Alright brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah 54 and also go ahead and mark Genesis chapter 6. We'll begin in Isaiah 54. Now this is the Lord speaking. This
is coming after Isaiah 53, where Christ, as the substitute of
His people, laid down His life. He says in verse 5, Thy maker
is thy husband, speaking to the church, the Lord of hosts is
His name, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the
whole earth shall He be called. And He says down in verse 8,
This is where our text begins. He says to the church, In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should
no more go over the earth, So have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall
depart, and the hills be removed. But my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Now God saves His people
by covenant, by everlasting covenant grace. And that covenant is fulfilled
entirely by our Triune God in Christ. He left nothing in the
hands of His people. It is entirely fulfilled by the
Triune God in Christ. Those that God chose, He chose
by grace. He chose who He would save in
Christ. And Christ came forth and redeemed
His people and the Spirit is calling them out. And it is because
Christ entered covenant to fulfill everything required. Everything. He put the whole work, the Father
put the whole work into Christ's hand. And He came forth to fulfill
all conditions for God and for His people. And so since Christ
bore that wrath of God and satisfied justice for His people. This
is His promise. This is His covenant promise
to those He calls to Him. He says in verse 8, With everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Now, in this passage, God compares
His everlasting covenant that he makes in the hearts of the
believer. He compares it to the waters
of Noah, the covenant he made concerning the waters of Noah.
He said in verse 9, this is as the waters of Noah unto me. As
I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over
the earth, so have I sworn. I would not be wroth with thee
nor rebuke thee. Now I want to consider Noah and
the ark first. Now let's go over to Genesis
chapter 6. And I want to be as simple as
I can be for those that are yet to be called in to Christ. I want you to hear this. I want
to be simple and that's how God's people want it. We want the message
to be simple. Now God called Noah by grace
and shut him up in the ark by grace. Now look at verse 5, Genesis
6, 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.
You know He is speaking in language we can understand. This is no
surprise to God. But God was determined, He purposed
here to destroy the world. He says, And the Lord said, I
will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the
earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls
of the air, for it repenteth Me that I have made them. But
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now this is what
God saw then, it's what God sees now. It's what He saw then, it's
what He sees now. This is due to the fall in Adam. But this is what He saw then,
this is what He sees now. Verse 5 said, God saw the wickedness
of man was great in the earth. And He looks on the heart. God
looks on the heart. He said, Every, every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Man hasn't
changed. That's so then, that's so now.
The thoughts, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. Noah was a sinner just like every
other fallen son of Adam. He was a sinner like all the
rest of them. In His flesh there was no difference
in Noah than the rest of the sinners on the earth. There is
no difference in any fallen son of Adam, no difference in us,
no difference in our sin nature. So who makes the difference?
The difference is the difference that God's grace makes. It says,
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord looked
upon Noah and gave him grace. Undeserved, demerited, in spite
of Noah, God had grace on Noah. He provided salvation for Noah
in the ark. Now look at verse 17, Genesis
6, 17. He says, and behold, I, God is
speaking, even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy
all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and
everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee, speaking
to Noah, he says, but with thee will I establish my covenant. And thou shalt come into the
ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with
thee. God says, I will establish my
covenant with thee. What's that going to take? How's
God going to establish His covenant with Noah? Look at Genesis 7
and look at verse 16. And they went in. went in male and female, of all
flesh, as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in." The
Lord called Noah affectionately, Noah entered the ark, and God
closed the door. God shut him in. God shut him
in. And then the waters came down.
The floods came down. He broke up the waters from beneath.
It had never rained up to that point. You know, men today don't
believe God's going to rain justice and judgment upon the earth. It's kind of like in Noah's day,
nobody had ever seen it rain. Noah was preaching righteousness,
declaring to the people, judgment's coming, nobody believed him.
