One of the marvelous things about
going back into the Old Testament, as we've been doing, and seeing
Christ in the Old Testament, is that we see that everything
that God is doing in history, as it's recorded in the Old Testament,
and everything that God has recorded in his word here, even the flood,
destroying the wicked in the flood, saving Noah and his family
in the ark. Everything is a preparation for
God fulfilling his promise to send Christ into the world. And
I always say, if you ever want to see a biblical summation of
history and what it's all about and God's promise, God's providence. It's in the book of Isaiah chapter
46, beginning at verse nine, where he says, through the prophet
Isaiah, he says, remember the former things of old. Now that's
history as God has predestinated it. He says, I'm God, there's
none else. That's what history is all about.
It's a revelation of the one true and living God. I'm God,
there's none like me. Nothing like our God, no one
like our God, no one to compare him with. And then this phrase
here, this statement here is an awesome thing if you think
about it. Verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning. Only
God can do that. I often say it this way, I say,
we can declare the beginning from the end. And what I mean
by that is I know how today started out, but I don't know how today's
gonna end up. But God declares the end from
the beginning. And so he sees things as according
to what he has predestinated according to the purpose of his
own will. He says, from ancient time, the things that are not
yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure
right now. Right now, in 2020, God is doing
what pleases him. Now, it may not please us, but
in a sense, it ought to, in a sense. I mean, I know you couldn't say
with Noah looking out at the wickedness of his day, he could
not say, well, that pleases me because of the revealed will
of God. But still, I know God's working
His sovereign will, and it's all gonna work out to the praise
of the glory of His grace. He says in verse 11, calling
a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel
from a far country. He's talking about something
future there, and I'm not gonna go into all that today. I've
spoken it, I'll bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will also
do it. Boy, that's something, isn't it? God is not some kind
of cosmic chess player up there waiting for us to make our move
so that he can make his counter move. He does it. And what's it all about? Now,
what's it all leading to? Well, read verses 12 and 13,
and I think, you know, I heard this passage in Isaiah 46. I've
heard it preached on quite a bit, and preachers would stop at verse
11, but don't stop at verse 11. Verses 12 and 13 tells us what
it's all about, what God is eventually doing in his sovereign will.
And he says, hearken unto me, you stout-hearted that are far
from righteousness. That's us by nature. Verse 13,
I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory. Now that's Christ. and salvation
for sinners by the grace of God in Christ and based on his righteousness. Now, going back to Genesis chapter
eight, we've seen the flood that destroyed the wicked. We've seen the ark, which was
the salvation that God had provided for Noah and his family. And
that ark was itself a picture of Christ. God's wrath is coming. upon the wicked. We would be
in that number of the wicked were it not for God's grace.
Isn't that right? God said, I'll have mercy upon
whom I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. And if it weren't for God's grace
and mercy in Christ, we would perish right along with the wicked
and deservedly so. That ark was a picture of Christ.
It was the one way of salvation. There was no other way to survive
the flood. And in our salvation, there's
no other way to be safe from the flood of God's wrath, but
our ark, which is Christ. He's our safety and our security.
And remember even the pitch, even that, I guess it was kind
of like a mud, that God told Noah to pitch the ark without
and within to keep it from leaking, keep it from sinking. Even that
was a picture of Christ, the blood of Christ. That pitch that
meant the atonement, that pictured the atonement. Even that, we're
covered and washed clean in the blood of Christ. And that's why
sin is not charged to us. That's why we won't perish. The
ark had only one door, remember, and Christ is the only door into
God's grace and favor. The ark had only one window to
let light in, and Christ is the one window through which shines
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Now, it says, look at verse 20
of chapter eight. It says, now this is Noah, he
came off the ark. And it says, he builded an altar
unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean
fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. That was an act
of God-given faith, again, which pictured the sacrifice of Christ. And you know, for the most part,
and you see this especially in the old covenant, the Mosaic
covenant, the covenant of Sinai, They had to sacrifice animals,
specific animals, and they had to be clean animals. And for
the most part, most of the people in that nation lost sight of
what those sacrifices were all about. Even to the point that
the writer of Hebrews had to make the statement, the blood
of bulls and goats cannot wash away sin. Why did he have to
say that? Because they thought, well, the
actual blood of animals did wash away their sins. And we know
there was a ceremonial application there, but all those pictured
the blood of Christ. But Noah did not lose sight of
that. He knew that this was a picture
of Christ. Now, how do we know Noah knew that? Because the Bible
tells us he did, in Hebrews 11, that Noah was looking forward. to the righteousness that Christ
would bring in. And so why did you build an altar?
