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Bob Davis: God makes a covenant. It's called the Noahic covenant. It is unconditional. Man doesn't have to do anything. God knows man is rotten and Satan is already in—he hasn't gone away. You'll see that before the end of the chapter. Satan will show up and cause a little trouble.

And God knows that. But he says this is a promise, the covenant, and it's unconditional. No matter how rotten you get, no matter how ugly—and it got bad before—but no matter from this moment on how ugly it becomes, I will not ever, ever flood the entire earth.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply his Word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Our study of Genesis continues in chapter nine as Noah and his family leave the ark and God establishes the Noahic covenant. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Verse one says, "God blessed Noah." Maybe before we go any further, if you're a Bible underliner, that's something. God blessed Noah and his sons, the families. And he said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth," the literal language just like in chapter two.

"Fill the earth. And the fear of you," you humans, "and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air and upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon the fishes in the sea; into your hand they're delivered." In other words, you take care of everything.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. It doesn't say "yay," that's commentary. "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, you shall not eat."

Okay, first of all, God blessed Noah. Now, everybody, God has blessed you. And once we come to Jesus Christ, we realize he has blessed us. And we should be yelling out like Tevye, "L'chaim!" To life, to life. God's given us eternal life. God's given us a free gift of salvation.

And maybe we're in pain. Maybe your leg hurts, and maybe your feet hurt, or maybe nobody knows how hard it is to be you, but there is something that you can say: "I got life. I got life." We may not have much money, but if we have enough for ice cream, who cares how much we have? We can get ice cream, and the whole world is a better place. So don't forget that. God blessed Noah.

It's like Noah and his wife and his family are given a brand new life. Just as God said to Adam and Eve, "Here you go. Everything is perfect. Go out there and fill the earth." God says that from this time forward, I will put fear, literally the fright of you humans, upon every beast of the earth.

Now wait a minute, there's something missing here. Every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, upon all the fishes of the sea, but something is missing. And if you go back to chapters one, two, and three, you'll notice that cattle are mentioned.

Cattle are mentioned. The cattle aren't mentioned here. And I thought, "Now why aren't they mentioned?" Bible scholars suggest that the term "cattle" doesn't only mean cows. The term cattle in certain particular instances refers to the domesticated animals. There are some animals that don't have the fear of mankind is what he's saying, but most of the animals will have the fear because God put the fear of you in them.

And now the Lord changes mankind's diet. They were just eating fruits and vegetables and roots and some stuff like that, but God changes it. Now they can also eat any of the animals. Now the law is given, so there's not yet a distinction when it comes to food, a distinction between clean and unclean. So they probably had pork for sure. But at this time, no restrictions. All animals could be food for Noah and his family, and that includes us as well.

The law was given specifically—the Mosaic Covenant given specifically to the Jewish people. So there were certain things they couldn't eat, certain things they could. But notice the Lord Jesus Christ does not put one stipulation on the food that we can eat. But he does put one stipulation for all of us in the verses here, and what is it? The eating of the blood. The animal with the blood still in it is forbidden as soon as they leave the ark.

Why? Because the blood is the life itself. The idea is that the blood of the animal must be drained out. You know what that suggests? That the animal wouldn't be just violently killed and ripped apart and eaten. The suggestion here is that the animal would be killed in a merciful manner, like hunters are trained nowadays. You're just not out there to destroy animals. There are certain things you want to do, there's certain ways you want to do it, you want to be humane about this.

And that's kind of what God's pointing at. But of course, the blood, you know what it represents. It's the life, and God will talk to them about that in the law. But Jesus taught you and me and everybody that would listen to him the very same thing about eating. Let me read Mark chapter seven, verses 14 through 16.

Listen now. "Jesus, when he had called all the people unto himself, he said to them, 'Hearken unto me every one of you and understand. Listen and understand. There is nothing from outside of man that enters into him that can defile that man. Not what you eat, not what you drink, there's nothing from the outside that can defile you. But the things which come out of you, those are the things that defile the man. So if any man,' Jesus says, 'has an ear, let him hear it.'"

It's not what you eat and don't eat that's the problem, everybody. And the Jewish people, he's speaking to them as well, and remember they couldn't do this and they couldn't do that, and you couldn't have none of those and some of these. They were picky and choosy, and they called it obeying God, but basically it was religion. And their hearts were far away from God.

We can do the right things for the wrong reasons, and that makes them useless. You belong to the Lord, and you know you're saved by grace through faith. You're free to eat whatever you want. If you want to eat bugs, I don't know why, but do that, I guess. Protein. And that's clear throughout Scripture, way back here in Genesis chapter nine, verse five.

