Dale Partridge - Genesis 8_6-22： The Raven, the Dove, and the Mercy of God

00:00:00.000 If you remember my last sermon, we walked through the height of God's judgment in the flood.

00:00:09.920 Really, truly, when I say height, I mean it's just the height of the waters.

00:00:14.080 They were prevailing upon the earth for 150 days, but the rain was falling for about 40 days.

00:00:19.740 In other words, we saw the comprehensive nature of the flood.

00:00:23.840 It was a comprehensive flood.

00:00:25.660 the text over and over repeated this kind of global emphasis. It used words like all the high

00:00:33.360 mountains under the whole heaven. You know, it said that all flesh, everything, every living

00:00:39.160 thing, and it said perished, died, blotted out. It was this big emphasis on the global intensity

00:00:47.420 and the magnitude of the flood. Now, if you remember, this further refuted the idea of a

00:00:55.660 regional flood. It removed this idea that this was a minor or regional flood that happened in a

00:01:04.340 particular area of the world. But no, this was a universal. All of the mountains, everything that

00:01:11.560 was breathing, every living thing perished, was blotted out. Again, that language of totality

00:01:17.400 that we saw last week. And then we saw this phrase, if you remember, God remembered Noah.

00:01:25.420 And that phrase was covenantal language. It's not that God had intellectually forgot about Noah. No,

00:01:31.800 it's a way of speaking throughout the scriptures that God is remembering his covenant people.

00:01:38.980 He uses it with God remembered Abraham and God remembered Hannah and God remembered Moses.

00:01:44.380 it's over and over again. In every case, when that happens, it really signals this shift

00:01:51.980 from a season of waiting to the moment of deliverance. And so whenever you see that

00:01:57.420 God remembered Abraham or God remembered Rachel, it's this long season of waiting that they were in

00:02:04.680 and that it's now time to fulfill that covenant faithfulness. He remembered Rachel and now this

00:02:11.900 point she would be delivering or be delivered from this particular trial and we saw also that

00:02:19.020 the ark had landed essentially it had landed on the on mount ararat and interestingly it landed

00:02:25.000 on the exact hebrew calendar calendar day as the resurrection of christ and so there were some

00:02:31.160 beautiful parallels between those two things and so today we're going to pick up right where we

00:02:36.360 left off in Genesis chapter 8 verses 6 through 22. And we're going to watch as the waters start

00:02:45.260 to recede. Noah sends out the raven and the dove. You can see that on the front of your liturgy.

00:02:52.560 And the earth slowly recovers from the judgment of the flood. Now, most importantly, we're going

00:03:00.020 to see Noah actually get off the ark today. So we're going to get to that point where Noah exits

00:03:04.700 the ark. His family step out. They're walking into a new and cleansed world, and the first

00:03:12.180 thing they do is worship. Now, in my study, I was researching the flood, and I stumbled upon

00:03:20.500 Wikipedia, of course, very, very reliable source, right? I got to Wikipedia, and I wanted to read

00:03:27.940 what it said about the flood, and I wanted to read it to you. It said, and pay attention to

00:03:33.920 language here my emphasis it said quote the story in genesis is based on earlier mesopotamian flood

00:03:43.280 myths the myth of the global flood that destroys all life begins to appear in the old babylonian

00:03:51.600 empire the version closest to the biblical story of noah as well as its most likely source is the

00:03:58.640 epic of gilgamesh the story is repeated within variant within variations also in the quran

00:04:06.320 believers in the ark continue to search for it in modern times but no scientific evidence that

00:04:12.320 the ark existed has ever been found nor is there any scientific evidence for a global flood

00:04:18.320 according to robert moore the boat and the natural disaster as described in the bible

00:04:23.760 would have been contingent upon physical impossibilities some researchers believe that

00:04:29.040 a real though localized flood 7 500 years ago in west asia could potentially have inspired

00:04:36.160 the oral and later written narratives end quote okay so this is what is out there for the world

00:04:44.720 to see and we often look at noah's flood as if it has like real no like no bite for today like

00:04:51.760 Like, it's not that important today.

00:04:53.900 That is that it doesn't really matter to the means of the gospel today.

00:04:57.400 Oh, it's the flood.

00:04:58.340 We're going into the Old Testament.

