Divine Covenant – Adam and Noah
Sermon Downloads
Sermon Transcript
[00:00:00] But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons, and your wife, and your son's wives with you, and of every living thing of all flesh. You shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. And now chapter nine, beginning in verse one.
And God bless Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth for the fear of you. And the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky. With everything that creeps upon the ground and all the fish of the sea into your hand. They're given.
Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat the flesh with its life that is. It's blood. Surely I will require your life blood. From every beast I will [00:01:00] require, and from every man and from every man's brother. I will require the life of man.
Man. Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made. Man as for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly, multiply upon it. Then God spoke to Noah, to his sons with him saying, now behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, every beast of the earth with you, of all that comes outta the ark, every beast of the earth.
I established my covenant with you and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood. Neither there shall, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. God said, this is the sign
of the covenant, which I'm making between me and you and every living [00:02:00] creature that is with you for all successive generations. I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. It shall come about when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember.
I will remember my covenant. Which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
And God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and the obedience to his word. And I should have had you stand, because I almost said be seated, but alright, number one on your outline, there's a couple of things in your bulletin.
There's a a half page with [00:03:00] an outline, some, uh, pictures on it that we'll talk about in a minute, some discussion questions. There's a folded sheet that we'll get to towards the end of the sermon and uh, uh, there's another one on there. Uh, with, uh, fill in the blank for the sermon. And number one on that outline is Grace God's Covenant with Adam Grace, God's Covenant with Adam and Kids.
There's a question on your handout because I will argue today that the first two covenants that we read about in the Bible were made with Adam. So kids, there's a fill in the blank concerning that question, but let me do a little bit of review. We saw, we looked at Genesis one and two last week and we're kind of doing a survey, so we're not doing it.
Verse by verse. We have to do some skipping around in, in, in some things. But we saw that God entered into a covenant in the garden with Adam and Eve. Now, he doesn't use the word covenant, but as I tried to explain last week, any 10-year-old Hebrew child reading through [00:04:00] Genesis or listening to the book of Genesis would've known what was being discussed.
Because all the parts and all the elements and all the pieces of a covenant are right there. So we saw that God entered into a covenant. This seems to be confirmed in Hosea chapter six verse seven, Romans chapter five. But the unique thing about this first covenant is it was a non redemptive covenant.
It was non redemptive. Adam and Eve didn't need to be saved. They hadn't sinned until they broke covenant, and we saw last week that they broke covenant with God. So the question that should be lingering is how will God respond? How will God respond to them? Will he consume them or will he respond with grace?
So if you turn to chapter three, we're gonna pick up the story. We're gonna pick it up actually in verse 14, but I'm gonna give you some background information as we get there. Uh, Adam and Eve sin, they're ashamed. They make loin coverings for themselves and they hide when they hear [00:05:00] the sound of God in the garden.
And God comes. And the first one he comes to is Adam. And Adam. Why are you hiding? And you all remember the story. Adam stood up and Adam said, God, I blew it. I sinned. I led my wife into sin. It's my fault. I was a poor leader. And whatever happens, God blame me, kicked me outta the garden. It was my fault. Is that the way you remember the story?
No. Adam. Adam was a man's man. God, it's that woman that you gave me. So not only does he throw Eve under the bus, but you know, God, if you hadn't given me that, that woman, we'd be chilling at the Tree of life. You and me and we'd, we'd be getting along here. But, so God goes to the woman and Eve's not as bad as Adam, but Eve wants to pass the buck as well.
And what's Eve's response? It was the serpent. So God goes to the serpent, and that's where we pick up the story in [00:06:00] verse 14 in Yahweh, Elohim. Keep in mind, I pointed this out last week beginning in chapter two of Genesis, God starts to use his covenant name Yahweh. In Genesis chapter one, it was just Elohim, just God, his general name.
But here it's his covenant name and he continues to to use it. Yahweh Elohim said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field on your belly, you will go and dust. You'll eat all the days of your life. And that brings us to our first.
Question, or at least it's an oddity that comes up every once in a while. And that is, did the snake look different? Because part of the curse is you're gonna go on your belly and you're gonna lick dust all the days of your life. So if you look in your bulletin on that one half sheet, I gave you some pictures, a little hard to see.
They didn't print out perfectly. But there are actually some medieval paintings of the serpent and they paint 'em with arms and legs. One of 'em. He's got [00:07:00] legs and wings. But that was a, a common, well, not so common, but it was a conception and it's a question that I see asked all the time. You read a modern day commentary and sometimes that same question will come up and there's actually, there's actually biblical precedent for asking that question because if you read in Ezekiel chapter 29, it speaks of the great monster and that Hebrew word can be translated dragon.
