Let's open our Bibles to Jeremiah
chapter 33. Jeremiah chapter 33, I bring
you greetings from the brethren in Danville. I had such a good
service last night and I'll send their love and greetings to you
all. Jeremiah 33, we'll begin reading
in verse 15. In those days and at that time,
I caused the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, And he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. For thus saith the Lord, David. And he's not talking about King
David there. He's talking about son of David,
the Lord Jesus Christ shall never want a man to sit upon the throne
of the house of Israel. Neither shall the priests, the
Levites, want a man before me to offer burnt offerings and
to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifice continually.
What he's saying there is Christ is our king priest. He's eternally
the king, he's eternally the priest. In verse 19, and the
word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah saying, thus saith the Lord,
if you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of
the night, that there should not be day and night in their
season, then, may also my covenant be broken with David, my servant,
that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and
with the Levites, the priests, my ministers. As the host of
heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured,
so will I multiply the seed of David, my servant, and the Levites
that minister unto me. The Lord's saying there, if you
can stop the sun from coming up in the morning, and you can
stop the moon from coming up at night, then maybe you can
start to think about breaking my covenant. by covenant of grace
and salvation in Christ. I read this week that they are
attempting another moon shot, sending men to the moon again.
You know, we did that back in the 60s and the 70s. It just
got to be, it happened so often, I mean, just, and now they don't
know if they can do it or not. And so they're sending this unmanned
thing to the moon to see if they can circle the moon, you know,
come back before they put a man up there. They can't even send
a man to the moon again. How you gonna stop it from coming
up at night? How you gonna stop it? Can't be done, can it? God's
covenant can't be broken either. All right, you get that for free.
Shawn. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 459. He Lifted Me. In lovingkindness Jesus came,
My soul in mercy to reclaim, And from the depths of sin and
shame, Through grace He lifted me. From sinking sand, He lifted
me. With tender hand, He lifted me. From shades of night to planes
of light, O praise His name, He lifted me. He called me long before I Before
my sinful heart was stirred, But when I took Him at His word,
Forgiven He lifted me. From sinking sand He lifted me,
with tender hand He lifted me. From shades of night to planes
of light, O praise His name, He lifted me. His brow was pierced with many
a thorn, His hands like cruel nails were torn. When from my
guilt and grief forlorn, In love He lifted me. From sinking sand He lifted me,
with tender hand He lifted me. From shades of night to planes
of light, O praise His name, He lifted me. Now on a higher plane I dwell,
And with my soul I know tis well, Yet how or why I cannot tell,
He should have lifted me. From sinking sand, he lifted
me. With tender hand, he lifted me. From shades of night, to plains
of light. Oh, praise his name, he lifted
me. Okay, if you now turn to song
number 477. In the third verse, we're going
to say, now I owe to Jesus everything. Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He
died on Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free, Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul
found liberty at Calvary. By God's word at last my sin
I learned. Then I trembled at the law I'd
spurned. Till my guilty soul, imploring,
turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Now I owe to Jesus everything. Now I gladly own Him as my King. Now my raptured soul can only
sing of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. O the love that drew salvation's
plan, O the grace that brought it down to man, O the mighty
gulf that God did span at Calvary. ? Mercy there was great and grace
was free ? Pardon there was multiplied to me ? There my burdened soul
found liberty at Calvary Let's open our Bibles now to
Genesis chapter nine. Genesis, the ninth chapter. We'll begin our reading in verse
eight. And God spake unto Noah and to
his sons with him saying, and I behold, I established 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. Neither shall all flesh be cut off anymore by the waters
of a flood. Neither shall there anymore be
a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the token
of the covenant which I have made 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 the 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 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. Thank God for his
word. Let's bow together. Our father, we bow in your awesome
holy presence. We bow with fear and trembling,
awe and reverence, And yet, Father, how thankful we are that we can
come before your throne of grace boldly, confidently, because
