which is Genesis chapter nine, eight through 17. And as you arrive there, Genesis nine, eight through 17, I invite you to stand out of respect for the reading of God's holy word. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, behold, I established 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 established 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, 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 cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will abide forever. All men, you may be seated. My family has a tradition that after one of those powerful storms, when it's really been raining, We look to the skies and we're looking up there, of course, for a rainbow. We're looking for that full spectrum of colors, beaming and brilliance high above the earth. And this is the family tradition. When we see that rainbow, we say, remember the Noahic Covenant. It's a little corny, I know, but what we're doing, remember the Noahic Covenant. We're affirming that before you had lucky charms and before people storekeepers started putting flags rainbow flags and windows before all of that you go back to the original the OG rainbow and it was here in Genesis chapter 9 the rainbow is about the Noahic Covenant When we understand What a covenant is and what? the Noahic covenant, God's covenant with Noah is about, actually this is a very good text to focus on in a season where our families are focusing on being thankful. Because what we see is God's covenant, God's pledge here takes us to the very heart of thankfulness, why we ought to be thankful, why we should still be thankful, and why we should above all be thankful for the peace and preservation we have in Christ Jesus. So we're going to see all of this. We're going to see it by first focusing on God's covenant, and then the sign of the covenant. So let's focus on the covenant. And first, I just wanna ask, what is a covenant? We need a crash course in covenant theology. And here's a good time to pause and do that. Because you'll notice if you read your Bible, that covenant is a word that comes up a lot. I think we have a sense of what it means. But some people have said, you know, you use that word all the time. What on earth does it mean? I, in fact, remember being part of a church in which, when I was an intern, the pastor, that was my mentor said to me, you know, we use this word covenant all the time in OPC circles, but people usually don't know what we mean by it. Covenant children, covenant baptism, covenant sign, covenant seal. Stop and let's explain it. So this is my endeavor to do that. What is a covenant? It's a very important theme in the Bible, and it is essentially this. I'm using a quote by O. Palmer Robertson because he's defined this so concisely and so well. A covenant is a bond in blood, sovereignly administered. A bond in blood, sovereignly administered. So when we break that down, this is really rings true with what we see throughout all of the scriptures. A covenant is first a bond, a bond, a commitment, a pledge that God is going to relate to us and behave towards us and fulfill promises towards us in a certain way. We use that old word bond. Oftentimes we hear it said, my word is my bond. What does that mean? It means that surely as I say it, I will fulfill it. I will do it. You can count on me. And this is how it is with God's covenants. It's his relationship, but not just a relationship. It's a relationship that you can count on. This is how God's going to behave. This is how he is going to be towards us. We can have absolute certainty that God will do what he pledges to do. Of course, we see this kind of commitment, this covenant of commitment in the covenants that we make. Think of marriage, for instance. Marriage is a covenant. Marriage is a bond. It's a pledge saying, I will be this to you, spouse, as long as we both shall live. Well, God's covenant even reaches beyond the faithfulness of a marriage bond. And it reaches, it says, this is who I am. I am your God. You can count on me to be this way. And we'll see more what that way looks like in just a moment. But it's not just a bond, it's a bond in blood. You trace the various covenants throughout scripture, and you see that these are not just flimsy commitments that God said, yeah, you can count on me to do this. They are life and death matters. There are oftentimes the blood of a sacrifice spilled in connection with covenants. You think of the covenant of circumcision. You think of even the covenant of baptism, the new covenant. What does Jesus say? It is the new covenant in my blood. You look back at Abraham and there were bloody signs and seals to show that this covenant is serious. In fact, what do we talk about in Sunday school? Pastor Brad spoke about how in the covenant with Abraham, Animals were cut in half and their pieces were put to two sides and people would walk through the midst of them as if to say, I will fulfill the obligations of this relationship, the bond, the pledge involved here, or I will die. That's how serious a covenant is. It is a commitment, but it is a life and death kind of commitment, saying, I will fulfill this or curses be upon me. Amazing to think about that God himself enters into a covenant, essentially saying, cursed be me if I do not fulfill this to you. God is putting obligations upon himself upon pain of death. A bond in blood. God is so serious about keeping his word that covenants are a life and death matter often sealed with the blood of a sacrifice. A bond in blood finally sovereignly administered. And here's