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All right, so just keep your Bibles open there in Genesis 9. We'll just get straight into the sermon Genesis 9 and verse number 5 I was kind of struggling as to what to title this sermon today But let's take it from verse number 5 here Genesis 9 verse 5 the Bible says and surely your blood of your lives Will I require the title for the sermon this morning is blood of your lives a lot of questions about the importance of blood Well, you know, what does that mean a lot of these things that we see in the Bible about blood and not enough blood A lot of people have questions about that So I want to try to give you as best of an answer that I can give you as we go through this chapter Let's start off with verse number one then Genesis chapter 9 verse 1 the Bible begins and God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them be fruitful and multiply and Replenish the earth now just once again just because the Lord keeps repeating the same commandment, you know I'm repeating the same commandment to this church You know our job our commandment from our Lord God is to be fruitful and multiply, you know I'd strongly encourage you, you know, if you're a woman who is still able to bear children, you know And and and husbands, you know to say hey Yes I'm gonna take this commandment because I know the fruit of the womb is his reward and I want to be rewarded by the Lord I want to be blessed. I want to find joy in my family I want to have the experience of being a parent and and and instruct my children and raise a godly seed Some of the next generation can get out there and do great works for God I mean, there's several reasons why you should want to keep this command But most of all just because God asked you to do that and you were noticing this chapter He asked the same the same thing twice twice in the same chapter commandment given to Noah and his sons and this number two it says in 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 moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand. Are they delivered? So one thing you'll notice here after the flood is there is a change in animal behavior toward man Okay, that change of animal behavior toward man. It says that there's going to be a fear of man in upon every beast of the earth, okay fear of man and So this would mean that before the flood, you know You could approach an animal and they'd be pretty tame with you like you could approach them you could pat them I guess it'd be easier to ride a horse or ride certain animals I mean just interacting with the animal kingdom prior to the flood would have been a lot easier, you know And you know, they weren't eating of animals anyway back then so you could approach an animal, you know They wouldn't attack you man wouldn't attack the creature because you know people weren't eating meat prior to the flood And one reason I believe that God puts this fear of animals from man is because you see later on is that God does give the Commandment to man to eat from every animal to eat from from from the creatures to eat of animals And so I would assume if animals were so tame and mild and not afraid of men you'd run out of meat pretty quickly That's why you need to go and hunt because the animal can can defend itself can escape and of course, you know Reproduce and and give you know bring forth more of the same type of creature But if they were just easy prey I can just imagine animals getting extinct very quickly and there being no meat upon the earth so it kind of makes sense to me that they would now have a fear of man upon the earth and verse number three Every moving thing that liveth and look at these words every moving thing that liveth Shall be meat for you is God saying it's an option You can eat of meat if you want or you can abstain and it says it shall be meat for you This is a command God has given you even as the green herb. Have I given you all things? Now the meat eaters are like yes, you know, I command it to eat meat by God But you know, he also says even as the green herb So if all you do is eat meat and and you're not eating your veggies You're not obeying the commandments of God Did you notice these are commands of God eat meat and eat your veggies eat your herbs each of green herbs And I'm just telling the kids, you know, one of my sons doesn't like his tomatoes, but he eats pretty much everything else I mean some of you guys don't like onions of my kids I'm not gonna ask every kid here But I'm sure parents you find it a hard job sometimes to get that good green herb into your children's mouths All right, but children, I'm here to tell you as your pastor God commands you Yeah, eat your meat enjoy your your chicken nuggets whatever whatever meat you love to eat But God also commands you to eat of the green herbs eat your veggies eat your fruits and your veggies the seed-bearing fruit Fruits all these things is a required diet in order for you to obey the Lord And of course if God's given that command he makes there must be a reason behind it It must be that your body needs the nutrients of meat and of vegetables All right, so it's a command of God verse number four verse number four Now this is where a lot of people scratch their heads and just you know Currently wrap their heads around this but verse number four but flesh with the life thereof Which is the blood thereof? Shall ye not eat so he's ready so that God's given us You know the flesh the meat to eat but then says he's talked about the blood here and I would say to you You know, I I truly believe we should not eat blood You know, I've I sometimes go be invited to barbecues family and stuff like that and They they because you know in South America, they eat blood sausages and I'm not some European countries They love their blood sausages, you know, and I would refrain from eating those buzz It's always come on. Just try a bit of it It's always that temptation a little bit to have your blood sausage or other blood products and I would abstain from that and you say well Hold on, you know, isn't that isn't that a you know, aren't you putting yourself under Old Testament law here? You know, I aren't you aren't you being a judo judo eyes are kind of thing Like are you trying to you know? You're saying you've got to keep the laws of God from the Old Testament perspective to be right with the Lord but one thing you need to understand about this command that God's given Noah is this is prior to the Old Testament covenant prior to The Old Testament prior to Old Testament Israel prior to the time of Moses, you know, Noah is not an Israelite Okay, Noah Noah is before the Jews even existed Okay before the old covenant was given to Moses on Mount Sinai God already commanded mankind and Noah and his family would be The you know the progenitors of every man that lives upon the earth and he commands them not to eat of blood Okay, not to eat blood. So keep your finger then