of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he has fully ratified your covenant
of grace for your people. He has taken away your wrath
from against the sin of your people and put it away by his
sacrifice, by his precious blood. Father, how we thank you. And
I pray, Father, that tonight you'd send your spirit upon us
and that you would give us an hour of true worship. Father, don't let us just go
through the motions of religion, a religious habit that we've
picked up, but Father, enable us to worship by thy spirit,
we pray. Father, enable us to see, by
faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, to follow his feet begging for
mercy to follow his feet in thanksgiving, to find in him everything that
we need, everything that you require. Father, what a blessed
gospel that you have given to us to believe and to preach,
the gospel of salvation for the worst of sinners in your darling
son. Father, how we thank you. And
I beg of you that you'd make us faithful to preach this gospel
to our generation, as others have been in the past. Father,
we pray for those who are hurting and who are sick. There's many
in great trial, great difficulty. Father, we pray that you deliver
your wisdom and your power, that you deliver them in the right
way at the right time, that you provide, that you heal, that
you comfort the hearts of your people. Again, Father, I pray
you bless us as we look into your word. Give us a word from
Thee, enable us to leave here this evening rejoicing in Christ
our Savior. For His precious name, for His
sake we pray, amen. I've titled the message tonight,
The Token of the Covenant. You saw that phrase repeatedly
in our text as we read it, The Token of the Covenant. And one thing that that I really
enjoy doing, something I desire to do, I know every preacher
desires to do this, is to be able to take God's word, and
from God's word, comfort the hearts of God's people. Give
them something that will give them peace of heart. There's
just not much peace in this world, is there? I'd like to be able
to give you something that would enable you to have peace of heart. And I believe the Lord's given
me such a message tonight, the token of the covenant. Our text
begins Genesis 9 verse 8, and God spake unto Noah and his sons
with him saying, and I behold, I established my covenant with
you and with your seed after you. Now, as you've heard so
many times, God is a covenant God. And what that means is this,
everything God is doing in human time is simply fulfilling his
covenant that he made before he created anything. God's covenant,
is God's purpose. It's what God promised that he
would do. And now that human time is in
its 6,000th year, roughly somewhere in there, all God is doing right
now is just doing what he promised to do before he created anything.
Human time is simply God unfolding his purpose and revealing to
man, this is what my purpose is. People often ask, what's
God's purpose in this way? I don't know, we'll have to wait
until he's done and we'll find out. I don't know, I don't have
any idea. And as time goes on, all that is is God revealing
his purpose, what he promised to do to men. And this covenant
that the Lord tells Noah about here, this is not a covenant
that God made with Noah. You read the writers and they'll
tell you there's seven covenants or something. There's a covenant
with Adam and a covenant with Noah and a covenant with Abraham,
a covenant with David. There's one covenant. Let me
take it back, there's two. There's two covenants. The first
one didn't last very long, was it? The covenant of works. Adam
don't eat fruit of that tree. That didn't last very long, did
it? That covenant was broken. The second covenant is a covenant
of grace and it's given to us in picture all throughout the
Old Testament. God's covenant of grace. This
is not a covenant God made with Noah where he said, no, you do
this and I'll do this. This is a covenant that God made
with himself. This is a covenant that God purposed.
It's a covenant that God carried out. It's a covenant that God
ratified. He did it all by himself and he had to do it. He had to
do it all by himself. The sinful man cannot have any part in fulfilling
or ratifying a covenant with God. Adam is proof of that. I
mean, just how little time it was till he took that fruit that
God told him not to eat. Man cannot be involved in this
thing. God has to do it by himself. Man's only involvement in this
covenant of grace is this. It's being a recipient of God's
blessings. The salvation of sinners is the
result of God's covenant with God, between God and God. God carried out the covenant
and God ratified the covenant. And as a result of that, God's
elect receives all the blessings of that covenant when God saves
them. This word establish is used here. God said, I will establish
my covenant. In other places in scripture,
that Hebrew word is translated arise or perform. And that would
have been a much better translation for what the Lord's meaning here
is when he speaks to Noah. God is saying that he will arise
and he will perform this covenant. And Noah, you and your sons are
going to benefit from it. That's what he's telling him.