where you see that there are not I mean, think about it this way. When we enter into a covenant with God, when he enters into a covenant with us, we don't sit down at a table and put all of our chips on the table, as it were, and try to barter this or negotiate it. No bartering or bargaining involved in this kind of agreement. God doesn't negotiate the terms of his covenant. Why? Because he's king. because he doesn't ask us whether we're comfortable with this kind of arrangement. God says, this is my covenant. This is the way that you will relate to me. This is the way I will relate to you. And it is such. No, and this is hard for us, right? Everything in us wants to come to God and say, hey, I like this part of what you say, but let's get rid of this part. Or I'll keep these terms, but these other ones are just way too hard. No, when God enters into this bond, this pledge with us, he's saying, here are the terms, like it or not. This is the way of life. This is the way to relate to me. the sovereign king of the universe laying out the terms of his relationship with us. And here's the wonderful thing about that. The good news is that we do not enter into covenant with a tyrant, not an abusive husband, not one who lords his power over us, but a God who serves and is faithful and is so generous in the terms of his covenant. He stoops down, He meets us on our level, and He elevates us with the terms of His covenant. A bond in blood, sovereignly administered. And as soon as you start to understand covenant, you'll understand it's a very important concept, because the whole Bible is actually organized by covenants. If someone were to come to you and say, you know, this whole Christianity thing, the whole Bible thing, it's new to me, how's the Bible organized? How's it structured? And you would say, well, you know, you've got an old and a new Testament. Well, that's interesting right away, because that word Testament really means what? Covenant, covenant. And then you dig a little bit deeper and someone said, well, help me to see a structure. You wouldn't say, well, you've got the wisdom books, you've got the law, you've got the prophets. You would probably, if you were trying to show the overarching story of God's redemption, you would say, Well, you've got the covenant with Adam in the very beginning, in which God says, live, obey me and you shall live, fail and you die. And then Adam failed. And then what's the whole rest of the Bible? The story of how God enters into a new covenant first with Adam in Genesis 3.15, then with Noah, with Abraham, with Moses, with David, and then the new covenant in Christ. And all of these things are not part of different stories, they're all part of one big story. As you see these different covenants unfold, you're really seeing the storyline of God's heart for his people unfold. You're seeing the very story of redemption. So if you wanna follow the storyline of the Bible, read the Bible and look for the covenants. That's where you'll see God say, here's just a little bit more of what I wanna share with you. Here's just a little bit more of what I want to give to you. And now look at this. Here's a bit more with Abraham. Here's a bit more with Moses. Here's a bit more with David. And then finally, and then here's everything you could ever want with Jesus. The covenants are slowly and gradually unfolding the multicolored splendor of God's mercy towards us. Together, the covenants tell the unfolding story of God's gracious mission to rescue undeserving people from their own sins and give them a place in his kingdom. Okay. That's what a covenant is. What's the covenant with Jesus? with Noah. What's the Noahic covenant? And right away we see that this is one of the covenants that's very early on in the Bible. This is one of God just giving us a sneak peek, as it were, of what's coming on the horizon. He gave us a real glimpse of it in Genesis 3.15, and we spoke about that covenant. But here's where God pushes it out just a bit further and says, let me show you more of what my mercy involves. Let me show you a bit more of what I am going to sovereignly pledge to you. And in this pledge, we see with Noah a pledge of peace and preservation to a world that does not deserve God's kindness. Think about it. That's really what defines this covenant with Noah, isn't it? Peace and preservation to a world that does not deserve this, but instead deserves this judgment. If you go back to chapter 8 verse 21, you'll see the heart behind this covenant. God says, I will never again curse the ground because of man. For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Okay, here's the sober reality. Sinners aren't going to get better on their own. Sinners are going to sin sin is going to spread like a social contagion and it is going to result in the kind of world that implodes upon itself and Here's the thing if God were to deal with our sins exactly as they deserve There would be nothing but constant catastrophic floods rolling over the globe and him and Destroying and starting again destroying and starting again and God's saying look that's that's what you deserve, right? You're not gonna be able to make it ten seconds without sinning You're not gonna be able to make it ten years without this sin spreading to violence throughout society and throughout the land Like like it was before Noah's flood and God is saying He is recognizing that he brought sinners through the flood and Left to themselves. They're just going to perpetuate the same kind of societies. So God is saying You're going to