Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. If you have a Bible, I would
like you to turn to Genesis chapter 9 and have entitled this message,
The Rainbow of the Covenant. Probably you've heard that after
the flood, God placed a rainbow in the sky to remind him that
he was not going to flood the earth in judgment anymore. Now that covenant that he made
with Noah and his seed pictures and illustrates the covenant
that God has made. Now, you know that the Bible
is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. That word
testament means covenant. The Old Covenant. and the new
covenant. We know from Galatians chapter
4 that God has made two covenants. One covenant he made with Adam
in the garden. Don't eat of the fruit. You're
fine as long as you don't eat of that fruit. If you keep that
covenant, you'll live forever. The other covenant was a covenant
he made with Christ before the foundation of the world, where
he said, you take full responsibility of the salvation of these people
that I'm giving you. And they'll be your bride, your
people on the condition that you do everything to save them. One covenant conditioned upon
Christ's obedience and the other covenant conditioned upon man's
obedience. Now God is a covenant-making
God. That word is found over 300 times
in the scripture. And in this story of Noah, that's
the first time the word covenant comes up. And after he got off
the ark, the covenant is mentioned seven different times. Now I'd
like to read this passage of scripture. And like I said, I've
entitled this message, The Rainbow of the Covenant. Now, Noah has
been on the ark for over a year and he's now left the ark and
he's offered sacrifices. First thing he did was build
an altar and offer sacrifices of the clean beasts. And then
we read where God spake to Noah. Verse 8 of Genesis chapter 9,
And God spake unto Noah and to his sons with him, saying, And
I, behold, I establish my covenant with you. This is not a unilateral
agreement where God says, I'll do this if you do that. He says,
I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after
you and with every living creature that's with you, of the fowl,
the cattle, and of every beast of the earth and 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. Now here's the covenant
he makes. I'm not going to destroy the
world with a flood anymore. Neither shall there be any more
flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the token
of the covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that's 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. Now somebody says, isn't a rainbow
just the refraction of light through water droplets? Well,
yeah, but God put it there. One of the things I love about
the Bible, the Bible's not a science book, it's not given as an explanation
for science, but one day it'll be seen, science will catch up
with the scripture. Everything in the Bible is true, and everything
is subservient to that. And the fact of the matter is,
we just don't know everything. I'm thankful for science, I'm
thankful for the advances of science, but there's nothing
in science that disproves scripture. Everything is going to bow before
what God has said. So he set that bow in the sky.
Verse 14, 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 on it, that I may remember the everlasting