And when you read in Revelation chapter 12, verse nine, and I'm gonna read this entire verse to you in a moment, but it starts out, and the great dragon, the great dragon was thrown down. So some folks have made the supposition that maybe the serpent look different. And I'm here to say that there is nothing in the text to lead us to believe that it was anything but a snake that was already crawling.
So what's going on here? But let me finish reading Revelation chapter 12, verse nine, because the author actually helps us because he identifies who's he's who he's talking about. So in Revelation [00:08:00] chapter 12, verse nine, John writes in the great dragon, literally the mega dragon, this great dragon was thrown down.
But then he goes back to help us know who he's talking about, and he identifies this great dragon as the serpent of old. And he uses the normal Greek word for snake. Literally this word means a limbless reptile that crawls, and it's the same Greek word that translates the Hebrew of Genesis chapter three in the Greek translation.
In the septic. It was a normal snake, and he identifies it as a normal snake on the one hand, yet on the other hand, it's not a normal snake. The great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.
And the idea here is he's describing this snake as the great dragon because he's evil and he's caused great evil [00:09:00] and great damage to mankind. And he continues to pursue mankind. And in the context of revelation, he's pursuing the Christ. So he is described as a great dragon, but he makes it very clear.
This is the same snake you met with in Hebrews chapter, or um, Genesis chapter three. Okay. And it was a normal snake except that it was possessed by something evil. It was possessed and used by Satan, the devil. And so it tempted. Adam and Eve. So the, the point that I'm getting to because it's gonna help us as we read this text and others like it, is the perception of crawling changed.
The perception of crawling. The snake always crawled and it would've been fine, but now the perception was that of humiliation, subjugation, and defeat, just like nakedness. We read in, uh, verses nine through 11 that when God encountered a Adam, they had already sewn fig leaves together. Literally belts is what they were.[00:10:00]
Uh, groin coverings, loin coverings. And they're hiding. And God says, why are you hiding? And Adam says, I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid I was naked. So I hid myself and God knows what happened. God is asking questions so that Adam will realize what happened. It. Why were you ashamed? Why were you hiding?
Did someone tell you you were naked? Did you eat of the tree? You see, prior to that, Adam and Eve were naked and there was no shame. There was no hiding. It's, we've all seen this little babies and, and you're changing them and they run away from mom and dad and they're just running around and they got nothing on and they're not ashamed and they're not scared.
And this is me. And that was Adam and Eve. Now, I don't know if when they started having kids, I don't know if they would've started wearing clothing. We don't know. The Bible doesn't address it, but there was no shame in nakedness. But now the perception of being exposed has changed, and [00:11:00] now nakedness brings about shame.
So it's not that the serpent was changed, but the perception of the serpent, the perception of crawling was changed. It now means defeat. Micah in chapter seven uses this phraseology. He says, Micah, chapter seven verses 16 and 17. Nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hand on their mouth.
Their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like a serpent like reptiles of the earth. They will come trembling outta their fortresses to Yahweh, our Elohim. They will come and dread and they will be afraid before you. So it was the perception that changed, not the physical characteristics, but the really important verse is verse 15 and kids, this is on your handout as well.
This is that fill in the blank Bible verse and Genesis chapter three, verse 15 is known as the proto evangel, gallium the first gospel. Because in this passage we have the first announcement of Christ [00:12:00] Jesus and the work that he's going to perform. So look at verse 15. I will put enmity. Between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, he will bruise you upon the head.
Probably a better translation. He will strike your head and you shall strike his heel. And there are several things about this. First, first of all, there are three categories. There's the woman and the serpent. There's the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, and then there's the serpent in a singular male seed of the woman.
And it's important to understand these three groups. God says, I will put enmity, and literally the word means hatred, hostility, and strife. So there's gonna be conflict, hatred, hostility between Satan and the woman. And it's fitting because Satan deceived the woman. And I, I would argue that, that that phrase alone demonstrates that Eve was [00:13:00] saved.
In fact, I believe both Adam and Eve were saved and I'll, I'll try to demonstrate why I think Adam was saved here in a moment. But here you cannot hate the serpent. You cannot be at enmity with the serpent and not love God. And yet we see the serpent and eve hate one another. They're at enemity, and not only that, but their followers will hate one another.
The seed of the serpent means those who follow the serpent, those who hate God, the seed of the woman, those who follow the woman. Now, how do I know that? Because there are some that would take this very literally, and I don't, I don't wanna get into the story right now, but it's tied to the Sons of God and Daughters of Men and Nephilim and all that.
And there are some that would take this very literally, but I think scripture bears out that these are simply followers of Satan, followers of Eve, followers of unbelief, followers of belief. In John chapter eight, verse 44, Jesus is speaking to the Jews and they're arguing with them, and he describes them as your father, the [00:14:00] devil, your offspring of the devil.
