Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, with spring coming, I want to ask you, what does the rainbow signify in the Bible? What does the rainbow signify in the Bible? Today, the civil covenant is signified by the rainbow, brothers and sisters, whether we are aware of this or not. And that civil covenant in the Bible obligates all of us to be involved in government as a part of our Christian faith.

This is very well known amongst those who understand covenant, but I submit to you, not everybody does. We have much of the Christian church today, for example, that takes an exception, that takes a dive, if you will, on responsibility in government because they are understanding God's working with us in terms of dispensations. But God works in a covenant economy, not a dispensation economy. And one of the great covenants that does lay this responsibility for us, the responsibility to bring justice into the world.

As the prophet Micah said, you know, oh man, what the Lord requires and what is demanded of us, that is to love justice and to practice justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. And it is this civil covenant that introduces us to basic human government, the beginnings of human government, go all the way back to Noah and the civil covenant that God cut with him. Now, most of the modern evangelical church believes that the gospel is only concerned with heaven and the salvation of the soul and that we must not soil the garments of the gospel with the dirt of politics and government. Oh, no, no, no. How wrong this is.

Let me ask you, if this is your persuasion, is human government any more corrupt or any less susceptible to reform than your personal life, which Christ expects you to transform? That's called our walk of sanctification. And since your life radiates out and affects not only your family and your workplace and your local communities, but also your local governments, and then by extension, your state governments and federal government too. In fact, human government is an important part of your sphere of influence. The Bible obligates you in a covenant.

And I wish to put that before you today. When we talk about the rainbow, when we talk about Noah, when we talk about the covenant that God made with Noah, it includes the pursuit of justice and the rudiments of human government started all the way back with Noah after the flood. Genesis 9 is structured like an ancient covenant with all the elements of a covenant. Let me begin with you in chapter 9 of Genesis and read the opening verses, which lay this out for us. This is Genesis chapter 9, verses 1 through 7.

Then God blessed Noah. This is after the flood. 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 fish of the sea. They are given into your hands.

Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I give 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.

This is chapter 9, verse 7 of Genesis. Oh, dear listener, dear friend of mine, let me ask you, of what does the rainbow remind you? Is it sentimental feelings of good things after rain, like somewhere over the rainbow? We can almost hear Judy Garland begin to sing, right? Oh, way up high, the dreams that you dreamed of once in a lullaby.

No, I'm afraid that's not the purpose of the rainbow. Is the rainbow then to signify the multiplicity of genders? No, heaven forbid. The rainbow is much more than this. It is a sign of the civil covenant.

And I wish to lay that out and establish that with you here today. We've just read Genesis chapter 9, verses 1 through 7. And let me ask you, under the civil covenant, under the dominion mandate, who governs life in the human and animal kingdoms? Who governs life in the human and animal kingdoms? Oh, if the flood was a judgment of the old world, and it was.

And a recreation of a new world, and it was that too. Then here in Genesis chapter 9, we have a restatement of the dominion mandate too, which encompasses all of human life, all of animal life. We are expected as image bearers of God to bring to bear the dominion mandate. That hearkens all the way back to Genesis chapter 1, verse 28, where God's blessed them, Moses says. And God blessed them.

And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth, the dominion mandate, dear listener. And under this dominion mandate, we take dominion of the earth. And this does not mean that we waste the planet. And it doesn't mean that we worship the planet either. That is under Gaia and so forth.

No, those are two extremes that men tend to go to in lieu of the biblical idea of dominion and taking mandate. This is not the idea of dominion of the earth. No, we are expected to husband the planet. We are expected to husband the earth and its plant life and its animal life to take care of it and to make it work for us as well. So this idea of subduing the earth is further expanded on in greater detail here in Genesis chapter 9.

And if you have that before you, then you can look with me, study it with me. If you're driving, don't bother to open your Bible. You just keep driving and consult chapter 9 of Genesis when you get home. But there are four things that the subduing of the earth is expanded upon here in this civil covenant with Noah and his sons. Four of them.

Number one, the inhabitants of the animal kingdom will know us as vice regents of the creator. This is the idea of subduing and taking charge, if you will, of creation. The inhabitants of the animal kingdom will know us as vice regents of the creator. No, they are not animal companions. There's no such thing as an animal companion.

