Cole raised something that I
hadn't seen and I'm sure it's there as clearly as anything
in the scriptures we talked on Sunday about the fact that God
manifests, his truth manifests, and the word manifests incorporates
the whole idea of enlightening and God's revelation comes by
revealing. And Cole mentioned to me about
Joseph. and his coat of many colours,
and his coat of many colours symbolised the fact that there
was this son, as you see on your sheets there, Israel, loved Joseph
more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age,
and he made him a coat of many colours. So there was this Joseph,
a young man, and he typified the Lord Jesus, and his coat
of many colours is so symbolic, isn't it, of the eternal covenant,
that Joseph, this son, was wrapped in a coat of colours. So it got
me thinking about rainbows. Let's read. Let's read the beginning
in Genesis 9. And God spoke to Noah, and to
his sons with him saying, and behold, and just listen to the
number of times he talks about his covenant here. Behold! I establish My covenant with
you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature
that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast
of the earth with you, from all that go out of the ark to every
beast of the earth. And I will establish My covenant
with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut
off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall their
shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth and God
said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between
me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual
generations. I do set my bow in the cloud
and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the
earth and it shall come to pass When I bring a cloud over the
earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud and I will remember
my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature
of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy
your flesh and the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look
upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between
God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the
earth." And God said to Noah, this is the token of the covenant
which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon
the earth, Isaiah. Many, many years later, 700 years
before the Lord Jesus came, said in Isaiah 54, 9, For this is
as the water of Noah's unto me, for as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart
and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, says the Lord that has mercy upon thee. And then in Revelation chapter
4 we have this amazing description of John as he was taken into
heaven and he says, after this, I looked and behold the door
was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was
as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said, come up hither
and I will show you things which must be hereafter. And immediately
I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and
one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon
like jasper and sardine stone, and there was a rainbow about
the throne, in the sight like unto an emerald. And I saw another
mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow
was upon his head and his face. was as it were the sun, and his
feet as pillars of fire, and he had in his hand a little book
open, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot
upon the earth." So I would just like to spend some time this
evening just thinking about what it means for there to be a rainbow,
and especially for there to be a rainbow around the throne. Obviously the throne depicts
God's absolute sovereignty, and the rainbow depicts the covenant
of grace. Rainbows are remarkable things,
aren't they? They are just the most captivating things you can
see. They are so beautiful. One of the wonderful things about
living out of Terraria is that because it's flat we actually
have horizons all around and especially to the east and the
west and we see those amazing storms at times and we see the
most beautiful rainbows and they just are engrossing and enthralling. It's a remarkable thing that
happens, isn't it? We're actually seeing, because there's light
here, that what happens for a rainbow to occur is that you have a droplet
of water, often just tiny droplets of water and you see them in
waterfalls and things and as the light, Jack probably knows
far more about this than I do, I'm about to display my ignorance
in physics. But anyway, the way it happens
is that the light comes into a droplet of water and it is
refracted. which means it's broken up, isn't
it, Jack? And then it hits the backside of the little tiny,
tiny droplet of water and then it's reflected out and that's
the colours we see. What a remarkable thing. We have
talked, haven't we, and we saw last week that God's revelation
is an enlightening revelation. It brings light, and in that
light we see things that we could never see, and this God shines
a light. That's why church is so special,
why the Gospel is so special, why it is so special for us to
be gathered here reading God's Word. When the sun of righteousness
is refracted and reflected, all of a sudden we see the Lord Jesus
in the most remarkable way. He is the mediator of the covenant. He is the guarantee of the covenant. He is the messenger of the covenant. He is the covenant itself. And he's clothed with a cloud
and there's a rainbow upon his head. It's remarkable, isn't
it? We see a rainbow and we see an
arc. Sometimes we see quite big arcs and sometimes we see less
of an arc. Do you know where you can go
and see a round rainbow? All you have to do is look down
from above. And there's circles. What an amazing picture of the
Lord Jesus. There He is. God over all. And He is surrounded. A rainbow on His head. A rainbow surrounds the throne. The rainbow is around about the
throne. Revelation 4 verse 3. What a remarkable picture of
our Lord Jesus. I got distracted in all of this
because I was looking at Colossians. In Colossians chapter 1 there's
a seven-fold description of God's, the Lord Jesus' work that he
has done. He's made us fit He's moulded
us, He's shaped us from eternity, He's made us fit to be partakers
of the Kingdom of the Saints in Light. And then He has delivered
us out of the Kingdom of Darkness, He's transferred us into the
Kingdom of the Son of His Love. There are sevenfold things, but
Paul stops after four of these seven and then he just breaks
into this beautiful description of the person and character of
the Lord Jesus. And then he has three more after
he's finished his description. I think that's part of what we
see when we think of the Lord Jesus as sitting on his throne,
surrounded by a rainbow. He is, as I said, the covenant. Isaiah 42 and 49 make it so clear. He says, have called you in righteousness. I will hold your hand, I will
keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people and for light to
the Gentiles. Just to make sure that we don't
forget it. In Isaiah 49 verse 8 it says
the same. Thus says the Lord, in the unacceptable
time I have heard thee and in the day of salvation I have helped
you and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people to establish the earth and to cause to inherit