covenant. Now, seven times in that passage
of scripture, we read of the covenant, and God even calls
it the everlasting covenant. Now, this covenant was made before
the flood. When he said this, this was after
the flood, but God first said this to Moses in Genesis 6, verse
18. I mean, Noah, not Moses, Noah.
But with thee will I establish my covenant. and thou shalt come
into the ark. I will do this, you shall do
that. I love the way God's covenant
works. I will and you shall. The reason you shall is because
I will. That's the way God's covenant
works. It's not like a covenant where,
well, I'll do this if you do that. No, it's I'll do this and
you will do that because I determined it in my covenant. Really, that's
why Noah found Gracie in the eyes of the Lord in the first
place. We read in verse eight, chapter six, this is before the
flood. God had looked upon the man and
it says, God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. That's me, that's you, that's
every man, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It doesn't
say Noah was better than those people. But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And that's because Noah was included
in that covenant that God made with Christ before the foundation
of the world. And that is why Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah is given to illustrate
the covenant that God made with Christ and his seed. Now the covenant was made with
Noah and his seed, Noah and everybody that was in
the ark. So the covenant God made is with Christ and everybody
in him, called in the scriptures, his seed. He shall see his seed,
Ephesians, I mean Isaiah 53, 10 says. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. he shall
see his seed. In the great Psalm of the Cross,
in Psalm 22, it says, a seed shall serve him. This is Abraham's
seed, the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. God made a covenant with
Christ. And he said, you save these people
I'm giving you. Ephesians 1.4 says, according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
you take full responsibility for their salvation and they
shall be saved. The scripture speaks of several
covenants. Covenant here with Noah. There was a covenant made
with Abraham, covenant of circumcision. There was the Mosaic covenant
given in the law. There was the covenant God made
with David. There was the covenant God made with Solomon, but all
these covenants represent the covenant God made with Christ. They show some aspect of the
covenant God made with Christ. Now let me repeat, I said this
at the beginning of this message, there are only two covenants. The covenant that God made with
Christ before time began, and the one he made with Adam before
the fall in the garden. Now, the one covenant is wholly
conditioned on what Christ does. The other covenant is wholly
conditioned upon what you do. Adam, it's up to you. If you
can keep from eating that fruit, you'll live forever. The ball's
in your court. It's up to you. Salvation conditioned upon human
obedience. Now let me say this, any covenant
that's conditioned upon human obedience is doomed for failure. It will never work. But thank
God for this covenant He made with Christ. And listen to me,
God will meet you on the ground, you come to Him. If you come
only in the covenant of Christ, looking only to Christ, having
nothing but Christ, Your only hope is Christ. He'll meet you
on that ground. And if you want to come on the
ground of your works, He'll meet you on that ground too. I wouldn't
do it if I were you. You'll never win that battle.
God will expose you, but He'll meet you on the basis of your
works if that's what you want. But God will meet you on the
ground you come. You come pleading only Christ,
He'll meet you there. You come With some hope in something
you do, he'll meet you there too, and it will not be a good
ending. I can assure you of that. Now, this covenant that God made
with Noah is given to illustrate the covenant that God made with
Christ. This covenant was not made with all men with that exception.
It was made to Noah and his seed, those in the ark. And we read
in Genesis 9, verse 11, God says, I will establish my
covenant with you. Oh, that's what I want. Not,
I'll do this if you do that. Now, if salvation is dependent
on me doing something before I can be saved, or me stop doing
something before I can be saved, I have no hope. And let me be as plain as I can
about that. If my salvation is dependent
in any way to any degree on me doing something or stop doing
something before I can be saved, I won't be saved. And my dear
friends, neither were you. You see, we're sinners. And you
can't stop sinning any more than you can create the universe.
There's no excuse for sin. All sin is wrong. We ought not
ever sin again. But the plain fact of the matter
is you and I are sinners. And if salvation is dependent
upon us doing anything, we will not be saved. But thank God,
he said to Noah, I established this covenant with you. and with
your seed. Now, the reason that I can have
a hope of being saved, even though I'm still a sinner, is because
of this covenant that God made with Christ. Romans 8.1 says,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. We read in Hebrews chapter 13
verse 20 of the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now that's a covenant that never
had a beginning. It was made in eternity past where there
is no past, present, or future. All things are in the now with
God. And this covenant was made with
His blessed Son, where He gave Him a people. All that the Father
giveth me, the Lord said, shall come to me. All that the Father
giveth me. And I love the illustration we
have in Genesis 43, where Jacob wouldn't give up Benjamin
and Judah. Christ came out of the tribe
of Judah. This was given to illustrate his work. He said, I'll take
him down to Egypt, and I'll be responsible for it. He said,
I'll be surety for him. Of my hand shall thou require
him. If I bring him not before thee
and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. You see, Christ took full responsibility
for the salvation of every one of his people before the foundation
of the world. And when God gave this people
to Christ, he did not look for a thing out of them. He looked
wholly to his Son for their salvation. I love that scripture, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. That doesn't mean I come beside Him or behind Him. That
means when He comes, I come because I'm in Him. That's how I come
to the Father. No man coming to the Father but
by me through the blood of this everlasting covenant. Through
His blood, you see, He accomplished the justification of all of His
people. That's what the blood of the
covenant, the everlasting covenant, did. Everyone included in that
everlasting covenant, He shed His precious blood for. Their
sins were put away. They were made just before God,
without sin. That's what justification is.
