This is my voice but in Genesis chapter number 8 the Bible reads in verse number 1
And God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark
And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged
The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped
And the rain from heaven was restrained and the waters returned from off the earth continually
And after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated
So the thing I want to point out first of all about this chapter is that
There is so much detail given in this chapter as to how long it took for the earth to flood
And then he gives all these different step by step explanations of what happened on this day
What happened on this day as far as the waters drying up from the earth
Now this is clearly a literal event
Some people try to say it's just symbolic or figurative
But if it were symbolic or figurative
God wouldn't just go into such utter detail of day by day
This is when this happened, this is when this happened and the water dried up to this point
And a lot of people don't realize just how long Noah was on the ark
Now if you remember when Noah entered into the ark
The same day that he entered into the ark and God shut him in
It rained for forty days and forty nights
That's how long the rain was actually falling
But the Bible says that for a hundred
If you look at chapter 7 verse 24 the Bible reads
And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days
So the main flooding where the water is in its highest water mark is for a hundred and fifty days
Which is five months
So it only took forty days for the rain to fall
But it stayed on the earth for a hundred and fifty days
Then the Bible says in verse number 4
It says and the ark, this is chapter 8 verse 4
The ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat
Now let's first of all understand what these different references of time mean
Well if you jump back to chapter 7 verse 11
The Bible reads in the six hundredth year of Noah's life
In the second month, the seventeenth day of the month
The same day where all the fountains of the great deep broken up
And the windows of heaven were open
So that's when the flood started
That's when it started raining
Now I like to do this
When I look at a passage like this that talks a lot about months and days and everything
I like to just call it February
Now I know it probably wasn't February
You know I always I always give a disclaimer
Hey I know it's not February
I know it's not November
But still I get all these emails saying you're totally wrong
That was not February
You know I don't understand why people get so hung up by it
We don't know when it was
We don't know when Noah's birthday was
You know we don't celebrate his birthday
It's not a state holiday or anything
But let's just when we look at these months
Let's just for sake of helping us understand the time frames
Let's just call the second month February
And call the seven month
Let's just pretend that he was like brother Seguri
It was a baby new year
And so we'll just call it February or whatever
So let's just say that the flood started according to chapter 7 verse 11
Just to help us understand it
We'll just call the second month February
And let's say it started on February 17th okay roughly
Well then we see in chapter 8 at the end of verse 3 it says
And after at the end of 150 days the waters were abated
So that's when the water begins to go down a little bit
And it says in verse 4
And the ark rested in the seventh month on the 17th day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat
So this is at the end of the 150 days
It's exactly five months later
The bible says that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat
But look at verse 5
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month okay
So basically the the flood started in February 17th for sake of illustration
July 17th the water starts going down and the ark is actually resting upon the mountains of Ararat
Well then it says the waters decreased continually until the tenth month
And the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains
Seen you say well wait a minute
I thought the ark was already resting on the mountains of Ararat on July 17th
How come on October 1st the tops of the mountains are seen
Well simply this
A boat has a lot of it under the water if you think about it
You know most of a boat is going to be under the water
And if you look at these big giant ships they have a huge amount of the ship that's underwater
That's not seen
So that ship is going to rest at a much higher water level than where the tops of the mountain
Are actually seen and that's why there's a little bit of a gap there of a couple months that go by
And you know it's it's interesting because maybe God you know all things work together for good
Them that love God
You know I was draining my swimming pool
And maybe God just wanted me to drain the pool so I can understand this passage
But you know it's interesting because when you drain the pool it's the top that drains the slowest
You know what I mean
And the reason for that is that the top has the greatest surface area
And then as you go down certain steps become exposed and there's a little bit of a slant and incline
And so the the top stuff is what takes the longest to drain
Well it's going to be the same thing with the earth because when there's no mountains or anything
When you're above the tops of the mountains you have the greatest surface area
And as you go down and there are more and more mountains seen
There's less and less water that needs to go away
So this first couple months is a slow draining and a slow evaporating or however God did it
But finally it rests in July 17th and then it's October 1st when the tops of the mountains are seen
That's where they're actually peeking out from above the water
Again proving that you know this is a worldwide flood
Obviously it wasn't just the little valley that Noah's in
Because it went way above the tops of the mountains
It took months to even get to that point
It says in verse 6 it came to pass at the end of 40 days
So this is 40 days after the tops of the mountains are seen
So now we're into let's say November 10th approximately
That Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made
And he sent forth a raven which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth
Also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot and she returned unto him
Into the ark for the waters were on the face of the whole earth
Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her into him into the ark
Now he releases two birds right away
He releases two birds he releases a raven and a dove
Okay now the raven never comes back and it actually just lives
And it's just fine until the the the waters are completely dried up
Whereas the dove comes back not finding any rest for the sole of his foot
Now I'm not I'm not claiming to be an expert on animals tonight or some kind of a zoologist tonight
But I do know this just from reading the bible that you know a raven is a bird of prey a scavenger