turn to Leviticus chapter 17 now Leviticus chapter 17 and Look I'm probably not going to give you an answer like people wonder what why can't we blood? Okay I'm probably not going to give you a very satisfactory answer But what I think I'll be able to give you is just what God commands and that should be enough You know I don't always need to know every answer to every question in the Bible if I know God commands something God says something I just believe it, you know and I just do it, you know, and I just there must be a reason behind it There must be a good reason God doesn't give us commands for absolutely no reason Okay, there's always a reason behind things and go to Leviticus 17 now Leviticus 17 Of course, this is now at a time when the law has been given to Old Testament Israel so this is under the Old Testament, you know, but Leviticus 17 verse 10 the Bible says and Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among you that eateth any manner of blood I will even set my face against that soul that eats of blood and will cut him off from among his people For the life of the flesh is in the blood So God gives us actually the reason but I can't really explain this to you Okay, it gives us the reason why we're not to eat blood It just said in verse 11 for the reason is for the life of the flesh is in the blood Can you explain that pastor Kevin not really okay I can't really give you a very deep spiritual or scientific explanation as to what that means But I just take it for what God says the life of the flesh is in the blood And of course, you know, once you're drained of blood you cannot live You know blood is an essential requirement to your body in order for it to survive But it says for the life of the blood is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar To make an atonement for your soul. So there's another reason Okay, that the blood is not to be eaten off because blood was used to be was the purpose of it was so it can be Used upon the altar and of course, we don't do the Old Testament sacrifices But we do have a blood sacrifice don't we in the Lord Jesus Christ And that's why we talk about the shedding of blood how important it is that he bled and died for us You know and and the blood of Christ also left his body, you know, he was shared He was taken up to heaven and poured upon the mercy seat. They were sprinkled upon the mercy seat there in heaven as well So God gives us some reasons but to fully understand it is kind of beyond my comprehension I mean, can you really understand how the shin of blood can cover sins? I mean truly I don't really fully understand that You know, I don't fully understand, you know some things that are very spiritual how God sees things But I know what he says, you know, and I just believe it and I just obey what God says Let's keep going there Given to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls For it is the blood that make of an atonement for the soul Therefore I say unto the children of Israel No soul of you shall eat blood neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood Okay, so we see the command was given to Old Testament Israel. We see the command was given to People before Israel even existed and now turn to Acts 15, please Turn to Acts 15 because now I want to show you the command given once again In the New Testament and we're living in New Testament times, you know, we're New Testament Christians. So Acts 15 verse 28 Acts 15 verse 28 Look at these is the words of Peter and you might be excused sometimes when when people talk in the Bible You can make the excuse or you can give an answer Well, that's what that person said, but that's not how really how God feels about that But here's the thing what you notice here with Peter in Acts 15 verse 28 It says this Peter speaking for it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost That's God, right It's even good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things That ye abstain from meats offered to idols and I won't go into all that I've come I've preached on that before for the series in Corinthians, but then it says and from blood Okay, so the blood there again refrain from eating blood and from things strangled now you might say what's that? Well, let me finish the verse and from fornication from which if you keep yourselves you shall do well Fair ye well, so do you want to do well, do you want to fare well in your life? Then the commandment from the Holy Ghost is don't eat blood, you know, and then it says and and from things Strangled say what's what's the significance of that? Well, you know in us in Australia, for example, you know Wouldn't surprise me if the reason they do this is because you know a lot of our Western culture have taken principles from the Bible but the abattoirs where where they kill animals for meats is they would um They would stun the animal and immediately they would cut the throat of an animal. Okay and bleed it out Now that would bleed out the animal So that way, you know, the blood would leave we leave the animal of course Look when you buy meat, there's always gonna be some residue of blood, you know, but here's the thing I mean most of that blood has been drained out of the animal. Okay, and An animal that has been strangled though that dies strangled the blood is still in its body So, of course if you're gonna eat from a strangled animal you're eating blood Okay, and that's why you know, it's put there together not to eat blood and not to eat of things strangled Okay. Now one of the one of the reasons why you do bleed out an animal, you know I had to do a bit of research here. But uh First of all, it it does not allow the creature to recover So, you know these abattoirs that go and stun the animal because they want to you know, do things humanely I guess you know, they don't want the animal to recover, you know They don't if there's blood in your body you have the ability to continue life You know the life is in the blood we saw that before right so we don't want that animal to recover So to bleed out the animal will ensure that the animal does die in that process Okay, so that you know, it's that's that's humane for an animal You don't want it to to come back to life while you're cutting it up or something, you know, so at number two Blood rots quickly blood rots quickly compared to flesh compared to me blood can rot very quickly and it will spoil the food Okay, and if you don't drain the blood of animal Well, the meat will taste very gamey and I wouldn't be it's not very nice. It's not very tasty It's got that very gamey flavor to it So to spoil the food number three the reason why you I mean It's just practical is that it's cleaner to butcher afterwards. Once all the blade bloods drained out It's just cleaner to to cut up the and butcher the meats, you know, if you had blood still there, it'll be going everywhere and and Lastly from what we see here that the reason needs to be done is