You know, the benefit to Noah is you don't have to worry about
building another ark. You don't have to worry about
a flood coming and destroying everything. That's the benefit. to Noah,
but Noah doesn't do anything to ratify that covenant. See
what I'm saying? Well, here's the picture. That's exactly how
God saves his people. God arose and he performed his
covenant of grace. He purposed it in eternity and
there came a day in human time that God arose and he performed
this covenant in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He came and ratified that covenant by his blood. And because he
did that, all of God's elect receive all the blessings of
the covenant. They're redeemed. They don't
have to worry about condemnation for their sin anymore because
Christ took care of that for them. He ratified the covenant
of grace for them. And when he did that, all he
was doing was doing what he promised he'd do before time began. Now
tonight I want us to look at four aspects of this covenant,
God's covenant of grace. What's the basis of the covenant?
Who's included in the covenant? What's the token of the covenant?
And what's the purpose of the covenant? Number one, what's
the basis of the covenant? Well, you know, the basis of
the covenant is the blood of Christ's sacrifice. We have that
in picture in Genesis eight in verse 20. This is immediately
after Noah got off the ark. Noah built an altar under the
Lord. and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl
and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled
a sweet safer. 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. Neither
will I again smite anymore everything living as I have done. Now God
blessed them that way when the sacrifice was offered. And that
sacrifice was a picture of Christ. God's people are all blessed
completely on the basis of the blood of Christ. The blood of
Christ took away every reason that God had to be angry with
them. So all that's left now is God's blessings for his people.
And this covenant is eternal. God didn't see his covenant of
works failed with Adam and then he came up with this plan B. God's covenant of grace is eternal. It's always been on the basis
of the blood of Christ. You know, God's promise. You
think about what God's promised to do. God's promise is just
as sure as events that have already taken place in history. It's
just as sure because God cannot break his promise. He'll always
do what he's purposed to do. And the covenant of grace has
always been ratified in the blood of Christ. God doesn't change.
He didn't change from, you know, the covenant of works to a covenant
of grace. That covenant's always been ratified
in the blood of Christ. That's why Christ is called the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. See, God purposed,
he's gonna redeem his people by the sacrifice of his son.
And in the mind and purpose of God, that sacrifice was already
done. Because what God's purpose to
do is as good as something that's already happened. God's always
seen his people in the blood of Christ. And if you look at
Hebrews chapter 13, This is what the writer to the
Hebrews tells us. Hebrews 13, verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect in every good
work. to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever, amen. Now God's people, they're made
perfect in every good work, they're to do God's will, God works in
them, that which is well-pleasing in his sight, why? As a result
of the blood of the everlasting covenant. The basis of all of
God's blessings to his people is the blood of Christ. That's
the basis of the covenant. All right, now number two, who's
included in the covenant? Verse nine in our text, Genesis
chapter nine. And I behold, I established my
covenant with you and with your seed after you and 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. Either shall all flesh be cut off anymore by the waters
of a flood. Neither shall there anymore be
a flood to destroy the earth. Now God made this promise to
Noah. He said, no, I'm not going to destroy the earth again by
water. Now that was a promise to Noah,
wasn't it? But the whole earth benefited
from that promise. All the animals and plant life,
whatever other life, you know, never again has to worry about
a worldwide flood destroying everything at once. The promise
was to Noah, but the whole earth benefited. Now, God made this
promise to Noah, but you know, it was already God's purpose
to only destroy the earth once with a flood. That's God's eternal
purpose. He purposed that before he created
anything. And God never again will destroy the world by water.
That's God's eternal purpose. A little bit before y'all got
here tonight, I mean, it started to rain. I mean, I couldn't see
across the street. I mean, the wind was blowing,
the electricity. I thought, that's a good message
tonight. I mean, I don't know about what
happened with this storm, but I can tell you this, the earth's
not gonna flood. It's God's eternal purpose. And God just told Noah
at this time, Noah, this is my eternal purpose. I never did
intend to destroy the earth with a flood, but one time. See, human
history has just caught unfolding his purpose and telling us what
his purpose is. And I bet that promise meant
something to Noah. All of us have grown up with
rain, rainstorms. Boy, especially when you're a
kid, summer break, rain, rain, go away. Come again the other
day. We've grown up with rain. Noah didn't. Noah lived 600 years
and never saw a drop of rain. And the first rain that ever
fell in Noah's lifetime killed everybody he knew except those
seven people with him in the ark. You think of that. It destroyed
cities. It destroyed, I mean, just the
devastation of this thing. That's the first time Noah ever
saw rain. Now the flood's over. The flood
waters have receded. Noah comes off the ark. God's
blessing him and his sons. And they've got to start over
again, don't they? They've got to build houses and
animal pens and all the things that they've got to do I'm just
confident of this. They cut up the ark to do it.
