Turn with me to Genesis chapter
8. In our studies on Noah and the
ark, we've been looking at these things as a picture. A picture of God's redemptive
work in Christ as it's given to the believer by way of the
Gospel. And personally, I can't say this
of all the writers that I've read. just take it historically
and mention the facts of it and maybe one or two details of how
it pictured Christ and then go on. But personally, I'm convinced
that this whole thing from beginning to the end, from the beginning
of this story of Noah to the end, clearly pictures the faith
of God's elect, how it comes, where it comes, on whom it comes,
and where it comes, and all the extenuating circumstances that
are involved in it. All of these things are pictured
in Noah's ark. He built this ark of God's decree. God came to him by pure, free,
sovereign grace. He didn't do anything to deserve
it. He wasn't looking for it when it came. God came to him
in pure, free, sovereign grace, and He told him how that he was
going to save him, and how he was going to save his house.
And by divine intervention, he arrested this man Noah, gave
him his design, and Noah is said to have moved with fear. That's
what it says in Hebrews 11. He moved with fear and built
this ark, and then willingly walked inside, and God shut the
door. God shut the door. Now when Noah
entered this ark, he embarked on a journey. This is what I
want you to see. When God creates faith in the
soul, it's not an isolated act. It's not a one-time thing. I
heard men and women all my life talk about the time and the hour
and the place and all that kind of nonsense. This thing of faith
is a journey. If he pictures anything in this
ark, he pictures that. It's a journey. It wasn't over.
When God gave him the instruction of this ark, and God told him
he was going to destroy the world, all flesh that was in it was
going to die, and He gave him instruction of this ark, it wasn't
over. It wasn't over. It just started.
It just began. The faith is a journey. Faith is a principle of life
established in us through a new birth. And it is beyond all question
and all doubt the gift of God, as Paul said, not of works, lest
any man should boast. Faith is a journey that takes
the believer from judgment and death to a new heaven and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. It takes him the whole way. And
I'll tell you this, here's something else I've seen in this The biggest
portion of this journey is in a condemned world. It's in a condemned world. That
ark floated and moved and was directed through a condemned
world. God's condemnation rained down
on that thing the whole time, all around it, but not in it.
Not in it. And through an environment and
a condition in which no man can be preserved outside the ark,
this ark journeyed and was preserved and all that was in it all the
way through. Noah begins his journey receiving
instruction from God. And seeing this vessel of God's
design, he's persuaded to commit himself and his family within.
And he sees this vessel when he looks at it as the will of
God, the way of God to save sinners like him. He sees God in this
vessel. He sees God in its purpose. He
sees God in its design. He sees God in its contents.
In the vessel, he sees God's willingness to save, God's wisdom
to save, God's means to save, and God's provision to save.
All of this he sees in this ark. From the day he enters this vessel,
he is aware that God steers the vessel. This vessel has no rudder. It has no wheel. He built that
thing. He knew when he went inside,
he had no control over where that thing was heading. He knew
that it was God's vessel. God's vessel. God sets the course. And he knows this. God is going
to afflict this vessel. It's God that sends those waves
that try its strength. And He alone controls the journey
from start to finish. And as the journey continues,
God lays on the heart of this servant to release two birds
from the window at the top of that ark. Now, I want to read
just a few verses to you here in Genesis 8. It says, let's
just begin here in verse 1. And God remembered Noah and every
living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark.
And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were
swayed. The fountains also of the deep
and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven
was restrained. And the waters returned from
off the earth continually, and after the end of a hundred and
fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh
month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains
of Ararat, and the waters decreased continually until the tenth month
In the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops
of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end
of forty 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. And he sent forth
a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the
face of the ground. Dove found no rest for the sole
of her foot, and she returned unto him in 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 himself in the ark.
And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth
the dove out of the ark. And the dove came in to 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 the earth. And
he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth a dove, which
returned not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in
the six hundredth 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 dry." This journey continues. God lays
on the heart of His servants. He caused that strong wind to
blow. He stopped up those fountains from heaven and those springs
from the deep. He restrained those things and
caused that wind to blow and those waters began to assuage.
