Please stand for the reading of God's word. Our New Testament lesson comes from 2 Peter chapter three, beginning in verse one. Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder. that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they willfully forget. that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord, one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I'll turn now to our Old Testament lesson and our sermon text, which is Genesis chapter eight. We spent just one week in chapter seven, and my plan is to spend a couple weeks in this next chapter. So Genesis chapter eight, verses one to 19. Pay careful attention to the reading of God's word. Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark and God made a wind. pass over the earth and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the 150 days, the waters decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the 17th day of the month on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. So it came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of the grounds. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand, and he took her and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf. was in her mouth, and no one knew that the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore. And it came to pass in the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up. from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dried. And God spoke to Noah saying, go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so that they may abound 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 animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. May the Lord bless the reading of his word and the preaching of it. Amen. You may be seated. It feels like everything is out of control. It feels like the world is falling apart. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever said those words? Have you ever felt like you've made some key mistakes in your life and you just can't get over the fact that you've made them? That you've gotten yourself in a detour, in a rut, and in a cul-de-sac, and you just can't get out. You've sinned, you've hurt people, you've been hurt by people, and you don't know how to make a new beginning. Well, if any of those things are true of you this morning, Genesis 8, 1 to 19 is particularly relevant to you. Here we come to a world that literally fell apart, a world that was deluged in water. And in the midst of that storm, the only place of comfort, the only place of solace was this ark, this floating 3D model of a new world with Noah and his family aboard. And in this text, there's a key transition. Last week, we saw decreation. We saw the world coming untethered. We saw the world falling apart. But in this story, this history, we move from de-creation to re-creation. We move from old creation to new creation. From the world that then was to the world that now is. A world that's falling apart and now an opportunity for new beginning. Now what made that difference? What marked the difference between de-creation and re-creation? The last time we looked at a sequence of numbers and found an elaborate kiastic structure. We saw seven, seven, 40, 150, and then we moved out of there into chapter eight, 150, 40, seven, seven. And so it's arranged in this structure. You start with seven, you end with seven, in the middle of that we have these numbers of days. They correspond to another structure where they enter the ark, they're waiting for the waters to come. The waters come, the waters prevail, the waters triumph, and then we start moving from there, the waters subside, the waters stop. They're waiting now for the waters to dry out, and then finally they leave the ark. See that structure? They begin by entering the ark, waiting, waiting, they come, they prevail, and then they subside, and they wait for them to stop, and finally, They leave the ark of safety. And in the dead center of this elaborate literary structure, there is a key that makes all the difference. In the dead center is chapter eight, verse one. It's the key to the whole story. It's the turning point. It's the new beginning. Then God, remembered Noah. Theologically central, but also in this numbered sequence, in this movement, this is right at the pinnacle, this is the height of the story, then God remembered Noah. And what we're gonna do this morning is look at this story using four key words. Remembrance, recreation, revelation, and response. And we'll just walk through the story using those key words. First, remembrance. This is where we begin, because this is the heart of the story. This, again, is the turning point, the covenant key. Then, in the midst of the waters prevailing, triumphing, then God remembered Noah. And every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark, And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. God doesn't send a wind, and the waters don't subside until that dramatic climax. Then God remembered Noah. And when the Bible uses this language, we're not talking just about recollection. It's not like you forgot your car keys. Or to use a painful illustration, I came to church this morning thinking I had everything with me, and then I realized that I didn't have my laptop to do the congregational meeting and I had to send my wife on a mercy ministry mission to get it back. And she's actually on her way back. Humanity, we forget things. I forgot my laptop for the congregational meeting. But God doesn't forget things. God doesn't forget anything. He's omniscient, he knows everything. And so when it says that God remembered Noah, it's not simply recollection, it is