A Promise of Preservation

Good morning church. If you have your copy of scripture, if you'll go ahead and
open up God's word to Genesis chapter eight, we are going to pick up where we left
off in the narrative in our study there at verse 21.
We'll read verse 20 just to connect it with last week here in just a few moments,
but our study's gonna pick up in verse 21 this morning. So you can make you're
away there. Church, just about a month ago, I got an incredible opportunity,
my wife and I, to take a lifelong dream trip for my wife,
maybe not lifelong, but longtime dream trip for my wife to Europe. And as we went
over there, she made it a part of our plans that we would tour around to several
different churches and cathedrals that peppered the countries that we were going into.
And these places, I'm telling you, were indescribable.
It's hard to put them into words. These places had just the most ornate design.
They had the most careful craftsmanship that went into building these thousand -year
-old buildings. They had some of the most beautiful works of art you've ever seen.
And in these beautiful works of art, they lined the walls in these great churches
and cathedrals, telling these great gospel stories that were meant to convey to
illiterate people, the work of God through Christ and this was a phenomenal
experience as we went to several of them and several of them we did but as
magnificent as these places were my wife was grieved more and more with each one
she saw and I was enamored with all these places And so as I watched this,
eventually I watched her increasing disinterest in them and I asked, "Hey, hey, what
gives? This is phenomenal. What else have you seen like this? What's going on?
Why are you so disinterested in this?"
And then she told me that she could hardly bear to look at it anymore, because as
rich as the history and the beauty was in these places,
and it was rich, it was beautiful. It told great history of these peoples in these
places and the ministry that had been done there. As rich as all of that was,
the fact is that almost all of these landmark churches were now just that.
landmarks.
There's no real ministry going on in these places. If the true gospel ever had been
there, it was long gone.
And so she just kind of became a little
disparaged by that reality.
And Like those cathedrals, friends,
the narrative of the flood, interesting, intellectually stimulating,
all inducing as it might be. If we're not careful, it will be intellectually
stimulating without being soul stirring.
We look back at narratives like this and we can't have the tendency to read them
just like history. And what we must resist this morning, friends, is the tendency to
do that. And so I'm going to invite you to look at this and as we consider what
God says to us in the text, we're gonna see how God's covenant with Noah is
foundational to the unfolding of redemptive history that follows. And we'll see how
it has great relevance to our lives. The main point of our text this morning is
that God has bound himself to patiently preserve creation until his promise is
fulfilled to his people. I'm going to say that one more time, okay? The point of
our text this morning is that God has bound himself to patiently preserve his
creation until his promise is fulfilled to his people. And we're going to see that
idea develop through three main divisions in the text. First, we're going to consider
God's commitment. Second, we'll contemplate God's commands given in the text.
And lastly, we'll see the establishment of God's covenant. God's commitment, God's
commands, and God's establishment of his covenant.
Now I said that the main idea here is that God has bound himself to patiently
preserve his creation until his promise is fulfilled to his people. And that is the
main idea because in this text we find God making a covenant. He makes a covenant
with Noah and all who would come after Noah. That's really what this whole section
we're gonna look at this morning is about. In fact, it's really not an overstatement
church to say that the whole Bible is really about God making covenants.
He makes a handful of covenants throughout the scriptures, and the rest of the pages
of scripture are really God telling the story of how those covenants are playing out
amidst man's sinfulness that kind of muddies it all up.
Actually our English word "testament" as in Old Testament,
New Testament, our English word "testament" comes from the word covenant. You see the
Bible is actually structured in such a way to tell of God's faithfulness to the Old
Covenant that he established in the Old Testament and how the Old Covenant finds
fulfillment in the new Covenant. You see, it's all about God's Covenant friends.
So it's important that we understand what a Covenant is. If the Bible structured
around them, if we're going to study them this morning, we ought to know what it
is, right?
Well, yes, because God has determined to relate to His people.