So it's probably got plenty of dead bodies to work on you know whether it be animal or beast or whatever
It's able to live off of whatever it can find and so it obviously was able to survive no problem
Whereas this dove had to come back and it couldn't find any rest for the sole
So it wasn't really happy because there's just the tips of the mountains that are seen
There isn't really enough exposed
And it says he stayed yet seven other days and again he set forth the dove out of the ark
So I guess now we're talking about approximately you know November 17th
And it says the dove came in to him in the evening and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off
So no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth
So he knows now that at least an olive tree is exposed enough for a leaf to be found
And it says and he stayed yet another seven days and sent forth the dove
Which returned not again unto him anymore now it's just much happier to be outside
Because the waters have gone down even further
And it says in verse 13 it came to pass in the 601st year in the first month the first day of the month
So let's say January 1st the next year if the flood started on February 17th
It says the first day of the month the waters were dried up from off the earth
And Noah removed the covering of the ark
And looked and behold the face of the ground was dry
Now if you remember the ark had one door right and the Bible says that God shut him in
So he's getting a little bit impatient I mean when you've been on the ark for almost a year
You want to get off the ark I mean you're going to get cooped up
You're going to get a little stir crazy in there
And so he already realized that back in July 17th hey we're not moving anymore
We've rested now then he starts to look out the window
He's seeing mountains he keeps sending out all these birds trying hey can we get out
Can we come out now so but this doors is not opening
So the Bible doesn't say that he opened the door
The Bible says he removed the covering of the ark
Okay so I guess he's just decides to just burrow out through the roof or something
And it says that he removed the covering of the ark
And it says you know it's it's his birthday also you know because it says it's the 600 first year of his life
You know first month first day he's like look it's my birthday
I want to get off this ark and he removes the covering and it says he looked and behold the face of the ground was
dry but keep in mind he's still at a pretty high elevation
He's resting in the mountains of Ararat so as far as he can see everything's dry, but he's at this high elevation
We don't know exactly if he ended up resting on the tippy top
Maybe he shifted a little bit maybe he slid down it
We don't know exactly where this thing rested obviously
But as far as he could see everything looked great on that first day of the first month
But it says in verse 14 and in the second month on the 7th and 20th day of the month was the earth dried
So in verse 13 he looks at it and says it's dry
But it's really not until the second month the 27th day of the month that God says that's when it was really completely dry
So from his perspective it was totally dry on January 1st, but it was really February 27th
When it actually was dry
Enough for him to get off the ark because that's where God spake unto Noah in verse 15
Saying go forth of the ark thou and thy wife and thy sons and my son's wives with thee
Break forth with thee every living thing that is with thee so one of the things we can learn from that is that sometimes God
Sees things from a better perspective than we see and he knows what's best
You know we're looking at it as now we've been on the ark for over ten months. We're cooped up
We're sick of it
We need to get out and stretch and and and that you know enjoy life again and get out of this boat
And then you know where we've been seasick for a long time we ran out of Dramamine, but
basically
God knew better God knew that he was better off on the ark for whatever reason he knew that they weren't going to be able to
Survive effectively, maybe knew that the animals were going to get stuck in the mud
Or they weren't going to be able to handle it for whatever reason God and his wisdom
Kept him on the ark until it was completely dry even though he looked at it and is saying hey, it's dry
I want to get off God makes him wait an additional almost two months
And so we can learn from that and say you know what sometimes we look at things
And we don't understand why God is doing the things that he does kind of like what I preached about on Sunday morning
You know we see events happen in our life and bad things happen
And we can't really understand why they're happening and we say God why and so many times
I've just seen the answer right away like sometimes you find the answer years later
But there have been times when I got so upset about something
I was like God why did you cause this to happen and then it ends up working out perfectly like the next day?
You know and then you feel like an idiot like okay?
Why you know why was I so upset about this God was actually helping me?
He was doing me a favor even though it didn't seem like it and that's probably where Noah's at in this story
He looks out and as far as he can see it's dry
He's probably thinking this is dry enough to at least get off the ark and walk around and let these animals out
But God knew that there was a problem and that it was not dry enough
And that there could have been a problem with the animals could have been a problem with them and God makes him wait
so we need to be patient and
Just trust the Lord when bad things happen or when we don't understand the way things are or so much. You know we look at
Rules that God has in the Bible, and they don't make sense to us
You know we question those rules, but God knows best God knows more than we know I remember one time
I was in Christian school, and this this guy is saying you know why can't I marry an unbeliever?
You know and then basically they're just telling him because the Bible says not to
But but wait a minute
What if we could just totally get along and religion didn't really it pose a problem
And we could coexist and everything be fine now obviously that's ridiculous because there are so many reasons
Why we should not be married to an unbeliever. I mean there are just tons of reasons why?
But
See this kid was trying to rationalize it
He was too ignorant and foolish to understand the plethora of reasons
Why that is such a bad idea to marry an unbeliever what it should have just been enough for him to just trust God
When God said don't do it that should just be enough you know and you'll understand a couple months later
Why or a couple years later or down the road you'll understand why God had that rule at the time it might not make sense
I guarantee you that all the rules that I have for my children right now don't necessarily make sense to them
And they don't understand why?
