Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Lord of the Earth

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

The story of Noah and the flood is about the fact that God is committed to creation, and he’s ready to give new beginnings. He’s ready to give a second chance.  In Genesis 9, God says to Noah and his family the same thing he said to Adam and Eve. In some ways, it gives more detail into what kind of life we’re called into. In a sense, he’s saying, “You’re not really living a fully human life unless you maintain three great relationships.” He’s calling us into 1) a relationship with the earth, which brings up the issue of ecology, 2) a relationship with all the people of the earth, which brings up the issue of justice, and 3) a relationship with the Lord of the earth, which brings up the issue of grace. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 10, 2000. Series: Genesis – The Gospel According to God. Scripture: Genesis 9:1-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The Book of Genesis is an ancient book that gets down to some of the most foundational questions we have. We get answers to the big why questions and the what for questions that have plagued us for centuries. Join us today as Tim Keller preaches from the Book of Genesis. This sermon is based on scripture from Genesis chapter 9 verses 1 through 17. Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air.

Upon every creature that moves along the ground and upon all the fish of the sea, they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 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. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply on the earth and increase upon it. 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, 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 established 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. 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. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be 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 between me and you

and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 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. So God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth. This is the word of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Okay, now today for the very last time in this series, we're going to look at these

early chapters of the book of Genesis. And as I said last week, yeah, it's Advent, it's the Christmas season. We're going to look one more time at the story, the narrative of Jonah. Jonah. Well. Water. Jonah. Well. Water. Jonah.

You know. Noah and the flood. And if somebody says, that's not a Christmas theme, that's not true. There is actually quite a very strong Christmas theme. And here I'll show you as we go along. What was the story of the flood about? All during the series on the book of Genesis, I've been referring to and reading and studying

Bill Moyer's PBS special on Genesis. And I've been reading the transcripts and he had discussion groups of a lot of experts on each of the major stories. And one of the members of the discussion group that he chaired when it came to the flood account, one of the members was Samuel Proctor, who is a very prominent African-American preacher and teacher. And when they asked Proctor, what's this story about, he said, it's about second chances. It's about new beginnings.

He's right. The flood is about the fact that God is committed to creation and he's ready to give new beginnings. He's ready to give a second chance. And it's real obvious in verse 1. You know, that's the Proctor's second chance theme is very poignantly shown in verse 1. Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and increase the number and fill the earth. Does that sound familiar? Well, it should because we've been going through the early part of Genesis and this is what he said to Adam and Eve. And so it's almost like God is saying, okay, he's like a director. All right, once more from

the top. Let's start again. And what's actually interesting about this passage is in some ways it gives a little bit more detail into what kind of life we're called into. Noah and his family, just like Adam and Eve, certainly stand in a place of all humankind. And therefore what God is calling Noah and his family to do is what he's calling all human beings to do. He's calling us into a life of three great relationships. This is an amazingly comprehensive passage. He's calling us into three great relationships. In a sense he's saying you're not really living a fully human life unless you maintain these three relationships. And those three relationships are he's calling us into a relationship with the earth,

a relationship with all the people of the earth, and a relationship with the Lord of the earth. He's calling us into a relationship with the earth, which is bringing up the issue of ecology. He's calling us into a relationship with all the people of the earth, which is bringing up the issue of justice. And finally, he's calling us into a relationship with himself, which brings up the issue of grace, ecology, justice, and grace. It's very comprehensive. And unless we understand these relationships, how they interrelate and what they are, we're not going

to really live the life that God has created us to have. So let's take a look. First of all, First of all, he calls us into a particular relationship to the earth. Verses 2 and 3, if you took them all by themselves, would be misleading. Verse 2 and 3, the fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Now, if that's all we had, you might, well, you might conclude that God is saying that you have power in nature, and there's no doubt about it, humankind, we have a tremendous amount of power over nature and in nature. But there's a balance, and it's an astounding balance. If you only had verses 2 and 3, you might be thinking