God has determined to relate to us through covenants. So at the outset here,
let me just give you a simple definition and brief explanation of what a covenant
is. In In the ancient world, covenants were not specific to God and Israel.
Covenants were rather common in the ancient world. This is not just a Bible thing,
but at its most basic level, a covenant, we need to understand, is an oath -bound
relationship between two or more parties. That's it. Basic level, a covenant is an
oath -bound relationship between two or more parties. So some of the covenants that
we find in scripture are structured a bit differently than others, but typically
there's a commitment from God, there's a conditions of the covenant or commands that
God lays out for his people, and then there's a sign of the covenant. And that's
what we find in our passage today. God's commitment, God lays out commands,
and then God issues the covenant with a sign, okay? So all that in mind,
now let's look to the text, and we're gonna pick up in verse 20 and read from
there. Genesis chapter eight, verse 20.
Read along with me.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some
of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord
smelled the pleasing aroma the Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse
the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his
youth." "Neither will I ever again strike down "every living creature as I have
done. "While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, "cold and heat,
summer and winter, "day and night shall not cease. "And God blessed Noah and his
sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. "The fear of
you and the dread of you "shall be upon every beast of the earth "and upon Every
bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of
the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be
food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything,
but you shall not eat the flesh with its life, that is its blood, and for your
life blood I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it and from
man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man
in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply.
Increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold, I establish my covenant
with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with
you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you.
As many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth. I establish
my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of
the flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." And God
said, "Let this be a sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and
every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my
bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth When the bow is seen in the clouds, I will
remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh. And the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between
me and all flesh that is on the earth. This ends the reading of God's holy word.
Pray with me, church.
Father, we are grateful for your word. We're grateful, Lord, that you reveal yourself
and your designs and your purposes and plans for redemptive history to us.
when we are not entitled to such God. We thank you, Lord, for clearly revealing
yourself and your character to us. Lord, this morning we ask that as we consider
your word that you would help us to think rightly about it. Lord, I do pray that
for all of those here that belong to you, Lord, that you would help us to see you
more clearly in the text this morning. Give us a bigger vision of who you are,
God, that we might worship you more robustly, more fully,
more devotedly. God, we pray that you would work in us to sanctify us in your
truth, your word is the truth. God, we ask this morning that for those that do not
belong to you by faith, we ask that you would use the teaching of this text to
make them wise and to salvation, Lord. And we ask that you would keep me free from
error as we make our way through the text. And we ask it all in Christ's name,
amen.
So I said that the first point that we see in the text this morning is God's
commitment. As we begin this section of scripture, we're met with something amazing.
It's here that we begin to see the brilliance of God shine forth in the larger
narrative of redemptive history. Because here we start to see the multifaceted plans
and purposes of God unfold in history. Look at the text with me in verse 21.
Again, it reads, "And when the Lord smelled "the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in
his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of
man's heart is evil from his youth. Never will I ever again strike down every
living creature as I have done. So we had this new commitment from God here.
Yet this comes to us in the narrative with the backdrop of God having just flooded
the earth and killed all of humanity, except Noah and his family. And so this new
commitment that God makes here reveals the beauty and the brilliance of God's
multifaceted purposes, which are coming to the fore in the narrative of Scripture.
Because prior to this commitment, friends, we have really two promises of God in the
text of Scripture. Just earlier in Genesis, we haven't made it very far in the
Bible at this point, so just earlier in Genesis, God makes two primary commitments.
You'll remember in Genesis chapter two, verse 17, it was there God said, "But of
the tree of the knowledge "of good and evil you shall not eat, "for in the day
that you eat of it, "you "Shall surely, what?
"Die." This was God's first commitment to Adam, that sin brings death.
This was God's commitment to rule and govern his creation in accordance with his own
holiness. God is serious about holiness, church.
That's why the author of Hebrews exhorts us, strive for peace with everyone,
and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. God cannot stand for
unholiness. It would violate his character to do so.
If he just gave a wink and looked over sin, he would be an unrighteous God.