Where else are you going to get wood? You know, they cut up the
ark to do it. And after they had that ark, you know, about
halfway all cut up, it started to rain one day. I mean, Noah's
just a man. I know God made this promise
to him, but Noah's just a man. He had to think. Last time I
saw a raindrop, look what happened. He had to be worried it's going
to happen again. Noah doesn't know yet it could rain for a
little bit and stop, does he? He'd never seen that. He had
to worry about that. And I'm just, I'm also confident
of this. Noah hung on to that promise that God said, Noah,
I'll not destroy the earth with a flood again. That's the only
way he had any comfort and peace for his heart when it started
to rain, by hanging on to the promise of God. Now here's the
gospel in that picture. Almighty God has promised he's
going to save his people. He's going to save his people
by grace. He's not going to do it by works, he's going to do
it by grace. He's promised to save his people
by the sacrifice, by the obedience of his son, by the calling, life-giving
power of the Holy Spirit. That's a promise between God
and God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
God promised he's going to do that. At some point in eternity,
the father said to his son, Son, you become flesh, and you go
to earth. You become one of them. You become
one of these creatures, clothed in their flesh, and you obey
the law for them. They can't do it. You're going
to have to, as their representative, you're going to have to go obey
it for them. And then you're going to have to take their sin,
and you're going to have to take it into your own precious, holy
body upon the tree. And you're going to have to die
a cursed death, a painful, cursed death. I'll separate myself from
you. You're going to have to pay the
price for their sin with your own blood. And I will accept
them. When you do that for this people,
I will accept them because you've redeemed them. You've put their
sin away. And the son said, I'll do it.
I'll do it. I love my people. I love the
people that you gave me. I'll do that. I'll obey the law
for them. I love them so much, I'll sacrifice myself to put
their sin away. And the spirit promised, I'll
go to them and give every last one of them life and faith, point
them all to Christ, Now that promise was made to Noah and
his seed and his seed. Look at, hold your finger there.
Look at Galatians chapter three. That does apply to the people
who will, who will come after Noah. But, but particularly the
promise there is made to Christ, to Christ. Galatians three verse
16. Now to Abraham and his seed,
and I think you could just as well say Noah there because Abraham
came from Noah, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as
of many, like you had a bunch of different children, a bunch
of different grandchildren, not to seeds but as of one, and to
thy seed, which is Christ. See, the promise was made to
Christ. You obey the law for this people
that I give you. You sacrifice yourself for their
sin and I'll accept them, I'll redeem them. See, the promise
was made between God and God. And Christ came, he ratified
the covenant. He did everything he promised his father that he
would do. And God's people are the beneficiaries. God's people
are the, the promise was made to Christ the seed, but God's
people receive the blessing. They are the ones who receive
salvation. They're the ones who receive redemption. They're the
ones who receive mercy, grace, and peace from God. All because
Christ ratified that covenant with His blood. Now, if you would find comfort
for your soul, if you would have some peace of your soul, you
hang on to God's promise for all you're worth. Hang on to
His promise. God has promised He will save
His people by grace, not by works. And when you do things that are
so sinful, so just stupid. How could I do that? You just,
you pop off in anger. You just, the horrible, shameful
thing that we, and not just that what we do, what we think. How
can I think that way? Here's your comfort. God didn't
save you because you could quit all those sins, all those sinful
thoughts and all those sinful actions. God saved you by his
grace. And yes, our sin's great. His
grace is greater. Yes, our sin's vile, but the
blood of Christ is stronger, able to cleanse us from all sin. You just hang on to God's promise.
