I have enjoyed very much the
study of the Word of God and these messages concerning Noah
and the ark. And from what I gather from a
few of you that they've been instructive to you, I have very
much appreciated some emails that I have received from folks
who live quite distances away in other states who have also
indicated to me that they have benefited from these messages. And that is, I'm so thankful
to God, but I'm also so humbled by that, that it's an amazing
thing that God would use one worm to be a blessing to other
worms, because that's really the way it is. But it's the way
God has ordained it, that by the preaching of the cross, He
saves men, and so we're thankful for that. Well, I want to get
right into the Scripture tonight in Genesis chapter 8, and here's
my subject, Noah, a raven, and a dove. Noah, a raven, and a
dove. I've got three or four things
that I want to set before you as the clock allows. First of
all, God remembered Noah. That needs to be emphasized once
again, and so we'll start right at the beginning of chapter eight.
And those are indeed the first four words of Genesis chapter
eight. And God remembered Noah. He's
been in the ark. God took him into the ark. He put him in the ark. By effectual
grace, God drew him into the ark because our Lord said to
him, come thou and all thy house into the ark. And so there he
has been. He has no doubt heard the rain,
and he and his family have felt that ark begin to lift up off
of the land and begin to float. And there they were. And evidently,
God hasn't ministered to him, hasn't spoken to him, at least
it isn't recorded in the Word of God, for five months. And
there he is with his wife and his sons and his daughters-in-law
and all of the animals, and of course they had their duties
to feed the animals and take care of them and whatever, clean
up, and all of those things. It was quite a responsibility
to care for all of the animals that
were upon the ark, but during these five months that they've
been in there, when we get to Genesis chapter 8 and verse 1,
there isn't any indication that God spoke audibly to Noah. Now we know that he is there
by the purpose of God. He's there by the very word of
God. God said, make thee an ark, and he made the ark. That which
we know about Noah is this, he was obedient to do what God told
him to do. And he was, according to Hebrews
chapter 11, a man of faith. And through all of this, he makes
no input. He has nothing to add to what
God has to say. All of the instructions about
the ark, they've all come from God. And Noah has been very obedient
unto God, but no word has come to him, at least it isn't recorded
in the Scriptures, no word has come to him from God for about
five months. But lest we should think that
God had forgotten Noah in not speaking to him, Moses, by divine
inspiration, many years later as he writes this, he says, and
God remembered Noah. Not that the Lord had ever forgotten
him. He had never forgotten him. After
all, God had been gracious to him. Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. Noah was given grace in Christ
Jesus before the world began. And I've given you that reference
two or three times already. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
9. The grace that he had was grace
that God gave him in his surety. In the head of the church. The
Lord Jesus and that before the world began. The Lord did not
lead Noah into the ark to leave him there as some kind of big
coffin or as some kind of tomb. No,
not at all. The Lord would bring him out
and the Lord would bring all that was with him in the ark.
He would bring them out as well. God didn't forget Noah at all. But though Noah had a very specific
time when he went into the ark, when God said, come thou into
the ark and all of thy house, God did not tell him how long
he's going to be in there. This is a matter of faith. This
is going to be a time of testing for Noah. It will be a time of
testing for his wife. It will be a time of testing
for all three of his sons and for all three of his daughters-in-law.
They knew God had called them in and they knew God had shut
the door, but they had no idea when the storm was going to be
over. It's just like you and me and the storms of life. We
know that God brings about the storms of life. We know He brings
about the trials. Because all things are of God.
But what we don't know is this. We don't know how long the storm
is going to last. And that is a real test of patience. It's a real test of faith. I wonder if some of the Lord's
people, when they get into difficulties, might not think that maybe God
has forgotten me. David did. David was a man after
God's own heart, and yet he said in Psalm 42 verse 9 that passage
that Joe did such an excellent job of reading for us, I will
say unto God, Myron, why hast thou forgotten me? Why have you
forgotten me? You put me in this situation,
but what is the reason that you have forgotten me? And then he
says, why go I a-mourning? Because of the oppression of
the enemy. You say, well, that's just David.