because it has something to do with blood atonement Okay has something Significant regards to that and that's how God sees how blood should be used in that sense Of course, you know Christ said we should drink of his blood But he spoke of that in the spiritual sense, you know that when we believe on Christ we do partake of his body We do drink of his blood But then you notice the how the Roman Catholics and the Roman Catholics when they do mass when they do communion They believe they're eating when they take part of that way far They think they're eating the actual flesh of Jesus Christ and when they drink of that wine they believe that wine has literally become the blood of Jesus Christ and God commands Before the Old Testament during the Old Testament and in the New Testament not to eat or to you know, eat of blood So I mean the Catholics really like to mess things up like they do these little things They think they're so smart and they really mess up with the Bible teachers So, you know, I'm telling you just as a part as your pastor, you know, I'd rather you know You abstain from eating blood so you can fare well, you know, the Bible seems to teach this in throughout the Bible You know, I don't have all the reasons why that's so important But we can see how important it is to God and that should be good enough for us. Okay, so back to Genesis chapter 9, please Genesis chapter 9 we continue on the topic of blood here, but now we're talking about the blood of man Genesis chapter 9 verse 5 God says and surely your blood of your lives Will I require at the hand of every beast? Will I require it and at the hand of man at the hand of every man's brother? Will I require the life of man who so shed of man's blood by man? Shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man? Okay, so now God is instituting the death penalty and once again This is prior to the Old Testament Okay, because some Christians will make the excuse. Well, the death penalty was for the Old Testament was for the Israelites Noah is not an Israelite Noah is not part of the nation of physical the physical nation of Israel This was commanded prior to that the death penalty is definitely a command that God has given human government Okay, and the first time we see the death penalty put in place is for murder You know if you shed a man's life, then your life ought to be shed as well. Okay, what's what's the penalty for murder? To be put to death, okay, that's the teaching of the Bible I mean, I don't know how you can be a true Bible reading Christian and and and you know and and be against death penalty Now there might be some things that you question about the death penalty But if you just completely disregard it, you're not truly a Bible believing Christian. Okay, so um, and That sounds weird in our society because in Australia we've done away with the death penalty If you talk about the death penalty today, you're seeing like this extremist like this this You know Islamic terrorists or something like if you believe in the death penalty But that was put in practice for thousands of thousands of years, you know It was put into practice here in Australia as well I remember we went to I think it was Adelaide with a family think it was there. We went to a a old jail Do you remember that kids we went to an old jail and we had a look at how you know Prisoners were kept and then we had all these there was like this memorial area for all these Prisoners that were put to death in Australia, you know, and so we had the death penalty in this nation, you know Are we to say that everybody before us all our our ancestors were all these Islamic terrorists all these fundamentalist crazies No, you know from the time of Noah to only you know some decades ago the death penalty, you know You know in our in our in our in our world was common practice made sense You know the punishment fit the crime, you know, we've gotten really soft We were gonna look how far away we've gotten from the Word of God how far away as a nation We've gotten away from the Bible Now if you guys can keep your finger there and turn to Exodus 21, please So I just want to show you the same thing Yeah, we what we saw about eating of blood now go to Exodus 21 again We're here at Old Testament time the nation of Israel Exodus 21 verse 12 just to prove it, you know I'm sure you all know this anyway But just to prove it Exodus 21 verse 12 the Bible says he that smiteth a man so that he died Shall be surely put to death Okay, so before Old Testament Israel death penalty during the Old Testament for Israel the death penalty Okay. Now go to Romans chapter 13, please Romans chapter 13 and For those that say well that was just for Israel Well, I don't know of any Israelite quarter Roman. We're going to the book of Romans. All right, this is New Testament time This is written to Gentiles. This is not even the Israelite government This is the government of the Roman Empire and it says here in Romans 13 verse 3 Romans 13 verse 3 for rulers are not a terror to good works But to the evil will thou then not be afraid of the power do that which is good and thou shall have praise of the same For he that's the government the Roman government here, right? He is the minister of God for thee for good But if thou that do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain For here's the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil And what's what's the role of the government even gentle governments? What's the role of a government is they would do they would punish the evildoers right and and what's one way of punishment here? What's one way to be afraid of doing evil is that they bear the sword, you know, and then I'm not to do it in vain Hey, what's the sword for is it for defense? Is that really a great different not probably not the best defensive tool I'm probably can be used for defense but a sword is used to kill a sword is used for warfare Right, it's there to to kill your enemy You know, the government's job is to have the sword is to have the power of you know Death of the death penalty and it says he's the minister of God meaning God's expectness a servant of God God expects the servant of government to put in place the death penalty for evil doers all right, the government is supposed to be a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil and You know the thought is well Australia's done away with the death penalty, you know The government of Australia the laws of our nation no longer support the death penalty And if you believe that you've been sold a lie. You've been sold a lie. Okay, because we had 82,000 legal abortions in our nation. We have that every year Eighty two thousand legal abortions in our country. Do you think our nation is doing is Has a death penalty it does. All right, but instead of punishing Evil-doers, it's punishing the innocent It's punishing those that have not committed a crime and they don't want to give the definitely