To sacrifice unto the Lord, to bring a burnt offering to the
Lord. That's what it's all about. And notice it was every clean
beast and every clean fowl. Clean in the sense that God called
it clean. because you could not offer corrupt
sacrifices. And that's a picture of Christ,
our sinless sacrifice. Christ was the sinless sacrifice
of his people. Now he was guilty, but not by
the corruption of sin. He was guilty only by imputation. God imputed the sins of his people
to Christ. But he is the lamb without blemish
and without spot, and that was required of the sacrifice all
the way back, even when God instituted the sacrifice in Genesis 3. Even
when Abel brought the sacrifice, it had to be a clean animal,
because it had to properly picture our sacrifice, Christ, who is
holy, harmless, undefiled. Sin was imputed to him, but it
didn't defile him. He had no unclean thoughts like
we do. He had no unclean motives like
we do. He had no unclean goals. In himself,
he remained perfectly sinless, clean, and yet God was just to
punish him based upon our sins imputed to him. And the flip
side of that is God's righteousness imputed to us. We're sinners
saved by grace. We have no righteousness within,
but we have his righteousness imputed to us. And God accept
us, accepts us. And one day we will be clean
within ourselves when we're changed, when we go to be with the Lord.
But all of this, you see, this is the grace of God. It shows
that sinners can only be accepted with God in Christ and based
upon the merits of His righteousness alone. Look at verse 21, it says,
the Lord smelled a sweet savor. That means the Lord accepted
the offering. There are times when you see religious people
offering things unto the Lord that he describes as a stench
in his nostrils. That means he rejects it. But
here it's a sweet savor. You know, Paul wrote in, I think
it's 2 Corinthians 2, about how when we preach Christ, it's a
sweet-smelling savor unto God. Even in those who perish, he
says, To them, it's death unto death, but to those who are saved,
to them, it's life unto life. Either way, it's a sweet-smelling
savor unto God. Why? Because Christ is preached
in the glory of his person and the power of his finished work.
So the Lord accepted Noah's offering, and it says, the Lord made this
statement. Now, here comes the covenant. He says, the Lord said
in his heart, this is verse 21, I will not again curse the ground
anymore for man's sake." Now, does that mean that man got better? Now God said, I won't curse the
ground for man's sake. Now we're going to learn what
he's talking about. He's not going to destroy the earth again
with a flood. And he explains that over on
in chapter nine. But he says, I will not again
curse the ground anymore for man's sake. Does that mean that
man got better? No. Look at the next line. For
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. We've
all sinned, see? Neither will I again smite anymore
everything living as I have done. And then he says, while the earth
remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and
winter and day and night shall not cease." So he uses the seasons,
the days, to prove his faithfulness. And the terms of that covenant
will be described over there in Genesis nine and verse eight. But let me just read these first
verses of Genesis nine. Now listen to this. He says,
verse one, God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them,
be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. I don't
know about you all, but I think it's hot in here. Okay. be fruitful and multiply and
replenish. Remember he gave that command
to Adam and Eve. But what this shows us is that
in the destruction of everyone on earth except Noah and his
sons, God still had a purpose to populate the earth. And it
wasn't just to get a bunch of people. But it shows us that
God is faithful to his promise and his covenant made before
the foundation of the world. God chose a people to save by
his grace in Christ. And as time went on, they were
going to be born into the earth. Born in Adam, spiritually dead,
but saved by the grace of God. So he told Noah and his sons,
be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth. And then verse two,
he says, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon
every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon
all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the
sea, into your hand are they delivered. Man has been given
dominion over the earth. Man is at odds with nature. Now, that's clear. I mean, at one point in time,
you know, the animals and man existed peace together but not
anymore but man is the dominator I said they're given under your
hands look at verse 4 he says he said verse 3 he says every
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green
herb have I given you all things steak and salad that's what you
need Now, this is man's sustenance,
would be the meat from the animals as well as the green herbs. He
says, oh, verse four, but flesh with the life thereof, which
is the blood thereof, you shall not eat. And I believe he's talking
about living things. In other words, the meals to
be cooked and not raw or not living. You remember back over
in, where is it? I can't remember, in the book
of Acts, when they were talking about the Gentiles and how the
Jews were, the believing Jews were to approach the believing
Gentiles. And in Acts chapter 15, it came up that they were
not to impose the Mosaic law of, or the Mosaic law and circumcision
on them. But they told him, said, tell
them now not to eat things strangled. animals and what he was talking
about there was it was customary in a lot of the Gentiles especially
their religious rituals to eat raw meat, eat live animals or
to eat animals that were sacrificed to idols. In other words it was
a religious experience that he was forbidding there. And so
this is about the same thing. He says in verse five, look at
Genesis nine. Surely your blood of your lives
will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it
and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother will
I require the life of man and whoso sheddeth man's blood by
man's shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made
he man. So that's capital punishment.