00:04:59.720 It really doesn't matter to the issues of redemption that we're talking about today.

00:05:04.380 But the flood is still very much an enemy of the world.

00:05:08.620 The flood is still very much an enemy to the world.

00:05:11.580 What's really happening here?

00:05:12.740 What are people doing?

00:05:13.840 Well, they're doing two things.

00:05:14.660 They're fictionizing or they're mythologizing the flood narrative.

00:05:19.260 and that that is what people have been doing forever and what the reason they're doing that

00:05:24.740 is because they want to escape the authority if you can fictionize something then it's not real

00:05:30.320 and if it's not real it has no authority and if it has no authority you don't have to change

00:05:35.240 it's the same reason that we fictionize any particular point of the Bible David and Goliath

00:05:43.720 whatever it may be. To acknowledge the flood is to acknowledge God. And to acknowledge the flood

00:05:49.120 is to acknowledge the existence of sin. To acknowledge the flood is to acknowledge

00:05:53.820 righteous judgment. And so they have to deny these things and it creates an opportunity for them to

00:06:02.060 not be under the authority of scripture. In the same way an unrepentant man is unwilling to

00:06:07.360 acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ for the fear of condemnation, he cannot acknowledge the

00:06:13.920 flood. And so you have to see that the flood is still one of those very important issues

00:06:17.660 in which people will deny who are unrepentant because they know if they acknowledge the

00:06:23.340 existence of the flood, it does mean something for the authority of their own lives. So let's

00:06:30.400 not treat the flood account as if there's no purpose for it, if there's no use for it, if there's

00:06:38.240 no need to defend it today. There certainly is a need to defend it. I appreciate Ken Ham's work.

00:06:44.740 I appreciate the Creation Museum. I appreciate the documentary Genesis is History. There's a

00:06:51.660 variety of creation scientists out there that have done a great job of putting together the evidence

00:06:57.140 of the flood for the defense exactly for the reason of these people that have been listed here

00:07:03.060 in wikipedia and so we're going to go through chapters or chapter 8 verses 6 through 22

00:07:10.460 and let's read at verse 6 it says at the end of 40 days noah opened the window of the ark

00:07:19.160 that he had made and sent forth a raven it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the

00:07:26.520 earth. Then he sent forth a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face on the ground.

00:07:34.160 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters

00:07:41.460 were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her in and brought her

00:07:48.800 into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove and out

00:07:55.720 of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly

00:08:02.180 plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another

00:08:10.200 seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. Okay.

00:08:19.320 Now, compared to the front of your liturgy, you can see the image that's there, the painting

00:08:25.700 speaking of Noah holding the dove through the window. Some argue that the window was not

00:08:32.560 actually in the side of the ark, that it was in the top of the ark. And a few scholars say that

00:08:39.280 because essentially that the reason and purpose for the bird was that there was no windows on the

00:08:45.640 side and there was no visibility and they needed to put the bird out because they had a lack of

00:08:51.060 visibility. And also maybe that Noah was concerned to be disobedient to somewhat exit the ark

00:08:57.820 because God had commanded him to go into it. And so that's one argument that's out there. However,

00:09:04.380 the Hebrew word for opened the window, when you see it, it's actually a different Hebrew word

00:09:09.140 than we see for window that's used in Genesis 6. And so the Hebrew word for window here is

00:09:14.360 actually a side panel or a side door. There is another word in Genesis chapter 6 that talks

00:09:21.020 about a skylight or event. So it's very possible that the ark had a window that either Noah cut it

00:09:27.500 out after the floodwaters had stopped, or it could be talking about the skylights. We do know

00:09:33.720 that at some degree, I imagine that Noah is not living in darkness for a year in the flood. So

00:09:41.240 there's got to be some degree of windows, maybe some degree of skylights to see because it's

00:09:46.880 multiple decks. So even if the top deck had skylights in it, you're talking about do the

00:09:53.680 lower decks have no light coming through? What kind of issues do we have with that? And we don't

00:09:58.760 hear of anything in scripture there. And so my take is that it was probably a side window that

00:10:05.840 was cut out. If not, it was put together even before the flood began. And so the purpose, I

00:10:13.640 think, for the birds was that the birds are able to go and fly and scout out dry land that

00:10:18.460 potentially cannot be visible from where Noah is. And he's stuck, as we know, on Mount Ararat.