that God was saying, you know, you guys can do what you want, you know. But then you have verse 10. In fact, over and over again, look at verse 10, he says, well actually, yeah, he says, I will establish my covenant with you and with every living creature that was with you. But then, look at verse 12, and this is the sign of the covenant I'm making between you and every living creature with you. And then it keeps on going. Verse 16, when the rainbow appears in the clouds I will see it and remember there will ever lasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. And not only that, in verse 13 he actually goes even further, God goes, and he talks about, look, there's a covenant between me and the earth. Now what's so weird about this, and I want, let's let this, put this on your tongue, the tongue of your heart, your soul, your mind, and

just get what we're supposed to get out of it. God never calls anyone into a covenant relationship unless it's a saving relationship. God never calls anyone or anything into a covenant relationship. In the Bible, it means anyone he calls into a covenant relationship, he's calling into a saving relationship. He's saying, you're in trouble. You're in trouble because of evil and sin, and I'm going to enter into a relationship with you and be your Savior and save you from sin." Now, he's doing this with the animals. He's doing this with every living creature, and he's doing it with the earth itself, the physical environment itself.

Well, now, what sin could he be saving the world from? It's not the sin of the trees, it's not the sin of the trees, it's not the sin of the seas, it's not the sin of the animals, of course not. Actually, it tells us, if I had only printed a little bit more of it, if in chapter 8, verse 20 to 22, when Noah comes out of the ark, God actually says, never again will I curse the earth because of man. In other words, when God says, I'm calling the earth and every animal into a saving relationship, it means a couple things. Number one, it means it's saving, he says I'm going to save the world from our sin,

your sin, human sin. Paul actually spells this out in Romans 8 where he says, the creation, that's nature, eagerly waits for the sons of God to be revealed, for the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. And that's why we know that the all of creation has been groaning right up to the present time for our salvation. You know, this means, this is so much, I'm looking at my watch, I'm looking at the clock, it means that nature doesn't work well in general because of our sin. It also means that human beings exploit nature. What this is saying is an unbelievably realistic approach to nature. You see, verses 2 and 3, on the one hand,

they're not into the romantic understanding of nature. You know, verses 2 and 3, on the one hand, they're not into the romantic understanding of nature. You know, ecological studies in the 1990s have moved away from Bambi mother theology. Do you know what Bambi mother theology is? Don't you remember Bambi? Do you remember the movie Bambi? The hunters show up. They shoot Bambi's mother. And of course, you know, when you're done, you're a seven-year-old kid and you watch Bambi, when you're all done, people bad, nature good, hunting bad, deer good. And of course, you know, obviously, so let's never hunt the deer. The next thing you know, they're starving to death because there's too many of them. In other words, verses two and three have a realistic understanding of things. Ecological studies in the 1990s have found, and

Romans 8 explains it, that nature is stable, that there is no one ideal ecological equilibrium. Every so-called balance of nature is hostile to some forms of animal and vegetable life and friendly to others. So there is no one perfect balance. There's also no one perfect balance without us involved. We're part of nature. In other words, the romantic idea that nature is good and we are bad. That's Rousseau. That's not the Bible. That's not even common sense. It's Rousseau. Nature good, all culture, all cultivation is bad. No, no, it's realistic, but on the other hand, it's unbelievably reverent. What this is saying is God saying, I am committed. I know nature isn't what

it should be, and I'm committed to saving it. I'm committed to making it, to resurrecting. I'm committed to renewing it. And that's the reason why the Bible actually calls us into a personal relationship with nature, just like God has. What do I mean by that? Well, think of it three ways. Psalm 19, let me give you three. Creation, fall, redemption. Because of the doctrine of creation, that all things are created, because of the fall, everything is fallen because of our sin, and because of redemption, the fact that God is going to resurrect not only us, but all of nature. He's not just going to give us new bodies, He's going to give nature a new self.

He's not just going to try to renovate us, He's going to renovate everything. That's the meaning of Christmas. God becomes flesh. The trajectory of Christian salvation is not God saving us out of earth into heaven, but heaven coming down to earth and renewing everything that's here. That's utterly different than every other religious trajectory. All other religions have a whole different trajectory, you see, away from the reality, away from the physicality, away from the material.