They are not our equals. We are to take dominion of the earth and subdue it and take charge of the animals and husband them and nurture them, of course, but they are not our equals. That's the sense of the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast because the inhabitants of the animal kingdom will know us as vice regents of God. We are the mediators of the civil covenant to not only one another as human beings, but also to animals. Secondly, the inhabitants of the animal kingdom will know themselves as provender for us, as food for us.

This is not a new provision. I think it's an extension really as well as of the first creation mandate that they are now food for us as well. This is one reason why they are not equals. We don't eat equals. We eat those over whom we have charge as we subdue the earth and as we husband animal life then.

And then thirdly, we are also to acknowledge the giver of life, the covenant head, by refusing the blood. We are not to eat blood, to eat meat with the blood in it or blood separated from the meat for that matter. It's not as though blood is ipso facto poisonous to us. No. Rather, blood is a symbol of the life of the creature.

The life of the creature is in the blood, as Leviticus tells us. And that life is given by God. And we acknowledge this fact in the blood. The entire Hebrew sacrificial system is testament to this. So we do not eat the blood.

Do you understand this Satanists and Luciferians who eat, who go so far in their debased state to eat and drink human blood? No, this is evil and this is contrary to the civil covenant. We do not eat blood. And then fourthly, the fourth thing that the covenant with Noah, the civil covenant expands upon is the beginnings of human government are laid in foundation here. Very basically, this is one of the main points I want to get to with you today, is that the civil covenant is cut here in this covenant.

It is part of the rainbow covenant, if you will, that God makes with man and all the earth because justice must be done. This is not a bare proof text for capital punishment. When we say, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God has God made man. No, it's not just a bare proof text for capital punishment. Rather, it is the prime directive and founding principle for human government.

And that is justice. Yes, justice is the prime directive of human government and justice and only justice shall you do, as the Bible says. And this here reprises man's creation. If we go all the way back to Genesis chapter one again, much of the covenant with Noah, the civil covenant is indeed a reprise, if you will, of Genesis chapter one. And it says there back in Genesis chapter one, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them unquote from Genesis chapter one. This is why we are distinct from the animal realm. This is why we are not animal companions. No, we are mediators and covenant heads above them.

We are in charge of shepherding them and of cultivating them and husbanding them and taking dominion over them. Once again, we don't waste the planet and we don't worship the planet. No, we husband the planet. The language that we have here in Genesis chapter one and then again in Genesis chapter nine is covenantal language. It's structured covenantal language.

There are parallels in it. It is Hebrew poetry given for ease of remembrance. And in these principles, in this covenant language are ensconced founding principles upon which others are to be elaborated. The principle of justice. There are several important founding principles here.

First of all, a under four, that is as covenant mediators, we human beings made in the image of God. As covenant mediators, we are to administer justice as we exercise government over one another. As covenant mediators, we are to administer justice as we exercise government over one another. And this includes you, dear listener. You can't escape from this covenant.

No living man can, much less the church. The church has shirked her responsibility as being administrators of justice as we exercise government over one another. Our constitution has given us a blessed entry into self-government. And as long as we shirk and neglect this as the church, we are shirking our responsibilities as Christians, dear listener. We are covenant mediators under the civil covenant, and we are charged with administering justice as we exercise government over one another.

We have a participatory form of government and we are expected to take up our responsibilities, but the church has shirked these responsibilities over the last few decades and generations. It's time for us to take up our responsibilities again, because God does not sit at some heavenly judge bench every day, personally handing out everything from death sentences to parking tickets. No, he doesn't exact perfect and immediate justice for every infraction, great or small. No, it would be, that would be a true theocracy. No, instead, God has entrusted government to his vice regents, that is, us.

And then B, under four, since we are image bearers of God, we are justice bringers of his as well. Yes, since we are image bearers of God, we are justice bringers of his too. Ah, it is one of the communicable attributes of God, and that is justice. God is just, and we can be just to a lesser extent, perhaps, but also we can be just, a communicable attribute, as it's called. First of all, the Bible says in many places that God is just.

For example, Deuteronomy 32, the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. So God is just, and consequently, as image bearers, we can be just as well, and we can exercise justice. For the one in whom justice resides to perfection has also communicated this attribute to us, to his image bearers. We can be just as well.