to those that have done the crime Where we have a death penalty how our nation not only has gone away from the death penalty for criminals But now we're applying the death penalty. What's the penalty? Oh, we don't want that child. Okay, you can die Okay, I mean it's it's not our nation has turned their hearts and their minds away from the Lord And of course our policemen our police force they carry guns They have the power to take take life if they want if it comes if it's necessary They have the power to put the death penalty in place if they see fit in the jobs that they do That's why they're given weapons that can take a life. Okay, so it's a death penalty done away with No, you know God had a death penalty for convicted criminals Now we have the death penalty for non convicted criminals Right or the innocent or the innocent, you know little babies that we should be protected Now the question comes well, you know the Bible talks a lot about the death penalty God hasn't just given the death penalty for murder, but also for kidnapping I believe a kidnapper should be put to death, you know For you know adulterers, you know crimes like that, you know God has given the death penalty for for several things, you know for homosexuality even God has given definitely for that and You know people start to mock the Bible and say well hold on Don't you know that God has also given a death penalty for people that worship the false God? You know, you know Are you saying then if you say if you teach the death penalty if you support the death penalty Are you saying then that you know Muslims and Hindus that worship other gods? Are you saying they should be put to death and they mock the Bible like that, you know So if you have one of those questions, I hope I can give you an answer here But I take your Bible and turn to Jeremy chapter 17, please. Do you know what I mean chapter 17 verse 2? I Mean God does give the death penalty to those that worshiped another God My question to you is you don't have to answer. I mean do you think that should be applicable today? You'd have to tell me just just think about it. Okay, let's read the Bible here in Jeremy chapter 17 verse 2 Jeremy chapter 17 verse 2 the Bible says if there be found among you, of course This is to the nation of Israel within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee man or woman that have wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God in transgressing his covenant and Have gone and served other gods and worshiped their them Either the Sun or the moon or any of the hosts of heaven which I have not commanded and it be told thee and thou has heard of it and inquired diligently and Behold it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman which have committed that wicked thing unto thy gates Even that man or that woman and shall stone them with stones till they die So just to prove to you that people that worship the false God even if they just worship the Sun and the moon You know, they were to put be put to death in Old Testament times Now you say pastor Kevin do you believe we should then you know should also preach to you know put You know hinders to death or whatever, you know people that worship other gods. No, I don't Okay, and if that sounds you know, if that sounds like I'm Compromising well, let me explain to you why this is let me explain to you why this is Think of the Ten Commandments the Ten Commandments the first four commandments is your relationship between yourself and the Lord You know the first four Commandments then the next six Commandments is about your relationship with your fellow man, aren't they? Okay, that's not commit adultery. That's not kill those kinds of things All right And then in Matthew if you guys can actually turn to Matthew turn to Matthew 22 verse 36 quickly Matthew 22 verse 36 And of course there's more Commandments in the Ten Commandments But the Ten Commandments is a great job of just summarizing how we ought to deal with God and how we ought to deal with man But Matthew 22 verse 36 the question gets asked about Jesus master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind This is the first and great Commandments and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets So if you just obeyed those two things I'm gonna love the Lord my God with all my heart with all my soul with all my mind and I'm gonna love my neighbor as Myself, but God Jesus says look you're keeping all the Commandments Okay, if you're able to do that perfectly you're keeping all the Commandments perfectly. Okay, so we see that even even Jesus Christ differentiates between Commandments with your relationship with God and Commandments with your relationship with man Okay, now why is it that I do not believe people that worship other gods should be put to death today is Because in Old Testament Israel days, it was a theocracy It was a theocracy God was the supreme ruler over Old Testament Israel Okay God was the supreme ruler over Old Testament Israel even when the kings came to be even after that God was still the supreme ruler this the supreme judge over Israel during that time and God had a covenant God had an agreement with the Old Testament nation of Israel Okay, so because God had that special covenant with Israel of Old Testament therefore Crimes about your faith crimes that who you worship were punishable by death Because they were breaking the covenant the commitment that Israel had with the Lord God Okay Does that make sense but today we are not under the old covenant today the nation of Australia You know God has not given the nation of Australia a special covenant You know that you will be my people and I will be your God or any other nation of the world today Okay today God has a new covenant today God has the New Testament and the only way you enter into that testament that covenant is by being a believer Of the Lord Jesus Christ Okay by being a believer of the Lord Jesus Christ of by default Anyone that is in the new covenant is already a worshipper of Jesus Christ is already a worshipper of God. Okay So that that's why you know today we don't have nation You know, you don't punish people because they worship other gods because there isn't that covenant There isn't that agreement between a physical nation and God himself. All right. Now there was something else I wanted to cover there Oh, yeah, but there is a spiritual nation that new covenant if you enter that new covenant You are made up you are a spiritual nation a holy nation unto God But you see God has not put government which is the one who is meant to put forward the death penalty God has not put government over that spiritual nation There is no human government on this earth that is over the spiritual nation of God Okay, so that's why you know, I don't stand behind the pulpit and say, you know death to the Hindus Or death to the Muslims, you know because our nation or no nation on this earth has that covenant