This is utterly different. God is committed to it. And if you believe the doctrine of creation, fall, and redemption, here's the kind of relationship you have with nature, with the animals, with the earth itself. First of all, creation. Psalm 19. Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of God. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they display knowledge. Their voice goes out into all the earth.

Now you say that's just a rhetorical flourish. That's just poetry. Don't do that. rhetorical flourish. That's just poetry. Don't do that. Listen to a waterfall. Listen to the music. Yes, the music. Listen to the voice of the sea. Listen to the waves. Look at the stars. The Bible says they have voices. You look at that and you say, no matter what you were taught in philosophy 101, you know, you look at that and you say, no matter what you were taught in philosophy 101, you know, you look at that and you say, there is a God. Why? Why do you feel that way? When you look at something beautiful, you say, I just know there's meaning.

I know this thing's, this isn't an accident. I know there's a God. Why do you feel that way? The Bible says, creation is speaking to you. The stars, the waterfall, the animals, the the trees they have a voice They're telling you about the glory of God and it's your job as stewards of creation as stewards of nature To make sure they keep speaking to not let that voice go out. It's your job to help them be themselves

It's your job to help the waterfall be a waterfall. It's your job to help the trees be trees It's your job to help the waterfall be a waterfall. It's your job to help the trees be trees. It's your job to join the choir. It's your job to keep them singing. It's our job to help them be themselves. Within all the understanding of fallenness, that brings us to the next point. The second thing is fallenness.

The fact that you and I are sinners means that Christianity, this doctrine of sin, gives you a resource for respecting and honoring nature that I don't think Eastern religion does, which says basically nature is an illusion, or Western pragmatism does. You know, typically what you're going to hear in the newspapers is the reason we need to take care of oxygen, we need to take care of creation is we're ruining the atmosphere for us. We're ruining the water supply for us. In other words, the ultimate end is we are happy, therefore we better take care of nature because otherwise we're going to hurt ourselves. This goes much deeper. This honors the trees and the seas and the animals for

who they are themselves, but not only that, it gives us a respect. Why? We are fallen in a way they are not. God has to save them from our sin. That means when you look at your dog, when you look at your cat, when you look at the trees, when you look at the sea, you have to say, you've got something I don't have. You're being obedient to the Master in a way I'm not. There's a respect. There's an honor. You know, C.S. Lewis puts it this way, in that great place in the weight of glory.

He says, we want something which hardly can be put into words. We want to be united with the beauty we see in nature. We want to bathe in it. We want to become part of it. Ah, but all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that God willing we will get in. Listen, when human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its obedience, then we will put on the glory of which nature now is only the first sketch."

What is he saying? You know, you look at the animals, look at nature, look at the grass, look at the trees and say, I hope to catch up to you someday. You know, they're our brothers, they're our sisters in a sense. They are fellow creatures, and they have something to teach us. And we honor them, and we look at them like that. If one day I can be as obedient as you are, then the glory will hit. In fact, that's what Romans 8 is trying to say. Romans 8 says, all nature, literally by the way, in Romans 8, there's a Greek word, it says, all nature is sitting on tiptoe, waiting for us to catch up. Waiting for us to finally become what we're supposed to be. You know, the way I used to put it,

you've heard me say it before, Elizabeth Ella used to put it, a clam glorifies God better than you do because the clam is being the clam God made it to be and you are not being the man or the woman God made you to be. And so the doctrine of creation shows us the voice of…to be a steward is to help nature continue to glorify God, to not let the voice go out. But the doctrine of sin gives me a basis for not looking down on nature but looking up, you know, respecting and loving. I know I've got the power. I've got tremendous power over nature. I can do things to cats, can't do things to me, okay? On the other hand, I have to honor and I have to respect. But most of all, we have to look forward to the coming redemption. And we have to heal the hurts of nature to the degree

we can. You know, it says, here's why, Psalm 96, let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, let the sea resound and all that's within it, let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, let the sea resound and all that's within it, let the fields be a jubilant and everything in them. On that day, the trees of the wood will sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. Do you think the trees love him now? Do you think the trees are singing now? Isn't that what Psalm 19 says? They've already got a voice. You think the trees love him now? Do you think the trees are singing now? Isn't that what Psalm 19 says? They've already got a voice. You think the trees are honoring him now? Isn't that the beauty of these things? Where do you see him when he comes back?

