Genesis chapter 8, let's begin
reading here in verse 1. And God remembered Noah, and
every living thing, and all the cattle that were with him in
the ark. And God made a wind to pass over
the earth, and the waters assuaged. They subsided. 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 the 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 Ariat. You and I studied there in the
sixth chapter and the seventh chapter of the flood that had
come upon this earth and were told there that the great fountains
of the deep were broken up. Great fountains, that's underneath
the surface of this earth. The deep fountains began to break
up and the waters rushed to the surface of this earth and all
the moisture that was in the atmosphere was gathered together
and poured out of the sky like great gates or windows opened
in heaven. And the black clouds had came
over the sky and the rain began to gush from them. And we saw
there in the seventh chapter that highest hills under all
the heaven was covered. The great Rockies, the Alps,
Mount Moriah, Mount Nebo, all the mountains of this earth were
covered. And all that could be seen was
this solitary ark riding upon the face of these waters, upon
this boundless ocean, but it was a boundless ocean of death. Beneath that ark was nothing
but destruction and death. How solemn must have been the
thoughts of these eight people as they sat there in this ark.
Though they couldn't see what was going on outside, by faith
they had to perceive it. Death and destruction had come. And all that remained alive in
all of this world was these eight people and the animals in that
ark. What a time this was. And what was Noah? And I've often
wondered as he sat there in this narrow prison, if he did not
sometime think within himself, who am I that I should be spared? Why should I be saved when all
else is lost? Who am I in my family that we
should be secure when all else has been destroyed? Well, here's
the reason why, brothers and sisters. Mercy will have its
vessels as well as wrath will have his. Justice will have its
vengeance, but grace must have. Grace shall have its delivered
captives. I imagine as Noah sat here in
this narrow ark, unable to do anything but trust and hope and
wait, he thought to himself, why me? Why me? Do you ever think that? Why me,
Lord? And the answer always come back
the same, even so father, it seemed good in thy sight. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Noah believed God. And Noah built
an ark. And he entered that ark and God
shut him in. And he became heir of that righteousness
which is by faith. God revealed to him what was
coming. He believed God. He moved with
fear. He entered this ark and God sealed
him in. But the same God who sealed him
in never forgot about it. The Lord remembered Noah. When this wrath had fallen upon
the earth, The windows of heaven had poured out all its rage,
and the great fountain of the deep rushed to the surface, and
all was destroyed, and God's wrath had come. Yet, in all of
this destruction, God remembered no one. "'O Lord,' Habakkuk said,
I have heard thy speech, and I was afraid. Lord, revive your
work in the midst of the years. Make your work known in times
of wrath. Remember mercy. Remember mercy. God never put Noah in this ark
just so he could exist in misery, but He put him there to save
him. He put him there to keep him
alive while his wrath was poured out. He put him there to bring
him to a new world that had been cleansed by judgment. And brothers and sisters, God
don't put a man in Christ and forget about him. God don't put
a man in Christ just to put him on probation to see if he can
make it to heaven. God puts a man in Christ to preserve
him. God puts a man in Christ to hide
him. God puts a man in Christ to keep
him, to keep him safe and secure him when God comes to take vengeance
upon the inhabitants of this world. And when everything is
said and done, God will remember that man that's in Christ and
bring him out to a world, a new world wherein dwelleth righteousness. And God remembered Noah. Look over here with me, if you
will, in Job's Gospel. Job chapter 14. Job spake about
this, the Lord remembering. The Lord remembering. God remembered
Noah. Look in Job chapter 14. Look here in the beginning in
verse 7. Job 14, verse 7, God remembered
Noah. There is hope of a tree, if it
be cut down, that it will sprout again and that the tender branches
thereof will not cease. Through the root thereof wax
old in the earth, and the stalk thereof die in the ground, yet
through the scent of water it will bud again and bring forth
bulbs like a plant. But man dieth, and he wasteth
away. Yea, he gives up the ghost, and
where is it? As the waters fail from the sea,
and the floods decayeth and dryeth up, so man lieth down, and raiseth
not, until the heavens be no more. They shall not wake, nor
be raised out of their sleep. Oh, that thou wouldest hide me,
Joseph, hide my soul in Christ, and hide my body in the grave,
and that Thou wouldest keep me in secret until Thy wrath be
passed, that Thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me."
