Sunday School - Genesis - After the Flood 02

[0:00] Genesis chapter 8, we're coming out of the ark. We've just come out of the ark. Look at verses 13 through 22 again, if you would please. And Noah and the family were in that ark for about a year before they lifted the cover and God told them to get out.

[0:34] So what did Noah do then upon vacating the ark? He built an altar and he did, on that, what was the altar for?

[0:51] What did he do? He sacrificed animals, a pair of the clean animals, as a burnt offering to the Lord.

[1:06] Now, we don't know that he was commanded to do so, but I kind of, for whatever reason, I rather think that he probably understood that he ought to.

[1:22] The Lord, was the Lord pleased with that? I'm sorry? Yes. He was pleased.

[1:32] In fact, it says in verse 21 what? He smelled it. This is an anthropomorphic expression, I think, for God.

[1:42] I don't know that his olfactory is the same as mine. I'm fairly sure they're not. But God smelled the soothing aroma.

[1:53] And he was pleased with the sacrifice. Then, what does God say about that? Or what does God say, not necessarily about the sacrifice, but it's in verse 21.

[2:12] God makes a statement. Okay, what is the statement? He'll never destroy everything by water.

[2:33] Right? Or, well, he does say, here he doesn't actually say it by water. He will in a minute. He will in a couple of verses.

[2:44] But he says, I won't destroy everything. But he doesn't stop there. This next phrase struck me as interesting.

[2:56] What does he say? Well, that's good, but I'm still back in 21.

[3:17] As I have done. Now, that struck me as a little bit interesting.

[3:37] Somebody pull up Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6, verses 5 through 7. And it probably struck me as interesting because I was reading them all in a line when I read it.

[4:00] And I was reminded of this verse. Now, what does he say there in chapter 6? It's almost the same word.

[4:14] Almost the same words, but what does he say about it? I regret. Yeah, I'm sorry.

[4:25] I made them on the earth. And he decides he's going to destroy the earth. But now, after the flood, he uses almost the same wording, for the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth.

[4:41] Now, so I got to, I said, what am I going to do with that? Because I got a little bit confused.

[4:54] This sounds like God's changing his mind about what he's going to do about this. The hitch for me lay in that conjunction word there.

[5:12] For the imagination of his heart. That word is used two different ways. You know the 23rd Psalm, right?

[5:27] Let's walk through the valley. Yea, though I walk, that's the same word as is used here. Through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

[5:47] Same word. In Psalm 23, it's translated though the first time and for the second time.

[5:59] One is a coordinating and one is a subordinating. That is, this is the reason for it and this is an although.

[6:14] That helped me a great deal when I read this to not see, to say, well, there's not necessarily a contradiction. It's how we translate the word into English.

[6:25] because if I look at that and I say, well, God said I regret because or for the imagination of man's heart is always evil.

[6:44] And here, after the flood, he says, though the imagination of his heart is always evil, I will not do this again.

[7:00] Now, does he do it again? No. Well, not yet. In the future.

[7:11] What does he do ultimately instead? And this is where we live right now, isn't it? He provided grace.

[7:24] Instead of the great judgment, we don't have to pass through judgment. We can, metaphorically, get on the ark. Now, there will be a day when that time of grace is passed and God shuts that door.

[7:45] I think that's why the apostle Peter later late in his life when he's writing the letter. I think it's 1 Peter.

[7:56] He says, today is the day of salvation. You know, get on now. Okay, so, now let's go to verse 22.

[8:12] He makes a promise. and this is for me who watch the news and hear every day that if we don't quit doing this or that, the earth is going to die.

[8:32] What does God say? What's he say? not now. I can almost imagine that God says, I'm reading into it, so I'm not trying to, don't say Roger said that God believes this.

[8:58] But, I can almost imagine that God says, who are you, oh man, to think that you're going to control this? what did Nebuchadnezzar, see, we can jump clear away from, way back into Daniel from, from Genesis because you, you have studied these verses for many years.