with God today But they were required to do that in Old Testament Israel because they had that covenant with the Lord God that was they God They these that nation were his people on that covenant. We're no longer operating on that covenant today Okay, I hope that gives you an answer to that. If you have any questions, please let me know afterwards Oh, yeah, what one more thing one more thing. Sorry. I didn't like that's the other thing I want to cover But like the Ten Commandments there is your relationship with man Okay. So what are the things that I believe people should be put to death for are the crimes they commit to their fellow man That's what I'm talking about Not the crimes that they necessarily commit to the Lord God but the crimes they commit to their fellow man are still in force Okay, just like the Ten Commandments, you know The six things that relate related to your relationship with man, that's still enforced. You shouldn't commit adultery You shouldn't go around killing, you know, you shouldn't go around, you know, coveting your neighbor's wife That's still in effect today Or just like those read that relationship with man with man Hey the relationship with man and many still applicable today in every nation under the Sun So any crime committed with a man that's worthy of death in the Bible, I believe is still applicable today And our governments should be applying that, you know that law and putting that back into practice Okay, so I hope that gives you an idea of the death penalty and how to answer those accusations You know, well, would you kill someone because they picked up sticks on the Sabbath day or something like that, you know And try to laugh at the at the death penalty that God has instituted All right, let's back to Genesis 9, please Genesis chapter 9 verse 7 Genesis chapter 9 verse 7 and And you God speaking to Noah once again in you be you fruitful and multiply Again, yeah again be fruitful. Don't forget this lower. This is a command. This is the main thing This is what I told Adam and Eve. This is what I'm telling you Okay so I'm telling all the animals all the creatures be fruitful and multiply bring forth abundantly in the earth and Multiply therein and I just did a quick search for this I just did a quick Bible search for the word fruitful and multiply together and this phrase Is all these two words are used together nine times in the book of Genesis nine times in the book of Genesis I think God wants to get our attention. Okay. God definitely wants us to be people that are fruitful and multiply and Unfortunately many Christians today just not doing it, you know They've they've listened to the world instead of listening to the book of Genesis Okay first number eight and God spake unto Noah and to his sons with him saying and I Behold ice and I behold I established my covenant with you and with your seed after you and with Every living creature that is with you of the fowl and of the cattle and of every beast of the earth with you From all that go out of the ark to every beast of the earth and I will establish my covenant with you Neither shall all flesh be cut off anymore by the waters of a flood Neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth So God makes his promise his covenant with Noah with his family But also with all the animals all the animals God makes his promises covenant that he will never Destroy the earth again with a flood, right? Neither neither shall all flesh be cut off anymore by the waters of a flood Neither shall there be any more will be a flood to destroy the earth All right, so God has given us that promise that he will never flood the surf again He will never completely are there are local floods, of course But never to the point where he would try to destroy all animals through a flood now It's interesting that God mentions he won't destroy the earth with a flood, but we do know that God will destroy this So, you know we fire later on so he puts that little thing there with a flood with water So I'm not gonna do it with that. Okay, and Just something I want to share with you guys I'm not gonna be dogmatic about this, but keep your finger there and turn to Revelation chapter 12, please Because there's a lot of parallels. There's always there's always a lot of parallels with the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation there's a lot of things that are parallel and There is a cryptic verse in the book of Revelation chapter Well, there's a lot of cryptic verses in the book of Revelation but Revelation chapter 12 verse 15 Revelation chapter 12 verse 15 and this of course is the vision of the woman that I told Before that I believe this woman Represents Eve as the mother of all living so it's the entire world the entire world's population And this woman is being persecuted by the dragon being persecuted by Satan and Satan's trying to destroy that woman And then it says here in verse number 15 And sorry before I read that and if that ties in with the first four seals of the book of Revelation Is that this isn't a persecution necessarily of believers? But the entire world is being Being is is on the tribulation The entire world is suffering from warfare from famines from sicknesses all those kinds of things and I believe this ties in later on here We've read revelation to the 12 verse 15 It says and the serpent that's the dragon that's that's a devil and the serpent cast out of his mouth Water as a flood after the woman now that woman represents all living You Know let's keep going that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood and the earth helped the woman and the earth Opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth There's a lot of people like what is this flood? What do you have opinions, you know? because the Bible doesn't really explain to us what this flood represents and you can either take that very literally a Flood of water or you can take it more symbolically of efforts and to say well, you know, these are the armies of the beast or the armies of Antichrist or you know Devils or whatever that are trying to persecute the woman now for me I generally the way I read my Bible I generally start with just a very literal reading and if the literal is just doesn't make sense You know you use common sense, right if the literal doesn't make sense. It's probably something figurative something symbolic, but I can't help and think There's no reason why this can't be literally in my opinion There's no reason why I don't see why the devil knowing that God promised man not to flood the earth ever again That he tries then to flood the earth. He tries to you know, break the promise that God has given man It just seems to make sense to me that somehow the devil has power of the winds of the earth Over the waters of the sea, you know, he's known also as the prince of the power of the air, you know So he might have some power and attempts to destroy the earth with a literal flood