Jesus is again, engaging the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 12, verse 34, and he calls them a brood of Vipers, offspring of vipers. And in Romans, Romans chapter 16, verse 20, Paul writes, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. And contextually, and this might be new to some of you, I don't know, but contextually he's probably referring to the Jews because in the early church, the overwhelming majority of persecution came from the unbelieving Jews, and Jesus was on the verge of.
Coming in the clouds. I'm not talking about the second coming, for those of you that understand that language, but coming in the clouds to judge Jerusalem and obliterate the old covenant system. And he did that shortly after Romans, within 20 years, depending on how you date the book. And that was the Satan that was [00:15:00] gonna be crushed.
And it all comes back to Genesis three 15 and then there's Satan and this singular male seed. And without getting into all the detail and stuff, it's something you, you do need to know. And it's this Hebrew word seed and it's used a lot. And sometimes the Hebrew word means a group of people or a group of offspring.
Okay? So when it talks about the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, it's non-believers. In believers it's the group of people. But other times the same Hebrew word, and you can see this in Galatians chapter three and four, the same Hebrew word refers to a singular person. Well, how do we know grammar?
The Hebrew grammar is very clear. The pronouns are singular. The subjects of all the verbs are singular. It's very clear and, and Moses is very consistent throughout the Pentateuch on how he uses this word. So he changes from a group of people to a singular male child. It and Satan is going [00:16:00] to snap at this male child's heel, and this male child is gonna crush the head of Satan.
And that's what happened on the cross. You see, another controversy with this verse is, you know, Jesus delivers the death blow, but Satan doesn't. No. If a snake's gonna bite you, where's it gonna bite you? Most likely on your leg somewhere, because snakes are crawling. Okay, now here's the interesting thing.
There are 36 different kinds of snakes in the Palestine area, in the area of the Middle East, where to the best of our ability, we know the Garden of Eden was there somewhere in this large area, and there are 36 types of snakes there. Only one kind is poisonous, and there's no reason to believe that Moses is talking about a poisonous snake here.
But he's still talking about how a snake would strike. And we know from the New Testament it was a death blow, but the text is ambiguous. Why? Because Jesus rises. Because Jesus rises from the [00:17:00] dead. And by rising from the dead, that is how he crushes the head of the serpent. So we see this promise to Adam and Eve, and now God goes to the woman and to the woman, he says this.
I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain. You will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. So multiple things about this. Number one, pain was not new. God does not say, I'm gonna make childbirth painful. He says, I will increase the pain.
Alright, so pain is a good thing. Pain keeps us from hurting ourselves. Pain keeps us from doing. Silly things. Pain is a good thing. God says I'm gonna increase it. But if we're gonna understand it properly, we need to take the whole phrase, I'm gonna increase your pain in childbirth and in pain you'll bring forth your children.
And the idea here is the whole job, not just having the kids, but [00:18:00] raising the kids. Raising kids will now be painful. Why? Because they come out little sinners. And we'll see that in the next story we look at when we look at Noah. From their youth, and the Hebrew word there means we'll cover it again, but the Hebrew word means they're as far back as their infancy.
Every intent of their heart is on evil. Because Adam sinned and because Adam represented his seed, we are born guilty before God. We are born with original sin. We looked at that a little bit last week. So having kids and raising kids is gonna be painful. It's gonna be difficult. That's why we're offering the parenting class, because sometimes it can be frustrating.
Sometimes you're like, I don't know what to do with this child of God. And then last but not least, and this is the one that's debated the most, your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. And [00:19:00] I don't know why this is so controversial. I, I've read a lot of different things on it and I don't understand why it's so controversial, but this word desire, what does it mean?
Well, it literally means a drive to control. One commentator said it's a drive bordering on disease. And it's a drive to control. And the best way to understand this verse is we're helped 15 verses later. Moses uses the exact same words in a slightly different context, but all the grammar's identical. So look at he, uh, Genesis chapter four, verse seven, Cain.
God didn't like Cain's offering. God didn't accept Cain's offering because Cain brought second best. Abel brought the best. Cain brings second best, and God is not pleased with his offering. And so Cain is not happy. And this is what God says to him. If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up, will not.
Your attitude change [00:20:00] And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire. The exact same word used de Vive. Its desire is for you. Sin wants to master you. Sin wants to control you, but you must master it. You see in Genesis chapter three, verse 16, we're not talking about an intimate desire.
We're not talking about a desire to submit. We're not even talking about a desire that lines up with her husband. And those are some of the solutions that have been offered. We're talking about she wants to be in charge now. Yes, we're talking about the battle of the sexes, and if you're married, if you've dated, you've experienced this.
