His Covenant of Grace

FROM: APRIL 16 @ 22, 2019 Topic: "His Covenant of Grace" Genesis 9:17

I watched the rainbow, and God's covenant with Noah came to my mind. It is beautiful when God lets us see that He is on earth. The earth is the footstool of His feet (Isaiah 66:1). The footstool = is the platform on which a royal throne is placed, it is a place of honor, something elevated on the ground where the presidency or royalty is situated in a place of acts. Because the earth is the footstool of His feet (Matthew 5:35). The Lord is not far away, He has His throne on His platform, which is the earth! The rainbow is very visible so that it is known that the earth, no matter how long it takes, will never be destroyed by a flood. The rainbow is then a sign of the pact or covenant (an agreement between God and man) that the earth will never again be destroyed with a flood. For such reason it rains and the rain stops. We will always see the rainbow come out!

I. We have THE COVENANT OF GRACE. The grace is a free favor or gift granted by God to help man fulfill the mandates and to be holy.

A. Time passes and some lose confidence in the covenant of grace.

1. Do you frequently doubt?

2. Look at the rainbow! It was left to Noah and to this day it comes out with the same joy as it did when made by God to make a pact with Noah! And it comes out for you so that you rest in God in confidence!

3. Trust = is a firm hope, security.

4. Security = is the absence of danger or risk.

5. Hope = is the state of mind in which it is believed that what one desires is possible.

6. Let us see the Gentiles in Ephesians 2:12, 13.

a. As a Gentile (someone who is not Jewish) you were without Christ, there was no Grace for you (that help from God so that you can fulfill his commands and be holy for Him).

b. As Gentiles we were unaware of every covenant of promise (of sending a Redeemer), without hope.

c. We did not have a promise like Israel had, all of us Gentiles were without a Messiah, we were excluded from the citizenship of Israel.

d. Since we did not belong, we were without the rights and privileges of such citizenship (that of Israel).

e. We Gentiles were strangers to the covenants of promise.

f. God had made covenants with the nation of Israel through men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and Solomon. Neither you nor I were included in those pacts.

g. These covenants promised blessings only to the Jews!

h. We were hopeless!

i. We were without God in the world!

j. We did not know the one and only God!

k. We were without God in an impious and cruel world!

II. But, JESUS HAS NOW BECOME A GUARANTEE OF A BETTER COVENANT!

A. (Hebrews 7:22 "Therefore, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.") Jesus is the guarantee of the NEW COVENANT (A guarantor is one who is committed to respond for the commitments of another).

1. Guarantor in the sense that He Himself is the Guarantee.

2. In His death, with His burial and resurrection He provided a just basis for being a guarantor.

3. Christ is our representative in the Covenant of Grace, but only God is the one who grants man the covenant through the blood of Jesus! FOR SUCH REASON ONE HAS TO BE CONVERTED!

4. (Hebrews 12:24 "...to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.") The sprinkled blood that speaks better than Abel's!

a. Jesus is there, HE IS THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT.

b. Moses appeared in the Old Covenant as a mediator (as one who seeks possible alternatives) simply by receiving the law from God and giving it to the people of Israel. Moses was the intermediary, or representative of the people, offering the sacrifices through what was ratified (approved) in the covenant.

c. Now, in the New Covenant, Christ is the Mediator! He is the Mediator of the new Covenant! Now in a much more elevated sense than in the old Covenant! OUR MEDIATOR!

d. Before God could in justice arrange, agree with a person for that covenant, Jesus had to die!

e. He had to seal the covenant with His own blood and give Himself as a ransom (1 Timothy 2:6 "who gave himself as a ransom for all men, the testimony given in its proper time.").

f. With His death HE ATTAINED the blessings of the New Covenant, He did it for His people!

g. The Lord preserves you to enjoy the blessings in the midst of a hostile world, through His actual ministry at the right hand of God!

h. By his blood Christ has forgiven you forever. Abel's own blood shed by Cain was one that covered temporarily. But, the blood of Christ tells you: You are forgiven forever! The blood of Abel cried out: "Revenge." The blood of Christ cries out for you: Mercy, forgiveness and peace!

i. IN HIS COVENANT WE HAVE ALL THE BENEFITS! Jesus gave His life to make the New Covenant: His Covenant of Grace! He did it through His death and resurrection. He did it all! Amen.