Unlock: Releasing Old Testament Truths Promise Focus: Covenant God is a God of promise who keeps His Word Genesis 9:8-13 February 9, 2014 Pastor Brian Messler Prayer: God, may we stand upon your promises this day. You have made a covenant with us, promises with us. Help us to understand these promises and our response to them. Your magnificent glory and wonder is amazing to us and we yearn to be more like you. Guide us, we pray. Amen. Sermon: I remember a summer day that began bright and sunny, but muggy and uncomfortable. The weatherman predicted storms, but when one looked outside, it was hard to believe it would happen. By 3 in the afternoon things had changed drastically. The air was so humid you felt you would drown just walking through it. The sky in the West was turning ugly. Huge dark clouds were rolling in and soon the sun was totally obliterated. It was almost as dark as night, but it was late afternoon. Suddenly the clouds burst and huge drops of rain began to fall. Lightening flashed through the heavens and the house seemed to vibrate with each crash of thunder. The rain was so heavy I couldn t see the church across the road. Rivers of water ran down our driveway into the backyard. There was a loud crack and our power went off. No more electricity for a while. We sat in darkness waiting for the storm to pass over. Little by little the rain began to let up, the clouds lightened and the sun came out, its rays glistening in the light rain that still fell. Look! Over there. Do you see it? Sure enough, there it was a rainbow. We went outside, standing in the drizzle to see it better. As we watched the colors became brighter and brighter. It was beautiful. Then just as we thought it couldn t get any better, a second rainbow appeared over the first gradually darkening in color like the first. A sense of wellbeing flooded over me. Everything was going to be alright now. We had God s promise and it was good. You probably have a similar story somewhere in your memories. To this day I look for a rainbow whenever it is raining and the sun is shining. There is a sense of comfort just in seeing it. There is it, that beautiful arch across the sky. It seems to have no beginning, no end. It just is. I know for a fact that if you try to go find the end of the rainbow, no matter how far you travel, you will have to keep going. The end will never appear. The rainbow will forever be a sign of hope. We see them everywhere and always in conjunction with a promise. That s what the rainbow is, a promise, a reminder between God and us forever! There have been times in my life that I needed to be reminded of God s promise, of God s covenant with me. Times when the world seems to crash around me and is seems that the only thing that I can count on, the only promise, the only covenant that I can truly count on is the one that God makes to me. How about you? Have you ever felt like that before? Perhaps you are feeling that way this morning, or perhaps I am the only one. We need people to keep
their promises right? Many times people mean well, but, hey, it is difficult to keep promises because we tend to say we promise to do a lot of things, don t we? Even though we will falter and fail at the promises we may make, the promises that are given by God throughout scriptures never fail and friends, we need to know that and believe that this morning. We need the promises of God, we need to, as one of my favorite hymns suggest, stand on the promises of God. This is one of the truths of the Old Testament that we are unlocking today, God s promises never fail, God s covenant is never broken. If anyone needed a promise or two, it was Noah! Can you imagine being told by God to do something that seems absolutely crazy? Here is what I want you to do Noah. You are going to look like an idiot doing it, it is not going to make any sense to you, but you need to trust me on this one ok, you are going to build a huge boat, an ark, and I want you to gather you family and two of every kind of living creature, get in and close the doors and wait? I wonder if the angels listening in on this conversation were just cracking up. Couldn t God just stick Noah and his family and the animals on Jupiter for a few days? No, he needed to see Noah obey, God needed to see what Noah would do in this situation. Would Noah balk, would he run and hide, would he refuse, or would he, against all odds obey and believe this path has a purpose? So he builds the ark, he gets his family and new found pets and puts them on the boat. Then it starts to rain and it keeps it up for 40 days and 40 nights. That would be like if it started to rain today and didn t stop until the end of March! That s a long time to never see the sun shine. But that s exactly what Noah endured. He obeyed God s commands. He built the ark; he gathered his family and all the creatures and he floated around aimlessly over the waters as they rose high above the earth. You have to wonder if he ever gave it a thought that he might die on this boat. It was not just 40 days, it was 40 days of rain, then the waters needed to recede, another couple of months, then it needed to dry out, another month. I mean he was on this boat for probably 4-6 months! In the midst of it all, Noah believed and he obeyed, even when it seemed that all hope was lost. But God is not just a god of promises; he is a god of kept promises, amen? We know that because we have the Bible to tell us that. Noah learned that by living it. The rain did stop and the sun did reappear and the water did subside so that