["Pomp and Circumstance"]
We'll be back this Sunday at 10-3 a.m. and again at 5-3 p.m. in the evening.
Also we have the fish fly soloing times as well as the regional soloing times listed below along with the salvation and baptisms.
And don't forget this Sunday is the donut Sunday in honor of those celebrating in the month of March.
So come on out early and get yourself a donut.
And then below that, don't forget this Saturday, so coming up in just a couple of days,
is the last of the three east side blitzes that we've been doing.
So we're going to meet and hit the building through 9-9-30.
If you leave and go out there and go for a couple hours, we'll have lunch.
So far I know, I think there's just a couple people coming down from Tempe.
But if you are planning on going, if you could sign up, that's great.
But you don't have to. You're not sure even now.
You can always just show up on Saturday morning and wake up and say,
you know what, I feel like going, come on out.
We'd love to have you.
We're going to do a couple hours of soloing.
We'll run the east side.
On the back, don't forget this week is Genesis 9-6 for the Children and Teens weekly Bible memory verse.
And they do the recyclers for perfect and non-relative.
There's some cookies in the back for those that memorize that with children.
Do pray for the expectant ladies in our broader church on Tempe there.
And then also a couple of Tempe events.
Remember, there's always small town soloing.
Our brother Raymond, who normally heads us up, is not in Tunchy right now.
He's in the Philippines.
So he'll be back in the next couple weeks, I believe.
And once he's back, beginning next month, which is really just, what, tomorrow?
It's the first.
He's saying next month.
It's literally about 24 hours.
He's going to start that up again.
Living trips almost every Saturday.
I'm just highlighting the one there for next month because it's going to the Coolidge Dam.
I mean, come on.
Who here has been to the Coolidge Dam?
See? Me neither.
Why haven't we been?
You know how long you've lived your whole life here.
You probably didn't even know Coolidge had a dam.
Right? See?
I think that's enough for a minute.
Let's go out and close and work there.
What did you learn at church?
That Coolidge, Arizona has a dam.
The nice thing about going to the dam is you can take all the dam pictures you want.
Now you know why.
Just for that joke alone.
That's the whole reason why I wanted to sell that.
But anyway, if you ever want to go on these, of course, you guys know the drill.
There's always transportation, lodging included.
And for the overnight stuff and the single day stuff.
There's always recreation typically involved.
And you get to see a lot of the cool things.
I know it's a little bit of a drive for us.
But I just want to always remind you that it's available.
And I'll say this too.
That if you go up there and you want to take in the soul name on Saturday.
I'm sure, I'm not speaking out of turn.
But knowing Pastor Anderson as I do.
I'm sure he'd be fine.
Even if you wanted to stay over.
We could put you up in Tempe.
Go to church.
On Sunday morning in Tempe.
It's like a weekend out of it.
It's not as good.
Run back and forth.
That's the advantage of having kind of a smaller church.
We can kind of give you guys a few more venues that you might not get otherwise.
I'm sure if people from Tempe wanted to come down here.
I don't know why they would.
It would work for them too.
But anyway, just throwing that out there.
If you guys want to go there.
And don't forget.
Next Wednesday, Pastor Jimenez will be in Tempe.
So if you want to go up there.
Take in a great service.
Of course, Pastor Jimenez is a great preacher.
Great pastor.
He always knocks it out of the park whenever he comes.
I don't think he can not help knocking it out of the park.
Everyone who has ever listened to Pastor Jimenez.
He's a really great preacher.
It's a lot better in person.
It's not a good online.
Take that the wrong way.
You know how it is.
So if you want to get up there.
Get up there.
So if you want to get up there.
Get up there.
I'm still not sure if I'm able to make it up there or not myself.
But several guys in the church have all the insurance for the van.
So if the people in the church kind of get together.
And decide they want to go visit the group.
You know, he definitely made the van available that Wednesday.
It's just parked at my house.
People can just go grab it.
Leave their ride there.
And take advantage of that.
So just keep that in mind.
But that's going to do it for announcements.
Let's quickly just count solely.
Going back to Monday.
If there's anything from Monday for the fourth.
Or Tuesday.
Or Wednesday.
What about today?
I think it's today.
Okay, we'll go ahead and sing one more song.
Before you change the name.
All right.
Keep an eye out for your song books.
This song is number 55.
Song number 55.
When the roll is called.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Or the song number 55.
When the roll is called the younger.
Chapter 9.
Verse 1 the Bible reads,
And God blessed Noah and his sons and sent him to them,
and he grew from both of us and repented to the earth.
And the fear of you and the dread of you
shall be upon every beast of the earth
and upon every fowl of the air,
upon all that movement upon the earth
and upon all the fishes of the sea
into your hand that they deliver.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat
even as the green herb had I given you all these things.
But flesh with the life,
which is the blood,
shall you not eat?
And surely your blood and your lives
will I require at the hand of every beast
will I require at the hand of man.
At the hand of every man's brother
will I require in life.
Who so shedeth man's blood?
By man shall his blood be shed,
for in the image of God may be man.
And you, who eat fruit and multiply,
bring forth abundant in the earth
and multiply therein.
And I, behold,
I establish my covenant with you
and with your seed after you,
and with every living creature that is with you,
of the fowl, of the cattle,
of every beast of the earth with you,
from all that go out of the earth
to every beast of the earth.
And I'll establish my covenant with you.
Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more
by the waters of the flood.
Neither shall there any more be a flood
to destroy the earth.
And God said, this is the token of the covenant
of every living creature that is with you
for perpetual generations.
I do send my bow in the cloud,
and it shall be for a token of the covenant
between me and the earth.
It shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth,
for the bow shall be seen in the cloud.
And I will remember my covenant,
which is between me and you,
every living creature of all flesh,
and the waters shall no more become a flood
to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud,
and I will look upon you,
every living creature of all flesh
that is upon the earth.
And God said to Noah,
this is the token of the covenant
which I have established between me
and all flesh that is upon the earth.
And the sons of Noah that went forth to the ark
were Shem, and Ham, and Jacob.
And Ham was the father of Cain.
These are the three sons of Noah,
and of them was the whole earth overspread.
And Noah began to be an husband
who had planted a vineyard,
and he drank of him wine, and was drunk,
and father saw the nakedness of his father,
and told his two brothers about it.
And Shem and Jacob took a garment
and laid it upon both their shoulders
and went backward,
and covered the nakedness of their father,
and their faces went backward,
and they saw not their father's nakedness.
And Noah awoke from his wine,
and kneeled with his younger son at that uncere.
And he said, Cursus and Cain,
a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem,
and Cain shall be his servant.
And God shall enlarge Jacob,
and he shall dwell in the tent of Shem,
and Cain shall be his servant.
And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years,
and all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years,
and he died.
Father Albert, would you pray for us?
Thank you, Father God, for this evening's service.
As we begin our experience,
we preach to you tonight,
and prior to preaching the word,
thank you, Jesus, my name,
God, amen.