But when they get older they'll understand why but in the meantime they just need to trust in the Lord where the Bible says children
Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right, and so we don't always understand God's rules
We don't always understand God's laws and so as we think that we know better
And we want to lean on our own understanding when God knows best
We just need to trust him if that's what he says in his word
We need to just not try to figure out well
Why and a lot of people will say that you'll show him a clear command in the Bible
And they'll say yeah, but let's get to the spirit of the law
Listen what was God trying to accomplish when he made that law and so here's a way around it
And we'll still get the same outcome. No you know we need to just stick with what God literally told us to do
You know instead of just trying to say well, I think what he was trying to accomplish
You know like you know when he said that you know men should not put on a woman's garment
It's a you know
I think he's just trying to say that there should just be a difference between men and women
And and that could really be any difference. It doesn't have to be in the clothing
They can have the same clothing as long as something else is different like their hair or makeup or whatever
But see that's not what he said
He said no the hair needs to be different first Corinthians 11 between men and women
Short hair on men long hair on women he says the clothing needs to be different
Deuteronomy 22 5 should be different clothing for men as for women not a unisex clothing not everybody in a jumpsuit
You know everybody in a pair of coveralls
No a different clothing. Yeah, that's what it always is in the future
Have you noticed that they they love to brainwash young kids that in the future everybody get dressed the same like it's just a modernized
Thing like like all the way back to I don't know different cartoons and stuff that just show in the future
Everybody's wearing a jumpsuit. You know everybody's wearing a space suit or whatever and so you know if you wear a space suit
You better put a skirt on over it all right
It's probably not gonna matter, but the bottom line is they're supposed to be different
I mean you're supposed to look at a woman and just see okay her clothing is not a man's clothing
It's a woman's clothing and the Bible doesn't say we're neutral clothing
It says women to wear women's clothing and men to wear men's clothing, but but see we can sit there and say well
What but why?
You know what was he trying to accomplish?
You know and then let's see if we can come up with another way of accomplishing the same thing
He was trying to accomplish now. I'm all for
Understanding the spirit of the law, but we need to go by the letter of the law and the spirit of the law
You know we need to go by what he said
Just literally just do this and then just do it, and then we also need to take it a step further and say okay
What was he trying to accomplish here?
He was trying to distinguish the genders that means we should probably
Stay distinguished in as many areas as possible because God seems to like there to be a difference between men and women
That's why you know you're not going to see me wearing a pink shirt a pink tie
Now you say well show me that in the Bible
I can't because it's not in the Bible because the Bible doesn't have certain colors for men and certain colors for women
But our society does
Consider pink to be a feminine color and a girl's color now in other cultures
It may not be and then wearing pink would be fine
But to me as an American that has grown up in this generation in 2012
You know I'm not going to put on a pink shirt because to me that is a
Feminine queer look and I'm not I'm not going to embrace that look for myself
I don't want to look girly, and you know pink is just a color that an arc now
I look in another country my but now you say well
You know you're you're letting society determine what's right on no because first I go to the Bible
And that's my baseline
Like even if I were in a society where the men had long hair and the women had short hair
I would not conform to I got to go with the Bible as my starting point so first
I'm just gonna literally obey what God told me
Then I want to look at the why and
Say you know what if God wants me to look there. You know I shouldn't just try to get as girly as I can
And still be in a pair of pants
You know you see it. I mean
You know well, this is technically men's clothing
But it's just really so that's the thing and people will a lot of people will take the the term
You know the the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life
And they'll say you know don't follow the letter of the law because the letter killeth
But see if you get the context of that passage
He's talking about the fact that the law is what condemns us to death the law is what condemns us to hell
Where there is no law there is no transgression there is no sin
And so the law is what kills the law is what condemns a person to hell?
Because they are judged out of the things which are written in the books
According to their works, and they're going to be judged by the measure of God's law
Okay, the holy spirit is what quickens the holy spirit is what gives life
It's God's word that gives life
So that's not saying don't go by the letter of the law go by the spirit of the law
Meaning do whatever you want and just find a way to rationalize it and say well that's kind of what God meant, okay?
And so what I'm saying is when we look at God's laws and God's judgments
They may not always make sense to us and we might and sometimes I found myself scratching my head like
Why did God have this law or why does God not allow us to do this or why did God tell us to do this?
I understand why that is, but you know I just have to by faith. Just say well. You know what he knows more than I do I
Better just go with what he said, maybe I'll understand it later
Maybe I won't and children need to do the same thing you know dad has a rule mom has a rule
They may not understand the rule it may not make any sense to them at all
But they need to just trust and say you know what I'm just gonna do it and later
It'll probably make sense that's the same thing God here is telling him
You know stay on the ark or you didn't tell that but he didn't tell him to get off the ark
He didn't open the door for him. He's trying to burrow out the rooftop and figure out
You know kind of get off this ark, but God knew better, and so we need to trust God and let his
Way be be the way that we follow
Now it says in that verse 18 and by the way when you're living you know 950 years
You know it price seemed like a really long time being on that ark
And he was on there for about a year and what ten days
Yeah, pricing like a really long time, but in the scheme of things of your 950 years on the server
It wasn't that long. It wasn't that bad
I mean it always stuff like this seems long, but looking back
It's just like oh yeah, I remember we're on the ark
It probably didn't really seem like it was that long of a time that they were on the ark and especially not that extra
That extra month and 27 days that God kept them on the ark when he figured hey, it's dry enough
You know let's get off this thing, okay?
So it says Noah went forth and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with them this on the
27th day of the second month
Every beast every creeping thing and every foul and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth after their kinds
went forth out of the ark and Noah builded an altar under the Lord and
took of every
Clean beast and of every clean foul, and you know what I'm sorry. I skipped apart
It says in verse 17. Let me jump back 17
I'll come right back to that bring forth with the every living thing that is with thee of all flesh both the foul and of
Cattle and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth that they may breed
Abundantly in the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth so they weren't being spayed or neutered
You know they're being told they breed abundantly, okay?