This is what we've seen over the last few weeks as we've gone through this flood
narrative. God is serious about his commitment to his holiness.
Deadly serious.
That's why death was the promise to Adam in the garden if he chose sin. The fact
that Adam and Eve drew even one breath after biting into the fruit was the grace
of God on display, friends.
And that leads us to the second promise that God makes in the narrative of
scripture. Prior to our text, still, after the fall, we find in Genesis 3 .15,
where God says to Satan, "I will put enmity between you and the woman "and between
your offspring and her offspring, "and he shall bruise your head and you shall
bruise his heel." In that promise from God called the Proto -Evangelium or the first
gospel, God promises there that one will come from the woman who will ultimately
defeat Satan and sin. He will come from the woman to undo the curse that brought a
bond mankind and the world.
And that second promise is really here what God is elaborating on.
Prior to our text, God has, he has these two parallel commitments, his holiness and
his grace. And the, but the significance of the flood narrative is that We see both
of these commitments of God working out in space -time history. We've seen over the
last few weeks that God was not making empty promises when he said that the penalty
of sin was that you shall surely die. Yet that leaves us asking,
okay, what about God's other promise to defeat evil?
And that's what he's addressing here in verses 21 and 22 of chapter 8.
He's reconfirming his commitment to bring from Eve a Savior.
Now theoretically had God not made this commitment, it wouldn't nullify his commitment
to provide a Savior from the line of Eve. It just would have really complicated
things. He could have, again, destroyed the Earth, preserved one family like he's
done with Noah and his family here, but then there wouldn't ever develop a great
people to save.
No, if every generation or two God determined that he had tolerated all of the evil
that he could and he started over again, There would not be generations upon
generations of those who believed and were saved. I believe it was John Calvin that
said, "Apart from this promise, there should be nothing to keep us from believing
that God would bring a daily deluge on the earth." Because friends,
what we find in this text is that nothing has changed about mankind after the
flood.
This is important for us to see. We just read it in the text. Look there again at
what God says is the impetus for him making this gracious promise. Verse 21,
"The Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man
"for," purpose statement, "for the intention of man's heart "is evil from his youth."
Now, that's a parallel statement with Genesis chapter 6 in verse 5, describing why
God determined to bring the flood in the first place. Do you remember? Genesis
chapter 6, verse 5 says, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually." Do you hear it? Why did God determine to blot out all mankind except
for Noah and his family? Because man was evil.
Yet why is God now committing himself to preserve his creation?
It's not because the flood fixed the heart of man, church.
No, God was committing to preserve the world specifically because the heart of man
is perpetually evil. Are you seeing how the dual commitments of God are worked out
through the event of the flood? Are you sensing the relevance of this for us today?
Friends, what we see so clearly here is that God is steadfastly committed to
upholding his promise to Adam that sin will be punished by death.
That's why God let his righteous wrath roll down in raindrops on the whole realm of
humanity. Yet now we read that the flood of his wrath did not fix man's problem of
indwelling sin
and in reiterating and solidifying this second commitment to bring a seed from the
woman to save us from the curse of sin, we find here the unmerited grace and mercy
of God on display.
God is committing even though man is sinful,
And though the sin continues to abide in his heart, God is committing to preserve
his creation so that something other than death would await all those who by faith
trust in the sin -conquering work of the seed of the woman. That is what's coming
to the fore here, church. God is committing himself to preserve creation so that
nations would be built, so that tribes would come forth,
so that languages would be developed, all for the purpose of bringing to pass that
great heavenly vision that the apostle John wrote about in Revelation chapter 7.
Do you remember what he says there? We just went through Revelation. Revelation 7,
let me remind you, the apostle John says, "After this I looked and behold a great
multitude that no one could number from every nation and all tribes and peoples and
languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with
palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to
our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb that friends is why God is making
this commitment in our text this morning to preserve His creation so that a multi
-generational, multi -national, multi -language proclamation of praise He would receive in
heaven. That's what's happening. Without this covenant commitment from God initiated
with Noah, there would have been no certainty for Old Testament believers that God
was progressing his plan of redemption in a straightforward way.