Amen. So Genesis 9,
where the flood has come and gone,
the waters in chapter 8 have assuaged,
and Noah's coming back out of the ark,
and he makes that sacrifice.
And then, of course,
you have chapter 9,
where God begins to command Noah once again,
regarding a few things.
We'll just look at it here in verse 1.
It says, And God blessed Noah and his sons,
and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply
and replenish the earth.
So this is yet again another verse
where God is commanding man
to be fruitful and to multiply.
This is the same thing he said to Adam
and Eve in Genesis chapter 1, verse 28.
He said basically the same thing
to be fruitful and replenish the earth
and subdue it, and have dominion
of the fish in the sea, and the fowl of the air,
and over every living thing,
every creeping thing creepeth upon the earth.
So again, God's reiterating that here
that he wants man to be fruitful
and to multiply.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that
because I feel like we covered that in Genesis 1,
but that is a command.
God hasn't changed his mind about that.
God didn't say be fruitful and multiply,
if it's convenient for you,
if it doesn't interfere with your career,
your ambitions, or your plans.
He said he wants the earth to be filled.
He wants people to be fruitful
and to multiply.
The Bible has a lot to say about that,
and it talks about it in the New Testament as well,
that the younger women,
beekeepers at home, that they learn to love
their husbands and to love their children,
this is what the Bible teaches.
And again, we've kind of covered all that already,
so I don't want to re-preach that,
but it's there again,
and that's something we see consistently
throughout Scripture, God's desire
for man to be fruitful
when it comes to having children.
He goes on and says in verse 2,
And the fear of you and the dread of you
shall be upon every beast of the earth
and every fowl of the air.
So it seems like maybe things were
a little different before the flood.
Were animals less scared of human beings?
Were they less apprehensive then?
Or had they kind of figured out
man was already pretty wicked by then?
I don't know.
But this is why animals tend to have a fear of us.
They're very skittish,
except for the man-eaters, of course,
but even then,
you could scare some of them off,
but not that we ever want to be in that position.
But I was thinking about this,
as I was walking somewhere just recently,
it's a very public place,
and I was walking by,
and there was this little
short wall,
and this dove was sitting on it,
and I walked by.
It was that far away,
and I was just like,
man, where is the fear of me?
This dove has no dread of me,
and I noticed that it stayed still,
but then as soon as I went to try and pet it
and touch it,
because that's what you do with feral birds,
you try to touch them,
it instantly fluttered away
and flew off,
so I was kind of like, man,
that curse is still there.
But wouldn't that be cool if that curse was lifted?
And I believe one day it will be,
where the child's going to lay down
with the lion
by the cockatrice den
that talks about it,
and how one day that curse will be gone.
But right now, we have to just
observe animals at a zoo
from a distance.
We have to catch them,
trap them, put them into a
space if we want to really observe
them, otherwise they run away
from us, or try to kill us.
Anyway, that's what
that's talking about. The fear and dread
of you shall be upon every beast
of the earth, and upon every fowl
of the air, and all that moveth upon the earth,
and upon the fishes of the sea, into
your hand they are delivered.
So, God is saying
not only are they going to be afraid of you,
but they're also, you're going to have, again,
dominion over them. So He's reiterating
the same, basically the same things
He told Adam in the beginning,
Adam and Eve. That they were to
subdue the earth and have dominion
over all of the, you know, every living
thing that moves upon the earth.
But one thing
that changes here, verse 3, it says
that every moving thing that liveth shall be meat
for you. That's something new.
God did not command Adam
to eat these animals.
If you remember, God commanded
Adam to eat of the
trees of the garden,
and they were to eat of the fruit of the
ground. They were vegetarian
leading up to this.
But now that's changed. After the flood,
God is now taking the breaks
off that and saying, you're now going to eat
animals too.
So, what we see here is that
vegetarianism or veganism,
I want to say it's not a biblical diet
because at one time it was.
And at a certain date
in the future, it will be again, I believe.
It talks about how
the last enemy that shall be
defeated is death.
When Christ subdues
all things that are brought under His feet
before He delivers up the kingdom of the Father,
the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
So after the millennial reign,
we're going into
that time we don't know
what it's all about.
When God the Father dwells on earth with man,
it appears that
because there is no death, obviously
then we couldn't kill and eat animals because
they would die.
But who knows if we'll even be eating then?
We see
so little about
what that's going to be like. People have
speculated, oh, we're going to go back to vegetarianism
and maybe we will.
I don't know how that's heaven. No, I'm just kidding.
Who knows if we'll even be
in drinking at that point? I don't know.
There's so much that we don't know about it, but
what we do know is that one time it appears
that vegetarianism was
a biblical diet before the
flood and now it's changing.
So it's unbiblical
in the sense that we are commanded
to eat flesh
now. And if you
would, go over to
1 Corinthians chapter number 6.
I won't spend a lot of time on this, but it is an important
doctrine because people
do push certain diets
today, don't they? It seems like
every other week there's a new diet
coming out. Of course, I'm exaggerating a little bit.
But people
have all kinds of different diets
and one of
them being vegetarianism or
veganism. Veganism, I think,
is fairly new.
I don't remember hearing about veganism when I was growing up.
Vegetarianism was a thing.
But this veganism is something that I
think, I'm sure it's been around, but
it wasn't as gained in popularity
as it is today.
Now, are you saying
that it's wrong for a Christian
to be vegetarian? I'm not saying
that. The Bible does say, though, in
Romans 14, him that is weak in the faith
receive ye, but not to
doubtful disputations.
So
people that are weak in the faith, that don't know
the Bible, that don't understand the things of God,
we should still receive
them. And receive them
with humility, receive them meekly,
kindly, and
we should try to teach them.
We should try to
instruct those that don't have
that understanding with meekness.
The Bible does
say him that is weak in the faith receive,
but not to doubtful disputations.
Meaning we're not going to just get into these, start
disputing about things that the Bible is very clear
about. And people dispute
about this topic when it comes to vegetarianism.
And I've known even Christians who will say
that that is biblical, that we should not
be eating animals.
They'll even, you know, it's like
they border on saying it's a sin sometimes.
But the Bible says in
verse 2 of Romans 14, for one believeth that he
may eat all things, another who is
weak eateth herbs. So the
Bible does show us that, you know,
the person who is not weak is the one that eats
all things. But the person who
is weak eateth herbs. Now you can say, oh,
you know, if you eat vegetables, you're going to be,
you know, physically weak. But I believe
the weak that he's referring to there is
weak in the faith. He's not understanding
the word of God. Okay.
One another who is weak eateth herbs.
Right. He's weak. He has
doubtful disputations.
He's weak in the faith. Okay.