eventually the doors of the ark could be opened and Noah, his family, and all the creatures could step out on solid ground. If that were the end of the story, man would forever live in fear that God would do this again to get rid of all the evil in the world. Considering the state our world is in today, sometimes I think this would be a good time for a flood don t you think? But that s not what will happen. I am not a predictor of the future. I am a reader of the Word of God and in it I find this promise: I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come; I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. How many more ways does God have to say it? 5 times God uses the word covenant! That rainbow in the sky that we see today is a sign of God s promise to us never to destroy all of life again through a flood. But, there is more. This is another promise in a series of promises
that God makes to his people, makes to us through the scriptures. The Old Testament has a ton of promises from God. It is the place where God establishes his connection with his people. Just how many of these great and precious promises do you think are in the Bible? 100? 1000? 10,000? It might surprise you to know that according to a man named Dr. Reginald Dunlap there are approximately 30,000 promises in the Bible! Listen to some verses that declare that God is faithful to His promises. Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? 1 Kings 8:56, Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. Joshua 21:45, Not one of all the LORD s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled. Joshua 23:14, Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. These scriptures help us to understand the faithfulness of God in his promises, faithful in his covenants to us. How awesome are those words? Throughout scriptures, 30,000 promises are named and God will fulfill them all, every single one of them. It is because God knows what a promise is; God knows what a covenant is. A covenant is a big deal. Today we would call it a contract or agreement. Lawyers would write it down and we would sign it. We make all sorts of covenants today - they are promises, pledges, or agreements to do something. But the covenant that God establishes with Noah is far more significant and eternal than the covenants that we participate in today. The basic nature of the covenant that God makes with Noah and later, with Abraham, then the people of Israel through Moses, then David, and then the New Covenant He makes with all of humanity is God s relationship to and with us. Covenant, promises are about the building of relationships of building a link, a connection with God and his people. God says, I promise I will do this, I will do that. It is in those promises that we find refuge, that we find strength. It is in those promises that we are assured of who God is. God makes these promises to us and always comes through. For a while now, I have been latching on to some of God s promises. These are promises that God has shared with all of us through scriptures, these are not just for me. I am going to preach to myself this morning and I pray that these promises hit your heartstrings as well. God says to me, says to us, I will be with you. God has made this promise to his people throughout time. To Joshua God said, No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Josh 1:5) In the Great Commission Jesus said, And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age. (Mt. 28:20) In 2 Tim. 4:16-17, Paul wrote, At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength That s what God does for his people. He sticks close to them. When we go through our darkest nights he won t leave us alone! As I was writing this message, I got to thinking God is just amazing. No matter how much I mess up, no matter how much I disobey, no matter how much I fail and fall away from God God still keeps his promise to never leave me. Wow, that has been a lesson for me over the last few years. God does not break his promise, even though I break my promise with him each and every day through my sinful nature. I grieve when I break my promise to God, but I also know that we have a God who forgives and never leaves us where we are, rather, he picks
us up, he dusts us off, and he puts us back on track he never leaves us, never abandons us, never walks away. Wow, what an awesome God we have. A grandfather found his grandson, jumping up and down in his playpen, crying at the top of his voice. When Johnnie saw his grandfather, he reached up his little chubby hands and said, Out, Gramp, out. It was only natural for Grandfather to reach down to lift the little fellow out of his predicament; but as he did, the mother of the child stepped up and said, No, Johnnie, you are being punished, so you must stay in. The grandfather was at a loss to know what to do. The child s tears and chubby hands reached deep into his heart, but the mother s firmness in correcting her son for misbehavior must not be lightly taken. Here was a problem of love versus law, but love found a way. The grandfather could not take the youngster out of the playpen, so he crawled in with him. Friends, we will suffer in this world, we will feel alone and believe that there is no one or nothing there to help us. This is simply not the word of God this morning. That is not the truth. God may not spare us the suffering, but He will come into the situation with us. God will not always deliver us from trouble and heartache, but He has promised grace for every situation of life he has promised us that he will never ever leave us. God has also promised me, promised you, I will strengthen you. I like Isaiah 41:10, So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 2 Thess. 