[9:28] Nebuchadnezzar recognized Daniel, right? And, well, right, see, I'm, I'm insisting that you agree. Nebuchadnezzar recognized Daniel, however, he kind of forgot some of the lessons Daniel had taught him, and one day, Nebuchadnezzar is out on the parapet of his castle, or temple, or wherever it was he lives, and he's looking out across Babylon and he says, look at this city that I have made.

[10:06] look what I've done. See, he had had a dream some years before, and Daniel had interpreted the dream for him and said, Nebuchadnezzar, this is what you ought to do.

[10:26] You ought to repent and turn from the evil and recognize or submit to the God of heaven, because his dream had told him that this great tree was going to get cut down.

[10:52] And yet there'd be a stalk that would spring up, and eventually he'd come back. Well, instead of avoiding it, he went through the prophecy, didn't he?

[11:07] You remember that? So what happened to Nebuchadnezzar when he said that? He lost his mind, basically. he became as a beast.

[11:19] They drove him from Babylon, they let him rummage around in the grass. It says that he ate grass like an ox, the hair on his body grew like birds' feathers, his fingernails and toenails grew like claws.

[11:37] But then he says something really wonderful in there, and it's Nebuchadnezzar's words that Daniel is penning here. He says, after seven years, I came to my, I recognized that the God of heaven controls the affairs of mankind.

[12:05] Basically, he said, God is sovereign, the God of heaven, the God of Israel, Jehovah, is sovereign in the earth over the affairs of men. And he said, at the time that I recognized God, my sanity returned.

[12:24] That's pretty universal, isn't it? The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

[12:36] These are going to be basically quotations. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the holy is understanding. It's kind of that way for all of us, isn't it?

[12:48] At the time that we came and recognized our sinfulness and what God has done, and God supreme, our senses kind of came around.

[13:02] We submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. We asked for forgiveness. This is grace. Nebuchadnezzar before the Lord Jesus Christ, before the cross, recognized God as sovereign, and his senses returned.

[13:21] They came and got him. They brought him back. He was restored to his kingdom. That was a long way around to come back to, who am I to think that I'm going to control the world?

[13:38] Now, there is going to be a personification of a person who is going to make every attempt to do that. I personally believe we're not going to see him.

[13:55] My amillennial brethren planned to see him. I thought, you can stick around, brother. I'm going with the rapture, you know. But, I nevertheless, God here makes a promise.

[14:11] And he says, as long as the earth remains, the seasons are going to keep going. Now, I don't want to set up a complete straw man.

[14:23] There is, there are statements in Revelation, you know, that, okay, while the earth remains, a third of it's going to be burned, a third of the water is going to be destroyed, a third of the life, basically by thirds.

[14:44] Those are in the judgments in Revelation, I think, what, chapter 6 or so. Nevertheless, God says it's not all going to end yet.

[15:00] He has it under control. And He has a sign. We know Paul in Athens said that before times God winked at, now that doesn't mean that He said it was okay necessarily, it just, whatever He means by winked at, that's what Paul said.

[15:26] But, He has appointed a time for judgment. And, it will come.

[15:39] It will come. So, until that time though, the seasons will always be here. By the way, I just looked up a couple of things.

[15:55] this is a reprint from the webpage of BLM. I thought I'd surprise you with that. We always think of one thing now, don't we?

[16:09] This is Bureau of Land Management. See? See where we are now?

[16:19] 20 years ago, we would have, we wouldn't have, that wouldn't have popped into head, would it? Not even 10 years ago, right?

[16:33] Right. Well, okay, so, paleontology in Alaska. They have an article, and I want to point out just a couple of things about this because this also flies into the, we've been in Genesis with creation.

[16:57] Let's try that again. Creation. You'll not evolution. Now, evolution, the word, the definition of the word, is active.

[17:17] Evolution, as in switching species, moving from one to another species, is not. That's a, okay.

[17:31] What's the logical fallacy that's presented there? Equivocation. You, you, when you talk to someone who is convincing you or attempting to convince you of evolution, they will look at livestock, wild animals, adaptation to certain conditions, and they will, and that is, and they'll say, they'll, that's evolution, and then they'll say that's proof of evolution, evolution, as in, simplistic cell going to a complex cell, or multiple cells.

[18:19] See, that's the equivocation. Adaptations occur, transmigration of species does not.