Where do you see him when everything is healed? Don't you want to be part of that? Don't you want to sing with him? Don't you want to dance with him? Heal their hurts. The attitude that God gives us by saying, I'm in a covenant relationship with nature. There is no more profound, there is no more rich, there is no more powerful, and there's no more balanced or nuanced basis for ecological stewardship than the Christian gospel. Okay? Don't look to any other kind of philosophy, which is either pragmatic or unrealistic or romanticistic or saying that it's not really real, there's nothing like this. So the first thing we're

called into is a relationship with the earth. Okay? Second thing we're called into is a relationship of justice with all the people of the earth. Now here's where that comes out. And you know what? People just miss the point. This is, and I can make it briefly, but it's very distracting because we often get distracted because of our modern political and civil debates. Here in verse four, five, verse five, and for your life blood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from 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." Now you know what immediately happens is, I've heard people use these verses to justify capital punishment. I've also heard these verses used to justify no capital punishment. I've heard these verses used to justify just war, self-defense war. I've heard these verses used to justify pacifism. And I think that because God is not actually saying anything about the government policy, I think that we're stretching to use these verses except very, very carefully and sort of humbly and partially in any kind of debate about what the government should be doing, what government policy should be doing. What this is telling us is God's

attitude. What this is telling us is that human life, all human life, because every human being was made to image God in a special way, every single person and every individual life, whether a good person or a bad person, whether a smart person or a not so smart person, whether a weak person or a strong person, whether rich or poor, whether female or male, whether young or old or very, very, very old, okay, no matter how they smell, no matter how they behave, no matter what they look like, no matter how they're performing. God says, I have put my honor and glory and dignity into every single one and anyone who raises a hand to violate their life, to abuse their life, to degrade their life, anyone who does that to any human being, I will take that as an assault on me, an assault on my glory, an assault on my honor.

In fact, you know what? Human life is so precious. Verse five says, and don't ask me how, I'm going to do a Q&A afterwards, but don't ask me this. I will demand an accounting for the lifeblood of every human being even from the animals. He says if an animal kills a human being I'll demand his lifeblood from that animal. You say how does that work? I told you not to ask me that. What's the point of it? The point is not to get you thinking, gosh how's it going to go? The point is to try to show you the value of every human life. And regardless of how they believe it, regardless whether they're an atheist or whether they're

moral or whether they're immoral, whether they're a Christian or whether they're a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or nothing, God says every human life is utterly precious to me. And what he's actually doing here is he's actually, evolution isn't my will. He's saying, of course, in nature, the strong are always eating the weak. And that's not my will. That's not my design. Most people think Christianity is either incredibly inclusive or unbelievably exclusive. But the fact is, Christianity is both radically inclusive and radically exclusive. How can this be? In his short book, The Gospel on the Move,

How the Cross Transcends Cultural Differences, Tim Keller shows us how we can make sense of this apparent paradox. Through the New Testament story of Philip and the Ethiopian, we learn how the gospel allows us to humbly critique our own cultural biases while becoming a united people of God. This month we have an exclusive resource only available through Gospel in Life that we want you to share. When you give to Gospel in Life in October, we'll send you three copies of Dr. Keller's

short book, The Gospel on the Move, as our thanks for your gift. This short book is a great way to present the gospel to a friend or loved one. We hope you'll prayerfully consider who you could give each copy to and that it helps you live more missionally. To receive your three copies of this short book, just visit gospelonlife.com slash give.

