in Genesis. All right, so we know Noah and the ark has taken place. We know that all of creation except for eight individuals were what? Destroyed, killed. God said enough's enough and he took out the entire world population except for Noah. Let's see, and you can talk to me. What were the names of his three sons? And do them in the biblical order. What are they? Shem, what's the next one? Ham and? Japheth, okay, so he has Noah, his three sons, and I did say Noah, hopefully not Adam. Noah, his three sons, and who else was on the ark with Noah and his three sons? It's their wives. So we had four ladies on board, based on the biblical account. No babies were born during that time period, but those eight souls were saved, as well as, and you can answer on this one as well, He brought two of every what kind of animal into the ark? Two of every unclean, and how many pairs of clean? Seven, okay, so we had seven pairs of all clean. We looked at when we ended up last week, as soon as Adam, Adam, there we go, see, there it did it, there it did it. No, I'm just checking to see if we're listening. Noah gets off the ark, and what does he do? He sacrifices immediately, and God gets this sweet aroma, and he said it was pleasing to him. It was a sweet aroma. In other words, God appreciates that and we talked a bit about that as well. How do we please God and what what pleases him and God said boy that that those animal sacrifices that's that's that's pleasing. Now if you want to take part in that literally you be here if you haven't already signed up for the wild game dinner there's going to be a lot of sweet aromas coming out of that kitchen On Saturday if you haven't gotten tickets go see Paul Neil. He's sitting right in the back here I think we're just about sold out, but we do have a couple of tickets left and if by chance you can't make it Please I'll let Paul know and he'll make sure someone else gets those tickets alright, so the first institution was what? the family and That's a key thing God does not want that family be destroyed or corrupted but to stay together and stay strong. Genesis chapter nine, we come up to the second thing, and that's what we'll be looking at tonight, the second institution, which is what? Human government. We're gonna go through that in detail tonight. And then in Genesis nine, if we have time, and by the way, I'm gonna make one little change on Sunday nights. I have, our attendance on Sunday nights is kinda eh. It's down a bit from where it had been. And one of the issues was, well, we go too long on Sunday night. So I'm going to try and keep it to an hour sharp. That still gives you about 45 minutes of preaching. I usually want an hour, but we're going to cut it back to about seven. And some of those folks that are a little bit tighter on schedules will get you home with children and that type of thing on a little bit more time to get the kids settled. So six to seven. I'm not promising that, but I'll try to get as close as possible. All right. It's a deal. Good. Thanks. All right, and then if we have time we'll get into God's covenant with no one as descendants. All right for ten points What is that covenant going to be that God will no longer do what to the earth? No longer destroy it. And what is the sign of that covenant? The rainbow. All right. Okay. I don't have to get the message. You already know it. All right, so I We have three institutions, again, that God ordained for this earth. Number one being the institution of the family, Genesis 1 and 2. Tonight we'll be looking at Genesis 9, the institution of human government and why he instituted it. And then finally in the book of Acts, specifically in the beginning all the way through, we have the third institution of God, which is what? It's the church, the body of Christ. So not only do we have the New Testament Bible believing local church, but then we have the body of Christ made up of Christians who put their faith and trust in him. So those are three institutions that were ordained by God himself. All right, if you take your Bibles or watch the screen, whatever works for you, Genesis chapter nine, verse one. So God blessed Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and said to them, do what? Be fruitful and multiply, and then the next part is key, and fill the what? Fill the earth. Now, when we get into Genesis 10, which might be next week, might be the week after, not sure yet, when we get into Genesis 10, we're going to find out that this command was violated. by the people on this earth. Instead of going out and filling up the earth, they stayed centralized, they were localized, and God said, that's not why they made this big old giant earth, for everybody to stay in one piece. He wanted folks to spread out and to fill the earth, be fruitful, and to multiply. That was the first command to Noah after he gets off the ark. Verse two, now this is interesting. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Excuse me for one moment. Ooh, got more than one mic on, because I turned mine off. All right, no, I didn't. Okay, it is me. Anyway, sorry about that. Read that again. The fear of you. The dread of you shall be on every great beast of the earth all right now. I want you to think about this And why do you folks? Maybe you do hunting or you go out in the woods or you go, and you'll see wild animals What happens when you come upon a wild animal? What do they do? They run unless they're really hungry, then they may run at you it's interesting to see that when a And again, when I was up in Northland Baptist Bible College, which is Northland International University, they changed their name to that, and I'd go up to Dunbar, Wisconsin, and back when I was doing that, I actually was able to run. I can't run anymore because my knees don't like it, but I'd go out and I'd run five, six miles in the woods every day, and all of a sudden, and I'm looking for something. What am I looking for up in Northland? Bear, big black bear. And I mean, honestly, I wanted to see them. I got a kick out of it. And every now and then you get lucky and here comes a bear and maybe with a cub and all of a sudden they start, you know, waddling around and start, maybe they're in the middle of the road and I'd stop. They'd look at me, I'd look at them and they'd run away. Now folks that, I don't think I could take the bear. I really don't. But the bear thinks I can take it. And God puts an innate fear into animals to run, to get scared and to run off. And it fits perfectly with this. And that's why when you guys and gals that go out hunting, it's not always that easy because you're looking and I mean, if they sense that you're there, what do they do? They're out of there. And that's the way most animals are. The only ones that won't leave that I want to leave are the squirrels by my house. Not that this has anything to do with the message, but yesterday I walk out of my home, eight squirrels were running around in my little front yard. And I'm like, this is not good. Anyway, because you know what they do? This is free. This is not part of the message, but it's free. And it's what it's worth. My neighbor across the street, the squirrels got underneath the hood of his car, ate all the wire packs, they had to get all complete new wiring, and some of you have gone through that. So those little varmints are little varmints. Anyway, God says, listen, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move in the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Now this is interesting because God is setting a different tone here, which we're gonna get into. And here's what's new, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things even as the green herbs, but you shall, and now here's a command, but you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood. Now, how many of you will admit that you got a German background? All right, my name Schmidt kind of gives me away, right? I mean, that's as German as it gets. My grandmother used to make blood soup. How do you say that? Charnina. Yeah, charnina. And I had no clue. I always thought it was tomato soup, but I never tasted that good. But it was a common thing to do that. Well, God had a real, real strong aversion to that. You do not eat the blood. You shall not eat the flesh with its life that is its blood. So God opened up the doors. He's like, you can eat anything you want to eat. By the way, was the Mosaic Law in place at this time? No. Moses was still down the chronological timeline, so God did not have all the dietary restrictions that were to come that were found in the Mosaic Law. So God basically said, you know, if you can kill it, go ahead and eat it. It's food for you. But one thing God did say, this was a mandate, you do not eat the life of that animal. You cannot eat its blood. Now, from just thinking that God did it for a very specific spiritual reason, but if you're drinking, and not to be gross, but if you honestly are drinking blood, could there be a lot of contaminants, disease, and so forth in it? So I mean, just from a dietary perspective, if you will, a medical perspective, it's just not a smart thing to do. So anyway, but the main thing he's saying here, everything is food for you, but do not eat the blood. All right, so let's talk about the blood for a little bit and get into the Mosaic Law because most of you are familiar at least with part of that. God made it very clear that you don't suck the life out of an animal or whatever and partake of it. Leviticus 3.17, This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations and all your dwellings. You shall eat neither fat nor blood. Now, again, if you went to your cardiologist, would he recommend that you have a high fat diet? No. Even those that are on the carnivore diet and whatever, sometimes they recommend eating a lot of fat. It's just plain not good for you from a cardiac Perspective from and those of you that have high cholesterol definitely an issue as well So God basically said listen you won't eat the fat. I don't want you to eat the fat I don't want you to eat the blood now. That's from the Mosaic law So if you today now catch this carefully So you got a and somebody gave me all it was good Cooked me up a couple of pieces of prime rib the other day and Prime rib, there's a lot of that white stuff on it which is what makes it good. And there's a lot of fat on it, but boy, did that taste good. Now I tried not to eat all the fat, but did I eat some? Yeah, I ate it. Now, am I in violation of God's law because I ate some fat? No, because are we under the Mosaic law today? We're not under the law, we're under grace, but God did put some of these things in place just to help us think about what should I be eating, what maybe is not the best for me. And because of the fat, of course, it can have bad repercussions on you. But God said, listen, I don't want you to eat that which contains the life. Leviticus 7.26, moreover, you shall not eat any blood in any of your dwellings, whether a bird or beast, whether it eats any blood, that person, here's the, I mean, the sanction, they'll be cut off from the people. God said, listen, if you put the blood on the table and we find out about it, bye-bye. I mean, they just basically, they're thrown out of, if you will, the company of the other people and be cut off from his people, take them out, they violated God's law. Leviticus 17, whatever man of the house of Israel or the strangers who dwell among you, who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. And