Our scripture reading is taken from page 15 in your Pew Bibles. That's Genesis chapter 9, verses 1 through 17. Genesis 9, 1 through 17. Well, I'll read the first 11, and then we will join together and read the verses 12 through 17. This is the word of God. So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you will be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely for your lifeblood, I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast, I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it." Then God said 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 from the waters of the flood. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. Together. 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. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh. The waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. "'The rainbow shall be in the cloud, "'and I will look on it to remember "'the everlasting covenant between God "'and every living creature of all flesh "'that is on 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.'" That is the word of God. the Christians' great charter. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, when God made man in the Garden of Eden, he entered into covenant with him. He told him to multiply, to fill the earth, and to have dominion over it. In a way, it was a command, of course, but it was also a blessing at the same time. But of course, you know what happened. Man fell into sin, eating the forbidden fruit, and so corrupted all his descendants, and so they could not complete the task. Their first son was a murderer. How far they fell. But then God made a plan to renew man's ability to keep the covenant. That renewal we see in Genesis chapter 3, where the Lord talked about the woman's son would come and crush the head of the serpent, the one who deceived them into sin, and so would set them free from their being trapped in sin. That renewal, of course, then was the thing that came through Jesus Christ. Now, with Noah and his family believing in Jesus Christ and showing it by worship, what we saw the last time, the first thing they did when they came out of the ark, God then renewed the great charter. And that is what you will hear about today. What he told Adam is what he renewed. in Noah. Our headings are three, the great charter repeated, second, the great charter continued, and then third, the great charter signified. And our goals are that you will treasure the fact that God entered into covenant with you through Jesus Christ, that you will learn well the terms, that's the work order he's given to us, of the covenant, And then third, that you will fulfill by the grace of God His stipulations of you in the covenant. We begin by looking first at the great charter repeated. The great charter repeated. Now God commanded Noah and his sons to multiply and fill the earth, which was really a repeated command after the flood. That's what he said to Adam. This is one of the strangest things in the Bible because it was a command. but it was a blessing. Oh, you saw that, right? Last time I preached from Genesis, the first part, the ending of chapter 8, you saw that they built an altar, and then they brought the right sacrifices. And they should have done that because that was the right thing to do. But God blessed them more. And when God gives us a command, it's always attached to blessings, rich, full blessings. Now this command that he gave them, which was really a blessing, is sometimes called the cultural mandate. And you notice that God addressed this cultural mandate to the covenant heads, the males. He addressed Noah and his sons because they were the covenant head of their families. So what was the first thing they were to do? They were to have children. God commanded man to be fruitful and multiply. But it was not only about having children. And this is where sometimes people go overboard and think this is the focus of the command. So their job is to have as many children as they possibly can have. No. The command is to have those children and raise them in the fear of the Lord so that they will be able to continue the work of fulfilling the cultural mandate that God has given. And further, it was not just having children. It was not just raising them in the fear of the Lord. It was to multiply his achievements and thrive in all areas of life so he could have dominion under God. Look at the language of Genesis chapter 1 when this was first given. Verse 28 in your sermon notes together. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. There is the broader command. Have children, raise them well, and then everything else you do must be consistent with the work that God has called us to do. So trying to see, for example, for life on other planets does not help with this mandate, and therefore, it's a useless waste of money. Man had to have his children, raise them well, he had to work hard, he had to eat properly, he had to sleep, he had to worship, he had to love. His life had to be lived in balance. so he could do this work. Remember, that was Solomon's frustration all his life. He tried all kinds of different things, getting sidetracked and overwhelmed and distracted by one or two or three or four different things. Remember, he pursued buildings and military strength, horticulture, poetry, music. And then he said, It's all frustrating because he was over, he was overbalanced instead of living life in balance. That's what this mandate is. Verse 2, then God commanded man not to fear as he fulfilled the task of having dominion over the world. You see, if you're afraid, you're going to be hesitant. You're not going to want to confront people with the gospel because you're afraid. Now how do we see here that God is telling people not to be afraid? Well, God put the dread and fear of man in the animals. Animals don't look at people in the eye because animals are afraid. And that's why you can have a man, if you go to a circus, you will see they will be telling lions and elephants to do things, and they do what man tells them to do. You never see it the other way around. Animals are afraid of man. And that's what really God is saying. Look, I get in the animal's fear of you. You don't need to be afraid. That's the implication here. You need to go about the work without being afraid. I mean, cows allow themselves to be