God Remembers His Covenant

God Remembers His Covenant

Verses To Read:
Isaiah 54:5-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22

1. “But God remembered Noah.”

<Gen 8:1> But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

• God remembers us!
  – Even when it doesn’t feel so.
• Learn to give God time!
  – Don’t take things into our hands as we wait.
• God only let us know the necessary.
  – The untold is for us to trust and obey Him.
• “Haste makes waste.”
  – Wait patiently for the Lord!

2. And Noah also remembered God.

<Gen 8> 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

• Humans cannot be saved by punishment, but by atoning sacrifice – Christ.
• Restore the “Altar”
  – God-centered, prayer-centered heart.
• Altar-centered >> Survive worldly influences

3. God made a COVENANT with Noah.

<Gen 8> 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
<Gen 9> 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “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: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

• Unconditional Covenant
  – God’s grace to initiate and fulfill
• Problems >> Blessings
• God’s covenanted people: Still weak
  <Gen 9:20-23> 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
• Even the most “righteous” man can fall from grace when not guarded.
• We need God to make us new creation in Christ.
  <1 Pe 3:21>: Noah’s floodwater symbolizes baptism.

4. How can we embrace God’s covenant today?

• Be joyful.
• Acknowledge sin, offer clean heart.
• Remember always (sign of rainbow).