And the waves calmed down a little bit. Calmed down a little bit. And Noah, he laid down the heart
of his servant. He opened that window up and
he released the bird. It says first he released a raven. And that's what I want to talk
to you about tonight. These birds. These birds of God. This raven
and this dove. And first He sends forth the
raven. Genesis 8, 7. Now, the raven is an insatiable
bird. Let me just talk to you about
the bird for a few minutes. From the word raven, I looked
this word up in the dictionary and I was astounded by what the
word meant. The word raven means ravenous. From the word raven comes the
word ravenous, an appetite that cannot be satisfied. The dictionary
describes the raven as a bird who seeks only its own gratification. It's not interested in anything
else. It's not interested in its mate or its babies. It's
interested in itself. And it goes out and it eats everything
it can find. It's ravenous. It has one purpose
in life to have everything it can get. And it means to devour
greedily, that word raven. It means to seize as a prey or
a plunder. The word ravage comes from the
word raven. And it means to ravage or ravish. It also, the word rape, you might
be surprised at that, but that comes from the word raven. to
seize and satisfy its lust upon unwilling victims. And the word
raving comes from the word raven, and it means wild, irrational,
and delirious. And the raven is without a doubt
a symbol of man's fallen nature. He's greedy, he's insatiable,
he's wild, and he's irrational. That's man. Man in his nature. He takes all he can get. And
he searches for more. He seeks his own and has no thoughts
for others. His one purpose in life is to
get all he can get. They sing about it. They think
it's a good thing. They promote it. You're only
going to go around one time, ain't that what they say? Get
all you can get. Paul describes him in Romans
1, verses 29 through 32, and he says this, he's filled with
all unrighteousness. fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy and murder and deceit, malignity. Do you ever look up these words
and see what they mean? You know what a cancer is when it's malignant,
don't you? That's the bad news. Malignancy. When a cancer is
malignant, it's actively engaged And it's evil. It means, literally,
from the dictionary, a condition of being actively evil, injurious,
harmful, or deadly. And I believe that's what it
means when it describes a cancer being malignant. It means it's
deadly. It can do you harm. He said he's filled with malignity,
whisperers, back biters. Haters of God, despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without
understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable. Look that word up. You know what
it means? You can't satisfy Him. I don't
care what you say or what you do, He's never satisfied. Implacable. You can't please Him. He's unmerciful. He holds a grudge. And who, knowing
the judgment of God that they which do such things are worthy
of death, they not only do the same, but they have pleasure
in others that do." That's a natural man. That's what he is. And that
old bird of the flesh is released for a witness. He's released
for a witness. And he goes up, and he never
brings anything back to the ark. He flies to and fro, it said,
until the waters were completely dried up from there. First this
way and then another way. He has no certain fixed agenda,
but he goes whichever way the wind blows. There goes the raven. He goes here and he goes there.
He finds sustenance from the dead floating carcasses on the
water. And when his head is full, he
finds a suitable rest on the outward shell of the ark. He
doesn't desire to go back inside. He's comfortable outside. He
fixes him a roost up on the hollow shell and he loves this present
world so he doesn't go back in. He loves the food he finds and
he prefers the company of the dead outside to the life inside. And he does not return because
he finds what he loves and loves what he finds. That's the raven. That's the witness of this raven
to know. And I don't know if you've ever
been around very many ravens or paid any attention, Kathy
and I, when we first moved from Louisiana up to Kentucky, we
rented this house out in the country. And it had a big, long,
shallow U driveway. Come in on one side and come
up by the house and went out the other side. And it was completely
covered by these old water maples. Old, big water maples that you
see up north. They were huge. You couldn't
begin to reach around them. And they just hung over that
driveway and shaded that whole driveway all the way around.
And one of the men from Don's church, he likes to fool with
cars and stuff, and he restored this old, it was about a 1974
or 73, somewhere in there, Super Beetle. Old Volkswagen Beetle.
