To the world, a rainbow is just
a natural occurrence, isn't it? some kind of natural phenomena
or science would give their reasons behind it. This and that occurs,
and so the rainbow, we have a rainbow. To the religious, it's just a
symbol that the Lord won't flood the earth anymore. But while
it is a symbol of that, it's much, much deeper than that. For those of you who know the
truth as it is, And the Lord Jesus Christ, the rainbow, like
everything, is a picture, is a type, is a symbol of Him, of
Christ Himself, of God's covenant of grace in Christ. Covenant of Grace in Christ.
When we began in Chapter 1 of Genesis, we clearly saw that
Christ, in the very beginning, is the light. He's the light. Christ was the firmament. Remember
these? We looked at the firmament. The
tree in the midst of the garden of life. The woman's seed. Oh, my. You see, Christ is all. He really is. And in all. Colossians
said, are hidden from the wise and the prudent, are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You find this knowledge, the
Lord reveals it to you. Christ the treasure, the pearl
of great price. Oh, my. You see all wisdom and
all knowledge in Him. In Him. All the mysteries. or
in Him, revealed in Him. And we need to be more than just
amazed in our minds by these things. Too often we get caught
up in these types and, wow, that's interesting. Something I've never
seen before. We're just amazed at how the mystery is revealed to
us. But we need to be blessed by God's grace to us in Christ. We need to really and truly see
a person. At the end of chapter 8, The
end of chapter 8. True story. This is true being
and it is true of what's to come. Destruction of this planet. Destruction
of people because of sin. After the Lord had destroyed
a godless, thankless, evil world, and that's what scriptures calls
this world, this present evil world, after God destroyed it. Noah, the Lord had Noah in verse
20 and 21. He built an altar under the Lord.
built an altar under the Lord and took of every clean beast,
every clean fowl, clean offerings. They are all a picture of Christ.
The turtle doves, the bullocks, the lambs, clean offerings, all
a picture of Christ. And it took many, many, but He
won the sacrifice to put away sin and the stench of it and
offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a
sweet savor And the Lord said in his heart, verse 21, I will
not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. You see, the
curse is removed by the sacrifice. And we're under a curse, but
Christ was made a curse for us, being made sin for his people. I read on, it says, for the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth, not was, is. His wife,
his sons are sinners. They're sinners. And their sins
are forgiven by Christ. And so are all of God's people. We need that sacrifice. And God promised, I will not
smite any more everything living as I have done by the water. But He did say, And Peter wrote,
of the same heavens that are kept in store now, reserved unto
fire. And God will destroy it by fire.
Then God blessed Noah and his sons. After He destroyed the
world, He had Noah offer these sacrifices, all of them. And
He says, God, smell this sweet-smelling savor. And He made this promise,
this oath, this covenant, I will not destroy all flesh the same
way. And He made it with Noah and
with his sons. And this covenant is with Christ
who is our Noah, our Red. and His sons. He's the firstborn
among many creatures, or many sons. It became Him in bringing
many sons unto glory. Christ is our sacrifice, our
Noah, alright? In Him we live and we're accepted. And so this is all about the
Lord Jesus Christ. You've seen that. So Christ offered
that sacrifice. I smelled it. He said, I will
not curse those that are in Christ. I won't do it. The curse has
been removed in Christ. And then God blessed Noah and
his sons and went on to give them His Word, His covenant,
a token. Now here in chapter 9, a token
of His covenant. And we saw in verses 1 and 2
of chapter 9 Noah came off that ark, and God said, Be fruitful
and multiply, and the fear of you will be upon every beast
of the earth. We went to Genesis 8, I mean,
Psalm 8. and saw how that that is a picture
of Christ. That's what is written in the
Hebrews, that Christ is the one of whom Psalm 8 speaks. It was
made a little lower than the angels, but all things under
his feet, things in heaven and earth, under the earth, in the
sea, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, given all things to him. And
we're joint heirs with him in Christ. All right, now, look
at verse 8. Let's start there. Let's just
go ahead and read down to verse 17, and then we'll make some
comments. God spake unto 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, 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." Who is he talking to? Noah and his sons with him.
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. 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 generation.