But of course God because of his promise cannot allow that and the earth opens up and takes all that water all that flood So the woman would not be destroyed. Okay now again, you don't have to believe like either just you know I just like seeing these parallels sometimes between the book of Revelation and the book of Genesis Back to Genesis chapter 9, please Genesis chapter 9 verse 12 Genesis 9 verse 12 and God said 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 I do set my bow in the cloud. It's the rainbow, right? God says look I'm gonna set that rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth and Brother Rob said he saw the rainbow on the drive here You know that should remind you that God has made a covenant God's made a promise that is not going to destroy the surf with a flood You know and maybe that's good for us because we're like God just destroy this place Destroy the wickedness and God says not yet rainbow. Maybe we need that reminder a little bit to go Okay. Well, you know, yeah, okay. God's not gonna destroy things just yet He's not going to destroy things with a flood and then he says Verse number 14 and It shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth and the bow shall be seen in the cloud But look at this. It's not just for us He says when he's when the when the when the rainbows there verse 15 and I will remember my covenant You know God when he sees the rainbow It's brought to his remembrance the covenant the agreement that he has with Noah Because maybe God is you know being filled up with wrath We know it's slow to anger and it's like maybe now is the time to take this these wicked people down are the rainbow Made that promise we've no so many of the Lord needs to you know That's a token for him to just remember. Oh, yeah, there is a time there is a point of time you know for the new heavens the new earth the destruction of the old earth all those kinds of things and God says look even he will look at that rainbow So when you look at the rainbow, you remember God's looking at that rainbow as well You know, it's bringing to remembrance the judgment that he brought upon the earth and that he won't do it again and Yeah, and I will look upon verse number 16 I will look upon it and I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and Every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth and God said unto Noah This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth So, you know, I don't blame God that he needs to look at the rainbow and be reminded that's remember You know the Covenant because you know, this this world is a wicked place and I can just imagine if he wasn't that rainbow You know if he wasn't that promised this world's problem would have been flooded several times by now You know, it definitely would be flooded around this time You know, this would be a time when you would expect God to to flood the earth once again Alright, so, you know, I think it's a it's a good time parents when you do see the rainbow kids love rainbows Generally speaking. They all look at the rainbow. It's a good time to teach your kids why it even exists Why is it there? You know, why does that come out? You know teach them the judgment of God teach them the promises of God as well And once God has promised something he is going to deliver that for us and he's promised us if it everlasting life Means definitely guaranteed. He's given us everlasting life that's number 18 verse number 18 and the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark was sham and ham and Japheth and ham is the father of Canaan so keep that in mind ham is the father of Canaan and Canaan would be the progenitor progenitor of the Canaanites You guys know the Canaanites that lived in the land of Canaan when Israel went into Canaan They had to you know, defeat them and overpower them So this is where they come from the the ancestor of the Canaanites was Canaan Who was the child of Ham and then verse 19 These are the three sons of Noah and of them was the whole earth overspread. I mean that that should be common sense I mean, this is a fact these are the descendants of Noah and by these three sons the entire world would be populated, you know, all of us are descendants of The three sons here that I mentioned sham sham ham or Japheth Okay, well, maybe probably even a mix of all this now, you know whether from where we are today But if you guys can just keep your finger there Oh, actually, let me just quickly explain to you about the the the names there sham ham and Japheth So you might be mistaken or thinking that sham is the eldest because every time the three are mentioned They're mentioned in that order, you know sham first So you might be mistaken or thinking sham is the eldest but it's not in the right order there if you guys can just turn To Genesis 10, please just the next chapter over Genesis 10 verse 21 Genesis chapter 10 verse 21 It says unto sham remember shams the first names unto sham also the father of all the children of Eber the brother of Japheth the elder Even to him were children born. So who's older? Japheth or Shem, it says Japheth Japheth the elder Okay, Japheth the older son now go back to Genesis 9 and just drop down to verse 24 quickly Genesis chapter 9 verse 24 It says and Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done unto him And that is a reference to ham Okay. So what we understand then with what Bible gives us is that Japheth is the oldest Then Shem is the middle child and ham is the youngest. Okay, so sometimes God puts things in a specific order because the one that's been named first is and it has a higher prominence and From Shem would come ultimately the Israelites Okay, so that's why you know that he's named first is because we do follow that boat that descendency We follow that line, of course Israelites and all that kind of stuff. So that's why it's it's in that water for you So in case you were wondering verse number 21, please Genesis 921 Genesis 9. Sorry 20 20 Genesis 9 20 and This is where we get a really bad story about Noah, you know, but Noah really messes up here Okay. Now I don't know how long afterwards this happened because Noah lived some 900 years was have a look later 950 years I think it was and of course he was 601 years old when the foot went and got from that so This could happen any time. We've within a spectrum of 300 years We don't know exactly how you know how long this took Before this happened and it says and Noah began verse 20 and Noah began to be a husband man And he planted a vineyard and is there anything wrong with plants in a vineyard? No, I feel you're growing grapes You know grapes are a grapefruit a lot of health benefits. But what did he do? What's his mistake? He made alcohol out of it He made this is the first mention of wine in the Bible an immediate alcoholic wine that is fermented alcoholic wine and immediately First time you see it. It's a disaster, you know, and that's