And he painted it about that color orange. Real bright orange. And he sold me that car. It just had been painted. Just
had got it all restored. And I pulled that thing in the
driveway and went in and went to bed. And I got up the next
morning and drank my coffees on Saturday morning. And I came
out that door to sit on the steps in the warm springtime, drank
my coffee out there under them trees. And I looked, and my orange
bug had purple polka dots all over it. Them birds had been
in to a big flock of ravens had come in and got in those wild
cherry trees and ate them purple berries. And they messed on my
car and it was purple polka-dotted from one end to the other. It
was so bad that it went down in and stained the paint job.
You couldn't even wash it off. It just ruined that paint job
on that car. Had to have it completely redone.
But this is what I'm saying. This is what I want you to see.
All that raven can do when he roosts up on top of that ark
is stain it. That's all he can do. That's
all he can do. He can add no glory to the ark
with his testimony. He just sits up on there and
stains its appearance. That's all he can do. Because
the life is inside and the glory is inside. That's the witness
of that old raven. That's all he's good for is to
roost up on the ark and ruin its appearance. The Holy Spirit
of God convinces us, according to John 16, verse 9, He convinces us of sin because
we believe not on Him. He exposes us for what we are. Now, if you'll notice here in
Genesis, it says that He sent forth a raven which went 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. He sent a raven and a dove. And
the dove brought back the news that the raven could not bring.
All that's outside is ruined. All that's outside this ark is
judgment and condemnation. There's nothing out there. There's
no rest out there. There was nowhere, it said, that
dove had this witness. There was nowhere for it to rest
its feet. He goes and he sees what the
raven saw, and he sees what the raven loved, and he sees what
the raven eats. And the dove flies around and
he sees the kind of life this raven lives and how he roosts
and rests and ruins the ark. And he goes back to God's Beloved
and he says, there's nothing out there to support life and
nowhere to rest. All outside is a waste, just
rotten corruption everywhere, waters of judgment everywhere.
And the believer puts forth his hand. You see that in there? It's not good news. The dove
didn't have any good news on his first go-round. But that
believer puts forth his hand and takes her and pulls her into
him. That's what faith does. That
dove, that dove all the way through this book represents the Holy
Spirit of God. And he goes out and he brings
that witness of what you are, exactly what you are. And he
brings it to you. And when he does, that man of
faith, he receives that testimony of God. He'll reach out. It ain't good news, but he'll
reach out and take it and put it into himself. And I tell you
this, that old raven, his witness, he's satisfied to stay outside
and talk about it. He'll sit up there and sing about
it up there on the hull of the ark. Make his mess and sing. That's all he can do. And he
sits up there, but not the dove. The dove won't sit on the ark.
The dove hovers around that window. And He waits to be received within.
He brings His news in, inside. He doesn't sing about it on the
outside. He doesn't stand out there and look in and say, here's
what it's all about. No, He comes in. He comes in
with a message. He comes in with a message. Now
watch this. He stays yet seven more days.
Seven more days in the ark. God gives you time. that testimony
of what you are and brings that testimony of your corruption
and makes you to taste your sin. And He lets you chew on it for
a few days, don't He? Oh, I can remember it like it
was yesterday. He still does every now and then. Gives me
a taste of it. Tells me what it is. Let you taste of it. He
just lets you sit in that ark and stew about it and think about
it. Let it go home. And then He turns that dove loose
again. And that dove flies around. Now if you recall the message
I brought to you back in John chapter 1, this has been some
months back, about this dove descending upon the Lord, you'll
remember that I showed you in the Law of God that the dove
was to be offered by the poor. And when you saw the dove, you
saw the lamb. The message of the dove is the
lamb. When Mary came up there, she
was too poor to offer the lamb. And she brought a pair of pigeons
or turtle doves. They're all in the same family.
