Back to Genesis chapter 9. Everything that God has done, is doing, and will yet do. is by way of a covenant, and
it always has been. It has always been by way of
a covenant. It only stands to reason that God, who is infinitely wise,
who has infinite knowledge, infinite power, would arrange and settle
all things before He created anything. That only stands to
reason. If you think who God is and His wisdom and His knowledge,
it only stands to reason that He would settle all matters before
He created the heavens and the earth. We come to this ninth chapter, and in this chapter, we are faced
with this covenant. He speaks of this covenant that
he made with Noah. Over in verse 16, he calls it
the everlasting covenant. Noah has come through the flood
of God's wrath safely. He has come through that great
deluge of wrath safely. God put him in the ark while he brought judgment on
this world. And when it was over, he came out alive. It says Noah only remained alive
and those with him. The ark proved to be a sufficient
Savior. It proved to be sufficient. Even
as the Lord Jesus Christ is a sufficient Savior for all who are in Him. We need nothing else. We need
no one else. All that we need, God has provided,
and He provided it in His Son, and He provided it before the
world began. He established it. He called
those things which be not as though they were, because with
Him they are. Now really this chapter 9 should
have started in verse 20 of chapter 8. And Noah built an altar unto
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 savor And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again
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 of seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
and day and night shall not cease. That's really where the division
should have started. Because it says here in verse
1, and God blessed Noah and his sons. But when did he do that?
After the sacrifice. After the sacrifice. And this
is the first time we read of God blessing a man since the
fall of Adam. Since that fall, this is the
first time we read of it. And when did this blessing take
place? After the burnt offerings were offered up on the altar
and God smelled, it says, a sweet savor. A sweet savor. Satisfied. Satisfaction. Appeased. God was appeased. The burnt offerings were symbolic
of Christ, the Lamb of God. who was slain from the foundation
of the world. He was always before the Lord.
Always. It is through the Lord Jesus
Christ that all blessings of grace flow to us now. If we have any blessings, any
joy, we have them in Christ, given to us in Him. The everlasting
covenant that God gave to Noah, I want you to notice something
here, was revealed to him After God saved him from the flood
of his wrath. Noah would not have understood
the true meaning of this covenant. He would not have understood
the bow in the sky until after the flood. Until after he understood
something of God's wrath. A sinner cannot understand the
covenant of grace. He cannot appreciate the covenant
of grace. in Christ until God saves him by his grace and reveals
his Son in him. But once a sinner has been saved,
or I should say being saved, we are being saved. Once that
happens, that sinner understands that his salvation is completely
in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He understands it. And that there
is a covenant of grace between the Father and the Son concerning
His salvation. An agreement between them concerning
the salvation of every one of God's children. Now, the covenant
that God made with Noah was all of grace. The one He
made with Adam was of works. Did you notice in those first
few verses of chapter nine what was restored? Everything Adam
lost. You go back and read after God
created Adam and put him in a garden. He gave him what? Dominion over
the fish of the sea, the fowl there. He gave him all that.
And then he lost it and he was kicked out of the garden. And
the ground was cursed. It brought forth thorns and thistles. Now listen, and God blessed Noah
and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth. It's almost like a second Genesis.
The same thing, same start over again. And 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 moves upon the earth
and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand, or they delivered. Except this time, the covenant
that God's going to make is one of grace and not works. You see,
the first time Adam, he said, Adam, now this is all given to
you, but don't eat of this tree. Well, Adam ate of the tree. But
this time, God says, now look down at verse 9 real quick. And
behold, I establish my covenant with you. I establish this one.
This covenant of grace, God says, I will establish. This is not
something between me and you we're going to work out. This
is something I'm going to establish and I'm going to establish it
with you. Even though you're a sinner. You saw what Noah did
after he got off the boat, grew a vineyard and got drunk. And
what happened? Nothing. Nothing. We don't see the wrath, we don't
see the kicking out like it happened to Adam because God said, I'm
going to establish my covenant. Not that there was nothing wrong
with it, but that God had taken care of this matter. This covenant that God made with
Noah was all of grace. Noah did not have to do anything
to keep this covenant or make it effectual. We don't do anything to make
the covenant of grace effectual to us. It's all of God. It's a covenant of promise. It's
all a promise. You see, let me read here again
in verse 9. And I, behold, I establish my
covenant with you and with your seed after you and with every
living creature that is with you of the fowl, of the cattle
and of every beast of the earth with you from all that go out
of the ark to every beast of the earth. And I will, I will. Here it is. I will establish
the covenant. I will establish my covenant
with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut
off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall there
any more be a flood to destroy the earth. I will establish my
covenant with you. It was made, this covenant was
made with Noah and all that were with him in the ark. There's
your picture of Christ. The covenant of grace was made
with Christ and all those in Christ. I'll establish my covenant
with you. Noah could not break this covenant.