God created Adam to lead. Adam abdicated his leadership. He abdicated protecting Eve. He stood right there while she was deceived, while she took the fruit, while she took a bite, and then she hands it to him and he takes it and he eats with [00:21:00] her. Remember, this is the curse, and because Adam, you abdicated your position of authority, part of the curse is the battle of the sexes.
Part of the curse is now women want to lead. You forced her into that position, Adam. It's a fitting curse. She wants to rule over you or she wants to. Her desire is for you. But you must rule over her. And if we take, if we take the parallel parallelism serious, most likely what is being said here is you need to gain control.
It's a strong word for rule. So a lot of people think that, you know, the man's gonna be abusive. And we see that. In fact, you know when, when Stacey and I counsel couples and the funnest counseling is premarital counseling, we talk about this, it is a common sin for the wife to want to take charge. And it is a common sin for the man to wanna do one of two things.
Either be a wimp and let her run the show and abdicate his authority like Adam did, [00:22:00] or be an overbearing abuser and control his wife because he's bigger and he's stronger. That's not what's being said here, but what's being said here is there will be a battle. Marriage is not going to be the peaceful endeavor that it should have been.
Verse 17. Now God turns to the man, then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree, which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat. Cursed is the ground because of you. In toil, you'll eat of it. All the days of your life, the ground is cursed. Creation suffers.
And this is really important because we're talking about covenants and we're talking about recognized covenants in scripture. And one of the things that we will find in all covenants is this idea of representation. Just like Adam represented all of his seed in Adam's sin, all men died. Romans chapter five, in Adam's Sin [00:23:00] All Men inherited depravity.
And so here because Adam was to have dominion over creation. Creation suffers and creation is cursed, and creation is not gonna cooperate. It's gonna be hard. Verse 18, thorns and thistles. It will grow for you and you'll eat the plant of the field by the sweater of your face. You'll eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken for you were dust into dust.
You shall return. So the woman is cursed, the snake is cursed, Adam is cursed. But there's that blessing of this coming male seed that's gonna fix the problem. But I also want you to notice here, and it's something we brought out last week, physical death is once again emphasized. And I think it is so important because the covenants in the Old Testament were very physical and very outward, but true.
And throughout this entire context, it's physical death that is being talked about and [00:24:00] we tend to jump straight to spiritual death. And I'm not denying that that's a part of it, but scripture is going to explain that later. Physical death is a shadow and a type a figure of spiritual death, but it's every bit as much a part of the covenant, a part of the curse as anything else.
We shouldn't have to die. We die because of sin. Sadly, the worst thing, in my opinion, when babies die in the womb, they haven't sinned themselves, but they're under the curse of Adam, and so death strikes physical death. We die because of sin. Physical death is emphasized throughout all the covenants, and that's important to understand because you need to understand that when Jesus came, he didn't come just to conquer spiritual death, but he came to conquer physical death.
Verse 20. Now the man [00:25:00] called his wife, his wife's name, Eve, because she's the mother of all the living. So not only is physical death emphasized, but continuity is also emphasized. Life will continue. Eve is the mother of all the living. And then this, this next verse is glorious. Verse 21. And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothe them.
So a couple of things here. Number one, he made them garments and literally the Hebrew here is tunics. It's the same kind of tunic that Joseph got, the tunic, you know, the, the code of many colors that we read about. Same word. It's the same kind of tunic. And this is fascinating that the priests wore at the temple and the tabernacle, but don't miss, he didn't just make 'em garments, but the text is very clear of skin.
You see, an animal had to die. And if the way I tell the story is correct, you'll remember, and again, I'm not, this isn't a hill to die on, but I believe Adam and [00:26:00] Eve sinned that first Sabbath, so this is on day seven of the creation week. Adam had just named the animals and one of the animals that Adam named was now sacrificed because of Adam's sin.
And God is the one that did the sacrifice. And from this moment on, we read Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, the rest of the patriarchs. God initiated a sacrificial system here. And God, just like the sacrificial system in Moses, they were shadows and types and God was helping Adam and E explain what did it mean that this male child was gonna be struck on the heel, the heel.
He was gonna take your sins and he was gonna die and he was gonna pay the price and he was gonna restore things. And we, we think of these ancient people as if they knew nothing. They knew a lot. And we have to, I've said this before, we have to stop proof texting. It's all here. God is not gonna give this sacrificial system a different meaning than he gives his later sacrificial [00:27:00] system.
This is all tied to the woman's child, to that coming seed. And he cloth them. And the other interesting thing is the fact that God cloth them. It speaks of rank, status, and dignity. When somebody else clothed you in those days, in a tunic, it meant you were special. And it's fascinating in the day that you, you will surely die.