that's just going to continue that same theme throughout the Bible And then it says verse 21 and he drank of the wine and was drunken and he was uncovered within his tent So what happens he drinks his alcohol? I don't know. We don't know why I can kind of probably understand when your entire world's been destroyed You know, you're still gonna be attached to some of that this you know It's a major thing that happened in his life and I can just imagine him trying to find some Comfort instead of going to the Lord like many people do he picks up the bottle You know thinks that alcohol thinks that some some type of drug is going to help him through his sorrow And then he gets drunken and what's a natural consequence of getting drunk? He's naked says he was uncovered within his tents. It doesn't have any clothes on he's naked All right, and I'll just quickly read to you from Proverbs chapter 20 verse 1 It says wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived Thereby is not wise So what do we understand from Proverbs Noah was at a stage here where he was not wise he was not wise You know wine had been a mocker to him Okay, he had given himself to the to the power to the control over alcohol alcohol here. And again, I Appreciate this detail that we get in the Bible. I mean this just reminds me that Noah did not write Genesis right because we see so many good qualities about Noah and someone might say well, you know, it's just man right in the Bible Yeah, but would you write about yourself getting drunk and naked? No, I mean, this is definitely the Word of God and we see great men, but then we see their failures Okay, and this is just to remind us to to you know, look up to these men in the sense You know be encouraged by the great works They do be encouraged by their faith, you know aim to be faithful like these men But also when we make mistakes that we don't beat ourselves up because we then look at no It's it will you know, even though a messed up and if Noah can mess up, you know I guess you know I've got to realize that I'm gonna mess up and I need to pick myself up and Continue trying to serve the Lord with the best of my ability. That's why God gives us these these things It's not just all these men are perfect and I had that Misunderstanding as a child as a child going to my Baptist Church into the Sunday school lessons, you know We heard about the great men of God and all I ever heard was the great qualities about them And then one day when I started reading my Bible, I'm like what? What is this? Am I read am I reading the same stuff that I was taught in Sunday school? You know what all these men all these all these Wow I can't believe it and I remember when Christina got saved and she started to read her Bible and she's like Can you believe you know Abraham did this, you know what, you know, because obviously in the Catholic Church are not teaching You know about you know These men and the mistakes they made but the mistakes are there so we can learn from them There's number 22 verse number 22 So we Abraham is naked in his tents and says and ham the father of Canaan So we know that already saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without so the two brethren were outside of the tent He goes and tell his two brethren and Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went Backward and cover the nakedness of the father so they go backwards They don't want to look at their father's nakedness and they bring a covering and they cover their father verse number 24 and Noah awoke from his wine and Knew what his youngest son had done unto him and he said cursed be Canaan a servant of servants Shall he be unto his brethren? now The Bible does not make it abundantly clear as to what happened Okay, we don't know we don't really know What happened some speculate to say that there was some type of homosexual activity here? Okay, because it's not just the look upon that he would you know of his nakedness But when he wakes up Noah says he knew what his younger son had done unto him So maybe there was something physical that had taken place there which be extremely gross which extremely wicked, you know And I you know, I can understand why some people believe that I don't think I can be that You know, I don't think the Bible is that clear. I don't think I was that clear It leaves it a bit, you know a Vegas to what happened, but we do understand In light of what's going on if we if we understand the book of Genesis, we understand nakedness We keep it within the same theme of what we've seen from previous chapters. I think we can understand what's going on Okay, what exactly transpired I can't be a hundred percent sure but I think we get the message we get the message as to what's Going on and if you remember so let me just let me just explain what happened So Noah falls, you know gets drunk gets naked and then ham finds out about it. Okay, he goes into the into the tent Instead of covering his father like his other brethren did instead of covering his father, you know, he goes and tells his brethren and The two other sons back they don't look at his father they don't want to look at his shame they they cover him. Okay now Obviously, this is not the first time we read about nakedness in the in the book of Genesis The first time we read about nakedness is of course Adam and Eve and they were created They were both naked Bible tells us but then in Genesis 3 after they partake of the fruit of From the tree of good and good and evil the Bible says their eyes were opened remember that and they they realized they were naked Okay, and as soon as Adam and Eve realized they were naked what were they trying to do Immediately, they they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings aprons of like aprons aprons of fig leaves They tried to cover themselves. Okay, that's the immediate response. We're naked. We need to cover ourselves. They knew that Okay, that's just that's common sense. That's why you put on clothes this morning. You just knew I had to cover myself, right and And then of course God Realizes what they cover themselves with is not sufficient, you know pictures like workspace gospel But I also believe it wasn't sufficient to cover the nakedness and shame So God created coats of skin for them now even not only man realizes they must be covered when they're naked But then God also, you know Sees it fit to cover someone that is naked So we follow the theme that we have in the book of Genesis Then we get to Genesis chapter 9 here and we see now Nate and Nora is naked and what should have happened with him He should have been covered, right? I mean what ham should have done when he if he came into the tent by accident is all my dad's naked I'm gonna quickly cover him to protect his shame Okay to protect his shame to not make him, you know feel embarrassed But instead of doing that he doesn't cover his father and he goes and tells his brothers All right, so we