Salvation is by grace. How did God save you? How did
God reveal himself to you? He was by grace, wasn't he? Well,
how's God gonna keep you? By grace. How is God going to
take you from this body of sin and this world of sin and present
you faultless before the throne? Grace. You just hang on to that
promise. Don't look to your works now
to see if you've been good enough that God will accept you. You
look to Christ. You look to Christ. He ratified
the covenant. He did everything God required
of you. And you hang on to that promise and I'm telling you this,
you'll have comfort for your soul. And you know, the whole earth
benefits by this, by God's promise to save his people. At least
for the time being, the earth is not destroyed. At least temporarily,
the sun shines and the rain falls and the earth is kept full of
food and kept full of water and, you know, the world keeps spinning
in space and things, you know. Man's horrible, man's sin seems
like it's, you know, getting worse and worse and worse. It's
like the days of Noah. Human nature's not getting any
worse, but men are inventing many more new ways, seems to
me, like, you know, to sin. And God does not yet destroy
the earth. Now, that cycle's gonna come to an end one day,
but right now, it's still going in, still going. You know why? It's for the elect's sake. It's
for the elect's sake. Evidently, God's got some people
that he has not revealed himself to just yet. Maybe they're not
even born yet. I don't know. Maybe they're in
the womb. God's determined to have mercy on them. Well, He
can't destroy this earth until they're brought to faith in Christ.
And if you look at Genesis chapter 19, I'll show you a beautiful,
beautiful picture of this. Genesis chapter 19. This is when
the angel, and I believe this is an angel, and it's also the
with him to pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. But at any rate, here
in verse 22, he's getting ready to destroy the city, Sodom, and
he's speaking to Lot. He's told Lot now, you know,
you got to leave. I'm going to destroy this city.
And in verse 22, he says, haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot
do anything till thou become thither. Therefore the name of
that city was Zohar, so it's where he was fleeing to. This
is what the Lord told Lot. You gotta get out of this place.
You're one of my people. You're one of my elect. You're
one who's been redeemed by the blood of Christ. You can't stay
here. And I cannot destroy this city
as long as you're in it. Because I can't destroy you.
I can't destroy you because Christ has been destroyed for you. He
bore God's, I can't, you got to get out of here. And there's
coming a day that God's elect are going to be taken out of
this earth. God will not destroy it by fire. As long as his elector
in it, he's going to take them out of it. And then he will,
then he will. All right. Number three, what's
the token of the covenant? Everybody here knows that the
token of that covenant is the rainbow. And we read about it
here in verse 12. 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 should be for a token of a covenant between me and
the earth. And it should come to pass when I bring a cloud
over the earth and 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 all flesh. God says
the token of my covenant is the rainbow that I'm going to put
in the sky. And I know there are scientific
reasons that rainbows appear in the sky. I know that. But
I'm telling you this, here's why the rainbow appears in the
sky. God makes it. God puts it there. I mean, sometimes
you don't see it. I mean, I know there's scientific
reasons, but I'm telling you, God puts that rainbow there in
the sky. as a token of his covenant. He's not going to destroy the
world again by a flood. And I hope we remember that every
time we see a rainbow, just kind of in awe, kind of in awe. This
is God's perpetual covenant. He's keeping his promise. Now
look over at Isaiah chapter 49. The rainbow is a picture of Christ. That's what the rainbow, the
whole purpose of it is a picture of Christ. Christ is the token. of God's covenant of grace. The
rainbow is a token of God's covenant. He won't destroy the earth again
with the flood, but Christ is the token of God's covenant of
grace. He, as a matter of fact, he is the covenant. In Isaiah
49 verse eight, thus saith the Lord in an acceptable
time have I heard thee and in a day of salvation have I helped
thee and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people. I'm not just giving the people
a covenant. I'll give thee for a covenant of the people to establish
the earth, to cause, to inherit the desolate heritages. See,
Christ is the covenant. He is the token of the covenant.
He is the covenant is himself and read on here. Verse nine,
see some of the blessings that God's people received because
of Christ, because of this covenant that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
those who are in the, the prison house of sin and in the prison
house of the law awaiting condemnation for their sin, thou may say it
to the prisoners, go forth. And to them that are in darkness,
to them that are in the darkness and ignorance of unbelief and
the darkness of sin, tell them, show yourselves. They shall feed
in the ways and their pastors shall be in all high places.