But then not only that man is told the same thing in chapter 9 it says in chapter 9 verse number
7 and you so after he addresses the animals he says to man and
You be fruitful and multiply bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein now
Here's another principle
I taught you a principle a minute ago about you know going with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law
When it comes to personal righteousness and personal holiness nothing to do with salvation
When regard to salvation we're not under the law we're under grace, but when it comes to our our walk with God
He said if you let me keep my commandments. He said Paul said in 1st Corinthians 9. I'm under the law to Christ
We do need to follow God's laws if we want to be right with God
Because sin is the transgression of the law and if we sin we're not right with God
but you see
Another principle for studying the Bible is that God gave a lot of laws in the Old Testament a lot of commands and imperatives
And a lot of those were specifically changed in the New Testament
so here's another rule of thumb for studying the Bible if God commanded something in the Old Testament and
He never changed it
just stay with what he commanded and
Don't just take it upon yourself to say well God's not telling us to do that anymore
You know a lot of people will look at Old Testament commands, you know I brought up the one earlier about you know
You know a woman not wearing that would pertain to a man or a man putting on a woman's garment for all that do so
Or an abomination of the Lord thy God you know people I've even had somebody say to me this
You know hey, that's why Jesus died on the cross to set us free from that
It's like yeah, I don't think Jesus died on the cross so that we could dress in drag
And that is a stupid doctrine, and that's a but that's a false doctrine
That's probably embraced by 90 some percent of the new evangelicals out there these
Charismatics these big mega churches you show them that and that's what they'll tell you we're not under the law so that's why Jesus died
So that we could be a transvestite or something I mean it's ridiculous
It's garbage and so the Bible's real clear
Very clear and look the Apostles the Apostles were obeying the Old Testament
Except where they were told hey this I mean they had to be specifically told look now you can eat all things
You no longer have to only eat certain beasts. They were specifically told hey no more animal sacrifices
Hey no more of these divers washings and the Nazarite bow and all that stuff
That stuff's all obsolete the carnal ordinances the physical ordinances the meat the drink the divers watchings
He said hey, there's a change in the priesthood no more Levitical priesthood now
It's a priesthood of the order of Melchizedek with Jesus Christ high priest so God always is very specific
When he changes certain laws in the New Testament it says hey, we're not doing it that way anymore. Here's the change
Just like there was a change before Noah's Ark there was no death penalty on murder
But then when we get off the ark all the sudden the death penalty is instituted
That's a change in the laws for mankind
We say well the law never changes well the Bible says that the priesthood being changed
There is a necessity made a change also of the law okay
And so there are certain changes from the Old Testament to the New Testament
Okay and certain things have changed, but God's very specific to tell us what those changes are
We can't just throw out the whole Old Testament and say well all of that is obsolete
When the Bible makes it clear that it's not obsolete and there are many many laws that are in the Old Testament that we should abide
By today that are not necessarily
Repeated in the New Testament because otherwise the Bible be a lot longer if God just repeated the whole Old Testament again
Oh by the way, let me just put this all in the New Testament
This part that applies you know then there'd be a really long
redundancy there now
You say well, how do we know what doesn't apply well?
This is what it is if God didn't tell you it changed. He didn't change
You know don't just take it upon yourself to change them if God tells you hey do this and then later
He says okay now that we're in the New Testament. We're going to do it differently
That's one thing, but if you said do this
And you never heard a change on it you stick with what he said okay, and usually it's it's stuff
That has to do with you know morality and right and wrong as opposed to like carnal ordinances
You know the the physical meats drinks divers washings etc
now
when God
said
and
The Old Testament for example that you know you should not marry your sister
Or you should not marry your arms, okay, you're not going to find that teaching in the New Testament
But does that hey, that's why Jesus died on the cross
You know that's that would be you know it would not be silly to say hey
Let's reject that law about uncovering the nakedness of your grandmother
You know let's just say we're free in Christ see how much nonsense
That would be but that those are biblical commands of the Old Testament that are not repeated in the New Testament
Right yeah, specifically. They're not repeated whatsoever, and those are just a couple of examples
There are lots of other examples of what's right and wrong, and they're not necessarily repeated
But that doesn't mean we say well. Why can't I marry my sister? You know why can't I?
You know be naked in front of other people. You know why can't I do all these things?
It's a silly way to interpret the Bible and look I'll take it a step further this doctrine
This commandment of being fruitful and multiplying
This is a doctrine that we should still have today and don't buy into this garbage the last person that told me that the earth
Was overpopulated you know
He also said that China's one-child policy was wonderful
Okay, and he also said I support our president Barack Obama, okay
So this guy you know and he had really long hair and this way told me you know this is like three strikes. You're out
Here's what he told me he said China's one-child policy great
We should have the same thing here, and you know and I you know I I cursed him in the name of the Lord
It's all never come back to our church
You know just like Elijah my hero, but anyway
So I said him on his merry way because you know I don't want that kind of a pervert around my children
That would say such a way to think he said why?
One or two well because I want to have more because I want to breed abundantly because I want to multiply
And be fruitful that's one
That was just given unto Adam or that was just given unto Noah because they needed to spread out the population
But the proof that that is not true is found back in Genesis chapter 1 if you go back there
It says in Genesis chapter 1 in
verse 28 the Bible reads and God blessed them and
God said unto them be fruitful and multiply now that tells me right there that being fruitful is a blessing
Right it's not a curse to multiply greatly to have a lot of children
They're not a burden or a curse the Bible says they're blessing
He said he blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and here's the key. This is the key word and
replenish the earth
So right there if he was just talking to Adam
He wouldn't say replenish because there's nothing to replenish because replenish means
Refill and if he's saying just to Adam hey refill the earth that doesn't make sense to the Earth's never been full
Okay, what he's explaining to him is that?