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, I will remember
my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature,
living creature of all flesh. And the waters 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. And God
said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have
established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. The bow of the covenant, the
rainbow, the rainbow. This rainbow that God said He
would put in the sky as a token of His mercy upon sinful creatures,
His saving grace. How wicked is man? How depraved
is man? Well, they mock God's mercy.
They make light of things like the Ark and Noah, make light
of it. Not too long ago, Noah's Ark
became a popular thing and people began to use it as ornaments
for their tables, pictures on their walls, cute little carvings
for children to play with. They make playgrounds outside
that look like Noah's Ark for the kids. It's a mockery. God
destroyed the world. He destroyed the world. God was
angry with the wicked every day. That ark is a picture of crime.
And that ark is no more. That wooden ship is no more. They never found a piece of it.
That's by God's purpose because they'd be worshiping it. That
ark was just a worthless piece of wood. It was just a ship to
contain these people, but a picture of Christ. Like, you remember
the serpent on the pole? It was Hezekiah. They found it in the days of
Hezekiah, wasn't it? They found it. And the people
were worshipping that serpent on the pole, that serpent of
brass. And Hezekiah had it ground to powder. He said it was worthless. He called it Nahashtan, a worthless
piece of brass. People worshipping an idol. They
made an idol out of it. You're not to worship a thing
or a place or anything. You're to worship the Lord. And
He rebuked the people strongly for that. And so we'll not find
the Ark. We'll not find the so-called
Holy Grail. We'll not find the Ark of the
Covenant. No, no. But people worship those
things. The so-called Shroud of Turin.
That's a hoax. We see what people do with it.
They worship it. But listen to this though, how idolatrous,
how wicked is man, how depraved is man. You know what the rainbow
is now a symbol of? Homosexuality. That's their symbol. Talk about
a mockery. It's for these things that God
destroyed this world. And for these things, the Lord's
going to destroy it again. But yet, people... Oh, how blessed we are if we
know what this covenant is. The bow of the covenant. The
bow of the covenant. Let me just illustrate this,
what this bow means. One day, and this happened. Not
written, but you know it happened. You see, it hadn't rained before
the flood, but it rained afterward. The Lord sent rain. And it's
been raining ever since, thank the Lord. And one day long after
the flood, Noah and his sons were out working in the field. And the sky turned dark with
clouds. And the rain started falling.
And one of those boys, I bet you, One of those boys, Shem
or Japheth, said, Dad, you don't reckon surely? They're
sinners, Dad. Is the Lord going to destroy
us again? Noah said, look, son, look up
in the sky there. There's a big rainbow in the
midst of that black cloud. He said, you see that? God promised
us. We have God's Word on it to us
that He'll not destroy us. You see that rainbow? That's
a token. God said, when I see that bow,
I won't destroy you. I'll pass over you in mercy.
When I see the bow, I'll pass over you." Now what do you reckon
that bow could represent? There's no doubt about it. In
Exodus 12, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. When I see
Christ, Christ ever liveth to make intercession. Go to Hebrews
6 with me. Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews 6. His oath, His covenant, His blood
support us, this whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and strength. Christ is that rainbow. Christ Himself. Hebrews chapter
6. Now, we're sons of Adam. We're
sons of Noah. We're sinners. And the imagination
of our heart is evil from our youth. Every person in here has
to admit it. The imagination of our hearts
is evil, but by God's grace, we've been brought to Christ.
And we've seen that we're crucified with Christ, but now we live
buried with him in baptism. We're now alive under God through
Christ, but we're still sinners. We still sin. Will God destroy
us? No. Why? Not for our sake. For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. God smells that sweet smelling
sacrifice which is Christ. And although our sins are ever
before us, something else is ever before the Lord. He says,
and I see it, I will remember my covenant. And that is the
blood before the Lord. It's something before the Lord.
And you know what? There has to be a cloud to see the rainbow. And our sins come over us like
a dark cloud. David said, my sins are over
my head. My sins, my sin as ever before,
my sin, my iniquities are over my head, he said. It takes a
dark cloud and Satan would ever have us under a dark cloud of
our own sin and our guilt. But look, there's a bow. Look higher in
the midst of that dark cloud. Look at Hebrews 6, verses 17
and following. It says, God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise. That's the sons of promise. That's
His chosen people like Isaac and Isaac, the heirs of promise. The immutability, that is, the
unchangeableness of His counsel confirmed it by an oath, by two
immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. We might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set
before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, sure
and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil, what
is that hope? It's not a what, it's a who.