Let not him that eateth despise
him that eateth not. And let not
him which eateth not judge him that
eateth. So we shouldn't,
you know, force
our dietary beliefs
on other people. You know, if
someone wants to be a vegetarian
or a vegan and be a Christian, they're
welcome to do that. If
they want to dispute and say, oh, this is what
the Bible teaches. Well, it just shows they're weak in the faith
and we don't want to engage in a doubtful
disputation. But
you know, the Bible is really
clear that we are to eat meats. Okay.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4 that
every creature of God is good and
nothing to be refused if we receive a
Thanksgiving. Right.
And that in the end times
that there will be people that actually command
to abstain from eating of meats. Right.
To abstain from marriage or from eating of meats.
These are doctrines of devils. Okay.
So eating
meat is a good thing. Obviously,
you know, people have different situations.
Maybe they can't handle
certain foods more than others.
You know, that's a personal choice.
And we don't want to start forcing
our, you know, views on
other people when it comes to things like
diet and even health. You know,
that's, you know, I don't want to get
up here and pretend to be a doctor or something like that.
It's because, you know, let me just say this too.
When it comes to things like health and nutrition,
you could find so many
different opinions and so many different takes on
things out there today. And there's so
much stuff that's on the internet and people saying
all kinds of different things. You know,
if you're going to start, you know,
even if you're going to start going
down that road, make sure you're listening to people
know what they're talking about. That's all I'm going to say.
Which is why I'm not going to get up
and espouse these type of things and say this
is the way you should eat or this or that or the other thing.
Because I'm not a trained scientist.
You know, I'm not a molecular
biologist. You know, I'm not trained
in that. But there are good sources
of information that are out there. You know,
seek it there. Okay.
But look, if somebody has a particular diet or
something that they're using, you know, good
for them. You know, but
we have to understand that we are
to be eating animals.
The Bible does say that they are,
there's nothing wrong with eating them. Okay.
Look at 1 Corinthians 6 verse 12
where you are. All things are lawful
unto me, but not all things are expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but I will not
be brought under the power of any meat
for the belly and belly for the meats.
That God shall destroy both it
and them. Now the body is not for
fornication, but for the Lord, the Lord for the body.
So he's saying
meats for the belly and belly for the meats.
Okay. And you know, that's
it's just a
thing. It's not something we're supposed to get
caught up in. God will destroy both
it and them. Okay. And the new man
will be, the old man will be destroyed.
So on and so forth.
I don't want to spend a long time on it.
Let's go ahead and move on here in the story. Verse 4
in Genesis chapter 9.
But the flesh with the life thereof, which is the
blood thereof, shall ye not eat? And
surely your blood of your lives will I require
it. At the hand of every beast will I require it. At the hand
of the man, at the hand of man.
At the hand of every man's brother
will I require of the life of man. Then
verse 6, which is of course this week's memory verse.
Whoso shedeth man's blood by
man, shall his blood be shed.
For in the image of God made he
man. Okay. So this is, God
is now prescribing the death penalty, which
did not exist before the flood.
Okay. That's why the earth
was filled with violence. And
there's a lot of things we can learn about this. Okay.
Because the death penalty
is a subject that people,
you know, it's a very controversial subject. Right.
People debate whether or not we should
have the death penalty.
Okay. The
Bible teaches the death penalty very
clearly. Okay. God prescribes
the death penalty for many sins
in scripture. Okay. Not
just first degree murder.
Adultery is something. You know,
rape, other things. You know,
I'm not going to go down the whole list. The Bible
is real clear. You know, sodomy. Let's not forget
that one. Okay. That's another one.
Okay. These
are sins in the Bible
that are punished with
death. Okay.
And if you would, go to Deuteronomy chapter
number 19. Deuteronomy chapter 19.
And
people often get this idea that somehow,
you know, Jesus came and just,
you know, did away with all this stuff. Although
he said, I came not to destroy the law, but
to fulfill it. For verily I say unto
you, till one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise
fail from the law, till
all be fulfilled. Right.
He's saying, I didn't
come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill
it. So it's not like Jesus came and
said, you know, that Old Testament God,
that angry God back then, you know,
we're going to change things now.
Okay. Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today and forever. Amen.
And God
is at his angriest at the end of the book,
which is ironic. More people are killed
because of God's wrath
when Jesus just, you know, when Christ returns
at the end of millennium, then all throughout
scripture. Okay. So it's not like God just,
you know, had a change of heart
when he sent Jesus, his son
and said, well, you know, I know I used to be like that,
but I'm older, I'm wiser
now. I've evolved on these issues.
I've changed. Okay. God hasn't
changed. In fact, you know, but people
will point to Jesus and say, well, you know, he's done
away with, you know,
punishing these things. And
they'll turn to a story like John 8
with a woman taken in adultery. We all
remember that one. The scribes, the
Pharisees brought a woman taken in the very
active adultery
and said, you know, Moses in the law,
you know, commanded that we should stone her.
What do you say? Right.
And if you remember, what they're trying to do is catch
him in his words because it was against Roman
law. Later, when they were trying to get Christ
crucified, you know, they said it's not lawful
for us to put a man to death, but he has broken our
law. You know, he said
they can't go around executing people
then. That was the Roman
government's job to do. Right. So they're
trying to, like, pit Jesus against the Roman
government. Right. That's why they're getting the
Herodians involved and things like that. They're trying to
catch him in his words. And
if you remember in that story, when they bring that woman,
that's what they're trying to do. You know,
Moses said we should command this woman that's been taken
in adultery. But what do you say, Jesus?
Are you going to deny
Moses? Or are you
going to, you know,
say something that we could
use to pitch you against the
Roman government? Say, oh, he's committing insurrection.
Right. He's teaching things that the
Roman government doesn't teach.
Right. He's breaking their laws.
That's what they were doing in that story. But
people latch onto that and say,
see, Jesus, you know, he didn't answer.
Right. He told the woman
neither do I condemn thee.
But what was his answer to those people?
Right. Well, when he stood up, he said,
let he, you know,
he which was without sin, let him first
cast a stone at her.
So Jesus essentially said stoner
when you think about it.
He said, go ahead and do it. Just the guy
that's without sin is going to be the first
one to cast a stone.
Right. Because what he's doing is
he's answering back
in like manner. He's putting
things in a way where they can't really catch
him in his words.
Right. He's saying do it,
but he's giving the stipulation.
Right.
And obviously, you know, God shows
mercy to, you know, David was
worthy of death. He committed
first degree murder and adultery
with the wife of the man
that he killed. And he was shown
mercy. Right. He wasn't
Nathan said thou shalt not die.
But nonetheless,
you know, he was going to have judgment in his house.
And he did with Absalom and everything else.
Okay. So
the death penalty is biblical. This hasn't gone
anywhere. Okay. That's why
Romans one says that they which committed
things are worthy of death.
Okay.
And I get it that it's kind of a double
edged sword when it comes to the death penalty. No pun
intended. You know,
I could see why some people debate
it because unfortunately, you know, in
our legal system, innocent people
are put to death. It does
happen. It's an
unfortunate thing. Okay.