I'm telling you, this has been comforting for me today, studying
it. Noah could not break this covenant. The covenant of grace that's
between the Father and the Son cannot cannot be broken by you
and me. Aren't you glad of that? We'd
break it a thousand times a day. If it could, we would. But it
can't be. It can't be. It's not like that
covenant God made with Adam. This one's of grace. What was
included in this covenant here that God is making with Noah?
What's included in it? Absolutely everything. Absolutely. Did he leave anything out? He
said, I will establish my covenant with you. Neither shall all flesh
be cut off anymore by the waters of the flood. Verse 10, he says,
I'm going to establish it with you and everything in the ark
with you. Cattle, everything. It covered
everything. It covered every living thing.
God promised Noah that he would not destroy the earth again by
a flood. And that seed time and harvest,
cold and winter, all of these seasons will come. He promised
it. He promised it. And to this day, you know, to
this day, this covenant still stands. When you see a rainbow, He calls
it a bow. We ought to call it a bow of
grace. That's what we ought to call it. But when you see a rainbow
in the heavens, I've never seen one just go straight at you.
It arches from the earth to heaven and back to the earth. It's just
an arch there. When you see that, that is God
Almighty remembering His covenant. He said, I'll remember it. Not
that He'd forget, but He says, I'll remember My covenant. I'll
establish it. That's what He said, I'll establish
My covenant. And over 4,000 years has gone
by. And somewhere on this earth,
every day, somewhere on this earth, that rainbow is seen.
That covenant is seen. Somewhere. Now this covenant
that he's making here was based upon a blood sacrifice. It wasn't
given until the sacrifice, the burnt offering was offered upon
the altar. Not until then. But it was based upon a blood
sacrifice in which God was well pleased. God was appeased, satisfied. Now, God is the one who made
this covenant, this agreement. And this covenant right here
that he makes with Noah represents the covenant of grace that God
the Father made with His Son. This is a real covenant. between
the Father and the Son concerning the multitude of sinners that
were given to Him by the Father. It represents that. It is a covenant of pure grace
between the Father and the Son concerning us. To us, it's pure
grace. Before the world was created,
before there was anything, God the Father called His Son. He said He was called from the
womb of eternity. He was called from the womb of
the morning. That's what it says over in Psalm 110. And He called
him to be the surety, the mediator, the redeemer, the priest, the
king. He was called to be all these
in this covenant of grace for you and me. God, thank You for
me and you. before the creation of the world.
God taking care of me and you. Believers. I'm talking about
those who believed before He created the heavens and the earth.
He called them forth and joined to Him this covenant. And listen,
He not only joined to Him this covenant, He Himself is the covenant. He says over in Isaiah 42. Let
me read something here in Isaiah 42. In Isaiah 42, 6, I, the Lord,
have called thee in righteousness, called thee to this covenant,
called thee to this agreement, and will hold thine hand. Here's
the promise that the Father makes to him. I will hold your hand.
I'll take care of you. When you become incarnated, when
you take upon you flesh, because that was part of the agreement,
that he would become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
I'll hold you. I'll take care of you. I will
hold thine hand, and I will keep thee." This is a promise from
the Father to His Son in this covenant concerning me and you. I will keep thee, and then I
give thee for a covenant of the people for a life of the Gentiles. Now turn over to Isaiah 49. Christ,
the covenant was made with Him, but He is the embodiment of that
covenant. 49 in verse 8. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable
time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped
thee. There's the promise, I've helped
you. And I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people to establish the earth. It's all turned over to
his hands. He's the mediator of all of it.
To cause to inherit the desolate heritage. It was made with His Son and
He the covenant also. It is ordered in all things and
sure. There was absolutely nothing
left out of this covenant that you and I have to come up with.
That you and I have to add to it. David said it is ordered
in all things and it's sure. Established. It's sure. And this covenant was ratified
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary. You see it
over in Hebrews 13, 20. And then it's sealed to God's
elect by the Holy Spirit. You see, the whole triune God
is involved in this covenant of grace. The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. The Father prepared it. The Father
presented it. The Son came and purchased He
met all the requirements, and the Holy Spirit of God applies
all the blessings. He applies them all. All of them
are involved in it. And listen, it's unconditional
on our part. It is not conditioned on me in
any way, shape, or form. It was totally based on the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was on him and him alone.
And it's sure to all his seed by promise. God promised him. He promised him, I'll save your
seed. Everyone you die for, I promise
you, I'll save them. I promise you. God said to Noah, just as God
said to his son, I will establish my covenant with you. I promise. The Father prepared a covenant.
He prepared it. He supported him in his work.