Mankind is supposed to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth because people are constantly dying
And because the earth needs to constantly be replenished with people you see if everyone stopped having children right now
With the current lifespan in about a hundred years there'd be nobody on the planet
Right so that's why we have to replenish the earth by having children even if you just have two children
You have not even replaced yourself because there are two of you, and you have two children
But then some people die in car accidents, and they die young so you even have to have a little more than two
even just to replace and that's why a lot of countries in Europe the population is actually going down and
It would be going down even more if it were for immigration
Now if you look at today in the world, and I'm not going to preach a whole sermon on this tonight
But you go back to Genesis chapter 8
But if you look at our world today, who is it that's multiplying greatly in the world if you look at it
It's the Muslims. It's the Mormons. Okay. It's a lot of these other false
Doctrines that are teaching their people hey have a lot of children
And you'll see people with nine or ten children in the state of Arizona you automatically assume that they're Mormon
Because that's who's doing it. I mean you know Mormon. You know you look at Muslim nations across the world
They're having an average of eight children
Which is what used to be the average in the United States about 200 years ago you look at Exodus chapter 1 God's people
Multiplied greatly the Egyptians were not multiplying and the Bible says that the children of Israel became more and mightier than the Egyptians
That's why they had to put them in hard bondage and keep them under
Because they were afraid they become too powerful just because numerically they were multiplying the children of Israel
We're just having a lot more children now. There's no place in the Bible that tells you children are a burden
There's no place in the whole Bible that tells you have less children. Don't have children be careful not to have too many children
There's nothing like that in the entire Bible
So why would I just take it upon myself to listen to some communist left-wing propaganda?
that says
That the earth is over pop
Excuse me the earth is overpopulated like I didn't get that from the Bible
So I'm oh somebody tells me the Earth's overpopulated, so I'm gonna take it upon myself to just decide hey
I better reduce my carbon footprint. You know by having less children
Okay, I better save the earth and save the environment by having less children, okay?
That's not biblical the Bible says children are a blessing be fruitful multiply these are all good things
To have children now that God may only bless you with one or two children
That's all fine and dandy, but I do not believe it's right for one second to just decide hey
I'm just not gonna have children or hey
I'm just gonna have one or I'm just gonna have two or whatever you know
I'm just gonna have as many as God gives me he's more than capable of opening and closing the womb according to the Bible
He says they're a blessing and if he wants to give me
You know my wife is pregnant with number seven if this is the last one then praise God for what I've got
And if he wants to give me twice as many as that well praise God you know I'm not scared of that
You know why you're scared because fear is not of God. That's why
Right no man. Aren't you scared? You know what God is not giving us the spirit of fear?
But of power and of love and of a sound mind so no
I'm not afraid of having children because God will supply all my need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus
And so I'm not gonna let fear tell me don't have children
Okay, and that's kind of a whole nother sermon and of itself
I could show you the one instance of birth control in the whole Bible with Onan
Practicing birth control and God struck him dead and so forth you know I could go into all that
I'm not going to for sake of time
And I'm gonna get back to the environmental movement in just a moment look down at your Bible
It says and Noah building an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and
Offered burnt offerings on the altar and the Lord smelled a sweet saber
Sabre is the word the Bible usually used to talk about a smell so he's smelling a sweet
Sabre in his nostrils and the Lord said in his heart
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake for the
Imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth neither will I against might anymore everything living as I have done
So here we see God being merciful, right?
Here God is merciful saying I'm not gonna curse the earth anymore
Remember he cursed it after Adam and Eve he cursed the earth and made it bring forth thorns and thistles
He says hey, I'm not gonna curse it anymore
It's gonna be easier to produce food from the earth after the flood than it was before the flood all the way to this day
by the way
And he said not only that but I'm never gonna destroy the whole earth again
I'm never gonna just kill everybody or 99% of people with a flood ever again now
What caused God to be merciful here?
What was it that triggered the mercy of God because the Bible says that God said in his heart
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth
Was it man's goodness that triggered God's mercy?
No, he didn't say well, I'm not gonna curse anymore because man's not so bad after all
What triggered God's mercy was it man's goodness? No
He said no man's evil from his youth as imaginations are evil
He said why are you not going to destroy the earth because man is so good
No, because he smelled the sweet savor of that bird sacrifice
That is what triggered God's mercy and caused him to be merciful and to swear
Hey, I will not curse the earth anymore. Hey, I will not destroy the earth with a flood once again now go to Ephesians chapter 5
Ephesians chapter 5 now this term a sweet saver is an interesting term now
This is a term that is used many many times. I mean as you're reading
Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy
It's like sweet savers sweet savers sweet savers when you've read the Bible. I you know, I'm sorry sweet savers sweet savers sweet savers
Every time it's talking about a burn offering
Talks about how that burn offering is a sweet saver unto God
Now does God just love the smell of just barbecuing
animal flesh he just loves the smell of
beef on the barbie here, you know of
Lamb but look what the Bible says to the Bible sheds a little light in the New Testament in Ephesians 5
2 the Bible says in verse 1 be therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as
Christ also have loved us and have given himself for an offering and a
Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling saver
So that sweet-smelling saver to God is Jesus Christ offering himself as a sacrifice
To pay for man's sins that brings God
Great joy and pleasure. That's what the sweet saver is not man's works
Not man's goodness
Not the fact that man is righteous the Bible says but God commended his love toward us and the wall
We were yet sinners Christ died for God mercy merciful to us in spite of our sins
Not because well, we're so good. That's why I will be the recipients of God's mercy and grace. No, we're sinful
It's that sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ
That brings God's mercy and that is a sweet-smelling saver to God and when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're in Christ
Okay, we're covered by the blood of Christ and he allows us into his kingdom not on our goodness and our merit
but on the merit of Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ sacrificed on the cross
The Bible says in Ephesians 5 2 was a sweet-smelling
Sabre unto God when Jesus Christ offered himself for an offering and a sacrifice to God now most often
This term sweet saver is referring to the burnt offering, you know, and all the offerings were pretty much burnt offerings
Okay, you say what does that represent?
