Genesis in Biblical Perspective:
The Gospel of Christ from Genesis –
Left Behind

Genesis 8:1-19

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

This is the word of God. Genesis 8:1-19.

1 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. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 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. 6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 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. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 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. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. 13 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. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 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." 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 families from the ark. The grass withers. The flower fades. This is the Word of God. It abides forever and by His grace and mercy may it be preached for you. Last night my daughter and son-in-law said, "We want to go ahead and give you your Father's Day gift." So I was assured that they remembered Father's Day. It's always nice when somebody remembers Father's Day if you're a father. It's always nice if somebody remembers your birthday. Right? But, actually you could care less whether people remembered Father's Day, or even your birth day. The reason that matters is we want people to remember us, to remember me, to remember us.

Noah was laid hold of by the grace of God. As Noah was laid hold of by the grace of God, God called him to serve Him. God told him that he was going to make a judgment of all of humanity and wipe out every breathing thing upon the earth. He was going to bring this judgment because of the evil that was being done throughout the earth in the heights of power, the culture of violence, the idolatry of sexual immorality; all of it was taking place. The Lord says, "I am going to wipe it clean." But Noah found grace, favor in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord said to him, "It's going to be 120 years." So for 120 years, Noah built an ark in obedience to the Lord. The Bible also tells us he proclaimed righteousness to those who are around him. He was a herald of righteousness throughout that period of time.

After 120 years, God came, and spoke to him again. He said, "Noah, in seven days, the deluge will begin. In seven days, the judgment will fall." So Noah, who had taken 120 years to build the ark, God gave him seven days to fill it, but God helped him because God brought all the animals Himself. Led them there, and they were brought into the ark. Then on the last day, Noah was instructed, "Enter the ark." And Noah did. Then God shut the door. Then the waters prevailed upon the earth, up over the mountains and Noah and his household were in the ark. They were in that ark according the text that I just read to you from the second month, the seventeenth day of his six hundredth year, all the way ultimately and finally to the moment that they disembarked on the second month of his six hundred and first year the twenty seventh day. In other words, they were in that ark one year and eleven days.

Can you imagine the convulsions that they were experiencing? Can you imagine what it was like to have been in that ark when the Bible says that God with the seismos, that's the word we use for earthquake activity, opened up the floodgates of the deep. He poured forth like geysers (fountains) from the deep to flood the earth. He emptied the canopy that was around the earth, He emptied it with a deluge. He made with His hand the convulsions of the earth, made mountains into valleys and valleys into mountains. All the while, Noah with no steering power, with nothing but the fact that God had shut the door, put him the ark, was in that ark through all of that time for one year and eleven days and there's not one piece of record that says, "God spoke to him" but he remained in the ark one year and eleven days.

I know some of you have heard me say this before but let me say it again. Then come the two greatest words in the Bible which are 'but God'. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death but, God, the free gift of God is eternal life." It could be, "The wage of sin is death" period, but God. The Bible says that you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God being rich in mercy... (Ephesians 2:4). Here is Noah left with his family in the ark upon the waters, prevailing throughout the earth and then it says in Genesis 8:1, "But God..." You know I sure am glad when you remember something about me and you remember me, but to know that God remembers you. But God remembered that Noah was righteousness? No. That Noah had done well? No. That Noah came from a good family? No. God remembered Noah. Oh, the glory of the absence of religiosity and the declaration of a relationship initiated not by religious regimen, but by the love of God in our lives. God remembered Noah, but God instead of the judgment of waters and everything wiped out, here's Noah and God remembered Noah.

God remembered Noah three ways. Let me read to you the ways that God remembered Noah. The first way that God remembered Noah was by his spirit. Genesis 8:1-5 says,

1 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. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 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.

God remembered Noah. Now you see the word, "wind" in Genesis 8:1? There are two Hebrew word plays that are being made. The first one is the word, "wind." The word, "wind" is the same as the word for spirit in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word is "Ru'ach." Ru'ach, is the same word for wind as for spirit. By the way, in God's providence, the same thing is true in the New Testament. In the New Testament, what are we told? We are told that that you cannot see the Kingdom of God until you have been born again. How must you be born again? You must be born of the spirit; you must be born again by the spirit of God. The same word for spirit is the same word for wind and it's the word, "pneuma." Therefore in John 3:8 it says, "The wind (pneuma) blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (pneuma)."

