WEBVTT 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:07.919 Our country, the United States, has had a long history of division about politics. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:15.199 It has had a rare season of political unity with the election of our first president. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:17.679 People were on board with him. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:20.160 Even with his re-election. 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:28.320 And it was there that you could say either the experiment in democracy was perfected or the wheels fell off the cart. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:39.679 Basically, every presidential election since then has been a fight for our country's future and freedom. 00:00:39.920 --> 00:01:01.759 In fact, you can find, if you were to do enough research, people who have declared, beginning with Alexander Hamilton, going all the way through President Trump, that every election in our country's history has been the most important election ever. 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:10.239 And if John Adams loses, then the country is over. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:17.439 Or if, alternatively, Thomas Jefferson wins, our experiment is done. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:19.680 Put a fork in it, no more. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:26.719 Government as we know it, by the people, for the people, ceases to exist. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:32.239 If Jefferson and his Francophile ways get into the White House. 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:36.159 Well, he did worm his way into the White House. 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.079 We have a monument commemorating it. 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:40.159 You've seen it, I'm sure. 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:55.920 And yet the conversation continues 200 plus years later with the same kind of rhetoric that marked Jefferson's electoral victory so long ago. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:05.439 The reason why every election is the most important election in our country comes down to how people view government. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:13.360 It comes down to how believers in particular view government, at least I'm talking why Christians are often prone to that kind of language. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:15.680 How we view the role of government in our life. 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:18.319 And there's no easy, of course, answer for this. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:23.199 This debate is exasperated in the United States because of the nature of democracy. 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:34.000 The very nature of democracy gives every American a vote and gives every American a voice, it gives every American responsibility for their government. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:42.879 And it gives every American the, I guess, the obligation or the stewardship to understand all the political issues of the day. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.919 And it's very difficult to understand them all without getting roped into them all. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:55.599 I mean, how are you supposed to be a good steward of your voice and of your reason without researching the issues, as they say? 00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:58.319 And once you research the issues, you become committed at that point. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:02:59.360 You're all in. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:00.639 You're all in. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:13.039 At the heart of the divide in our country, I think really is a basic division that goes back to debates between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, even a basic division about where our rights come from. 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:14.719 Where our rights come from. 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:22.800 If the role of government is to guard rights entrusted to us by God, or if the role of government is to acquire and procure those rights and then advance them? 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:35.599 I think if you're to boil down the division, the party names have changed since Adams' election, but that nugget of debate is still what is the same. 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:44.879 Do rights that we have come from God, or do rights that we have come through the enactment and the advancement of an agenda from the government? 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:53.919 How you answer that question is going to kind of fundamentally change the way you view a Christian's responsibility to government and a government's responsibility. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:54.719 What is a good government? 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:08.719 Is a good government that one that advances an agenda for a purpose to achieve a result, or is a good government one that backs off and takes their hands off of the thing, so to speak, and has a more of a minimalistic requirement? 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:23.839 Now you can see pretty easily when you phrase things like that that if you are on the receiving end of injustice in society or you're on the receiving end of a criminal act, you want government to have a very active role in your life, don't you? 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:33.120 If somebody breaks into your car and steals your radio or your purse or whatever, I once had a printer stolen from the backseat of my car. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:37.040 Somebody broke into my car and stole a printer. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:42.319 I wanted a full-on government investigation. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:45.920 I wanted all three branches of government to cooperate. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:53.519 The LAPD sent the crime lab, their mobile crime lab, came to our apartment complex and dusted for fingerprints. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:56.079 No leads, though, no leads. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:59.279 The villain is still at large. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:05.279 If you're on the receiving end of injustice in society, you of course want a very active role of government. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:12.879 If you are in a position where you feel like your wealth is acquired and your life is pretty well set, you want more of a hands-off approach to government. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:15.839 That's the normal way that's not confined in the United States. 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:18.959 You see that form of economics and view of government around the world. 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:26.079 But I do want to talk about how the Bible describes this issue because there is, I think, a biblical perspective on this. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:29.040 And so I want you to turn to Genesis 9 because we're going to look there. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:30.639 This is really the birth of government. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:38.480 And the reason we're going to Genesis 9 to look at this is because there are a lot of wrong views of government out there, which I know saying that is just like saying there's people that are wrong online. 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:40.160 You know, of course, that's true. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:42.480 Don't lose a lot of sleep over it. 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:47.199 But there are people that have a very corrupted view of the role of government in this world. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:50.160 There are, and when I say people, I mean even Christians. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:52.720 There's been a common mantra throughout the years. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:58.240 The government's role is to legislate morality or to advance this particular moral agenda. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:03.519 And that's, I think, a deficient view of government, whether or not it's wielded by the left or the right. 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:11.279 And government, and we're going to see as we look at Genesis 9, has a predominantly defensive role, not an offensive role. 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:16.879 To use a football analogy, government's job is to uh protect field position, not to acquire it. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:23.600 The government's job is to defend people, not to advance or legislate an agenda. 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:27.360 And we're going to see that tonight as we look at Genesis chapter 9. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:31.920 There is a danger that comes from political involvement with churches. 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:38.079 Once churches, and I want to say this pretty precisely, I have it written down so I say what I follow my words carefully. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:40.319 I've said this from this pulpit many, many times before. 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:51.839 I want to repeat it though, in light of our most recent election, there is a huge danger when churches view the government as an agent for moral advancement or an agent to advance morality in the world. 00:06:51.920 --> 00:07:08.000 The danger comes because churches who do have the obligation to proclaim morality and to proclaim righteousness and sin and confront the sinner with the good news of the gospel, when you view government as an agent of that, it produces a cooperation between the church and government that always leads to compromise. 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:11.279 Always, always leads to compromise from the church. 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:16.399 Political activism in a church leads to corruption in the church. 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:24.639 If political activism was the goal of the church, then we would partner with Mormons and Muslims who often have the same kind of moral agenda we do. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:30.720 And then the Watching World would consider us just one more political block to be negotiated with. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:39.759 This is why I cringe when you know I see exit polls that say, you know, some percentage of Christians did X or did Y. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:41.519 Because there's no way to spin that. 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:43.279 That's not annoying. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.480 First of all, friends don't let friends believe exit polls. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:46.959 Okay. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:08:01.920 But secondly, it's not healthy or helpful to view Christianity as one of many blocks, or evangelicals as one of many blocks of Christian voters or any kind of voter. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:10.079 With the Watching World views the gospel as a group of people that collaborate for a political end, we become just, of course, like the world. 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:16.399 Churches that look to the government to advance the political agenda will inherently become liberal, inherently. 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:27.279 And that is the it's not, I've had people tell me, you know, I wish Emmanuel was more involved in politics because when you look at all those, the all the all the Democrats out there, they have their churches that will proclaim politics from the pulpit. 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:30.639 Why don't we have churches that proclaim our politics from the pulpit? 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:35.919 And when I hear that, I recognize you're confusing cause and effect. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:43.840 The cause of liberalism is the idea that you can use the church to advance a political agenda. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:45.440 That's the cause. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:55.360 Because once you start using the church to advance the political agenda, you by necessity, the nature of politics, have to cooperate with people that are outside of your political profile. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:58.080 They're outside of your theological profile, certainly. 00:08:58.399 --> 00:08:59.440 It's the nature of politics. 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:09.120 You're trying to collaborate and build a large enough block of people that will compromise on one candidate to get him over the finish line. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:11.679 That's the nature of politics. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.320 That leads to liberalism. 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:17.600 And by liberalism, I mean I'm using that word in the theological sense. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:19.200 It leads to theological liberalism. 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:36.960 It leads to the downgrade of theology, it leads to the downgrade of the exclusivity of Christ, and leads to openness to the universality of the gospel, views the church's job, or one of the church's functions in that kind of worldview is to manipulate government to get a result. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:50.080 Well, it's not easy to live a godly life in an ungodly society with an ungodly government, but it's also the only option available to us, so we may as well figure out how to do it well. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:59.679 There's of course different kinds of governments you've seen through church history: a monarchy, God ruling the world through a king, a democracy, God ruling the world through a voice of people. 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:01.679 You've heard the label theocracy use. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:03.120 It's a common label. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:05.679 I don't think it has ever really existed. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:10.480 Theocracy in the strict sense means God ruling people directly through direct revelation. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:12.240 You don't even see that in the Bible. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:27.519 When God was leading Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the twelve children, the twelve which would become the twelve tribes, they didn't have their own nation. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:29.519 They didn't have their own government. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:33.279 Once they were to the size that they needed their own government, they were ruled by the Egyptians. 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:37.519 Once they had freedom and crossed the Red Sea, they immediately had their law. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:48.240 They didn't ever do that, which leads to the days of the judges, which were bad days, not good days. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:57.679 And eventually God gives them a king as a form of punishment and ultimately turns that into a form of blessing, which leads to Jesus Christ, the true King over the world. 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:03.840 Others have called theocracy a kind of system where the Bible is the authority of society. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:08.559 Again, I don't know if that has ever actually been tried enough to critique it one way or the other. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:10.159 It seems more of a fiction. 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:14.240 And the reason it hasn't been tried is because Christians are the narrow road in society. 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:17.360 They're the narrow, you know, in a democracy. 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:24.720 All kinds of people sent me a sermon a few weeks ago from another pastor to tell his congregation how to vote. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:28.879 And it starts, started with the pastor saying, you know, the churches, churches need to wake up or we're gonna lose our country. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:32.159 You need to wake up, Christians, or we're gonna get outvoted. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:34.399 And I hear that and I think, you know what? 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:37.120 Christians are going to get outvoted. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:39.039 We're the narrow road. 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:41.200 And it doesn't matter if you're awake or asleep. 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:44.960 You know, if you vote while you're awake or you vote while you're asleep, it's still one vote. 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:46.720 You're going down. 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:49.759 If you have that attitude. 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:53.360 The point, though, is that there's different forms of government that have all been tried. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:59.840 But I want us to go to Genesis chapter 9 tonight, because Genesis is the book of beginnings, and we're good at studying these for the beginnings. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:18.960 Everything that is significant in our world, every human institution that is significant has its birth recorded in the book of Genesis, the birth of human life, the animals, nature, the stars, the sun, God's word to people, priests, sacrifice, conscience. 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:25.679 Everything significant about our life is revealed to us, how it came to be in the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:26.960 Government is no exception. 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:30.799 We see how government came to be, where it came from in Genesis chapter 9. 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:34.320 To set the stage in Genesis chapter 9, the flood is over. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:39.600 You had a world without government in Genesis 1 through 8. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:44.320 You had a world where sin reigned in Genesis 3 through 8. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:49.440 You had a world where people were at enmity with each other in Genesis 4 through 8. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:57.120 You had a people, a world where people divided based upon those who wanted to serve the Lord and those who didn't in Genesis 5 through 8. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:09.759 And you have a world where the Savior is promised to come to some group of people, and yet there is such hostility and chaos in the earth that it's not even a functioning society, really. 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:16.159 The evil and debauchery of the human world before the flood, I think, reaches heights that are unparalleled in our minds. 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:18.960 God, of course, said that he wouldn't destroy the earth again. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:24.720 He's going to give an institution to the earth that will keep the earth from getting as wicked as it was before the flood. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:27.440 You have to view government in that lens. 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:31.840 So do you understand that before Genesis 6, the wickedness in the earth was extreme? 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.679 I think the development on the earth was extreme. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:40.159 I think the uh the intellectual capacity and the technological advancement on the earth before the flood would surprise us. 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:45.840 I think we often look back at the before the flood age as, you know, one step away from cavemen. 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:47.600 I don't think the Bible presents it that way at all. 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:50.480 I think they were very technologically advanced. 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:58.080 It would not even surprise me if they had discoveries like electricity and all kinds of crazy things. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:03.200 If they could fly airplanes, it would not surprise me at all before the flood. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:14.240 Their ability to do things was extreme, their life expectancy was long, and so they had this ability to pass down knowledge throughout society that we don't often understand. 00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:17.120 What they were missing, though, is the ability to check evil. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:26.799 So if they lacked the ability to fly or they lacked the ability to have a power grid, it was only because evil was so widespread in the world that you couldn't collaborate with enough people to get a power grid going. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:35.679 They were a wicked, wicked bunch, but extremely, of course, intelligent and knowledgeable about the world. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.480 God confronts them with their sin and their wickedness. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:39.919 They do not repent. 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:47.279 And by the way, the reason I think they were so technologically advanced is because what makes the ark so noteworthy is not that Noah built it. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:52.399 What makes the ark so noteworthy is that people didn't join it, they rejected it. 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:54.080 The world rejected it. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:58.080 They showed disdain for it because they rejected God. 00:14:58.559 --> 00:14:59.919 Because they rejected God. 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:01.360 And so God floods the earth. 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.799 He says back in Genesis 6 that he will not strive with mankind forever. 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:08.240 This is uh recorded for you back in Genesis 6. 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:11.919 Verse 3, Yahweh said, My spirit will not uh abide in man forever. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:13.919 And I think strive with man is a better translation. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:15.519 It will be 120 years. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:20.080 That's the amount of time from between God declares this and he destroys the earth through the flood. 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:27.519 Verse 5, Yahweh saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, every intention of his heart, hot the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:31.279 The Lord was grieved in verse 6 that he had made mankind. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:36.559 Nevertheless, verse 8, Noah found favor in God's sight, and so God destroys the earth. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:41.919 Noah was a righteous man, verse 9 says, because he walked with Yahweh, and so Noah is spared. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:45.679 Noah and his family who uh believed the Lord get onto the ark. 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:50.879 Noah goes on to the ark with animals, enough to repopulate the earth. 00:15:51.120 --> 00:16:00.480 Of all the clean animals, chapter 7, verse 8 says, uh they went on in pairs, animals that were not clean two by two. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:03.279 Male and female went on the ark as God had commanded Noah. 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:06.320 The animals, of course, repopulate on the ark. 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:08.080 And so you flip over to chapter 8. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:12.080 The animals get off of the ark, left, notice they went on the ark two by two. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:14.000 Look at how they leave chapter 8, verse 19. 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:18.799 Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird, everything that moves on the earth went out by families from the ark. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.200 And so they were repopulating on the ark. 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:26.720 If you've had pet gerbils or bunnies before, you know how that works. 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:29.759 They leave the ark in families. 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:35.840 And now you see what you encounter in chapter 8 and chapter 9 is that the sin did not wash away. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:39.440 The floods of the water did not wash away the sin of mankind's hearts. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:44.720 Noah's gonna repopulate the earth just like the animals are repopulating the earth, and they're gonna repopulate in sin. 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:52.799 But we just read in Genesis 6.5, the Lord was not going to repeat what we're gonna call a mistake, because the Lord says he regretted it. 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:56.720 We recognize the Lord didn't really make a mistake, but the Lord's not going to repeat this recipe. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:03.759 He's not just going to flood the earth and let Noah start over because the same exact thing will happen. 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:06.079 So, what changes? 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:10.240 This is a key question for Genesis 9 and a key question for tonight. 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:18.799 What changes from before the flood and after the flood that keeps the evil on the earth from getting that extreme ever again? 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:23.359 Now, the answer that you see is the rainbow, rainbow does not restrain sin. 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:28.480 Rainbow is the sign of the pledge that God is not going to destroy the earth again. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:32.960 But it rainbow, you're not about to commit a sin and you see a rainbow and go like, okay, I repent. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:35.920 The rainbow does not restrain sin. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:41.519 What restrains sin is the institution we're gonna see today of government. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:42.960 Of government. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:51.359 To build up, we're gonna do a little bit of a walk to get to our introduction to government, a little bit of a walk to build up to this, and I think this is very important for understanding this. 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:55.680 I'm gonna give you a brief outline of four blessings that God gives man, these are four blessings. 00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:58.160 God gives mankind as they come off of the ark. 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:00.960 No one in his family comes off the ark, he blesses them in four ways. 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:07.279 These four ways are critical because these four ways are not uh just coincidentally noted here. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.119 These four ways play into what government is supposed to do. 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:17.200 So the first way you see that God blesses mankind after the flood is he blesses them with freedom. 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:21.519 He blesses them with freedom, which you see expressed here in worship. 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:22.960 Verse 20. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:31.599 Noah then built an altar to Yahweh and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt alterings on the offer, uh, on the altar. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:39.119 This was not, as far as I can tell, an offering that was um, this particular offering that's described here, one that was commanded. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:41.680 Obviously, God had given Noah animals. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:44.799 He'd given them more of the clean animals for this purpose. 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:51.359 This appears to be a response from Noah to the kindness of the Lord, especially how you see it in verse 21. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:57.119 When Yahweh smelled the pleasing aroma, Yahweh said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man. 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:00.880 The intention of man's evil heart is evil from his youth. 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:02.640 This is how you know sin did not wash away. 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:04.880 He repeats what was said in Genesis 6.5. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:08.400 People's hearts are wicked, they are corrupt, they're always evil. 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:12.160 So Noah and his children are still going to be fallen, they're still going to be depraved. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.240 They didn't get better on the ark. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:17.279 Noah homeschooled his kids, it didn't work. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:22.640 Their hearts are going to be evil as they come off of the ark. 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:36.240 However, Noah here is able to worship without the world corrupting it, without the world interfering, it, without the world rejecting it, as it happened for the last 120 years and 40 days. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:38.799 So Noah worships. 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:46.160 The Lord is pleased with his worship and says, Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:52.880 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:56.400 The first blessing God gives mankind is the ability to worship. 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:00.160 Notice that he ties worship here to the seasons, which is very interesting. 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:03.839 You're going to encounter this in the in uh Exodus. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:10.079 The different feasts Israel will have, the different expressions of worship they will have are connected to the calendar year. 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.400 They're connected to the seasons that go by. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.880 You worship God as the seasons progress. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:19.920 I'm not saying that you find Christmas buried here, but I can have Christmas with a clean conscience. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:23.119 You worship God as the seasons go by. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:30.160 The point here that is embedded in this text is there is a freedom that Noah has, and that freedom expresses itself in worship. 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:34.400 The second blessing you see that God gives mankind here is family. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:36.000 Chapter 9, verse 1. 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:40.960 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:44.240 This is a restatement of the blessing that God had given Adam and Eve. 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:46.559 So this part hasn't changed. 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:52.160 Adam and Eve are going to have a family and they will be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:54.000 Then God floods the earth and destroys it. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:59.599 Starts over with Noah and his wife and his children and their wives, and this will happen again. 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.880 They are again commanded to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:04.240 This is a time of a great mystery. 00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:05.680 This has never happened before. 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:07.599 And so it is an interesting question. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:11.599 Is God going to allow Noah to repopulate the earth? 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:13.680 Like the animals were already doing in the ark? 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:16.240 Is God going to use Noah to fill the earth again? 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:17.759 Or is that what has changed? 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:21.200 Is God going to limit the evil on the earth by limiting the people on the earth? 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:22.319 And the answer is no. 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:24.400 He's not going to limit the people on the earth. 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:26.559 He is going to let them be fruitful and multiply. 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:28.960 In fact, that will be a blessing to them. 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:30.880 Is it certainly a blessing? 00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:38.400 Because it is repeated after I looked down at verse 7, and you be fruitful and multiply, and team on the earth and multiply in it. 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:41.440 Genesis 9, verse 7 says it's a repetition of this. 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:43.359 It is certainly a blessing. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:51.200 You find in this that the highest joy imaginable on earth, of course, comes from your family. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:53.519 Your closest relationships on earth are in your family. 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:56.559 The person you love the most on earth is your spouse. 00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:59.839 Your children bring joy into your life and into your family in an unrivaled way. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:01.200 Way. 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:04.319 There's just so much joy that comes from having children. 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:09.680 Having children in the home, having children that they're just little factories of joy. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:11.759 They're factories of sin, also. 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:15.359 There's this heartbreak, of course, that comes from children. 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:17.920 The same way that nobody brings you more joy in your life than your children. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:23.680 Nobody can can hurt you more than your children when they rebel or if they fail to follow the Lord growing up. 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:24.960 That's true as well. 00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:30.720 Nevertheless, even in that kind of situation, you would still say your children are a blessing. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:32.559 You would still say they're a blessing. 