Well, there's another man, Asaph. And he was the leader of all
the music of Israel. And his name is mentioned several
times in the Psalms. He said, hath God forgotten to
be gracious? Is he in anger? Has he shut up
his tender mercies, Selah? But the Lord assures David, He
assures Asaph, and He assures you and me, even as He says here
in Genesis chapter 8 and verse 1, that His people will never
be forgotten. The Lord says to all of His Israels, Isaiah 44, 21. Thou art my servant,
O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. Maybe I'm speaking to one or
two of the Lord's blood-bought people and you've been shut up
for a while. Maybe you're a shut-in. I may be speaking to somebody
by way of the Internet who you've lost the privilege of coming
and going as you wanted to and you're shut-in and you're dependent
upon everybody else or other people at least for your coming
and going and you can't go about your duties as you used to and
maybe you feel closed in. Don't think that the Lord has
forgotten you. He has not. He has not. That box that you feel like you're
in, you may feel all closed in, but there is One there who is
with you, even as He was with Noah and his family in the ark. It's the Lord himself. Thou shall not be forgotten of
me, God says. And watch this. Because we tend
to, you're just like me, I'm sure. We see phrases and boy,
that jumps out at us and we read on further. But just look at
the next statement. And God remembered Noah and there's something else about
God's memory here. Every living thing and all the
cattle that was with him in the ark. Does God remember cattle? Does
God remember cows? Does God remember foxes and birds
and squirrels and all the other animals that are in the ark? Does God remember all living
things? Well then, will He not remember
His children? This was a real blessing to me. He remembers the cattle. Nancy's dad had a bunch of black
angus cows. And he knew them. He knew them. He knew the bull Big John. He'd take a claw hammer and scratch
Big John on his forehead and that bull would just move his
head like that and he knew all of his cows. Well, our God knows
every cow in all the world and he knew every cow in the ark. Don't you think He knows you
and knows the situation you're in? If He doesn't forget the
animals who have no Savior, the animals
who have no souls, the animals whose existence ends with their
death, Well, you know He's not going to forget you. He chose
you in love unto salvation. And He bought you. He redeemed
you with blood. What kind of blood? Divine blood. The blood of His Son. Innocent
blood. And He sent His Spirit to deal
with you in grace. And he's the one who brings you
into these dark boxes that we find ourselves in sometimes. He'll remember his children.
Listen to Luke 12 and verse six. Are not five sparrows, are not
five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten
by God. Not one of them. How many sparrows
you reckon there are just in Boyd County? There's sparrows
all over the place. Do you pay any attention to sparrows? Not unless they make a mess on
your windshield or something. I put some bird seed out and
the sparrows come and eat. And God knows every one of them. And He's feeding every one of
them and using me to feed a bunch of them. Behold the fowls of the air,
he says. They sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much better than
they? That's what he says. That's what
the Savior says. Are you not much better than
Sparrows? Why, He appointed you to life. He says, I'll give nations for
you. He'll turn the world upside down. He'll move things all about
to send the gospel for one of His people. Maybe in the furthest
spot in the world from us. But He'll do it. And He's not
going to forget you. He's not going to forget His
covenant, people. You see, He made a covenant with
His people, with the Lord Jesus. And He keeps that covenant. And He always remembers the covenant. Luke chapter 1, you can jot this
down, read it later if you will. Luke 1, 68 through 73. Zacharias, who's the father of
John the Baptist. He said, the Lord's going to
remember us. He's going to remember His covenant
that He made to His people. You think God will forget the
covenant He entered into with Christ? That legal binding agreement? wherein God chose a people unto
salvation, and the Lord Jesus, He pledged Himself to be our
Savior? Do you think God will forget
that? You think God will forget those who were included in that
covenant? Never! Never. He'll never forget His people. There's a portion of Scripture
in Genesis Chapter 19, further over. God saw the wickedness of Sodom,
and He determined to destroy it. In Genesis 19, 29, it says, And
it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that
God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. God remembered Abraham and that
covenant He made with Abraham and therefore Lot was taken care
of. And our God remembers that covenant
that He made with His only begotten Son and therefore He's going
to take care of us. We're not going to be destroyed.
There's another reference very much like that. Exodus, the second
chapter in verse 24. And this is Israel in Egyptian
bondage, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered
His covenant with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob, and
He came to their rescue. Therefore, David says in Psalm
136 in verse 23, He remembered us in our lowest
state. And here's the reason, because
His mercy endureth forever. And then consider this the second
thing. Here's something else. All things
are at the disposal of God to bring aid to His people. Look at the last statement of
verse one. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the
waters assuaged. Winds and waves are totally under
the control of God. And I suppose this was a very,
a wind that really dried things out so that the waters began
to turn to vapor. And then the waters on the earth
slowly began to disappear. It's the Lord who sends the winds. The winds may be gentle or the
winds may be severe. It just all depends upon what
His purpose is. And I wonder if I'm also speaking
to somebody and you would say, the waters are very deep around
me. He's already put you in the ark
of protection. That's Christ. And He may leave you there for
a good bit longer. Or He may send a very drying
wind. Here's something that all the
children of God need to be very much aware of. There's not an angel in heaven. There's not an angel in heaven,
but God will make him to be your servant if his service is needed
by you. You think about that. There's
not an angel in heaven, but what God can make him to
be your servant your aid, your helper, if that's what God deems
necessary for you. And there isn't a wind in the
universe that God doesn't control. And that stormy weather that
you've been in, He can send a wind to blow all the clouds away.