00:10:25.660 The boat is now settled at this particular place. And so the birds offer eyesight and opportunity

00:10:31.320 that you cannot have in a fixed position. Now, Noah was never told how long he would be

00:10:36.480 in the ark. Think about that. He was never told how long he would be in the ark.

00:10:42.260 God never gave him that information. And so by faith, he did know that the ark wasn't a floating

00:10:49.060 coffin. But I think that the birds were not an act of unbelief, but they were an act of curiosity.

00:10:57.700 Now, birds finding land were actually a common seafaring practice.

00:11:02.640 It was something that happened in the old world.

00:11:04.700 It was something that continued to happen.

00:11:06.180 It's very possible that Noah had heard of this practice before he was in the water from people that were on the sea.

00:11:12.020 Now, some connections have allegorized this passage of scripture, meaning that they've tried to make this something that it may or may not be.

00:11:20.180 So they'll say things like the raven, which is an unclean bird, by the way, and the dove, which is a clean bird.

00:11:25.520 The raven represents the devil and the dove represents the Holy Spirit or the raven represents

00:11:31.560 the law and the dove represents the gospel. So there's a whole bunch of allegories that have

00:11:37.700 been connected to this particular passage of scripture. Now, I certainly believe that there's

00:11:41.800 something intentional here, but the scripture doesn't tell us what that something is. And so

00:11:46.620 I'm very hesitant to go in there and say, oh, this is what it means. This, it could mean this,

00:11:50.460 it could mean that. The reality is, is that we do know that God is good at having intentionality

00:11:55.300 behind every possible element in the scriptures. And so it might be worth studying across those

00:12:03.080 allegories to figure out which one maybe feels best. But I don't believe that it was the work

00:12:07.640 that I was supposed to do this week. What we do know is this. Ravens are scavengers. And we know

00:12:14.360 that because they take the trash out of my dumpster all the time. I see them. They're just

00:12:19.260 eaten garbage. They're eating dead meat. They're eating dead animals. Ravens are scavengers and 0.99

00:12:26.220 they often eat the carcasses of the dead. That's what they do. They eat dead carcasses. It's likely

00:12:32.300 that the raven did not return because it landed on floating carcasses from the bodies that were

00:12:40.720 out on the flood and it found a place to rest and eat off of the dead. It's very possible.

00:12:46.440 and we know that the ravens are still here so somehow the raven had to have found its pair

00:12:51.440 and met up and continually reproduced itself now doves on the other hand are vegetarians

00:12:58.600 and they survive off of seeds and nuts and fruit we see doves all over our property as well and

00:13:07.080 they're often under the trees they're often eating the twigs and they're they're there

00:13:11.360 carrying those branches in their mouths. And so when you understand that only a dove could survive

00:13:20.380 on land, a dove is not going to find its survival on a corpse, but if a dove could find a potential

00:13:26.440 place for it to land its foot, then it means that there is land available. And so when you look at

00:13:31.920 it logically, you can see that Noah has some sort of effort here that makes sense. It might not have

00:13:39.040 to be some crazy allegory, there could actually be some logic behind this. And so when the dove

00:13:45.280 did not return, it was evidence that essentially the habitat for a dove, which is land, was

00:13:51.280 available and that the waters had receded to a particular position. Now, when the dove returned

00:13:58.100 with an olive leaf, interestingly, the olive tree is remarkably hardy. I did some research on olive

00:14:05.540 trees this week and it can survive prolonged i'm talking months of submersion in water

00:14:13.600 there's not many trees that can do that they can handle you know you can be in a flood and it'd be

00:14:18.880 fine but i'm talking months of of being underwater that it doesn't actually waterlog the trunk

00:14:24.660 or the leaves and so one scholar observed he says the olive tree has been ascertained to even bear

00:14:31.240 leaves underwater. So it'll actually grow underwater. Again, not many trees do that.

00:14:37.080 And eyewitness accounts confirm that young olive trees thrive while still being fully immersed

00:14:43.880 underwater. And so again, this supports the text, which, you know, the text says that it was a

00:14:50.540 freshly plucked leaf. And so I love it when scientific record backs up what the scriptures

00:14:58.980 say and so there is a logical possibility that you go oh yeah this this olive tree may have

00:15:05.040 actually survived the flood being underwater for many many months at a time and actually bore

00:15:11.800 leaves it wasn't just that that the dove found the debris of a olive leaf floating in the water

00:15:20.300 no this is a freshly plucked as what it says olive leaf and you go okay well how did that happen

00:15:26.260 Well, it's because it's likely that it stayed alive during that process of the flood.