[18:31] In fact, in fact, within kinds, horses bred with donkeys produce mules.

[18:51] So now, you take the mules and reproduce them, right? Nope, they're sterile. it won't work. Even when you manipulate it, it won't work.

[19:06] So, that's something to keep in mind. You know, they're fixed. The species are fixed, not the people.

[19:25] Okay, prey. On the north slope of Alaska, now, this is way up there at the oil field area.

[19:38] North slope of Alaska, 12 types of dinosaurs have been uncovered. Interestingly enough, most of them are plant eaters.

[19:50] now, if you've seen pictures or you have had the great fortune of being there, I have never been there, but you get that far north and you're not going to get plants that these things can live on, are you?

[20:12] Now, there are, by the way, both woody and fern-like plants that are fossilized that far north.

[20:27] What does that, in fact, in Antarctica as well, what does that tell you? It was warm at one time, wasn't it?

[20:41] it was warm at one time, fauna and flora flourished all over the earth at one time.

[20:54] So, this is going to, this flood is going to change some things, isn't it? But, these people, in this article, it says that the scientists are wondering how did these animals survive the long cold?

[21:16] Well, they're eating plants, so maybe it wasn't as cold as once it was. of course, these are 70 million years, give or take 10.

[21:36] And, but in the next paragraph, as they're talking about the severe cold and how they must have lived through it, in the next paragraph, they said it was an Alaska that was warmer than it now is.

[21:57] Now, I know this is, this is a governmental release, I know that. But, you got the same thing if you went to the Smithsonian Institute's website and looked at paleontology and the Arctic and Antarctic.

[22:13] So, there's a dichotomous ability there, isn't there, to split it, say one thing here and one thing there. the whole point being when God promised that it's not going to change because of me anymore.

[22:37] The whole creation fell, why? Because a man sinned.

[22:48] man. The whole creation will be redeemed because of Jesus Christ's faithfulness and sinlessness and his sacrifice.

[23:03] He said, just as in one man death came to all, so life will come to all through one man. man.

[23:14] He calls him the second Adam, doesn't he? So, that was just a little extra thrown in there to show that even in today's society, we have to be careful when we look at science to look at the science part and not the presuppositional part.

[23:44] Because, as you will see, if you've ever been to the creation museum, you will see regularly all the scientists, all the paleontologists are looking at the same evidence.

[24:00] But they're coming away with radically different conclusions. Yeah, based on where you start, right? Based on your presupposition to begin with.

[24:14] See, I didn't mean to get off on paleontology, but we're approaching the fair ministry.

[24:32] One thing about paleontology is it can't be reproduced. It doesn't stand up to the scientific method as far as replication.

[24:45] In fact, Richard Dawkins made a statement, something along the line that, well, we do see evolution, we just don't see it happening.

[24:56] I mean, I could almost get a Nobel Prize off that, couldn't I?

[25:10] So, well, that's a little unfair, but I had to poke that. Okay, so, God promises that that's not going to happen that way.

[25:26] Again, let's go into chapter nine then. Look at the first seven verses of chapter nine. to whom is God speaking in these seven verses?

[25:55] Noah and his sons and their wives, presumably, right? Noah, the people, the humans who came off the ark.

[26:07] Okay, that's who's being addressed. So, what does he say to them? Well, first of all, we don't, it's not in a quotation, I don't know that he said it, but he makes, what's the very first statement there?

[26:23] God did what? He blessed them. Who'd he bless? Which sons?

[26:35] Okay, remember that, we're going to see, we're going to see that before very long. Something's going to pop up, isn't it? You already, you who have studied already know that something's going to pop up about that, but remember this, God blessed all of them, there.

[26:56] Now, does God know what's going to happen in 10 years? Does God understand technology?

[27:11] Does he? If you ask the normal child now, does God understand rockets or space travel or, what do you think their answer would be?

[27:29] right? Well, their answer would probably be, what have they been taught? If there is a God at all, they've been taught he's some, this ancient old guy, kind of like your great grandpa, you know, that doesn't, he's not all there.

[27:54] He can't do the phone, he has to have his grandchild do the phone, right? That's not God. God created all of this from nothing.

