I love that verse. It says, Till
all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more. Boy, that'll be something, won't
it? We won't have this old person to deal with again. We won't
have to deal with ourselves anymore. That'll be such a blessing. Genesis
chapter 8. Genesis chapter 8. And we'll go be with those men
whose spirits are... Just men in heaven whose spirits
is already made perfect. Be saved to sin no more. Oh my. Look here with me in Genesis
8 20. And Noah builded an altar unto
the Lord. This is after he come forth out
of the ark. Him and everything that was with
him and his family. And Noah built an altar unto
the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl,
and burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not curse the ground
any more for man's sake. For the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite any
more everything living as I have done. While the earth remaineth,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter,
and day and night shall not cease. Now, Genesis 9, 12. And God said,
this is the token of the covenant which I will make between me
and thee, 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 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. And God said unto Noah, This
is the token of the covenant which I have established between
me and all the flesh that is upon the earth. Title of my message
this evening is the altar and the bow. The altar and the bow. Our God is a covenant God. He's
a covenant God. He makes himself, he puts himself
in these covenants, these covenants, and he makes the promises himself.
The covenants are made by him and they benefit us, but he's
the one that makes the covenant. And he established this covenant
with Noah and all animal, everything that's on the earth, all flesh
that's on the earth, he made this covenant. And God said that
in verse 12, he said, this is the token of the covenant that
I make between me and you and every living creature that is
with you for perpetual generations. So he made this, this token of
the covenant, which was a rainbow. Now you keep Genesis nine and
look over here in Genesis 17, 11. Here's another one that God did. And He gives a token, and a token
is an evidence, a proof, a proof. And He said here in Genesis 17,
11, And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and
it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you, betwixt me
and you. You circumcise yourself and all
your family, and that's the token between me and you. And then
there's another one in Exodus 12, 13. Let me show you this
one. You know, He makes these covenants,
and He gives these tokens of the covenant. And in Exodus 12,
13, He does the same thing again. And here, the rainbow was a token
of the covenant. The circumcision was a token
of the covenant. And then look here in verse 13
of Exodus 12, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the
houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy
you when I smite the land of Egypt. So he gives these tokens.
We have this evidence. The blood on the door, God passes
by. The rainbow in the cloud, God said, I'm never going to
destroy the earth again. He said, this covenant of circumcision,
and he read that tonight. When Peter went in under these
uncircumcised people to preach to them, the Gentiles, the Jews
just went absolutely berserk over that. They couldn't believe
it that a man would do that. Here you are, you're a clean
Jew, you've kept the law, you're in God's covenant, and here you
went among a bunch of people that's not clean. And so he rehearsed
the matter from beginning to end. But before God gave us this
rainbow, before the rainbow was ever entered into a covenant
with Noah, and all that was on the earth, there was an altar.
There was an altar. And just as there's a connection
between the altar and the bow, and that's a connection between
the altar and God makes a covenant. And just like the same connection
exists between the death of our Lord Jesus Christ being offered,
God's altar being offered on the God's altar, and he himself
being God's altar, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's
the altar, there's the poem. There's the altar, Christ on
the altar, there's a resurrection. We see him in the heaven, sitting
in the right hand of God. And the altar, here's what it
tells us about. When he built this altar and
held this altar, that's the first thing he did when he got off
the ark. The altar speaks of sacrifice, of sin put away. Now
Noah had been on this ark and he'd been in this ark for over
six months, almost a year. And here he is, the first thing
he did is he gets off here and he says, I need a sacrifice for
my sin and for my family's sin. So he built this altar and this
is sacrifices of sin put away. He knowed he needed sin put away.
And the bow in that cloud, it speaks of the promise and assurance
that he would have that this would never happen again to him.