They shall not hunger nor thirst. Tell those who are hungering
after righteousness and thirsting after righteousness, Tell them
to come to Christ. They shall not hunger and thirst. Neither
shall the heat nor sun smite them. For he that hath mercy
on them shall lead them. Even by the springs of water
shall he guide them. See, that's all the blessings
that God's people receive because the Lord Jesus Christ is the
covenant and he's the token of the covenant. The Lord Jesus
Christ in his body is the visible reminder God has already established
His covenant. And the way we know that is by
seeing Christ by faith, by faith and believing Him. And every
blessing God's people receive from God, they're all a result
of God's covenant of grace being ratified. And by seeing Christ,
who is the token of the covenant. There's so many examples, but
let me just give you a couple. Love. When you say the fact that
God could love a sinner like you, that's a blessing. from
God's covenant, isn't it? His covenant of grace. God loves
his people perfectly, eternally. He loves them so much, he will
save them, and he will never leave them, nor forsake them. Well, preacher, that sounds mighty
good. How can I know for sure that's true? I know that's true
when I see Christ by faith. When I see him as the token of
God's covenant, The evidence of God's love is this. He sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, that's love.
That's love, and I know that. I know God loves his people when
I see Christ the token of the covenant. Redemption. When you say redemption from
sin, redemption from punishment and fear of all, you know, deliverance
from all those things, that's a blessing, isn't it? Well, it's
a blessing that only comes from God's covenant of grace. God
has redeemed his people from their sin, from all of it. Just exactly like he promised
he would do. He's redeemed his people from their sin and their
sin can never condemn them. Their sin can never damn them,
never. I don't know what judgment will
be like. It's my personal opinion. I don't think believers will
be judged because there's nothing to judge them for. But when God
looks at his people, he always pronounces them not guilty. Their sin will never condemn
them. Their sin will never give them
any reason to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Well, Frank, that sounds good.
I like the sound of that, but how can I know that's true? How
can I know for sure that's true? It's when I see Christ the token
of the covenant. When I see Christ the Redeemer,
if by faith I see that the Lord Jesus Christ died for me, have
to be redeemed. There's no question in my mind.
His blood is precious enough to pay the price. The price is
paid in full. I know that when I see Christ. And you could go on and on and
on looking at those different blessings. Whichever ones you
can think of, you'll be able to think of. You know it so when
you see Christ, the token of it, the covenant. And that makes
God's covenant of grace beautiful. Isn't the covenant of God's grace
beautiful? Only someone spiritually dead
can hate salvation by grace. I mean, the only reason somebody
hates that is they're dead. A covenant of grace between God
and God, that's the most beautiful thing a sinner's ever heard of.
A sinner that can't do one blessed thing to please God, to find
out that God satisfied God. In my room, in my place, on my
behalf. That's beautiful, isn't it? Don't
you see that in picture in the rainbow? I mean, aren't this
rainbows beautiful? I mean, sometimes you're driving
along in a storm, you see a rainbow. I got to remind myself, don't
stare at that thing and wreck, you know, they're beautiful.
And that rainbow is just a picture. It's just a picture, a type of
Christ. Now scientifically, we see rainbows. It's all a matter of light. Is
light shining through water particles in the sky? That's the scientific
explanation. And I mention that to say this.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world. And his light
is beautiful. It's light shining in a dark
world. Light that is glorious to behold. It's just beautiful. You know,
a rainbow is made by life, it has the full spectrum of color. The full spectrum of God's glory
is all seen in one place, in the face of Jesus Christ. There's
the glory of God's justice. You think justice, justice, that
doesn't sound glorious for a sinner. Well, it is, it is for God's
people. Because God saved his people through justice. Since
justice is satisfied, Justice can never come looking for you.
