Genesis 8:1-22
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But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Prayer:
Question: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
Answer: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.
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Good Morning and welcome to Confessors of Christ church as we once again turn in our Bibles to the book of Genesis.
This morning we come to a much needed and greatly desired reprieve from the tragedy and heartache of last week’s message.
Last week we looked at the flood and the utter annihilation and destruction of every living human and creature.
Even the greatest of imaginations struggle to comprehend the vastness and completeness of this monumental event.
Our desire is to find some way, any way, to turn our thoughts from this slaughter to something more palatable, more enjoyable.
We do not like to let our minds wander down this path for too long.
It is a dark and difficult time in which we have no other scenario in our lifetime in which we can accurately compare for reference.
Yet, this event did happen, this event was recorded, this event was ordained and decreed by God.
The Holiness of God was displayed through righteous and just judgement upon the rebellious people.
We left off last week looking at the power and the wrath of God through the flood.
We saw the wickedness that was throughout the earth upon everyone and everything, except for one family.
Noah, a herald of righteousness, was found to have favor with God.
Noah and His family along with a male and female of everyone kind of animal, insect, and creeping thing, came upon the ark.
Then we discovered that it was God who shut the door, it was God who sealed them in, and it would be God who would protect the ark from His wrath.
God’s justice would be poured out upon the earth, literally poured.
We ultimately saw how this event came without warning and took the people of the planet by surprise.
This pointed us to the same warning and surprise that will happen at the return of Jesus.
Like the days of Noah, Jesus will return, and when He does, it will be too late to repent.
It will be too late to change ones mind, too late to late to change ones direction.
Yet, God is currently granting us time, and our only hope is in the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the ark of Salvation that we must go to if we are to live.
Today, we look to the continued purpose and plan of God and His redemptive story.
Today we will be looking at the entire eighth chapter and specifically focusing in on three areas.
If you are taking notes, and I encourage you to do so, write down these three points.
First, we will look at the Preservation of Noah.
As we saw in last week’s message we see again here, we will see God’s continual preservation of Noah.
Second, we will look at the Patience of Noah.
I believe this is going to be an incredibly important for us to consider today because we are often a very impatient people.
We are so used to having everything we can imagine instantly, so we could learn a great deal from Noah’s patience.
Lastly, we will see the Priority of Noah.
Noah, will keep his priority focused upon God.
Noah will first give God glory before he does anything else.
As always, we will close with Jesus.
How does this chapter point us to the coming Messiah? Remind us of Jesus? Ground our hope in His Salvation?
We will wrap up our time looking at this incredible reality.
Now, let us begin by opening up or turning on if that is your preference, to the book of beginnings.
Genesis Chapter 8, and we will begin with the first two words.
But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.
But God, - Let us stop right there.
Our first point, God’s Preservation of Noah, is on full display in these two incredible words.
Everyone and everything has perished except Noah.
However, Noah and His family are alive, are well, are taken care of.
Without a doubt, these are my two favorite words in all of the Bible. (Pause)
Notice, how these two words seem to find themselves coming up when the believer needs them the most.
After the absolute greatest difficulties and most strenuous times we can too can look up and say, But God.
In our greatest fears, in our greatest trials, even in our greatest failures, we can look up and say, But God.
Even upon our very last breath as we do battle with the very last enemy of death, we can breathe out, But God.
I wrote these three sentences earlier this week, when another But God, moment happened to our family.
Though we have an alarm system, ring cameras, two gates and fencing for security, and trained teenagers,
Our son Logan, who is autistic, found a way to escape.
Panicked we notify the sheriff’s office and Kaiden, our oldest Son, not living it up in Colorado, goes running after him, Coty and I were with Ting and Mike, and we rush to our vehicles.
Mike became a Nascar driver, and it seemed like Mary and Megan along with Erik and Josiah some how teleported, cause I’m not sure how they got here so fast.
Matt raced over from work and Jackie was the first to arrive.
By the time Kaiden reached him he was about a mile away and three cars had stopped and was protecting him until Kaiden could arrive and took them home.