So when the Bible declares God's movement, it uses these words, "The wind blows." You can see the same pattern, can't you? Just go back to creation. Everything is chaos, remember, Genesis 1? Everything is chaos until God sends the Spirit who brings chaos into cosmos. The Holy Spirit hovered upon the waters and brought it to order. It is this Spirit who is being sent forth using the elements of the world such as the wind who is now bringing the chaos of judgment back to order. God remembered Noah, so by His Spirit He now begins to bring the waters back.

First, He pulls the waters back into the fountains of the deep and seals them. That's the Spirit of God that does that. Then the clouds that are left are remaining in the sky, and the rains abate and are restrained in the sky by the hand of God. And then the Spirit of God uses the wind to begin to dry the waters and they begin to abate from the face of earth. By the way, the second word play that's being made there is with the word, "Noah." The word, "Noah" means rest. This word is used as a verb a little bit later when it says, "The ark, noahed upon Mount Ararat." So Noah in the ark noahed, it rested on the mountains of Ararat. Now by the way, it's the mountains of Ararat. Where is that mountain? I don't have the slightest idea. I can give you the region that would relate to that period of time that would have been called the mountains of Ararat. If you'll go to Iran, go up into the north east corner and there where Turkey, Iran and Russia meet, it is in that area with that vast amount of mountains there. Somewhere at that point with God's sovereign hand, the ark rested right there. And God began to dry it all as the Spirit of God moved to bring the chaos of judgment back to order so it would be fit for the environment of humanity to step forward from the ark.

Now here is the second way that God remembered. Genesis 8:6-12 says,

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 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. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 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. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

God remembered Noah and in the midst of all of his anxieties He has not yet spoken to him. But He has sent the wind and Noah can see order returning as the Spirit of God begins to move through the environment and begins to bring the prevailing waters back to their place. Then God begins to minister to Noah through His creation.

The carrion bird, the vulture bird, the raven flies out strong out, flies high. It's sent out first. It lives off of dead flesh. Then the next one sent out is a dove, its low flying. It can't fly so far, and it doesn't eat off dead flesh. Has the vegetation returned yet? The first dove comes back with nothing. A second dove communicates vegetation has returned by the hand of God. Now another dove goes and does not come back. The dove can rest and stay. God remembered Noah with His Spirit. With His creation, He spoke to him. Then God speaks to him with His Word. Genesis 8:13-19 says,

13 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. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 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." 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 families from the ark.

Now God has remembered Noah with the Spirit of God preparing the way, the creation communicating in a very pointed way through the means of general revelation that God has established that He is doing a work and Noah becomes aware. The waters are gone, everything is drying out. Yet still, he's in the ark and he doesn't move, but God spoke. Then when God spoke, he disembarked him and his whole family. They left it. Now let's not just gloss over that. How would you like to be on the ark with about 45,000 animals? Even with my allergies, I smell it right now, ark fever, and cabin fever. You can see his anxiety. He sends out the raven, he sends out the doves. He lifts the cover back, he looks. Then it is affirmed what has been said four times already in our narrative. Noah does what God commands. Noah is still in the ark, then God commanded and Noah disembarked with his family and all that was with him.

We're about to leave our study of this particular section of Scripture. There are three truths that must not be missed that I want you to carry with you from this text. Here's the first one. This text clearly declares what runs throughout all of Scripture and it's my responsibility to try to appropriately show it to you each and every time. What runs throughout all of Scripture is what? It is the sovereignty of God and the moral agency of man. Notice I didn't say anything about a free will of man, because man's will is in the bondage of sin until he comes to Christ and then it's freed. But, man does act freely. He acts according to his nature.