Well, you know Jesus Christ was killed
But then also the Bible says that his soul was in hell for three days and three nights acts
231 spells that out three days later. He rose again. And of course there's fire in hell
I'm not one of these modernistic theologians that's going to try to rationalize that and try to explain to you why
That didn't really happen a friend of mine was teaching Sunday school in his church and he read acts 231. He just read the verse
He made no comment on it. He was just preaching along and for some reason in his reading
He read acts 231 and the pastor confronted him afterward and said wait, did I just hear you say that Jesus went to hell?
And he said no, you didn't hear me say that he said you heard the Bible say I was just reading that verse
He said well that Jesus didn't go to hell. That's not really hell. It's actually Hades. It's actually she'll it's actually this other place
it's actually the good part of hell, you know the good side the
nice side
The west side
But
It's just funny how people will say
Well when the Bible says hell, it's not really talking about hell there now every time you read hell
It's always talking about fire and torment every time now you can find all these verses and twist things around but there's no play
You cannot just just go home
if you don't believe what I'm saying right now just go home and just look up every time the word hell is used in the
Bible and
Tell me where it's ever a good place. Just look it up. I think it's 54 times that the word hell is used
Look at and don't go back to the Greek in the Hebrew. You don't speak those languages. So we're fooling yourself
Just go to your English Bible and look up all 54 times
The word hell is used and show me which one is a good place. That's what I'd like to know
Show me where you say this is the good side
This is the good part and even when Jesus was there in the verses about Jesus being there
it's not a good place because he said the only read the reason that he's resting and hope is
That God won't leave his soul in hell
So if it's so great, why is he saying well my only hope is that I'm getting the hell out of here, you know
That's the only reason that it was great is that you know, I'm getting out you didn't say, you know
Thank God I'm in the side. That's not as warm
Thank God I'm in the side with the palm trees, you know, I'm not in the burning brimstone part
Okay, and so that's another sermon of itself, but the Bible is real clear about the burnt offering
burnt offering burnt offering and Jesus according the Bible was that burnt offering that
Passover lamb that was not to be eaten raw, but was to be roast with fire
Very important and then you know, you could go on and on with that go back to Genesis 8. I'll quote for you from
Hebrews where the Bible says that Jesus Christ for the joy that was set before him endured the cross
Despising the shame you see Jesus Christ for the joy that was set before him died for our sins
The Bible says that what when he was in hell, it said that he he his soul
Would would rest in hope and he said because thou will not leave my soul in hell
Neither will thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption
He said thou will show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand
There are pleasures forevermore. So you see it pleased the Lord to bruise him
Obviously, it was a difficult thing for Jesus to go through
He sweat those big drops of sweat and he went through the physical pain
He was praying that you know, he would just he was just praying that his hope was that he would not be left in hell
But here's the thing
He did it for the joy of saving us and the Bible says that him saving us brings God great
Joy, it brings him great pleasure
To see man be saved and the Bible says there's joy in the presence of the angels of heaven
Over one sinner that repented the Bible says that there's a great
Joy in Jesus Christ with everyone who's saved, you know, God loves the fact
He said I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked
He said God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So God is not
Just this God who just doesn't care, you know, like the Calvinism God. It's just like well, whatever
All day of 90% of people to hell and that'll bring me glory too and I'll let ten be saved just because I said so
No, God's desire. He says he will have all men to be saved and he comes out to it. He loved the world
In spite of our sins and wants everybody to be saved, okay
That's where his joy is
That's where his pleasure is and I'm touching on so many topics there that I don't have time to develop and so forth
But I've gone into great detail in other sermons. Let's finish up in Genesis chapter 8, but the Bible says in
verse number
21
The Lord smelled a sweet saber and the Lord said in his heart
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth neither
Will I again smite any more everything living as I have done?