00:15:32.760 And so it goes into verse 13.

00:15:34.700 It says, in the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were

00:15:42.760 dried from off the earth.

00:15:45.880 And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and behold, the face of the ground

00:15:53.060 was dry.

00:15:53.720 In the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth had dried out.

00:16:01.020 Then God said to Noah, go out from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your son's wives with you.

00:16:08.620 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, birds and animals,

00:16:15.240 and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

00:16:22.540 Verse 18.

00:16:23.720 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him.

00:16:28.920 Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird, everything that moves on the earth 0.98

00:16:33.060 went out by families from the ark. 0.80

00:16:38.880 Again, I want you to notice the specific chronology of this passage of Scripture.

00:16:44.060 I think the Lord knew that people are going to try to fictionize this event,

00:16:49.500 and so he put specific historical precision all of these days and dates together to guard against

00:16:58.560 that it says the 601st year in the first month the first day of the month the waters were dried up

00:17:04.540 in the second month on the 27th day of the month the earth i mean these are incredibly

00:17:09.440 specific dates it's talking about specificity it's giving precision it's giving chronology

00:17:16.680 it's giving history it's not giving allegory now from verses 13 to 14 there's actually a two-month

00:17:24.800 gap so there's a two-month gap of time between seeing the dry land from a distance so maybe

00:17:32.940 maybe noah's in the ark and he's looking out the window and you can see a mile and a half out

00:17:40.740 there's some dry land. But right where he's at, it's not dry. And so the idea of why can't I get

00:17:48.600 off now is clearly the reality is that, well, maybe at the base of the ark, it could still be

00:17:55.540 200 feet deep of water at this particular point in time. And so there are many theories about

00:18:03.100 why Noah remained in the ark, but my theory is simply that he's stuck on top of a mountain

00:18:07.940 and it's very likely that he's seen this dry land at a distance. We don't know if swimming was a

00:18:14.300 thing at this particular point in time. Does he know how to swim? Is he going to build another

00:18:19.360 boat to maybe? No, the reality is, is that he remains on the ark until the Lord has pulled him

00:18:28.160 off. And so, well, let me make another point. Genesis 7, 16, we know that God closes the door

00:18:35.000 on him, right? We know God closes the door of the ark. We don't know if it's even possible for Noah

00:18:42.680 to open that door. We're not really sure. It doesn't give us the details. So it is possible

00:18:47.720 also that he can't get out of the ark until God lets him out of the ark. And so there's a variety

00:18:52.440 of conclusions that you can come up with, but there's not a specific answer in the scriptures.

00:18:58.120 Now, Noah was on the ark for a total of one year and 10 days.

00:19:01.980 So 375 days that he's on the ark.

00:19:05.720 And as he's getting prepared to exit the ark, Spurgeon calls this Noah's New Year's Day, right?

00:19:11.660 It's this new year for Noah.

00:19:13.600 It's this new beginning for Noah.

00:19:15.020 And in verse 16 through 17, we see five commands for how he should be getting off the ark.

00:19:20.440 It says, get out of the ark.

00:19:22.100 So that's the first command.

00:19:23.860 Bring out with you every living thing.

00:19:26.520 I mean, just for a second, do you know how much work that is?

00:19:30.560 I mean, just like, okay, get out of the ark.

00:19:32.560 That's like, all right, we've been on this thing for a year and 10 days,

00:19:36.700 and we have to get out of this thing.

00:19:38.880 And then get every living thing off of it.

00:19:42.600 Okay, that might take a few days, maybe even a few weeks.

00:19:45.080 Who knows what happens there?

00:19:47.040 And then he kind of gives a passing command that they may swarm.

00:19:52.740 The idea is that there's a command of creation there.