[28:08] He knows. So, he knows what's going to happen here with the family, doesn't he? Yet, I need to remember that. Another example would be Jesus.

[28:23] In fact, we hit on it last week. Jesus collected the twelve. He said, have I not chosen all of you yet?

[28:35] One of you is, it was a pretty big statement, one of you is a devil. Now, who chose him? Did he know what Judas would do?

[28:50] Okay, I want to keep that in my mind because God's not being surprised here, is he? He's not getting surprised and saying, oh man, I should have thought of that.

[29:04] Didn't see that one coming. I can be surprised. God cannot. God okay, so he's talking to Noah and his sons.

[29:19] One of the things that we see here, we have seen in chapter one of Genesis. The other things that he says are different than we've ever seen before.

[29:32] Which one have we seen before? Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, right? Okay.

[29:45] What have we not seen before that we see here differently? That's one.

[29:57] I almost heard it. I heard the word fear. Put that in context. What? Now, the animals will fear men.

[30:19] Okay. We haven't seen that before. What else have we not seen before? The animals will be now food for mankind.

[30:36] Now, I don't know if any men were eating animals before, but now God ordains it. What distinctions does he make?

[30:54] Okay. Does he tell them not to eat of the unclean? When will he say that?

[31:05] At the law. To whom will he say that? To the Jews at the Mount Sinai. Now, why did they get the dietary restriction and I didn't?

[31:20] yeah.

[31:32] Yeah. There it is. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 6 through 9.

[31:58] This is the reason the Jews were given the dietary restriction. I'll begin it and you finish it.

[32:11] For you are a to the Lord your God. What does that word holy mean? Set apart.

[32:23] That's important for me to remember. It does not, it can incorporate righteousness and ought to, but the word literally means to be separated from or set apart from for a special purpose.

[32:42] that is why, by the way, when God spoke to Aaron, he said, Aaron, when Aaron's sons die, you may not take off the ephod, you may not go out of the tabernacle, you have been sanctified, you have been anointed with the oil, you are holy to the Lord, and you may not defile yourself even with your sons.

[33:15] That's a big deal, isn't it? So, let's go here to Deuteronomy. You are a holy people, okay? I have chosen, God has chosen you to be a people of his own possession out of all the peoples of the earth, or who are on the face of the earth.

[33:40] Verse 7, the Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any of the peoples, because you were the fewest.

[33:54] But why? Verse 8, why did he choose you? Because he chose you, yeah. He loved you, and he kept the oath which he made to your forefathers.

[34:10] Three names, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, those three are who he's referring to when he says your forefathers.

[34:25] believers. So, it is because, now I skipped it and I used the wrong, I used the wrong reference there, I see that now, but he will say, he will say later that it is because, I think it's in Leviticus, it's because you are a holy people and set apart that I am, that you are to make a distinction between the clean and the unclean.

[35:08] He said, you make that distinction in your diet because you're going to be different than everybody else. It's given in the same section, you'll be able to find it.

[35:22] I'm sorry, I wrote my wrong reference down. But, you'll be able to find it. It's given in the same section where they also, and on equal footing with, don't trim, don't trim your beard, don't touch the side locks of your hair, that's why you'll see the Hasidics with the, you know, the long braided sideburn, or side lock.

[35:49] that has nothing to do with diet, does it? But he's setting them apart. He's also going to say, you're not going to, he's going to give all manner of laws that set them apart from all peoples.

[36:09] Like, you don't, you don't weave, don't weave your clothing with two kinds of fabric. none of this cotton wool blend for you, buddy.

[36:25] No, that's serious, that is what he said. It's always been interesting to me why the kings started to ride mules when they weren't allowed to breed them.

[36:38] Because Israel was not permitted to breed two kinds, two species together.

[36:50] So, the donkeys and the horses were not to be underbred. They weren't even supposed to sow beans and corns in the same field, right?

[37:05] But, now, to grow succotash, right? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Now, the point of it is, God set Israel apart.

[37:17] He gave them the law. He gave them 630 some laws. He gave us grace. Am I thankful for that?