You know, that's why when God prescribes
it, he makes sure, and if you're in
Deuteronomy 19, that diligent inquiry
is made. And no one is to be
condemned without at least two or
three witnesses. One person
cannot put another person to death.
You know, you should not put anyone to death
by the voice of one witness.
You have to have more than one witness.
And a lot of that still holds true today.
They still make diligent
inquiry. Right. But obviously
things can go wrong. But you know what?
This is what
this is the results of living in
a sinful and fallen world.
You know, there will never be
perfect judgment until Christ returns.
We're basically just trying to
do the best that we can.
You know, that's what we're trying to do.
And look, I understand there's
people that have been executed
and that were in all likelihood
innocent. You know,
I get that. But let's not throw
the baby out with the bathwater either.
Because the death penalty
is a deterrent. And
even if it, let's just say it wasn't a deterrent.
It's still biblical.
It's still what the Bible teaches.
Are we going to do it or not?
We can't go, well I know that's what the Bible says
but, you know, here's why we're not going to do it.
Because X, Y, and Z.
That's not going to hold up.
The law of the Lord is perfect.
Okay.
And here's the thing
when we don't have the death penalty
which, you know, I didn't look up any statistics.
I don't know if our fact checker
is up on this.
You know, I would have to, I think that
most states no longer have
the death penalty.
Half? Okay.
So half do, half don't. It's probably somewhere,
that probably sounds about right. You know, I'm pretty sure
Arizona still has it. Florida
has it. Texas
I'm pretty sure has it.
You know, they've got something going on
in Texas.
But they have it.
You know, they don't have it.
People get away with things, don't they?
So what's the big deal
about the death penalty? Why should we have that?
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8
verse 11,
Because sentence against an evil work
is not executed speedily,
therefore the hearts of the son of man is fully
set in them to do evil. Okay.
Did you catch that? Because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily,
therefore the hearts of the sons of men
is fully set in them to do evil.
Meaning the hearts of the sons of men
they look and they say, aha!
Execute, execution
is not, you know, judgment
is not executed quickly and swiftly.
There is no justice. There is no
punishment. Okay, because
that's what justice is when the punishment
fits the crime.
Sinful, wicked men look at that and go,
well, you know, we can get away with it. Or
you know, they look at the
consequences and say it's worth
it. Right.
A great example of this today, this isn't a
pleasant subject, is
you know, child molesters.
Okay. Now I would imagine
that most, there would probably be very
few people except for some extremely
brainwashed liberal idiots that
would say that child molesters should get a second
shot at life.
You know, if there's one group of people that we
can all agree should be put to death,
it's people that would physically abuse
children in
that way. Okay.
People who would rape
and molest children are the scum
of the earth and should be
executed. Okay.
But here's the thing, that's
not the society we live in anymore.
You can't execute a pedophile
anymore. So all
these pedophiles are going, well, you know,
if I get caught,
you know, if I get caught,
right, if I even get
caught, they're just going to send me to jail for five years.
For a few years. They're
going to get this. Don't do that again.
Don't molest a child.
You know,
and then I'll have to be on, you know,
an offender's list somewhere.
You know, you don't think
that people who have that
perverted lust in their heart, you think
they don't weigh that out
in their minds and say, well, you know, it's, I'm
just going to be like Jared Fogel.
You know, remember Jared Fogel?
The guy who lost all the weight
eating Subway? Right?
Talk about a blunder
in marketing.
That
guy, you know, I remember I preached a sermon
years ago and we said
where's Jared now? And he was
in some prison with all the other chomos.
You know,
he separated from getting any kind of, you know,
prison house justice
with all the other perverts.
And he's getting his culinary
arts degree. He's got an open cell.
You know, he's
basically in just like a really bad country
club. Right?
It's like a country club with
a warden or something.
I mean, that's all jail is to some of them.
And then they'll get out again and do it again.
And that's what the Bible
is warning us of.
When sentence against an evil work
is not executed speedily,
the hearts of the Son of Man is fully setting them to do evil.
They go, well, you know,
the punishment either isn't sufficient
or there isn't one at all.
Right?
And that's exactly what you see taking place
in Genesis.
There is no death penalty before the flood
and the earth is filled with violence.
No one's being held accountable
for all the violence
that was taking place. And I'm sure
it was very bad
to say that, you know, when the hearts
of the Son, when the
imagination of man's heart was only evil
continually toward the point where it's filling
the earth with violence
and there's no death penalty.
There's murder, rape,
whatever. They're just getting away with it.
There's no justice.
You can see how the earth was filled with violence
and why it repented God that he made man.
And why he decided to destroy the earth.
So now God's destroyed the earth
and he's about to make a promise to Noah.
Right? He's about to put his bow in the cloud
and promise that he will never again destroy the earth
with water.
Right?
And what does he do? But before he makes that covenant,
that promise with man
to destroy the earth again with water,
he institutes the death penalty.
Right? He says, you know, I'll do my part
but, you know, I don't want to have to put
up with what I put up with last time.
So we're going to have this thing now where
if somebody kills someone else,
they're going to die.
And he institutes the death penalty
so that the earth is not filled
with violence.
And so that God doesn't, you know,
regret having made that covenant
with man.
So God's not destroying the earth in that manner.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 9.
And it's not just like God's like,
you guys go figure it out how to do this death penalty
thing. He gives a lot of,
you know, there's a lot of
text on this, but we'll just look at one here.
Deuteronomy 19 verse 15.
I don't know if I told you 9 or 19,
but it's 1915.
One witness shall not rise up against a man
for any iniquity.
Any iniquity. Or for any sin
and any sin that he sinneth
at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth
of three witnesses shall the matter be
established. If two witnesses
can't, you know, if it's not working there, if
we're still kind of uncertain, maybe a third witness
will be needed.
But, you know, this is something that's reiterated
again in First Timothy,
right? That you should not receive
an accusation against an elder without
two or three witnesses.
And them that sin rebuked before all.
If a false
witness rise up against
any man to testify against him that which is wrong,
then both the men between whom
the controversy is shall stand before
the Lord and before the priests and the
judges which should be in those days. And the judges shall make
diligent inquisition.
And behold, if the witness be a false
witness and hath testified
falsely against his brother,
then you shall do unto him as he thought
to have done unto his brother.
Now there is some element of this
as I understand it. And again, I'm not
versed on legalese.
I'm not, you know, a student of the law.
I'm a student of God's law.
But there is some elements of this today,
even in our own justice system
today. Where if a woman
falsely accuses a man of rape,
you know, she's punished for that.
Okay? There is punishment for false
accusations to some degree as I understand
it. Okay? And I'm sure even
if, you know, perjury
is a thing, you know, lying under oath is a
thing, being a false witness, there's still punishment.
I don't think it's as extreme as this.
Where like, you know, a false witness
rises up against somebody
and it would have to be two or three.
We're not talking about just, you know,
or maybe the second witness
proves the other one is a false witness.