milked. Horses let people ride them. Sheep lay down so they will be shorn of their wool. So man is not to be afraid of them or anything else. The big monsters, remember this time they were huge animals that have become extinct. And God is saying, don't be afraid of them, they will be afraid of you. And then more, verse three. God commanded man to make use of his God-given resources to have dominion, like eating the animals he provided. You see, God is giving man the strength to fulfill this cultural mandate, to have children, to raise them in the fear of the Lord, to multiply and have dominion over the earth. First thing to note there is vegetarians are vegetarians by choice, not by command. The fact is, because of the fall, many plants now don't provide sufficient nutrition, and people need meat. And I always like to ask the question, have you ever seen a successful vegetarian culture? Maybe there's one, I don't know. But God has given us animals to eat. But there's one limitation. You're not to drink or eat the blood, because the blood symbolize life. And pagans are the ones who drank the blood, because they wanted to say, when you drink the blood, you get the life of that person. And that's the symbolic reason now blood is not good, because it's filled with all kinds of diseases. Horses' blood, for example, is used for making vaccinations, because they have all kinds of diseases in their blood. Eskimos who drink blood, they die 10 years sooner than the average population. But there is a symbolic thing here. He didn't want people to drink this blood and then think that somehow their life will come from the blood of animals. It was a reminder that it was the blood of Christ that will be shed for the blood of mankind. Look at the language in Leviticus chapter 17 verse 1 and 12, maybe 11 and 12. for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Therefore, I said to the children of Israel, No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood. Now, there are some people who argue that if you cook the blood, then it becomes like meat, and therefore it's okay. I'm not going to get dragged into that, but you know the idea here is the symbolic drinking of blood and say, this is how I am going to live. But animals are not just given for food. Animals were given to God for work. That's why you use the elephants and the oxen and other animals to do different things. Animals are used, their bones for making weapons, their skin for making clothing, tents. God was providing everything man needed for the sustenance, for his sustenance, so he could fulfill that great charter. And then one more thing God does, verse 5 and 6, God commanded man to execute any murderer who sheds man's blood, which was really an attack against God's image in man. Capital punishment was justice. And yet, it was also the grace of God, so innocent people would be kept alive to do the work that God called them to do. It murders and darkens God's image. Execution is a way of protecting the image of God in man. And when society rejects capital punishment, it is a contempt of God. It is atheism. Atheism. It is saying we reject God and His image in mankind. And by the way, Noah wasn't part of the Jewish nation. He did not have a theocracy. Some people like to argue, well, capital punishment came as a result of the theocracy. Noah was there long before there was anything like a theocratic state. And then Jesus and his apostles confirmed the legitimacy of execution. The apostle Paul confirmed the legitimacy of execution. He said, if I've done something worthy of death, I do not refuse to die. So capital punishment was intended to protect people. How? Well, that man who dies will serve as a warning to others not to do it, plus he will never be able to kill again. In fact, during Israel's theocracy, even if an animal killed a man, that animal was executed. That's how much God wanted to protect men to do the work that he called them to do. What can we learn here? First of all, the Western world has lost the blessing of the great charter because of self-love. They love only what they love, and they care nothing about God. That's why if you were watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, you probably, or you probably read articles about it, of the bigotry, the anti-Christian bigots in France how they insulted the Lord Jesus, how they insulted all Christians. We've lost the idea of the great charter because we think we are the center. And it's sad because France was the nation that brought in some of the greatest wickedness in humankind, which in the 1700s in particular, where they advanced humanism, as the center of their mantra, of the way they live their lives. And now they're going one step further, not only humanism, but anti-God in such strong ways. And we see this, too, where many in the West count children as an unnecessary burden that they would rather not carry. Many see children as a robber of fun and of freedom, but children are considered by God a true blessing. When children are well-trained and parents are well-trained to train their children, what a blessing that is. That's how the kingdom of God will advance. That's how praise will go up to Him. Even when you go through difficulties of raising children, when you have to stay up all night because one of them is sick, that's part of your sanctification. When you have to deal with those rebellious teenage years, you learn self-control. The Lord works in you, even through those difficult times. Second, God will equip you with what you need to fulfill the great charter. So don't act like you're unequipped and you can't do it. And you don't know what to say to others about the gospel. You don't know how to live. God will equip you. He's given you his word. He's given you his spirit. He's given you people to teach you. The first thing he did was to save you through Jesus. And then he is the foundation now of how you are able to live. Remember, we say, you are saved to serve. Third, no one should try to stop anyone from fulfilling the command to have dominion over the earth. And this is why God established capital punishment. Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 21 says, together, Your eye shall not pity, life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Now, this is not personal standards for justice. This is the state. You will hear more about that in a future sermon. And yet, this is a warning against a tyrannical state. God is telling the state, you need to remove obstacles to Christ's dominion, or He will remove them. The state is warned not to show mercy, but to follow God's command. It must properly gather evidence, and if there is guilt established, a murderer should be executed. 4. Live your whole life in balance so you can have dominion. So, work hard, eat well, sleep enough, worship when you must, love when you must, as you should and multiply and have children, because this is what prepares you for the command, the command that continues, that great charter continues. We move to our second point from verse eight. God made an immutable covenant with Noah and his family and applied it to their descendants before they were born. He said so. Just as children were condemned in Adam without their consent before they could speak for themselves, they're included in the covenant without their consent. Even the families of the earth today will say, well, we're not Christians. We don't really care. God saying, you are bound by the Noahic covenant, child, adult, because Noah was the father of all who live on earth. And keep in mind the covenant, the great charter, was really about God's word and God's work. Ultimately, it's about the glory of God. It's not about man's glory. And what a wonderful hope God's inclusion of their children was in the sight of all the dead bodies around. Noah would have looked and seen all the dead ones, and God is saying, no, no, no, don't panic over those. I've got you and your children who are in covenant with me, and they have that obligation now, and you have to prepare them to multiply, to fill the earth, and have dominion for Jesus Christ. And then God's eternal covenant with man even included work with animals, showing God's mercy. And it's reminding us that we are not to abuse animals. We just heard they were given food, and for shoes, and for tents, and for clothing, and all that. That's fine. You're using them for the intended purpose. But to abuse animals just for pleasure of killing is not a good thing. Remember God is in covenant with the animals. And then verse 3, 11, sorry, point 3. God showed that the eternal covenant would continue by emphasizing it twice. That he would never again destroy the earth. He would never again destroy the earth. So what's the point here? This covenant continues. It continues to their children, to their adults who are after. So even the older people are in covenant with God, though they've broken it. The covenant is with the animals. The covenant continues. Never again, never again would God destroy the earth. What can we learn from the short point? It's this. First of all, children of believers are in the covenant through Jesus Christ, their covenant keeper. Don't reject what God has commanded. And here's the thing. If God would enter into an everlasting covenant with animals, How can we say he's not in covenant with our children? God is in a covenant with a chinchilla. You don't think he'd be in covenant with his children's children? Of course, that's what continues. You see the consistency. And by the way, there's a whole long list of eternal things. The seasons will continue until the end of the earth. He will never destroy the earth. Twice he said that. He will never destroy the animals. He said that. They would always, he gives specific directions about food that continue to the end of the earth. Those will not change. He will give them the rainbow that will continue to the end of the earth. He instituted capital punishment that will be to the end of the earth. And surely along that list, Children will be included too as He does them here. So that's why we teach our children to sing, Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. The love of Christ is towards those children. If they're rejected, God helped them because they have received much from Him. In fact, He calls them holy. through the Apostle Paul. And Jesus took those children, put them on his lap, and blessed them. And he threatened those who were chasing them away. Even more, Jesus called a foreign woman a dog, but blessed children even as he called her a dog, a foreigner. He knew who was in covenant with him. And he announced that positively, God promised to bless covenant children, your children to a thousand generations if you fear him. There may be covenant children who reject these blessings, as I said, but that does not deny that God is blessing them. And their punishment will be greater. One more lesson. If you can, Have children and raise them in the covenant. If you don't have children, and in God's providence some don't, because they're not able to, maybe they can't afford to have children or they don't find a suitable spouse, help others who have children. Encourage mothers and fathers. Help care for those kids, maybe babysit them. Teach them. Teach them to put their trust in their covenant keeper. Pray for them. So you don't have, you can't say, I don't have any responsibilities. I'm single. You have many responsibilities. You have duties before God to help raise those children because the task is about the glory of God and the expansion of his kingdom to the ends of the earth. Let's come to our third main heading now, the great charter signified. We see God give them the great charter. It was repeated. We see that it's continued. God says this will be everlasting covenant. And then God gave them something to remember that great charter. The great charter signified. God gave a sensible sign to help man to remember the covenant he made with them. He gave them a beautiful rainbow. And whenever man saw the rainbow, he would never fear the floods returning because he would remember God's promise of the spread of the kingdom and God's power to spread the kingdom. It's not just the promise, but it's the power. You know, we are in panic because you hear, I think it's next year, there's supposed to be some great heavenly body that will be coming close to the earth. And they're fearful that if that hits us, all life will be wiped away. What a bunch of fools. And you know why? Because they don't know God. If they knew God, they would know God's promises. He said that will not happen. because we have a task to fulfill. This is about the glory of God, and God will not