Aaron Greenleaf is preaching
in Kingsport this morning, so everybody remember him as he's
there preaching the gospel. And tonight, I'm going to preach
on this subject, the grace of God, from Acts chapter 15. Noah leaves the ark. That's why I've entitled this
message. Noah leaves the ark. Now, NOAA has been in this arc
for over a year. Now, inside of the arc, what
must that have been like? It was pitched with tar. There was only one window. There
wasn't, while it was big, there was a whole lot of people in
there, so there wasn't, or there were a whole lot of animals in
there, so there really wasn't much space. And they had been
in this ark for one year. Now, for 40 days, they had been
in the ark while the rain came down and the floods came up,
and the fountains of the deep were broken and came up, and
I'm sure that ark was tossed all over the place for 40 days.
I've read several accounts of the dimensions of the ark, how
it's a vessel that could not be capsized because of those
perfect dimensions. People have tried to duplicate
it, and it wasn't capsized because it had perfect dimensions. It
was capsized because the Lord didn't let it capsize, but however,
that is interesting. But he was in the ark for 40
days like that, and then for 150 days, The waters were calm and receding,
and he was in that arc. He was in the arc when it landed,
dry ground, on Mount Ararat. He felt the thud. I wonder what
he thought at that point. But do you know he was in that
arc for another five months while the waters receded? He had spent
over a year in that ark. Now we read where he had opened
the window, the door of the ark or the window to let the raven
and the dove out, but we never read where he looked out. But then I love to picture this
image in my mind. There sits the ark. on dry ground,
think of the hugeness of that vessel, 450 feet long, 75 feet
wide, 45 feet high, sitting on dry ground, and all of a sudden
out pops Noah's head. He looks around. That's the first
time we read of Noah looking out, and he looked at a brand
new world. And three times in these first
three verses it says the earth was dried. The reason or the judgment of
God had been taken away. That was which was used to destroy
men was taken away and now he looks at the earth and it's dry.
That third time the description is used in verse 14, and in the
second month of the seventh and 20th day of the month was the
earth dry. Now that is a different Hebrew
word than the word used the first two times, and it literally means
without moisture. Now somebody says, what about
the oceans? What about the rivers? I don't know. The point is the
judgment of God had been satisfied and it was gone, and here the
ark is sitting on dry ground." And when Noah looked out, all
he saw was dryness. Now, we know that those waters
of judgment was because of man's sin, and God's judgment fell,
and now when He looks out, all that judgment is gone. The earth was dry, judgment was
over, finished, and this gives us some understanding of what
Jesus Christ the Lord accomplished on Calvary's tree. All of God's
judgment was swallowed up and was gone. Now, what I thought about when
I thought about this was that time when Elijah had challenged
the children of Israel, if God be God, serve him. If Baal be
God, serve him. How long are you gonna halt between
two opinions? And then he challenged the Baal
worshipers. He said, we're gonna have two
sacrifices, one to Baal and one to Jehovah. And the God that
answers by fire, fire falling from heaven, he is God. And the people agreed with that.
And so they made two sacrifices. You can read about this in 1
Kings chapter 18. That's one of my favorite passages of scripture
from the word of God. And the prophets of Baal offered
up their bullock and they started crying and praying to God, even
cutting themselves with stones. Hear us, O Baal, hear us. And
while this was going on, no fire came, and Elijah began to mock
them. He started making fun of them.
Somebody says, you ought not do that. Elijah did. You see,
Elijah knew God. That's the difference. Elijah
knew the living God, and he knew the ridiculousness of what these
priests of Baal were doing. He said, where is your God? Can't
he hear you? Cry aloud, he's a God, isn't he? Maybe he's asleep. Maybe he's gone on a journey.