In fact, we are obligated under the civil covenant in Genesis 9 to do so. We are obligated to be just. This is the responsibility of every image bearer, dear listener, especially Christians. We of all people should be able to practice justice. As Deuteronomy also says, justice and only justice you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you, unquote, from Deuteronomy 16.

Now, I've had people say to me, whoa, but oh, pastor, this was part of Israel, and we're no longer obligated to apply the civil laws of Israel to our current circumstances. Oh, yes, I've heard this oftentimes. Maybe this is what you've been saying under your breath as you listen today. But I just must ask you, oh, really? Oh, really, dear listener, we're no longer obligated to administer justice?

Oh, but you might say, oh, yeah, we're to administer justice. Oh, well, then what is your source? If your source and standard for justice is not found principally in the law court of Israel, where is it found? The court of Hammurabi? Maybe some civil laws under Napoleon?

Maybe some secular civil laws you'll find justice. But where will you find true, perfect justice? If we're not to bother with insisting upon justice in government as individuals and churches, are we not covenant breakers? I submit to you, we are. The church is largely full of covenant breakers because we refuse to take on the responsibility of administering justice that is taking part in government in our own day and age.

We have neglected, and it has drifted into downright evil. You see the evil before you in government. I lay that responsibility at the feet of the church for not taking up her responsibilities under the civil covenant. Well, verses 8 to 11, also in Genesis chapter 9, pose this question for you. The civil covenant, under the dominion mandate, in what economy does God deal in his kingdom?

Verses 8 through 11, let me read them for you, and then you answer that question. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, I now establish my covenant with you. He doesn't say I establish my dispensation with you. He says, I 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 establish 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. That's verses 8 through 11. Under the dominion mandate, your listener, in what economy does God deal in his kingdom? Dispensations, perhaps, or covenant.

Ah, that's the word that's used, isn't it? But like true schizophrenics and dispensationalists, we compartmentalize verses 8 through 17 from the previous verses. But can we do this with exegetical integrity? No, they follow with all logic and context. Verse 8 says, then God said to Noah and his sons with him, behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you.

Oh, dear listener, what covenant? What covenant? Oh, it's the one that the provisions and stipulations and participants for which have just been given, I submit to you. There are five components to every covenant. There's a preamble, a historical prologue, all those things we have had here in the previous verses in chapter 9, where God introduces himself and tells you why he is establishing the covenant that is after the flood and the recreation of the earth.

And there are ethical stipulations to do's and don'ts, that is do take charge over, take dominion over the creation and don't drink the blood, the do's and don'ts, those kinds of things. And then there are succession arrangements that is for future generations. So he assembles his sons here as well. So all the components of covenant are here, the promises, and then the signs and the seals are about to be given. Sign and the seal of this civil covenant is the rainbow.

The other components of covenant without which we have no covenant were just articulated for you. So every covenant also has a provision for the propagation of the covenant to subsequent generations. Ergo, God said to his sons with him and then to his sons and his sons down to our day. So then we have then our third section of verses 12 through 17. Verses 12 through 17.

And those verses prompt me to ask of you, under the dominion mandate, dear listener, what is the sign of the covenant given to us in his kingdom? Verses 12 through 17. Let me read those for you. 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, a covenant for all generations to come.

That's an important part of covenant is the covenant succession. That is to those in the future, all generations to come, God says. I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant. That is the civil 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 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 earth. Unquote. That is, that's the promise.

That's an important part of covenant is promise. But equally important are the other provisions of the covenant. That is, you will do justice and justice only. That is, you will demand the life of the creature for taking the life of another creature. And so this is also one of the provisions, the establishment of the civil covenant, justice.

Every covenant has signs signs and seals by which the abstract elements of the covenant are made concrete and tangible for their better understanding. And this is the purpose then of the rainbow because every covenant has signs and seals. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are signs and seals for the new covenant, for example, just as the rainbow is for this civil covenant. It is a vivid, tangible sign and seal of a covenant. It's not a sentimental maudlin icon for fleeting human hopes and dreams, or it's not either a symbol for progressive sexual identities.

No, and it's not just a bare promise either that God won't flood the world again. No, it is much more substantial of a covenant than that. The right use and administration of human government is the covenantal responsibility of every image bearer. Oh, that's all of us under this civil covenant. How much more the Christian, dear listener?