Or, He may leave the clouds over your head. so that you'll seek
Him in the time of storm, and find in Him a sure refuge. Look at verse 2, the fountains
also of the deep, and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the
rain from heaven was restrained. He's the one who called down
the rain from heaven. The Lord is the one who opened
up the fountains of the deep, and water just gushed up out
of the very belly of the earth. And now God looks up and He says,
heavens, stop raining. And He closed up the fountains
of the deep. That was it. He has His way everywhere. All of creation obeys the will
of our sovereign God. Now look at verses 3 through
5 quickly. And the waters return from off
the earth continually. And after the end of the 150
days, the waters were abated. And watch this, in verse 4, and
the ark rested. Boy, can you imagine being out
there, you've been floating all this time, and all of a sudden
you, and it rests. The ark rested on the seventh
month, on the 17th day of the month, upon the mountains of
Ariadne. which means the reversal of the
curse. That's what Eriat means, the
reversal of the curse. And according to Jewish dating,
the way they date, because they have a different calendar than
we have, perhaps one that is actually more accurate, but be
that as it may, it's a subject for another day. According to
Jewish calendar or Jewish dating, This date that the ark came to
rest is exactly the date that the Israelites came out of the
Red Sea on the far shore. But wait, it's also the exact
date that our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. You see,
this picture's resurrection, resurrection, The ark is rested
now. It's rested. The storm clouds
are clearing. The waters are abating. And as we shall see very shortly,
there will be signs of life. Signs of a resurrection of nature. Just as Israel, when they came
out of the Red Sea, it's a picture of resurrection. And of course,
our Lord Jesus did indeed. He was raised from the dead. And don't you know that when
Noah and his family felt that ark settle on Mount Aria, it's
a wonderful feeling. But you see, that ark was very
safe. It could not have been safer
because it was designed by God Himself. This is a place of salvation. And I'll tell you how important
that ark was. You know, that promise about
the seed of the woman Back in Genesis chapter 3, the promise
of Messiah, that's in that ark. Oh, God's going to take care
of that ark because the fulfillment of that promise is in that ark
through Shem. Oh yeah. And the people of God
are in that ark. I know that Noah was a true believer
and we know that one of his sons, whose name was Shem, he was a
true believer and maybe Japheth too. I don't know. We don't know
about them. But we do know about Shem. No, the ark, it can't sink. Everybody in there is safe because
the promised seed is in there. The people of God are in there.
And I'll tell you something else, the very truth of God is in that
ark. Isn't that right? The truth of
God is in that ark. The gospel is in that ark. It
isn't anywhere else in the world. It's in that ark. You better
believe God's going to take care of that. Because His whole glory is tied
up in that ark. Because that ark pictures Christ
Jesus, our Savior. Well, here's the third thing
quickly. Looking out the window. That's what I've called this
third point. Looking out the window. Look at verse 6. It came
to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of
the ark which he had made. He's going to look out the window. Noah knew that the Lord would
in due time bring him out of the ark. He just didn't know
when. And now that the ark had come
to rest, he felt relief. They all felt relief and joy.
Forty days went by and then Noah opened up a window to look around. He believed God, so he opened
up a shutter Because my suspicion is that there were shutters put
up, which would be between all the beams that held up the roof. So you'd have shutters all the
way around the arc. Although there are some who believe
that like a heavy canvas or something like that to kind of keep the
rain out. But it was right up underneath
the roof, and the roof had an overhang. But Noah opened it up. He's looking
out in expectation. Ready to see land. I bet you Mrs. Noah said, what
are you looking for? I'm looking for land. I'm looking
for dry ground. And he looks out in expectation
of wonderful things. And I'll tell you something,
God never fails to satisfy the needs of an expectant people. David said, my soul wait, that
is be silent, upon God. For my expectation, that is the
outcome of what we hope for, is from Him. I read a cute little
story. Of course, I do try to do quite
a bit of reading in preparation for my messages. And I read a
couple of sermons by Charles Spurgeon. One of the sermons,
he had a kind of cute little story. He said that there was
a village that they were in a real drought. Gardens dying. wells drying up,
lakes drying up. And so in this little town, the
preacher, he called for a meeting. He said, let's all come out to
the chapel and let's have a prayer meeting and ask God if he would
to send rain. And so on such and such a night,
Spurgeon said that they came together, they filed into the
church, and there was a little girl And she came in, and she
had an umbrella. And there was somebody who said
to her, what in the world are you carrying an umbrella? It
hasn't rained for the longest of weeks and months. To which
she replied, well, we've come to ask God to send rain, and
when we leave, I don't want to get wet. See, that's believing that God
will answer. That's the point. And you know,
she rebukes us. Because I feel like oft times
we ask, but I'm not so sure we really think we'll get a response. And I say to all of us, when
you bring your requests to God, bring an umbrella. Bring an umbrella. Expect Him to do, believe Him
to do as He says He will do. He will answer in His time and
give that which is beneficial to us. I suspect, well in fact the Savior
said, you have not because you ask not. Is that what He said?