It didn't ever rain. But when he shut Noah in the
ark, not until then, when he called Noah in the ark, he rained
down justice in the form of a flood. It came down upon the ark, the
rains, he broke up the depths from beneath, the waters came
up, that ark was surrounded with the flood of God's judgment entirely. The whole world, when that took
place, the whole world was justly judged by God at that time, including
Noah. They were all justly judged at
that time. Look at Genesis 7 and look at
verse 21. And all flesh died that moved
upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle and of beasts and
of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and
every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life of all
that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was
destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven and
they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained
alive and they that were with him in the ark. God justly killed
all living things in Noah's day. All men died in Noah's day because
all had sinned against God. It was just. God's justice demands
the soul that sinneth, it must die. And all died that day. All
died. All were under the curse of God.
But Noah and those that were with him in the ark, Not one
drop of God's justice fell on them. Not on them personally. It all fell on the ark. And they
were safe inside the ark. But in type, in ceremony, in
type, Noah died just like the rest of them did. And according
to God's mind and purpose, Noah died that day in that ark. Just
like the rest of them did. But because Noah was in the ark,
he lived. He was in the ark and he lived.
God's justice was satisfied towards Noah when that justice fell on
the ark instead of on him. And yet it fell on everybody
outside of the ark. It fell on everybody. But Noah
was in the ark and those that were with him lived. You know
what happened when Christ went to the cross? Do you remember
what He said when He was going to the cross? If you want to
look there, hold your place in Genesis and look at John chapter
12. This is what the Lord said when
He went, when He was going to the cross, John 12 verse 30. Jesus answered and said, the
Lord had spoken and he said, this voice came not because of
me but for your sakes. Now listen to what Christ said.
Now is the judgment of this world. The whole world. Now is the judgment
of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. He is going to be defeated. His
head is about to be crushed, Christ said. And if I be lifted
up from the earth will draw all unto me. This he said signifying
what death he should die. The whole world was judged when
Christ was judged on the cross. The whole world was. Just like
the whole world was judged when that flood fell that day in Noah's
day. The whole world was judged. Here's
the difference. Here's the difference. Christ
bore the justice of God and His people were in Him. All the elect
of God were in Christ and that justice fell on Christ and we
died in Him. But like Noah, God's elect were judged in Christ. Just like He was judged in the
ark, we were judged in Christ. Noah included. Judged in Christ. Justice is satisfied because
justice fell on Christ and He died. He bore it. He made each
one the righteousness of God in Him. Each one that were in
Him by God's grace. He made the righteousness of
God in Him. And now, Christ is risen. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all to Me. He's drawing all those the Father
gave Him. He's drawing all those He redeemed
by His blood, all those He made righteous, and He shall draw
everyone to Him and give them faith and shut us up in the ark. He's going to shut us up in the
ark by faith to believe on Him. And in the last day of judgment,
God's going to declare publicly all those who were in Christ
when He died. All His people who are standing
there believing on Him, trusting Him, He's going to be our advocate. He's going to speak for His people
and declare justice is satisfied for them. And everybody that's
outside of Christ, everybody that is not believing on Christ,
the reign of God's justice will fall for eternity. But those
trusting Christ, when we believe Christ, we are confessing, I
believe I was in Him when He died. I believe there is no goodness
in me. I deserve the wrath of God. But God judged me in Christ.
That is all my hope. That is all my salvation. He judged me in Christ. He made
me righteous in Him. And that's what Christ is going
to declare when He vindicates all His people in that day. He's
going to say, these are mine. These are mine. They're righteous.
From the moment they were conceived to they drew their last breath,
there was no sin in them. Why? Because from the time Christ
assumed the body in the womb of the Virgin to the last breath,
there was no sin in Him. And He put away the sin of His
people and He's the righteousness of His people. Isn't that good
news? Oh, that's good news. I pray Christ would call one
of His people tonight and make them come into the ark by faith
and believe on Him and rest in Him. And you that know Him, I
pray He just... I pray He keep us looking nowhere
but to Him. Remember what He said in John?
Come to Me. You do the will of the Father.