action. To remember someone in the Bible is to act on their behalf on the basis of a prior commitment. It assumes a kind of covenant bond. You have a covenant bond with somebody and you're gonna remember them, you're gonna act on their behalf. And it's interesting here, who remembers whom? It doesn't say, and then Noah remembered God. That's how we would expect it to go. But no, actually God acts on behalf of Noah because they have this covenant bonds, this relationship. God remembers him. And that actually has implications for our celebration of the Lord's Supper. We often, rightly, talk about, even this morning, in our Sunday school class, Dr. Beb mentioned that Ulrich Zwingli emphasized that at the table, it's true, we remember the Lord Jesus Christ and his passion. Now, we do more than that. We, by faith, commune with him in the heavenly places. He is present with us by his Holy Spirit, but we remember Christ. But even at the table, when Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me, we could translate that, do this as my memorial. And when we do the Lord's Supper. What we are doing is, yes, remembering God, but we're also calling upon God to remember his covenant promises. At the Lord's Supper, we are crying out to the Lord, God, remember your covenant, remember what Jesus did, and act on our behalf. Bless us, save us, commune with us. Well, even so, in the shadowlands of the old covenant, then God remembered Noah. And now, everything changes. Everything changes. And again, we move from de-creation, the world falling apart in the flood, to re-creation, a new world emerging from the flood waters. That leads us to our second key word, re-creation. Re-creation, as we move as a kind of watershed from the world that then was. to the world that now is. And I've said this before, but this is actually part of the larger structure of Genesis. Genesis 6 through 11 mirrors Genesis 1 to 5. In Genesis 1 to 5, you get creation, the fall of Adam, the sin of Cain, and the sin of the sons of God, and that leads to catastrophe. Well, here, it mirrors that structure. In Genesis 6 to 11, you get new creation, what we could call fall of Noah, the sin of Ham, and then the sin of Babel, and then catastrophe. But just structurally, this is the moment in the story of a kind of new creation. Emerging from the old. Not decreation. It's recreation. And as you look at this passage and you see this world emerging, let it give each of us hope that in the gospel, there are new beginnings. There is a covering of sin. There is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. There's the work of recreation. And I want to show you that briefly. Everything you see in this chapter is really a reflection of Creation Week. It echoes the Creation Week. For instance, day one of Creation Week, what was there? The creation of light out of darkness. But before you got to that, In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. Well, what about this new creation picture? Where do we have that imagery? Well, if you look at verse 1, we have it. It says, And God made a wind, or literally spirit, to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The word translated wind is the Hebrew word ruach, which is the same as spirit. It's the same word used back in Genesis 1, when the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. Well here, in new creation, recreation, God sends the same Holy Spirit to cause the waters to subside. Later he'll do this, at the Red Sea. So the Spirit of God is present at creation and at new creation. And it's not just that, there's actually another place where the Holy Spirit pops up, not necessarily in person, but in symbol. Where is that? Where is there an image of the Holy Spirit in Genesis chapter eight? The clue for you would be this. At the Jordan River, when Jesus was baptized with water, who descended upon him? It was the Holy Spirit. And how did he descend? In the form of a dove. Well, there's a dove in this passage. There is an emblem of new creation work. Noah sends out a raven, and then he sends out a dove on a two-fold mission. Like angels patrolling the earth in the book of Zechariah, this raven and this dove go to and fro, looking for a place to rest. Like the spirit hovering over the face of the waters, the dove flies over the face of the deep. So we get an echo of day one of creation week. Also day two, the creation of the firmament that divides the waters below from the waters above. Well, look at verse two. In chapter seven, we learn that God caused the fountains of the deep to open up and the waters to come up, and then he opened the windows of heaven and the waters came down. Well, chapter eight, verse two, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. In the flood, in the judgment, God let the waters loose. Well, here, he stops it. He puts order back into place. The waters above are kept above, the waters below are kept below, and there's order reestablished, like back on day two of creation week. Also, day three of Creation Week, the division of land and sea and the creation of grains and fruit trees. Where is that in this passage? Well, let's keep looking. In this passage, we see a recession of the water and the ascension of land out of the water. And that's a picture of what happened on day three of Creation Week, the separation of the dry land from the sea. We get that here. Look at verses three to five. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the 150 days, the waters decreased. And the ark rested in the seventh month, the 17th day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. It's slow. It's gradual, and it mirrors the slow, gradual recession of the waters. Here Moses, under the inspiration of the Spirit, is engaged in text painting. He slows the story down, and in elaborate detail describes the slow, deliberate recession of the waters, and then the emergence of the land, just like on day three. Also, day three was about grains and fruit trees. We'll look at verse 11. And the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth, and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. On day three of creation, God caused the land to produce plants for life. Well, here we get a token of new creation, an olive leaf from an olive tree as an emblem of new life. The olive branch, even today, if you extend the olive branch to somebody, what's that a symbol of? You're offering them peace. In the Bible, olives were crushed to produce olive oil, and that olive oil not only fueled the fires of the lampstand and the tabernacle, but they were also used to anoint prophets, priests, and kings. Another image of the Holy Spirit in this passage, the oil from the olive. At Jesus' baptism, anointed with water and the Spirit, this olive leaf also is gesturing towards the olive wood that would be used in the Holy of Holies in the temple. Jesus, and originally David, ascended the Mount of Olives from that location. You could see the temple curtain rent at the crucifixion of Christ. And now in the gospel age, Gentiles, like most of you and me, are grafted into the olive tree of Christ. So in this olive leaf, there's a whole biblical theology of prophet, priest, and king, and lampstand, and holy of holies, and the Mount of Olives, and the Olivet Discourse, and David, and Jesus, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the grafting into the Gentiles into the olive tree of Christ. In this olive leaf, is an emblem of re-creation. Also day four. What happened on day four? It was the delegation of light bearing to the sun, the moon, and the stars. On day one, God's glory shone to create the day, and on day four, he delegates that to sun, moon, and stars. This is harder to see in Genesis chapter eight, but just think for a moment how dark it would have been aboard the ark. They're on this ark for months, and it's watertight. There's pitch on the inside and pitch on the outside. God himself shut the door. The window is shut. Evidently, it's dark in there. Whatever light sources they had, they weren't able to see the sky, at least not very clearly or very often. They were kept from looking at the sun, the moon, and the stars until you get to verse 13. And it came to pass in the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. When he opens up the cover, now they can see the sky again. They can see the sun. They can see the moon. They can see the stars. The veil is removed and they get a glimpse of that great heavenly canopy, that great heavenly chamber. Day five. Say, where is day five? What happened on day five? In the original creation, we have the creation of birds of the air and fish of the sea. Well, here, there is a gesture towards that in the raven and the dove. These are the birds of the air flying across the sky. Look at verse six. So it came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, then he sent out a raven. which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove, and a picture of the Holy Spirit, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. For the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. And I love this beautiful moment where the Holy Spirit didn't have to tell us this, but he does. So he, that is Noah, put out his hand And he took her and drew her into the ark to himself. Just the care, the grace that he even uses with the lower animals of God's creation. And then eventually he sends out, after seven days, another mission. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth, and no one knew that the waters had receded from the earth. She goes out again, doesn't come back. She has a place to nest. And so just like on day five of creation week, we have the birds of the air. Day one, spirit hovering, well here, spirit sense. Day two, the ferment put in place, water's above, water's below, well here, water's above, water's below, kept in check. Day three, you have the emergence of the land, you have the plants, well here, the olive leaf, the emergence of land from the subsiding waters. You have the sun, moon, and stars available again. You have the birds flying across the firmament of heaven, and it keeps going. In fact, it's interesting, this image of the dove going forth. Does anyone know the Hebrew word for dove? It's Jonah. It's literally Jonah. It's the name given to that reluctant prophet to go to Nineveh. And it is interesting that just as Noah sends this Jonah, this dove, on a two-fold mission, the first time he doesn't find anything, the second time, She finds an olive branch. Well, Jonah, the man, was sent on a mission that he didn't want to go on, and he ends up in the belly of a fish, but then God says, the word of the Lord comes a second time, and this time you're gonna go, and this time you're gonna succeed, and he did. Interesting how the Bible mirrors itself time and time again. Day six, the land animals, and the wild animals, domesticated, creeping things, verse 17. bring out with you every living thing of all the flesh that is with you, birds and cattle, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. Again, this isn't just a floating zoo. The ark is meant to be a picture of a recreated Garden of Eden, where there were animals in the original creation on day six, and now those animals are preserved and are told, even as God told the animals back in Genesis 1, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. It's the dominion mandate all over again. And then finally, the last day of creation, is also here as an act of new creation, and that's Sabbath rests. Verse four, and the ark rested. The ark rested in the seventh month, the 17th day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. The ark comes to Sabbath. The ark, after being tossed to and fro, comes to rest. And that is really a picture of what happens when someone comes to Christ. When they're living for themselves, they're living in the world, they are tossed to and fro. They're like the raging nations of the seas. But then you find in Jesus, rest. You find in him refuge, and you receive, and you rest upon him alone for salvation, as he's offered to you in the gospel. Even so, the ark rested on Mount Ararat, probably a range of mountains in what's modern-day Armenia. But the point is, it rested on the mountain. And that's what Sabbath worship is all about. That's what we do today. We rest on the heavenly Mount Zion as the Ark rested on Mount Ararat. And indeed, there's even a closer connection to the Sabbath, because in verse 14 it says, in the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dried. And it goes on to speak about that seventh day. He waits seven days, and on the seventh day, he enters into rest. This is a beautiful picture of recreation. This is what God does in an individual's life, in the life of a family, in the life of a church, in the life of a nation, in the life of the world. God takes decreation and goes to recreation. Old creation, to new creation, the world that then was, the world that now is, the marriage that then was, the marriage that now is, the relationship that then was, the relationship that now is. The gospel is a hopeful message because it tells us that grace changes us, that new beginnings are possible. And if you come here today and you say, I've made too many mistakes, they are too grievous in their nature, I cannot go forward when I tell you the good news is that your God is a God of grace. Your God is the one who came to Jonah a second time. Your God is the one who raises the dead. And your God is the one who raised Jesus on the third day. Your God is the one who takes the old creation and causes it to ascend out of the old creation. Your God is a God of grace and new beginnings. He's a God who can take sinners and not only pardon them, but transform them. Where if you have a certain addiction, or you have a certain sin that has enslaved you, or a habit that controls you, or a coping mechanism that has your number, realize that yes, we can do all sorts of common grace things to help you and work with you. and use reason to come up with solutions, but at the end of the day, the answer is the gospel, and the gospel transforms us. That's the good news. You don't have to be the person you were yesterday. God can make you a new creature. with new affections. Thomas Chalmers talked about the expulsive power of a new affection, where you desire new things. Where once you desired selfish ambition and pride and vainglory and lust, now, by the grace of God, by the spirit of Jesus Christ, now, you desire the good and the true and the beautiful. You desire Jesus. In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus. That's recreation voice. And we see it illustrated in this passage. I say it's a beautiful picture. But at this point in the story, It's not complete until Noah leaves the ark. The ark was a model of new creation, like the heaven, earth, and sea, this three-decker model. The ark has three decks, and it has a window, and it has a door, and it has these animals, but it's just a picture, just a model. It's a prototype. We need to move to entering the reality. This new Adam has to enter a new creation. But he can't do that apart from the word of the Lord. If we learned anything in this passage is you need to listen carefully to the voice of the Lord. And you don't jump out of the ark too soon. So we talked about remembrance. That's the turning point, God remembered Noah. Talked about recreation, that's the bulk of this passage. I wanna close by looking at two other key words. Revelation, excuse me, and response. First, revelation. Verse 15, then, at the end of many days, God spoke to Noah saying, go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you, bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. Now this is a familiar pattern in Noah's life. In chapter six, God told him, make yourself an ark. Take 120 years and preach a message that no one understands and build an ark that everyone mocks. And what did Noah do? Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did. Chapter seven, another revelation of God's will, come into the ark. Leave the world, come into the ark. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Well, here's a final revelation. In chapter eight, he says, build the ark, come into the ark, final revelation, go out of the ark. Will Noah, who every other time has obeyed, is he gonna obey this last time? And that leads us to our final key word, response. In verses 18 to 19, so Noah went out. and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. Now, it's easy to gloss over this, but this passage is really a test of Noah's faith to wait this long. We're talking about a man who, by the grace of God, had remarkable patience. 