He needed that promise and assurance. Oh Lord, this will never happen
again. And do we have the promise, the Lord Jesus Christ died for
our sins, and the resurrection tells us that he rose again for
our justification. So if our sins put away, we have
this confidence and assurance that Christ sits at the right
hand of God, giving us evidence that we've been justified before
God. And that's the way the altar at Naboo is. Let's look at the
altar first over here in verse 20 of chapter eight. Let's look
at the altar. Look what it says there in verse 20, Noah built
an altar, and look what it says, unto the Lord. Unto the Lord. He understood the nature of God. He understood God's holy, God's
righteous, God is just, and that God has to have atonement for
his sin, atonement for his soul. And Noah is confessing here the
holy and righteous and just claims of God when he offered these
sacrifices, the burnt offering. He's acknowledging that God is
God and God has a claim on me. God is holy and I'm not. God
is righteous and I'm not. God is just and I'm not. And
so I need a sacrifice that God would accept so I could be accepted. And so he offered these offerings
on the altar. And he offered this unto the
Lord. That's the thing about it. He done this before the Lord. And look what happens. He come
to the Lord and offered of every clean thing. Every clean thing,
and this altar is the first thing you did. The first thing you
wanted to do was worship God. And ain't that what happens when
Christ redeems us and makes Himself known to us? From then on, all
we want to do is worship God, and we understand the only ground
we can come before God on is through the sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And then look what happened,
the results of this offering. Look what it said. In verse 21,
and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. God said, this smells good to
me. Oh, what a sweet savor this is
to me. And you know what it says in
the margin there? The Lord smelled a sweet savor. And you know what it says in
the margin? A savor of rest. I smell that, and I tell you
what, I rest. towards Noah in that sacrifice. Noah will never have to deal
with his sin on account of this sacrifice. God smelled it, and
there's a rest. God's not gonna destroy the earth
anymore, and God's, Noah is, and there's a sweet sacrifice.
And I, Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to see this. You know as
well as I do. Over in 2 Corinthians 2. Keep
Genesis there. Now keep over here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. And let's look at this just a
minute. It's talking about Christ being a sweet saver. You know,
and Paul says, you know, said, Our Lord Jesus Christ is an offering,
a sweet-smelling savor, offered unto, forgive one another even
as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us, as Christ was made
a sin offering for us and a sacrifice for us. But look what he said
here in verse 14 now, 2 Corinthians 2, 14. Now thanks be unto God. which always, always causes us
to triumph in Christ. Never, no doubt about it, triumph
in Christ. No triumph in the world, no triumph
in the flesh, no triumph in Calvinism, no triumph in doctrine. The triumph, the victory is in
Christ. And maketh manifest the savor,
the smell, the taste, the glory of his knowledge by us everywhere
we go. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ. In who? In them that are saved. Oh, when God saves a man, and
when they hear the gospel, God said, that's a sweet smelling
savor. That's sacrifice that they're
trusting in. That's sacrifice they're looking
to. Oh, what a sweet smelling savor. And then it's also not
only in them that are saved, but it's the sweet smell and
savor unto God in Christ, even in them that perish. Because
it's Christ that's the sweet smell and savor. And if it smells
good to us, ain't it a sweet smell and savor to you? When
we open the Gospel and God blesses the Gospel, it's a sweet smell
and savor to us. Especially to us that are saved
by the grace of God. But them that perish, it don't
smell good. It has no smell. It don't smell
like it does to us. It don't taste like it does to
us. So He's tasted the grace of God. And he goes on to say,
To the one we are a saver of death unto death. When they hear
Christ, they don't believe it, they're dead, and they'll die
eternally. But unto the other, we're the
saver of life, unto life in Christ now, and the saver of life, unto
eternal life. And oh, who is sufficient for
these things? And that's what God said. He
said He found this altar, and He found this sacrifice, And
he said, oh, what a sweet savor. I smell this wonderful, sweet
savor. Oh, it smells so good to me.
Good to me. And then look what he made a
promise to him after he made this sacrifice. Again, down here
in verse 21, Genesis 8. And the Lord said in his heart,
I will not curse the ground any man more for man's sake, for
the imaginations of man's heart's evil from his youth. Will I again
smite everything at living as I've done before? He says, I
will not curse the earth again. I'll not do it. And boy, what
a promise. What a promise. I'll not smite
the earth again. And boy, you know how that blessed
Noah. And I tell you what, God won't
curse us again. You know why He won't curse us?