You come to Me. You'll know the doctrine. You'll know. This is how He's going to assure
our hearts. Remember that day that when he was speaking to the Samaritan
woman and the apostles had gone into town and they got some food
and they come back. Why didn't they hear what Christ
was saying to them? They weren't looking at him.
They came bodily to him, but at that moment they weren't coming
to Christ and listening to Christ and hearing Christ and looking
to Christ by faith. They were looking at that woman,
marveling that he was talking to that woman. And they didn't
hear anything he said. But for her, there was nobody
around but just her and Him. That's what He's going to make
His people do in every stormy wind that blows. He brings us
to Him to where there's nobody but us and Him. That's when we
know the doctrine. That's when we hear Him. God
will turn us from everything else, bring us to Him, bring
us into the ark. That's what I pray. Now let's
see God's covenant promise to His believing child, and He's
going to compare it to His covenant with Noah. Now look back there
in Genesis 8 and look at verse 21. Let's look at the covenant He
made to Noah first, then we'll go here back to our text and
see what He says. Genesis 8 and look at verse 21. Now when Noah comes out of the
ark, And I'll tell you something, I haven't looked at this in a
long time. I was talking to Brother Marvin
about this. We were talking about that period of time from when
the rain ceased until the floods subsided and Noah could actually
come out of that ark. That was a long trial for Noah.
But that's another message. Let's look here now, Genesis
8, 21. He comes out and he makes an
altar and he offers sacrifices to God. It's a picture of believing
Christ, being thankful to God for His Son and for satisfying
justice for us. So you get the picture. He's
come out of the flood now, justice is satisfied and here He is offering
sacrifices to God, believing God. Now watch, it says, and
God smelled, verse 21, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. That
sweet Savior is Christ. God is satisfied with His people
that believe on His Son, rest in Christ. He's satisfied for
the sake of Christ. And the Lord said in His heart,
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the
imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. He's saying
that's not going to change. It's going to be the same from
here on. Neither will I again smite anymore everything living
as I have done. While the earth remaineth, sea
time, and harvest, and cold, and heat, and summer, and winter,
and day, and night shall not cease. No doubt in my mind, this
is one of the reasons for all of this talk about trying to
save the world and that everything is going to be destroyed, is
to destroy a scripture just like this. I don't know how God's
going to burn this earth up, but I know man's not going to
save it. Everything we touch we corrupt. We're already polluting
outer space. Everything we touch we corrupt.
We're not going to save ourselves by our own hand, but God's going
to hold it in store. because that's His covenant.
He made that covenant with Noah. Now look at Genesis 9 and look
at verse 8. And the reason, see if that can
be destroyed, then this everlasting covenant can be questioned too.
And that's the whole purpose of the wickedness that's behind
all this saving the earth business is to try to put a question mark
on God's Word and a question mark on His everlasting covenant.
But now watch what God says, Genesis 9 verse 8. And God spake
to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, And I 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 there
any more be a flood to destroy the earth. That's God's covenant
with Noah and God established it. It's established by God.
God established His covenant with His elect. Just like He
did with Noah, God established it. And so He established this
covenant with Noah. And God in a covenant with Noah,
with all living flesh, the earth will never again be destroyed
by a flood. Now, that's a picture And He
compares the covenant He makes in the hearts of His children
that He brings to faith in Christ. He compares it to this covenant
with Noah. Now go back to our text. Hold
your place in Genesis. We may come back, but go to Isaiah
54. So that's the covenant He made. And He says, Isaiah 54, 7, For
a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as
the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I will not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. That's the covenant God makes
in Christ. He says, with great mercies,
He shall gather all His people in Christ, bringing each one
to faith in Christ. They must be brought. God, Christ
satisfied justice. He won't pour out justice a second
time on His people. Each one must be brought to faith
in Christ and can't believe in Christ. He will not allow one
to fall away. They must be found in the ark
in that last day, in Christ. And the covenant He makes with
every believer is since our justice is forever satisfied, fully,
totally, completely satisfied by Christ, He says, with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. That's God who cannot lie. Everlasting
kindness, with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you. And He confirms it with an oath.