Remember me. If a man die, shall he live again? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It's appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. And Job said,
all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change
come, and you'll remember me, for thou shalt call, and I will
answer thee. Thou shalt have a desire to the
work of thy hands. God don't put a man in Christ
and forget about him. He just don't do it. He will
remember Him. God remembered Noah. Let me give you four things.
And I think you can relate to this. I say this for myself. This is four things I want the
Lord to remember. And I imagine you have the same
desire as I do. First of all, I want the Lord
to remember me. God remembers men and women. God remembers people. God remembered
Noah. When it's said that He remembers
people, sometimes He remembers them for good, to have mercy
upon them. Sometimes He remembers them for
evil, to bring judgment. God remembers and the like. I
want Him to remember me in mercy. Just like he did Noah. The thief
said, Lord, when You come into Your kingdom, remember me. According to Your mercies, remember
me, O Lord, for Thy name's sake, David said. Remember me. Keep me in Your thoughts. Keep
me in Your heart. Keep me in Your affections. Lord,
don't forget me. When the storms of life are raging,
don't forget me. When I'm tried and tested, Lord,
don't forget me. When my strength fails me, and
I am so useless and helpless, and old age has took its toll,
Lord, remember me. When death's cold ewe lies upon
my brow, O God, remember me. And when I stand before you in
the judgment, And when all men have been assigned to their eternal
home, O Lord, remember me. Look thou upon me and be merciful
unto me, and do unto me as you used to do to them that loved
your name. I love the Lord, don't you? And
I want Him to remember me like He remembered Noah. Lord, remember
me. And secondly, I want the Lord
to remember what I am. I want Him to remember I am utterly
helpless in myself. I am weakness itself. I am useless. I am nothing. I know nothing. I can do nothing. Is that scriptural? Should we
think this way about ourselves? I've had people to tell me, Bruce,
you shouldn't be so down on yourself. You know, we've got living in
this age of self-esteem. Self-esteem is running up in
our day. Teaching people to think highly
of themselves. Well, here's what I want the
Lord to remember about me. I'm nothing. I know nothing. I can do nothing. You and I used to live to try
to impress God. Oh, we could impress God. Wait
till God finds out how much I know. Wait till God finds out how much
I can learn and what all I can do. But then God breaks in upon
us and He teaches us that we're nothing and less than nothing.
That we're altogether vanity. If a man thinks himself to be
something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. And God
has so thoroughly taught us this Now, things have altogether changed. It used to be we were afraid
when we thought God knew us. But now we're afraid He's going
to forget what we really are. So what will we do? Oh, we beg
Him, Lord, remember what I am. I'm weakness itself. As far as the East is from the
West, He says, So far have I removed your iniquities from you. Like
as a father pitieth his children, the Lord pitieth them that fear
Him. The Lord knoweth our frame, and He remembers that we're just
dust. Ain't that comforting to you?
You never want Him to forget that, do you? You never want
to think that He puts any confidence in you. And here was poor Noah
shut up in this narrow prison. And all he could do was hope and trust and wait. And he couldn't do that without
the grace of God. And if God hadn't given him grace
to do that, he would despair. He was weakness itself, helpless
and couldn't do nothing. But we're told here, God remembered
him. God remember me. I'm nothing. I am nothing. And thirdly, and
I imagine this was Noah's request when he was here in this ark,
it had to be this. Lord, remember the covenant. This is something I've often
asked the Lord in myself. Lord, remember the covenant.
