander constantly, don't we? Constantly. But to
whom coming? The window of the ark is open
even now. Even now. Well, there's another
part of the story, isn't there? Maybe you looked at that. I wasn't
going to go into it. Maybe you wonder about this.
Verses 10 and 11, he said, he stayed yet other seven days. And again, he sent forth the
dove out of the ark and the dove came in. She came back and sent
her out again. She came back in the evening
and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. What's this all about? Well,
our Lord in Matthew 10 sent forth his disciples out into the world,
didn't he? He said, Lo, I send you forth as sheep among wolves. He said, Be ye wise as serpents,
but harmless as doves. The olive branch has always been
a symbol of peace, hasn't it? God's people are peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers.
She came back to him and said, it's a while. That raven's taken
over. Now I'm coming back to you again. Lord, David said, they're for
war out there. They're for war, not for peace.
Well, she came back. Blessed are the peacemakers.
But verse 12 now says, He stayed yet another seven days and sent
forth The dove sent her again, which returned not again unto
him any more. He sent her out this last time,
and she never came back. Well, someday we will leave here
also, never to return. Like Enoch, someday we will walk
somewhere, if we're not lying down on a bed And we'll walk
on into glory by faith, never to return. The soul will fly
again to its God that made it. And in closing, let's say with
David, in Psalm 55, David said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove,
for then would I fly away and be a dove. And some of our beloved
brethren and sisters have done just that, taken wing. Flying, flowing away. Yes, forever
ready. No more to come back to this
mud and the mire. Never to stray again, never to
wander. Now they're with Him forever. Isn't that what you
say? Oh, that I had wings like a dove. Maybe that's where that
old song came from, Brother Henry, On the Wings of a Snow White.
All right. I hope it was a blessing to someone.
Me and Mr. Spurgeon tried the best we could.
Stand with me. Our Lord, thank you so much for
your word, the word of mercy, love and grace to wandering sheep
and doves that fly away. story of your mercy in bringing
them back, your grace, how you are ready to pardon, merciful,
gracious. Your mercy is higher than the
heavens, your grace higher than the heavens, your love deeper
than the ocean. Lord, how we thank you for it.
We ask that you would bring us back time and again, because
we have, we do, and we will wonder. We ask that You would forever
bring us to Christ, keep us coming back to Christ, to hear the gospel
of our forgiveness and our pardon, of rest in Christ. Lord, may
this be a blessing to someone, a great comfort to your sheep.
You've told me to comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Lord, only
you can really do that through your words, so I ask that you
do so according to your purpose. In Christ's name, we've met here
tonight. Christ, our rest and our company. Amen.