can see what the lesson there is Okay, is that we should obviously cover out nakedness, you know, we should not look upon those that are naked You know, that's why I don't go to the beach. That's why I don't go to public places where people are in their underwear Okay Because there is a opportunity of temptation there and I don't want to open myself up to that to that I don't want to look at nakedness. We see immediately the lesson that's been taught here Is that him had done wrong by not covering his father but the other two sons did right they covered the nakedness They did not want to look upon their father at all and they covered him covered his shame so the I want you to focus on the Principle here the main lesson rather than necessary the specific because I don't think we can definitely be sure as to what took place Now if you guys can keep your finger there and turn to Isaiah 47, please Isaiah 47 verse 2 Now I've not taught on nakedness yet Okay, I do plan in the near future to preach a sermon on modesty and nakedness. Okay and talk about clothing But just to give you just one thought before that sermon go to Isaiah 47 verse 2 Because what constitutes as nakedness, you know and here we have a passage Isaiah 47 verse 2 and this of course would not be a passage that would be popular on the Sunshine Coast Okay, but here it is Isaiah 47 verse 2 the Bible says take the millstones and grind mill uncover thy locks make bear the leg uncover the thigh pass over the rivers Thy nakedness shall be uncovered Yea thy shame shall be seen I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man So just very quickly we've seen verse number three that thy nakedness shall be uncovered and what was uncovered in verse number two It said there uncover the thigh Do you know your thigh is nakedness? It's what the Bible teaches, you know, your thigh is nakedness and I you know I can't even drive down this road cloud road without seeing nakedness Okay, I mean it's it's already something that we should not be looking upon and we should not be dressing in a way that uncovers Our thighs because when we uncover our thighs, we're showing our shame We're showing our nakedness, you know, and we're causing other people to sin because of our you know Our negligence not only you sinning by uncovering your nakedness. You're causing other people to sin when they can see your nakedness Okay, so this should be important for children of God, okay, especially it's hard in places like Queensland It's hard in places like the Sunshine Coast because there's so much Sun because there's so much Beach Yeah, you want to get out there and have a swim? I understand all those kinds of things but you got to keep in mind what the Word of God says I'm sure God wants you to enjoy the water I'm sure God wants you to enjoy the beaches, but you're also a child of God Am I going to uncover my nakedness am I going to go somewhere where people are uncovered in nakedness? Or am I going to be a child of God and find myself and and and enjoy myself in other places where I don't have to Uncover the nakedness of other people. All right, and someone says well I can go to the beach and not be tempted That's a lie. That's a lie. Okay, because we're all made of the same flesh and blood, you know We're all made from the same flesh and blood We're all going to be tempted if you were to look upon, you know, the nakedness of the opposite sex It's just that's just that's how it is. That's the makeup. That's why you got to avoid these things It's why you got to cover up. Okay, so I'll get into a sermon one day about that I'm in the near future, but I just wanted to give you a point there and we can see how you know How God really emphasizes, you know the covering of nakedness and we can see why you know No Was so angered with his son because he hadn't covered him up I hadn't covered up and maybe maybe done something worse than that. Okay. Now go back to Genesis chapter 9, please Genesis chapter 9 Let's look at verse number 25 again, so remember this was ham It was ham that had not covered his father, but then in verse 25 it says and he said Cursed be Canaan. Who's Canaan the son of Ham? Okay, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. So some people have misinterpreted this passage because ham that the you know the Africans, you know the continent of Africa Africans are descendants of ham Okay And so some people have said well God cursed ham and that's why you know Africans in general are poorer people, you know, they suffer poverty They have you know several sicknesses, you know They don't have what they need to live good comfortable lives and they're still suffering the curse that came upon ham You know in those days, but the curse did not come upon him Okay I want you to understand that the curse came upon Canaan and Canaan was you know, the ancestor of the Canaanites Okay, not of the Africans but of the Canaanites. So a lot of people will get that wrong for some reason I don't know why it's not it's not really that hard to get right All right, so about some people really make that mistake and they feel like Africans today the black people You know are cursed by by God or something. That's that's not true. That's a wrong interpretation But then he says in verse number 26 look at verse 26 and he said blessed be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servants. So I already mentioned that the Israelites would ultimately become descendants of Shem so what Abraham sorry what Noah did I say Abraham before one right and Noah, right? Noah is kind of prophesying about the future descendants of his children He says here that Canaan shall be the servant of Shem And of course we know the story that the Israelites would go into the land of Canaan They would defeat the Canaanites and they would have power over that region And so it's like Noah already had some knowledge some prophecy about that and what he spoke obviously came true and then verse number 27 God shall enlarge Japheth and now Japheth is the ancestor of the of the Like the Europeans Okay, the Europeans and it says he God shall enlarge him and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. So I think again what Noah is saying here Or prophesying of is that the European nations would would be strong would be great upon the earth and again We've seen that you know in human history that they often have positions of power over other over other nations All right, so then verse number 28 we're almost done now verse number 28 and Noah lived after the flood 350 years and all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died so no only no one lived 950 years. Here's the third oldest person that you read about in the Bible, you know, the oldest person was Methuselah He lived at nine hundred and sixty nine years. The second eldest was Jared, which was Enoch's father He lives 962 years and Noah lived a long life of 950 years. That's what I've got for you today. Let's pray