Diets and Death Penalties

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 9 and hold your place at verse 1.

We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 7 today and the title of today's message is diets and death penalties.

And I want to assure you that the title of the message is not a response to my wife putting me on Weight Watchers.

I promise that is not the truth.

However, the two things do sort of perhaps have some overlap.

Two of the most outspoken campaigns in recent years, in recent decades has been the movement to the end or rather to end the eating of animals and to abolish the death penalty.

Most of us are familiar with groups like PETA the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who have been on the front lines of animal activism often using graphic images to make their points that food should only come from the plants and should not come from any sources that would use animals.

One of their quotes is that here at PETA we believe that animals are not ours to use.

And they also go on to say there's no such thing as humane meat.

So everything that is done in the use of animals or eating animals is inhumane and wrong.

A video made rounds recently on the internet of people going into grocery stores and there were butcher cases with meat in it and they were putting roses on the meat as if to mourn the cows and the pigs that had given their lives for the food.

Bill Gates in a recent statement said he believes that rich nations around the world should cease eating real meat and should turn to synthetic meat.

Sounds a little dangerous but that was the idea.

And so we have an entire subculture in our world that says eating meat and the using of animals and having animals serve us and being used for food and for service is wrong.

That that's wrong and ungodly.

And on the other side there are those who are trying to abolish the death penalty.

There are those who argue that in every case the death penalty is cruel and inhumane that it should be eliminated.

Groups like Amnesty International say the death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence.

It is not the solution to it.

Now you may say, Pastor this is an odd pairing of conversations.

Why are we talking about diets and death penalties? Well the reason why is because these two subjects are actually directly addressed in our text today.

Because when Noah comes off the ark he is given three commands from God.

One has to do with the family, which that's another conversation we could have, right? The family is certainly under attack but the first command has to do with the family.

The second command has to do with food.

And because I'm trying to be a good Baptist the third is fratricide.

Just to keep the three F's.

We'll just say murder of your brother.

But that's what fratricide means.

So really the three things, the three commands is one about family, one about food, and one about justice or murder.

And so if you wonder why I'm talking about diets and death penalties it's because that's what God talked about.

This is what the subject of the commands are and so this is going to be the subject of our message today.

Let us now stand and read the Word of God and we're going to read Genesis chapter 9 verses 1 to 7 and see the standards that God gives for life and death when it comes to both man and beast.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

The fear of you and the death of you, excuse me, the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea into your hand they are delivered.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.

And as I gave you the green plants I give you everything, but you shall not eat flesh with its blood that is its, excuse me, with its life that is its blood.

And for your life blood I will require a reckoning from every beast I will require it and from man from his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image.

And you be fruitful and multiply.

Team on the earth and multiply in it.

Our Father and our God as we open your word today I pray first and foremost Lord that you would fill me with your spirit that you would keep me from error and cowardice and Lord that I would preach freely the truths contained in your word for your word is truth.

Father I pray that those under the hearing of the word who are believers would be edified, rebuked if necessary, corrected if needed, but Lord also for those who are here who may not know you from the young to the old Lord if there are those who have not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ that they would see that you are the sovereign of the world and you have commanded all men everywhere to repent.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We've been in Genesis now for a long time several years looking through verse by verse in the book and we arrived this week at chapter 9 and we find ourselves with Noah coming off of the ark.

The world is now dry.

It has begun to sprout new life and it is an opportunity to begin afresh.

All the people who lived before the flood with the exception of these eight are now gone.

There are no more Nephilim.

There are no more mighty men of renown.

The generations created by the sons of God and the daughters of men have been washed away and in a sense Noah stands like a new Adam in a new world.

Now we can't push that analogy too far because the Bible says Christ is the second Adam.

Christ is the last Adam but in a sense Noah stands like Adam.

He comes in as the new man in a new world as Adam was a new man in his new world.

So Noah builds an altar and worships God and I thought about this week as I was thinking what did he build the altar out of? The trees probably had not gotten big enough yet to actually be used for building and timber so perhaps he pulled timber off the ark and used it to build the altar.