Maybe he's using the bathroom and waiting to get back. Now,
that is some very severe sarcasm, but I love it, don't you? I love
it. And then we read in 1 Kings 18,
he doused the sacrifice. His sacrifice was with water
to make sure. Everybody's gonna know there's
no trickery going on. He had the sacrifice doused with
water twice. in verse 36 of 1 Kings chapter
18. And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet
came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel,
let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that
I'm thy servant, and that I've done all these things at thy
word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that
thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart
back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell. some kind of tornado fire coming
down from heaven, and consumed the burnt sacrifice,
and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the
water that was in the trench. Now, picture this in your mind.
These people witnessed this. They saw the fire of God fall
from heaven. Everything was gone. The sacrifice
was consumed, the fire consumed the stones, the dust, it licked
up the water, and there was nothing left. And you can be sure of
this, it was very dry. It was very dry. Nothing left,
God's acceptance of the sacrifice. Now, there was another time when the
fire of God fell down upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. But something very different
then took place. The fire of God's wrath did not
consume the sacrifice. The sacrifice consumed the fire,
and there God said, there is no fury in me. The Lord Jesus Christ, because
of the greatness of his person, completely consumed the judgment
of God and put it away, and now there is no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. Noah looked out, and the ground
was very dry. Now look in verse 15. Now upon
this, and God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark. This is when Noah is told to
leave Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy son, and
thy son's wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living
thing that's with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of cattle,
and of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, that they may
breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply
upon the earth. Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife, and
his sons' wives with him, every beast, every creeping thing,
and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, and
after their kinds went forth out of the ark. I love to picture
that in my mind, to think of all these animals, this parade
as it were, all leaving the ark. Insects, cattle, elephants, giraffes,
cats, dogs, everything moving out of the ark. Now, this is
the command for liberty. Now, we love to think of that
ark as a type of Christ, because that's exactly what it is, and
the freedom that's in the ark. But also, you gotta remember
this, they'd been in that place for a year, and it was a very
confining place. In this one room, it was dark,
probably, well, I don't know whether it smelled bad or not,
but I can imagine it smelled pretty bad. I can imagine how
happy they were to leave the ark. And there's only one reason
that they could leave the ark, dryness. The judgment was gone. The judgment was finished. Now, if you give me, listen real
carefully, if you give me anything that I need to do before I can
be saved, I don't have any comfort at all. None. Give me one thing. I don't
care what it is. You give me one thing that I
must do before I can be saved, there is no liberty, there is
no freedom, there is no hope in that message. None at all. The only thing that liberates
me to where I can walk free is a finished salvation. Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 17. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. Now what does that mean? If any
man be in Christ, he is a new creation. I've heard it. dealt
with like this was since I've been a Christian, since the Lord
saved me, I don't struggle with sin the way I used to. I've got
a new nature and sin doesn't give me the problem that once
did. I have different desires. I have different, I'm just a,
I'm a better person. I'm, I'm different since, are
you going to tell me that God can save you and that you don't
become a better person? Is that what you're going to
say? If any man being Christ, he's a new creation. He's a new
creature. Now listen to me real carefully. Somebody says that doesn't know
God. Isn't that strong language? Maybe,
but it's just so. It's just so. Now, I don't want
to qualify what I'm saying. Of course, every believer wants
to be in Christ and be just like Him and all those things, but
as far as if that means When God saves you, you become a,
you don't have the same struggle with sin and sinful attitudes
and sinful actions. If that's what that means, I'm
in trouble. But here's what this means. If
any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. You know what that
means? Let me tell you exactly what that means. You've got a
new history. Now you can't change your history
God does. You have a new history and it's
all good. It's all perfect. It's perfect
obedience in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what liberates. That's why he could walk out
of the ark. The judgment is taken away. You're complete in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ said in Revelation 21
5, behold, I make all things new. Verse 20, what's the first thing Noah did
when he walked off that ark? What's the first thing he did?