And, and we, we looked at that last week. It didn't mean they were gonna drop dead instantly, but that they were sure to die. They would live and they would die. And yet God responds with grace. He responds with a promise of his son. He responds with killing an animal, sacrificing an innocent victim for their sin.
He responds by clothing them with dignity in honor.
Verse 22, then the Lord said, behold the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Man has now decided himself on good and evil. It's not that man didn't know it. We talked about this [00:28:00] last week so I can be brief, but now Adam and Eve wanna make those decisions themselves and not trust God. He might stretch out his hand and also take from the tree of life and live forever.
Therefore, the Lord God sent them out of the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which it was taken. Sent them out is a nice word, but look at the next verse. So he drove the man out. And at the east of the Garden of Eden, he's stationed chair of him and the flaming sword, which turned in every direction to guard the way of the tree of life.
And this verse must have been frightening because this Hebrew term, uh, translated, drove, he threw them out. Yes, God is gracious. Yes, God clothed them. Yes, God initiated a sacrificial system, but when all that was done, he didn't escort them out. He didn't take 'em by the hand and walk them out. Literally, he threw them out.
He expelled them. Your sin has consequences. Leave my holy place, and it would've been brutal and it would've been frightening. [00:29:00] And it's interesting because he puts the chair of him on the east side, and I told you last week that the, the Garden of Eden was the holy place. It was where man met with God.
And when God has Moses built a tabernacle, and when God has David and Solomon built a temple, where's the entrance on the east? You enter the temple, you enter God's presence. You enter the holy of holy from the east. And so he stations a cherub on the east. And it's interesting 'cause even on the kid's picture that I, I had drawn, there's one cherub and he's holding a flaming sword.
Well, the interesting thing here is cherub here is plural, and it is likely that God would've put two angels. Two cherub. Cherub are different than angels. We've talked about it to cher him at the garden. Why? Because again, when God made the tabernacle, when God had Moses make the tabernacle, Solomon make the temple, there was the ark of the covenant.
And you'll remember on top of that arc was what [00:30:00] was called a mercy seat. It was where the blood would've been poured out, where God would've been perpetuated, and where sin would've been atoned once a year on the Day of Atonement, and what was on top of that mercy seat to Cher them. And they were likely in a kneeling position and their, their wings were outstretched and they were covering one another.
So it is likely that God would've placed two Cher. On the east side at the entrance of Eden. And the other thing that's interesting is this flaming sword. Most of us picture the, the chair of him holding the sword, but the Hebrew text, it's really weird. It's, it's literally in the Hebrew, something like the sword that's flaming and rotates, and likely it would've been some type of a pillar, something like what God led the people out of Egypt.
What God manifested at the tabernacle, it would've been some type of fiery pillar that would've covered the door of Eden, and it would've turned and fire would've shot out, and Adam and Eve would've realized there's no reran. We have to [00:31:00] believe in the coming seed. We have to trust God at his word. We didn't trust him in the garden and we sinned, and so we were thrown out.
And now God has set up this entrance on the East in such a way that there is no way for us to reenter the garden. But he gave us a promise. And so we needed to depend on that promise. We need to depend on that coming seed. Number two on your outline, grace, expanded Grace, expanded God's covenant with Noah, God's covenant, with Noah.
And we're gonna look at, and don't freak out. We're gonna look at chapter six through nine, but we're gonna look at it. We're gonna look at some highlights. We're gonna look at some snapshots, okay? But I need to start with some background. So look at Genesis chapter five. Look at Genesis chapter five, verse 28.
It's the story of Noah's birth lame. Lived 182 years and if you go back and I encourage [00:32:00] you, go home today, read Genesis chapter five, and you'll see that every time these fathers had sons, their age was getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Adam is like 500 and some years old and and the others are as older, older, but by the time we're at LA Me, right before the flood, he only lived 182 years and he became the father of a son and he called his son's name, Noah.
In the Hebrew AK saying, this one will give us ak. This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil, literally sorrow, toil, same word used in chapter three, verse 17. The toil of our hands arising from the ground. Which of the Lord had had cursed? See, we think these people didn't know much, and yet Noah's father was expecting this coming seed.
And he was prayerful and hopeful that his son was the promised seed. His son was gonna bring rest to the people. His [00:33:00] son was gonna defeat the work of Satan. And so he names his son Rest. And not only that, we had to skip over it, but in Genesis chapter four, Eve has Cain and Abel. And when she has, uh, Cain, she talks about God giving her a man child.
And there's some hint in that verse that she thought Cain might have been the promised seed. But it gets even more clear at the end of chapter four when Seth is born, because the literal words of Eve, it doesn't come out in the English, but the literal words, mostly in English, it says, God has given me another child in the Hebrew.