So somewhere in Ararat, somewhere in the mountains, the first altar was built in the new world and Noah worships God.

And just like God gave Adam a blessing and a command or a mandate in the garden, he will now give Noah a blessing and a mandate as he prepares to reestablish both civilization and culture.

Remember there's none of that anymore.

The cities that were built by the sons of Cain are gone.

All of the technological advances that were made in music and all of those things have been washed away.

So now it's a it's a tabula rasa, it's a blank slate, an opportunity to build a new civilization and a new culture.

And so God speaks to Noah and he gives him demands and mandates for this new culture.

He gives them, as it were, a new cultural mandate, a new civilizational mandate.

Here are the standards which you are to keep.

Chapter 9 can be broken down into three parts.

Civilization, verses 1 to 7.

Covenant, verses 8 to 17.

And curse, verses 18 to 29.

And that will be the way we do the next three sermons.

This week we'll look at civilization next week and possibly the week after because covenant is going to take some time as I want to express not only Noah's covenant but how covenant is understood throughout the scriptures.

So covenant is verses 8 to 17 and then we'll get to the curse of Ham in verses 18 to 29.

I could have done that as one sermon but I said nope, better break it up because you guys want to get to lunch eventually.

So we're going to do today just looking at verses 1 to 7 and the civilization which is commanded by God.

So in reestablishing civilization we see in verse 1, the Adamic blessing is repeated.

The Adamic blessing is repeated.

Read with me again verse 1.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Now is that language familiar to us? It should be because that very same statement was made to Adam in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28.

If you look at Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 and God blessed them, that is Adam and Eve, the man and the woman, and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

That is the exact same language, the exact same three statements, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, that what we might call the multiplication mandate which was given to Adam is also given to Noah.

And here's the thing about it.

The text says that that mandate is a blessing.

There is a blessing in being fruitful and multiply.

And this makes sense because the Bible will later tell us that having children is a blessing.

Psalm 127 verse 3.

You knew it was coming, didn't you Mike? Amen before I said it.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord.

The fruit of the womb is a reward, like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the children of one's youth.

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

This is the blessing of the man who has children.

This is the blessing of the man who has offspring.

This is the blessing of the man who has a heritage from the Lord which are through his children.

One of the worst things in the world today is how we have devalued the family and devalued the having of children.

We have turned children from blessing to burden.

We have told people that having children is the curse and we want to have them avoid that with any methods possible, even to the point of murdering children in the womb so as to not have to go forward with raising them.

The vast majority of abortion in the world is not done because of rape and incest and those things which are often used as the excuse or as the exception but the vast majority of abortions in the world are for convenience because children are not a blessing they are a burden in our world.

But God blessed them in multiplying.

He blessed them in having children and I know this when children are two and three years old and they have destroyed your house and everything's a mess and things are hard and it's tired and you don't feel like cooking and you don't feel like cleaning and you come home from work and your house is a mess.

I know it may not feel like a blessing.

I get it.

I got five of them and Mike has more than me and Tim and Amy have more than me.

It doesn't always feel like a blessing sometimes.

Sometimes it feels very hard but the Bible says those children are a blessing from the Lord.

Even the ones that you have difficulty with are a blessing from the Lord.

God has given them to you maybe for your sanctification.

And so they are a blessing from the Lord and so we must understand this blessed...

when I call it a command understand I'm not saying it's a burdensome command.

It's a blessed command.

It's like if I told my kids I command you today to go outside and have fun.

It's still a command but it's a blessing and God has commanded man in this text to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

What's interesting about this though is it really isn't Noah that God is speaking to even though Noah is in view it's Noah's three sons because Noah's not gonna have any more children.

Noah's not gonna be fruitful anymore.

He's not gonna multiply anymore but he will fill the earth through his grandchildren and through their grandchildren.

And so the command and the blessing here is actually through Noah the earth will be filled.

Through Noah there will be this blessing occur and through Noah there will be massive multiplication again.

God has not created any more people.