It was a wild 45 minutes in all and when our nerves settled and everything calmed back down, we were left going, But God.
Here was a tragedy in the waiting, one that we play out time and time again, yet God has continued to provide and protect.
Here, in the opening two words, Noah first saw what we and many others would see in every generation, the providence and power of God.
Ephesians 2:4 reminds us of another famous place where these two words are declared in all of their beauty and wonder.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
This “But God” comes right after 3 verses of the true reality of the human heart and human actions.
Ones that are filled with destruction, hate, and rebellion.
We want the lusts of our flesh, we act on these desires of our mind, we are therefore, children of wrath.
Despite this awful conviction we receive grace instead of judgement, we receive salvation instead of a guilty sentence.
This reality is shown most clearly in those two incredible words in verse 4.
But God.
Here, in Genesis Chapter 8, we begin with these same two words after the greatest example of depravity and judgement the world has ever seen.
But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.
Here we see Salvation by grace given to Noah and his family.
However, the third word can often cause people to stumble as it would seem to imply that God forgot about Noah.
Yet, that is not the case at all.
We know through the full council of Scripture that God knows all for He’s omniscient.
We know God is in all places for He is omnipresent.
Thus it would be impossible for God to forget Noah.
God is sustaining everyone and everything because he is om-nip-o-tent meaning all powerful.
If God forgot about us we would cease to exist.
To “Remember” in the way it is being used here and in other places in the Old Testament is God’s moving towards an object.
Write that down, God’s remembering is God moving towards someone or something.
It is God moving towards Noah in love to make something happen on His behalf.
So, it should not be looked at as if God forgot what He had done with Noah, and was like, oh yeah, where did he go?
But God’s purposeful, deliberate, moving towards Noah to accomplish His purpose and His plan.
It may seem as if God has forgotten about us, or God is not intimately aware of our situation and our concerns.
But what we discover is that God never forgets us, never misplaces us, never is unaware of us.
God knew where Logan was, God knows what your situation is, God has everything under His control.
God, when the time is right, when His purpose is ready to be fulfilled, will move towards us, will remember us.
This should be of great encouragement for us this morning because it helps us see our first point.
God’s Preservation of Noah is because God will do what he says and God will keep His promise.
We too, will be preserved because of God’s promises and,
Especially because the Father’s plan was accomplished in Jesus and applied by the Holy Spirit.
However, I promised to save that part for the end, so let me not jump ahead, yet.
Now let us look to our second point, Noah’s Patience.
and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Here, we are going to begin to see the patience that it took to see this through.
First there was the great flood bursting forth from the deep and above by rain, and 40 days and 40 nights that Noah would endure.
Next we see it took 150 days for the waters to begin to lessen, and Noah would continue to wait.
We even are given a very specific date.
Again, this was a real flood, a real event, with a real family.
Thus we see a real date given to us down to the day when the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.
Noah’s patience did not land him on a nice beach with palm trees, but a mountain range.
Let me pause here to answer a question that is often asked.
Who has ever watched a documentary searching for, hunting down, or seeking Noah’s ark?
“Tonight, the long lost ark will be discovered as we take you to the peak of Mount Ararat, you will not want to miss this action packed episode.”
Not to spoil your evenings entertainment, but we do not know where the ark ended up, or if any of it would be left thousands of years later.
But also note the plurality of mountains in our verse.
Our text is not declaring a specific mountain, one that we call Ararat today, but the mountain ranges of Ararat.
Thus it could have been on Mount Ararat or little Ararat, or the smaller mountain ranges near it.
The other issue in finding the ark is that both Mount Ararat and little Ararat are on volcano’s that have erupted a few times in 500 years that we know of.
So, the likelihood of them erupting in the distant past is certainly likely as well.
Thus, it is greatly unlikely that we would find its remnant, though patience could be helpful in this endeavor as well.
However, our specific point is the patience of Noah, so let us continue there.
And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made
We see Noah’s patience further as he continues to wait another 3 months until more of the mountain range was able to be seen.