Okay? But if someone's found to be a false witness
who's trying to get someone put on the electric
chair or hung
or have a lethal injection
and killed, you know,
if they found out a false witness,
that would be done unto them.
Okay? And that might, if we did that,
you know, that might kind of clean some things
up in our justice system, wouldn't it?
That might help with, you know, innocent
people not being executed.
Right? If the
person who was going to, you know,
say yes it was that person, if they weren't
100% certain, you know,
I'm 90% sure it was that guy
that I saw running out of the convenience store where the
clerk was shot dead.
But if they knew in the back of their mind that
they were lying, if they were found out to be wrong,
you know, then they would
say, well, you know what? I'm not 100%
sure. I'm not certain. I don't know.
Okay?
So that's, you know, that's kind of God's way
of making sure that
only the right people are executed
or any punishment.
Right? Because this is regarding any
punishment that would be doled out.
Verse 20,
And those which remain shall hear
and fear and from henceforth commit
no more such evil among you.
I mean, how many times would that have to happen
before people were like,
you better be careful if you're called
to testify in court.
And thine eye, now verse 21
is important too, thine eye shall not pity
but life shall go for life
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
foot for foot.
Life shall go for life and
thou shalt not pity.
But today we have a bunch of people
that pity people that need
to be punished. Okay?
We don't need to pity the pedophile.
We don't need to put him on a list.
We don't need to put, you know,
so his background check, he needs an
underground check. Right?
Six feet under. That's the only
background, you know, check he needs.
We don't have to have
pity on rapists
and murderers. They should
be punished to the full extent
of the law and that law should include
death. Okay?
This is what the Bible teaches. Death penalty
is very biblical.
Let's move on though. Okay?
Verse 7.
And you, this is back in Genesis
chapter 9, be
fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly
in the earth and multiply therein.
Again, I'm not going to re-preach what I just
preached a few moments ago. God
is stressing
being fruitful. It's something
he emphasizes a great deal.
And God spake unto Noah and to his sons
with him saying, and I behold
I establish my covenant with you and with
your seed after you and with
every living creature that is with you
of the fowl and the cattle and the beast of the earth
from all that go out of the ark to every
beast of the earth. Now some people call this
the Noahic covenant, right?
And this isn't necessarily just
for Noah, right? This is a covenant he's making
with Noah and his sons and every
creature on the earth. I don't know why we're calling
it the Noahic covenant.
It's a covenant with every beast
of the earth and with
everyone that would proceed from him. This is a covenant
that God is making with every living thing
including man on the earth.
And he said, I will establish my covenant with you
neither shall all flesh be cut off
any more by the waters of a flood
neither shall there be any more
a flood to destroy the earth.
So is God promising that he'll never
destroy the earth again?
He's promising he'll never
flood the earth again.
Which, if you're Noah, is kind of a big
deal. That's a sigh of relief,
right? One ark was enough.
You know, let's not do that again.
Who wants to, I'm sure it wasn't any fun
building it the first time and hanging out
you know, all that time
with a bunch of stinky animals in a boat,
right? It was not probably a pleasure
cruise whatsoever.
You know, there was no,
you know, this wasn't carnival cruise lines
where there's going to have, you know, trapeze
artists on the front deck or something.
Maybe you got to ride a giraffe around a little
bit. I don't know. I guess you could
pet the animals. But,
you know, this is a sigh of relief, not just
the sense that you don't have to build an ark again,
but it's nice to know that
the fountains of the deep are going to break
open again and the whole earth is going to be flooded.
Right? Because, I mean, think about
how terrifying that would have been to be
there when that happened.
Because, I mean, think about the, you know,
the sensation, and this is something
we can't even really understand unless we've been
in a position like this, where there's truly
nowhere to go for safety.
There's just nowhere to run and hide.
There's nowhere to get away from the impending,
you know, fatality
that's coming. Right?
You know, I've got a glimpse, just like a sliver
of this, when, and I'm sure I've
shared this story before, when I experienced
an earthquake. Who's ever been in an earthquake?
Okay, I don't know what kind of earthquake
you were in, but mine was so
small it was barely
noticeable. Okay, this is when we were living in
apartments up in South Phoenix
and I was sitting in the
La-Z-Boy and it felt like
somebody came behind the La-Z-Boy and shook it
like that. Like, someone just came by and went like this.
Just, like that.
And it lasted about that long.
I thought, I literally thought someone, and the
La-Z-Boy was right up against the wall, so I'm like
who? You know, as my kids, like, sneak
out here and get behind it somehow.
I looked, because I thought, and then I'm like,
what just happened? So then I went outside
because it was really weird.
And a bunch of people had come outside
and they said, oh, did you feel that?
And it turned out there was an earthquake.
And, as
even that little bit got me thinking, it's like,
man, I can't imagine what it would be like when it was just
like, for like ten, you know, five,
ten, two, however long, where the whole
earth, and there's just nowhere to go.
They're like, oh, it's shaking over here, let me step
over here, and it's still shaking, and it's still,
like, I started thinking about it, I was like, there's
literally nowhere to run to
that's safe. Right? And then
when I started thinking about that, and if you think about that,
that's, that's very
eerie. Okay?
You know, that's the right word for that.
That's frightening, isn't it? So imagine
being Noah and hearing that, like,
whew, okay.
Because imagine being there when all
the flood, like, you know, the
flood waters are coming upon the earth,
the waters are building up, so you grab
your family, you run up to Mount Lemon,
you know, you go up a few thousand feet,
a couple days later, the waters
are up now, there again.
Now you're all the way at the top of the mountain, the waters
aren't stopping, you know, you're holding the kid up
at the very peak of the mountain, you know,
you're, everyone's like standing on each other's shoulders,
you know, there's, but there's,
that's it, there's nowhere else to go. I mean,
what an eerie feeling,
so what a great promise this was,
what a sigh of relief when God said, hey,
I'm never going to again flood
the earth with water.
Okay? So at least they didn't have
to worry about that. However,
God will use fire to destroy the earth.
That's yet to come,
right? Second Peter, chapter
three, you don't have to go there,
but it says in Second Peter, chapter three,
the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night,
in which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat,
and the earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up.
Okay? So
this is something that's
coming in the future, right? Before
at the end of the millennial reign, when God
makes all things new, he's going to
set the entire earth on fire.
So it's
kind of funny when you're reading in
Genesis. I don't know if it's funny, but
you know, you could kind of, it's kind of
sounds like almost that I kind of read it
that way. It's like, I'll never destroy the earth again with
water. You know,
you know, if you don't pay attention, you're just like,
oh, God's never going to destroy the earth again. No, he's just never
going to flood it again. Later,
he's going to baptize it with fire.
Later, it's the whole thing is just going to be immersed
in flame. That's
why it talks about how the mountains are going to
melt like wax and run. The elements
are going to melt with
the elements, I believe, are talking about
the geology even itself.
I mean, God's just going to turn it all into just
molten rock, right?
And all the works are going to be destroyed.