cause an asteroid or something or comet to come and do damage here. Regardless of how big they are and how close they come to Earth, God has made His promise. And men throughout all generations would look and remember the sign. And they would say to their children, whenever you see the rainbow, trust God. He's the God who sent the flood and wiped the wicked out. He's the God who gave him the rainbow and saying, you're mine. Walk before me and be blameless. Work for me. Have dominion for Jesus Christ. Now there's something that's kind of interesting in Greek etymology, how the words develop. The rainbow was the warrior. without the arrow, you know the curve. It's a picture of the bow, isn't it? But there's no arrow. And remember what happened before the fall? What were men known for? For their warrior skills, for their arrows and bows. And they killed, they were cruel, they were wicked. But now there's no arrow to destroy. That's a beautiful picture there, whether it's based on theology or not, it certainly was common in Greek etymology. And that's when we see this. Every time you see a rainbow, say hallelujah, praise God. And then the rainbow was also a reminder, not just to man, but the rainbow was a reminder to God of what He promised. Now, again, this is an anthropomorphic expression, meaning God is speaking as a man. God does not forget his promises, but he's saying this so God would be seen as reminding himself so man could be reassured of the protection. And predictably, that rainbow was used in the last book of the Bible over Christ's head to remind man God remembers His promise. Let's read from Revelation chapter 4, verse 3. Together. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. What a beautiful picture. The Lord is saying, you know what? Here is my promise. I promise you will never be destroyed. You will never be destroyed. The kingdom will come. The wicked will be destroyed, but his kingdom will come. What can we learn here? First of all, enjoy the sign of the rainbow. Ignore what those perverts are doing in France in how they are promoting perversion using the beautiful rainbow, a sign of God's promise. Look to the rainbow and have hope. Don't let the world take away a symbol of love and power and make it the symbol of perversion and atheism. God will judge them for that, for ignoring his love and promoting lust instead. More, the rainbow was a beautiful sign, but God gave us more. He gave us two more beautiful signs. He gave us the Lord's Supper and baptism, as even greater signs of God's love and power. Let these signs strengthen your faith so you will work with more determination. Don't ignore the Lord's Supper. It's not just a sign you see. It's a sign that you can make a part of you literally. Baptism, when you are, that water is poured in your head. It's a reminder to how you are physically being made clean by Jesus Christ and that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. These will strengthen you and you will grow. Let's conclude. God repeated the covenant, the great charter He gave to Adam and Eve with Noah. Multiply, fill the earth, have dominion over it. Knowing he was weak, Noah had to look for renewed strength in the coming Savior to fulfill the great charter. He had to make sure his children followed the covenant. God then graciously marked it. His promise with a great, beautiful, and perpetual sign of the rainbow. So now, brothers and sisters in the Lord, to fulfill the great charter like Adam and Noah, you need to be restored with the ability to do the work, so you must look to Jesus. Jesus will give you everything you need to do the job. He will save you, and He will strengthen you. No other way. No other way. Second, as you're equipped, being equipped, go out and work to fulfill your cultural mandate. Multiply, fill the earth, rule, and rule the earth under God. Start with having and teaching this to your children. And I don't simply mean, let's read the Bible and close it, but explain it to them. Don't just read the Bible as a story. Talk about the great chart of why we are here. Sadly, when people talk to their children, they start off with, you have to be a doctor. You have to be an engineer. No, the first thing they should learn is that you have to work for the great charter. You have to work for the glory of Christ. That's why you're here. So if you're a doctor, it's towards that. And if you're an engineer, it's towards the end of the glory of God. It's not The end is not being the doctor, that important person, but for the glory of God. That's what they need to hear from you. So they could play their part in the dominion strategy and discuss what happens if they break the covenant about the warnings, the cursings that God puts upon those who reject the covenant sign. One man said, you need to have many arrows, but they've got to be straight. Otherwise, they're useless in the grand scheme of things. You want those arrows to be effective for the kingdom. And remember the other duties as well. It's not just about having children. It's working well. eating properly, sleeping enough, loving, loving even your enemies. You'll hear that next time. And most of all, how you worship. Because all of these things work for the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And third, those who don't look to Christ's sacrifice for forgiveness of sins will suffer for their blindness. So, if you look to Christ, Or if you look to Christ's sacrifice on the cross, you can enter into covenant with him and have a future in heaven. And there you will enjoy, even now, the beautiful signs and the seals of grace. But if you don't look to the cross, you will look down to the devil in hell, where your new home will be. Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, that you have given us this beautiful charter. Though our first father failed, yet you restored us in Jesus Christ. And we, then, are called to live that charter, to advance the cause of Jesus Christ. Help us, then, Lord, to have and raise children well and to live our lives in balance in how we study, how we marry, how we vote, how we live, how we interact with our neighbours, that all of our lives will be worked to bring glory to Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord. We're weak, but You're strong. Who else could we come to? Hear us, then, we pray, for Jesus' sake. Amen.