He says, He will no more be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. The Lord rebukes as far as chastening
goes, in correcting His child. Because He will not allow one
for whom Christ died to be condemned with this world. He will correct
and chasten His child and keep us looking only to Christ. Trusting only Christ. He will
do that so that we are not condemned with the world. But He will not
do it in wrath. He does it in love, everlasting
kindness and mercy. He has given the strongest assurance
we can have in it. What is it? Look to Calvary's
cross. Christ bore the fierce fury of
God's wrath, the anger of God's wrath. And He says to His people,
I will not be angry with you. I won't be wroth with you. He
will not. And thy Redeemer swears by His
everlasting covenant grace that with everlasting kindness, He
will have mercy on you. He says He'll no more be angry
with you, nor rebuke thee so as to condemn you. It will never
happen. Towards one that He's brought
to faith in Christ, it will never happen. Even to those He hasn't
brought to faith in Christ, He's not. He satisfied His wrath in
Christ. But the Lord's covenant is even
better than His covenant with Noah. He said, this is as the
cold waters of Noah to me. I won't be wrath with you. Just
like He promised He wouldn't destroy the earth with a flood,
He says, I won't be angry with my people. I will be merciful
and everlasting kindness to them. But it's better. He said to Noah,
He said, as long as the earth remaineth, this is my covenant
with you. But his covenant to us is, look
at verse 10, Isaiah 54, 10. He said, the mountains shall
depart, even when the earth's gone. The hills will be removed,
but my kindness shall not depart from thee. Neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
on thee. He won't do it. He will not. He says forever, forever, forever. Christ is eternal God and He
accomplished eternal redemption. He satisfied God eternally. And
so God promises His people everlasting kindness. When the hills are
gone and the earth is removed, it will still be with God's people. And we have an assurance that
is better than Noah's assurance. Back there in Genesis 9, Let
me just look at this real quick. God put a bow in the cloud. Genesis
9, 12. God said, this is the token of
the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature
that's with you for perpetual generations. till as long as
the earth lasts, I do set my bow in the cloud, a rainbow. 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. We see it, but more importantly,
God sees it. God sees it. When you look at
a rainbow in the sky, think on this. When you're looking at
a rainbow in the sky, God says, I see it. I'm looking at it,
God said. That's pretty amazing. God says,
I see it. While you're looking at it, God
says, I'm looking at it. I see it. And what does God do? And I will remember my covenant
which is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh and the water shall no more become a flood to destroy
all 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. You know what I like about that? You and I don't see every
rainbow. And sometimes there can be a
rainbow right inside of us and we don't see it. God says, I
look upon it, I see it, and I remember my covenant. There may come a
day when you can't see Christ, when you don't know Christ because
your mind is gone. God says, I see him, I look upon
him, and I remember my covenant. 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. That rainbow has seven colors.
That's the number of perfection. They're trying to say otherwise
about that now too, but it has seven colors because seven is
the number of perfection. And God's covenant is always
perfect. And we have a perfect covenant, but it's not in a cloud. He's seated at God's right hand.
In Isaiah 49 verse 8, God said this concerning Christ, Thus
saith the Lord, In an acceptable time, I have heard thee. In a
day of salvation have I helped thee. When he satisfied justice,
he said, And I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the
desolate heritage that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth
to them that are in darkness, show yourselves, they will feed
in the ways and their pastures shall be in all high places.
That covenant there is Christ. God raised Him, and He raised
Him to His right hand. He is the brightness of His glory,
the express image of His person. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high. He is the covenant seated with God, better than a rainbow. And you know, John, you read
those angels, and there was a mighty angel that John saw in Revelation
10. It's the angel, that mighty angel
had one foot on the earth and one foot on the sea. Meaning
this mighty angel is ruling everything. And he had the book in his hand.
And later that same angel calls the two witnesses, my witnesses. He says they're my witnesses.