the desolate heritages. It was given the rainbow, it
was given as a sign, and it was a sign, a promise, that God was
never going to destroy this world in the flood of His wrath. He would provide a covenant,
a covenant which is Himself. And he makes a promise, doesn't
he? In Isaiah 44, 45, he says, Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. Believe and be saved. He that believes in the Son of
God has everlasting life. The rainbow pictures the many,
many facets of our Lord Jesus' work. all promised, all sealed
in eternity, all established manifestly in time, all point
to Him and bring glory to Him. And so when we look at all the
aspects of God's activity, we break them up A bit like the
light is broken up in a rainbow and we look at particular things
that we do, but we should look at them all to put them all back
into one place. Each of the colours of the rainbow
is extraordinarily beautiful in itself, but we need to bring
them back, bring them back and make sure we see them in the
light of who the Lord Jesus really is. So the rainbow as we saw,
is a token, a guarantee of mercy and peace. And the covenant which
is symbolised by the rainbow is the covenant of grace. It's
the everlasting covenant. everlasting covenant that we
talk about here often, because God wants it talked about often.
You read the New Testament letters and you'll find in the opening
words of them, they talk again and again and again about the
everlasting covenant. Just read Ephesians, read the
other opening passages upon which the rest of the letters hang.
And as we saw in 2 Corinthians 3, God makes His servants, He
makes His servants to be those who proclaim the everlasting
covenant. The covenant made between God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit before the world
began. It's a covenant made by them.
It's a covenant that guarantees the salvation of all of God's
people. All of our salvation was agreed
upon, was worked out, was accomplished by promise and by purpose. It's a covenant which Jeremiah
expresses so beautifully. He said, I have loved you with
everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you. In time, the Lord Jesus, under
this covenant agreement, He came and He worked out again by promise
and purpose. He accomplished and fulfilled
it perfectly. He came manifestly. to establish
and to fulfil all the covenant requirements for us. In the time
of love and grace the Holy Spirit comes and He seals these things
to the hearts of God's people. That's what we looked at on Sunday,
didn't we? The Holy Spirit comes and He
shines a light and in that light we see the glory of God in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. and God's children receive the
blessing of that covenant. In Galatians chapter 3 it's spoken
of as God's children receiving the blessing of Abraham. The blessing of Abraham is the
promise of the Spirit which is given through faith. The Covenant is a token of mercy
and peace and grace. The Covenant is a reminder of
the security when God said to those those trembling Israelites
in Egypt. He says, when I see the blood,
I will pass over. And look at what he says in Genesis
9.16. He says, the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look
upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between
God and every creature that's on the earth. So God's faithfulness
to his covenant. is not in any way dependent upon
the faithfulness of his people. Psalm 89.28 says, My mercy will
I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast
with him. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. As we read
in Revelation chapter 4, the rainbow is about the throne. It's a beautiful picture, isn't
it? The throne represents God's absolute sovereignty. The rainbow,
His promises, His covenant of promises. What a wonderful picture
it is. Nothing, nothing comes into the
throne of God or out from the throne of God to all of creation
in all of time except through the rainbow. It is wonderful,
isn't it, to think that everything that's come into your life, everything
that ever can come into your life, is always the fulfilment
of God's eternal covenanted purposes. That's what Romans 8.28 means,
doesn't it? God works all things for the
good of his people. on that throne. Wherever he looks,
he's always mindful of his covenant. What a wonderful picture. Robert
Hawker said that when we see a rainbow in the sky, one thing
that we can be mindful of is that when we're looking at the
rainbow, God is looking at the rainbow. We're looking at the
same thing together. And he wants his people, he wants
his people to look to that covenant and look to that as a sign of
His faithfulness. He is faithful to His people. It says in Psalm 111 verse 5,
He will ever be mindful of His covenant. He's always fulfilling
His covenant. Revelation 4, it's wonderful
isn't it, that it also pictures that there is access. In Revelation
4, what a wonderful thing to think. that there was a door
opened in heaven. There was a door opened and a
call was made, come up here, and a promise made, come up here,
come up here through the door that was opened. Lord Jesus called
himself that door, didn't he? And I will show you things that
must be hereafter. You see, without the rainbow
around the throne, God is just a consuming fire. with the rainbow
around the throne, there is access. As Hebrews says, let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. He goes on to say in
chapter 10 verse 19, "...having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the
veil, that is, his flesh." Let us draw near with a true heart
and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." It's
a great invitation, isn't it? Come to God through the covenant. Come to God through Jesus Christ. It's the only way. You come through
His works. through His merits, through His
obedience, through His faithfulness, through His broken body, through
His blood, through His righteousness. And we come to a throne and we
come as His children and we acknowledge that He is absolutely sovereign
over everything. physical, spiritual, temporal,
eternal. As we saw there in Revelation
chapter 10, what does he do? He sets his right foot upon the
sea and his left foot on the earth. And these feet that he
set in the previous verse as feet, as pillars of fire, pillars
that are unshakable, pillars unmovable, pillars that are perfectly
upright, pillars that carry great weight, pillars that lift up
the glory and the purposes of our covenant-keeping God. You
see, His covenant determines His government of this world. in all the big things that happen
in your life, all the big things that are happening in this world,
and all the minute, the seemingly insignificant little things in
this world. That's why Cole's challenge to
me was so good. Because Joseph is a great picture,
isn't it? There is this beloved son. this special chosen son, in his
coat of many colours, Arthur Pink has written in his gleanings
from Genesis, he's found in the life of Joseph a hundred things
that typify the Lord Jesus. What a remarkable one he was,
to be sent into that world and to go through all of the things
he did But he did it. He did it all, didn't he? As
one who was emblematic of our Lord Jesus and a covenant keeper. And he was sent there for the
saving of God's people and for the planting of God's people.