God has given me another seed. You see from day seven, from day eight. These people had faith in a coming seed. We look backwards to Messiah. They looked forward and there was an expectation, and Noah's father thought, maybe Noah. And then we get to Abraham and God promises Abraham a seed. And we see this picture of Isaac being [00:34:00] sacrificed and being, uh, symbolically killed and brought back from the dead.
These people were waiting. They were hopeful. The seed of Eve were those that had faith in God's promise. In chapter six of Genesis, we read that the earth is wicked and that's why God is gonna bring a flood, but it's really important. Look at chapter six, verse eight. This is important for how we read the text in chapter six, verse eight.
The text literally says that Noah found favor with God, but literally in the Hebrew, it's the word for grace. Noah found grace. With God, undeserved, unmerited free favor. Then in verse nine, we read that Noah was righteous, and sometimes we read the text and we think, well, Noah's righteous, not everyone's a sinner.
Yes, he is. He found grace and grace always precedes a changed life. And Grace cleaned Noah up and Grace caused Noah to be [00:35:00] righteous, to love God, to walk in his statutes. But Noah found grace with God. And then kids, Noah was instructed to build something. And that's another question on your your sheet. And we see those instructions in chapter six, verses 14 to 16, and we're gonna pick up the story in verse 17.
Look at verse 17 of chapter six. God tells Noah, behold, I am bringing a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, which has the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is upon the earth shall perish again. What is the emphasis? Physical death. Adam's sin brought physical death into the world.
But verse 18, and sometimes, but is the best word in all of scripture. But I'm gonna kill everything, but I will establish my covenant with you. And here's the first explicit use of the term covenant. It's the term beeth. [00:36:00] And we're gonna see that all the elements in the NOIC Covenant, we saw him in the first covenant with Adam.
We saw him in the second covenant with Adam, and now we're gonna see it in Noah's Covenant. But here's the fascinating thing, and this is so important, especially when we get to our baptism. Today. I will establish my covenant with you singular. Noah, I am entering into Covenant with you singular. And because I'm entering into covenant with you, verse 18, you singular shall enter the arc and then most of your translations will have some type of a dash or some type of a grammatical indication to show you that there's kind of a, a split between what comes next.
Because grammatically there is, I will establish my covenant with you singular. You singular shall enter the ark, but because God enters into covenant with Noah, guess what happens? You and your sons. And your wife and your son's wives will enter with [00:37:00] you. You see, all of God's covenant have this concept of representation, and throughout the Old Testament, it was the parents that represented their children because God enters into covenant with Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives are covered by that covenant, and they will enter into New York with Noah because Noah represents them.
And then in verses 19 to 21, he gives him instruction about two of every kind of creature. And look at verse 22. Thus Noah did, according to all that God had commanded. And what I simply wanna point out and what I pointed out last week and what hopefully you saw with the Covenant with Adam today is God is sovereignly in control.
God sovereignly, initiate. He is in control and he dictates all of the terms of this relationship. Noah doesn't make suggestions. God is in control. God dictates [00:38:00] the terms of his covenant. And then in chapter seven, kids, the flood comes and Noah is to enter the arc. And it's interesting because he's to take seven of every clean animal, so there's new information added.
Earlier he was told, take two of all animals, male and female. Now take seven of the clean animals, male and female. Why? Because another emphasis in the covenant idea worship. And when the ark was to land and when the water subsided, Noah was to sacrifice and worship God. And so he was instructed to bring clean animals.
And if you look at chapter seven, verse 16, Noah enters as God had commanded, again, the emphasis on God's sovereign rule. And then in chapter eight, verses one to 19, the flood ends. But it's really fascinating and again, I would encourage you go home and read chapter eight today. There's this emphasis on day seven when the flood lands and he sends out the the, the crow, the raven, day seven.[00:39:00]
And then seven days later, he sends out a dove, and seven days later he sends out a dove. And it's, you can't do this conclusively, but it's not hard to demonstrate in the text with this emphasis on day seven, these things were taking place on the Sabbath day because the whole point of the flood was God bringing rest.
Noah didn't do it the way his father thought he was, but rest did come. Sin was at least temporarily eradicated, and all these things took place on the Sabbath because worship is emphasized in the flood account.
Look at verse 20 when Noah leaves the ark in chapter eight, verse 20. Then Noah builds an altar to the Lord, to Yahweh, and he took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. This too was on day seven. This two was an act of worship. Verse 21, and the Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I will [00:40:00] never again curse the ground on account of man.
It for the intent of Man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will never again destroy Everly living thing as I have done. And what do we read in this passage? Total depravity. Radical depravity, the intent of man's heart. Man's. Remember, in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, even in the new, the heart is the thinking mechanism.