here's why. For the life of the flesh is in the what? Hmm. For the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. The life is in the blood and God makes it very clear that the blood, if you will, is to be a sacred object. It's to be a sacred object lesson and therefore it's not to be indiscriminately used as food, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul." So again, Charnina's off the menu from now on. That for some people would be a hard thing to give up. But from God's perspective, literally when we're looking at the Mosaic Law, for the Jewish people, it literally was a sin and a serious sin to violate because God said the life's in the blood. Now why is he setting the stage back in the Mosaic law for this? He's setting the stage for it because when Christ came, he would shed his what? He would shed his blood. It has a very strong spiritual connection. The life that you have as a Christian was gained because of the shed blood of Christ. Does that make sense? I mean, Christ goes to the cross, he sheds his blood, he gives his life because the life is in the what? In the blood. And God just, it's like, listen, the blood has tremendous significance to God. and the salvation which is through the shed blood of Christ and giving his life for you has tremendous meaning for the life of the flesh is in the blood. What does it do? It makes atonement. Blood is to be used to cover sin back in the Old Testament and blood was used to cleanse you when Jesus Christ shed his blood for you. So again, heavy duty position on God when it comes to this concept of eating blood. Another verse, therefore I said to the children of Israel, no one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood. So God made it clear, listen Jewish folks, you got a visitor coming to your home, he comes in, you can cut up your piggy, and piggies were okay back then, and whatever else you might have, you can eat the meat. but don't eat the blood. And if someone even from outside the Jewish people or a person that comes to visit you, they better not eat it either, because I'm going to hold you responsible. So again, God had a very, very specific concept when it came to blood. Whatever man of the children of Israel, the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, you shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of the flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. Is that pretty specific? Very strong, very specific. Now do not do this. But what happens if you accidentally, oh, just reminded me. Um, he's not here tonight, but, uh, um, met a new young man who, uh, listens to us on VCY and he happened to be here last, uh, last week. Uh, he was able to get a ride here and, uh, he said, I got to show you something. And he's like, I had my arm cut off and I'm like, I really don't want to see that. I mean, his arm was there, but he said my, he was the first person apparently he, and he admitted, and he's gotten saved since. He was on PCP, he was at Frederick Hospital. He took his hand, popped it through a picture window, the glass came apart, and literally severed his arm. And he got the stitches, they did the work, and he's got full use of it, but he was the first person that ever had his arm reattached. And I said, thanks for sharing, and pick me up after I faint. But when you think about that and the blood that comes out, what happens a lot of times when you cut something and you have a horrible bleed? Can you die? Absolutely you can. You can bleed out. That's why certain places you get shot or you get stabbed. I mean, it's almost immediate death. You can bleed out very quickly. But if you get shot or stabbed in certain... I'm not suggesting you should have that happen to you, People a lot of folks can survive If they don't lose a tremendous amount of blood or get it repaired quickly get the blood back in But the point being even though that's a bit gross right now. It's past dinner. You should be good And if you haven't eaten yet, sorry, but when you think about these things the life is in the blood and God makes it clear We need to think about that What is the blood significance for the church age? Well, the significance for today is what did Christ do? He shed his blood for us. The Old Testament pictures the atonement that was made back in the Old Testament times. What does atonement mean? It means to what? To cover the sin. Did an atonement pay for the sin? No, there's only one individual that could pay for the sins, of course, which was Christ. So the atonement or the covering, the temporary covering, always look forward to Christ. Now we look backwards to what Christ has done through his death, burial, and resurrection. Deuteronomy, another book of the Old Testament, first five books being part of the Torah, the law, and the canon of Scripture. Only you shall not eat the blood, you shall pour it on the earth like water. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or your new wine, or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or the heave offering of your hand. All right, the bottom line, we go back to the blood issue, where again, reiterated in Deuteronomy, don't eat it. But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place where the Lord your God chooses you and your son and your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands. All right, so all these other things, the grains, the meat, all these different things, the libations and so forth, the grape juice and waters, all these things, good to go, but don't take the blood. Here's another one. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land, when the Lord your God enlarges your border as he has promised you, and you say, let me eat meat. Because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. Let's just stop there. Hey, that was good preaching. I like this. And this really fits into coming up Saturday. Okay, let me caveat for a minute. I got to keep your attention. So, oh, about 20, probably closer to 30 years now, Valerie and I went to Africa. And she used to sell for a particular company and they gave these very exotic trips. Well, one of them happened to be to Africa. So, and it was not a Christian thing, it was basically a reward for sales that she had done. So, I did a wild game dinner in Africa, and I mean, you name it, they had it on the table. We're talking hippopotamus, we're talking alligators, we're talking zebra, hippopotamus, I mean, you name it, it was on the table. And it all tastes like chicken. But it was fun, right? I mean, it's like, wow, what's this gonna taste like? What's this gonna taste like? Well, that's kind of what's gonna be taking place this Saturday. Take heed yourself, you do not forsake the Levite. Now, who are the Levites? They were the religious leaders. They did not have their own property. And God says, listen, take care of the Levites, take care of the priests. When the Lord your God enlarges your borders, he has promised you. And he's like, man, you wanna eat? Eat the meat, but catch this. If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock, which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. I mean, this doesn't get any better right now. It's good stuff. Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them. The unclean and the clean alike may eat them. Only be sure, now here we come again, that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the what? Life. Keep that in mind, folks. This is heavy duty. It's like, well, this is just simplistic. Don't eat the blood, blah, blah, blah, whatever. No, because this has tremendous spiritual meaning to the Lord. Don't eat the blood because the life is in it. You may not eat the life with the meat. You shall not eat it. You shall pour it on the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you. when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. Oh, wait, wait, wait, what did that say? It'll go well with you and your children after you. Now forget about the dietary thing and let's get practical for a moment. If you're doing right as a mom and dad, and you're teaching and training your children to do right, and I'm not talking about eating blood now, I'm talking about life. When you do what is right in the sight of the Lord, what does he say, you should be doing it? Who else should be mimicking you? Parents, the children. If we're bringing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and we're training them properly, and we're teaching them, by the way, yes, the church has certainly the obligation, if you will, to train everyone that walks through the doors to teach people the scriptures. Maybe you get that, if you're here, every time the doors are open, you might get about three hours a week of study. How many hours a week are there? What's 24 times seven? Who's a mathematician? Come on, who's got it? 24 times seven. What is it? 168. 168. Anybody got any other numbers? All right, 168, we'll take it. 168 hours in every single week. Maybe you have three hours in church, which is great. But out of 168 hours, if only three of those are spent in church, that's a whole lot of hours that, what are you doing? What are you teaching the kids? You go back to the Shema, Deuteronomy chapter 6, and the Jewish people recited every single day, that dad is to do what? Every single day, morning, evening, afternoon, night, is to be teaching the Word of God to their children. Now you say, well, wait a minute, Pastor, don't get weird. I can't have a Bible class with my kids 24-7-365. If you want to sit down like we're doing right now and have a Bible study, no, you can't do that 365 days a year, 24 hours, 7 days a week. But can you live the lifestyle 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365? Can you give principles to your children when you're walking by the wayside, when you're sitting down to eat, as the Shema talks about in Deuteronomy. I would suggest you can. So everything we do as parents, as leaders, as grandparents, as guardians, as people investing in other people, everything we do, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365, there should never ever, it's like, well, I'm this way at work, and I'm this way at school, and I'm this way at home, and I'm this way at church, Should there be a difference? I am strongly stating no. And I've used this illustration too many times. I spent 32 years in law enforcement, supposedly one of the meanest, harshest professions on earth. And I never, never in the 32 years I was there broke out in a swearing tirade at a criminal, at people I arrested, I always maintained integrity, I never used force beyond that which was necessary. And folks, you can live as a cop, you can live as a person in the military, you can live in the construction world, you can live in whatever the toughest field you can come up with or the best fields you can come up with, there's no difference. If you're a Christian, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365, you should never be seen different at any place you are than the same as if you were sitting in church. Now, you're doing different things, of course, but your demeanor, your integrity, your moral and ethical values should never change. All right, let's move on. That was all free. And God said, now let's go back to Genesis 1. Take a look at the sign, no hunting. What did God change? And God said, now he's, again, we're in Genesis 1, Adam and Eve had just been made, and now he's gonna tell them what they can eat. Here's