deserve to be judged But I'm gonna hold that back. I'm going to postpone judgment. I'm not going to destroy you with floods any longer. I You're going to grow. You're going to multiply. You're going to thrive. But none of this, don't be fooled. Don't think that you're getting better and I'm holding back my hand because, wow, human beings finally figured it out. No, I'm holding back my hand because of my mercy, because of my kindness, because of my grace. And you can count on me to do this. You can count on God to give the common grace of an orderly creation. He will maintain the rhythm of seasons. He will keep the oceans from overwhelming us with their waves. Even when they creep in, he pushes them back to their proper bounds. He will allow families to flourish on the face of the earth. He will cause the sun to shine upon the righteous and the unrighteous. Now, do you see the orderliness that God is going to establish in a world that doesn't deserve it? Now think about how this is very good news for us, but think first of all how this is very good news for Noah and his sons. I mean, think about these guys. They just came off this boat. I imagine they had some serious trauma, some legit PTSD. Every time they would hear a storm crashing outside or even the drops of rain, they'd say, Where's the ark? We gotta get back in the ark, you know, but the flood's coming. We must have finally made God so angry that he's sending the flood again. And so, you know, the crash of thunder or even the sprinkle of rain, they go hightailing it back for the ark and God says, no, no, no, no, no. You don't have to live that way. I am going to maintain such an order that I will never flood the world again, even though you deserve it. I'm going to hold that back. The Noahic covenant is God's declaration, His pledge that He intends to deal with creation, not only according to His righteous judgment, but primarily according to His undeserved grace. Now, I think you see why this is such a good text to look at right on the eve of celebrating Thanksgiving with our families. We have so much to be thankful for and we take it for granted all the time. The fact that God does not send The waters above and the waters beneath crashing down on us is only his grace. The fact that we have harvest, the fact that the sun stays where it is in the heavens and we can trust on it to appear every day and give us light. All of this is God's kindness. It's his common grace to us. He showers us with favor when we don't deserve that. What are the things? you take for granted, that you ought to be thankful for. We live as if we deserve these things, as they're just rights that we have, but none of them are deserved. They're all from God's gracious hand. Then when we see God's common grace to sinners and saved and to the righteous and the wicked. We see all of this that God extends. We can even more appreciate God's special grace, His saving work in Jesus Christ, that ultimately God is holding back His judgment and He's holding back floodwaters, why? So that there would be in the fullness of time a Redeemer to save us from our sins. That's ultimately why God is here in Genesis nine, upholding times and seasons and keeping the floods from sweeping over the earth. He's holding these things back so that in the fullness of time, Jesus would come and we would have time to repent and time to be saved from our sins. You see God's common grace to all people is really just the pedestal upon which he puts the beauty of his special saving grace in Jesus Christ. So this upcoming week, we ought to reflect upon all the things that we really need to be thankful for. It's not just the turkey on the table and the family around. Yes, it's that, that's God's kindness, that's his grace, but especially his saving work in Jesus Christ. This is the Noahic covenant. God's pledge of peace and preservation to a world that does not deserve his kindness, his commitment to deal with his creation, not only according to his righteous judgment, but primarily according to his undeserved grace. That's the covenant. Now let's look briefly at this sign. Because every covenant in the Bible has a visible sign that goes with it. Abraham's covenant, sign of circumcision. The new covenant, baptism, the Lord's Supper. These are visible, tangible signs and seals that God gives to us to pledge himself to us. And what we learn in this passage is the sign is not so much about us remembering God, but more so his remembering us and his pledge to us. What is the sign of the Noahic covenant? The rainbow. The rainbow up in the heavens when the clouds come and the rain departs and there it is in all of its glory. And what we learn, God says over and over again in this passage, he says, I'm going to put my bow up in the sky. I'm going to put my sign there. And he says, it is for my remembrance. We know that God doesn't really forget. But God puts it up there as if to say, when I give you my covenant sign, whether it be the rainbow or whether it be baptism or the Lord's supper, he's saying it's not so much you remembering, it's me remembering my promises to you and to your children. Now look at this rainbow. Here's what's so interesting. The word used here is more than just a rainbow because there is no word in Hebrew for rainbow. like we have in English. The word here is war bow, as in a weapon. Some of you have done archery. You take out your bow and arrow and you pull back the arrow and you shoot it at your target. That's what is being spoken of here. It is a war bow. Now, I want you to think about this, especially