It's sinlessness before God. Now that's what His covenant
accomplished. Now let's go on reading. I will
establish my covenant with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut
off anymore by the waters of the flood. You see, this was
a covenant of mercy. There's not gonna be a judgment because
of a flood. Now it's given to picture that there's no judgment
to anybody Christ died for. They're safe and secure in him. And then he said in verse 13,
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. Now, before the flood,
there had not been rain. The scripture says the earth
had a dew over it, and that's how plants were watered. Somebody
says, explain that. I can't. Don't feel any need
to. But it didn't rain until after
the flood. I don't understand the why and
wherefore of that, but God said it, and I believe it. There was
no rain. until the flood, and then the rains came down for
40 days, and the earth was broken up, and the flood covered the
earth 15 cubits above the highest mountain, the scripture says,
a worldwide flood. Now, Noah came out of that ark
and everything was dry, very dry, after he had been in there
for so long. But how do you think they felt
when they heard the thunder clap and the rain begin to come down?
I will guarantee you they're thinking, uh-oh, what's going
on now? Is this going to happen again?
And God would put his bow in the clouds and they would see
that beautiful rainbow and know that a flood will not come again. That was God's promise. And look
what he says in verse 15. He says, and I will remember
my covenant. Now this bow was not so much
for Noah as for God. He said, I will remember my covenant,
which was 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 my everlasting covenant. the rainbow of the covenant. Now, I would like to go to a
passage of scripture. We're gonna look at two other
scriptures, but in Revelation chapter four, this is such a
glorious passage of scripture. Verse one, John says, after this,
I looked and behold, a door was opened into heaven. And the first
voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with
me, speaking of the strength of this voice, which said, come
up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. You see, because God is sovereign,
everything that takes place must be because he determined it.
It's not a partial sovereignty. He's sovereign over all things. And everything that comes to
pass must be because he purposed it. And John says, And immediately
I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and
one sat on the throne. I couldn't help but think of
Isaiah when he had that heavenly vision in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. exalted high and lifted up sitting
on a throne. Now the sitting on the throne
represents His sovereignty, His reign, His rule. He's sovereign
in creation. He spake the world into existence.
He's sovereign in providence. Everything that's happening,
all the madness that is happening in the world, he's in complete
control of. And he's most especially sovereign
in salvation. He's the cause of salvation. And he sits upon his throne.
And we read in verse three, and he that sat was to look upon
like a jasper and a sardine stone. And look at this. There was a
rainbow round about the throne. Sitting on this throne, encircling
this throne, is a rainbow, the token of the covenant. And what that tells us is that
all of God's dealings with his people are through this covenant. At no time is any believer ever
viewed independently of the covenant that God made with Christ. That's why every believer is
secure, because of the covenant God made with Christ. Now, what I'd like to do in closing
is consider what David, the man after God's own heart, had to
say about this covenant. He had a lot to say about it.
If you read the Psalms, you're going to find him saying, have
respect to the covenant. Remember the covenant. Oh, he
had some understanding of this covenant. As a matter of fact,
this covenant is called the covenant of my peace. That's what God
calls it. And he calls it in Isaiah chapter 55, verse three,
the everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David. That's
what God calls this covenant. the everlasting covenant, even
the sure mercies of David. Now in 2 Samuel chapter 23, we
read these be the last words of David. David was dying and
he knew it. What if you knew you were going
to die today? What would be going through your mind? What would
you be thinking about? Well, you wouldn't be thinking
about how much money you had in the bank. You wouldn't be thinking
about the legacy you're leaving. You'd be thinking about standing
before God. That's what you'd be thinking
about. You'd be thinking, I'm going
to stand before God. How's it going to go with me if I'm going
to die today? What's going to happen to me after that death?