This covenant promise that God makes here in our text is the foundation on which
all the subsequent covenants of scripture are built. God's commitment here was their
hope of God working toward deliverance rather than death.
And there's so much for us as New Testament believers to glean from this text as
well. But chief among those lessons is that we can't help but note God's
faithfulness to do what He purposes to do in His heart. Friends,
what confidence in God's faithfulness we can draw from this passage,
because while history tells of a myriad of stories of local destruction,
we just read about one, or I'm sorry, prayed about one. We've read about it in the
news this week. There is local destruction that happens, but we have to be extremely
careful there, friends, to not call the character and the faithfulness of God into
question. There are certainly tragedies that happen in local instances where calamities
come. But friends, do not be confused if we compare local instances like that to,
and call into question the faithfulness of God. We have no idea of the scale of
this calamity that took place in Genesis. God, friends, is not in danger of not
being faithful to his promise. There are local calamities that happen, but oh
friends, God has been so faithful to preserve his creation. God has been so faithful
not to bring an end to mankind on a global scale like he has here.
What confidence then we can draw, even as New Testament believers in our context,
What confidence we can draw from God's faithfulness here? Because he's done throughout
history what he has said that he would do. He said he would never again strike
down every living creature, and so it has been.
Just as God said in verse 22, "While the earth remains seed -time and harvest cold
and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. The cycle of the world
system, the cycle of the environment wouldn't be interrupted. That's what God
promised, and so it has been, friends.
And it's in light of that faithfulness. Remember the main point of our passage, God
has bound himself to patiently preserve his creation until his promises fulfill to
his people. It's in light of God's faithfulness to that commitment that we're
positioned then to consider what comes next in our passage. And what comes next in
our passage is considering these commands that God issued. I said before that
covenants typically come with conditions or commands. And that's the case here as
well. After we read of God's commitment in the text, we Begin to receive some
commands from him Now as we make this transition in the text I want to take a
moment to go back to Genesis chapter 1 for a moment So you can go ahead and turn
there leave your thumb here in your Bibles But go ahead and turn back in your
Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 versus 28 through 31 And we're gonna read together
what's called the creation mandate and then proceed to look at chapter nine because
when we do this what becomes clear is that these are these are not just random
guidelines that God is giving Noah when he steps off the ark.
Now here this is a big moment where God is recasting his plan and purpose for
humanity in the new post flood world. Okay so are you there? Genesis chapter one,
let's pick up there in verse 28, "God has just created Adam and Eve in his own
image," he says, "and then," this is what we read, "and God blessed them and God
said to them, "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, "and have
dominion over the fish of the sea "and over the birds of the heavens "and over
everything, living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, "Behold, I have
given you every plant yielding seed "that is on the face of the earth, "and every
tree with its seed and its fruit. "You shall have them for food, "and to every
beast of the earth, "and to every bird of the heavens, "and to everything that
creeps on the earth, "everything that has the breath of life, "I have given every
green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made,
and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the
sixth day. Okay, so now flip back over to Genesis chapter nine. We're now at the
beginning of chapter nine, verse one.
Okay, you're back.
Genesis chapter nine, Beginning of verse one, we read, "And God blessed Noah and his
sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. "The fear of
you and the dread of you "shall be upon every beast of the earth "and upon every
bird of the heavens, "upon every thing that creeps on the ground "and all the fish
of the sea. "Into your hand they are delivered. "Every moving thing that lives shall
be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
But you shall not eat the flesh with its life, that is its blood. And for your
life blood I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it, and from
man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man
in his own image, and you be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth
and multiply in it." You can't miss the parallel, friends.