Well, we have this first thing recorded, and Noah built an altar
unto the Lord and took of every clean beast. Now, I don't know
how many beasts this must have been. It's a lot. It wasn't just
one sacrifice. I mean, this might have been
hundreds of sacrifices. I don't know. But he took of
every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt
offerings, plural, upon the altar. Now, this is the first time an
altar is mentioned in the scripture. Now to enter into the tabernacle,
to get into the holy place and the holy of holies, what is the
first thing that is in the courtyard? The altar. This is where you
begin, the altar for sacrifice. And you know, according to the
scriptures in Exodus 29 verse 37, if you even came into contact
with that altar, you were holy. That's the power of this altar. In the altar in Exodus chapter
20, I think this is interesting, in the Exodus chapter 20 is where
you have the 10 commandments. And you know what you have after
that? The altar for sacrifice, because
he knows you're not gonna keep them. That's why, right after
the giving of the Ten Commandments, there's an altar for sacrifice. And you know what God says about
that altar? He says if a tool touches it, if a human hand touches
it and shapes it and forms it, it's polluted. It's no good. If your fingerprints are on it,
it's no good. And he said, there's not to be
steps to that altar. There's not steps to Christ.
You don't have to do this and do that and stop doing this immediately. The altar in the old Testament Levitical
system, you can have fire only from that off that altar. Remember
what happened to Nadab and Abihu when they offered strange fire
before the Lord? You know what that was? They burnt some incense
with fire that didn't come from the altar of sacrifice. You know
what happened? Fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
And Moses said to Aaron, don't say a word. They were Aaron's
two sons. Don't say a word. They had it
coming. They had no reverence. They had
no respect for God because they thought they could enter his
presence somewhere without reference to that altar and what was accomplished
upon that altar. In the Old Testament Levitical
system, there were three things that were necessary for the worship
of God, a priest, a sacrifice, and an altar to offer up that
sacrifice on. Those three things were necessary
in the worship of God, and it ain't changed. Christ is the
priest. Christ himself is the sacrifice
that he offers up. And Christ, his humanity, is
the altar that the sacrifice of his divine person was offered
up on. Christ is priest. Christ is the sacrifice. Christ himself is the altar. Now, what took place? Verse 21,
and the Lord, after he had offered up these offerings upon this
altar, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. The Lord smelled this sweet savor
and this speaks of God's satisfaction with the sacrifice of his son. A sweet smell, an aroma of rest. Hold your finger there and turn
to Isaiah 53. Satisfaction. That's the word, if you would
understand this sweet smell that God smelled. Satisfaction. Look at Isaiah chapter 53 verse
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. satisfaction came from the death
of his son. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed." That's me and
you if we're believers. He shall prolong his days eternally,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He
shall see the travail of his soul and shall be what? Satisfied. Satisfied. Just as satisfied,
the debt has been paid. You know, Most people, though
they don't use these words, this is what they believe. Jesus paid
the half, the other half I owe. No, Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. We've already heard this this
morning in Ephesians chapter five, verse two, Christ, hath
also loved us, and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Now, because of his utter satisfaction
with the sacrifice of Christ, I'm going to quote some scriptures
from the Song of Solomon. This is the word of God. Because
of his utter satisfaction with the sacrifice of Christ, Christ
says to every believer, thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Thou fairest among women. Sweet is thy voice. and thy countenance is comely. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes. My love, my dove, my undefiled,
I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. His desire is toward
me. That's the words of Christ to
his church, to every believer because of the utter and complete
satisfaction Jesus Christ accomplished. God is not looking for anything
else. Don't think for a second he is. God is not looking for
anything else. He smells this sweet savor of
the sacrifice of his son. Here's a New Testament. description,
Colossians 1, 22, every believer is holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight because of the sweet smell of this sacrifice. You are complete. There's nothing missing. There's
nothing else needed. You are complete in him. And
the Lord adds something at this time to show us how real this
is. Look what he says. Verse 21,
and the Lord smelled a sweet savor and the Lord said in his
heart, you know, this is one of the things that lets us know
that the scriptures are inspired. We find out what God says in
his heart. How would anybody know that? Well, it's revealed
in the scripture. This is what God says in his
heart. And God said in his heart, I
will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for,
and my marginal reading says though, the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite anymore
every living thing as I've done. What's that mean? This sweet
smell is only the sacrifice of Christ, man still evil from his
youth. You know, this judgment didn't
change the natural man's heart. Stayed the way it was in Genesis
6, 5. The wickedness of man was great
in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. Still bad. Still bad. The natural man, this is the
nature of the raven that we considered last week. Still bad. Now, I'm not gonna curse anymore.