That's gospelonlife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us reach more people with the gospel. Now, we talked about this last week. Here is the standard outside of nature to help us see that the strong eating of the weak, though it's utterly natural, is wrong. You know, Nietzsche, I used him last week. I'll give you another one. There's one great place where Nietzsche says,

we came from nothing and we're going to nothing. Meanwhile, we sat here, trapped between two nothings, contemplating our nothingness. And you say that's just a rhetorical expression of pessimism, depression, he was having a bad day, don't you do that to him. Here's what he's saying. He says, if there is no God, if this world is all there is, if nature is all there is, your origin was an accident, your destiny is nothingness, right? He said, in other words, if your origin is insignificant and your destiny is insignificant,

have the guts to admit all life is insignificant. Your life is insignificant. Don't say that even though all we have here is nature, human life is valuable. Human life has dignity. Human life is different than the rocks. It's different than a big fish eating a little fish. Nietzsche says, just stop it. But here we have something to stand on. There is really a lot of problem with a secular effort to find a basis for human justice, but there's no problem if you look here. Now what this means, let me give you two quick applications and move on to our third point. For a minute here I'm going to speak to Christians, you know. I try my very best to make sure

that I show that whether you're a Christian or you're not a Christian or you're not sure what you are, whether you're in the middle or somewhere, it doesn't matter where you are in your spiritual relationships and where you are in your spiritual pilgrimage, I always try to show the breadth of folks why this passage is relevant to you. Right now I'm going to speak to Christians for a second. Number one, here's one of the reasons why you ought to give to the diaconal offering. Point one and two. Point one is this world matters. The physical world matters. Financial needs, physical needs, material needs matter. And number two, the second point is that we should be really

pretty indiscriminate in giving practical help to people. The diaconate works with people in and around Redeemer, people we find, but they're, you know, and we joyfully must, as Christians, invite every human being to believe in Christ. But we must not, we must not give practical help only to people who believe like we do. Why? This is saying that whether they believe or not, every human being is in the image of God. And we have to show sacrificial service to their safety and their protection and the quality of their material and physical life and emotional life. In other words, we have to help people whether they believe like we do or not. This is a call to completely non-curoical behavior. This is a call to being incredibly promiscuous with our charity. This is a call that having no superiority. That's one of

the reasons why we do the deacon offering. It's working with people's practical material needs and with everyone we find in our midst and our community. But secondly, no other thing I'll say to Christians here. Did you get a little smug a minute ago when I was saying, yes, we Christians have a basis for ecological stewardship. We have a basis for working for justice, for racial justice, for social justice, and for international justice and peace. This here? We have a basis for tirelessly working for the sacredness of every human life, taking care of the retarded, taking care of the elderly, taking care of the sick

and the disabled. You say, oh yes, the average New Yorker is secular and they don't have a basis for morality and justice and we do. Did you feel a little smug? Let me be critical. Let me be critical. The average New Yorker senses with their heart what God is telling us here. The human lives are valuable. The average New Yorker is very generous, very concerned about injustice, even though they have a worldview that says we came from nothing and we're going to nothing, and even though it's in a rational leap of faith they say but the human being lives are valuable. It's a rational leap of faith, but they're doing it. But look at the basis you've got. You know about the doctrine of the image of God. You know about their God's covenant with every living creature and even the earth. You know about all this. You know how valuable people are.

You know what God is doing for us. You know what God has done for us. And therefore, if you're just living for your career and just throwing a little bit of money here and there to, you know, to charities, God's going to hold you much more accountable for your behavior than he is for the other people who don't know as much. In other words, we better not be superior in any way, theologically, intellectually. We must not be parochial in the way in which we help people. This is the most universalizing possible passage. And John Calvin, and nobody, when you think of John Calvin, do you think of an open-minded

man? You probably don't, do you? And that's unfair, because John Calvin really was in many ways. But here's what he says about this passage in the Institutes. He says, the Lord commands us to do good to all without exception. But when we look around at our fellow human beings, we see so many that are unworthy if judged by their own merit. But here scripture helps us in the very best way. When it teaches us, we are never to consider what men merit of themselves, but to look upon the image of God in all to which we owe honor and love. Therefore, whatever one you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help them. You say, ah, but he is contemptible and worthless and he smells bad. But the Lord shows him, I added that, he didn't

say that, but the Lord shows him to be one to whom he is deemed to give the beauty of his image. Now listen to this. If he has not only deserved no good at your hand, but has also provoked you by unjust acts and curses, not even this is just reason why you should cease to embrace him in love and to perform duties of love on his behalf. You may say, he has deserved something far different from me, yet what has the Lord deserved?" It is that that we