While the earth remain at seed time harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease
Now, let me just say a few words about the environmental movement in regard to this verse
Okay, first of all the Bible is really clear in this verse
That
We don't need
To control the weather and we don't need to control the seasons and we don't need to do anything to make sure
That cold and heat and summer and winter and seed time and harvest continue because the Bible is real clear
They're going to continue as long as the earth remaining so people can try to tell you that we're gonna go into this great deep freeze
People can try to tell you that you know
We're going into global warming where there's going to be no more winter and no more cold and all the ice caps are gonna melt
And the whole earth is going to be covered in water
No
God's not gonna allow the earth to be covered in water again and God's not going to allow winter to cease or or they're gonna
Say we're not gonna be able to plan any crops blah blah according to the Bible
Those things will continue until the end. Okay. Now the environmental movement is a scam
Okay, and here's the scam it's a government scam
Okay, because here's what's funny when you talk to the people that try to force this environmentalism on you
They love big government and they think that the government literally, you know makes the Sun come up in the morning
So they think that the government has to make sure that you know
The environment and the Sun and the and everything does what it's supposed to do
You know, they have to take care of that which is obviously nonsense, which is obviously ridiculous
Now another thing that the environmental movement will do
Is the environmental movement will tell us that you know large tracts of land should be left completely uninhabited
So that they can just go back to nature
Right, and if you look at a map of the state of Arizona and at what part is allowed to be inhabited by man
You know 90 some percent of the state they don't want to be inhabited by man
It's just all these reserves and preserves and you know, just leave it to nature preserve it now
I don't believe in that because the Bible says he formed it to be inhabited
God created the earth not to just be a zoo or a
Botanical garden he formed it to be inhabited
You know, God wants us to live there and to add to cut down the trees and the Bible even commanded children Israel
hey, if there's woods there cut down the trees so you can live there and
If that were such a bad idea wouldn't told him to chop down the trees so you can live there. Okay now
look at the same time though and
Again people some it seems like the devil always works at things from both sides
He always works at it from both sides
So on one side you got the conservative crowd that basically just says, you know, what?
Environmentalism is garbage, you know, and I agree with that. Okay, and
Then on the other side, you know, you have the liberal side that basically is saying, you know, hey we need to worship mother earth
Take it, you know, love your mother
Take care and you know, there's a sticker that says love your mother
It's picture of the earth, you know, take care of the earth and then I even hear a lot of pastors saying, you know
We're supposed to be good stewards of the earth. It's our job to make sure that everything you know, and basically there's that side
That's like a worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen
There's the sign that says hey, you know put everybody out of work and and let people go hungry in Africa
Rather than let them eat this animal because we're afraid it's going to go extinct. So when I say that environmentalism is a scam
It's basically a government plan to try to tax you and regulate you to get you to pay these huge
Environmental impact fees every time you want to build a you know, you just want to build a building
Okay. Oh, you got to pay this huge environmental impact fee. It's a money-making scam of the government
That's what environmentalism is and it's also a pagan worship of the earth and animals because animals don't matter
They don't have souls. Okay, they're not human
Now with that being said though, okay
So we know this side this liberal side is totally out to lunch because they're worshiping the earth. They're hugging a tree
They're worshiping animals. They don't want us to inhabit the earth when God formed it to be inhabited
They don't want us to overspread the earth
They just want us in these mega cities all packed in with everything all preserved so that we can't get to it
You know and they want to tax and regulate and charge you and look a church my own church that I went to in
Sacramento, you know, they paid these hundreds of thousands of dollars in environmental impact fees
I mean just to build a little building. It wasn't even a building that was that big
The church had like a hundred and fifty people in it
It wasn't some massive mega church and they're just paying these max environmental impact fees as the government
Dumps all kinds of toxic sludge out of their military bases and just so basically the government the biggest polluter
So it's like you have a wolf guarding the hen house
You know what I mean? Like they're gonna protect the environment when they're the ones who pollute it more than anything with all their
Radioactive and depleted uranium and all this garbage and not only that
But well, let me get into this
So that's this side this left-wing side is totally out to lunch as far as I'm concerned with this environmental earth worship
But see on this side where they just say hey, and look let me tell you what I have to Tiffany about this
I was at Whole Foods
okay, and I was sitting with my family eating pizza at Whole Foods and
This young Asian girl who was a student at ASU
She comes up to me in my family and she says hi
I'm working on a project for my environment class or whatever, you know at that school because now they have full majors on this
You know environment like I talked to it. I talked to a lady on the airplane
I was like, oh, you know, what are you going to school for? And she said she said oh, you know
I'm gonna get a degree so that I can help companies manage their carbon credits with the government
Okay
So I mean this is what this is the way things are going she said I'm gonna help them manage their carbon credits because some
States on the East Coast already have this in place. Okay. Well
She sat me down and she said I want to interview you and your wife and and and and you know about green living
About how you're green and I'm thinking to myself like
But then it turned out I'm pretty green I was pretty surprised by it and I was like
I
So I was I was shocked because you know, basically we eat all organic food, you know
We're using organic laundry soap and you know, we're eating we're using natural stuff and and whatever
You know personally I think putting eight people under one roof is pretty green and economical
So, you know turned out I was a little greener than I thought and here's the thing
Here's why?
Because these people over here the thing that they don't get is that there's a difference between
forbidding people to inhabit planet Earth and to kill and eat animals what God
Commanded them to do and if God gave us the animals and if God gave us the plants and if God said I formed to be
In heaven, you know, I'm against the government saying you can't have that animal
You can't have that plant that plants illegal that animals illegal
You need a license to pull that fish out and eat it
You need a license to eat that animal, you know, God gave it to me. He formed it to be inhabited
And it's amazing how the animal that people eat the most never seem to go extinct
chickens cows pigs
The species list, you know, so here's the thing
On the one hand we've got this side, but then on this side over here
There's just the people who think it's okay to just brazenly
Just pollute and destroy the earth with these toxic chemicals and nuclear waste
now
Honestly, I'm not against that because of the fact that
You know, we got to take care of Mother Earth
Because I already know hey, there's going to be cold and winter according to the Bible. There's going to be seed time and harvest
There's going to be season, but what I am against is being poisoned. I
Am against walking outside and breathing in a bunch of toxic fumes
you know and let's face it if you go work in a coal mine or something and you don't have a
Respirator, you know, you're going to die very soon
You know if you if you work in some chemical plant and you don't have any kind of a respirator on you're going to obviously
Die from the fuse. I mean there are poisons in this world and especially with all the nuclear and chemical and radioactive stuff
That's out there
You know in many ways we're being poisoned today and there are all kinds of toxins and poisons and chemicals out there
And people out there for their greed, you know
Basically just want to just emit whatever garbage in here and the worst
Example of all is the genetically modified plants and animals
I mean look if you say this isn't biblical preaching it is biblical
Because if God created all the animals and said they're very good and if God created all the plants and said they're very good
Who are we to tamper and make these mutant plants and mutant animals and somebody explain that to me where you're splicing?