He only had created Adam and Eve and from Adam and Eve came all of us and we came through the conduit of Noah's line.

None of us are descended from anyone else save Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

You're either a Shemite, a Hamite, or a Japhethite.

Nothing else because those are the three men through whom the world came.

So this is on the heels of destruction, on the heels of destroying everyone and you might think if God destroys the whole earth and kills everyone on the earth maybe he doesn't want to deal with man anymore.

Maybe he doesn't want man to grow and multiply anymore but no.

The same command given to Adam is given to Noah and honestly in the same condition because it said of man before the ark that he was evil and it says of man after the ark that he's evil.

Genesis 8 says he's evil from his youth even after the flood.

So God is re-commanding what he commanded to Adam and you say well why would he do that then if we're just gonna have more evil, if we're just gonna have more people and the people are gonna be more evil because God has through the flood demonstrated his willingness to judge sin and he has pictured the final judgment because there will come a day where God will judge the world again not through water but through fire and he has proven his willingness to judge once and so too will he judge again and those who were in the ark were saved those who are in Christ will be saved in the second judgment so there's a picture here of what is happening and God has given us a picture of his judgment.

So God's desire is to see man multiply again however this time there are some changes God is going to set down a new administration for civilization and for justice yes you are going to multiply and fill the earth but there are going to be some changes.