respond to, not their merits, but to look upon the image of God in them which effaces their transgressions and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them. You look at the person next to your neighbor and say, what does God deserve because his image is on him? That is radioactive. That is radioactive. That's unbelievable. Are you living like that? So secondly, we're called into a relationship of love and justice with all the people of the earth. But thirdly, now what if I ended the sermon here? Some of you are saying, well, it wouldn't be a bad idea, but what if I ended the sermon right

here? And if any of you are out here saying, this is exciting. I see that I'm being called to live a life of ecological stewardship and justice and peace and love for all human beings. I'm going to get out there, I'm going to be less selfish, I'm going to be more involved. It won't be long before you'll be crushed into the ground. This standard is too much. You need something. You need a third relationship or the first two won't work. Do you hear me? You need this third relationship or the first two won't work. Do you hear me? You need this third relationship or the first two won't work. And the third relationship is you are called into an intimate, personal, not a general relationship. Everybody's got a general, basic relationship with God. Even if you don't

agree that he's there, even if you're one of the small number of people in the history of the world who have said, I don't believe in God, you're still living as if he's there in many ways. You still have a relationship to him. But we're talking about a personal, intimate covenant relationship. We are called into a relationship based on grace. And what do we learn about this relationship? We learn about it from the rainbow.

Verse 12 says, and God said, this is the sign of the covenant I'm making you. And then literally he says, I have laid up my bow in the clouds. Now you know the word sign means a symbol. A covenant sign is always a symbol of the salvation. The Lord's Supper when we have it is a covenant sign. Jesus actually said, this cup is the cup. He says, this is the sign of what I'm doing for you. The cup poured out is a sign of his death. The bread broken is a sign of his death. The eating and the drinking is a sign of faith and so on. That means that

the rainbow will tell you everything you know, everything you need, pardon me. The rainbow will tell you everything you need to have a relationship with God. It'll tell you everything you need to know about the gospel. The rainbow is the gospel. It's a symbol of the gospel, of a relationship with God based on grace. And here's the four things it tells you. Number one, the first thing is the rainbow shows us the backdrop of God's grace. You'll never find a rainbow on a sunny day. Never. Never. There will always be some nasty, dark, stormy weather nearby. And the same way, let me put it this way, often we don't find the grace of God unless troubles are happening to us. But I should say it in a better way, never do we find God's grace unless something has gotten us to see our

weakness, our insufficiency, our flawedness, our sin, our neediness. The first thing the rainbow is a symbol of is it says you'll never find the grace of God on a sunny day. Very often it's troubles that come into our lives that show us we need Him. But regardless of whether it's troubles or not, something has to come into your life. Something has to come in. The backdrop of the grace of God is you've got to see your weakness, you've got to see your insufficiency, you've got to see that you have sinned. That's first. So the first thing is we have the backdrop. Rainbow shows us the backdrop of God's grace, the dark backdrop. Rainbow shows us the backdrop of God's grace, the dark backdrop. Secondly, it shows us the sweeping promise of God's grace. Now this is amazing. What is the rainbow?

Class? Can you remember, you know, ninth grade? I don't know where we learned it, but some of you might remember that the phenomenon we're talking about here, which is, you know, light refracted through rain, sunlight refracted through rain, is actually a circle, right? You knew that? You all knew that the phenomenon is actually a rain circle. But almost never are you in a position, I forget where you have, do you have to be in the air to see it? But anyway, when you're on the earth, basically all you ever see is a bow.

And the reason why historically I mean throughout history we've always talked called it not a rain circle but a rainbow is because it's shaped like an a bow a bow that shoots arrows but that's the key do you know that even though the NIV says I have set my rainbow in the court clouds that's that there is that is not a word for rainbow. I mean, obviously he's talking about a rainbow. The NIV translated, he had to stick the word rainbow in there

because that's clearly what he's talking about. The flood's over, the rain is pulling away, the sun has come out, rainbow. But literally, the Hebrew word there is geseth, which is a word for a war bow, a battle bow, a weapon and what God is saying is I have laid up my war bow and what he says especially what he's saying is no more condemnation. See this goes beyond Samuel Proctor is right in saying that this teaches us about the second chance

but we have something not less than a second chance, but something infinitely more. Why is God doing this? God says, I'm laying my bow up. I'm not gonna destroy the earth. I'm not gonna destroy humankind. There's not gonna be condemnation. Now does he think that this time,

everybody's gonna live a good life? Of course not, because what do you think verses four, five, and six is all about? In seven and eight, he knows immediately. They're coming out of the ark, eight? He knows immediately. They're coming out of the ark, right? They're second chance. He's immediately making provision.