Therefore here is Noah saved by grace. Notice Noah's agency. So here is the sovereignty of God and the moral agency of man on both sides of the coin. Here is the sovereignty of God; God sovereignly has looked over the earth. Here is man, remember what it said in Genesis 6? Genesis 6:5 says, "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." What began with Cain has now been multiplied to demonize tyrants who have built a culture of sexual immortality, sexual idolatry, the idolatry of power, violence and the arrogance toward God has now reached absolutely new heights. God treats those decisions with integrity and says, "My judgment is now coming. It is sure. I will wipe away all of this from the earth. Every living thing that breaths, I'm going to remove it from My face." Here is God sovereignly bringing a judgment and God sovereignly at the same time indicting the decisions that are made by humanity and a sin nature of total depravity and when God's hand is removed from it that which is totally depraved begins to move toward absolute depravity in a death spiral of a culture.

Then there's not only the sovereignty of God in judgment, the moral agency of man, depravity and rebellion against God but here is the sovereignty of God in salvation. Noah found favor, grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's grace reached out to Noah. God sovereignly reached out to Noah. God sovereignly called Noah to be delivered and to be a deliverer. And as a deliverer to become a type of Christ that would be used literally thousands of years later. So here is Noah who is called by God's sovereign grace. Noah is kept by God's sovereign grace. Noah is called to a ministry of building this ark and of proclaiming the Word of God. Here is Noah as a man who has been called of God, called to a ministry by God, called to a work by God and then God tells him down to the detail what he's suppose to do as God sovereignly designs the ark. Then God sovereignly reaches out and calls the animals into the ark with His power. God then sovereignly puts Noah in the ark in the right day. Then God shuts the door on the ark and God seals them into the ark. It is God who steers the ark, there's no steering mechanism here. It is God that steers the ark to rest at the mountains of Ararat. It is God who keeps him in the ark and God who doesn't communicate with him but begins to show His remembrance by the work of His Spirit in bringing order out of chaos. Then God sovereignly uses the creatures to encourage the anxieties of Noah, and then God speaks at the right time.

The sovereignty of God is clear throughout it and the moral agency of Noah. God called, Noah obeyed. God declared, Noah believed. God gave him a ministry, Noah worked. God had a relationship, Noah walked with God, Noah worked for God, Noah worshiped God, Noah bore witness of God as a herald of righteousness and as a worker who was faithful to build the ark. Then Noah not only walked with God, worshiped God, worked for God, witnessed for God, but Noah waited for God. Let me be Harry with you just for a moment. If I was in that ark, I know I would have been climbing out the sides of it. You even see Noah's ready, he's looking; he's trying to get the information. Yet, he waits for God to speak. Lord, here is Your servant, speak.

You know four times in this text it has said, "Noah did all that God commanded him." It doesn't say that this time, although it says, "When God commanded, then Noah went out." Because I think it doesn't say it this time because there's something more that's being said, not only does Noah do all that God commands in his trusting relationship with the Lord, but Noah not only did all that God commands, Noah did not do until the Lord commanded. God put him in the ark; I'll stay in the ark. Its stinks, I'll stay. I'm cramped, I'll stay. I'm anxious, I'll stay. I have learned to be content in whatever state I find myself (Philippians 4:11). Wait for the Lord. Not only does he do that all God commands, he doesn't do until God commands and then when God commands, he walks out.

The sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is a challenge to put these things together because we go over here at the sovereignty of God and we then begin to develop the sovereignty of God yet we deny the moral agency of man, the dignity of man, and the reality of a judgment. See, we're accountable for what we do by taking the sovereignty of God and turning it into some kind of a doctrine of fatalism where it's a fate that's bestowed upon people where they become mechanical in life. Then those who want to acknowledge the dignity of humanity and its decisions then begin to put forth this spurious and terrible notion that God can't do anything until we allow Him to do it. The Bible is very clear on this. It says in Daniel 4:34, 35,

34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"

God is sovereign and yet God in His sovereignty has entwined in His actions my responsible responses to what He's called me to do. So He works thorough people who pray. He works through people who bear witness. He is not bound by us, but He has chosen to work through us. Yet He will accomplish His purposes from the beginning until the end. See Jesus just put it all together, boom, just like that. Jesus would say in Matthew 11:25-27,