Even though man is still bad in and of themselves, And then
he makes this promise, verse 22, while the earth remaineth.
Now I take from that the earth is not gonna remain. It's not gonna remain as it is. There's gonna be a new heaven
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Peter tells us
that the earth's not gonna remain, but while it does, while it does,
we're given this promise. while the earth remaineth seedtime
and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall
not cease. Now there's so much in that statement. Here's the first thing I'd like
to say. This is scriptural. I'm not worried about global
warming and climate change destroying this earth. Now, we're to be
responsible, we're to seek to keep the planet clean and not
pollute, I realize all that stuff. But what an arrogant thing of
man to think that it's within his power to destroy the earth
or to preserve it. God has promised it's always
gonna be. There's always gonna be a seed
time. There's always gonna be a harvest. There's gonna be seasons.
Through everything, there's a season. So the next time you hear people
talk about, well, we're going to ruin the earth, the earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Now, I'm not advocating
irresponsible behavior, you know that, but the arrogance of men
to think that they can preserve the earth or they can destroy
it. The earth is the Lord's. and
the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." Now the Lord is going to destroy
this earth. He's promised that in 2 Peter
chapter 3. As a matter of fact, let me read that to you. 2 Peter
chapter 3. You can turn there if you want. Verse 5, For this they willingly
are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were
of old, and the earth standing out of water, and in the water,
whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. She's talking about the flood.
But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word,
God's word, are kept in store, reserved under fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So we see from that, the earth
is not going to stay as it is. But until the Lord wraps it up,
nothing's going to cease. Seed time, harvest, sun, moon,
cold, winter, summer, heat. But you know, this is true in
the preaching of the gospel, isn't it? There's a seed time
and there's a harvest. There's a cold and there's a
heat. There's a summer and there's
a winter. There's a day and night. That's
true in the preaching of the gospel. That's true in the church. Now, the church has always been,
there's never been a time when God's left himself without witness.
There's always been believers, maybe very few, but there's always
been believers. And in the church, there's a
seed time and a harvest. And there's times of cold, there's
times of heat. In a local church, there are
times of summer and there are times of winter. There's times
of day and there's times of night that shall not cease. And isn't
this true in the life of the individual believer? You know it is. Seed time and
harvest. Times of coldness. How horrible it is that we would
ever be cold toward our Redeemer. There are times of heat. Times of summer, times of winter,
where it doesn't look like there's life. Times of day and times of night
that shall not cease. We find this true in our experience. But thank God, Lord's gonna wrap
all this up. Let me just finish with these
words in 2 Peter 3. Verse 12, looking for and hasting
unto the coming of the day of God, where in the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
His promise, look for the new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness. And we can look forward to that
because the ground is dry. Righteousness has already been
accomplished. Every believer is accepted in
the beloved. And none of us, if we're believers,
have any reason to fear God's judgment. You see, it's already
taken place. It's already taken place. I think
of the words of the Lord in John chapter 16. Verses 8 through
11, speaking of the Holy Spirit, when he has come, he will convict
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, bringing my righteousness. Of judgment, because the prince
of this world has been judged. Not he will be judged. It's already
taken place. Why do I have nothing to fear
with regard to the earth being melted with fervent heat? Because
my judgment has already taken place, and I'm accepted in the
Beloved. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. It's exceeding broad, exceeding glorious. Lord, give us the grace
to honor you by being completely satisfied that you're satisfied
with your son and deliver us from looking anywhere else. Teach
us what it means to glory in the cross. Bless this word for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Dwight.