It's the lack of such use and administration that leads necessarily to tyranny and slavery. You neglect this covenant, dear Christian. Mankind neglects self-government. Mankind neglects a Christian constitutional republic, and we will sink into tyranny and slavery. And this is largely the fault of the church.

The American constitutional republic is derelict because the church continues to neglect justice and the civil covenant. Let me say that again. The American constitutional republic languishes and is derelict because the church continues to neglect that civil covenant, dear listener. All of us will be held accountable, excuse me, all of us will be held accountable to our fidelity to the civil covenant, regardless of whether you believe we are under such a covenant or not. It was cut.

It was established, and we are under it, whether you are apprised of it or not. Most Christians, most of the church today is ignorant of their responsibilities. It doesn't mean, for example, that you just go to the voting booth once every four years and vote for a president and think you have fulfilled your covenantal obligations. No, that is not the sense and purpose of the civil covenant. Rather, it means that you become an informed, engaged, and vocal participant in a constitutional republic.

This is your privilege and responsibility. A case can be made that a Christian constitutional republic, which we used to have at least, that it is a close model of biblical government. I've established this in other places. We can't establish it here, but I have done this elsewhere. How we have been given, dear listener, we've been given an opportunity here in America to exercise our responsibilities under the civil covenant.

You are under it. You're responsible for it, whether you realize it or not. You may be ignorant of the fact, but you live under a civil covenant, and you are responsible for government, for self-government. How we have wasted that opportunity in our generation. We have frittered away that which was given us by our founding fathers, and especially the church has done this.

I laid this at the foot of the church. The American Constitutional Republic is derelict because the church continues to neglect the civil covenant. We have believed three lies. I have outlined this more fully in other places as well, but we have believed three lies. First of all, that there is no civil covenant.

Yeah, that biblical Christianity extends to family, perhaps, and to the church, perhaps, and to your workplace, perhaps, but not to government. No, we must not soil the garments of the gospel with politics, right? That's the second lie we have believed when, indeed, civil government is as much a part of the Christian sanctification as any other part of his life. And then thirdly, we have believed the lie of the separation of church and state.

All three of these lies we must do away with and put aside and clear up because we live under a civil covenant, dear Christian, and it is your responsibility, the life and responsibility of you as a Christian and the church as a whole, then to begin to live and apply the civil covenant under the blessed opportunity we have under a Christian constitutional republic.

If indeed sanctification is a necessary component of the gospel, then your obligations under the gospel will necessarily extend to not only personal holiness, but also to your immediate world, your family, your church, and your community, which includes that community's government under the civil covenant, especially, dear listener, dear Christian. You know, personally, I hope this 4th of July, it's a little ways off yet, but I hope that this 4th of July, there's a rainstorm in Idaho Falls and then a rainbow. How appropriate that would be on the 4th of July if there was a rainbow.

And if there is, I hope that you, after hearing this message today, I hope that you personally think more than of a maudlin human hopes or dreams and more than of sexual identities and more than just a bare promise too of no more flood. When you see a rainbow, and I hope there's one on the 4th of July, I hope that you're reminded of and that you are thankful for Christ and his covenants and for the civil covenant in particular. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And we meet for holy worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

I encourage you to come out and visit us. Now, many of you have been listening for years to our radio broadcast, and I just invite you to come and visit us in one of our worship services and see who else we are. You know us by these radio messages, but we are much more than this. We are a living church as well with a vibrant worship service and teaching and doctrine, Sunday school classes and so forth. So I just invite you to come out and visit us at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 10 a.m. We meet for holy worship at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

I also invite you to check out our websites, and you'll find sermons and much information on our church at NewGenevaOPC. That's one word, NewGenevaOPC.org. And then we also have a catalog of these radio messages at another website. We have two websites. Our second website is Omnispotestas.org.

That's Latin for all authority. And let me spell that for you again, Omnispotestas, O-M-N-I-S dash, P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org. That's Omnispotestas.org. O-M-N-I-S dash, P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org. Omnispotestas.org.

And you'll find And they're cataloged, many of our radio messages, most of them. And you can, at your leisure, dial those up and listen to them. And you can also call us then for feedback and perhaps some more information at area code 208-523-0196. That's our phone number. Area code 208-523-0196.