You say, Bruce, what are you talking about? You remember,
you that's been going through this book, you remembered we
studied on this covenant, didn't you? Remember that? The Lord
came to Noah and He said, I'm going to destroy all flesh, but
with you will I establish my covenant. You're going to come
into the ark, and your family's coming into the ark, and all
the animals are coming into the ark, and I'm going to keep all
of you alive." He said, that's the covenant that I'm going to
make with you. I promise you. What do you think it was like
in that ark? What do you think the conditions were like in there?
I think sometimes we imagine that they just sat in the ark
and they had a good time, that it was a smooth ride and they
petted the animals and laughed and told stories. I don't think
it was like that at all. I think as those water spouts
on high began to pour upon that ark and the fountains of the
deep was broken up and gushing up and the winds whipping and
the thunders were vibrating that ark, I tell you, it was a dangerous
place to be seemingly at the time. The ark standing on its
nose, standing on its tail, feeling like it was ready to roll over.
Them hanging on for life, afraid they were going to be broken
up inside the ark. Oh no, brothers and sisters. That ark went through the storm.
That ark felt the rage of those waters. And they were there for
a year or more inside that ark. I wonder how it smelled. Can you imagine that? You think
they didn't get somewhat impatient? I tell you, in that narrow, dark
prison, hadn't seen the daylight for over a year, Don't you think
sometimes Noah, out of frustration, or Noah out of doubt, Noah out
of fear, sometimes said, Lord, remember the covenant. Are we
going to make it through this storm? Is this ark going to be
broken to pieces? Where did he get his confidence
that he was going to make it through this awful, awful storm? He remembered the covenant. Oh
God, remember your covenant. You said you'd establish your
covenant with me and you brought me into the ark to keep us alive.
Remember the covenant. Some people have this idea in
our day that Christianity is just the life of fun and happiness. being carefree. Have you found
that to be the case? Have you found being a Christian
to be fun? We have our joys, we have our
times of rejoicing, we have peace in our conscience, our heart,
but I tell you the children of God knows what sorrow is too.
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you as though some strange thing happened to you? Did you ever
being going along and your heart was so burdened, and you had
been so tested and tempted, you said in yourself, what is happening
to me? I've never been in such a condition
before. It's strange. That's one of the
things that makes up our Christian life. It's not always fun, is
it? In this world you shall have
tribulation. The Lord was speaking to the
church of Sermon. And He said, fear none of those
things which you shall suffer. The devil is going to cast you
into prison. And you are going to have tribulation
ten days. Be faithful unto death. When my heart is overwhelmed
Lead me to that rock that's higher than I." And boy, what do we
do when we're in a situation like this? We flee to the Word,
don't we? Lord, remember the Word unto
Thy servant, upon which You've caused me to hold. Remember the
covenant. We don't hear much about the
covenant today, do we? Brother Glenn talked about it
there a minute ago with his Sunday School lesson. You may not have
noticed it, but that's what it is, the covenant. Turn over here
with me. Let me read you just a little
bit about it in Psalms. Look in Psalms. Brother Glenn read to us over
in John 6 about the covenant. It didn't say covenant, but that's
what it is. Sometimes covenant goes under
the name of God's will. It goes under the name of promise,
what God has promised. Or an oath. You often hear the
old prophets pray this way. Remember the oath. Remember your
covenant. They prayed that way. And here
is the covenant that God made with His Son. The Lord Jesus
said, This is the will of Him that sent me, all which He hath
given me." Now, what is that? The Father has given the Son
something, hasn't He? He's given Him a great host of
people out of humanity. That's the Father's part in the
covenant. He said, My Son, I will give
you these people. And here's the Son's part in
it. All the Father giveth me, I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. That's the covenant. That's the
covenant. And it has all these gifts that
God gave to the Son and all the responsibility laid upon the
Son. And the Scripture says in Hebrews
13, 20, the God of peace that brought again from the dead,
the Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. If you find out what that covenant
is, you'll find out what the gospel is. That's where you'll
find out what the gospel is. But let me read you something.