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:37.279 And again, this is not a promise that every child will be a blessing to his parents universally in the earth. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:41.839 There, of course, there are some parents, the book of Proverbs tells you that do become a curse to their family. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:50.240 This is a general blessing here, a general principle that children will bring joy to the family, joy to life, like arrows in the archer's quiver. 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:53.200 They're your weapons you take on the world with a give you joy. 00:22:53.359 --> 00:23:04.960 We sang the song from Psalm 127 earlier, was the song, All Glory Be to Christ, adapted from Psalm 127, which is a song about the blessings of living a life for the Lord through your family. 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:07.599 God gives the family to be a joy. 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:08.799 Children are a joy. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:09.920 Life is a joy. 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:11.680 Marriage is a joy. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:21.039 And God reiterates the function of the family to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and become joy-bearing creatures in your home. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:28.079 Children are bundles of joy, and they're to be delighted and received with open arms. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:32.400 Thirdly, the third blessing you see here is man's food. 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:37.359 Verse 2 the fear of you and the dread of you will be upon every beast of the earth. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:40.480 This is different than the pre-fall, the pre-fall world. 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:46.480 Before the fall, and perhaps even before the flood, the animals didn't fear mankind. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:54.000 I don't know if the fear of uh mankind fell on animals in Genesis 3 or if it waited until Genesis 9. 00:23:54.559 --> 00:24:00.240 Regardless, animals now, starting in Genesis 9 after the flood will have a fear of mankind. 00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:03.039 Which is you see why that's a blessing? 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:05.599 There are animals in the world that will hurt you. 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:08.240 They will seriously hurt you. 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:12.160 But thankfully, those animals are also afraid of you. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:15.279 It works out very, very well for all of us. 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:19.359 That deer that is cute in your backyard would box you right in the head. 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:24.960 And uh fortunately, they don't let you get up close enough to box you. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:26.400 You know, most of them don't. 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:28.079 Some of them get deranged and do it. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:31.039 You know, that raccoon, fight a raccoon, see what happens. 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:31.839 See what happens. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:37.519 That thing will bite you and scratch you, and you might ultimately win because you're bigger, but it will not be pretty. 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:45.440 But fortunately, the raccoon will scurry away from you for the most part, unless you feed it your cat food for a series of weeks and tame it. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:47.839 So, yeah. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.880 For the most part, the animals that will harm you flee from you. 00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:57.920 And the animals that are domesticated don't flee from you unless you're mean to them. 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:00.480 Lesson for our cat owning friends. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.160 This is a blessing God gives you. 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:07.599 The fear of mankind is on the beasts of the field. 00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:12.000 And everything that creeps in the ground, all the fish of the sea, they are delivered into our hands. 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:15.200 And they're delivered into your hands for the purpose of food. 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:16.240 This is verse three. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:19.680 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:21.119 It's all given to you as food. 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:22.880 This is before the dietary laws. 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:29.599 The Israelites were not allowed to eat shellfish, they weren't allowed to eat bacon, but that's because the dietary laws restricted that. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:32.880 That's not the way the law, the food laws come to the world. 00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:35.039 The food laws come to the world in verse three very clearly. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:37.359 You can eat anything you want to. 00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:40.319 Have a steak. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:41.440 Enjoy it. 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:43.200 Medium rare, preferably. 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:44.319 Don't overcook that thing. 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:45.039 Come on. 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:47.119 Have shellfish. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.799 Go have some kind of shrimp, seafood bowl, pot kind of creature that's incredible. 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:53.759 Go have one of those things. 00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:54.480 It's okay. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:55.599 It's delightful. 00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:58.319 And verse 3 says, get the side salad. 00:25:58.400 --> 00:25:59.440 Do you see that? 00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:02.079 I give you the green plants. 00:26:02.240 --> 00:26:03.519 So get the side salad. 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:04.559 You're commanded to. 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:06.240 Get the side salad right there. 00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:08.000 It's given to you also. 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:10.640 Everything is given to you to eat. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:13.680 So enjoy it and eat it. 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:14.640 Delight in it. 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:15.759 This is how God made it. 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:18.799 This is a way that it was not designed before the flood that way. 00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:21.759 People weren't eating animals before the fall, anyway. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:25.200 They weren't eating animals, but now after the flood, they are eating animals. 00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:26.319 They're still eating plants. 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:27.680 Everything is a blessing. 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:32.000 You have to try harder sometimes to figure out how to eat some creatures the right way. 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:35.519 You have to try harder sometimes to figure out how to eat some plants the right way. 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:38.319 Because of the fall, there are some plants that are poison. 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:44.079 Because of the fall, there are some plants that apparently were not designed for human consumption. 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:48.319 I can think of a few vegetables that definitely fit into that category, but people still eat them. 00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:55.119 Verse 4, you shall not eat flesh with its life. 00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:56.240 That is its blood. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:58.640 This isn't a prohibition, I don't think, against rare steak. 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:03.039 I think this is basically describing to Noah the way this world is going to work. 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:05.440 You have to kill the animal to eat it. 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:06.960 Don't eat it while it's alive. 00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:13.599 This is a statement here that people will be putting to death animals so that they can eat them. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:16.079 You kill it, and then you eat it. 00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:18.960 This is the same thing repeated to Peter in Acts chapter 10. 00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:20.640 Kill and eat. 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:23.039 Don't eat without the killing. 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:24.079 Kill first. 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:26.079 And this phrase is used elsewhere in the Bible. 00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:27.359 It's life is in its blood. 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:32.799 It's going to become, of course, obviously emblematic of Jesus Christ, that his life is in his blood. 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:35.039 His blood is a propitiation for our sin. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:44.960 There's nothing, as I often say at communion, there's nothing magical about the actual blood of Jesus, that he had a different kind of DNA or different kinds of white blood cells that makes his blood powerful to forgive sins. 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:46.400 The blood represents the life. 00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:47.920 His life was sinless. 00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:50.880 When they killed Christ, they shed his blood. 00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:57.839 So we can say that we're saved by faith in his blood, which is another way of saying saved by faith in his life and death and resurrection. 00:27:58.079 --> 00:27:59.920 This is all caught up here in verse 4. 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:05.519 You don't eat flesh in its life, that is its blood, because the blood represents the life of it. 00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:09.039 You have to kill your food to eat it. 00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:14.240 And of course, this is a protection as well from all kinds of foods that can harm you. 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:20.799 Foods that can harm you if there's, you know, disease on them or bacteria on them, they'll harm you. 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:24.640 And so use your head when you eat your food, another way of saying it. 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:33.200 And the fourth blessing you see here, finally, you saw man's freedom, man's joy, man's food, and finally man's image is described here in verse five. 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:38.319 And for your lifeblood or God's image, in verse five, I should say, for your lifeblood I will require reckoning. 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:41.039 From every beast I will require it, and from man. 00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:45.359 From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:50.079 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:52.319 In Hebrew, this is very much poetry. 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:55.359 The way it's indented here in the SV makes it look like it is poetry. 00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:56.720 In Hebrew, it is poetry. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:00.720 It does rhyme, there is repetition, it is symmetrical here. 00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:03.440 I love the way the SV renders it because it kind of brings it out. 00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:06.960 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. 00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:09.920 For God made man in his own image. 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.880 This is the final blessing here in this little list. 00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:23.920 God blesses us with worship, he blesses us with family, he blesses us with nature to eat, and he blesses us with life to be protected. 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:30.880 What happens in verse five and six is what all of this was building to. 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:32.160 And I hope you see this here. 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:36.960 What happens in verses five and six is the change from the pre-flood world. 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:42.720 Everything before this point, you could also argue was true before the flood. 00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:45.519 There was sacrifice before the flood. 00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:47.519 You can ask Cain and Abel about that. 00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:49.200 There was family before the flood. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:54.160 Obviously, Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel and Seth and others, and they populated the earth. 00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:56.559 There was food before the flood. 00:29:56.799 --> 00:29:58.799 There was nature before the flood. 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:02.400 But this becomes the different thing before the flood. 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:11.359 In fact, if you jog your eyes back to Genesis chapter 5, just by a, I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 4, just by a brief form of contrast. 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:13.519