"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 every man, at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Meaning whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. And you be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein."

God now reminds Noah and his family, and he's teaching us how precious human life really is. In fact, right before the flood, and one of the reasons for this worldwide flood, we are told that violence and bloodshed filled the earth. They were murdering, they were probably warring, fighting tribe against tribe, this neighborhood against that neighborhood, this big city over here and there's one across, and they're fighting. The earth was filled with violence and bloodshed. God is saying that violence will no longer go unchecked.

If you take someone's life, your life will be taken. And he'll put that in the law: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, etc. God says no more. God sets up the idea of human authority, which we get government from. The idea is simple: if you take someone's life, the authority has the duty to take yours. You'll see governments will be formed, and that's what he's talking about.

So everybody, you put it all together. God sets up the idea of government, of authority. Whoever takes another person's life, his or her life is to be taken because mankind is created in the very image of God. Now, when I say that, a few people have asked me questions about the image of God. Listen, God doesn't have a body. So don't you walk around thinking you look just like him.

No, we are in his image, the kind of character he has, a personality, he has emotions. We are in his image, but no, he doesn't look like this. He's beautiful, but he's a spirit. Now Jesus Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. Yes, he is in a resurrected body, but God Almighty is a spirit. So when you're made in his image, it doesn't mean he's got hands and feet and this. He's a spirit.

Because mankind is created in the image of God, those who take another person's life will answer to God immediately. Dr. Walvoord wrote this: "To attack another human being is to attack God Almighty himself because that human being, whether you liked them or not, is made in the image of God."

That's how special everyone of you is to God. You may not think so, and everybody may be putting you down and say this, that, and the other, but that's how special because he created mankind, men and women, in his own image. Life is precious. Even the life in the womb is precious, and no one has the right to take that.

So look at this, verse eight. God spoke to Noah and his sons with him, saying, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you." When he says "you" and with the seed after you, it's not just with Noah and his family, it's with all the human race. And with every living creature. That's a covenant even with the animals and the birds and the fishes.

And it's with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle—notice he mentions cattle now—of every beast of the earth with you, from all that go out of the ark to every beast of the planet, of the earth. "And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy," the language is the entire planet.

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." In other words, till death do we part, forever until there's no more earth. "I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud up in the sky. And I will remember my covenant." God sees the rainbow too. Do you think God's going to forget? No, but don't you love that? He goes, "When you see it, you'll remember and when I see it, I'll remember too." Got a guarantee I'll never break my promise.

"I will remember my covenant which is between you and me and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all living, all that has the breath of life. And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."

And God said unto Noah, "This is the token of the covenant which I've established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth." God makes a covenant. It's called the Noahic covenant. It is unconditional. Man doesn't have to do anything. God knows man is rotten, and Satan is around and he'll get to them quickly.

You'll see before the end of the chapter Satan will show up and cause a little trouble. And God knows that. But he says this is a promise, the covenant, and it's unconditional. No matter how rotten you get, no matter how ugly—and it got bad before—but no matter from this moment on how ugly it becomes, I will not ever, ever flood the entire earth.

People say, "Well, there's a contradiction because there was the flood in Louisiana and all kinds of places." No, he didn't say areas wouldn't flood. He said the entire planet engulfed in water, he said that he will never let happen again. And he's keeping his promise so far.

God even gives him a token. If you like, you can use the word "a sign." "I will set my bow," the rainbow, "in the clouds up in the air." Now rainbows, if you want to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Science, rainbows are basically caused by the sunlight filtering through water in the air, right? That's how they simply describe it. Fine.

Each time you see a rainbow, you think of what? God's promise. That rainbow, that's God's mercy because he did it once and no matter how ugly it gets, he won't do it again. Although he's going to kind of nuke the place coming up, so get ready for that. The promise, the mercy, the grace and the kindness of God, and also, I guess I should add, the patience of God.

He could do away with this earth right now and have every right to do it, but he said he wouldn't. And he said he's going to come back and he's going to stop us, literally, physically stop us from nuking the world out of existence. And we're going to sort of see what that's like.

How about verse 18? "And the sons of Noah that went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham is the father of Canaan." That's important to know. Moses is probably writing this down, and of course, they're about ready to enter into the Promised Land because the Canaanites are so wicked God's going to destroy them and give that land to Israel, the children of Israel. So he throws it in here: Ham is the father of Canaan.

"And of them was the whole earth overspread." In other words... and Noah began to be a husbandman. Remember his dad was a farmer, Lamech. And Noah began to be a husbandman and he planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine and was drunk and he was uncovered within his tent. He got so drunk he passed out completely naked. I've seen people do it in barrooms, so why not in his tent?