He knows there's going to be murder. God is not naive, but God is still saying, let me show you how sweeping the promise is of my grace. I am laying my bow up. I'm going to put it up there. No more judgment. No more wrath. He's talking about something like that. This is a sign of this kind of relationship. You can be in a relationship with me, which is no condemnation. There's no more wrath. There's no more judgment for your sin.

Now the question comes up, how could that be? That's a sweeping promise. And the rainbow represents it. But how could that be? How's a sweeping promise, and the rainbow represents it. But how could that be? How could there be such a thing? In other words, how can one side go to peace when the other side's still at war? How can God make this sweeping promise? And the answer is third.

We not only see the dark backdrop of God's grace, secondly, the rainbow shows us the sweeping promise of God's grace. Thirdly, it shows us the astonishing secret of God's grace. How can he do this? How can he make such a claim? Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, years ago said, we should have known. Just look at it. Look at the rainbow. It says, if it was pointed look at the rainbow. It says, if it was pointed down, wouldn't that make you nervous? You know, God's saying, no more wrath, no more justice, I mean no more judgment, right? No more wrath, no more judgment. But you know, if it was pointed down, you're always a little scared like, gosh, any minute it could go twang and down, here it comes, here comes

the wrath, here comes everything. He says, the Spurgeon says we should know the reason that God is able to lay his bow up because it's pointed up. It's aimed up. Spurgeon says God has not stopped being a God of judgment. God has not stopped being a God of wrath. God's aiming his arrows of wrath somewhere else. They're going into someone else. Where are they going? We see the rainbow, one of the things that's so astonishing about the rainbow is you will always find a rainbow where? At the conjunction of sun and storm. Where the sun and the storm come together. Where the light and darkness

come together. Where the mercy and judgment come together, where the mercy and judgment come together. That's where you find the rainbow. You know where those arrows went? Isaiah 53 talks about the servant who came and says the chastisement of our peace was upon him. He got the arrows. Who were we talking about? On the cross of Jesus Christ we see the arrows. Who were we talking about? On the cross of Jesus Christ, we see the storm. Why? God was so holy, so infinitely holy, so relentlessly holy, somebody had to die.

But on the cross, we also see the love of God. He's so infinitely loving that the Father and the Son offered up the Son. In other words, on the cross, the storm of eternal justice and the Son of God's love comes together, and that's why you have a rainbow. And every time you look into the heart of the storm and you see the rainbow of grace, you remember that that's where Jesus went. He went into the heart of God's wrath.

He went into the very heart out of love for us. He got the lightnings so out of love for us. He got the lightnings so we could have the rainbow. Lightning for him. That's why it's not pointed down, it's pointed up. Rainbows for us. And what's the result? If, now remember I said unless you get this relationship

down, you won't get the other relationships. Here's why. I have to do this. This is where Spurgeon, in this Spurgeon sermon, there's a place where Spurgeon says, it will not be a good idea if you go out and feed the naked, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, you see, visit the prisoners, unless you understand your relationship with God is based on grace. You know why? Because if I tell you to go out there and do ecological stewardship, not that Spurgeon was talking about that a hundred

years ago, if I tell you to go out there and help the poor and do justice, if you just go out there hoping that if I do this God will bless me, you won't be doing it for their sake. You won't be doing it for their sake at all. Spurgeon tells this story, which I like to tell especially in the Q&A times. Spurgeon says, once there was a gardener who grew a carrot and brought it to his king and said, oh Lord, this is the biggest carrot I've ever grown or ever will grow and I want to give it to you as a token of my love. And the king said, thank you. By the way, I own the acre of land next to your garden.