Mouse with the with a tomato or you know, they do weird stuff
You think I'm joking do a little research on it
They splice plants and animals get and it gets put where they're perverting nature and playing God
Now here's the problem once they release these genetically modified species into the environment
You can't round them all back up again. No pun intended. We round up, but you can't round them up
They're round up ready. They're round up immune. That's the whole point. But anyway, you know this Monsanto garbage
That's being released into the ecosystem
And you say oh you're starting like a tree-hugging liberal
No, I don't really care a less about the fact that there's not enough national parks
Or I want to have all these animals preserve
But I want to preserve this guy right here and I want to preserve my family or preserve mankind
And I don't think it's right this dumping of just poisons and toxins and genetically modified garbage
And here's the thing the environmental movement does not address genetically modified stuff from what I've seen. I
Don't see the government making illegal, I mean don't sure they'll charge you $200,000 environmental impact
for building a church building, but where are they at when they're releasing all these genetically modified plants and animals into the earth and
Copywriting and patenting them like it's their creation like they created this plan. It's patented
I mean that's bizarre and that's wrong and a lot of people today because they say well
I want to be an environmentalist and I see where they're coming from
Because I'm turned off by all the earth worship. It is ungodly
I'm turned off by telling me I can't inhabit the earth and that I have to not eat animals. Okay?
but the problem is they go to another extreme and
You see both sides are wrong on some things because on the one extreme is the earth worship
but on the other extreme is just this thing of just
There's no such thing as poisons in the environment
Well, there are poisons that are out there and you know people who harm other people with poisons
You know if you went to God's law, they'd be criminally prosecuted
Even if they just even the Bible even just talks about they just let their animal run loose and it killed somebody then they'll be punished
so the God's law does
Have a place for punishing people who harm others and and and pollute others
Property and destroy their property and destroy their lungs or their or their system
But today in our food in our water
There's so many poisons out there and you know a lot of fundamental Baptists because they're reacting to this
Environmental wackoism that it says I'm going to McDonald's every day and blah blah nuts to this, you know
It's like don't be don't be dumb
And I don't know what it is about fundamental Baptist but it seems like they eat more garbage than anybody
It just seems like every fundamental Baptist I went to it says McDonald's and McDonald's and Burger King
And Jeff and they're just consuming large amounts of fast food
It's that you know in the cage this is Kool-Aid and parsley hydrogenated cookies and all this stuff
You know, we don't want to go to that extreme folks
You know on one side the devil's getting you to worship the earth and put the creature above the Creator put animals over man
But on the other side a lot of the conservative movement is basically just telling you no
Shut up and just you know, just quit even worrying about it. There's no poisons out there. The birds are still chirping, you know, we're fine
Well, it's not true. I mean, there's a lot of poison out there and
The government turns a blind eye because they're paid off, you know, the corporation pay off the government, you know
When you're a church, you're not paying off the government. So you got to pay the environmental impact
Oh, you can't cut down a tree on your own property. That's the kind of environmental garbage
I'm against if I own my property I can cut down whatever tree I want. I think somebody told me all the trees in danger
But it's definitely in danger because it's on my property and I'm gonna cut it down
Danger that you think because it's going down tomorrow, okay
That's the environmental garbage. I'm against but but wait a minute. Would it be right for me to just start just
Spewing out toxic chemicals from my backyard and just saying what are you an environmentalist?
Are you left-wing?
Or to start selling food that's filled with poisons and heavy metals and toxins. No
So use your brain, you know the devil on one side is getting us to worship the earth
But the devil on the other side poisoning us all making us sick
You know, and I think part of the agenda behind it is to get us all sick
And to get us all unhealthy so that they can turn us into a socialist country with all the socialist health care
And you know because when you're really healthy, you don't even you don't want that stuff, but when everybody's sick
They're like, oh, yeah, man, how I'm gonna pay for all this. We need all this stuff, you know, please give us socialist health care
Please give us communist safety net. Okay, you know and that's just my theory about it. You know take that for what it's worth
But the Bible's real clear here. Let this sink down in yours and in Genesis 8
The Earth's going to continue to go. The only global warming is going to be when God
You know scorches men with great heat during the time he pours out his wrath on the earth
But until then there's going to be summer and winter there's going to be cold and hot
These things will continue as they were does that mean we should just spew
Radioactive filth everywhere. No, so that's the balance
So, you know people accuse me smiles of being an environmentalist or being a greenie is what they call me to make fun of me
You greenie left-wing environmentalist hippie, you know, I've been called
But then these people will attack me too, you know
These people are attacking me on one side and these people are attacking me on the other side, you know, and so
You know get a biblical worldview is all I'm saying. And so let's bow our heads in that word of prayer
father