Look you and I in Psalms 89. Psalms 89. Look here in verse 1. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall
be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my
Chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant
to Christ. That's who he's talking about.
Look over in verse 20. I have found David my servant,
with my holy oil have I anointed him, with whom my hand shall
stand, shall be established, mine arm also shall strengthen
him. The enemy shall not exact upon
him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I'll beat down his
foe before his face, and plague them that hate him, but my faithfulness
and my mercy shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn
be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me,
Thou art my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation. Also I
will make him my firstborn." We know who that is, don't we?
Higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for
him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed, His people, His chosen
ones, His sheep also will I make to endure forever, and His throne
as the days of heaven. If His children forsake My law,
if they walk not in My judgments, if they break My statutes and
keep not My commandments, then I will visit their transgressions
with a rod And they're iniquitous with strife. I mean, God's going
to chasten His children. You say, I'm going to do this
and I'm going to do that. Yeah, you may get a rod across your
back too. And you think it hurt when your father down here whipped
you. He knows how to make it hurt.
And if you're His, and you can live and do according to this
flesh and walk contrary to His will, and you never have His
whip on your back, you know what that means, don't you? You know
what that means. Now look here at what he said
in verse 33. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the things that go out of my lips. Once have I sworn
by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall
endure forever, and as strong as the sun before me." That's
the covenant. That's the covenant. And Christ
sealed His part of that covenant with His own blood. The Lord
remembers the covenant. And He does. He does. He does. In Psalms 89-47, let me quote
this one. Here's the fourth thing I want
the Lord to remember for me. I want Him to remember me. I
want Him to remember my weakness, my utter helplessness. I want
Him to remember the covenant. Think upon your son. Look upon
your son. Remember what you've assured
him that you'll give him. Don't forget your covenant. He remembered for them His covenant
and repented according to the multitude of His tender mercy.
And I want this also. David said in Psalms 89, 47,
Lord, remember how short my time is. Remember how short my time
is. I was over last week, most of
you know. I went over to Martha Richardson's funeral, Brother
Scott's wife. Brother Scott pastored the church
there, Katie Baptist Church, for well over 50 years. A faithful,
faithful pastor. And I had an opportunity to sit
and talk some with him and told him how much I appreciated it.
And how he had preached the gospel to me and God had taken him home
to my heart so many times. All the people that he had helped
across this country had been a faithful, faithful pastor. And you know what he told me?
He said, I appreciate that. But he said, it's over with now. I have finished my course. That's
what he said. When he gets in the pulpit, he
has to hold on to the sides just to stand. He's so weak. That's it for me, he said. It's
done. Whatever I've done in the past,
I ain't going to do nothing else. I'm just waiting now. That's
all I can do is sit and wait now. What am I saying? Brothers
and sisters, if you and I are going to do anything, If we're
going to do anything for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we better do it now. If you're going to teach a Sunday
school class, then you better do it now. If you're going to
witness to anybody, if you're going to hand out any tracts,
if you're going to give out any messages on CDs, you better do
it now. You better do it now. I once
was young, and now I'm old. And now that I'm old, I cannot
go and do what I used to do when I was young. Joe and I, this last week, we
had a company to come in and put an Internet in for us. We
finally got on Internet. And we got cable TV. with a recorder. You can just
record anything you want to record. And as I sat down and started
trying to work some of that stuff, I thought, what a mess I've got
into. To get what I wanted to see and
what I felt like I needed to hear, I had to get through all
this mess, scribble and scrabble. There's a lot of things, brothers
and sisters, in this world, there's nothing wrong with it. You and
I have a liberty to do a lot of things in this world, but
do we have the time? Do we have the time? Knowing the time, Paul said,
it's high time to awake out of sleep. Our salvation is nearer
than it was when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand. The time is short, brethren.