3:3, But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. That s why Paul declared, I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Phil. 4:13) I know that it s because of God s strength that I am who I am and do what I am able to do. There s no way I could do even half of what I do on my own! I cannot tell you the amount of times I wanted to give up and give in. I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted to throw in the towel. It is easy to run; it is easy to walk away, to give up because we feel that we do not have the strength to endure any longer bull! Yup, you heard me, that is absolutely a cop out friends! Sure, run away, throw it away, take the easy way; however, the easy way will only lead down the more dangerous and difficult path. When you are at your wits end, when you are so tired, when you cannot make it another day, stop relying on you to make it and rely on God. Friends, that is a promise from God himself he will give you strength. Strength to make it through one more day, strength to make it through one more interaction, strength to endure people s criticisms, critiques, and comments. God will strengthen us if we allow him to, if we stop trying to only rely on our own strength. Let s look at the rainbow again. Have you ever seen one on a bright sunny day picture perfect day? No? You haven t and you won t either. Do you know why? It s because a rainbow appears in the sky at the end of a storm. It s after the thunder and the lightening are all over and the rain is beginning to subside and the sun comes out. That s when you see a rainbow. You have to weather the storm first. It s not much different in our walk with Christ. We see the greatest riches of our God after we have weathered the storms of life. When things are going good and life is easy, the rainbows just don t appear. But, when we go through difficult times, when our faith is tested and we keep our trust in God, and when we rely on God s strength through it all, that s when we really see the full effect of his grace, mercy, and love. That s when we see and experience the riches of living a life founded in him. That s when we see our rainbow. But the most amazing promise that God has kept is that he has promised me, promised us A Savior. The rainbow is a symbol of God s covenant with his people, that is true. But,
there is another reason why the rainbow is a sign of God s grace to us. Look at 1 Peter 3:18-22. Peter sums it all up rather nicely as he talks about Noah and his family being saved from a sure death. You and I too have been saved from a sure death in this way: Christ died for our sins. He did it once and he did it for all of us. That s each of us there today. Christ is the perfect one, the perfect sacrifice. So Jesus did what he had to do. He went to the cross in his perfection to pay for us in our imperfection. Peter explains it further this way: [ in the days of Noah], only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God s right hand with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. That rainbow in the sky is more than a promise that God will never send a flood again. More importantly, it is the reminder of our baptism through water, our salvation in Jesus Christ, and our promise of eternal life. The promise of a savior, a messiah that came and saved us from ourselves and gave us life anew. Friends, God is faithful to all of the promises that he has made, so what is the promise you need to claim this morning? Is it Philippians 4:7, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Is it victory over temptation? No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Cor. 10:13). Or maybe you require the wisdom to deal with the trials in your life. Claim James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. If you are on the receiving end of some tough stuff and you may wonder if anything good can come out of it. Take hold of 1 Pet. 5:10, "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Perhaps you are shouldering a tremendous burden of guilt. You would give anything to wipe out your past sins. Just receive this promise: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 Jn. 1:9)." Whatever it is that we need, God is able to keep His promises. When you and I learn to trust Him according to His promises our lives will never be the same. I really like this poem by Annie Johnson Flint called What God Hath Promised. God hath not promised skies always blue, flower-strewn pathways all our lives through; God hath not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain. God hath not promised we shall not know, toil and temptation, trouble and woe; He hath not told us we shall not bear, many a burden, many a care. God hath not promised smooth roads and wide, swift, easy travel, needing no guide; Never a mountain rocky and steep, never a river, turbid and deep. But God hath promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, Grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, and undying love. God s promises are forever, God never fails, never falters, never falls, never sleeps, never gets weary, never gives up on me, on you, on anyone So claim the promises of God, those who call him Abba Father and may God s promise of hope God s promise of grace and God s promise of love permeate your innermost being as you follow Jesus, our lord, are savior, and our king.