They're different a bit, but very much the same. Here, as Noah steps off the ark
into this post -flood world, God is recommissioning humanity to live out his designs
on the earth. And here's how it breaks down. In verses 1 through 7,
we find three commands. We find God commanding propagation, we find God commanding a
prohibition, and he gives a specific punishment here. And then he gives a statement
of provision nestled between those commands. But, but But all of that all the
commands here that we see in this passage fall under one category one one priority
of God And that priority is the preservation of human life Look at 9 /1.
God commands Noah and his sons to propagate life. He says be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth So they were to have a bunch of babies and fill the new world.
And then in verses two and three, we're told of a development concerning the effects
of sin and a post -fall world that would affect the relationship between humans and
animals. The animal kingdom would now fear and dread mankind in a way that they
hadn't before. This explains in part how the whole, you know,
arc thing could have happened, that there was now this new hostility that didn't
exist before, right?
Yes, like in the garden originally, God reiterates to man his dominion over the
animals and God actually expands his provision for sustaining human life.
And he tells them that now not only plants but meat is going to be a part of
their diet. And so God here expands on his provision for sustaining human life.
In the new world, man would eat animals.
And this leads to the next way in which God prioritizes life and commands us to
follow suit because in verse four, God prohibits eating flesh with its life,
that is, its blood. God's highlighting and reiterating here, the principle laid down
in the Garden of Eden, that he made man in his own image. Man is distinct from
the animals. Contrary to evolutionary scientists and philosophers,
whatever they might promote, we don't take our cues from the patterns of living in
the animal kingdom, friends. Having been made an image of God, we are to reflect
the purposes and priorities of God. God has declared man to be the crown of his
creation.
And man's redemption is the purpose for which all things are being ordered in our
world. So while animals may cruelly devour their prey, while they are still living,
God commands man to prioritize the value of life by prohibiting such nonsense,
such cruelty, and not only does this set the standard of prioritizing life by laying
out this prohibition, he goes on to command a punishment for anybody who would
violate God's priority of life. He says there in verses five and six,
"And for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning. From every beast, I will
require it and from man from his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the
life of man whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed This is
God instituting capital punishment friends You see capital punishment is not merely a
matter of political policy It's a matter of divine priority and purpose It speaks to
the value that God has placed on life.
And you'll notice that the commands issued here, they sound less like New Testament
passages that teach us those one another's, right? To love, serve,
and support each other. They sound less like that, and a little more like how to
shape a society, don't they?
And that's because the covenant that God is instituting here is what is often
referred to as a common grace covenant. Now this morning we referenced common grace
and confessed what we believe about it from our catechism. But what we see here is
that this covenant is a common grace covenant. In theological terms, common grace is
was from redemptive grace or special grace in that redemptive grace involves the
power of God to work in saving and sanctifying his people.
Redemptive grace is the grace of God at work in his people to save them and
sanctify them. Whereas common grace is the work of God to restrain evil,
like we were confessing earlier, to strain evil and display his goodness to all
mankind.
What's imperative that we keep in view here is that common grace, the common grace
of God always, everywhere serves the redemptive grace of God.
The Lord is not prioritizing the preservation of life on earth to simply keep the
earth populated. No. It is so that God's work of salvation would go forth on the
earth. So that nations would know him and that a great many people might praise
him, friends.
Remember the focus of our text is that God has bound himself to patiently preserve
creation until his promise is fulfilled to his people. And in each of these commands
that God gives to Noah, and subsequently, God gives to us as descendants of Noah.
In each of these commands, what we're seeing is the outworking of God's covenant
commitment. He's calling us to reflect His character.
God's calling us to more accurately represent His image in propagating and protecting
life,
But it's key that we recognize these common grace commands all serve to bring about
God's redemptive grace and purposes
So when you think about Friends as a point of application when we read this again,
it's easy to look back and say well, this is a long time ago This is a great
historical narrative, but I'm not really sure how creation mandate, I'm not a part
of recreation, there's a lot of people around me, right? So it's kind of hard to
see how creation mandate has anything to do with me. But listen, friends, it's not
that this does not apply to us today. And we need to reckon with that. When you
think, friends, about the blessing of having children that God has given you,
mom and dad, Are you merely bearing that blessing more like a burden?