It's a person. Christ, the forerunner, entered
into the veil with His own precious blood. And Hebrews 9 says, what
did He do with that blood? It says He obtained eternal redemption
for us. And He ever lives to make intercession.
And God said to Noah, when I bring that bow, That cloud over you,
the bow is going to be seen in that cloud and I will remember
my covenant and water shall no more become a flood to destroy
the earth. And God says to his people, though
your sins like a dark cloud are over you, yet when I see the
blood. I will remember my covenant with
Christ and remember your sins no more." Well, that's the good
news. Go to Revelation 4 with me. Revelation
4. Some wonderful, amazing things
about the rainbow, though. It's made up of... Any art students
in here study art? And how many colors in a rainbow?
Seven. That's a number of perfection. I learned this in school. Roy
G. Bibb. You remember that? Roy G. Bibb, Colors of the Rainbow.
That's how it was. Remember, red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo, violet. Seven colors. Number of perfection. Picture of Christ. All the perfections
in Him. He is the express image of God.
The perfections in Him. Righteousness. The fullness of
God. It pleased God that in Him should all fullness dwell. But you know, there are three
primary colors. All other colors emanate from these three primary
colors. Okay? What's the first color? Red. Red. It's the most dominant color. It overrules everything else.
Orange, red, yellow, and blue. Christ's blood, Christ's deity,
Christ's redemption. Oh my, these three bear record
in heaven. All the perfections are in Him. But see, in Him dwelleth all the
fullness, all the mysteries, all the treasures, all things
in Him. Blood red is the primary color,
and the blood, we're going to be singing, God's people are
going to be singing about the blood. in glory unto Him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." It's
the blood that makes the atonement for the soul. The life of the
flesh is in the blood. We looked at that in the first
part of chapter 9, how you don't treat blood carelessly. You don't eat flesh, raw flesh,
and so on. The blood is not to be trodden
underfoot, not to be bloodthirsty but thankful for. Bloody men. Alright, this rainbow is a picture
of Christ. And look at chapter 4 of Revelation,
and I'll quit. It says in verse 2, it says, immediately, I was in
the Spirit. This is John. I was in the Spirit. And it takes
the Holy Spirit for you to see these things, for us to see these
things. And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat
on the throne. Who's that sitting on the throne?
You say it's God, God sitting on the throne. No, you can't
see God. We'll never see God, God's spirit. No man has seen,
can't see God. Well, but we will see God. Job said that, with my eyes I
will see God. Who's God? Christ is God. Jesus
Christ, the only God we'll ever see. A mystery. These three,
the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, these three, but they're
one. And we won't see the Holy Spirit, we won't see the Father,
but we will see the Son. And He's the image of God. Because
we're going to have an image. We're going to have a body. And
we're going to see Him in a body, an image. The image of God, which
is Christ. So He's seated on the throne
in another place as a lamb that had been slain. And it says in
verse 3, he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine
stone, and there was a rainbow around his throne. A perpetual,
eternal rainbow. In Revelation 10, Ezekiel says
he has a rainbow on his head. It's very clear to you that understand. verse in Proverbs 8 says it's
all plain to him to understand it. It's all plain. So, here's what I hope we'll
do. When you see the clouds in the
sky, what do you think? Clouds. Well, Scripture says
that the dust of His feet stirs, getting up. Dust of His feet. The Lord is near. He's coming.
He's arising from His throne. Come back when you see the clouds
and dust. When you hear the thunder, it's thunder. It's thundered
a few times in the New Testament. People said, well, it thundered.
Oh, but God's people heard it, boy. Didn't they? They heard God say, this is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Others just said, well,
it thundered. When Christ was walking along
one day and said, Father, glorify thy name. And God said, I have
both glorified it and will glorify it again. And the people said,
it thundered. When you hear the thunder, I
want you to think of that. God said, this is my beloved
son. I have glorified him and I will glorify him again. And
when you see that rainbow, don't just admire it. Well, look, a
beautiful rainbow. In your heart, drop to your knees
and thank the Lord for the blood of the everlasting covenant.
For the Lord Jesus Christ, that God said, I see him and I see
you in him and I will not destroy you. He had my word on it. Okay.