what's on the menu. See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for what? That's it, folks, that's the menu. He's not expanding it in Genesis 1. All right, and you see who can come up with this. When did God extend the menu past being a herbivore? After he had to make clothes for Adam and Eve. The first sacrifice was made, the first animal was killed, and next thing you know, meat is gonna be on the table. Now, by the way, and we've talked about this, and I'm not gonna get into prophecy tonight, but in the millennial kingdom, in Isaiah, it talks about the lamb who lied down with the what? The lion, the child will play in the den of the ass for the snake. Why? Because when Jesus Christ comes to this earth, it's gonna revert back to an Edenic condition. In other words, we're gonna, and I said, I'm gonna, if you love meat, you need to eat it now. Again, you'll have a glorified body during the kingdom, but meat will be off the table again, and violence will be off the table. So back in Genesis 1, The diet was herbs and seeds and fruits and so forth until sin entered into the world then God allowed the killing of meat. Also every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food. In other words, back in Genesis 1, before sin entered into the world and corruption entered in and violence entered in, the animals were all herbivores, just like the human beings. And what did God say? God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was what? It was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. By the way, remember a guy named Daniel? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or Hanani, Azariah, and Mishael, which were their Hebrew names? When they were taken captive to King Nebuchadnezzar, what did Daniel tell the king about his diet? He said, what? Yeah, he wouldn't eat the king's food, which was what? Meat and titers, good stuff, men's food, right? And they said, nope, can't do it. Actually, if you go on the internet today, and a lot of Christians are doing this, they call it the Daniel diet. They only eat vegetables, fruits, and water, which is what Daniel ate. And Daniel said, listen, you get all your other boys out there that you're training up, and you watch me and my friends. And whoever comes out that has more muscle, that actually looks, he kind of used the word, we look kind of fat compared to the others because we're eating good. And he said, I want to eat your stuff. I'm not eating your wine. I'm not eating your meat. And the king's servant said, all right, but he's like, if this don't work, you know it's my head. And he's like, just test us for 10 days. If it works, it works. And of course, they ate a herbivore type diet, water, no king's wine or anything else. And God fattened them up and made them strong and good and smart. So it worked. By the way, it's a decent diet. It actually works if you're interested on the internet. Everything's there. All right, Genesis 9. Surely, okay, here we go now. We're gonna get into the issue of what was taking place when God had the worldwide catastrophic universal flood. Surely, for your lifeblood, I will demand a reckoning. In other words, if your blood is shed, there's going to be a reckoning for how it took place. A reckoning from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother, I will require the what? The life of man. So in other words, an ox gets loose, your cow gets loose, your horse gets loose in today's vernacular, and they come charging through the field and you get in the way and they trample you down, they kill you. that animal will die because it took your life. God is going to make it very clear in the next verse that we're going to get to that capital punishment was no joke back in the day when God wrote this commandment. Now again, every time we come to this particular subject, and that's why I have the little picture up there, we're looking at the concept, the biblical concept, the capital punishment. Now our society, of course, is 100%, not 100%, but probably 90% against capital punishment, or I don't know if that's a good statistic or not, I shouldn't have said that. A great majority of people do not believe in capital punishment. There's a great deal of Christians that do not believe in capital punishment. I'm gonna let you make up your minds as we go through the study on this particular issue. But God is saying back in Genesis, by the way, is the Mosaic Law in place here? No, this has nothing to do with the Old Testament Mosaic Law. This is a particular thing that God put into place. Why did He do that? Why all of a sudden is He making this harsh statement? Here's why, and we'll get into several proof texts. God determines the birth and death. And He said, we're talking about Job now, naked I came from my mother's room, and naked shall I return there. The next two words is the what? The Lord, what did he do? The Lord gave and the Lord has what? Taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. What's he saying here? Job is saying, God brought me into this world and when God's good and ready, he's gonna take me out. That's God's prerogative. So again, this is very important. The Lord, you hear this a lot of funerals, don't you? The pastor, the priest, whatever, they'll come and they'll, you know, asses to asses, dust to dust, the Lord is given, the Lord is taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord kind of thing. And there is truth to that. That God, who created you? Colossians 1.16, Christ created everything which includes you. So the Lord gives life and it's the Lord's prerogative as to when you should leave. And he gives some caveats to that. Genesis 9.6, and here's the caveat. God said, not me, but the word of God says, whoever sheds man's blood, God