Because Christ was made a curse for us to redeem us from the
law, curse of the law. And again, God said, I'll no
more curse. There's therefore now no judgment
to who? Them that are in Christ. And
God, when He sees Christ, and He looks at Christ, and that's
the only one He's ever looked at. From Genesis to Revelation,
that's the only one God's ever looked at. God only accepts men
in Christ because of Christ and the offering of Christ. and the
righteousness of Christ. And beloved our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world to do one thing, to bear our curse. And
He bore our curse and God cursed Him. And He says, no more, no
more will you ever bear another curse. No more will you ever
have to bear your sin again. Why? Because Christ, God made
Him. to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
There's therefore and right now, and I've told you this before,
every time you read that, it says now. You know, you cannot read it
without it saying now. You get up, you know, you feel
your conscience may be bothering you or you'll be heavy burdened
or something like that. You read that verse of scripture
and it says right now. While you're living, when you're
on your deathbed, it'll say now. No condemnation. None. Mind get to troubling you. Troubles
get to troubling you. And God says, now, now. And I from now still going to
be now. Oh my. And so we have this assurance
of promise. I'll not again curse. I won't
curse again. And we have this promise from
Christ. And from God himself, Christ was made a curse for us
to pay our sin debt, to save us out from under the curse of
that law, trying to be saved by our works, by our righteousness,
by our merit. And then look at the promises
of unceasing blessings here. Unceasing blessings. We're going
to have blessings as long as the earth stands. Look what God
said in verse 22. While the earth remains, there'll
be seed time and harvest. cold and heat, and summer and
winter, and day and night, it will never cease while the earth
remains. What blessings. We have day to
work, night to rest. Put seed in the ground, you're
gonna harvest it. Winter's gonna come, it's gonna
get cold. Summer's gonna come, it's gonna get hot. Everybody
talks about this global warming. God said it's gonna be this way
until this earth ceases to be. Ceases to be and all listen. God says you sons of Jacob. You're not consumed Why because
I am the Lord I change not he don't change and all beloved
and this shall not cease Now let's look over here at the boat.
That's the altar He came out and he offered these altar the
offer made this altar And he made it under the Lord the Lord
looked at it found it and said oh what a sweet smelling savor
And Christ is our saver of rest. Christ is our assurance by promise.
I'll not again curse. And oh my, we're going to have
these unceasing blessings. And then look what he says here
now. In verse 9 through 12, do you know? First of all, it's
the bow of promise. God said, this is the token of
the covenant that I make between me, you, and every generation.
He said, now I do, in verse 13, I do set a bow, my bow. Did you see that? My bow. And
this bow he's talking about is the rainbow. That's what he's
talking about. My bow shall be in the cloud,
and it shall be a token of a covenant between me and you. And I'll
cause the bow to pass over the clouds. I'll cause the bow to
come. And first of all, this is the bow of promise. This rainbow
is the rainbow of promise. And you know when God gives the
promise? After the sacrifice. after the altar, after the blood's
been shed. And that's the same thing that
he told them in Egypt. He said, after the blood shed,
that's when I'll pass over you. And I tell you, Rearers, after
the blood's been shed, that's when God said, I'm gonna show
you that I'm never gonna put you through this again. Said,
do you know when I'm gonna put a bow in the cloud? I'm gonna
put a rainbow in the cloud. And it comes after all the, it
comes after the altar of sacrifices. And here's something else about
this rainbow. All the colors are in the rainbow. All the colors
are in the rainbow. And oh my, have you ever seen
double ones? And every time I see a rainbow,
I automatically think of this right here. I always think of
this. This God's still keeping his
covenant to Noah and the earth and all that's on it. And all
the colors are in the rainbow. So all the attributes, And all
the promises of God are in Christ. All the attributes, everything
that God is, is in Christ. It has all the glory and beauties
in this rainbow, all the blessed attributes. All the glorious
promises of God is in our Lord Jesus Christ. And just as the
rainbow is seen in the clouds, Christ our Lord is seen by us,
seated at God's right hand. with all power and majesty. And you know when He sat down
with God's right hand, it was after the cross. That's when
He sat down. That's where we have our rest.
And let me give you a couple of things about this rainbow
here. First of all, the rainbow is a token of God's goodness.