And think of the life he lived. We think so much of his triumphs. But how long did he have to suffer? How long did he have to suffer
abuse and mistreatment? How long did he have to think
about what his brothers had done to him? How long did he have
to think about the pain that had caused his father for him
who was the one who was loved so much to be away from him. And yet God's purposes, God's
purposes are fulfilled perfectly. That's one other thing about
the rainbow. Rainbows are often best seen, nearly always best
seen, after the storm has passed. And often they are most beautiful
against the backdrop of a dark, dark storm. And they just radiate
these colours. A sign of promise. In Revelation
4 it's the rainbow set about the throne and the sight was
like unto an emerald. It was green. Green in a sense
is the central colour of the rainbow. And I think I've got
the colours right, isn't it? Red, orange, yellow, blue, green,
indigo, violet. Am I right? You are the artist, aren't you?
But I think the thing that's fascinating isn't it, is that
the red and the yellow combined produce orange, don't they? And so the colours are individually
beautiful but they are joined. into even more beautiful colours,
aren't they? And so green is one of those
ones that when it's mixed with violet produces indigo, when
it's mixed with yellow produces blue. It's just amazing, isn't
it? God loves blues and greens. Green is the colour, of course,
of life. for agricultural people and life
for us, the colour of life and peace, the colour of tranquillity
and joy. God's children, as Jeremiah says,
shall be as a tree planted by the waters that spreads out her
roots by the river and shall not not be affected when the
heat comes, and the leaf shall be green, and she won't need
to care in the year of drought, neither shall they cease from
yielding fruit. And finally, and almost most
wonderfully, the rainbow is a sign that God remembers, and it's
a sign that God calls us to call Him to remember. What a remarkable communication
God wants us to have. He says in Isaiah 43 verse 25,
He says, I, even I, am He that blots out thy transgressions
for His own sake, for the sake of His glory, for the sake of
His name. And I will not remember your
sins. So there's God remembering not
to remember. And then He says in verse 26,
put me in remembrance. Go to God and remind Him of His
covenant. Let us plead together, declare
You declare to Him that you may be justified. In Isaiah chapter
1 he says, Let us reason together. What a remarkable invitation
from God to His people. Think about here, He was holy
and infinite and above sin. He says, come now, let us reason
together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. As I said earlier in Genesis
9, he says, I will see the rainbow and I will remember. I will remember my covenant. And then he says to us, put him
in remembrance. Go to God. Remarkable request
to God, to his children. Put him in remembrance. Cause
him to remember, and of course it causes us to remember. What's
he going to remember? He's going to remember his eternal
Padma, signed and sealed in the blood of his dear and precious
son. And we might sin. We might sin
and have sinned as grievously as the girl in Ezekiel 16. What shocking, shocking sins. And then at the end of it, the
thing that is more shocking than her shocking sins is that God
says at the end of all of that, He says, nevertheless, I will
remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and
I will establish unto you an everlasting covenant." For me, it's just a glorious
picture. But around that throne, brothers and sisters, I don't
know what has come into your life and I obviously don't know
what will come into your life. But everything that does come
into your life has come from the throne of grace. And it comes
to us through those eternal covenant purposes. And God will be good. And God will be seen to be good,
and his covenant purposes, like the promise he's kept since the
days of Noah, they are so sure. We just have to wait, and they'll
be perfectly sure. He's sealed them with the blood
of his dear and precious Son. He will not fail. Let's pray.