God Remembers Noah

GOD REMEMBERS NOAH

Genesis 8.

Have you ever gotten on something and could hardly wait to get off of it?

And have you ever noticed when you are in a situation like that how slowly time goes by?
Anita and I and Bethany to Fiesta Texas. Ride was wild. Knew it would only last about 5 minutes. Couldn’t wait to get off. I didn’t think that 5 minutes would ever end.

When you come to chapter 8 here Noah has been floating inside the arc for 5 months.

That is a long time to be locked up in a boat with animals and in-laws.
And so probably no one here can really appreciate the first four words of Chapter 8 more than Noah: But God remembered Noah…

What does that mean? It doesn’t mean that God looked down and said, “Oh man, Noah completely slipped my mind. How long has that flood been going on?”

What it means is that God is about to demonstrate in a very real way that He is aware of where Noah is…and now He is going to fulfill what He has been doing through Noah.

Actually what you have here is God doing what He said He was going to do.
God’s word is sure.

Now, let me take a minute to say this. God remembers His people.

Some times we might think, “God doesn’t even remember me.”
If anyone could have thought that it was Noah. He was in the ark for 5 months and had not heard a word from God. 5 months! All he has heard is the sound of the flood and he has no idea when it is going to end.
But God remembered Noah.

And God hasn’t forgotten you or me.

Remember what Hebrews Heb13:5 Never will I leave you ; never will I forsake you."
And remember what Christ said to His disciples in Matthew 28:20: And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Ps 115:12 The LORD remembers us and will bless us:

And look at this in Isa 49:15: Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

God hasn’t forgotten us…and He hasn’t forgotten the world…each day He provides for us the sun, and food and shelter…and all the things we need.

And each day He is patient toward us in that He desires that all should repent and be saved.
You see, it is not that God forgets us…it is more that man has forgotten God.

So God remembered Noah…and notice what God does and as we go through this think about what God has done for you and still does for you. I also want you to learn something here about faith.

Vs. 1 says “God remembered Noah” and God caused a wind to pass over the earth and the water subsided.”

And in verse 2 the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained…and the water receded steadily from the earth…and at the end of 150 days the water decreased.
And if you look at verse 4 the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.

We can only imagine what Noah and his family are feeling when the ark comes to rest on solid ground! (Frightened – what will things be like? Happy – we are getting relief. We are finally going to get out of this ark!)

But even though the ark has come to rest on the Mountains of Ararat…and even though the waters have decreased…that doesn’t mean that they can go outside.
Look starting in vs 5:

And the water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

Vs. 6 After 40 days Noah opened the window of the ark and he sent out a raven…and it “flew from here to there until the water dried up.”

Then he sent out a dove to see if the water was abated…but the dove found no resting place for her foot and she returned to Noah on the ark.
So he waited 7 days and again sent out a dove…and in verse 11 the dove came to him toward evening; and behold in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.

That little leaf was more than just a leaf. It was a sign.

A sign that said that not only were the waters going down but a sign that there is going to be life in a post-flood world.
But, even though the dove brings back a leaf…that doesn’t mean they can go outside.

Now look at vs. 13: Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth.

Noah and his family and all the animals have been in the ark now just short of a year.
And if my figures are right it is now 5 months since the ark came to rest in the Ararat Mountains.

Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. (Almost 2 months after the water had dried up in vs. 13 and they are still in the ark.)

15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you.

Now to me that is a pretty powerful statement about faith.
It has been 2 months since the water had dried up.
And in vs. 13 Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up…and yet he does not move until God tells him to.
Brethren that is what real faith is. It is a faith that obeys God even when God makes you wait.

A lot of people will tell you that they “believe in God” or they “believe in Jesus.”

“Fake News” – “Fake Faith” – not accurate, not true, made up.

But real faith is so much more than just saying, “I believe.”

Real faith manifests itself by obedience.
“God hasn’t told me to leave so I am not leaving until He does. Sure I looked out that window and sure it looks like we could leave…but God hasn’t said to leave yet!
Real Faith trusts in God even when it looks ok to do otherwise.

God says, “Repent and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”…but some will say, “Saying the sinners prayer seems ok to me.” “Or simply asking Jesus to come into your heart” seems ok to me.

“Or I was sprinkled as a child.”
Faith does what God says regardless of what may seem ok to you.

Go back to Genesis 8:17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark.

So Noah has been shut up in this ark for over a year. And if you were shut up in a boat for over a year what is the first thing you would want to do?

Build a house. Start tilling the ground and get the crops planted. Maybe look around at all the changes.
Noah may have had a long list of things to do…but the first thing Noah did was worship God. Look at vs. 20:

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

This is the first time an altar is mentioned in the Bible.
And what Noah does here is he is expressing his gratitude for God’s grace…and for his deliverance and salvation.

And this is the way that every saved life ought to begin and how every saved life ought to continue.

When I think about the grace and mercy that God has extended to me through Christ…
When I think about all that God did to save me…
And when I think about the sign that God has given to reassure me…the empty tomb.
And when I think about what God says to me over and over again in his word.
When I think about the fact that Christ paid the price I should have paid…then the first thing I should do…and the thing I should continue to do is worship God.

And isn’t that part of why we come to worship…to be reminded of the grace and mercy that God has extended to us…and to be reminded of where we once were and where we are now…and where we someday will be…and to praise and honor God for that.

And shouldn’t thanks giving be something we express daily?

I am afraid that too often and too many soon forget all that God has done…and fail to worship and honor God the way He deserves.

And that in itself is another reason to come to worship…to keep from forgetting what God has done for you.

So Noah remembers God for remembering him…and then something amazing happens. In this chapterGod makes a covenant with you. He makes a promise to you. Look at vs. 21.

Gen 8:21 And the LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

22 "While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And summer and winter,

And day and night

Shall not cease."

Look at vs. 21 again: …for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.

God knew as soon as the flood was over that the flood had judged man but it did not change man.
For the most part man learned nothing from the flood.
How about each one of us? Have we learned?
Have we learned that sin will be punished? Have we learned God keeps His promises?
Have we learned that just as judgment came in Noah’s day judgement will come again someday?

Vs. 21: God makes a covenant. He keeps His covenant. Even today.

Now, I don’t know for sure but I suspect that this is not the only altar that Noah ever built.

I suspect that Noah spent the last 350 years of his life remembering the God that rescued him.
And I think that is what God wants you and me to do.
That is one reason why we get together every Sunday around the table and take the bread and the cup. We are deciding not to forget that we have been saved by grace.

What about the ark? What happened to it? I don’t know. I have heard it said and I have seen videos that indicate that its remains have been found.

But you know what? It really doesn’t matter to me because my hope does not rest on the ark. My hope reset on another wooden object that was raised on a different hill.
And my word to you is, the next time you think that perhaps God doesn’t remember you, go to calvary and stay awhile.