God's goodness. How good and gracious is the
Lord to give such a visible, visible expression of His love
and grace. to give such an assurance of
heart to Noah and his family. You know, and here's what happens
is, if Noah hadn't had this promise, and God hadn't made this promise
to him, said, I'm gonna put a bow in the clouds. Every time it
rained, if God hadn't entered into this covenant, Noah said,
oh my. Let's take care of this ark, we may have to get in another
flood. Oh my, he would have lived in fear that all the days of
his life, and his family would, and his descendants would, after
he had told them. And had not the Lord done this
for Noah, every time it rained, he had thought, oh my, let's
get back in the ark, let's get back in the ark. But oh God said,
I'm gonna put a bow in the crowd. I'm not gonna smite the earth
anymore. I'm gonna give you evidence that I'm never gonna do it again.
Now when you see rain, I'm gonna cause my bow to pass over the
cloud. And when you see that bow, you'll
understand that I've made a covenant with you and I'm not gonna smite
the earth anymore. Now every time it rains, you
don't have to worry about it. It'll stop and there'll be a
rainbow to show you what between me and you. And that's the same
thing about our Lord Jesus Christ. People talk about, you know,
whether he's resurrected or not. Well, I'll tell you what, if
our Lord Jesus Christ wasn't resurrected, if he has not risen
from the dead, then we're in our sins. But oh, beloved, but
now is Christ risen from the dead and sits at God's right
hand. And I tell you what, the needs
of God is only met, met by sacrifice. And so our Lord Jesus Christ,
man, I've left off a whole bunch of notes here. I didn't turn
it over. I went the wrong way. Oh boy, you want me to start
over? How did I get there? Oh my, how
did I get there? Oh my goodness. Oh, I will. I'll just start over
here. Let's go back to the offering.
Oh, I'm more to be pitied than to be blamed. Oh, my goodness. You know, I've been here 38 years,
and I told somebody this morning, I said, they still put up with
me. They said, well, you must be doing something right. No,
no, the Lord's just gracious, gracious, gracious. Oh, my goodness. How in the world? I'm really to be pitied. This
is awful. But the first thing Noah did
in coming out of the ark, talking about going back to Noah over
here at his offering. The first thing he did was to
acknowledge God. That's the first thing he did
by building that altar. That's the first thing he did.
He acknowledged God. And he said, in the beginning,
God. God did this. God did this. God did this. And then the need
of an offering. The new beginning is now being
made. They're coming out on a new earth.
They're the only people on the earth. There's eight of them
coming out. Eight of them coming. The whole earth is going to be
replenished by these people. And I tell you what, it must
be made and blessed of God. This new earth must be made and
blessed of God. So he made an offering for this
new beginning, for this brand new beginning. And our Lord Jesus
Christ is our beginning. He's our hope. He's our, we need
an offering because when we have Christ, our life starts all over
again. It's a new beginning for us,
a new life for us, a new creation that God makes us to be. And
then the nature of the offering, it says, every clean beast. I
know that I missed this. What the nature of the offering,
every clean beast. You know what made them clean?
What made them clean? God said they were. That's the
only, you read it tonight. I'm never, nothing, any uncleans,
never touched my lips, Lord. God let down that sheet. He said,
what God has cleansed, call not thou common nor unclean. And
beloved, the only thing that made these animals, these offerings
clean was God said, that's clean to me. That's not clean. This
is clean. And the only way we can be clean
and cleansed, he cleansed us from all our sins by his own
blood. And he's the only way we can
be clean is through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you
what, He offered a perfect offering. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
without spot and without blemish. And that's why man's sacrifice
is not acceptable. It's because our sacrifices are
full of sin and spots and blemishes. But Christ was offered without
spot to God. And He purged our conscience
from Wicked works. And God found in His Son perfect
satisfaction. Now let's go back to the bow. Back to the bow. I said it was
a token of God's goodness. How good and gracious He is to
do that. And then it was a token back over here in Genesis 9.
