The New Creation and the New Fall — Bill Randles

Genesis, Creation, and the Foundations of Faith

Genesis chapter 8. I've been going through the early chapters of Genesis. I really believe the Lord put that on my heart. It's like the foundation for all our faith. And you notice that that part of the Bible is the one that Satan has been attacking currently in our generation.

The early part of Genesis. The devil wants to get us because if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? I'm not ashamed of Genesis. I'm not ashamed of creation. I'm not ashamed of the flood.

I'm not ashamed of the story of Noah and the ark. I don't believe they're just for coloring books or Sunday school classes, although that's a good thing to teach in Sunday school. But these are adult stories and they speak to us.

They go back to our very roots of not only our faith, but of reality itself. Last week we talked about the flood of Noah, but I want to talk today about the new creation. I mean, you think about it. God took the world and totally washed it physically, literally, with water.

And then Noah and his ark, the only piece of dry real estate on the face of the earth was that ark. No rudder, no sail, wasn't in Noah's hands. It was God. Totally in God's hands. And then when the ark lands, as it says in Genesis 8 .1, God remembered Noah.

And every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters us watched. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped.

The rain from heaven was restrained and the waters returned from off the earth continually. And after the end of a hundred and fifty days, the waters were abated. Took a hundred and fifty days for the waters to flow back.

And even then they couldn't leave the ark. That's about half a year. Even then they couldn't leave the ark. He couldn't leave the ark until, by the time they left the ark, it was at one year and 17 days.

Sitting on the ark. It wasn't solid rain. The rain had stopped. The waters abated. Took a while to even find dry land. But even when the land began to appear, they couldn't leave the ark. It's a miracle, but it's a miracle on God's time.

You know what I'm saying? They stayed on that ark even though they were on land. I don't know what would have happened if they would have left before God told them to. Maybe they would have drowned in mud.

They waited until it all drained off and then God gave them the word to leave the ark. And when they came out into this world, it was a new heavens and a new earth in a sort. God has always given a new, this is a recurring pattern in the Bible, there's always a new heavens and a new earth.

And a new dealing with man. But it always ends, it always ends in a principle of human failure. Okay, you think of the garden. That was a new heaven and new earth. But what does it end with? Them being kicked out of the garden.

And then that was a brand new world then. Once they're kicked out of the garden, they're in a brand new world basically. How does that end? The flood. And then you're gonna have a new world here where Noah gets off the ark and he's in a brand new world.

We'll talk about the aspects of it. The new creation, a brand new heaven and new earth in a sense. But what happens at the end of that? We'll learn about it in Genesis 10, the Tower of Babel. It ends, it always ends with a human failure.

Some new start, some new beginning, but it ends with human failure. What happens after the Tower of Babel? Israel is formed. A brand new nation for a new heaven and a new earth and a new world. Israel.

How does it end? The temple is destroyed and Israel is scattered all over the face of the earth. But what's the new creation then of the church? Are we not the new creation? If any man be in Christ, what?

The Millennium and the Rebellion of Humanity

He is a new creation. What new creation? But even this age, how does it end? Apostasy, tribulation, judgment, Antichrist. Always a good beginning and always a calamitous ending. Then what happens? Then what happens after the church and after the judgment and after the tribulation and after the Antichrist?

What happens then? A thousand year reign. Anybody here? Thousand years where Jesus is Lord, where Jesus runs the earth, where all the governmental problems, all the environmental problems, everything is resolved for a thousand years.

A perfect economy, perfect government, perfect environment. But how does the thousand years end? Go to Genesis 20 for a minute. We'll go back to Revelation 20. How does the thousand years end? Always a new heavens and a new earth and always ending on a principle of human failure.

How does the thousand years end? Revelation 20 verse 7, when the thousand years are expired. I'm talking a thousand years from now. After a perfect environment and everything, what happens? Satan will be loosed out of his prison.

And he will go out to deceive the nations. Of course, they won't be deceived because they had a perfect environment. And they now know better, right? Satan will call for volunteers and people will swarm to him after a thousand years.