120 years to build the ark. And then the flood takes over a year from start to finish. If you look at chapter seven, verse 11, and compare it with eight, verse 14, we're talking about one year plus 10 days of change. That's a long wait. It's a long time to wait. It's a long obedience, as I've said before, in the same direction. Waiting is the posture of obedience. Consider the seraphim who wait, who attend upon the Lord before his throne. Think about the disciples who waited in the upper room before Pentecost. Waiting is the posture of obedience. Contrast that with Adam and Eve who did not wait. who took the fruit of the forbidden tree before the time was ripe. I think about Absalom who usurped his father's throne while David was still living. Disobedience grasps for premature glory. But waiting is the posture of obedience. Noah waited. Noah waited for one year and 10 days, depending on when you start the clock and stop the clock. He waited upon the Lord until the time was right, until the word was given, and then only then did he leave the ark and step into a new world. It's a great application here. Singles, singles, are you willing to wait until marriage to enjoy the prerogatives and privileges of marriage? until the minister says you may kiss the bride. I exhort you as your pastor, do not awaken love until it pleases. Some of you are tempted to not wait in other ways. Some of you are tempted to manipulate people and circumstances to get what you want right now because you can't wait. You want ministry on your terms and right now. You want fill in the blank, whatever it is. And I urge you, learn to wait upon the Lord, because waiting is the posture of obedience. There's great encouragement here. As the poet said, speaking of the angels, they also serve who only stand and wait. Sometimes you're in a season of profound waiting. And there's a way to be faithful in that. to actively trust the Lord, to wait upon His timing, to wait upon His word, knowing that He has plans for you, not to harm you, but to prosper you, to give you hope and to give you a future. Let us learn to wait, as Noah did. I say it's a test of Noah's faith to wait this long, but you could also say it was a test of Noah's faith to leave behind the ark. He'd gotten accustomed to the ark. It was a safe space. It was a safe place. It wasn't ideal, but it had become their home for over a year. They'd gotten a rhythm. They'd become acquainted with it, familiarized with it. And maybe there was part of Noah that was reluctant to leave the ark. to leave a world he understood, to leave a relatively safe and dry place. Perhaps part of him didn't want to leave. I don't know. I know Peter, James, and John, when they ascended the mountain with Jesus, and they saw Elijah and Moses, and they behold the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ, Peter wants to build booths or tabernacles. He wants to set up camp. He doesn't want to leave the mountain. But Jesus basically says, no, we got to leave. There's a time to meet on the mountaintop, but there are demon-possessed children below, and we need to minister to them. We need to leave the mountain, go down into this dark world, and pray, and fast, and cast out demons, and heal the sick, and preach a message of good news. We can't stay on the mountain. I know it's a safe place, it's a beautiful place. No one can destroy it on my holy mountain, but we need to go down into the valley of the shadow of death, because people need to hear good news. We gotta leave. We think about the healed demoniac who, he wants to get on the boat with Jesus, and Jesus says, no, you need to go back to your people, and you need to publish what's happened to you. You need to go on a mission. You think about Paul. Paul's like, I want to depart and be with Christ just far better, and Jesus says, no, you need to stay a while longer. I've got plans for you, Paul. People are gonna hear the gospel and be saved under your ministry. And it's not about you, it's about me, but I'm gonna use you. So leave the ark, leave the safe place, and follow me in the adventure of faith into the world. And even so. Noah obeyed, he left, he left the ark, he left the model of new creation, and he entered into the reality of new creation. He walked into the worlds that had emerged from the ark, a world that was different, a world that has changed. We'll talk more later about what was different between the old and the new creation, so to speak. But in this departure, in this disembarking from the ark, we really get our final portrait of new creation. As Noah leaves the ark, it's a picture of rebirth and resurrection from the dead. He's exiting the ark, like a baby might exit a womb, and like a dead man might exit the tomb. When God tells Noah, come forth from the ark, it's like Jesus saying, Lazarus, come forth from the grave. Come, enter. the land of the living. Leave the ark behind, leave the grave behind, and come forth, or in its ultimate expression, when Jesus had died and was in the grave, in the tomb, in the womb of the earth, in the belly of the fish, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, Then on that third day, the resurrection morning, the Father declared him to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of dead, by the spirit of holiness, and he emerged the first fruits of a new creation right in the midst of the old creation. Come forth. Live. Well, someday, as the Lord tarries, you will die. and your soul will depart for heaven, be with Jesus, which is far better. While your body enters the grave and sleeps, so to speak, your body is at rest, dead. But if like Noah, by faith you wait upon the Lord, then one day, your whole person, We'll hear the summons, come forth. Enter into the joy of the Lord. As soul and body are reunited, you are raised up in glory and you step out into a whole new world. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly, amen. Let us pray.