And he promised to exalt his name above every name. Over there
in Philippians 2, his name is exalted above every name. Every
knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God has promised
him to exalt his name above all names. He has promised it to
him. And the Son promised, the Son
of God in this covenant of grace promised to bring all the sheep
home. He has promised to bring every
last one of them home. I have kept, he said, I have
kept them. The only one that is lost is
Judas, the son of perdition. He said, you gave them to me.
Look over in John, I believe it's John 17. I didn't write
this down, but let me see if I can find it. Over in John 17, he said in verse 2, as thou hath
given him power over all flesh that was given to him. That was
given to him in this covenant, that he should give eternal life
to as many, as many as thou hast what? Given him. He's promised
to give them eternal life. He's promised to bring them home.
And in this covenant, he's agreed to be the prophet. He's the prophet. He's that prophet. He's the one
who reveals God. He's the one who reveals God.
He said, you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He's the priest.
He's the king of it. He's the king of it. And He's
the one who fulfilled every requirement on behalf of God's children. It was required of Him to keep
the law perfectly. He did it. It was required of Him to die
in their stead. He did it. It was required of
Him to be made He did it. He met every requirement. And
the Holy Spirit comes and applies all the blessings of the covenant. He said, He will take the things
of mine and show them unto you, reveal them to you. God is faithful to His covenant. He's faithful. You know, this
world is standing right now because of a covenant. There's a covenant in which Christ
is the mediator and this whole world is in His hands. And He mediates it every day.
And He does it according to this covenant of grace that's between
Him and the Father concerning His people. All the blessings
that this earth enjoys and all the spiritual blessings that
this church enjoys comes through Christ, the mediator of this
over in Hebrews called the New Covenant, New Testament. And
then God does something here for Noah. He gives him a token of the covenant. I give you my word, Noah, I make
a covenant with you, but I'm going to also give you a token.
I'm going to give you a symbol, a sign. He calls it his bow. He says, My bow. It's a bow of
grace. You know, when you see a rainbow,
you see all those beautiful colors, you don't see a string and an
arrow on it, do you? The war is over. The battle is
won. The battle is won. This bow is
a token of God's grace of God's favor. It is a token of peace. And you have to imagine what
Noah and his family went through. And when it rained, don't you
think they weren't glad to see that bow? It's a token of peace between
God and, he said, Noah. He said, Noah, I establish my
covenant with you. and the earth. It's a token of satisfaction
based on a blood sacrifice. Jesus Christ is the rainbow in
the covenant of God's grace. He is that beautiful, beautiful,
rich rainbow that's in that covenant of grace. He's the rainbow. When
we see Him, you know what we see? God's favor. We see God's
favor. He is a symbol of God's covenant
of grace to us sinners. When we see Him, we see satisfaction. We see peace. We see that God
is satisfied with Him and us in Him. He is our promise of
security. Noah saw that rainbow. There's
a promise of security. Noah, I will not destroy the
world again by flood. My security in Christ is not
a decision of accepting Jesus as my personal Savior. My security is my surety in the
covenant of grace. That's it. That's it. God gave this symbol to Noah
as a promise that he would not destroy the world again by flood. I'm sure that when that thundercloud
rolled in and the lightning began to flash, I imagine there was
some uneasiness with them. I imagine there was. And after
a while, The sun began to shine through the clouds. And there's
that bow. There's that bow. There's that
promise. There's that promise of God.
He said, when you see the bow, when I see the bow, you know,
you don't always see it, but God always sees it. And I'll
show you this here in a minute. This is going to get interesting.
God always sees the covenant. He's never out of his sight.
We don't always see it, but He does. He does. When sinners feel the weight
of sin and hear the thundering of the law in their hearts and
are frightened, then it is. on that dark cloud
that the Son of Righteousness shines through, and we see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see His promise in
Him. And this rainbow that we see
that He gave, He promised Noah, He promised him this rainbow.
This was a lot to study today. But he promised Noah, he said,
when I see this rainbow, I'll remember my covenant with you,
Noah, and I'll stop the rain. I'll stop the rain. I told you over in Psalm 111,
I read to you a while ago, verse five, he's ever mindful of his
covenant. I couldn't write all this down
today. But he remembered the covenant he made with Abraham,
and he saved them. We're talking about the children
of Israel. He remembered that covenant he
made with Abraham. There are seven covenants mentioned in
the Word of God. This is the second one. The first one was
Adam. This is the second one. But God remembers his covenant.