It was a token of God's fullness. God's fullness. In the rainbow,
there's a fullness of color. Fullness of beauty. I've even
took pictures of rainbows. You ever took a picture of a
rainbow? I have took pictures of them. I've seen them, and
they're so glorious that you just say, got to take a picture
of that. But the picture is nothing like the reality. And oh, there's
such a fullness of color and beauty, and those colors are
in harmony. They're in harmony. They fit
together. They fit together. And I tell
you what, you're talking about fullness. The fullness of the
Godhead dwells bodily in our Lord Jesus Christ. All the fullness
of who God is. God inhabits eternity and He
is so full. I could go in there and find
a book and tell you all of His attributes. And they're the attributes
of God. Oh, there's so many attributes.
There's His justice. There's His holiness. There's
His righteousness. There's His wisdom. There's His
knowledge. There's His omniscience. There's
His omnipotence. There's His omnipresence. Everything's just, I mean, you
could go on and on and on. There's His patience and long-suffering
and power, the power of God, the might of God. the glory of
God and all the things that we could say about God and all the
fullness that's in God. When Jesus Christ was on this
earth and He is in His body, when everybody that saw Him as
He was in His body, all the attributes of God, the fullness of God,
everything that makes God God was in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what it says in the next verse? And you are complete
in Him. Oh, my. I'll tell you what. Our Lord Jesus Christ is in perfect
harmony with a just and holy God. And you know what? We are,
too, in Him. We're in harmony with God. Oh,
the riches of His grace. As circumcision was a token of
the covenant with Israel and the blood was a token of God
passing over them, this is a token of the fullness of the Godhead.
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And last of all, let me give
you this one. A token of God's faithfulness. Token of God's
faithfulness. Look at verse 13 here, chapter
nine. I do set my bow in the cloud
and it shall be a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Me and the earth. And look what
he said here, down in verse 15. And I will remember when I see
that bow, when that bow's in the cloud, I will remember my
covenant, which is between me and you and every creature of
all flesh. I'll remember. Oh, I do set this
bow in the covenant. It's my covenant with you and
this earth and everyone that's on it. And this token, this blood,
this righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, Is it God's right
hand? And you know what it is? It's
proof, proof of God's faithfulness to us. We sang that song, great
is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning
by morning, new mercies I see. Oh my. And so there's God's faithfulness
and his faithfulness to Noah and his family and the earth
and this rainbow gives us security. that because of our Lord Jesus
Christ and what God promised us in Him, and made His soul
to be an offering for our sin, and because the Lord Jesus Christ
sets in God's right hand, God is faithful, we are secure as
we'll ever be. We may not feel secure at times,
but our security don't depend on our feelings. Our security
depends on God's faithfulness. And how faithful is God? And
he said, now look on it. And you know what he said? I'll
remember. I'll remember. And ain't you
grateful that he looks at the Lord Jesus Christ instead of
us? Ain't you grateful that God made
the covenant with him, not with us? This is the covenant that
God made with Christ. It was between God, Christ, and
the Holy Spirit. The only way you and I have any
benefit of that covenant is that God was faithful to Christ, Christ
was faithful to God, and the Holy Ghost is faithful too. God
was faithful to give His Son. Christ was faithful to die for
our sins. God was faithful to raise Him
from the dead. God is faithful to set Him at
His own right hand. God is faithful to send the Holy
Ghost. to preach the gospel to us and
open our hearts to we believe. So our salvation rests not in
a covenant we made, but with the covenant God made with Christ.
And you know what it's called? The everlasting covenant. How
was it made? Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, our great shepherd of the sheep. Amen. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for your great and abundant
mercies. O Lord, you are indeed, indeed faithful. And Lord, we
thank you that you became our altar and our sacrifice only
altar. And Lord, we thank you, O God,
our Father, that you accepted him and you're satisfied in him
and you're faithful to us because of Christ. And we're righteous
because of him, accepted because of him. Thank you for the promises
you gave us in Christ our Lord. And Father, forgive me for making
such a mess tonight. Oh, God, I'm sorry. Please forgive
me. Oh, Lord, have mercy on me. Have mercy on this congregation.
And thank you for their graciousness and their love that they overlook
these great and awful blots and blemishes in my nature and character.
Lord, I thank you for them. Bless them, Lord God, for Christ's
sake and meet their needs. Keep them and preserve them till
we can meet here to worship again. in Christ's holy name. Amen.
Amen.