00:19:55.840 the third command and then it says to be fruitful and then the fifth command is to be to multiply

00:20:01.440 so we want to be fruitful and we want to multiply now these are basically near identical

00:20:08.560 phrases that we see from genesis chapter one it's almost in a sense recreation language that's

00:20:14.720 mirroring or paralleling what's happening in genesis chapter one now um the old world is gone

00:20:22.480 and the new world is here. Okay. The old world is gone. The new world is here. Now it's the same

00:20:28.140 physical world. It's just new in the sense that the old world is gone. It didn't perish in the

00:20:35.220 sense that it disappeared. We know that. No, it's, it's gone in the sense that the old world has been

00:20:40.140 deluged as the scriptures would say. And this is an important distinction because it helps us with

00:20:45.000 our eschatology. And I want to talk about that just for a second. So second Peter chapter three

00:20:50.200 verses 5 through 7, it says, speaking of Noah's Ark, it says, for they deliberately overlooked

00:20:55.260 this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through

00:21:01.220 water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged

00:21:09.500 or flooded with water and perished. So the world perished. Verse 7, it says, by the same word,

00:21:17.420 the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day

00:21:25.900 of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly, end quote. So the same way that the old world

00:21:32.400 perished, the old world went away. It's the kind of language that we see as the medieval world 0.52

00:21:38.580 is gone. The medieval world is no longer, right? It has disappeared. Now the physical world that

00:21:46.640 medieval people lived on is here. We're on that same earth. And so what I'm saying here is that

00:21:53.520 there will be another way that the world perishes, but this world will remain. And this is very

00:21:59.440 important because when we think about eschatology, we have to remember that God is going to restore

00:22:03.480 the earth and it's not going to be a new earth in the sense that it's new matter. It's going to be

00:22:08.560 this earth renewed. It's going to be this earth made new. So you can go out there, you can touch

00:22:14.620 that dirt. You can hold that dirt and go, this dirt will be in heaven. This dirt will be in

00:22:20.260 heaven. This matter, all of it will be in heaven. Now it will be purified. It will be sanctified.

00:22:26.140 It'll be purified by fire, removed of all of its sin. Now, when it says fire, does it mean

00:22:34.980 actual fire? Maybe. I mean, it certainly meant actual water. But is it going to mean actual

00:22:40.820 what? We don't know. Will everything burn? Like, will this world actually burn? What is it going

00:22:46.660 to look like? We don't know the specific answers. Will this place just turn into a place of ash

00:22:52.080 and coal? What are we to expect from this? Is it going to be more of a purifying fire? Is that

00:22:59.060 the scripture? Is it kind of a use of a type of language, an apocalyptic language that's more

00:23:05.300 about purification that's going to occur rather than actually burning the whole place down?

00:23:10.820 Now all of scripture, Numbers, 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter, they all talk about this idea that whatever is pure, that's done in faith, that's made to the glory of God will withstand fire.

00:23:25.260 That fire will reveal that which was done in faith or that which is pure or that which is righteous.

00:23:32.320 It'll be like gold and that it'll withstand the fire.

00:23:35.160 And so the question I have often with, you know, my theologian friends and also by myself in my

00:23:42.200 room as I think about these things is, what will burn? What will perish? Will the cathedrals burn?

00:23:48.380 Will they remain? Will our Bibles burn? Will the pulpits in great churches burn? Will church

00:23:55.740 buildings be burning and going away? Will all of the things that we have created, the great art,

00:24:00.540 the beautiful masterpieces, will those things burn? Or will God come and purify the world

00:24:07.900 as by fire and it will reveal a beautiful, purified, sanctified world? So we don't know.

00:24:18.060 We don't know the specific answers. I lean towards that no good thing that was done in faith will

00:24:24.200 perish. That all of those good things that we have built, the kingdom of God here on earth,

00:24:28.500 will remain. They will be in heaven. Will we see Cologne Cathedral in heaven? I hope so.