That's what it is, that's the death penalty. Even for animals
who killed people, they were to be put to death too. And you
know, a lot of people argue today about that. They say, well, does
it deter crime? And some say it doesn't. Well,
I believe it does. But you know, that's not what
the death penalty is about. It's not about just deterring
crime. You know what it's about? It's about justice. Justice. God is a God of justice. Sin
demands death, righteousness demands life, and that's what
that's about. And so he ends it by saying, verse seven, and
you be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth
and multiply in the earth. Now, he begins to give us the
terms of the covenant. Listen to what he says, and God
spoke unto Noah and to his sons with him, saying, and behold,
I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after
you. So this is a covenant that comes
to Noah and his sons and all of their posterity. Verse 10,
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, neither shall all flesh be cut
off anymore by the waters of a flood. Neither shall there
any more be a flood to destroy the earth. Now he didn't say
there won't be floods. We know that's, but there won't
be a flood like in Noah's day. A deluge that will bring about
the destruction of the earth. In verse 12, 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. on and on and on until God's
purpose was fulfilled. Verse 13, I do set my bow in
the cloud, the rainbow, and it shall be for a token of a covenant
between me and thee. The token of this covenant, the
sign of this covenant is the rainbow. Verse 14, 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 flesh that is upon the earth.
Now you notice, remember I've talked about how there are basically
two kinds of covenants. There's a bilateral covenant,
And that's when you have a covenant between two parties and both
parties must agree to the terms for the covenant to be enforced.
And that's a covenant that if one of the parties doesn't meet
the conditions of the covenant, then it fails. We see that in
some of the old covenant between God and Israel. That was a bilateral
covenant. And we see that Israel failed
to meet the conditions, which my covenant they break, Jeremiah
said. And that's why that covenant
failed. But see, that covenant was given to show us the sinfulness
of man, the impossibility of salvation based upon our law
keeping and to drive us to Christ. And then there's a unilateral
covenant. And that's what this is. This doesn't depend on Noah
and every living creature. This depends on God alone. This
is based on his faithfulness alone. This is a one-sided covenant
that cannot be broken because God is the only party upon whom
the covenant stands. And so God promises Noah that
he would never again destroy the world with the flood. Now
I want you to go to Isaiah chapter 54. And I wanna show you something
here. The ultimate significance of
this covenant is to set forth God's faithfulness to keep his
promise. That's what it's all about. And
mainly, God's faithfulness to keep his promise to send salvation
into the world by Christ. Now you know Isaiah 53, you're
familiar with Isaiah 53, that sets forth the suffering servant
of God, that's Christ, the substitute, the lamb, who gives himself for
the sins of his people, who establishes the righteousness of God. And
then in Isaiah 54, Isaiah the prophet, he speaks of the barrenness
of the land, of the people, But he says there's hope, but not
in Israel. It's in Christ, who is to come. And he says, verse eight, look
at Isaiah 54, eight. He says, 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. He's talking
about his covenant of grace. But look at verse nine, he says,
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.
That's the covenant of grace in Christ for his chosen people,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. So what's he telling
them? He says, well, the fact that
God is faithful to keep his promise not to destroy the earth again
with a flood, is a testimony to his faithfulness to keep his
promise of salvation, promise to his people through Christ.
And there's an everyday testimony to that. Daylight, dark, week
after week, seed time and harvest, and even when you see a rainbow.
Think about that. God is faithful to his promise. Great is thy faithfulness, he
said. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. See, it's all leading
to Christ. And go back to Genesis 9 now.
The rainbow is a token of that. Now we know today that men, sinful
men and women, have taken that beautiful sign of the rainbow
and corrupted it and made it something that is awful and wicked
and perverted. They talk about the Rainbow Coalition. They talk about homosexuality,
that the rainbow is their sin. That's just another example of
man who takes that which glorifies God and turns it into something
corrupt and sinful. But when we see the rainbow,
what should we think of? Well, we should think of God's
faithfulness, his mercy. and sending Christ into the world
to save us from our sins. But now, another thing that we
need to understand is that just because God promised that he
would never again destroy the earth with a flood, that doesn't
mean he's never going to destroy the earth. He is, but with fire. Read 2 Peter 3 as an example. In the book of Revelation, God's
gonna destroy this earth. And so we're just like Noah in
that sense. We're preaching the gospel to
people who are lost and on their way to a sinner's damnation,
except they get on the ark and the ark that we're preaching
is Christ. The glory of his person, the power of his finished work,
his blood, his righteousness. That's the only hope that any
of us are going to have in death. And when this earth is destroyed,
the only hope we're going to have is God's faithfulness to
save his people by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what the story of the rainbow's about. I put in
your lesson this, I always think about this. They talk about in
myth, mythology, Irish mythology, that there's a pot of gold at
the end of every rainbow. Well, what I'm telling you is
the pot of gold. It's not real gold, it's better
than that. It's the lesson that God has
put within that rainbow. And that is our only hope of
salvation is to get on that ark, Christ Jesus, and to be found
in him. And the reason sinners cannot
find that pot of gold is because of spiritual death and darkness
and self-righteousness. That's not what they want. But
God has a people that he's determined to save by his grace. And he's
given us that desire to want, to desire that pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow, which is Christ. All right.