Now, turn over to Revelation chapter 4. He's ever mindful
of his covenant. Revelation chapter 4. After this I looked, and behold,
a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard
was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, which said,
Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. 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 and sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne. That rainbow was round about
that throne. That glorious throne. That throne of majesty and power
and glory was encompassed with a rainbow of grace. Look over in Ezekiel chapter
1. Over in Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 1, let me
see if I've got the right one here. Let me read verse 27. And I saw as the collar of amber,
as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance
of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins
even downward, I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and it
had brightness round about it as the appearance of the bow
that is in the cloud. In the day of rain, so was the
appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance
of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it,
I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that There's that bow right now round
about the throne. The ever-mindful, he says, of
his covenant. Whichever way God turns, he sees
the bow. He sees the covenant of grace.
It's always before him. His throne is a throne, he says,
of grace. We can come now to the throne
of grace through the blood of the everlasting covenant. And everything, now get this,
I read this one, but this is good. Everything that comes from
the throne of grace comes from this throne. Everything that
comes from this throne comes in a way. It comes in a way that
fulfills the covenant of grace. Everything that comes from the
throne comes in such a way that the covenant of grace is fulfilled. I thought that was so good. It
passes through the rainbow of grace when it reaches us. It's consistent. Everything that
God does on His throne, everything that He does is consistent with
the covenant of grace. And then I'll show you something
else. Look in Revelations chapter 10. Yes, I did. I forgot it. Look at this. And I saw another
mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow
was upon his head. The rainbow was round about the
throne, and the rainbow was round about his head. Our head. Our covenant head. Our covenant
head. The rainbow surrounded his head. God is the one who is well pleased
with his son. Where did he put that rainbow?
He didn't put it around my head. He put it around his son's head.
This promise, this token of grace is on the head of Jesus Christ. And everyone in him is a partaker
of that grace. He is the one that the covenant
was made with. He said, Noah, I make my covenant
with you. I establish my covenant with
you. Well, we get to open here briefly,
we get to open the curtains of heaven. We get to look beyond
the veil and we see who that covenant is really made with.
It's the one who wears the bow. Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. When God the Father looks upon
Him, He sees His covenant. And He remembers the covenant
that He made with Him and with us in Him. He remembers it. This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And you notice
when you see a rainbow, it touches both ends of the earth. You see
that? Like I say, you don't see it shooting straight down. I've
never seen one shoot. It's a bow. It just reaches from one end
of the earth to the other end of the earth. God's covenant
of grace reaches to all people. It reaches this place. Reaches
Africa and China. It reaches all people. And it
is seen, as I said earlier, it is seen somewhere in this world.
at any given time. Somewhere it's the same. They always talk about at the
end of the rainbow is a pot of gold. That's the way the world
would think, naturally. At the end of this rainbow is
a pot of grace. A pot of grace. And this bow has
many colors. Many colors. Rich in colors. In Christ, all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge are laid up. In Him are all the promises
of God. It says all the promises of God
in Him are yea and amen. Oh, Paul says, oh, the riches
of Christ. We cannot exhaust Him. We can
exhaust ourselves. We can exhaust our understanding.
But we cannot exhaust Him. I cannot exhaust him. Now, who
was this token for? It was for Noah. It was for Noah. It really wasn't for God. God
never forgets. He says, I'll remember, but even
God said He forgets. It's you and me that forget.
This is why we need the Gospel preached all the time. Paul said,
for you, to me it's not grievous, and for you it's safe. It's necessary. Necessary. Every time Christ
is preached, every time He's preached, the bow is seen in
the cloud. Every time. God is remembering
His mercy to us in Christ every time He sends us the gospel.
Every time. And where was it set? Where was
it set? It was set in the cloud after
the storm. Those dark clouds against the
sun came breaking through. And that rain, the mist of that
rain was left over. All those beautiful colors reflecting
the light. Reflecting the light. It was
set in the cloud. Christ is seen in all His beauty. When we undergo conviction of
sin or some heavy trial, that's when we see Him. That's when
we see Him to be who He is in all His splendor, in all His
glory. That's when He shines forth best. Now, how do I know? And this
is the last one. How do I know that God will not change? How
do I know this? Well, first of all, He said He
wouldn't. He's immutable. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's why
you're not consumed. But I know this. Here's how I
know He'll not change. Number one, He's God. He cannot
change. That's enough said. But Noah, shortly after making
the sacrifices or doing the burn offerings on the altar and getting
off the boat Having this covenant established,
he grows a vineyard and he gets drunk. Well, the world hasn't
been flooded since. God didn't flood the world when
that happened and he hasn't flooded it since. That's because he's
not changed. He does not, will not change.
This covenant of grace is established upon better promises and upon
a better person. The Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, we should take a
lot of comfort in this fact that this whole thing of salvation
is between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And He's
made us to be partakers of it. Be partakers of it. To enjoy
it. And we need to really... I thought
about this today. I thought this would give us
much, much more comfort if we really studied, really studied
these things. Between the Father and the Son
and what He's done for us and what's been established. My soul.
My soul. What we can enjoy. All right, Mike.