So think about that, right? Think
about all the great things that
man, all the architecture
that people ooh and aah over.
And I get it. You know, there's things to be appreciated
in that. All these great
structures that man has built. I mean,
it still blows me away. Just just the
buildings that we have around here.
I mean, imagine being, you know,
the pilgrims that came over here all those
many years ago and seeing what this turned into.
If they could come back and see these just
giant buildings,
you know, and then you figure out what some
of the buildings are used for. You're like, that's you did that
for that, right? We built this
giant stadium so guys could
chase a ball around in tights.
Like, what?
That's what you did with
all your time and
money and resources and
intelligence as you did that.
You know, I get it. I'm sorry.
Everyone's picking on everyone's favorite thing. But I mean
it's kind of ironic, isn't it?
That we build these giant
buildings to do like
these silly things in, right?
Whichever sport you want to pick on,
okay? Whatever you
insert your least favorite sport there,
okay? Or
whatever, whatever activity, right?
These huge museums,
things like that,
it's all going to burn, right?
And that's what Peter tells us in 2 Peter
chapter 3. He said,
seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought to
be in all holy conversation and
godliness? He's saying, you know,
everything that you make, everything
that you build, everything
that you're a part of one day will be completely
destroyed. There won't be a
shred of evidence that any of it was here.
You know, I
appreciate a good library.
You know, I think it's cool to walk in a
library that has a lot of books in it.
Obviously a lot of books are probably
worthless and they're probably just, you know, a bunch of
trash. But there are great works
of literature. You know, it's cool to have
that as a resource. And there's several throughout
the city that have really great
libraries. And it's cool to be able
to read about people from,
you know, all these centuries ago and read all these
books that have been written by different authors down through
the centuries. But think about the fact
that one day that's all going to be gone.
It's all going to vanish.
There literally won't be
a shred of evidence of anything
that's happened.
Because God's going to burn it all. And this is
not what he's saying. That's why Peter's saying that all
these things shall be dissolved.
What does he mean by that? It's all going to
disappear. You know, your
collector car, your baseball
card set, you know, whatever it is, whatever
dear thing you hold onto in this world
and just can't part with
is going to burn up one day and be
destroyed. You know, so
the things that we should invest in, the things
that we should, that are
things that are eternal, right,
we should lay up for ourselves treasures
in heaven where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt and where thieves do not
break through nor steal.
For where our treasure is, there will our heart
be also. That's what Jesus said.
You know, if we're going to invest
in something in this life,
look, I'm not saying you can't have nice things
or enjoy things in this earth, but just understand
it's not going to last. Look, there's
going to be things that I'm going to want to pass down to my
kids. There's things that
hopefully my grandchildren have. You know, I've got a
buck knife, you know, one of those brass-handled
grandpa buck knives that a friend of mine gave
me. And I'm looking forward
to the day that I eventually pass it
on to my son and he'll pass it on. But you know what?
One day that buck knife, the wood's
going to burn, the brass is going to melt,
the steel is going to melt. It's
going to be gone, right?
So I
get it. We want to have things, heirlooms,
memories, stuff that we pass on, but you know,
that can't be our
driving motivation in life.
Because it's vain, it's empty,
it's all going to, none of it's going to last.
You know, I don't care how many
politicians want to go around carving their
face into the sides of mountains.
One day no one's going to know who
George Washington or Abraham Lincoln
or Thomas Jefferson or Teddy Roosevelt are.
They're all going to be
destroyed.
We don't even remember those names.
No one will know the name Trump.
No one will know the name of any politician,
because it's all going to go away.
So the things
we should focus on in this life
are the things that are eternal.
We should be looking for and hasting
unto the day of God wherein the heavens
being on earth, on fire
shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat. Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven
and a new earth wherein dwelt righteousness.
You know, and it's actually going to be a good thing
because think about all the wicked things that are
going to get destroyed.
You know, you just think about all the filth
and trashy things that God's just going to burn up.
All the sickness, all the disease,
all the germs, it's all just going to,
it's like a, you know,
it's like sanitizing it
with fire, right? That's sometimes
that's how people would do that, right?
Where you sew up the wound, you got to put the needle
in the flame, right?
And burn off everything.
It's kind of that same thing,
right?
So that's what's coming, you know.
Noah is getting that covenant and God's saying
look, I'm not going to destroy the earth again with water.
But let's not
take that as, oh, things are just going to
continue as they were since the fathers.
It's like, nope, God's going to come one day,
Christ will return and then beyond that,
God's going to destroy this earth, seeing
that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of men you ought to be in all godliness
and holiness, okay?
Let's
move on, I know I got to wrap up here. He says in verse
12, and this is the token
of the covenant which I make between
me and you and every living creature
that is with you for perpetual
generations. So this wasn't
a covenant that was exclusive to Noah.
This is for perpetual generations.
Verse 13, I do
set my bow in the cloud
and it shall be for a token of a covenant
between me and the earth.
Right? So that's where
the rainbow comes from. When you
see that, isn't it, it's no coincidence
it shows up when it rains.
Right? I remember this was like
one of the very first Bible stories, one of the
few Bible stories I was told as
a kid. I was told about doubting
Thomas and this.
And I can still remember the first time, you know,
I really noticed a rainbow
walking on the back porch in Rapid City, South Dakota
after a thunderstorm had blown through.
I could still see that rainbow and hear my mom
telling me, oh, that's because
God promised he'd never flood the earth again.
Didn't get a lot of context
with that either. I was just kind of told that,
you know, like left to wonder what that meant.
Alright? What?
God did that? You know,
the things we say to our children
and just assume they understand, right?
But I still remember thinking about that
and it's like, that's what
that's there for. That's not just
a cute story you tell your kids,
right? And obviously
it might be a little more lost on us today.
You know,
all these thousands of years later to
see a rainbow, you know, we just go
what does it mean?
It's double rainbow.
No, that's such an outdated
meme.
Right? That's an old meme.
But anyway, you know, we look at a rainbow
and just, oh, it's pretty, oh,
get the kids, come take a picture, right?
It's never as good as it looks in real life.
Right?
But back then, when you're close to
this, like when you see that rainbow, you're like
because as soon as it starts
raining again, you're like, uh oh.
Not again, because rain was still kind of a new thing.
It was a new thing. It had not yet rained upon
the earth on Adam's day.
Right? The mist went up from the ground.
It didn't rain until Noah, until the flood.
So you could see
how this is kind of like God's dealing
with Noah's PTSD, right?
And he starts raining again, he's like
it's just weather, I promise.
You know, see the bow?
Remember what I said? We're good.
Right? We're good.
Everything's going to be fine.
Right? That's, you know, that's
meant, that bow had a lot more significance
back then to Noah
and the generations that would have known about the
flood. Right?
But it still means the exact same thing today.
You know,
everyone, oh, how pretty. Yeah, it's
a symbol of the fact that God won't destroy
the earth with water again.