If Christ satisfied justice for you, he saved you through justice,
so that justice will never come looking for you. There's the
glory of God's grace. Now God giving grace to a sinner,
that's glory, isn't it? But now get a hold of this. Free
grace comes at great expense to the Savior. It's free to you
and me, but it cost the Savior everything, didn't it? It cost
him his life's blood. It cost him to make his soul,
not just his body, but his soul an offering for sin. That's glorious. Grace that comes at the expense
of the life of God's only begotten Son. That's glorious. The glory
of God's mercy. God is merciful to sinners. but only because he already poured
out his wrath on the substitute. I mean, how glorious is it? How
glorious is it that the son of God would do something so wonderful
for the likes of you and me? You just couldn't believe such
a thing if God didn't say it in his word. It's just stunningly
beautiful that someone so high, someone so wonderful would do
something so great for someone as low and shameful in sin as
we are. And you just go on talking about
what the Savior has done for his people. I mean, he just,
how he gives these gifts to his people at the expense of himself,
the expense of himself. It's just, it's glorious. It's just like stopping and staring
at a rainbow. Just stop and stare at the glory of the Savior, what
he's done for his people. And the glory of Christ can be
best seen against the black backdrop of my seeing. You know, there's
all, there's got to be storm clouds somewhere for a rainbow
to appear, doesn't there? Sometimes you see a rainbow,
there's blue sky behind it, but the best view of a rainbow is
where there is that dark, dark cloud. Now you think it might
be a, get ready to produce a tornado. I mean, it's just black as midnight.
And there's that rainbow in front of me. It's just more stunningly
beautiful with that black backdrop, isn't it? Well, it's the blackness
of my sin that would bring God's wrath upon me. That is what makes
the glory of Christ saving me from my sin to be seen in all
of his glorious colors. You really cannot understand
the glory of salvation in Christ until you see the blackness of
your sin. You just can't see it. And sometimes you see a double
rainbow. I'm not sure what that means.
I'm not sure what that means. I've seen actually a triple rainbow
one time. Now, God's promise is sure. I
mean, I know that, don't you? If God promised it, it's sure. It seems to me like, in a way,
sometimes God makes it double sure, makes it double obvious
to us so that we're confident God's not going to forget to
save his people. It just makes it like it's a
double promise. God is not going to fail to save his people. Now,
if you look in Isaiah chapter 40, this is the verse that I
thought of when I think about a double rainbow. It could be
maybe a double rainbow is just a mercy from the Lord showing
us he remembers our poor frame, our weak faith. So he gives us
this picture of a double rainbow, double blessing of salvation
in Christ. Here it is, Isaiah 40, verse
one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak
ye comfortably, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto
her, her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned. For
she hath received to the Lord's hand double for all her sins. She's received double. What is
that receiving double? It's justification and sanctification. It's the double cure. Christ
has put the sin of his people away. He paid for it. The debt's
paid. There's no more debt. He blotted
that sin out, the sin of his people, he blotted it out with
his precious blood so that it does not exist anymore. And on
top of that, he made his people holy. He justified his people
by putting their sin away. He sanctified his people when
he gave them a holy nature that can not sin. I'll tell you why
that's important. God has to give his people a
holy nature that cannot sin. Because if he didn't, we'd sin
more and rack up another debt. And there'd have to be another
sacrifice. And there's only one. He sanctified his people so they
cannot rack up another debt of sin. That's the double cure of
salvation in Christ. He put your sin away and made
you holy so you can't rack up any more debt. Now think of that
next time you see a double ring. Think of that, it's the salvation
that's double sharing Christ. All right, here's the last thing.
What's the purpose for this token? Well, verse 16 back in our text
tells us, Genesis chapter nine, and the bow shall be seen 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 notice here it
says, God says the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look
upon it. I will look upon it. See the
important thing, the most important thing is not that we see the
rainbow. The rainbow is, is for our comfort. But the important
thing is God sees the rainbow. When God sees the rainbow, I
mean, you know, he's speaking in terms that we can understand.
God doesn't need to be reminded. He does not need to be reminded.
He didn't forget. But when God sees the rainbow,
he says, I remember my covenant. Now remember the rainbow is a
picture of Christ. And here is the important thing.