We associate the heart with emotions. The Bible associates the heart with thinking and reasoning and everything in man's mind. Everything in man's heart was evil from his youth. The intent of his thinking, his his direction in life, his modus operandi. Was evil. And as I said earlier, this Hebrew term translated youth can take you all the way back to infancy, all the way back to infancy.
The child is prone to sin. That is the default position. And now look at verse 22 and 22 is an easy verse to read over, [00:41:00] and yet it is so significant in terms of Christian apologetics. Verse 22 says. That while Earth remains seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease and see what we have here and what we pass over so easily is God promises to keep nature regular.
God promises what we call the regular, the regularity of nature, or if you wanna get a little more significant, God is establishing what philosophers call the inductive principle. And the inductive principle says this, the future will be like the past. And guess what? Christianity is the only worldview, and it's promised here that can do science.
And when non-believers do science, they borrow our worldview because science depends on the regulat regularity of nature medicine depends on the regularity of nature. Only Christians can truly practice medicine. To the glory of God, because unbelievers who practice medicine borrow from our worldview [00:42:00] because in terms of their worldview, there's no reason to expect nature to be regular.
This is so important that by the time we get to the book of Jeremiah in chapter 31 and 33, God calls it a covenant with creation, this regularity of nature. And that brings us to chapter nine verse one. And God bless Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Where have we heard those words?
You see another thing that we need to understand, and I'm gonna try to bring all this together at the end of the sermon, but covenants have continuity. You see, when God enters into covenant with man, there's a continuous a, a continuance. There's continuity. So when God entered into covenant with Adam in the garden and Adam Sins and he fails it.
And then God reenters into covenant. Now it's a covenant of grace. Now it's a covenant of redemption, and yet there was still continuity. Be fruitful and multiply. You're still to have dominion. You're still to [00:43:00] work. I'm still gonna supply food for you, and I'm gonna leave you this promise that I'm gonna send a savior.
I'm gonna send a male child, and you'll learn more about this child as time goes on, because with each covenant, I'm gonna tell you more. But right now, this is all you need to know. There's a male child coming and he will crush what Satan did in the garden.
Verse two. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky with everything that creeps upon the ground, all the fish in the sea into your hand, they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant.
Not only is there continuity, but there's discontinuity in the covenants. You see in the original covenant, animals weren't scared of us. And that's why the Bible talks about the wolf and the the lamb lying down. It's not the lion that's a misquote. It's the wolf and the lamb. And at some point in the new heavens and the new earth, they'll lie down together because God is gonna eradicate sin [00:44:00] and he's gonna eradicate death.
But right now, because of sin, because of death, the animals are gonna fear you. That's something different than the first covenant, and yet I give them to you for food. And you see God's setting up a different continuity because in the context here, everything is for you for food. And yet when we get to Moses, he's gonna make a distinction between the clean and the unclean so that he continues to teach.
And in verses four through six, God initiates capital punishment. Verse six, whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be set shed for in the image of God he made man again. Advancement. So you have continuity, you have discontinuity, and you have advancement. And God adds capital punishment, but the continuity here is death.
Sin causes death, and then he repeats himself in verse seven, as for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply upon it. So just [00:45:00] real quickly, here's some of the points of continuity. Be fruitful and multiply. Continue to have dominion. I will supply food. You are created in the image of God, and while that image was marred, you didn't lose it in the fall and death.
Another area of continuity is seed in children. You'll continue to have children because I've promised you a coming male seed discontinuity. Now, the animals, they're afraid of you. Now you can eat them, where before you couldn't. Advancement, capital punishment. So these covenants are connected. Verse nine.
And then God spoke to Noah and his sons with him saying, now behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you. Now he uses the plural. Now he enters into covenant with the entire family, not just Moses. He's expanding this covenant with you and with your seed after you. And then he introduces something else new into the covenant in verse 11.
Verse 12. Actually, God said this is the sign of the [00:46:00] covenant. I'm gonna give you a sign that pictures this covenant. When you look at this sign, there's gonna be remembrance, but it's gonna surprise you. Who's the primary rememberer? This is the sign of the covenant, the mark, the token that which symbolizes the covenant that I'm making between me and you and every living creature that is with you.
I set my bow in the cloud. And contextually when we read this story, we know it's a rainbow, but the, the words used here it is a warrior's bow. And I've said this before, but I don't mind reminding you it was a warrior's bow. And what direction is the rainbow pointing? What direction is the rainbow bent?
It's pointing towards God, and God is saying, I am responsible. For bringing about this covenant, I am responsible for bringing about the promises that I've given you this day. The promise of this male child. The promise that life will continue, the promise of the regularity of nature. I'm responsible. I take responsibility, so [00:47:00] I set my war bow pointed at me in the cloud for the sign of a covenant between me and the earth.