It's short, ain't it? David said, Lord, remember how
short my time is. Give me energy to go and to do
now. Give me a mind to work and to
labor and to will and to do, because it ain't going to be
very long. I ain't going to have the energy
and I ain't going to have the opportunity. See what I'm saying,
brothers and sisters? You think Noah wanted out of
this ark? You better bet he wanted out of this ark. All he could do in there was
wait and trust and sit. We do that too, don't we? But
Lord, don't let me just sit and wait and hope and trust. Oh, let me be doing and going
for Your glory. Give me a heart to do it. Open
doors for me. Give me understanding to go out
and to come in. Let me witness to my neighbors.
Let me witness to my family. But I'm going to soon be old.
And I ain't going to do any of that. You better teach the kids
now. Pretty soon you'll be sitting
there saying, my course is finished. And it won't be long. It won't
be long. Lord, remember how short my time
is. God remembered Noah. May God
remember you. And may God remember me. That
was my first point. The second one, and I won't keep
you too much longer. Was there any means by which
Noah... Now listen to this. Was there
any means by which Noah could perceive that God had indeed
remembered him? Was there any way that he could
be for sure that God had remembered him? I don't mean, well, yeah,
when he looked out and saw the dry ground. Then he could say,
praise God, he remembered. No, I'm talking about while he
was in the ark, while the flood was still on the earth. Was there
any way that Noah could know them? God's not forgotten them. Well, the first way was, I told
you just a minute ago, His covenant, His promise. God made a covenant
with Him. He said, I'll remember you. I
ain't going to forget you. I'm going to keep you alive.
That's the first way. But secondly is this, Noah had
only to perceive the ark had endeared the storm. If he could have perceived that
the ark had endured the storm, that the violent noise that he
had heard for forty days and forty nights, the churning of
all of these waters, the gates that had opened in the sky and
letting the water floods pour down upon the ark, and the thunderclaps
that had rattled this ark, all of this had suddenly come to
a calm. Suddenly there was a calm. Forty
days and it quit lightning. And the thunderclaps didn't vibrate
in their chest anymore. The ark ceased to roll and rumble
and growl under the weight of that violent storm. It settled
down. It became a calm. You think they
didn't perceive that? No more reeling to and fro, groaning
and popping, popping under the pressure of the awful water. And if Noah perceived that this
ark had finally come to rest, that's the way he could have
known that God had remembered him. The ark had endured the storm.
What did that mean? You say, Bruce, how could he
have perceived that God had remembered him? Well, where was he? He was
in the ark. And as it went with the ark,
so it went with him, for he was in the ark. If the ark had endured the storm,
then so had they, because they were in the ark. If the ark had
come to rest, then so could they. Because they were in the ark.
If it was well with the ark, then it had to be well with them,
because they were in the ark. See what I'm saying, brothers
and sisters? How could Noah perceive that God had remembered him and
his family and those cattle? Well, he's perceived this ark
has gone through the storm, and it's now riding smoothly. God
remembered the ark. If God has remembered the ark,
then God has remembered us. God had remembered the ark to
uphold it and bring it through this storm and brought it to
rest upon this high and strong mountain. Then Noah could believe
and perceive that God had remembered him for he was in the ark. Who was it exposed to the danger?
It wasn't Noah. It was the ark. God wasn't dealing
with Noah and his family. God was dealing with the ark.
The waves never beat upon them. It beat upon the ark. Well, Noah said, if the ark has
endured the storm, and it's still intact, and God has remembered
us, if the intentions of the Holy
Spirit was to represent to us Jesus Christ and salvation by
Him, then you and I who are in Jesus Christ this morning, by
faith, I mean God has called us to Christ, and were in the
Lord Jesus by living faith, can you and I not have the same assurance
that Noah did? We have only to believe that
Jesus Christ, the dear and blessed Son of God, in our humanity,
has indeed endured the storm of God's judgment. Has He done
that? Has Jesus Christ not endured
the storm and the wrath of God upon our sin? In our place, in
our stead, in our room, has He not done that? And let me ask
you this question, brothers and sisters. How is it with Jesus
this morning? How is it with Him? Is it well
with Him? He said, I am He that liveth.