And Ham saw the nakedness of his father and he went and told his two brothers outside. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon their shoulders, walked in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father, and their faces were backwards and they did not see their father's nakedness.

Now he's having a little wine. Notice how sometimes simple little things can cause you the biggest problems. Free time causes all kinds of people problems. It just does if you're not careful. You know why? Our human hearts. So stay busy, serve the Lord, read your Bible, just stay busy. Is it a sin to grow grapes? No, but you can do the dumbest things with some of the things that you have.

And he got drunk. I mean, not just tipsy where he's giggling and telling silly jokes. He's now probably slobbering drunk, he passes out, he's completely naked. Proverbs 20, verse one: "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Wine mocks the one who drinks it. Period.

I don't care who you are and how tough you are, you're going to look dumb in just a few moments if you keep on going. I promise you. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging. Wine makes a fool out of you. It mocks you. It makes people laugh at you. They're not laughing with you; they're laughing at you. And so stay away from it.

Now here comes his son Ham. Something in this man is a little different than his brothers. There's a problem in this guy Ham, and he's the father of the Canaanites. So you can see it's passed down from generation to generation. And Ham, the language says when he saw his father uncovered his nakedness, that means he's staring. Mm-hmm.

And then he runs to do what? "Guys, you gotta come see this." He tells his brothers. "Dad's in there, he's passed out cold and he's completely naked." "Well, what did you do about..." "I got out of there, I'm still laughing." He could have taken care of the situation. But he didn't, everybody. Instead of covering his father, he runs and tells his brothers.

So he exposed his father's nakedness. What do you mean? He just went out and told everybody. His brothers, on the other hand, did the right thing. Ham didn't love his dad. Shem and Japheth, they did. They showed love to their father. Love wants God's very best for someone else.

Galatians six, one and two: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burden and so fulfill the law of Christ." So number one, love doesn't cleanse sins, the blood of Jesus Christ does. That's all that can cleanse sin. And love does not condone sin.

If you see someone that's struggling, you don't jump on them and laugh and go tell everybody what he's doing, what she's doing, or what they did. You're going to come to them and if there's something you could do, you're going to help. You're going to minister, you're going to try and help and pray with them in humility, not passing it over to everybody. "Christian, you gotta hear about this one guy down the street. What a shmuck!"

What does love do? Love covers sin. That's what love does. Ham obviously has a problem. Even though we don't understand it, we don't know much about him yet, but you're going to see as we go along, there are some real issues there. There's a heart that doesn't want God. There's a heart that just wants to have nothing to do with God.

So let's finish the chapter. Verse 24: "Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him." And he said, "Cursed be Canaan." What? Who saw him naked? Ham. "Cursed be Canaan." That means Canaan's already been born. In other words, this wasn't three weeks after they got off the ark, this is probably quite a while down the road. That means Canaan has already been born.

"Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." And he said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. Noah lived after the flood 350 years and all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died."

Ham is the one that went in there and mocked and went and told everybody instead of covering and protecting his father. He didn't love him at all, he didn't care. It was funny to him. Now Noah wakes up and he realized what had happened. And I'm sure he talked to his boys. "You know, when I went to bed, I didn't have this sheet that you put over me or this robe, isn't even mine. Where'd it come from?"

"Well, we covered you, Dad, we did that." Because he talked to the boys, and I'm sure they explained it. So Noah pronounces a curse upon Canaan. That's one of Ham's descendants. The curse would be upon the descendants of Ham through Canaan, called the Canaanites. It's basically a prophecy from God, everyone.

Noah spoke, that's a prophecy from God showing you that Ham really is not into God. And he's going to pass that on down to his children and to his children's children. And we can pass that on down to ours too. We can pass down that we trust in God and we love the Lord and trust in the Lord, or we can pass down that God's cool sometimes, whatever dude. You're passing on something.

And Canaan and the Canaanites will be servants of servants. Shem will be blessed. Japheth will be blessed and the descendants of Ham will serve Shem and his descendants and Japheth and his. Poor old Ham. By the way, we'll see it coming up, but the children of Israel come through the lineage of Shem.

Noah lived 350 years after the flood. He was 600 when the flood came, so he lived to be 950 years old and he died. Just like we saw his fathers before, even after the flood people died. God said, "Dying you shall surely die." And people today are still dying, aren't they?

So you're going to leave this earth one way or the other. A Christian doctor told me one time, and I really liked what he said. He said there's only two ways you can die. "Really?" "Yep, there's just two ways. With Jesus or without." But everyone, if we're not raptured, every one of us is going to die. No way around it. We need to give our hearts to Jesus.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM.

You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. That's NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho, 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again, 1-800-572-8851.

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