Genesis 9, 1 to 17. God's covenant with Noah, the Noahic covenant. I link these verses, 9, 1 to 17, with the last verses of chapter 8, 21 and 22. The Noahic covenant. Now this is the first covenant in scripture. I've spoken of the so-called covenant of works, beloved of covenant theologians, supposed to be made with all mankind in Adam, the first three chapters of Genesis. And I've explained why I don't see it there. The word covenant doesn't appear, that's one thing. But of course the whole principle does not appear in scripture. The New Testament never builds on it at all. And so on. Romans 5 certainly doesn't build on it. No, this is the first covenant in Scripture. The word covenant comes here repeatedly. It's like a drumbeat. 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17. Covenant, covenant, my covenant, the covenant. It's the great covenant, the first great covenant that God makes. with man. It's not in the same league as the Abrahamic covenant or the Mosaic covenant or the new covenant in the history of redemption, but it's a vital part of the history of redemption through covenants. Then God blessed Noah and his sons and so on and made this covenant and it's with all mankind. Verse eight, Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you, birds, livestock, and so on. This is God's covenant with the entire human race, indeed with the entire earth, with all the creatures on it. Whoever's listening to me, believer or unbeliever, God has made this covenant with you as part of mankind. As an unbeliever, you may not be at all interested in it, or think you're not interested in it, but you vitally depend upon this covenant. Let's look at it. Let me pick out the leading points of this covenant. God commands man, he promises man, he engages to man, and as I say, with all the earth. One, procreation. Verse 1 and verse 7. Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. That's verse 1. Then verse 7. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply on the earth and increase upon it. God wanted the earth populated. This is part of the history of redemption through covenants. God was going to have the world. populated. He would bring Israel out of that population, and out of Israel he would bring the Christ, and Christ would bring in the new covenant, and so on. So procreation is a vital part of this covenant through Noah. Two, dominion and use. Verse 2. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, and upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hands. Dominion. Man is apex of creation, and he has control over the animals. and over the earth. He is responsible and accountable for his dominion and his care and his rule over the earth and creation. That needs being said today. Mankind, humankind, you, me, all mankind, we are accountable to God. We're given dominion and we're responsible to God for our dominion over the earth. Three, flesh food as well as vegetable. Verse three, everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. God has given the earth to man for his dominion, for his use, for his respect, and for his sustenance. Vegetables and meat. This is vital. It is vital to understand this. There are those who despise parts of God's creation and utterly reject it out of hand in principle. But 1 Timothy 4, 1 to 5 is very clear. The New Covenant takes this point up. All things are given by God, consecrated by the Word of God in prayer, talking to believers. We must not go down this route. It doesn't mean to say we have to like everything personally. But there's a world of difference between not liking, say, cabbage, and refusing men the right to eat cabbage. There is a prohibition, though. Verse 4, you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. Now, I take this, I might be wrong, but I take this to mean raw meat. And I think of 1 Samuel 14, verse 32, Where Saul's men fell upon the meat and ate it, as it were, upon the ground there. Fresh, raw meat with the blood still in it. I might be wrong on that. Blood is a very important thing to God. As it comes out later in this covenant. But I do take Verse four here, the lifeblood with the meat, to be raw meat. But as I say, others might take a different view on that. Four, capital punishment is here. Verses five to six. And for your lifeblood, you see, I said the blood is very important to God. Of course, this figures very highly in the Mosaic covenant, even more highly in the new covenant, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. This is a vital aspect of the Noahic covenant, and for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal, And from each man too I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God has God made man." Capital punishment here. I see this is a very important principle in the Nobaic covenant. And that's why I am an advocate of capital punishment. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. Of course, it should be done in an orderly, judicial way. But there seems to be a principle here. Look at the wars in the world. Take the sword, you perish with the sword. But the state, Romans 13. I'm speaking to new covenant believers now. We take the New Testament and along with the Old Testament, we take all the scriptures to be the law of Christ to us. Well, here it is, Romans 13. The state possesses the power. Here it is, the Noahic covenant possesses the sword. Five, the promise of mercy and God's token of that mercy, the rainbow. Verse 11, verse 12 to 17. God says it over and over again. Indeed, he spends a great deal of the time here writing about it. Never again will I flood the earth. And when it rains, you will see the rainbow. And very often we do see that rainbow, the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant. Whenever the rainbow appears, I will see it and remember the everlasting. And it's an everlasting covenant as long as the earth shall be. between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. And God, so God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth. Procreation, dominion and use, flesh food as well as vegetable, capital punishment, the promise of mercy and the token of mercy. What about you, my friend? You are in this covenant, believe it or not, despise it or not, understand it or not, appreciate it or not, recognize it or not. You are in this covenant as part of mankind. Do you obey this covenant? Do you take its principles seriously? Do you enjoy this covenant? Consciously, I mean. You do obey this covenant in a sense because you're caught up in it, but do you consciously obey it? You do enjoy this covenant because you're eating and drinking and living here. But are you conscious and thankful to God that he has promised himself to you? And the seed time in the harvest has never ceased and you're still eating and drinking today. Do you despise this covenant? Even though you don't recognize it perhaps, you despise parts of it. Do you respect the creation? Do you mistreat it? Do you reject any of this covenant? Do you tolerate wickedness? Or do you realize the heinous nature of the sin of murder, for example? It's not just an offense against man, but it's an offense against man created in the image of God. This attack upon God himself, that's how serious it is. Murder has become, homicide has become so trivial today in the eyes of some. Torture and brutality, cruelty, abuse of animals, abuse of nature, abuse of children, abuse of adults, slavery. All this is rejected by this covenant and counted as sin. Do you recognize, my friend, that you're accountable to God under this covenant? You see, God has bound himself to you. Oh, yes. He has promised to you in this covenant, whoever you are. Have you ever bound yourself to God and promised to him? As believers, we sometimes sing, oh, Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end. Promised, yes. God has promised to you, my friend, believer, unbeliever, even the brute creation, the earth itself. And he's placed us, men and women here, as responsible beings to order the earth for his glory. You can see now, can't you, why the first 11 chapters of Genesis are so heavily under attack today. The Noahic covenant, the fall in Adam. Don't forget, this covenant comes after the fall. That's why murder is spoken about here. That's why judgment is spoken about, sin and so on. That was not part of creation, but you can see the first 11 chapters of Genesis. It shows us the doctrine of God, the being of God, the doctrine of man, the fall of man, the nature of man, the responsibility and accountability of man. You can see why the world wants to get rid of these chapters, but they stand in scripture and they're still standing in the earth today. So when you see the rainbow, when you see the clouds, when you eat your food, whatever you do or say or think, all the pleasures you enjoy in this life, the sights you see, the tastes you have and the appetites that God has given you and govern them and rule them to the glory of God and be thankful to him. Of course, this is not the great Abrahamic covenant or Mosaic covenant or the new covenant. So much is missing here. We're so early in the history of man, but it's all leading up. to that glorious zenith of covenants, the new covenant, the Lord Jesus. But the Noahic covenant has played its part and will play its part, it still plays its part as long as the earth shall be. The Noahic covenant stands and here are its leading points. May we recognize the God of this covenant and recognize our part in it and be thankful and obedient and submissive to the God of covenants.