Some days are better than others, I know, all too well. But think about your
perspective. In receiving God's combat grace of the blessing of children,
are you bearing that blessing more like a burden?
Or even ask yourself, am I merely reveling in that blessing that that child can be
in a consumer -like fashion? Am I just getting the love and affection and fulfillment
from my child that I miss out on elsewhere in life or that I crave dearly?
Are you either bearing your child or approaching your child in an overly consumer
kind of way? "Neither of these approaches are taken the common grace blessing of
children and leveraging it for the advancement of the kingdom of God in and through
them, friends." Or what about the blessing of provisions that are mentioned here in
the passage? God expands on the provisions that He gives mankind.
How are you receiving the provisions that God has given you in your life by His
common grace. He's blessed you, maybe with not great amounts, but He has blessed you
with provisions. And what I'm asking you this morning is just to consider how you
think about how you receive and allocate those provisions.
How are your thoughts structured concerning what God has provided for you? Do you
think more in terms of consumption and how you can consume all that God has
provided for you? Or do you think more about how to leverage what he's entrusted
you with for the expansion of his kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel?
Do you think about that at all? How you leverage what he's given you for the
expansion of his kingdom and the proclamation of the gospel?
And if you do think about it, then how much do you think about it? Way that out.
How much do I think about my consumption of these things versus leveraging these
things in my life? Because God's common grace, friends, His common blessings that He
pronounced is on Noah and His offsprings here, and then to us in the rest of
mankind, God's common grace always serves the purpose of His redemptive grace. So we
receive his good gifts and we are to leverage those for the advancement of his
kingdom.
And it's only after issuing these commands in the text that that that accord with
the purposes of God does God actually establish his covenant. And that's what we're
gonna find next in the text. The last thing we consider here is the actual
establishment of the covenant. See, what we read before in this text is a commitment
from God. What we've read, he's already promised to not flood the earth again,
not destroy everything. But actually, if you read it closely in chapter eight, verses
21 to 22, that is God's commitment to himself. And now we find God enacting or
establishing his covenant with Noah and his offspring. And there's a lesson in that
progression of the text, friends. That's how all covenants, in every aspect of God's
work of redemption work, it originates first in the mind and the heart of God.
It's always God's commitment first. From eternity past he plans his purposes and then
his plans and purposes come to fruition as he engages with mankind.
This little observation should bring us a lot of comfort because we serve a
sovereign God whose designs and decrees have been settled in eternity past.
Our God is not a reactionary God, friends. Waiting to see what might happen in the
world. Waiting to see how man might respond to him. Even though in chapter eight,
verse 20, it seems like the Lord is just responding to Noah's sacrifice,
to Noah's offering. In reality, most covenants were inaugurated,
initiated with a blood sacrifice. And so that's likely just a part of the scene of
God making this covenant with Noah. And after all, who was it that instructed Noah
how many animals that he should take on the ark? It was God, back in chapter 7,
fully aware of how many animals would be needed to repopulate the earth? And fully
aware of the covenant arrangement that he would make here with Noah.
You see, God is never responding or reacting. He's always operating in the way that
he has orchestrated events to take place from eternity past. And In accordance with
his eternal plans, we read this in chapter nine, verse nine. Look there with me.
"Then the Lord said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold, I establish my
covenant with you "and with your offspring after you "and with every living creature
that is with you, "the birds, the livestock, "and every beast of the earth with
you. "As many as came out of the ark, "it is for every beast of the earth. "I
establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the
waters of the flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.
It is with this covenant in place friends that the rest of redemptive history now
can unfold.
Now and only now that God has bound himself to patiently preserve His creation,
now all of the Old Testament saints can have confidence in the covenants that would
follow.