25 I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Here Jesus affirms the sovereignty of God. Then the very next verse says, 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He affirms the call to responsible action to come to Him. He says, "No man can come to me, unless the Father draws him" (John 6:44). This is the sovereignty of God. He says in John 6:37, "and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." Here the sovereignty of God and the dignity of human responsibility are intermeshed in a glorious way, they're put together and harmonized in Scripture and the example would be just like our, the Person of our Savior. He's God and He's man, and His deity and His humanity is 100% God. He's 100% man and it never stands in competition, nor is one subsumed by the other, but they stand in perfect harmony in the purposes of God. So it is in life the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man and it becomes clearer doctrinally the older you're a Christian, and it becomes loved in life as you rest in Him and seek to serve Him.

The second thing I want to point out to you is that Noah's not just being delivered, he's a type of the Deliverer, therefore this text is used in the Bible to proclaim that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It's used in a number of places. In Hebrews 11:7 it speaks of Noah saying, "By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Noah's righteousness does not come from his obedience; it comes from Christ's obedience that's given to him, that he lays hold of by faith. We're saved by faith alone, by grace though faith alone, in Christ alone. Then secondly notice with me in 2 Peter 2:4-10, it says,

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Noah's very existence says two things to you; God knows the way to save His people and those who are not His people are surely being reserved for judgment. He knows how to preserve by grace, and to reserve for judgment. There are only two categories, where are you? God knows a way and that Way is Jesus Christ. Oh, please be found in Him. Noah goes into an ark to tell you to come into Christ, the ark of safety. Then there is one other text in 1 Peter 3 I want to look at. This message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone is so powerful that Noah, like Moses taking the children of Israel through the Red Sea, Noah and his household become a type of baptism. Then baptism is proclaiming salvation by grace. 1 Peter 3:18-22 says

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. (The very water that was used to judge becomes that through which they are brought through.) 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this (In other words Noah and his family in the ark is a picture of baptism.), now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

So what does He say? In the New Testament there are two acts of God in the Old Testament that are picked out as pictures of baptism. One is Israel going though the Red Sea. He says in 1 Corinthians 10, "They are baptized into Moses as they go through the Red Sea." And now Noah and his household within the ark is a picture of baptism that tells you to be in Jesus Christ. He says it's not the baptism that saves you, not the act, not the ritual, washing the body with the flowing water is not what saves you, but the substance that it points to, an appeal to God for salvation. My good conscious is in Jesus Christ who forgives me of all of my sins. So here we have 22 household baptisms in the New Testament but they all come and are pictured already in the household baptism of Noah.

We are reminded and I don't want to over spend too much time on this, but remember immersion is not the sign of salvation; it's the sign of judgment. Who was immersed in the baptism into Moses? It was not the people of Israel. They went through on a dry land. It was the Egyptians covered over in judgment. Who was immersed in the days of Noah? It wasn't Noah, the ark was not a submarine; it was on top of the water. Everyone else is covered. Whenever God wanted to judge something in the Old Testament He did it one of two ways. He either covered it with water, or He covered it with fire.

Here, Noah in the ark becomes a picture of baptism to bring you not to the ritual, but to bring you and your household to Christ. It's in Christ that we are delivered by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Now let me say very quickly, faith is never alone. Faith always makes itself known. It's visible by obedience, but it's not the obedience that makes faith known that saves us, it's the object of faith, and that object of faith for the believer is Jesus Christ and what He has done. It is that we trust in Him alone for our salvation.