And this dove, when you see the dove, you see the lamb. And this
dove went out again at the request of the believer, and he flies
around the whole day. You see that? He doesn't return
until evening. He flies around the whole day. Do you know what
a day is in the Scripture? That's your life. That's the
life of a believer. It's a day. You know what a day
is in the Bible? A day is the length of God's
time of mercy. One day. He said, day is far
spent. And night approaches. Darkness
comes. Day is far spent. And He comes
back to him in the evening. This dove flies around. And He
comes back to him in the evening. And lo, in her mouth was an olive
leaf plucked off. So no one knew that the waters
were abated from off the earth. Now over and over we're told
in the Old Testament Scriptures that Christ would appear as the
righteous branch. You're just going to find it
time and time and time again. In Isaiah chapter 4, if you've
taken notes in verse 2, he says this, In that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful, and glorious, and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped
of Israel. In Isaiah chapter 11 and verse
1 it says, And there shall come forth out of the rod of the stem
of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And in that day
there be no hurt or destruction in my holy mountain. For the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that
cover the sea. And in that day there shall be
a root out of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign." You know
what an ensign is. It's a flag, a sign, an evidence. In that day there shall be a
root out of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. And in that day thou shalt say,
O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me,
thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, God
is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become
my salvation." The message of the dove is a threefold message. First, it tells us of the curse
of God reigning over all flesh. That's the first message of the
dove. He brings that to the believer first. I don't get excited over
folks when they're struggling with and asking you a lot of
questions about doctrine and asking you a lot of things. I
don't get too upset. But boy, when I see that man that God
gets a hold of his heart and begins to ring his heart, and
he has some sense of what he is, and all of a sudden, he don't
talk so much anymore, He doesn't ask many questions anymore. He's
just upset. He's upset because he knows what
he is and who he is before the living God. And God begun to
work in his heart. And I get excited about that.
This first message of the dove is this condemnation of God reigning
over all flesh. That there's nowhere in this
world to find rest. And the second message of the
dove is life in the promised Redeemer. He brings this olive
leaf in his mouth plucked off. Where'd he get it? He plucked
it off that branch. That's where he got it. The Lord
said, when He has come, He said, I'm going to send to the Father.
I'm going to leave you. But I'm not going to leave you
without a comforter. If I go away, I'm going to send Him to
you. And when He's come, He's not going to speak of Himself.
He's not here to introduce Himself to you and tell you all about
Him. He's going to take of the things of mine and He's going
to show them to you. He's going to pluck off these
leaves and He's going to bring them to you. He's going to bring
them to you. He's going to open them up to
you. He's going to be this instant. He's going to be this wisdom.
He's going to come and take of the things of mine and show them
unto you. He's going to show them to you. Christ, the righteous branch,
bore our sins and His own body on the tree. He's the substitute
God appointed in the garden, manifested in the manger, killed
Him on the cross, raised Him from the dead, and seated Him
forever at His own right hand. This is that righteous branch.
This is the message of the dove. The Holy Spirit of God alone
bears the olive leaf plucked from the righteous branch. And
he will not speak of himself, but he tells us about Christ.
And it's in this crucified, risen Redeemer alone that sinners are
convinced that the curse is lifted. He don't want to be convinced
any other way. No other way. Risen from the watery grave,
that righteous tree puts forth his leaves and bears his fruit. And this is the sweet evidence
of the dove. He brings that leaf plucked from
that tree. God is satisfied and the waters
are abated and life is established on the earth. He brings that message of Christ
to them. And then thirdly, having delivered that olive leaf, the
dove is released again the third time. And this is the one that
really He released that dove, that Holy Spirit of God, and
He don't come back. I looked at that. I read everybody
I could find. Ain't nobody even mentioned it.