You have not Because you ask not. Or you ask that you might
consume it upon your own lusts, as James says. And then, going
further, in verse 7, he sent forth a raven, which went forth
to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
The raven was an unclean bird, unfit for eating, unacceptable
as a sacrifice. Black. Black's the color of sin. It's the color of evil. It's
the color of death. A raven, like the crow, they are
properly called croakers. Because they croak so much, they
make so much noise. That's what they do. You can
hear those crows a long ways off, can't you? Same with the
ravens. Well, the raven represents an
unbeliever. And when Noah let the raven go, it never came back. Because as the raven went out,
it found dead things upon which to feed and was very comfortable. That's an unbeliever. People
come in and they mix in with the people of God and you think,
oh, they're one of us. They believe the gospel and then
they leave. Like the raven. And they may
even croak a little about what they've heard. How dissatisfied
they were with the message. And they reveal that inner blackness,
that darkness, that evil. And they go out and you know
what they do? They feed on dead things. Dead religion. Can't give them any life. But
they don't want to feed on anything that's living. That's the raven. The raven feeds on dead things. The raven was content when it
was released to stay outside the ark. I don't want to go back
in there. Because ravens, you see, they
find their gratification outside of the ark of God's salvation. The ark was too confining, too
boring for them, for this raven. But verse 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. Here's a believer. found no rest for the soul of
her foot. I can't find any rest among the
death out there. I'm not comfortable with the
ravens. I want to go back to the ark."
That was the attitude of the dove. Want to go back? And she
returned unto him, unto the ark, for the waters were on the face
of the whole earth. And watch it, and he put forth
his hand. Oh, and when Noah put forth his
hand, that dove just flew right into his hand. And you who weary,
weary with the world, weary with sin, come to the ark, you'll
find the Lord of Glory holds out His hand to receive you and
pull you into safety. That's what salvation is, isn't
it? He pulls us into safety. In verse 10, He stayed yet another
seven days, and again He sent forth the dove out of the ark,
and the dove came to Him in the evening, and lo! Here's a sign
of life. In her mouth was an olive leaf
plucked off. A sign of life. The dove brought
good news. Brought good news. It's like
the dove is a picture of the Holy Spirit, right? Just like
the olive leaf is a picture of peace. And the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Spirit is the one who comforts us and there's great comfort
in the salvation that He teaches us about in Christ Jesus. There
is no comfort like God's salvation. And that's what the Holy Spirit
does. He comforts us in bringing us the news of the forgiveness
of sins and righteousness in the Lord Jesus. And we find rest
for our souls. And then verse 12, he stayed
yet another seven days, and he sent forth the dove, and the
dove undoubtedly found some other branches upon which to light.
But here's the last thing, and I'll give you this. A new beginning. A new beginning. Look at verse 13, it came to
pass, 600th and first year. The first day of the month, the
first day of the month, it's New Year. The waters were dried
up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark,
and he looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. Happy
New Year! That's what this is. This is
a happy New Year. And in the second month, and
on the seventh and twentieth day of the month, the earth was
dry. And I wasn't going to go any further, but I'll just read
this to you. And God spake unto Noah and said, go forth of the
ark. God had said to him back in chapter
7, verse 1, come thou into the ark. And now God says, time to
leave. Go forth. Thou and thy wife and
thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee bring forth with thee
every living thing that is with thee of all flesh, both the fowl
and cattle and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth and be fruitful
and multiply upon the earth. God remembered Noah and he remembered
all those animals. He didn't forget one of them.
And you who are the people of God, always keep this in your
mind and in your heart. God remembers all of His Noahs. And you're much more valuable
to Him than the cattle. But He remembered them. He's
not going to forget you. Well, I hope it's a blessing.
It's a blessing to me to prepare that. I hope it's a blessing
to you to hear it. Let's sing 256. It is,