will take his life. Did I just mis-exegete? Whoever sheds man's blood, quote, by man, his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. Now again, I want to make it very clear. This was given before the Mosaic law was even in place, which is where the 613 commandments are. This is a pre-Mosaic law condition. And God said, if you kill somebody, wait a minute, Where are we in the Bible? Genesis 9. What was Genesis chapter 6 through 8 all about? It was God killing all but eight people. Did you catch that? God took the lives the Lord gave, the Lord took away in a big number, all but eight people. Why did he take them out? Why did he kill the massive amount of people? Because they weren't turning to God, they were doing their own thing, they were living their own way, and God had no part of their lives. And he said there was tremendous violence and hatred on the earth, and they were not following the Lord. God said, I'm not going to allow this to happen again the best I can. So God said, listen, here's what we need to do in order to curtail the violence. We're going to institute capital punishment. Now, think about this. Now, President Biden just did something that drove a lot of conservatives a little bit, I don't know, batty, crazy, whatever you want to say. They were not happy with it. I believe the number was 37 people on death row. He commuted their sentences basically to life in prison and said, I'm not going to allow those 37, I believe it's 37, criminals that were convicted and given the death penalty, he took it away. I think there were like three or four he didn't do it for. So, and again, I'm not making a political statement here, but basically what are we saying? The government said, at least this administration said, we're not killing people. We're going to commute their sentence. We're going to let them, if you will, stay in jail, which was the president's prerogative. But God's way, at least back in Genesis, was do you want to have a deterrent? You wanna stop crime. Folks, you know why our country is messed up? Because the district attorneys, and again, I'm speaking from having been in law enforcement for 32 years, and I dealt with it day and night, night and day for that length of period of time. In major cities, the liberal district attorneys do not prosecute except very few cases. When you, and again, you've heard me say this, when we would run criminal records on individuals, I mean, you would say, well, maybe they got one of their fans. Okay, they did this. Maybe they did a couple things and they got banned. They're in five, six arrests. And it's like five, six arrests, that's a lot of arrests. No, we're talking dozens of arrests. We're talking sometimes well over a hundred different arrests. They come in and we call it the revolving door. We call it social engineering. And the district attorney or his associates look at at the papers, and it's like, ah, we don't have enough people to prosecute. Nah, it's going to take too much time, and ah, it's going to be too hard to prove. Just tell them to go away and don't do it again. And the real threat was called deferred prosecution. Whoa, only water. Deferred prosecution. Here's what deferred prosecution is. In other words, you go out and you rob somebody tonight, or you go into their home and you burglarize it, or you commit a battery on a person. And the police officer goes to the district attorney, he goes through, and they go through what's called a charging conference. So the police officer pleads his case with the district attorney, not the court. This is just trying to get the district attorney. If the DA won't prosecute, it doesn't go to court. And the district attorney or the assistant district attorney listens to it and says, oh, okay, well, that's interesting. Yeah, I see. And then the police officer, he just spent all night writing the reports, arresting the person, maybe getting half beat up in the process. And the poor police officer's there pleading his case, and the district attorney says, yeah, you know, this is Milwaukee County, Racine County, Kenosha County. We got thousands of these type of things happen all the time. Yeah, I don't think you got enough here. Bye-bye. And away they go. That's why we're losing police officers right and left that no longer want to be cops because the district attorneys won't prosecute cases. And God basically says, listen, if you're not going to hold the murderer accountable, what's the incentive not to kill people? Right? And folks, there's 120 plus murders, and I'm more familiar with Milwaukee County than the others here. At least 120 people get murdered every year in Milwaukee County. And I'm not saying it's all the district attorney's fault, but it's certainly part of it. Why? If you don't hold people accountable, there's going to be chaos. All right, let's get into the biblical chronology of this. So again, about 4004 B.C. is when creation took place. I'm going to skip up to 1445 B.C. is when the Mosaic Law was given. That's Mount Sinai. 