Verse 14. It shall come about when I bring the cloud over the earth. That the bow will be seen in the cloud. Verse 15, so that you remember, right? Is that what your Bible says? No. I will remember. You see, it freaks us out, but the signs of the covenant are as much for God as for you. Now, does God need to be reminded?
No. Is he doing it? For our sakes, yes. But this entire context, not once does he say I'm doing this, Noah. So that you and your sons remember. No, he says it twice. And both times that I will remember, and hopefully you'll remember this 'cause I preached on it not too long ago, but in First Corinthians chapter 1124, and you'll hear this verse red today when we go to the table.
And when Jesus had given thanks, he broke the bread and he said, this is my body, which is for you. [00:48:00] Do this. And all of our Bibles say, do this in remembrance of me. And yet the Greek word here is identical to the Greek translation of Genesis nine. And that's why oftentimes when we go to the table, sometimes I'll read it this way, but often I will read it like this.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this as my memorial. It because when we go to the table, God is so gracious. God loves you so much. God delights in you so much that he is reminded. He is reminded of the death of his son. He is reminded that your sins are covered.
He is reminded that blood was shed for you. He is reminded that you are his covenant people and you are precious and he loves you. He is reminded. It is not blasphemous to say that it is biblical to say that. Do you realize the love of God on your behalf? He is reminded verse 16, [00:49:00] when the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it to remember the Everlasting Covenant and we'll cover this concept of everlasting Covenant next week.
But this is another indication that these covenants are connected because they're all everlasting. The promise seed is everlasting. The rainbow is everlasting. The covenant that God makes with Abraham, and he introduces a new sign, the sign of circumcision, it's everlasting, and yet we don't circumcise today.
How is circumcision everlasting? Well, we've talked about in the past, we'll talk about it next week, but God's covenants are everlasting lasting. God entered into a covenant with with Adam in the garden. And then when Adam sinned, God immediately because he is gracious and loving, he enters into a new covenant.
Often theologians call this covenant the covenant of grace because it is a redemptive covenant kids. This is in your outline, but moms and dads, this is every bit as important for you, and all I'm trying to do is boil it down. A covenant consists of at least three [00:50:00] things. It is a relationship that God starts and controls.
He is sovereign over the relationship. There are. There is a promise, and we'll see clearly in the next covenant. I will be your God. But that promise was implied in the first three. And finally, there are conditions and consequences. The last thing that's in your bulletin is this chart on covenants, and I'll let you look at it on your own, but I just want you to see the continuity.
A relationship is established sovereignly. There's a promise. There are conditions, there are blessings and curses, seed offspring. Representation, land and earth, and we could add some elements, sin and death. Life covenant signs depicting what God has promised and a sacrificial system. Because starting with the second covenant, with Adam and Eve, God introduced sacrifices because it was a redemptive covenant.
So it was a picture of this coming seed. You see, God is sovereign. God initiates [00:51:00] and God is gracious. And so he builds upon his covenant and he will continue to build upon his covenant until we get to the new covenant. And when we finish a few more covenants in the Old Testament, we'll go back to the book of Hebrews, which is the impetus for this.
We've been working through the book of Hebrews, and we will get to that new covenant. And here's the catch, the rainbow. The bow is pointing to God because he takes on the responsibility. And in the new covenant, who fulfills it? Not us. We're sinners. We don't fulfill the covenant. We don't live perfectly by faith.
Who fulfills it? Jesus Christ fulfills it on our behalf. And because of this element of representation, Jesus can represent you and me on the cross. And Jesus can take our sins to the cross and die for them and atone for them and propitiate God for them. And we can be saved because of God's covenant promises.
Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you. [00:52:00] Thank you for your covenant. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your kindness. God, you could have crushed Adam and Eve, but you didn't. You could have crushed Adam and Eve, but you didn't. You could have destroyed the garden, but you didn't. You waited till the flood and you allowed the garden to stand as a picture, as a reminder.
And God, when you built the Taber neck and when you built the temple, you did it in such a way that it too was a reminder of the garden. And when you write the last book of the Bible for us, it too says the new heavens and the new Earth. We go back to the garden. Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you for your kindness.
Thank you that you humble yourself, you lower yourself, you commit yourself to covenant promises on our behalf. Give us the faith. To trust you. Help us understand how this flows throughout scripture. Help us understand the only way to understand your word. The only way to [00:53:00] understand the gospel is to understand these covenants and the promises attached.
Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for perfectly fulfilling all of the conditions, both positively and negatively. Thank you Jesus. And all of God's people said amen.
