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Steve Brown: God made a covenant with Noah, and you're going to like it. Let's talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew: This is Key Life, here to communicate the freeing truth that God's not mad at his children. Steve invited our friend Jerry Perry to teach this week. Jerry is the pastor of Christian Family Worship Center House of Grace and the author of Grace: The Real Good News of the Gospel.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi, Jerry. This has been a fun week.

Jerry Perry: Yeah, we're talking about the covenants of God. We started with Adam and the covenant that God made with Adam. Today, I'm excited because we're going to talk about the covenant that God made with Noah.

Steve Brown: Let me read this scripture to you. This is Genesis 9:8-17:

"Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 'And as for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish my covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.'

And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and 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 on the earth.'"

Jerry Perry: Wow. God put a rainbow in the sky as a covenant to remind Noah and all of us generations down through many thousands and thousands of years that his covenant is with Noah. When you see a rainbow, you know that God has kept his promise, which is so incredible. My wife loves rainbows. I mean, she just has a fit when she sees one, and she's reminded of God's love when she sees that rainbow.

Steve Brown: Our daughter Jennifer used to have a poster in her bedroom that Snoopy or one of those is standing on a mountain and there's a rainbow above the comic character. The caption reads, "Do it again, God. Do it again."

Jerry Perry: Let me tell you something. When you see that rainbow, you understand that for those who don't know the story of Noah, I'm quite sure many of you do. Noah is in a time where the world has become totally wicked. People are just doing all things that you can't even imagine. God looks at the world and says, "These guys are not going to repent. They're just getting wickeder and becoming more wicked." The Bible says that he grieved in his heart that he had made man. So he told Noah, "I want you to build a boat. I'm going to destroy the world by a flood."

There's a lot of grace revelation in this story. God tells Noah, who is a representation of Jesus—here's my theology again of me being a theologian here—Noah represents Jesus. Because when Noah represents Jesus, God tells Noah, "You build a boat, and everybody you bring in there, I'll save."

We don't know what his sons and daughters were into. The Bible doesn't say that. It only said that he found favor with Noah. But Noah could have brought anybody in the boat, as Jesus brings anybody into his boat. And there you find a save because of Jesus, not because of what we do, how we lived, what we've said, or what we've done. God looked at Noah and blessed his children. When God sees Jesus and everybody that's connected to Jesus, they get the same blessing that Jesus gets because we are connected to him.

Steve Brown: So when God says, "My son, in whom I'm well pleased," he sort of says that to Noah too. You have found favor.

Jerry Perry: You have found favor with me. One writer says the covenant is unconditional. The covenant was not based upon anything that Noah or his descendants had to fulfill. The promise is based on God's faithfulness alone. Neither the wickedness nor the righteousness of mankind affected this unconditional covenant. There is no condition under which God will make this promise that he will not send another flood. It is all based upon the grace and love of Jesus.

Steve Brown: That's heavy. And it really is a strong point. So when we look at a rainbow—and it's been misused in so many ways—when we look at a rainbow, we remember covenant. We remember God. We remember the salvation from the flooding waters. We remember the faithfulness of God's covenant.

Jerry Perry: The faithfulness of God's covenant is so incredible. Let me tell you, there's a redeeming power in this as well because when those people perished, most of us would say, "Man, God was cruel. God was mean. God was horrible that he killed all of these people."

But most people don't read Peter when you go and you read 1 Peter 3:18. Can I read this? This is good. Watch this. I'm going to show you the redeeming power of God. Listen to what it says in 1 Peter 3:18: "Christ suffered for our sins once for all times. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. And because he did this, so he went and preached to the spirits in prison, those who were disobedient, or those who disobeyed God long ago. God waited patiently while Noah was building the boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning from that terrible flood."

Let me give you the revelation of this. The Bible says that when Jesus died on the cross, he went to hell and preached to all the people who did not get on the boat so that he could give them a second chance to come with him and come out of confusion.

Steve Brown: Well, the scripture also says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment. But and I don't know if I fully understand. I one time was teaching Peter, and we were sending tapes to thousands of people around the country. I got to that passage, and I said, "Wow," kind of like what you just did. And I said, "I don't know if I fully understand what's going on here, but I'm going to the next verse." And I got letters from all over the country of people trying to explain.

Jerry Perry: Well, that's why I said at the beginning, I said everybody has so many theologians. This is my theology. This is my interpretation. I'm not saying I'm right on it, but what I am saying is that God revisited. The scripture is very clear that he revisited those who were lost at the time of Noah. And mentions Noah in particular, which says to me that God, again, there's the grace and love of God beyond what we could ever imagine or understand.

Steve Brown: And we don't know how all this works out. But we know that God is loving. That God is fair. That God is just. That he's kind. That he's merciful. And in the way that he took the ark and he piled not just Noah's people, but you too, and me too. We got on that ark. And we're part of that covenant too because of what God has done.

Jerry Perry: Well, that goes back to what I was saying about when you look at the covenants, you see Jesus in all of the covenants. My point of that is that because of the finished work of the cross, because of the finished work of Calvary, and Jesus says it is finished, that he himself loves us so much that he gives every man, everyone, because he's just and he's fair, the opportunity to come unto him. And that's what he did for you. That's what he did for us. And that's the reason that I call him, another again, he's the second Noah. That's my interpretation. Don't write Steve a letter. That's my theology.

Steve Brown: I love that, though. I mean, there's a sense in which that is true. A second Noah. Yeah, listen, I've got to rework that in my mind because this has caused me to think thoughts that I don't know I've ever thought. But good thoughts. Because it's a welcome from the God of the universe to everybody who can hear my voice right now. What does God say? What does God invite? He says, "Come with me into the ark, and you'll be safe." You think about that. Amen.

Matthew: That was Steve Brown and Jerry Perry's teaching us from Genesis 9:8-17 about the original flood insurance. So much foreshadowing of Christ in this story, and we'll continue exploring this special covenant tomorrow.

Well, if you're enjoying Jerry's teaching this week, I think you'd enjoy his writing as well. You can find those articles right now at keylife.org. And hey, while you're there, be sure to check out the new Key Life Podcast Network. It's a special hub for grace-oriented podcasts, featuring shows from Pete Alwinson, Kyle Winkler, Carl Creasman, and more. More voices, more grace, more to love. Check it out now at keylife.org/podcastnetwork.

And of course, last year we introduced the vault, featuring carefully digitized sermons from Steve, dating all the way back to 1974. You can support this ongoing restoration project and listen to a free sample at keylife.org/vault. That's V-A-U-L-T. And as always, a big, big thank you to listeners like you who make all of this possible with your generous donations.

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