It would only be in light of this covenant that the Old Testament saints could
actually trust in the reality, the promise of the Abrahamic covenant, where God would
promise to provide a promised land That foreshadows a final ultimate promise of rest
for the people of God Now that God has bound himself in this way can there be
hope that For those under the mosaic law for those under the mosaic covenant now
They could have hope that there would be stability in the world. And so yes one
day God will actually bring a final and fitting sacrifice for sin.
Yes, now that we have this structure in place in the Noeah Covenant,
now those who lived in David's time and after, they could trust that God would
provide a true and better king who would sit on his eternal throne forever from
which he would rule and reign over his This this friends this covenant of
preservation makes all the subsequent covenants of God possible It's the framework
that God Uses to set up redemptive history. There is no redemption promised here But
God's work of redemption depends on the stability that is promised here
And as is typical, there is a sign that God says should be associated with the
covenant. We read of it in verses 12 to 17. God said,
"This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living
creature that is with you for all future generations. I have set my bow in the
clouds and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
God sets a rainbow in the sky to remind not man, but interestingly enough to remind
himself that he will never again destroy the earth.
All the other symbols that come connected to covenants are to remind God's people.
But here God not only commits himself to doing something, not only commits himself
to preserve his creation, but he sets himself a sign that whenever the rains begin
and he sees it,
he's given a visible representation of the fact that he will let all things
continue, as they are, seed time and harvest, cold and heat,
all the earth will continue to exist as it is until his great promise to deliver a
seed from the woman is fulfilled.
Matt spoke to the reality last week about how God is good at remembering.
And so I'm not going to belabor that point here.
I'll only consider it sufficient to say that in his omniscience,
in omnipotence, in his omnipresence, the Lord is not just gracious in his aim for
remembering his people. It's not just a goal of his, it's not just an aim of his.
The Lord isn't just gracious friends and his intention there.
What's so encouraging about this passage is that the Lord is able.
He's not just willing, he's able to maintain and preserve his creation.
Which, friends, communicates to us that he's not just able to preserve his creation,
he's able to save all of those who belong to him.
If he can save the planet, friends, he can certainly deliver on his promise to save
us through a seed of the woman. And that's precisely the point that we're to take
away from this. This covenant that gives the structure, the framework to all the
other covenants, that undergirds all the other covenants, that is grounding, improves
throughout history to be solid grounding for the other covenants. It speaks to us
friends about the faithfulness of God. And for those of us who are trusting in
Christ, it should cause us to rejoice because we know that God will be faithful to
deliver us. That there will be an end to suffering, there will be an end to tears,
there will be an end into all the local catastrophes that happen, God will be
faithful to deliver us.
But friend, this morning, if you're here and you've not trusted in the saving work
of Christ,
friend, I must tell you, God has promised that he will never destroy the earth
again by means of water,
But he's also told us elsewhere in the Bible that he will one day destroy the
earth again by fire
and friend If you're here and for whatever reason
You've not trusted in the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross to pay the
penalty for your sin. Can I just tell you? God's faithful
He's been faithful to preserve his planet when he said he would and he's faithful
when he says that salvation comes through Jesus Christ and not only is he willing
but he's able if you've not received Christ by faith he's faithful there is a day
coming in which he will judge the earth And in that moment,
there will only be friends. There will only be wrath or rest.
There will only be suffering or salvation,
but he's faithful. And he says that in Christ, the work of redemption is complete.
So if you haven't trusted in Christ this morning, friend, Why?
I would urge you to run to Him and trust in His sacrifice on your behalf by
faith. Amen? Let's pray. Father God,
we thank you. We thank you for the work of Christ.
We thank you for your steadfast faithfulness To not just us Lord certainly to us
your people, but even your common grace and steadfast faithfulness to all the world
Lord, we do pray that in the continuing steadfastness of your promise to preserve
the world that Many many would come to salvation Or we pray that you would bless
the ministry of Redeemer. And many would come to salvation through her ministry. We
pray God that the nations more and more would come to know the finished work of
Christ and trust in it and your faithfulness to deliver them finally and fully from
sin. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.