I was dead. I suffered for sins. I died for
sins. But now I'm alive forevermore.
Is it not well with Him? Then it must be well with you
who are in Him. In the garden of Gethsemane,
the Lord Jesus began to understand that the floodwaters had broken
loose underneath Him. and rushing to the surface, he
could almost feel those gates in heaven ready to open up against
him, the flood of God's awful wrath. And there upon the cross
of Calvary, there upon that awful cross, he groaned, he cried,
and he strained under the weight of those awful waters. And he
said, Deep calleth unto deep, after noise of thy water spouts,
and all thy waves, and thy billows have gone over me. Thou hast
cast me into the deep, and the floods can pass me about, even
to my soul, he said. Is it nothing to you that pass
by? There he hangs upon the cross of Calvary. And he says, Is it
nothing to you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith God hath afflicted me in the
day of His fierce anger." The waves were not against us, brothers
and sisters. The wrath was not against us.
It was against Him for our sakes. God put Noah in that ark with
his family, and those waves were against the ark. The same waves
that destroy everybody else beat against the ark. And the same
wrath that fell upon the old world and destroyed it is the
same wrath Jesus Christ endured in His own body and in His soul.
That wrath that would have crushed you and me down to hell, He endured
that wrath in His body upon that tree. And he cried out, it's finished.
Why did he say that? Well, there was no more wrath
left to bear. The fountains from beneath had
dried up. The windows of heaven had emptied
themselves of God's vengeance, and now the Lord Jesus said,
it's finished. And then what happened? There was a calm. There was a
calm. He gave up the ghost. His groanings
ceased. His tears ceased. His crying
ceased. Never again would you hear, My
God, my God. It was over with. Wrath had been
born. The vengeance of God had been
poured out. Justice and our sin had met together. Not in us, but in our substitute. And what happened? What happens
when sin and God's justice meet together? That's wrath. And there's
what He bore upon that tree. But He bore it all. He bore it
all. And now where is He? Well, He's
at rest. He's in Mount Heaven. He's at
rest. And the Father says to him, My
son, sit upon My right hand, until I make all thine enemies
thy foes to sit and rest here." It's well with Him. And if it's
well with Him, is it not well with you? Can a woman forget her suckling
child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget. But I'll
never forget you. You know why? I've graven you
upon the palms of my hands. That's where you're at. You want
to see where you're at this morning? Look at those wounds in the hands
of the Savior. Look at His side. That's where
you're at. Where are you? You're in Him.
You're in heaven. You're safe. You're secure. Oh, Jesus, blessed Jesus, endeared
one tremendous wave after another until He endeared the rage of
hell, the wrath of man, and the curse of justice. But how is
it with Him now? Our Savior is at rest. He is
peaceful. He is quiet. He is free. Can't you feel it in your soul?
Don't you believe it that He is? He made peace through the blood
of His cross, a peace that you and I can feel in a measure in
our souls. Peace, peace, wonderful peace. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. Where did we get this peace?
The Savior made it for us. And He gave it to us. And we
have it because it's His. He's not being tossed to and
fro today. He's not in turmoil today. He's at rest. He's peaceful. Nothing will ever
trouble Him again. Can you not this morning, dear
child of God, by faith, enter into a measure of Christ's rest? If God is not angry with Jesus
anymore, Then He is not angry with you who are in Jesus. If Jesus Christ has suffered
and atoned for our sins at a great cost to Himself, and yet now
all is well with Him, can you and I not believe that all is
well with us for Christ's sake? How is it with you, Noah? How goes it with you, Noah? Well,
how goes it with the ark? How is it with the ark? Find
out how it is with the ark, and you'll find out how it is with
me. How is it with you this morning, dear soul? Are you in Christ? Are you in Christ by faith? You have union with Him? Then
it's well with you. It's well. God bless His Word. Let's pray.