It is at this point that we can begin to feel how difficult this would have been on him.
It is not just 40 days of insane storms and colossal floods, but then the waiting for the winds and the waters to lessen.
Then finally coming to rest and after months of waiting, Noah, still had months to go.
All in all Noah was on this boat for, get this, just over a year.
From the time God shut Him in to the time God opened the door it was approximately 371 days.
This was no cruise, this was no vacation, this was no time for rest and relaxation.
There were no amenities, no electricity, no electronics, not even a vinyl record player,
This is a no joy ride, this would have been a very difficult, very trying, very long, journey.
First, Noah sent a Raven, as it can fly longer and further, and now he sends a Dove.
Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground.
But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.
And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
Over and over we see Noah waiting, and testing, then waiting, then looking, then waiting.
What I want us to note here is that God used the natural means of the earth to take care of the waters.
Yes, it was God that sent forth the wind, God that had it figured out how the waters would be reduced, but God did not instantly remove them.
We often want God to move in our lives instantly.
And there are times that God does.
We can look to Jesus instantly healing, we can look to Enoch and Elijah being taken up to the Father,
We can look at the boat Jesus was on after walking on water was instantly moved to the shore, or
Philip was instantly transported approx 30 miles away after baptizing the Eunuch.
So, it is not to say that God does not have the ability, but that often God does use natural means in natural order to carry out His plan.
Here is a great example of this.
How would you have felt, being in an ark month after month after month?
Not knowing when it will end.
Some of you may be going through trials that seem like it is never ending.
Sicknesses that persist,
Ailments that do not seem to have an end.
Conditions that look like there may be no cure for.
You may be asking God to do an instant miracle and wonder why He has not done so.
As I know many of your stories, I know many of the difficulties that you are going through.
In my own story, I have prayed most passionately for Logan to be healed.
There were many times where I asked God why is it taking so long, why are you not fixing this?
You too, may have a situation in your life where you are asking, God, why is it taking so long.
My goal is pointing this aspect of Noah out, is to remind you that God has not forgotten about you, God does not forget, and to trust His plan.
We can look to Noah who did just that, who trusted God and though it would have seemed like it would never end.
God never once abandoned Noah.
God continued to care for Noah, sustain Noah, provide for Noah, and protect Noah for all 371 days in the ark.
Please hear me this morning, God will continue to care for you, sustain you, provide for you, and protect you.
I still have no idea how Logan is still alive with us today, But God has graciously provided and His purpose and plan with Logan is not done, yet.
It is not just with Noah and humans in which this is done for, but get this, animals as well.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
God cares for all of the animals of the earth and we are of more value to God than that of sparrows,
Thus we can have great confidence and assurance that God cares for you.
It is in this encouragement in which we are to be like Noah, and be patient..
God may work out a plan instantly or he may take years to bring about his purpose, but it will happen and God has a perfect plan in doing so.
Our call and our duty is to trust in God and rest in His perfect and Sovereign will.
Now let us move to our 3rd and final point.
For point 3 I want us to look at the priority of Noah.
The waters dried up, God called Noah out of the ark, and all of the animals began to leave and to multiply on the earth.
Then we see what happened next.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
If you remember, God told Noah to bring 7 of every clean animal onto the ark.
This, Noah used as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Noah’s first action was not upon himself, was not to begin planning and building his next adventure.
It was not to look for a new spot to build his home and start a garden.
Steven Lawson says, Before Noah built a business, he built an alter.
Noah’s first thought and first action was to God.
Noah gives us a great example, that even in the difficulty, even in the uncertainty, and even in the resolve, God is first.
Everything we have, every breath, every dollar, every item, even our church is only by the grace of God.
Thus, we should be encouraged by Noah to do the same and to honor God in every situation.
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
God is pleased with the offering and tells that he will not curse the ground, he will not bring forth the floods, because God has accepted the sacrifice.
It is not because Mankind would now be good, no, the Lord quickly shares that it is not on the grounds of man that this will happen.