That mighty angel is Christ. And you know what John beheld
when he beheld him? He said all about Him, He was
clothed with a cloud and a rainbow was upon His head. He is the
covenant that was typified in that rainbow in Noah's day. Perfect, perfection, perfect
satisfaction with God, perfect acceptance with God, never ever
to be altered or changed whatsoever. Somebody said a rainbow is like
an archer's bow. you know, it looks like a bow,
but it doesn't have an arrow in it. And it's because when
you look at Christ and you see Him, just remember God, He shot
the arrow of His wrath and justice into Christ for His people and
it satisfied. And when you see that bow, empty
without an area in it, no justice is satisfied. Remember justice
is satisfied and that's the assurance we have in Christ. So he says
to us in verse 10, Isaiah 54 10, for the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed. One day he's coming again when
the last ones called into Christ just like when he shut Noah up
in the ark with his family and two of all living creatures When
that was done, there's all kinds of sinners, just like there was
all kinds of creatures called into that ark. There's all kinds
of sinners, God's going to save. But when the last one's called
into Christ, God's going to take His hand
off this world. And I don't know how He's going to do it, but
it's going to not be drowned in a flood, but it's going to
burn up. And everything in it, and all the works in it. And
that day of judgment, the only ones that are going to be saved
from wrath are the ones that were judged in Christ at Calvary. That's all my hope. That's all
your hope that believe in Him. That faith is the evidence of
things not seen. It's the substance of things
hoped for. We're resting in Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, if you want
to see what our inheritance is, read the rest of Isaiah 54. He
tells us. He is going to set every living
stone. He says there that all the children are going to be
taught of Him. That is a great blessing to us because this gospel
is not going to fail. He is going to call out and teach
all His people. He says there in righteousness
each one is going to be established and no waster is going to hurt
His people. He created them and nobody is
going to hurt His people. And he says there, no tongue
is going to be able to condemn us. He says, thou shalt condemn
them. Those that rise in judgment,
thou shalt condemn. And he says, this is the inheritance
of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me,
said the Lord. Vengeance belongs to him. And
one day he's going to vindicate all his people and show, these
are mine. I saved them. No matter what
hell says about us, no matter what the devil says, no matter
what anybody else says, He's going to say, these are mine.
I vindicate them. I vindicate them. Now, if you
don't believe on Christ, anybody here that doesn't believe on
Christ, look at Isaiah 55.3. He says, incline your ear Come unto me, here, and your
soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with
you, even the sheer mercies of David. He says, this is the proof
that he did this, and this is how you know. You can't do anything
but believe him. And by His grace, once He brought
you to believe Him, you can't not believe Him. Can you stop
believing Christ? I know we're full of unbelief
and I know that there's a lot of unbelief in us. But you can't
stop trusting Him. You can't stop believing Him.
And He's going to keep His people believing Him. And that everlasting
covenant, this sure covenant is what He made. So that everybody
that believes in Him says with David, although it be not so
with my house, He has made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation.
This is all my salvation. Though He make it not to grow,
though He is not, He is taking me out of here, David said, but
this is my salvation. It is yes and amen in I pray
God bless that to our heart. Our Father, we thank you for
this word. We pray that you'd be pleased to shut up your people
in the ark. Make us rest in these sheer mercies. Make us know that you're protecting
us, that your justice is satisfied, that there's everlasting kindness
for your people. Lord, make us know what that
means. Make us understand that It's always right to be gracious
and try to help one another to Christ, to lift up the hands
that hang down and strengthen the weary knees and where you've
granted repentance to your people, Lord, help one another to rest entirely
in Christ, assured of this everlasting covenant promise. Thank you,
Lord, for sure things. Thank you for something that
is sure in this world. Help us look to Christ. Help
us look nowhere but to Christ. Forgive us our sins, Lord. Thank
you for your preserving grace. We pray for our young people. We pray for those that don't
yet know you that you're going to call. We pray for those that
do, that are struggling. Lord, we pray you'd help us,
keep us, make good on your covenant promise to us. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen.