Okay, we are going to Genesis. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis, Chapter 9. This is an obvious... Okay, it looks like you're going to have to scatter. We have three great seeds here in the front. Genesis, Chapter 9. Okay, did you grab a bulletin on your way in, a calendar? Okay, we have gotten Noah through the flood. They came out of the ark and Noah made use of the animals that he had brought seven of. And as he offered many of them in sacrifices to the Lord, verse 20 of chapter eight, Noah built an altar to Yahweh and took every clean animal of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Yahweh smelled the soothing aroma and Yahweh said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. And God bless Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, period. What's missing from that? That sounds familiar to something we've heard before, but what's missing? Dominion. Dominion. Trevor? Dominion. Dominion. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and rule over it, and subdue the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the animals, every creeping thing. All that from back in Genesis chapter one, that God told Adam, and he doesn't tell that part to Noah, because that was part of Adam's responsibility, that's not part of Noah's responsibility. Okay? So there's that limitation, that restriction, Verse two, the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky. With everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. Okay? God is making a change here. And that is, he's changing Noah's diet. Up until this time, since the Days of creation, man has been vegetarian. All of the animals have been vegetarian. And to me, that explains a whole lot about how Noah was able to get those wild beasts into the ark. Well, they weren't wild beasts. They weren't ferocious man-eating lions back then. They were at peace and harmony among the animal kingdom, including Adam and Eve and their descendants. So Noah wouldn't have had any trouble going up to a deer and leading a deer into the ark, going up to a lion, leading the lion into the ark, and the lion not eating the deer once he got on the ark, because it was that kind of harmony in the animal kingdom. So people raise that as an objection against the account of the flood and the ark and all of that, and it's no objection at all. If they just read the passage, if they just read the passage, that objection is totally answered from the context. Most of the objections to scriptural points are that way. If they just read the passage, they'd realize their objection has no ground, has no basis. Verse five, surely I will require your lifeblood from every beast. I will require it from every man, from every man's brother. I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man. As for you, be fruitful, multiply, populate the earth abundantly. and multiplying it. There's that. Be fruitful, multiply, but nothing about ruling. However, verse six is a change. What's the change in verse six? Capital punishment. Capital punishment. Okay, why do we say that's a change? It wasn't there before. It wasn't done before. How do we know that? Cain. Cain, okay. When Cain killed Abel, what did Cain say to God when God banished him? My punishment is too great to bear. I'll be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. And God put a sign on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. So in the case of Cain, when he expected capital punishment for murder, which sounds like a fair punishment, eye for an eye type thing, By the way, that eye-for-an-eye type thing was never personal retaliation. That was instruction for the judges so that the judges meted out a fair punishment. That wasn't personal retaliation. You didn't take things in your own hands and get the eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-tooth on your own. That was guidance for the judges. That was free. So Cain expected that he would be killed. God put a sign on him, lest anyone finding him should kill him. And as far as we know, Capital punishment then was not practiced until now. And God is instituting capital punishment. This is a change in dispensation. Dispensation is a rule of life, a pattern for obedience. It gives guidance for how you make decisions about daily living. We have seen the dispensation World rulership. God told Adam, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, then rule over it, subdue it. And Adam's response was to violate the only prohibition God gave him. Sorry if you can't read that. The next dispensation is usually, and I used to call it the dispensation of conscience. And in our Wednesday night study, Karen prompted some discussion and we decided maybe that's not such a good title for it. So I'm suggesting the dispensation of independence, because Adam and Eve were acting independently of God. Okay, or self-determination, some other possibilities. Then that leads us up to dispensation of human government, and that's what starts now with Noah. How are they going to put into effect, verse six, whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made man. Suppose they happen upon a dead body, how are they going to enforce, how are they going to carry out, verse six, and look for the person who did it. Pardon? Look for the person who killed him. Look for the person who killed him. What do they have to do before that? Find out how they died. I'm sorry, Dan? Determine whether or not he was murdered. OK. Find out how they died. OK. Have to figure out, was this a natural death? Did this guy just expire, catching his chips, you know, live his 3 score and 10 years? Or was he murdered? And if he was murdered, then what do they have to figure out? Who did it, okay? And then once they figure out who did it, what do they have to do? Have to find the guy and capture him, okay? And then once they capture him, then what do they have to do? Judge him, then put him to death. So there would be several levels of human government, police, There would be several levels of human government that would necessarily have to be instituted in order to bring this about, in order to make it work. So, dispensation of human government. Is this telling people how they get saved? No. Dispensations have nothing to do with salvation. A change in dispensation has never meant a change in how you get saved. Because people are always saved. How? By grace through faith. Okay, we'll see that when we get to Genesis 15. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. So, dispensation is a rule of life. It guides you in making choices. We're gonna talk about, okay, the cereal and food back on the table. Some of the dispensational changes have to do with what you can eat. Capital punishment is another thing that changes periodically through the changing of the dispensations. We have a dispensational change. This is now the third dispensation that we see in scripture. God giving instructions to man as far as how a man is to make decisions. This understanding of dispensationalism takes away one of the most common complaints against scripture and that is it contradicts itself. In some places God tells people to eat just vegetables and then he tells people to eat meat Then he tells people to eat some meats, but not others, and then they can eat everything again. And see, the Bible is hopelessly confused. It self-contradicts, and you just can't possibly obey it. Just discount it. That's a common, another common accusation against the Bible. That's one reason why people discount it. Why is that not valid? The Bible doesn't contradict itself. The Bible never contradicts itself. And yet, Adam was told, vegetables. Now Noah is told, eat anything. Moses is going to be told, all certain animals you can't eat, they're unclean. Peter's going to be told, you can eat everything again. How can we say the Bible doesn't contradict itself, John? The problem is that it was just for Israel, certain rules, and not for the rest of the mankind. Okay, but even for Israel, things changed. God never tells the same people two different conflicting things. He may tell one person one thing at one time, and then later tell a different person at a different time something different. Is that contradiction? No. It's not a contradiction. That's interpreting Scripture in context. That's just reading what it says, that's being honest with the text. So, dispensationalism, again, takes away a lot of the accusations against scripture that people lodge for why they discount it. Okay? Verse eight, then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, now behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, with every living creature that is with you, the birds and cattle, every beast of the earth with you, of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth, I establish my covenant with you and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood. Neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. God said this is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations. I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of covenant between me and the earth. It will come about when I bring a cloud over the earth and the bow shall be seen in the cloud. I will remember my covenant which is between me and you. Me and you and every living creature of all flesh, never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. And God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. Keep your finger here for just a second. Go back to Genesis 6, 18. before the flood when God was giving instructions to Noah about building the ark and that he was going to send a flood, verse 18, but I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. So before the flood, God said, I'm going to make a covenant with you. And then after the flood, he actually did that. And so that's a different issue than dispensations. We have a covenant being started here, And at the same time, the new dispensation is starting, but covenants and dispensations are different things. This covenant is called the Noahic covenant because it's the covenant that God made with Noah. Are there other covenants in the Bible? Who could suggest some of those? Abrahamic, Davidic. Okay, wait. Where would we find the Abrahamic covenant? Genesis 12. Okay, we could look at Genesis 12, but it's more clearly spelled out in Genesis 15. That's where God actually, the technical language for it is cut a covenant. Kirath Barith, cut a covenant. That's where, remember, God divided, had Abraham bring animals and divided them into birds, and Abraham fell into a sleep, deep sleep, and a smoking lamp passed between the parts of the animals. That was the way men in those days would ratify a covenant, but that was a unilateral covenant because God was the only one who passed between the parts of the animals. God was making promises to Abraham that had no conditions attached. God's just telling Abraham what he's gonna do. Period. Okay? Anybody know what the next covenant is after the Abrahamic? Trevor Mosaic. Where would we find the Mosaic covenant? It's gonna start exodus 19 and the conditions of the covenant are going to be discussed all the way through the rest of exodus and leviticus and numbers okay this is what we call the old testament law or the law of moses okay what is the next covenant land covenant the land covenant okay commonly called the palestinian Where would we find that? Deuteronomy. Okay, Deuteronomy, starting, I think, chapter 28. Go to Deuteronomy 29 with me. Deuteronomy 29. This sound, when you read through Deuteronomy 28, it sounds an awful lot like the Mosaic Covenant. And it appears to be very conditional. The Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant. God says, if you obey me, I will bless you. And if you disobey me, then there will be unpleasant consequences to follow. Okay? Notice 29.1, Deuteronomy. These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them at Horeb. So Moses goes out of his way to tell us this is a separate covenant, and yet it sounds so much like the Mosaic Covenant. The difference is, the Mosaic Covenant is conditional. If you obey me, I will bless you. If you disobey me, you ain't gonna like it. Okay, that's common paraphrase. The Palestinian covenant is unconditional in a sense. It's conditional in the sense that the enjoyment of the blessings of the covenant require obedience. But God promises something in the Palestinian covenant that he didn't promise in the Mosaic covenant, and that is, I will restore you at the end. Regardless of whether they are obedient or not, in the end, when God finishes his plan for Israel, he is going to bring Israel back to himself, restore them, and complete the promises that he gave them. So there's the unconditional promise, God's gonna do this, Their present enjoyment of those blessings depends on their obedience, but the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant is unconditional. God's going to do it. Okay, what would be the next covenant? Davidic covenant. Second Samuel chapter seven, God promises David that His descendants will sit on the throne. There'll be a kingdom, a throne, and a house. Three aspects of the promises to David. Again, it's an unconditional covenant, but again, the enjoyment of the benefits of the covenant at any point in time are conditioned on obedience. That's why you can look around and say, well, the Davidic covenant's not at work now. Well, it's because they're not being obedient now. But God's promises concerning David having son to sit on his throne forever will be fulfilled when Jesus establishes a kingdom in the Millennium. God says, I will make a covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with them when they came out of the land of Egypt, which covenant they broke, but I will write my law in their hearts. I will put my spirit within them. This covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will be fulfilled at the beginning of the millennium. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. There are several other places where different aspects of the new covenant are are given to us, if you want to jot down Ezekiel 37, 21 through 28, Isaiah 55, three, and Isaiah 59, 21. Now, are these covenants biblical? I mean, we just looked, well, you maybe didn't turn to all of them, but you could turn to all of these passages that I gave you and find them. So, we believe in covenant theology, right? Okay, one could say, well, see, all these covenants are biblical, so we believe in covenant theology. What you would need to understand is that covenant theology hypothesizes three other covenants that are not mentioned in scripture. The covenant of works, covenant of grace, and the covenant of redemption. depending on who you're reading from the different covenant theologian authors. And you look in vain to find references or discussion. These are clearly spelled out. We can look at each of these passages and say, God making a covenant, he's giving stipulation, he's giving promises. You can't find those three covenants anywhere in scripture. They are manufactured in the imagination of the theologians. That's what's popularly called covenant theology. And the problem is, it has enough of a root in truth that some people think, oh, well, it must be valid. You don't see all these covenants. We believe in covenant theology. And that's why you have to be very, very careful with terminology. Very careful with terminology. OK. If you went someplace else, go on back to Genesis 9 again, please. Can I ask you something, Pastor David? Yeah. What about that when Christ said when he was, he said this is a covenant in my blood, what's that mean? Okay. When, go to Zechariah 9, there was a procedure for ratifying a covenant. The procedure was that an animal would be killed and blood would be sprinkled. When Moses finished constructing the tabernacle, what did he do? Sacrificed. Sacrificed a lamb and sprinkled the blood on all the things in the tabernacle and the garments of Aaron the priest and all that. Everything was, the covenant was ratified by blood. We saw that also with the Abrahamic covenant, the animals that were killed, parting between the animals. When was the new covenant ratified? Zechariah 9, starting verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation. humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. When was that fulfilled? Triumphal entry. So the context of this prophecy in Zechariah 9 is Jesus' triumphal entry, messianic fulfillment. Verse 11, as for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. There is a prophecy in the context of the triumphal entry of Jesus, that the covenant is going to be ratified by blood. When did that occur? When Jesus died on the cross. So, put yourself in the situation of the disciples. You understand this prophecy, okay? You understand the promises of the new covenant. You're expecting Jesus to be that conquering Messiah. Put yourself in their situation at the Last Supper. What's going to happen the next morning is going to absolutely dash their expectations concerning those future promises. And Jesus is telling them at the Last Supper, the institution of the communion service, Jesus is telling them that what's gonna happen the next morning is not going to be the abolition of the promises to Israel, it's going to be the guarantee of it. His blood is going to be the blood that will guarantee the promises of the new covenant. Doesn't mean the new covenant is in effect now, but the promises of the new covenant have been guaranteed through the shedding of blood, and they will be fulfilled at the time of the second coming. So we say that every time, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, even though that new covenant doesn't have anything to do with the church, actually. The new covenant doesn't have anything to do with the church. You read Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Jacob, not like the covenant I made with them when they came out of Egypt, which covenant they broke. Who did God make the covenant with when they came out of Egypt? Israel. So who is he making the new covenant with? Israel. Okay? So, There is a similarity, there's a connection between the Church and the New Covenant, but the only connection is that the blood that paid for our sins is also the blood that ratified the New Covenant. But that does not put us under the New Covenant. Okay? That explain that? Okay. Go back to Genesis 9. The institution of the rainbow as a sign of the covenant is interesting. One could say, well, haven't there been rainbows before? There's no indication of it. Probably with the water vapor that was surrounding the earth that came down in the rain in the 40 days of the flood, that water would have diffused the light of the sun enough that it would not create a rainbow. That's a guess. OK? that once that rain fell, then rainbows would occur. God says, okay, this is going to be the sign. I won't do this again. I want to get to the end of the chapter because I want us to have a few minutes to discuss. Verse 18, the sons of Noah came out of the ark with Shem and Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah. And from all of these, a whole worth was populated. So we could say that all of mankind didn't just descend from Adam and Eve. All of mankind descended from Noah and Mrs. Noah. Okay, so our relationship with each other is much more recent. 