Right?
That's what it's a symbol of.
So, that's what he goes
on and says, verse 14, and it shall come to pass
when I bring a cloud over the earth
and that the bow shall be seen in the cloud
when it rains and I will remember my
covenant which is between me and you and every
living creature of all flesh
and the water shall no more become a flood
to destroy all flesh
and the bow shall be in the
cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember
the everlasting covenant between
God and every living creature of all
flesh that is upon the earth.
This is the bow of promise
that I will not flood
the earth again. And obviously,
as I just said, that had a lot more
significance back then. But isn't it ironic
today what that rainbow
has come to mean?
You know, that's what the LGBTQ
community has adopted
as their symbol.
Right? The pride flag. Now it's
taken on some, you know, it's looking different
these days. And it's
funny if you arrange it just right, it makes a swastika.
You know, because now it's got that triangle in the back
of it. Is that for the trans
stuff? Is that what that's for?
Have they got the, have they got the
the boy lovers represented on that
flag yet? Yeah.
That's coming. And the animal lovers.
Right? But you know
that one that's got the triangle, it's funny, like, that's
my, you know, when pride month comes around,
that's what my Facebook picture goes to.
It's that pride flag, but they're all
arranged so you can see the swastika it makes.
Right? Anyway.
Do what you want with that.
And I'm not, no,
it's not because I'm a Nazi or
anything like that, but it's like, it's because
they're a bunch of fascists, right? It's because they're,
you know, they're the ones
that are, you know, shoving this
in our face and insisting that we accept it.
Like a Nazi. Okay?
But isn't it ironic
that they adopted the
rainbow as their symbol?
Right? And they're like, oh,
and I'm sure they didn't think of this.
It's just kind of maybe a coincidence.
Because it's like, oh, it's diversity.
It represents all the diversity, the different
colors. And it's a rainbow.
And it's a symbol.
And people think of the rainbow, it's so pretty. It's like, no,
it's a reminder that God
wants to destroy
the earth, right? Because if that's what it's reminding
you of, think about it. If you're thinking, oh,
this is to remind us that God will no longer
destroy the earth with water. It's also
reminding you that God at one time
destroyed the entire earth with water
when it was filled with violence because of the evil
imaginations of man's heart.
You know, and so it's kind of ironic
that you have a bunch of people who are doing the most
abominable things, the things that God
condemns with death,
the God that calls it, calls it
abomination and filth.
It's kind of ironic
that we adopt that symbol, which is
a reminder of God's judgment.
Let's move on.
Verse 17, and God said unto
Noah, this is the token of the covenant
which I have established between me and all flesh is upon
the earth. The sons of Noah that went forth
out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
and Ham is the father of Canaan, which became
the Canaanites, okay? I don't have
a lot of time to spend on this, but I do want to touch on this
very quickly. And Noah began to be
a husband, and he planted a vineyard, and he
drank the wine, and was drunken, and he
was uncovered within his tent.
There's some debate about what took place
in the story. I think that the Bible
is being as clear as it can
while still respecting Noah,
who is called a preacher of righteousness,
one who found grace
in the eyes of God, okay? God
is being careful here in the scripture
to not embarrass Noah
beyond measure, right? It's an embarrassing
story, okay?
You know, it's improper
to tell things about, embarrassing
things about people, right? Especially
people that we love and respect, okay?
So I believe that's why the
Bible is kind of couching
the story with this kind of
terminology, where it's telling it in this way.
You have to kind of read
between the lines, you have to kind of fill in
the details here. He's being
uncovered, meaning he's naked, okay?
And yes, he was drunken,
and he shouldn't have done that, but you know what?
He's flesh. He's just like anybody
else. Good men, you see that
throughout the scripture, good men, godly
men are still sinful men.
They're not perfect. They're flawed characters.
No excusing it. You shouldn't
have done it. You know, maybe
don't build a vineyard if you
have a problem with alcohol, okay?
Don't go work at a
liquor store or hang around a bunch of boozers
when you are,
that's something you struggle with, okay?
There's a lesson right there.
But the main, what the Bible's telling us is
about what Ham did, the father of Canaan,
and notice when he starts the story
he points out it's the father of
Canaan, okay? He
saw the nakedness of his father and told his
two brethren without.
Now, people say, oh, he just looked
upon it, right?
But I believe what it's talking about is that he actually
did some kind of molestation here.
He did, when he saw his
nakedness, and I don't have
time to develop all this, but the Bible talks about
how you should not look upon the
nakedness of those that are next of kin of you,
right? Is it just saying
you just shouldn't see their nakedness?
Or is that a euphemism for
not having physical relations with
your relatives
and other people?
That's how it uses that term,
to look upon their nakedness.
Another euphemism that we see in the book of Genesis
is when Adam knew his wife
and she conceived,
right? It wasn't that they introduced themselves to
one another and she conceived,
right? She's like, hi, I'm Eve.
Oh, right?
No, knew there is obviously
mean something else, okay?
Because the Bible is being delicate to describe these things.
So that's what he's doing here
just for
to be proper and I believe
to kind of spare Noah
a godly man unnecessary
embarrassment,
okay? Because it's an embarrassing thing
to have to admit that this was done
unto you, okay?
Other places, God isn't so careful
to let, you know, to
protect people's reputation,
okay? But that's another story.
But that's when he's seeing the nakedness
of his father, it's a euphemism for
something else taking place. And it's some kind of
molestation
because look at verse 24,
when Noah woke from his wine and knew what his
younger son had done unto him.
And he would say, oh, the doing
was when he went and told his brethren.
You know, and it's embarrassing.
Oh, dad's naked, but I don't believe that's
what's saying. And look, people can
believe that and, you know, I'll give you
there is some room for that
interpretation. I just don't believe that's
what the Bible's talking about here, okay?
I just think we have to take in the
literary style that's being used
and why it's being used, okay?
I think it's being
worded this way to protect Noah's
reputation.
Shem and Ham,
verse 23, took a garment and laid upon it
and went back to cover the nakedness of his father.
And then Noah realizes what
took place,
okay, and I don't want to get into the motives there
why all that took place.
What I want to point out is what
Noah's reaction, okay?
Because the Bible in verse 22
when it's going to tell us a story says this is
Ham, the father of Canaan,
okay?
Before he starts telling the story, he says it's the father
of Canaan. That's an important detail,
right? Because when Noah wakes up,
what's he say?
Cursed be Ham. That's not what he says.
He says cursed be Canaan,
right? He gets up and curses
Ham's sons,
okay? A servant of
servants shall he be unto his brethren, and he said
blessed be the Lord of
Shem, and Canaan shall be a servant.
Again, verse 27,
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he
shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall
be a servant. So Noah wakes
up from, and you can interpret however
that, whatever you want to mean,
whatever that means there.
What he saw as nakedness. It doesn't matter, okay?
I have my opinion. The point we need
to get is that whatever took place
was a shameful thing. It shouldn't have happened.
Ham, at the very least,
disrespected his father.
I believe it was something much worse than that.
But Noah's reaction
is what's really important. He gets up and he
curses Canaan. Because again,
the Bible is emphasizing Canaan here.
And when he's doling out the blessings,
he's also not even failed to mention, oh, and
Canaan, he's going to be a servant.
And Canaan shall be a servant. Cursing be
Canaan. He's cursing, excuse me,
not Ham,
but his children, okay?
And what I think we should learn about
from this is that our actions affect
our children, and even our grandchildren.
Because Canaan goes on to become
the Canaanites, which if you
remember are a wicked bunch
of people that God
once destroyed out of the land of Canaan.
Because of all the abominations that
they've committed. You know, that's why
I believe that they learned this from
their great-great-great-great-granddaddy, Ham.
Right? He was a pervert
and it just got passed down generation
to generation. And then the whole
nation, whole groups of people, the
Canaanites and the seven Canaanite nations
are just giving over the
worst abominable filth to the point where
the Bible says that the land rejected
them and wanted to vomit them out.
And God had one of them destroyed.
That didn't happen, okay?
Completely. But the
lesson we're getting out of this story
is that our
actions will have consequences beyond
ourselves, right?
Because Noah didn't wake up and say,
curse be Ham. And Ham
would have been like, well, I knew you were going to say that. Of course
you'd say that about me.
Right? But I don't know that he was expecting him to get
up and say, well, curse be your sons.
Curse be the children of Ham.
Curse be Canaan and he's going to be a servant
to all of his brethren. And he's going to dwell
in the tents of Japheth.
And Canaan shall be a servant.
Right? Our
actions affect our children.
Because, you know, here's the
thing when it comes to sin. A lot of people,
especially those that have opened the doors
to certain sins in their past,
they're willing, it's easy
one, for them to go back through
those doors and commit those same sins.
And they'll still commit them
and they'll have an easier time committing them
even than the
average person who might not have opened those doors.
And they'll still be able to commit those
sins even with the understanding
that it will bring
repercussions for themselves.
Is anyone following what I'm saying?
There's people that have
done certain sins. It's easier
for them to repeat them. One, because
they've already done it.
And two, they're more
willing to accept the consequences because
they only consider themselves.
And a big deterrent for
sin in our lives should be the fact that sin
extends beyond us.
It affects the people
around us. Well, I'm going to
sin and I know God will punish me for this.
But it's just me and I can take it and I'm
okay with that. Well, you don't know that.
Noah
got up and said, curse be Canaan.
Okay? And God honored
that. And God honored
that. God
said, yep, curse be Canaan.
And Canaan was cursed. I mean, God's destroying
Canaan later. He's trying to destroy
that nation. God
validated that curse.
So, you know, we need to be careful
about letting sin into our life because it will
affect other people.
People that we might not have intended
to hurt will get hurt.
Okay? The other lesson you can get out of
the story is, treat your parents
well. Right?
Even if they do bad things.
Even if they do something wrong,
you know, don't take advantage of that.
Don't be somebody that's going to take advantage
of exposing
the flaws of your parents.
Okay?
Because, again, and people might
be willing to do that because they think, oh,
it's just me. I don't have a problem
with it. But it's
a whole other ball game. It's a whole other story
when it affects your children.
When it comes back around and now
generations that proceed from you
are cursed. Right?
You know, we think, you know,
I'm just going to quit the Christian life. I'm going to give
up on God. You know, I'm
saved, but I don't want to serve God
with my life. I'm going to throw in
a towel and just go back to the world and
live a worldly, sinful life.
You know, I'll take the punishment. Yeah, and you
know what? Maybe you'll be fine with the punishment.
Maybe you'll be fine with all the results that
come with that. But think about what that
is probably in all likelihood going
to do to your children.
Right?
You know, whole
generations are just lost
now. Oh yeah,
I remember grandpa used to be a Baptist preacher.
You know, my
grandfather was a Baptist preacher,
but you know, my dad didn't really go for that.
You know, and
now we have nothing to do with
the faith. I mean, how many people do we run into
like that? Oh yeah, my dad was a
pastor. And they're like, you know,
they're clearly not living for the Lord.
They're not in church. We run into
people like that all the time.
Oh, my grandpa, he was a preacher, right?
Because somebody somewhere along the line
just thought, you know, it's just not for me. And didn't
consider the fact that it was
going to have an effect on their children.
Look, there's a lot of things I could put up
having happened to me.
But there's, you know, when it
there's things that I could just, I don't
know how I would live if they happened to my children.
Right?
I mean, I would rather have horrific
things happen to me than things happen to my children.
You know, that's
natural affection. You know, I would be willing to lay down
my life for my children.
You know, I would rather, you know,
have terrible things happen to myself
than to see bad things happen to my children.
And if we all felt that way,
then we would be careful
about how we conduct ourselves.
And not think that
sin is something that's only going to affect
us. We'd be a lot more careful with sins
that maybe we're at ease with.
That maybe are kind of
things that we've just kind of grown
up doing. We might
say, you know what? I know that
this is easy sin for me to commit.
I know there'll be consequences.
And I could deal with those.
But, you know, I just can't stand the idea
that somehow this is going to affect my family
negatively. And my children.
And maybe even my children's children.
Right? That's the lesson here.
I mean, isn't it interesting that
when Ham commits this heinous
act or however you want to take that,
when
Noah finds out what happened
unto him, he says, curse be
Canaan. And that's exactly what happened to
Canaan. He was cursed. God honored that.
Our sins, you know, have
far reaching effects beyond just
ourselves. Other people are
going to have to suffer the consequences.
And I'm sure there's lots of people,
you know, probably people even
in this room who could probably look at
things that their parents did and say,
you know, I'm still dealing with that.
I'm still having to learn lessons
that they didn't learn.
So that's the chapter
tonight. Let's go ahead and close in the word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for these many
great warnings in the word of God.
The promises and the warnings.
Lord, this is such a great picture
of that
throughout the whole Bible. Lord, this
chapter is such a synopsis of the word of God
that there's promises, that there's blessings,
and there's also warnings and there's
cursings throughout the word of God. And Lord, we
see this playing out. We have the promise
of the flood and Lord, we have the
Canaan being, the promise of the
bow in the cloud and the cursing of Canaan,
Lord. And Lord, I pray to help us to
be people that understand
that great promises have been
given unto us through Christ
and that we can do all things through Him.
And Lord, that we can live a victorious
Christian life. And Lord, that
we can be people that earn
rewards in heaven and that we can
we can be
godly people in all manner of conversation.
And Lord, help us to want to do
that, Lord, not just for ourselves
but for the generations to come. Help us
to take a warning from the story
tonight and understand that
if we do things, Lord, it will have an
impact on other people
beyond our years.
And Lord, we just thank you for the time we've had
together tonight. Pray you bring us
back again next time we meet. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we are dismissed.
We are
We
are
We are