00:24:33.800 Will we see some of the great Christian art in heaven? I hope so. Will we be singing amazing

00:24:38.380 grace in heaven? I hope so. I believe these things done in faith will not perish. They will actually

00:24:44.660 withstand the test of fire. And so there will be some degree of burning away, burning away all of

00:24:50.980 the ugly, the gross, the sinful, the nasty, the dead. That will all go away. And it's important 0.79

00:24:58.040 because there really is a parallel between Noah exiting the ark and the day that we come and the

00:25:03.660 world is made new. There is very much a parallel there that we should be learning and expecting

00:25:08.820 what is to occur. It says in verse 20, then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every

00:25:15.660 clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Now remember 0.61

00:25:22.720 he had extra clean animals because he was going to use them for sacrifice. There was more clean

00:25:27.620 animals than there were unclean. In verse 21, it says, and when the Lord smelled the pleasing

00:25:34.900 aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never curse the ground because of man. For the intention

00:25:42.020 of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever strike again down everything and

00:25:48.700 every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and

00:25:55.660 heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. Now, the first act after Noah's obedience

00:26:05.820 is worship. So Noah has spent not only the year and 10 days on the ark, but the hundred years

00:26:17.800 before that being faithful. And the first act after exiting the ark, after he's done and obeyed

00:26:25.060 all of these commands that the Lord has given him was to worship. Now, this is the first mention in

00:26:31.260 all of scripture of building an altar. We know that there is altars potentially with Cain and

00:26:37.880 Abel and that these altars are being built, but this is the first time we see the mention of an

00:26:43.140 altar being built. Now, altars are for worship, they're for sacrifice, but there's also an altar

00:26:50.280 of witness, an altar of witness. And it's a kind of a memorialization. And we would see this

00:26:55.140 in scripture that you might actually use an altar that was used for sacrifice and it then becomes

00:27:00.660 an altar of witness so that when future generations pass by that particular altar,

00:27:06.340 they remember. We see this with Isaac, with Jacob, with Abraham. Now, this is also the

00:27:16.140 rationale that our American forefathers used, what was the very first thing that they would do

00:27:21.500 when they settled into a town? They'd build a church. They'd build a church. It was very similar.

00:27:28.320 The very first thing that Noah does is he builds an altar. And the very first thing that our

00:27:32.280 forefathers did was that they'd enter into a place and the first building that would go up

00:27:36.520 would be a church. And it was supposed to demonstrate priorities. It was to demonstrate

00:27:42.860 priorities. We need to get back to that structure as the very first thing we build when we break

00:27:47.920 ground in new territory is to build a church. Now, in verse 21, we see what's called an

00:27:55.060 anthropomorphism, and it's when you apply a human characteristic to a spiritual being. So God, we

00:28:02.660 know, is a spirit and does not have a body like men. He does not have a nose to smell in the way

00:28:09.800 that we are seeing it here, but it says that God smells the pleasing aroma of the sacrifice of Noah.

00:28:17.240 And I thought about this. Not only does this imply that God accepts Noah's sacrifice,

00:28:24.680 his burnt offering, but it affirms the goodness of our senses. It's just a, it's a thing to remember

00:28:30.580 that our senses are good. God gave them to us for good things. It's, it's for a long time

00:28:37.820 Now, when I was really sick, my sense of smell became so sensitive that I couldn't even be around good, pleasing smells.

00:28:51.340 I remember having to go into the backyard of a friend's house because his wife was baking an apple pie, and it was making me sick.

00:28:59.860 People would be cooking steaks, and I couldn't be around.

00:29:02.420 I'd have to exit.

00:29:03.600 And it was essentially a perversion of a good thing.

00:29:06.800 something happened when I was sick that was not allowing me to enjoy my senses and I think it's

00:29:12.800 simple passages like this that rebuke this modern tendency to have these extraordinary

00:29:18.200 experiences of pleasure and it's just a reminder that God created our senses and when they function

00:29:24.840 they're good and and we don't need to be seeking out these like technological or media driven

00:29:30.360 hyper intense machine driven senses. But just smelling something is wonderful. Just sitting

00:29:38.940 and hearing the song of a bird is a wonderful thing. Just feeling the wind blow against your

00:29:46.080 skin. These are actually good gifts of God. It's things that you don't notice when you're young

00:29:52.760 and you've always, you know, you've heard the funny memes on the internet is that once you

00:29:55.980 turn 30 you buy your bird watching kit, right? And you start looking at birds and you start

00:30:00.120 caring about things and you just want to be quiet and sit in the woods and listen to the wind blow

00:30:04.740 through the trees. And it's a good thing. It's a good thing. And we know that because God affirms

00:30:09.800 that and that he's smelling this pleasing aroma and the sacrifices of his people.