If this covenant that God was making was dependent on us, in the next chapter, you would see the rains begin to fall again.
But, this covenant was not based on our works, but was based on the sacrifice that was accepted.
Instead of rain in Chapter 9, we will see a Rainbow.
It is because of the acceptance of this sacrifice that the Lord now says:
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
This is the encouragement that we have for the days that we now live in.
As long as the earth remains…..which also reminds us that the earth will not be here forever, and is pointing us to a final judgement.
However, as long as the earth does remain, there will be food, for there will be a time to sow and a time to reap.
As long as the earth does remain, there will be a time of cold, and a time of heat, even if the cold is but a brief time and the heat is continual.
As long as the earth does remain, there will be summer and winter.
I do like how God only declares Summer and Winter and does not put fall and spring. This way it applies to places like Florida that has only 2 weeks of winter,
And 50 weeks of summer.
As long as the earth remains, the sun will rise, and the sun will set, the moon will rise and the moon will set.
This shall not cease.
But again, it is not based on man’s ability to make this happen, but it is based on God’s promise that this will happen.
It is based on the accepted sacrifice that this will happen. (Pause)
Hopefully, you have already picked up on the direction I am going with this, because it is our greatest encouragement that we come to as we conclude.
We too, look not to what we can accomplish, but to God’s promises, in order to have hope in our Salvation.
The hope we have to get through the flood waters of this life is through the ark that is not made of wood, but made of flesh.
The reason that we too will be rescued from God’s coming Judgement is not because of our ability to be good.
But, just like Noah, it is because of the sacrifice.
Except, this time, it is not a sacrifice of animals, but the sacrifice of the Son of God.
John the baptist declares this incredible truth at the beginning of the Apostle John’s Gospel.
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb, the offering, that would be pleasing to God, and would take away the sins of the World.
Jesus would go to the cross and be sacrificed, though He himself did not sin, yet He paid for the sins of the world with His blood.
He atoned for the debt that we occured through our rebellion against God.
The Father will grant us Salvation, because of His Son, because His sacrifice was accepted by the Father.
All throughout the Old Testament, including our unpacking of Noah, it becomes clear that man is unable to accomplish the will of God.
Yet, God puts forth a plan, that despite our failure, can and will be accomplished.
This is why Jesus is such a big deal, this is why we are Confessors of Christ.
Nobody else can accomplish this, no president, no ruler or king, no saint, not even the mother of Jesus, could accomplish this.
It would require the Son of God, Jesus and Jesus alone.
The battle cry of the reformation is still the battle cry today, Solus Christus. Christ alone.
This is why we can say with great confidence that all whom Christ died for will be saved.
This is why we can say with great confidence, that all that have received the gift of faith and place it upon Christ, will be saved.
This is why we look to Jesus, rest in Jesus, trust in Jesus, and rely upon Jesus for our very life now and life ever lasting. (Pause)
I hope this morning, you have been encouraged in a great way through God’s preservation of Noah,
And take great comfort in God’s preservation of you and every believer in even the most difficult of circumstances.
I hope you have been inspired by Noah to have patience in the process.
God’s plan will not be thwarted and God will not forget you.
I hope you have been reminded to put God first, like Noah did upon exiting the ark.
We owe every moment of every day to God, and thus it is appropriate for us to put Him first.
Lastly, I hope if you get nothing else, that you are encouraged that this ultimately points us to Jesus.
That the sacrifice being accepted by God, is pointing us to the greater sacrifice that is accepted in Christ Jesus.
Who, like John the Baptist says, takes away the sins of the world.
This is Chapter 8, from the book of Genesis.
Next week we enter into chapter 9, a very fitting and timely chapter for this day and age.
We will see something truly remarkable being displayed, not on T-shirts, not in parades, not on shelves in every store, but in the sky.
We will see the difference between what God makes and declares versus what man tries to imitate and perverse.
We will see even more clearly than ever before, the reason why Jesus, and Jesus alone is the answer.
That is all I will share for now, I hope to see you here next week.
But for now, let us pray.