He'll go out to deceive the nations, which are the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is there are the sand of the sea. After a thousand years of perfection, hey, do I got any volunteers to rebel against God?

Sign me up. They'll swarm to him. They went up on the breast of the sea. The earth and can pass the camp of the saints about in the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

Always a new heaven and a new earth and always ending on a principle of human failure. What what do you think God is trying to teach us through this? I have one suggestion. Maybe it's not the environment that you were raised in.

Maybe it's not your background. Maybe it's not that you didn't have enough money or you weren't the right race or you weren't this or you weren't that or you didn't get enough attention as a child. Maybe it has nothing to do with that.

Maybe it's just the mystery of iniquity. Sin. Rebellion. After all, Satan wasn't raised in a dysfunctional home. He was Lucifer, the angel of God. How did he go wrong? Adam and Eve got enough attention.

Why'd they go wrong? Why'd I go wrong? If you got any other definition of why you went wrong than the one Genesis teaches, you're off. You cannot figure it out. Genesis 8, a new heavens and a new earth.

The Raven, the Dove, and the Holy Spirit

Now the first thing he does, verse 6 of Genesis chapter 8, came to pass at the end of 40 days. Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and sent forth a raven and went forth to and fro till the waters were dried up from off the earth.

And he sent forth also a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot and she returned unto him into the ark for the waters were on the face of the whole earth.

Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark and he stayed yet another seven days and again they sent forth the dove out of the ark and the dove came in done to him in the evening and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off.

So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth and he stayed yet other seven days and went forth sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him anymore. Okay, the first thing he does before he gets out of the ark is he sends out a raven, a crow.

And the raven never comes back to him and then he sends out a dove because he wants to see if the waters are abated and the dove does come back. The question is why does the raven not come back to him?

Why does the dove come back to him? It has to do with what they eat. The ravens feed off the dead and even if there's no land, there's all kinds of corpses floating around. So the raven can rest there.

The raven can land and the raven can eat, right? So he never comes back because he has a taste for flesh. He has a taste for corruption. He has a taste for death. It doesn't bother him. He can land. But the dove can't land.

The dove doesn't eat the flesh, the carrion, the rot and the corruption. It's got to be just right for the dove to land. Now this happens before he even gets off the ark. This is the first principle of the new world, okay?

Two different kinds of people. Some that can make their home right in the corruption and the rot. They can feed off it. I listened to a guy interviewing a popular movie director. He used to be an actor.

And he's talking about his new movie that he's starring in and acting on and it's the movie Rambo. The guy says this will be one of the most violent bloody films ever, won't it? He says not one of the most.

I worked hard for that. You can feed off that stuff. Oh, it's a pretty good movie. Oh, well, it's a few bad spots, adultery, rape, but you know, just go past that. Get into the movie. You can feed off the corruption.

You can eat it. You can land there. You can make your home there, but the dove can't. The dove can't rest until there's something clean and whole, you know, holy. The olive leaf is a type of the Holy Spirit because of the oil.

The dove is a type of the Holy Spirit. The dove can't just land anywhere, okay? This also teaches us something about why Jesus's baptism went the way it did. What was the message of the Holy Spirit coming as a dove?

Now here's someone that I can land on. Here's someone that I can rest on. Here is where the rest is. Here is where the floodwaters have abated of God's wrath and judgment. Here is the true Noah, the true rest for all of the children of God, and so you have this principle of the dove.

Now, like the first creation, the Spirit brooded over the face of the waters, in this creation, the dove is looking for the place to land. Now, a dove is not a raven, okay? Ravens can be quite bold, actually, and they can go after something else that might be eating on the meat and the flesh of the carnal.

The ravens will go right after it, but the dove is a principle of community. That's why the Bible says in the New Testament, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Noah’s Sacrifice and the New Order of Creation

You see what I'm saying? And then it says, the first thing that Noah did when he got off the ship, go to Genesis 8. The first thing that Noah and his family did when they got off the ship, they took all the animals and they all followed by, and they took one of every clean animal that went by.

The first principle of the new world is sacrifice. Noah took one of all the clean animals. There were only seven of each kind, but he takes one and he makes an altar, and he offers the animal in sacrifice to God.

And what's he doing? He's confessing that he deserves to die. Genesis 8, verse 20. Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the word there for offerings is ascending, something going up. You know, Jesus taught us to pray, our Father who art in heaven. It's the upward look. The pious are to look upward to God above. Like the book of Ecclesiastes says, remember when you go to church, remember, don't say too much and don't promise too much.

Why? Remember, God is above. Forever, the pious are to look up. Oh, God is not to the north of me. I mean, when you think about space, what are directions, okay? It's a moral above, a spiritual above.

A looking up, an ascending offering was made unto God immediately. To Yahweh above must the pious ever look. I want you to look at Genesis chapter 9. Oh wait, verse 8, verse 21. The Lord smelled a sweet savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done.

I'll never take out, I'll never wipe out all life on the face of the earth. I'll never do that again until the earth is over. Now, I believe that we're almost at the end. Europe is almost over. God is coming to judge the world in righteousness.

But then he institutes something that never been on the face of the earth before, 22. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease.

You know what had never been on the earth until this right there? Weather. There never was weather before. Remember what the earth was like. There was a sea above and a sea beneath which created a perfect greenhouse condition.

There wasn't such thing as winter or summer or seasons of seed time or seasons of harvest. It was continuous growth like a greenhouse. But in the new world, there's a new order of creation, the weather.

By the way, all the global warming hysteria, he says it'll happen. There'll be seasons until the end. Now we're almost at the end. So in a sense, I do believe in global warming because he said that he's going to purge the earth with fire.

Okay, but there's nothing that Al Gore and the UN can do anything about that. That's the judgment of God. See what I'm saying? God bless Noah, verse 1 of chapter 9. There's a new order of nature. He'll never again wipe out all the...

Oh, he says, I won't wipe out all life on the earth because man's heart is evil continually. Now in the old world, that's the reason he wiped out man. His heart is evil continually. The reason he wipes out man becomes the reason he will preserve man and make this place an orderly place of seasons and cycles.

The same reason that brought the judgment is going to be a reason that he pleads for mercy to man. Because man's heart is evil continually. Now I'm going to talk about aspects of that. Okay, it says in verse 1, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

See, this is the new creation. Now everybody in this room is a descendant of Noah. Every single person in this room is a descendant of Noah. Noah is like a new Adam, a new start for the human race. The fear of you and the dread of you should be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moves on the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea.

Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives should be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things. Before, people didn't eat meat. Well, they might have in their rebellion, but as a rule, no.

People did not eat meat until this time right here. But right here, God says, I want you to eat meat. I want you to eat meat. Let me tell you something about the times we live in. There's all kinds of things that have this appearance of righteousness.

You know what's wrong with this evil generation? They're so unrighteous that they have to manufacture a new kind of righteousness. They're all for abortion and sexual liberty, but don't eat meat and don't drive an expensive car.

They have a new morality that's much more preachy than any preacher or church ever concocted. They're the nannies of the world, and it's because they are so unrighteous and so immoral that they've constructed a new kind of righteousness.

Meat, Blood, and Life in the New Covenant

Paul said that in the last days, demons will come along and teach people not to eat meat. Vegean and vegetarianism is demonic. It is a demonic doctrine. It's demonic. Why would they tell us that? Oh, in the eating of meat is a spiritual lesson.

And what is the lesson? That man will only be able to live if something else dies. Okay? Now with our new supermarkets and everything, we got away from the idea of the farm boy that goes out in the yard and grabs the hen and wrings the neck and chops the neck off and drains the blood.

Real close to death and then supper. That's Sunday dinner. Now people think the natural habitat of meat is the grocery store. Okay. We live by death. It's a reinforcement constantly. We live by death.

Something has to die for us to live. And so he says, You shall eat meat, but don't eat blood. Verse 4. But the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, you shall not eat. Don't eat blood.

What's he saying there? Well, if everything has a spiritual message, there's only one blood that we can truly drink. We just did it. There's only one real replenishing source of true life. The first atom was a living soul, but the last atom shall become a life-giving spirit.

And he says, Eat my body and drink my blood. Eat meat because we live by the death. Okay. But don't eat blood because blood is the life. Okay. Pagans eat blood. Now I'm not giving you dietary laws either.

I mean, I don't believe that we're bound by these restrictions. And just like I don't believe if you prefer vegetables over meat that that's a sin. I do believe, though, that if you have a spiritual thing like, I'm so merciful I'll never eat meat.

That's demonic. Okay. That's a demonic doctrine. All right. You'd be more merciful than God. God's the one that required the blood sacrifice. Okay. But I'm not saying you're bound by these laws. Okay.

The Bohemians eat blood sausage and stuff like that. But the pagans eat blood. It's a false gospel because basically pagans will take and drink the blood of their enemies so they can get their strength.

They can co-opt their life. I'm going to take your strength over. They'll eat the heart while it's still quivering in some pagan societies. They'll eat it while it's still beating so that they can get the life force of someone else.

We don't live by co-opting someone else's life. We live by the death of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. You see what I'm saying? And so these, believe it or not, these are the foundations of the new world.

Okay. Don't drink blood, he says. Now, someone says, Pastor, that's Old Testament. You go up to Acts 15 and they bring out the same thing. Don't eat blood. Don't eat things strangled. He says in verse 5, Verse 6 is the beginning of something else that had never been on the earth before.

Human Government, Justice, and Moral Confusion

Human government. Part of the reason why the days of Noah were so chaotic is the total anarchy. There was very little to restrain sin. There was no government. There were no police. There were no judges.

There were no courts. There were no trials. It was complete anarchy. And there was no age limit either. You lived to 900 years old. You can do a lot of evil and you can accumulate a lot of evil. What's going to restrain man's sin?

Well, God in the new world says, I'm going to set up human governments. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. Okay. Well, in order for that to happen, you'd have to set up courts.

You'd have to start investigations. You'd have to start governmental authority. The capital punishment and the movement against it. This, too, is demonic. We live in interesting times. People are so tender-hearted on one sense that they wouldn't even want to kill a terrorist.

But they're so callous in another sense, they killed 40 million babies before they were even born. Selective tenderness. It's an example of what I told you earlier. People are so evil now that they have to create a new morality.

They concoct a new morality. The same people that promote abortion or sexual libertinism are zealous anti-smoking Nazis, and they hate the death penalty. This is false morality, false compassion, false tenderness.

Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. If you get up to the New Testament, Paul said that the government, you should give your due to the government.

You should respect them. You should honor them. You should remember, they bear the sword to punish evildoers. Now, Paul was talking about the government in his day. It wasn't a Christian government. It was narrow that he was talking about.

But he said God appointed them. When did God appoint government? It's right here. And you be fruitful and multiply. Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. Once again, it's the creation all over again.

God’s Covenant With Noah and the Rainbow

And God said unto Noah and to his sons with him, verse 8, saying, Behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, of every beast of the earth with you, from all that go out of the earth to every beast of the earth, and I'll 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 be a flood to destroy the earth. He made this covenant not only with us but even with the animals that I'll never ever again send a flood to kill all flesh.

Well, there have been many floods since, Katrina. We all watched in horror a few years ago the day after Christmas the tsunami. But that's not breaking this promise. This promise is I'll never wipe out all flesh again, not until the earth's over.

Never again will I make my covenant. Now, there's a new ordering in nature. They get out of the boat. Let me talk about some of the things that were different. Like I said, weather. There have never been temperature differentials before.

They get out of this boat on this mountaintop, and I imagine for the first time ever they felt a cool or maybe even a cold breeze. That's a brand-new harsh world. There is no more canopy shielding them from the sun's ultraviolet rays.

I think that's one of those scientific reasons why men did not live as long after the flood as before the flood. There's larger oceans. Because remember, in the beginning there were two waters, above and below.

The waters above came down. The oceans were larger, and there was less habitable land. And the land itself, I mean, I'm no geologist, but all you've got to do is look around. You can see the evidence of the cataclysm.

The land itself became a rugged terrain, mountain ranges, where you can see the two land plates just smashed up like that. Everywhere you could see the destruction of the old world. So I imagine this promise never to flood the earth again brought a lot of comfort.

Buildup of snow and ice at the north and south extremes. That never was before. Before the flood, like I say, last week, they found a woolly mammoth that was flash frozen, and they cut open his stomach at the North Pole.

And there was ferns in there, and undigested jungle plants. Now you've got this buildup of snow and ice at the north and south extremes. You've got rugged new mountain ranges, terrains, canyons. You've got the possibility now of storms, rains, wind, tornadoes.

It's a brand new world, but man, is it a scary world. Well, let me go on to the rainbow. Verse 13, I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. You see a rainbow for the first time here.

God says it's his bow. It'll come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud. And that's what you need for a rainbow. You need water droplets in the sky and the sun.

I'll remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the water shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow will be in the cloud, and I'll look on it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that's on the earth.

And God said to Noah, this is the token of the covenant which I've established between me and all flesh that's on the earth. Let's talk about the rainbow for a minute. What is it? It's the sign of the covenant.

And I still rejoice every time I see a rainbow. I've seen where you can have two rainbows. Ever seen that? What's the meaning of the rainbow? Well, what is it? It's the pure white light from outside of the earth.

It comes into the earth and gets refracted. To me, that's a sign that heaven is willing to come into the sinful world. Even if Jesus is broken, even if Jesus is broken down and refracted, he shall bruise your head, but you shall bruise his heel.

It's the willingness of heaven to come into the sinful world. See, people got to go back to the story of Noah because they ask questions that are so inappropriate, like, where was God on 9 -1 -1? Where was God when this happened?

Where was God when that happened? In the light of the holiness of God, the real question is, why isn't there a 9 -1 -1 five times a day, every day, 24 -7? The rainbow says, no, God's willing. Pure white light comes in and penetrates into our sinful, dark, stormy, cloudy world.

Light refracted and broken down. And give us hope. It's a seven-fold spectrum. Three is the number of God and four is the number for the earth. Four corners, four seasons, four directions. Heaven and earth.

It's between heaven and earth. The rainbow's a message. There's a mediator that can bring heaven and earth together. I look at it as the victory of divine love over sin. And the wrath of God. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Noah’s Drunkenness and the New Fall

Now, let me talk. I talk about the new creation and the brand new creation, but it's a new fall. Here's what happened, verse 18. I'm not going to be long. All God's people said. And the sons of Noah that went forth out of the ark were Shaman, Ham, and Japheth.

And Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah and of them was the whole earth overspread. Okay, the whole earth was populated by these three sons. Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Noah began to be a husbandman and he planted a vineyard.

And he drank of the wine and was drunken and he was uncovered within his tent. He drinks wine and he passes out naked in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers without.

And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward and they saw not their father's nakedness.

In the first creation, the man falls in the garden. He eats the fruit. In the second creation, the man falls in the garden, the vineyard, and he's drinking fruit. And his sons deal with it. And one son, Ham, tells everybody else.

And the other sons are so modest that they walk backwards and they cover him. Oh, that's like the first creation too. Adam's naked, you know, and he has to be covered at the end. And then when Noah woke from his wine, verse 24, and knew what his younger son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

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

The Curse of Canaan and the Misuse of Scripture

Well, let me talk about what happened there. Very important, because this story is much, much misinterpreted. In fact, this story was literally used to justify slavery 100 years ago. And it's a distortion of the Bible.

Noah's got three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Shem means the name, Hashem. Japheth means expander. And Ham means hot. Now, it says, Ham told his brothers about their father's nakedness. Well, listen, we're to cover each other, right?

What is it in us that wants to expose everything? You know, most newspapers are all about exposing. Bring down the high and mighty. Bring down the exalted. Don't respect that man. Really, this is what he's like.

This thing runs through the human race. There wouldn't be a newspaper industry without it. It's all yellow journalism now. And the best thing of all, people just love to see someone higher and above them brought down.