You know what that is? I was sitting there a day or
so after I prepared this message, and I was looking at that, and
it came to me. The olive leaf is all the message
you're going to get from the Holy Spirit. He just has one
message. He don't have another message. We're going to send
out for it. We're going to reach out for
it, but you're not going to get it. You're going to get one message,
Christ. Christ. That's all the message
you're going to get. He just has one message. If that
message is not sufficient, then you can't be saved. If that message
don't do the trick, it ain't going to happen. There's just
one message, Christ. Christ. We don't come to Christ
and then go to something else. We don't come to Christ and then
go looking for something else. Paul said, who hath bewitched
you? He said, you started out in Christ. Now you think you're going to
be made perfect by something you do? What do you look for? Where do you go? Who hath bewitched
you? Who's pulled the wool over your
eyes? There's just one message. That message is Christ. That's
what he's telling Noah. There's just one message. Paul
put it this way in the Colossians. He said, as you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up
in Him, established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. And he says, beware. And this
is what I say to you tonight. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men. after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and
power." And he goes on here in the Colossians, and he says,
We are buried with Him in baptism, wherein also we are risen with
Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
Him from the dead. And being dead in our sins and
the uncircumcision of our flesh, He quickened us together with
Him and forgave us all trespasses. He said in Colossians 2.14, He
said, blotting out all the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us. You know, I've looked at that and looked at that, and
those ordinances, He says, that were against us. This ceremonial
law was a constant reminder to them of their sins. And it's
a constant reminder to any man who would keep those ceremonial
laws, it's a constant reminder of your sins. You know, even
in Hebrews 10, when Paul summed up all these things about that
ceremonial law, he said the law having a shadow of good things
to come, but not that very image, could never with those sacrifices
that they offered satisfy God. But there was a remembrance again
made of sin. It was a constant reminder. There
was a constant remembrance of sin. Every washing was a reminder
of our uncleanness, and every sacrifice was a signature of
confession that we're sinners. And His very participation in
those things were like a ledger of debt. He said they were not for us,
but He said they were contrary to us. And the natural man trying to
keep the law, he just further piles up the dead he owes. And
he said Christ took it away. What did he do with it? He nailed
it to his cross. That's what he did. He nailed
it to the cross. And I'll tell you this, it's
this law and its demands and its ceremonies that Satan uses
and finds power and strength against fallen sinners. It's
this law. You remember reading this in
the Scriptures? He talks about the strength of sin is the law,
the power, the power behind Satan, the power to hold and the power
to deceive and trick. It's in the law. It's in his
deception. It causes men to think that they
can be righteous by their keeping this law. It causes men to think
that they can become progressively holy by keeping this law. causes
men to think that they're approved of God by the percentage that
they keep this law. And he uses these things. He
uses these things of God. He used them against Israel.
He blinded their minds. He blinded their minds. And the
natural man trying to keep the law, he just further piles up
the debt he owes. And Satan can get you think you
can produce a righteousness by your obedience to the law, then
if He can get you to do that, He brings the full weight of
God's holiness and judgment and justice against you. Israel stood
out there that day that Moses read the law, and they said,
Of all which thou hast commanded us, we will do. That's what Paul said. He blinds
the mind of those who believe not. But the Gospel declares
to us that all our obligations to the law have been satisfied.
That in Christ, the law is honored, the law is exalted, justice is
satisfied, righteousness is manifested, and holiness is not compromised. And so nailing these things to
His cross, it says He then spoils principalities and powers And
He makes a show of them. He exposes them for what they
are, and He triumphs over them through the cross. Christ is
the message. Christ is all the message. And
Christ is all the Holy Spirit of God will carry to sinners
in that ark. The gospel of Christ is sufficient. That's what that second dove,
bringing that leaf and giving it to Him, and then going away
and not coming back. That's what He's saying. It's
sufficient. You don't need another. You don't need any other message.
This is the message. It's sufficient. His witness
is true. And he convinces Noah that the
judgment is passed. And now in patience, hope, God's
elect waits in God's ark until it lands. And then he rises up
to walk in a new world. Now in the light of all that
that I've said to you tonight, I want you to listen to Paul's
conclusion. These last things I've been reading to you over
here in Colossians chapter 3. Listen to what he says. If you
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections
on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory."
God put him on this ark. This is a journey of faith. And
this faith took him from the condemnation of God all the way
through to new heaven and new earth. And he come out of that,
walking on that earth, a new man.