I want you to have that so you can be twice the gardener you were before. And he went home rejoicing. The Spurgeon story goes on. A nobleman was in court and overheard this. And he says, ah, hm. So next day he brought a horse to the king and said, you know, I raise horses, oh, King.

And Lord, I want you to have this horse because it's the greatest horse I've ever raised and the greatest horse I've ever brought up and I want you to have it as a token of my esteem and love." But the king figured out what was going on in his head and he said, thank you, and he just walked away with it. It's just good. There's enough of you haven't heard this story. Good. That's how I find out. The king turned to the nobleman and said, listen, that gardener gave me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse. And Spurgeon says, do you understand that most of the people are going out there in the world, you're clothing the hungry, you're clothing the naked, no, you're clothing yourself.

You're feeding the hungry, no, you're feeding yourself because what you're doing is you're saying, if I do these good things and I'll feel good about myself and people will think I'm a great person and God will bless me and take me to heaven, in which case you're not doing it for them. You're not doing it for him. You're not doing it for the joy of it. You're not doing it for the beauty of who they are as in the image of God. You're not doing it for the beauty of who God is as a glorious God. You're doing it for yourself. You're clothing yourself. You're feeding yourself. You're not feeding them. You're not clothing them. That's what the rainbow

means, lastly. The rainbow is a thing of beauty. And Jonathan Edwards says the difference between a religious person and a Christian is a religious person is always using God, saying, what can I do in order to get things from God? And the Christian is a person who says, I want to serve God for the beauty of who he is. Religious people find him useful. Gospel people find him beautiful. And then it becomes the dynamic for all of your life. You're helping people because of the beauty of who they are.

You're working with the trees because of the beauty of what they are. You're not doing it to prove yourself. You're not doing it to try to get something from God. Unless you have a grace relationship, number three, your first two relationships will either be spotty or onerous, will be burdensome, will crush you into the ground. If there's anybody here who says, I'd like to really be sure I'm a Christian, it's all on the rainbow. Step one, admit your need. Step two, study the secret. Study the secret.

Jesus Christ on the cross. Wrath and sun come together. Thirdly, rest in the promise of the war bow laid up. And lastly, live a life, the dynamic of which is beauty, the dynamic of which is aesthetic, the dynamic of which is beauty, the dynamic of which is aesthetic, the dynamic of which is gratitude. And is there anybody here who is right in the middle of a storm right now? Would you please keep this in mind? There's grace in the middle of a storm. You know, if somebody is saying, I'm a Christian but I've got troubles on my… I'm just in the middle of this terrible dark cloud, Don't forget, it's not God's wrath on you because all that

wrath fell on Jesus. And because there was grace in the heart of God's wrath, there's going to be mercy in the heart of this cloud, mercy in the heart of this storm. At the very least, it will make you like him if you hold on to him. Sympathetic, wise, tender, confident. At the very least, it'll make you like him. In the heart of every storm, once you grasp the grace of Jesus, when you see that he went into the middle of God's wrath, so there could be a rainbow for us, what that means is at the heart of every storm that comes into your life now, every storm, you can know there's a mercy there, you can know there's a grace there. And that's the reason why the hymn goes, Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,

he hides a smiling face. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break with blessings on your head lightning for him so they could be rainbow for us let's pray we ask now that during this last part of the service you would help us to sense the beauty of what you did the The rainbow means wrath, the rainbow means storm, but the rainbow also means love, it means grace, and it means beauty. And we ask that you make it possible for us now to really live a life in which there's a rainbow overarching our hearts and so that we can really bring rainbows to the fallen world.

We thank you for all that. And we also pray, Lord, during this second offering, that you would help us as a church become more compassionate, more in a practical way, in a more indiscriminate way. We pray that you'd make us promiscuous with our generosity and love to all others around. And we pray that you would grant that because of Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. We trust you were encouraged by it and that it gives you a deeper appreciation for God's grace

and helps you apply His Word to your life. You can find more resources from Tim Keller by subscribing to our quarterly journal at GospelInLife.com. When you subscribe, you'll receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other valuable resources. We also invite you to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.