00:30:17.320 Then as a result of the sacrifice, God says that even though the intent of man is evil from his

00:30:23.120 youth, he's never going to strike down every living creature again. So we're never going to

00:30:29.460 see a flood-like global catastrophe like we saw here. And that means that there's going to be no

00:30:36.600 mass comet that hits the earth and destroys the world. It means that there's not going to be

00:30:42.240 some mega volcano that destroys all of population. You know, if you go to Nat Geo, you're going to

00:30:48.180 find, oh, the mega volcano of Yellowstone. It's coming. It's going to come and destroy the world.

00:30:54.420 and then, you know, you'll find on Discovery Channel, the comet, it's coming in about 275

00:31:00.060 years. We're going to be destroyed by this comet that's coming towards earth. There's not going to

00:31:05.200 be some global warming or future ice age that's going to destroy humanity. None of this stuff is

00:31:10.460 going to happen. And as we know, because God says, no, he says, the earth is going to remain

00:31:20.180 seed time and harvest cold and heat summer and winter day and night they shall not cease

00:31:27.460 it's a promise of stability it's a promise of global stability doesn't mean there's not going

00:31:33.680 to be sin doesn't mean there's not going to be storms doesn't mean there's not going to be fire

00:31:36.900 flood whatever it may be but it's not going to be a global catastrophe and there is a degree of

00:31:41.700 peace that comes with the stability that there's not going to be some sort of catastrophic global

00:31:46.680 event, and you don't have to worry about all of the lies and all the news that comes out there.

00:31:52.700 Now, as I close here, I want us to notice this. After destroying the entire world

00:32:02.320 through water, God does not promise utopia. He doesn't promise some sort of heaven now,

00:32:11.620 utopia-like experience. He doesn't give us heaven quite yet, but he promises stability.

00:32:20.940 He promises the rhythms of life will hold, and they will continue on. The sun is still going to rise.

00:32:29.040 The seasons are still going to turn. The ground is still going to produce fruit and food for you,

00:32:38.120 But the earth and man are still under the curse.

00:32:41.580 The world is still fallen.

00:32:43.780 People are still going to be born with a sinful nature.

00:32:46.940 But in the midst of the curse, God gives us enough.

00:32:50.960 He gives us enough to live.

00:32:54.600 Thomas Watson says, you're breathing in mercy.

00:33:00.480 To remember that.

00:33:01.780 Every breath you take, you're breathing in mercy.

00:33:07.180 He gives us enough time to repent.

00:33:10.520 He gives us enough time to have joys.

00:33:13.580 We get to live under common grace.

00:33:17.220 Yesterday I was sitting outside in the sun.

00:33:20.960 And it was a wonderful thing.

00:33:23.220 And I don't deserve any of it.

00:33:26.080 See, when you enter into life with the perspective that you don't deserve anything but hell. 1.00

00:33:32.080 Because your sin is so great, you deserve to just die and go to hell. 1.00

00:33:36.640 That is what you deserve. 1.00

00:33:38.340 When you start there, then you start to realize that every good thing that happens to you is an act of grace and mercy.

00:33:46.200 And it allows you to appreciate the gloriousness of the gospel, but also just the goodness of still being alive in light of you being such a dark sinner. 0.83

00:33:58.420 And so we get to wait in this place in between. 0.99

00:34:05.660 It's this fallen but not abandoned world

00:34:08.520 where we wait for the final judgment

00:34:10.900 that God is going to come back

00:34:13.000 and he's going to make all things new.

00:34:15.780 And so while we sit here in some degree of sorrow

00:34:19.340 and our bodies don't work as we hope,

00:34:22.900 we don't have sorrow like those that are unrepentant,

00:34:27.580 that those that have no hope.

00:34:29.260 We have hope.

00:34:30.540 We have hope that the world will be made new

00:34:32.500 and it'll be better than what we see here in noah amen amen let's pray father we thank you

00:34:39.760 lord for this narrative that you have recorded in the scriptures for us lord that we might take

00:34:45.420 and learn and understand the beauty of what you are demonstrating in noah's faithfulness the flood

00:34:52.480 your judgment redemption and your plans for the world lord we ask that you help us to have a

00:34:59.600 greater appreciation for these old truths. Lord, that they might help us today. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dale Partridge - May 16, 2026

Genesis 8_6-22： The Raven, the Dove, and the Mercy of God

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