Finally, there are some lessons on the last judgment, the final judgment from this text. Let me see if I can get your attention for this closing point. You probably read the books or saw the books on Left Behind. Let me go counter culture here for a minute. Contrary to what the book says, I want every one of you to be left behind. Now let me show you why. It's because Jesus does. In Matthew 24 Jesus is about to go to the cross and pay for the sins of all of His people. He tells them, "A day is coming, the end of age." They want to know when. Jesus takes two chapters called the Olivet discourse to teach them about the end of time; what has to take place before the end of time and the coming of Jesus when He will return. Look with me if you will to see how he uses the days of Noah to teach us about the end of time. Now Noah knew the time of the judgment of the flood, but no one knows the day or time of the last judgment by fire. Matthew 24:36-39 says,

36 "But concerning that day (that is the coming of Jesus and the last judgment) and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they (the unbelievers) were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Now do you remember back in Genesis, after the flood came, what happened? The flood swept all of them away into judgment. Genesis 7 says who was left? Noah and his family were left in the ark. And Jesus says in Matthew 24:37, 'just in the days of Noah so it will be in this day."

No man knows the hour or the time but people are going to be doing business as usual. Remember how they made fun of Noah and said they just going to marry and give in marriage and forget this judgment. Rain, what are you talking about? Ark, Noah, and they mocked him and they ridiculed him as he remained faithful. As they mocked him and ridiculed they just went around business as usual. There is nothing sinful about marriage, giving marriage, or eating and drinking but when you put those things ahead of the Lord which they did those things business as usual and say, "I don't need to be aware of the judgment to come" that's when He says, "Let me tell you, it will be just that day, just that way among the unbelievers in the day of the judgment. They will be caught unaware." And then they will be what? Just like in the days of Noah, they will be taken away into judgment.

Then to emphasize it, He then gives you two pictures. Matthew 24:40, 41 says, 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken (Where? Away into judgment.) and one left (Left just like Noah and his household.). 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. This is the way I want you to be. When that Day of Judgment comes, the day of God's judgment, all who are apart from Christ will be taken away into an everlasting judgment. I want you to be left in the ark of safety in Jesus Christ. Then, instead of taken away, you'll be taken up into the new heavens and the new earth for all eternity if Christ is the ark of your redemption.

I tell you today, I want people to remember me. But more than anything, I want God to remember me. The dying thief on the cross says, "Oh Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom. Remember me. Not remember about me, not remember what I've done. I need You to remember me. I want You to remember me." I know if God remembers you, you're going to want to remember Him, what He's called you to be and do. Is there chaos in your life? God remembers you. He sent the Holy Spirit to you. You have the Holy Spirit. Just as the, Holy Spirit went before Israel at the Jordan River and blew the waters, just the Holy Spirit went before Israel at the Red Sea, just as the Holy Spirit made chaos into cosmos and order, just as the Holy Spirit comes into your life and your born again by the Spirit and the Spirit of God blows in your life, fix your eyes on Jesus. God remembers His people and He sends His Holy Spirit to you. He sends His communication of encouragement and nurture and not only that, He sends His Word. You have the Holy Spirit, you have the Word of God, and you have the witness all around you of God's love for you. It is because God has remembered you and has said to you in that Word, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:7). God has promised to remember you. The thief pleaded for it. Noah knew it. Jesus has promised it to you. In fact the Bible says in Romans 8:31b-39,

31 If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (He remembers you before the throne of God.) 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When theses things come to you, where you think that God has forgotten you, that your sins are too much, that you're lost in the maze of the life, that the circumstances are too complex, that your health is overwhelming, that your challenges are too much or that people have forgotten you, there is One who will never forget you. There is One who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). There is One who gave His Son for you. There is no stopping that God. He will take you to heaven. Put your trust in Him alone. God remembers His people. Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, oh God, our God, thank You so much that mercy upon mercy has been extended gloriously in our life. Our God will not be stopped. Oh God even though we become faithless, how I praise You that Your faithful. You will not deny Yourself or Your promises. Dear friend, if you this day have put your trust anyplace else, oh I tell you it will all be swept away. To be secure and left for glory, you must be in Christ. Come to Him and dear friend if you have come to Him, know with rejoicing, your name is written on His hands. Your name, a new name is already in glory. Your Savior will never abandon you or forget you or leave you or forsake you. Oh sufficient Savior, be exalted I pray in the lives of these Your grateful people morning by morning new mercies we see. In praise and thanksgiving to You Father through Jesus Christ who has sent us the Spirit of order and the Word of direction, we give You praise and glory. Amen.