The all important thing to your soul mind that the father sees
Christ. They sees Christ. They sees his
sacrifice and he sees us in Christ, in Christ. Now my heart is comforted and
thrilled to see Christ the Savior, to see him in his word, to see
him in the Old Testament in picture, to see him in the New Testament
and what he's accomplished for his people. Nothing makes me
happier than that. But here is the all important
thing. Here is the thing that comforts the hearts of God's
people. God sees me in Christ. God sees
me in Christ. And let's just be real honest. For a believer, there are times
it gets dark in it. God saved you. You're not in
any danger of losing your salvation. But have there been times in
your life that it was so tough you think I can't see the Savior? I can't see Him. I read the Word It's just words on paper. I come
to the service, I see my friends, they seem to be so blessed by
the message, and I really wasn't. And there's nothing more miserable
than that. You just think I can't see the
Savior. What's your comfort? What gives you peace of heart
when that happens? God sees you in Christ. That's all that matters. If God sees me in Christ, He's
not going to destroy me. He's not going to destroy me.
When I sin, when I can't see the Savior, the Father still
sees His precious Son and me in Him. Then I'm pretty miserable. I
haven't lost my salvation. When I sin, I think sometimes,
oh, just, And just think, what in this
world does God see? I mean, I just, oh. Let me tell
you, this is what the father sees. Seated beside him in his
right hand is his darling son. And he sees the scars in that
body that he received when he sacrificed himself for the sin
of his people. The son is always with the father.
The father is constantly reminded of the sacrifice of his son.
He's constantly reminded, those scars are visible there. Sin
has already been condemned for God's elect. And all God has
left for them is mercy and grace. And that's why I say, this is
what gives my heart peace. God sees me in Christ. Then there's no condemnation.
And get this, I think you'll like this. No matter where God
looks, no matter where the father looks, he sees Christ. Look in Revelation chapter four,
Revelation chapter four. Now this is a, this is pretty
technical and this is the extent of my scientific knowledge on
the subject, but rainbows actually are not a partial bow. Rainbows
are actually a whole circle or a complete circle. You know,
our problem is we very seldom see the circle. You know, we
just dwell so low, you know, down on the earth, that the curvature
of the earth and different things blocks our view of it. So all
we typically see is the bow. But if you get up high enough,
you can see, you look down, and you can see a circle rainbow.
Go on Google it tonight. The first time I heard about
it, I thought, oh, that's not true. Yeah, it is. You can see
pictures of it. Well, I'll tell you why I point
all this out. This makes a good picture of
what I'm telling you. No matter where God looks, he
sees his people in Christ. No matter where he looks, he
sees the rainbow. But Revelation 4, verse 2, I'll
show you why I say that. 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 a jasper, a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow, round
about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. The rainbow
was a circle. It completely circles the throne
of God. So as God sits on his throne, everywhere he looks,
he sees the rainbow. Everything he sees, he sees through
the prism of that rainbow. So when God sees his people,
he always sees his people in Christ. And he cannot condemn
them. And I'm told, I don't know how
people know this, but I'm told that the rainbow in sight like
into an emerald, they say green in scripture is the color of
peace. Now you want peace for your soul? You want peace for your heart?
Here it is. No matter where God looks, no
matter where you are, God sees his people in his son. Then they're secure. They're
secured, they're loved, and that gives the confidence and comfort
for my soul. As long as I gotta live in this
body of sin, that gives comfort for my soul, that God Almighty
is on the throne and he sees everything through his son. All
right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for these beautiful pictures
of Christ our Savior that you've given us in the Old Testament.
Father, I pray that you take your word as it's been preached
and that you would apply it to the hearts of each one here,
that you might enable us to see Christ by faith, to see his beauty,
to see his sufficiency, to see him as everything that we need,
cause us to believe him, love him, find our rest and hope and
peace and comfort in him. It's in his precious name, for
his glory, we ask these great blessings. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn to song
number 221 and stand as we sing. Thank you, Lord. Some thank the Lord for friends
at home, for mercy sure and sweet. but I would praise him for his
grace. In prayer I would repeat. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free. Some thank Him for
the flowers that grow, Some for the stars that shine. My heart is filled with joy and
praise, Because I know He's mine. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and free. I trust in Him from
day to day. I prove His saving grace. I'll sing this song of praise
to Him until I see His face. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free.