1445 BC, Moses goes up on Mount Sinai. God talks to him multiple times and gives him those 613 commandments plus basically the five books of, if you will, the Torah. The universal flood took place in 2348 BC. We're about a year that Noah, if you were here last week, you know that Noah spent a little bit over a year, 370 days on the ark. He gets off the ark and has a conversation with the Lord. He gives the sacrifices. And now God is giving Noah, Genesis chapter nine. And God said, Noah, You saw what happened around the earth. You and your family, that's it. I killed potentially, and we don't know how many millions, potentially a billion or more people died. And God says, I don't like that. I really don't like it. And in order to try and curtail this, we're going to institute human government. The job of human government is totally opposite of what it is today. That's a fair statement, by the way. What is the job of government? It is to protect, quite frankly, God's people. It's not to do six million things of, oh, well, we gotta watch the health thing, we gotta watch the education thing, we gotta watch the financial thing, and they've gotten into every area of our life, and the one thing that the government is supposed to do, according to Genesis chapter nine, is to hold people accountable for doing that, which is wrong. That's why God destroyed the world. except for the eight souls, all right? So the reason I put this up here is in about 2347, 2346 BC is when God instituted human government. Now, folks, that's quite a bit of time before the Mosaic law came into being. So it was a principle that God laid down in the Old Testament to hold people accountable, all right? Let's move on. Genesis 4.8. Now, Cain talked with, we're going back as to why God instituted this particular commandment. We go back to Genesis 4a, Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. Now, if that would have taken place post Genesis 9, Cain would have had a real problem that day, because according to God's standard, his life would have been taken for killing his brother. How about Genesis 4.23, a few verses later? Then Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, wives of Lamech, listen to my speech, for I have what? I killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. Now that's as far as it goes. I don't know how he got hurt. I don't know if he got punched in the nose or if he took something and broke his arm. It doesn't tell us. But he had enough strength left to do what? To kill this person. And it's a confession. Again, we're way back in Genesis four before the flood took place. Genesis six, why did God if you will, take the lives of all but the eight people. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And no beget three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was what? Corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with what? Violence. God does not like violence. But he'll use, if you will, But I guess we could categorize as violence in order to control that which is evil and corrupt. And God has used it. And he's used it a lot in the Old Testament. Romans 13. Today, church age, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. Now, this is God's perfect plan here. So don't read into it, say, well, you know, the government's corrupt, this corrupt, that's, read into what God is intending for the perfect plan. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring what on themselves? In other words, when the government is doing right, when they're following things the way God wants them to be followed, they're there to protect you in the best way possible. And what does he say in verse 3? Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's, and here's an interesting word, minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. So in God's plan, when the government is doing that which is right, when that which is righteous, the government should be doing exactly what Genesis 9 talked about, and that's holding people accountable. So we do have laws, and we do have statutes, and we do have courts, and we do have the judicial system. We do have the different branches of government. And if, which is a big if, if they're doing the right things, then you will have a safe society. And of course, we know that, unfortunately, today's government, as well as back when Romans was being written, they had some serious problems as well. And a lot of these things were not going in a godly way. Verse seven. So he would come back, and God said, listen, here's what I want for you. I want you to be fruitful. I want you to multiply. I want you to bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it. Now, you'll see, of course, be fruitful and multiply. God likes, wanted big families. He just did. I'm not saying, telling you how many kids you need to have or all that type of thing. But in that day, God said, listen, get out there, Noah. Get busy. Get your sons and their wives busy and let's fill this earth up. You know why God was doing that? God loves you. Why did God create you? For what? To have fellowship, to have people that would worship Him, to give Him glory. That's our purpose. That's why God made us. Not to reject Him, not to go against Him, but to love Him, to care for Him. And God said, listen, go out there, be fruitful and multiply. Bring forth abundantly in the what? The earth, not in Kenosha, not just in Racine, not just in Israel, not just where the Garden of Eden was, if you will, but he's like, fill up this earth, be prosperous, multiply, fill it up. And that's what God's purpose was. And we'll end with, we'll end with this. Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying, and as for me, behold, I established my covenant with you and with your what? Is there anyone in this room that is not a descendant of Noah, Shem, Ham, or Japheth? We're all in this together, folks. We're all part of the big plan. And God says, I'm making a covenant with every single person in your family, Noah, and all of your descendants, which actually includes you. and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, and all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth." So God's saying, listen, here's an unconditional covenant that I'm making with the entire world. This is God's statement. He's not going to revoke it. Thus, I establish my covenant with you. And here it is. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. So as horrible as it may be, as difficult as it was down in Tennessee and North Carolina just a few months ago when the floodwaters were just horrendous, and as they are in many other places on a continual basis when floods happen, God said, I will never ever again take out all flesh via the flood. And what did he do? And you see that beautiful rainbow picture. God says, I'm going to make a sign. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. All right, so what do we get from tonight? God made it very clear that violence, murder is not acceptable in God's sight. Now the government, of course in recent days, basically has said they will not perform Genesis 9 verse 6 in the majority of states, and for the most part the federal government has said we're not going to file that mandate. Now it's up, and again, the last thing, and just hear this, I'll give the argument for those that are against capital punishment. Once you kill someone, do they have a chance to come to Christ? The answer is no. And that is the heartbeat of those that are the Christian community that are mainly against capital punishment. On the other hand, the capital punishment was never part of the Mosaic law. Then there's others that will say, well, in the New Testament, Jesus said a new what I give you, a new commandment I give you that you should what? I hope we got more into three people that know that verse. New commandment, I give you that you should love love one another so they take that as well It's like well, we got to love people and we can't hold people accountable and have capital punishment. Okay, that's an argument So I'm going to let you make up your minds as to what you think is proper But if we look at it from strictly a biblical perspective Capital punishment was brought about so God didn't have to destroy the earth anymore because of horrible violence God brought about capital punishment to hold people accountable and to send a message to others that murder is not acceptable in our culture. And sometimes some people have to pay a severe price in order to keep the rest of the people safe. So again, you can decide which part of the fence you want to land on. You cannot throw out capital punish simply because you say, well, that was part of the Old Testament law. No, it wasn't. It had nothing to do with the Old Testament law. It was a mandate that God had put into place before the law was ever given. The bottom line is we are not here to kill people. We are here to love people, spread the gospel. That is our mission as the church. Luke 19.10, the Lord came to seek and to save those who are lost. 1 Timothy 1.15, Apostle Paul said, and this is a faithful and acceptable saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And that's God's mission. So God said, listen, every time, and one last illustration, I'll stop. I promise. You got to do it, Rich. Hold it. OK. I'm at the Ark Encounter. And I've shared this once or twice before. It was a couple of years ago. I'm coming out of the Ark Encounter. Big Ark. I mean, most of you have been there. And I walk out and I look down, with my eyes I could barely see back then, and I see a rainbow. And I'm like, what in the world is wrong with this place? See where I was conditioned to think improperly? And I look out and I see the rainbow and I'm like, what is this LGBTQI nonsense doing at the Ark Encounter? And all of a sudden it's like, Duh! It's not have anything to do with the transgender or LGBTQ stuff. It had to do with this verse right here. And the rainbow was a sign that God said, I've made an unconditional covenant with you that that ark you just came out of, and I just came out of it, And I should have had it in my head. He said, when the ark was unloaded, I put the rainbow in the sky as an unconditional covenant that I will never take you. But folks, just catch. I'm a pastor of a church. I've been a Christian for longer than some of you been alive. And yet, I was conditioned to think wrong until finally, The old cranium came into gear. So thank God for what He's given to us. Let's serve Him faithfully. Every time you see that rainbow, remember, God loves you. God loves you and He loves people. And He wants to use you for His glory. Father, thank You for Your love for us. Thank You for these dear folks that are here tonight. Pray that You'd bless them, encourage them by what we've gone through tonight. Lord, this subject is not pleasant when we look at human government, about holding people accountable. Our culture tells us to let everybody go, that everything's good, no matter what they've done. Forgive, forget, move on. And yet you've made it very clear that there is accountability. Now, Father, you've also made it very clear that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. And that's the good news. Yes, the government needs to do their part. The law enforcement needs to do their part. But you've also made it clear that you did your part in being able to forgive the sins of all people regardless of what that sin was, including murder. So Father, I pray that anyone listening tonight, if they've never received that free gift of eternal life by placing their faith in Jesus and Jesus alone, that they'd admit they're a sinner, that they'd admit that they don't deserve to go to heaven. But that right there, where they're seated, where they're listening tonight, they'd look at John 3.16, which reminds us that God so loved the world, each and every one of us, that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever would believe in Him in His death, burial, and resurrection should not perish or go to the everlasting lake of fire, but be taken up to give Him life forever with you. So Father, we thank You for that. Pray that we walk out here rejoicing tonight, and we commit all this to You in Jesus' name.