[37:30] Could you imagine getting up and trying to figure out what he provided sacrifices, sacrifices, by the way, for sins committed in ignorance?

[37:47] In fact, he required sacrifices. On the day of atonement, the priest was to sacrifice for sin he had committed that he didn't even know about. So, when somebody says, oh, don't worry about it, it's not really wrong, God knows your heart.

[37:59] Yeah, he does. Yes, he does. He knows my heart a whole lot better than I do. That's why the priest was supposed to provide sacrifice.

[38:13] Before he could touch the ram of atonement, he had to provide a sacrifice for sins committed in ignorance. And then the people had to commit, had to provide sacrifice for sins committed in ignorance.

[38:29] It's not just what I know. I'm thankful that God uses broken vessels in his work.

[38:43] Because I have a lot of cracks and holes. You know, Wesley wrote a book, and in that book, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, he reorganized sin a little bit.

[38:59] Where he said, it is a known, or a purposeful transgression of a known law of God. But the priest had to make sacrifice for things they didn't even know they did.

[39:15] It didn't have to be purposeful. They were still unclean. Okay, back to the real point, though. Okay, what's he say to them in verse 2?

[39:27] 2, this is one we've seen. We saw this. You've already said it, but we're going to refresh. Chapter 9, verse 2. Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.

[39:42] So now, verses 3 through 6, chapter 9 of Genesis, 3 through 6. The animals will now fear man, right? Man's diet has been ordained to expand to include flesh.

[39:57] But he does give one caveat there. There is a restriction.

[40:11] Not with the blood. Because the life you shall not eat. Now, we're going to get into that.

[40:24] One more thing about that. Back up to the Jews and the law and the diet and the grace. In the day of grace, how are we supposed to approach our food?

[40:40] No, not frequently. That's what I do. But that's not what I meant. With thanksgiving, because in 1 Timothy, Paul says, look, the false teachers are going to say abstain from certain foods.

[41:00] But you, man of God, you don't do that. You say everything is good because it's sanctified with prayer and thanksgiving.

[41:14] Actually, it's good being sanctified by prayer. 1 Timothy, chapter 4. In Corinthians, the question came up, how about this eating of food we buy in the shambles, in the marketplace?

[41:35] Because it's probably been sacrificed to an idol or something. What does Paul say? Eat it.

[41:46] But don't ask questions. Don't go to your host. Well, you come to the host. And the host says this has been sacrificed to, and I don't know who all Corinth may have had.

[42:05] They would have been Grecian idols. Yeah, we'll just say Diana. Okay, so this pork loin has been, well, no, that won't work.

[42:23] No, this beef loin has been, I don't want to confuse it. This beef loin has been sacrificed to Diana, but here it is, and man, is this good.

[42:34] Then, if this is a brother in the Lord, he said, if his conscience isn't defiled to eat it, you eat it.

[42:48] But if he says, I don't know if we ought to eat this because this has been sacrificed to Diana, then don't eat it.

[42:59] Don't trouble him over that. You know, maybe later, and we see that in Romans too, maybe Romans as well, maybe later his faith will be strengthened and he'll be able to eat it without worrying about it.

[43:20] But I am thankful for grace in that too. I do like, I do like my pork. I do like, you know, the worst thing at breakfast is, sorry, Harry, there's no more bacon.

[43:38] No, that's only a joke. But today, we're not restricted. Not only are we not Jews, but the law has been nailed to the cross.

[43:49] We are no longer under law. We are under grace. In fact, the whole law was given to make Jews different, but also we see that the law was given to drive me to Christ.

[44:10] The law was given as a tutor to show me I can't be good enough. Read the Sermon on the Mount again, because when Jesus said, you have heard it said that you shall not do this, that's all from the law.

[44:27] He didn't say they're saying things that weren't in the law. That was from the law. But he expands it to say, but I say to you, that if you even think it, it's a sin.

[44:41] That shows me there's no way I'm good enough, isn't it? There's no way I'm coming to God except through Jesus Christ.

[44:54] I'm glad for the grace of God. So, the animals will now fear man. Now, the one dietary restriction we'll look at later.

[45:06] Sorry, I forgot what time it was. Have a great morning.