These be the dying words of David. Now, there's a lot of things
he could have been thinking about. I try to put myself in his place.
David, I love David. David was a man after God's own
heart. I have such great admiration
for David. But David was a very sinful man. Look at his track
record. He had a horrible abuse of power
in making Bathsheba come to him. He committed adultery. And then
he had her husband, Uriah, who was a good man, a fine man as
far as men goes. As a matter of fact, he's listed
in the mighty men of David before David's death. He had him murdered
in cold blood, premeditated to cover up his own sin, and he
even had Joab do his dirty work for him. Now that lets us know
about what that man could do. Somebody says, can a believer
do that? You're real dumb asking a question like that. I mean,
I don't want to be disrespectful, but yeah, a believer can commit
any sin, an unbeliever can, except the sin against the Holy Spirit,
because they have an evil nature. David was a sinful man, and knowing
he's dying, you reckon he's thinking, you think God's going to get
me for that? It's not mentioned in his dying words. He doesn't
think about it in his conquests either. He doesn't mention, well,
I'm the one who whipped Goliath. I'm the one who became the most
powerful man in the world, and he did. The scripture says the
fear of David fell on every nation. There's all kinds of things that
might have been running through his mind as he was contemplating
death. These be the last words of David. Now, hear his words. 2 Samuel
23, verse 5. Although my house be not so with
God. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And this is all my
salvation and all my desire. though he maketh it not to grow."
That's an unusual way to end that statement, isn't it? Although
he maketh it not to grow. Now, let's consider these words,
although my house be not so with God. David's family was a mess. You think your family's a mess?
David's was worse. He had, oh, he had such trouble
with his children, such trouble with his wives, so many horrible
sins, crimes committed in his home by his family members. Yes,
that's what David was talking about, but he was also talking
about this house. He's talking about his body.
He's talking about the body that housed his soul. You know, Paul
said, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. He was talking about his old
nature. Although my house be not so with
God, I'm a sinner. This is speaking of the total
depravity of human nature. Although my house be not so with
God, Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant." Now
that's a reference to election. God made an everlasting covenant
with me. I was included in that covenant
made in eternity past when God gave Christ a people called his
sheep that he would represent and save. Although my house be
not so with God, yet in spite of that, hath he made with me
an everlasting covenant. Now, the next thing he says with
regard to this covenant God made with him that was everlasting,
he said, it's ordered in all things and sure. Now, everything that's happened
in my life was ordered by God, and it's sure to come out well
for this reason. Christ made me perfect before
God, and I have nothing to worry about. The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, is saving blood, ordered in all things and sure. And then he said, this is all
my salvation. This covenant that's ordered
in all things and sure, this is all my salvation. Now this
speaks of the invincible saving grace of God. This is all my
salvation, and not only is it all my salvation, it's all my
desire. I don't want to be seen in any
other way but in Christ. I want to look to Him only, that's
all I want. When God comes looking for me,
there's only one thing I want, there's only one thing I desire,
that all He sees is Jesus Christ, me in Him. This is all my desire. That's what perseverance is.
It's looking only to Christ. And then he makes this unusual
statement, I think, at the end, though he maketh it not to grow.
Now, what does he mean by that, though he maketh it not to grow?
We do grow, don't we? Yes, the scripture says, grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. There's growing in the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit.
Love Him more than you used to. You see more of your need of
Him. You grow in the Beatitudes. There is such a thing as growth.
Grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. But let me tell you how I know I do not grow. I do not
grow more holy, and I do not grow less sinful. And that's
just the truth. I do not grow more holy. Someone
says, I'm getting more holy. You're a liar. That's all you
can call. You're a liar. You're not getting
more holy. Somebody says, I'm growing less sinful. You're a
liar too. You're as sinful as you ever were, as far as your
old nature. I don't grow more holy or less sinful. But I can say with David, although
my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant. in all things ensure this is
all my salvation and all my desire. To receive a copy of the sermon
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