1650 years, something. Okay, remember the flood came in 1656 A.T.? Y'all remember A.T., right? I'm gonna get to the end of the scene. Verse 20, then Noah began farming, planted a vineyard, drank the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father who came and saw the nakedness of his father, told his two brothers outside that Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father, and their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brothers. He also said, blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant. Noah lived 350 years after the flood, so all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. This is the first incident of drunkenness we have mentioned in scripture. This is a sad scene closing the life of Noah. We could talk about, you know, so why did God curse Canaan? Because it wasn't Canaan, it was his father, Ham, that saw the nakedness of his father. Often, the sins of one generation affect the next generation, even to the second and third and fourth generation sometimes. Sometimes people will say, well, Pastor Dave, I'm just doing this and it's not hurting anybody else, so don't nag me about it. It does hurt everybody else. You're part of the body of Christ. Every sin you commit affects everybody else to some extent. I don't understand all of that, but I know scripture teaches it. That's part of why when you go through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, There are qualities, generic qualities of churches. Maybe not everybody in the church bore that, but the effects of that affected everybody in those local churches. Okay, what I want to consider just at the end of our time this morning, though, is what's sad about this is when we first meet Noah, what is said about him? He was righteous in all his generations. Noah walked with God. What I want to ask and have some discussion about is, how does a man who is the most righteous man in his generation, a man who walks with God, wind up naked and drunk in a cave at the end of his life. How does that happen? Noah did not end well. Think quickly with me. Who are some other Bible characters that did not end well? Saul. Saul, okay. Saul didn't even start out very well. But, okay, yeah, he didn't end well. Solomon. His many horses and many wives led his heart away from God. David. David's called a man after God's own heart. And yet in 2 Samuel chapter 11, what do we see David doing? David and? That's Sheba. Adam. Adam. If he starts out obeying God, We don't know for how long. We just finished, if you're reading through the Bible in a year, we just finished. We're working our way through Judges. Gideon. Gideon starts out, he leads the 300 men to defeat the Amalekites and the Midianites. And what do we find with Gideon at the end of his life? He takes golden earrings and builds an ephod, and people worship it. Gideon, what are you thinking? King Hezekiah, very godly king. God speaks very highly of him. The end of his life, he pleads with God. God says, get your house in order, you're gonna die. Hezekiah pleads with him for 15 more years. God gives him the 15 more years. And his son, Messiah, Manasseh, son Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings of Judah is born during those 15 years. Josiah. It's not as severe of a sin, but he disobeys the word of God right at the end. Demas. I'm sorry? Okay. So there are several examples in scripture of men who did not end well. What can we do to keep ourselves from ending poorly? Vance Havener is a speaker at an IFCA regional down in Colorado Springs. He said one of his most frequent prayers is, Lord, let me end well. Because he had known so many men who, in the end of their life, became crotchety, cantankerous, old, grumpy men, or sinned and brought shame on the Lord and the ministry and their family and their churches. What can we do to keep from ending badly. What do we do? Obey. David, what? Obey. Obey. What else? Walk by faith. Walk by faith. You gotta keep your walk going. I don't want it to be just a habit, but I want it to be a habit. I spend time in God's Word. Carrie? Make your relationship with God more important than anything else you do. Put God first in your life. Paul said in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, if I were trying to please men, I would not be a servant of God. I read an article just this past week. It talked about the fact that pastors constantly face the pull between trying to please people and trying to please God. Hope you're praying for the four of us elders on that. Yeah. Dan? Probably more than anything I pray, especially the older I get, but I started when I was younger, is praying that I will end well. I have a friend who passed away. He had Mad Cow's disease. that I end my life, well, he was more afraid of even in those last three weeks of his testimony to the people in the hospital. And that's, I can't imagine anything. One of the things that goes through my mind is rewards. We suffer a lot. How many of them are going to give up because we want to be a crouch? You know? It's just like, so, yeah. really important to stay connected with other believers. And then as you get older, sometimes it's easier just to stay by yourself. Because those relationships with other believers give you accountability. And Beloved, sometimes in our men's group years ago, we used to refer to the dreaded A word, accountability. We don't like to be accountable to people, but we need it. And the more we don't like it, probably the more we need it. Okay, let me just close. Avoid arrogance. Never believe you've got it made, you can coast. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. First Corinthians 10. Never let your guard down. Stay on guard and be alert. Proverbs 4.23, watch over your heart with all diligence or from it flow the springs of life. Maintain spiritual disciplines. Keep short accounts of sin. Don't let sin continue in your life without confessing it and giving it up. Pray, pray, pray. And maintain accountability. I didn't want to finish this study in the life of Noah without hammering these points because this is so important. Pray for one another. Pray for the elders. Pray that we will finish well. Some of us are closer to that than others. Pray that we will all finish well. Okay, any last comments?