Boy, it just gives you a good feeling. What is that? That's a deep rebellion. Honor thy father and mother, right? Look up to them. And when you do see their flaws, what should you do? Cover them. Why?

You'll find out soon enough what it means to be a father, a mother, and a human being. You're not going to do it right either, okay? Someone says, I'll never do what my dad did. I'll never do it. I can guarantee you'll do it worse.

To the extent you hate it, you'll do it. To the extent you judge him mercilessly, you will do it. To the extent you offer no grace or forgiveness for them, you will do it. Noah wakes up and sees what's happened.

He doesn't curse Ham. This is a huge, very important thing. He does not curse Ham. He curses Ham's fourth son, Canaan. Now, I can only infer that however this incident panned out, he saw something in Canaan that was really bad.

Maybe Canaan just loved it that the old man got seen in his nakedness. I don't know what it was, but he saw something perverse there in him. Is he cursing him, or is he prophesying his future? Now, the reason this is an important distinction, it doesn't say what he said to Ham.

God says a lot of things to Ham. All through the Bible, God says a lot of things to Ham, and to Mizraim, and to Cushi. But Canaan is the fourth son of Ham. This isn't pointing out what God said to Canaan.

And there's a very important reason why this is significant just on the initial surface of the thing when the book first came out. Where was this book given? It was given to Moses out in the wilderness.

What were they getting ready to do? They were getting ready to go into the promised land to wipe out the Canaanites. Therefore, you've got to have a rationale for it. Here's what the Canaanites are going to become.

Cursed is Canaan. See, if a boy can delight in that, the same perversion that would delight in that kind of thing, what's it going to be like five, six, seven, eight generations from now? What were the Canaanites like?

Ever hear the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? The Sodomites and Gomorrites were Canaanites. Okay. You've got this sin that comes down to Canaan. He sits there and rejoices and laughs and just thinks it's a great thing that old grandpa is not so holy after all.

Look at him passed out drunk in the tent. Oh, this is rich. This is great. Got to go tell everyone. And Noah saw that. Noah's not just a drunken fool. Noah is a prophet of God. And he sees that in Canaan and he says, I see something in Canaan that's going to be cursed.

It's going to lead him in a perverted direction. And by the time of several generations later, you don't have a boy laughing at his grandpa anymore. You've got Sodom and Gomorrah. People that would rape an angel if they could.

Cursed be Canaan. Let me tell you something about Canaan. There are no Canaanites anymore. The Canaanites got wiped out. There's just a few of them by the time of the New Testament. One of them was saved, a little woman with a demon-possessed daughter, a Canaanite woman.

There are no others. This is, you know, there was no curse on Ham. There's no curse on the black people or the Negroid races. There are no races. There's three sons of Noah and then there's a fourth grandchild of Noah that Noah saw something in and predicted his outcome.

Shem, Ham, and Japheth in the Book of Acts

And then he blessed the God of Shem because he didn't bless Shem. He blessed Shem's God. He's saying Shem is going to be the one with the seed. And Shem is going to be the one with the religion and carry the name.

But then he says, but Japheth will dwell in the tents of Shem. What's that mean? Who's the biggest rejecters of the Christian religion today? Arabs and Jews. Shem. Then who's dwelling in their tents? Who reads their books?

Who worships their God? Who follows their religion? The Gentiles. We live in their tents. They won't live here, but we will. They won't worship the holy God, but we will. Now, I'm not saying every single one.

They're coming back to God. In fact, Shem, Ham, and Japheth all come back to God. And let me close this story with what happens in the book of Acts. I want to have you turn there. Right in the very center of the book of Acts is three conversion stories.

The first one is the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. That's Ham. He comes back. He worships God. It's so easy to convert him. He accepts Jesus Christ and is baptized. And now people say, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.

That's complete garbage. Complete garbage. Christianity, and I mean real Christianity, is the fastest growing religion in the world. It's sweeping through Africa, sweeping through China. Most Christians in the world are named Wang or something like that.