those of you who have been trained in archery and you know what this is like. What does the rainbow as God's weapon of war portray to us? Where is it pointing? What is it doing? Well, first of all, you notice right away that this weapon, this war bow, is not aimed at us with intent to kill. God's turned it upside down. He's, right? The arc of the bow is pointed up. It's pointed away from us to pledge peace to us. His war bow is hung up on the sky in this beautiful gesture of peace, God saying, I'm not going to use it against you. Right now, I'm going to hang it up on the wall of the sky, as it were, to pledge peace to you so that when the rain comes and the thunder crashes, you know what? That it's not God coming in his judgment, it's God committing to continue to promise and pledge peace. Where is the bow pointed? It is in fact pointed where? Up towards heaven, aimed at God himself. He points the bow heavenward into his own heart. Now Noah might've wondered, okay, God, I see your really impressive war bow up there in the sky. I see it's all its colors. It's very impressive. Why are you aiming it at yourself? Why would you place yourself in the line of fire? But now looking back on the full word of God that he's given to us, we have an idea about this, don't we? We have a sense as to why God himself is taking onto himself the very cursed side of the covenant. Why he is aiming at himself the cursedness that we deserve. You see, God secured peace for us not by setting aside his judgment, he just didn't overlook it, but by taking it upon himself. The arrow of God's divine justice fired upon heaven itself when Christ took the curse for us on the cross. He was pierced with the arrow of God's justice. Maybe that's why we see in Revelation chapter four, verse three, something beautiful. We see a rainbow, but guess where it's surrounding? Surrounding the throne of the Lamb. There is a rainbow going all around the throne of God in heaven, as if to say what? There is peace here. There is mercy for sinners because of Christ Jesus. Because of the shed blood of the lamb, because I fired the arrow of justice into myself so that you could have peace with me and mercy. So come forward, not not not shaking in fear. Come forward to the very throne room, seeing the rainbow of peace and in all of its colors that there's there's endless variety and grace and mercies to be discovered each morning because of Christ Jesus. The sign of God's bow hung up in the sky, promising not war unto us, but peace. But brothers and sisters, think about this. Now we understand how blasphemous it is to take the covenant sign of God's mercy in Christ and to parade it around as a banner of sexual rebellion against God. Now we see how heinous it would be to take a pledge, say, there is mercy for you, and to say, No, thanks. I'd rather I'd rather live how I want to live. I'd rather disobey your law, God. I'd rather I'd rather enjoy this life for myself. I'd rather take your forbearance. You're putting judgment at bay. And use it to bring further judgment down upon myself. You see, God's sign in the sky is not an invitation to sin. It's an opportunity to be right with God, right with him here and now before it's too late. For there will be a day when God's judgment on a sinful world holds back no more. And he will cleanse his creation, not with water, but with what? With fire. God actually promises this in the scriptures. I'm not making this up. You cannot read the Bible and think that the rainbow just simply means that everyone can live however they want and they don't have to fear anything. No. The rainbow says there is peace available, available for all. But if you reject God and want peace on your own terms and spurn the Lord of the covenant, then what comes? The justice that our sins deserve. As for this moment, the Lord postpones that judgment so that all who come to Christ shall be saved, safe within the multicolored beauty of his mercy. When we see the bow in the sky, the proper response is not selfishness, but thankfulness. Lord, thank you for sparing me. Thank you for not destroying me here and now. Thank you for postponing your judgment. More than that, thank you for giving me your mercy so that on the final day, I don't have judgment, but peace. So Lord, I will obey. So Lord, I will walk according to your law. So Lord, I will follow you. So Lord, I will step off the throne and and recognize that you are there. Remember the Noahic covenant. Go to Christ's. Submit to him. This is the way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that your war bow is hung up in the sky. You are a God who gives us peace and grace that we don't deserve. You give that grace in a way to all humanity right now, holding your righteous and deserve judgment at bay. But Lord, help us to not take this for granted and get the wrong idea as if somehow you smile upon sin. No, Lord, you are giving us a chance to repent. So may we be faithful to do this and faithful to proclaim to a world that needs your grace, that there is only one way. It is through Jesus Christ, the only one who has the rainbow encircling his throne. We pray Lord that we would be found safe within the beautiful colors of your mercy That we would not do according to what our hearts want and use your forbearance as an excuse for sin Give us your grace. Give us gratitude. Give us thankfulness to live according to your law May we remember this when we see the rainbow, but may we remember it every day day and every moment of our lives. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.