In the garden Adam was given dominion over everything as part of his blessing he was told as an image bearer of God he was going to not only be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth but he was going to subdue it he was going to have dominion over it and he was only going to eat plants he was going that was part of it if you wanna look it up it's in chapter 1 verse 29 it says in God said behold I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit you shall have them for food so Adam was given the command essentially to be a vegetarian not to eat the meat of the animals but a new mandate is given in Noah's day a new mandate is given and somebody might say what does this mean God changes no and we must understand God's immutability is not affected by his moving through covenantal relationships with his people in the same way that our covenant that we are in we are in the new covenant is not the same as the covenant of Moses people get that confused this does not change God and his immutability but in the administration of the covenant and relationship we no longer have to perform sacrifices we no longer have to eat kosher we no longer hey we can have a pork sandwich to the glory of God so these are things that we would say are different now then were different under the old covenant administration but this doesn't mean God changes this is how God administers his covenant among his people and so God has not changed from Genesis 8 to Genesis 9 but he has given a new cultural mandate to man and the changes we will see are quite interesting the first change we see is in verse 2 he says the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea into your hand they are delivered now right away just think about that in the garden there was what I call delightful dominion the animals came to Noah and he named them there was delightful dominion now there is dreadful dominance there's a different relationship there's a pastor named David Collier I don't know if he's related but I was listening to him this week because he preached on this text and it was great he said the relationship in the animal kingdom went from managerial to adversarial where we were managers in the garden and there was no fear or dread now it's adversarial and you say why is it adversarial I have my I have an idea of why that could be it could be that now man is able to eat animals as we'll see in a moment man becomes predator and now there's a relationship there of change but the point is animals will now be afraid of man and we know that's true because when we go into the forest the animals don't come and and like who was it Snow White in the Disney film where they come in and dance on your fingers and everything no the birds fly the other way the the squirrels run the other way the animals go the other way and everybody always tells me because everybody knows how much I'm afraid of snakes people people say Keith the snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them not possible but I understand the sentiment typically they go the other direction lesser moccasins because somehow moccasins became the tough guy of the snake kingdom and they want to fight but otherwise most snakes when you go out in the woods if they see you coming they're gonna go the other direction even big animals that would have no trouble devouring you bears and lions if they see you coming they're gonna go the other direction there's a natural instinctual dread of man even though they could tear us apart they typically go the other way people usually only get only get injured by animals when they frighten them to the point that they feel like they have to protect themselves when they're young that's typically how that happens animals it's not like Jaws where they're coming after you and your family you know that's that's movie myth right so the dread of the animals rather the dread of man will be on the animals and animals that we use have to be trained for use think about this we have to break horses know what it's called when you get a horse that you wanna ride you have to break their spirit so they call it right because that's what has to happen that horse has a natural inclination to go away from you and not be used as a transportation device but you break the horse right what do you do to dogs house break right you you get them used to being under your dominion but their natural instinct is not that right if you ever tried to pet a wild dog it's a bad idea and so animals will fear us that's verse 2 and then we move on to verse 3 it says every moving thing that lives shall be food for you and I as I gave you the green plants God is referencing his own word here he says as I gave you the green plants that's Genesis 1 28 as I gave you the green plants I give you everything you see instead of only vegetables man is now gonna get to eat meat now I wanna say this it is possible that man ate meat before this but it would have been rebellion I believe it wouldn't have been in accord with God's command because God's command was to eat vegetables it's possible that the men before the flood were eating meat I'm not saying this is the first time anybody ever ate meat but is this now it is sanctioned God is sanctioning something that wasn't sanctioned before he says now you will have this ability to eat meat and according to the mandate given to Adam that would have been a sin prior to this so he's sanctioned by God to slaughter and eat Martin Luther makes a Martin Luther has an 8 volume commentary on Genesis and it's massive and it's amazing but one of the things he says about this text is this he says these words specifically referring to this text establish the butcher shop attach hares chickens and geese to the spit and fill our tables with all sorts of foods he goes on to say necessity also keeps men busy not only do they hunt forest for animals but at home they give particular care to tending and fattening animals for food so not only is God giving man a new diet but he's also giving man opportunity for new occupation the occupation of the hunter the occupation of the the herder the shepherd he's giving these new occupations which would not have been necessary before but now are so with new food comes new jobs and new occupation among men man is given the animals of every kind if you notice that in the text it says they are given every kind not only the clean animals this is important because if we read the text we know that no one knows the clean in the unclean animals we know that he brought of the clean animals seven pairs of kinds into the ark and of the unclean animals he only brought one pair of each kind but in this it doesn't make a distinction in what kind of food he's allowed to eat now Luther says he would have still known not to eat the unclean animals I don't think that I disagree with Martin Luther here course he's dead he doesn't know but I do disagree with with brother Luther that I don't think that there's a distinction here I don't think Abraham was kosher y'all just to be clear there's nothing prior to the giving of the Levitical law that would have made it wrong to eat unclean animals and I gotta tell you there's nothing wrong with it now because we're no longer under the Mosaic covenant you can have that pork sandwich you can have that shrimp stew or shrimp sandwich or whatever because it's no longer a part of our covenant we don't have to worry about that and so I think that this when it says all food I do think it included all food I do think that Noah could have eaten anything he wanted to eat in fact there's a funny picture PETA put it up mentioning PETA again it's got all kinds of different animals starts with like a a lion and a tiger and a zebra and a horse and then it gets down to a dog and then it gets to a pig and a cow and it says where do you draw the line on what you eat and I was like well if I was hungry enough then wherever you know if it got to the point where we needed to eat I'd go on down the line for right now we only cultivate certain animals for food beef and pigs and things like that that's what we cultivate at this point but at the at the end of the day I'd eat squirrel if it meant not going hungry because there wouldn't be a sin in doing that and so Noah is given every animal for food but even in this great liberty there is still a boundary set and we see this boundary in verse 4 but you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood now this is the first dietary restriction given in scripture this is the first dietary law given in the Bible except for of course the eating of only vegetables but as far as eating how we are to eat meat this is the first one and it says this it says that we are to not eat meat with its life now later under the Mosaic Covenant there would be a very specific way that this was to be carried out and even now we understand that there are certain foods that are prepared in what's called the kosher way and that includes the draining of blood and the certain preparation of the food with taking the blood out of the animal and it's interesting that this came up at the Jerusalem Council if you remember the first time that the apostles gathered to deal with an issue in the church was in Acts 15 they were trying to debate and discuss the question of Gentiles coming into the assembly what was the big issue with Gentiles they weren't circumcised and they didn't eat the food that we eat right they eat food we don't eat and they're not circumcised and so they had this big debate over whether or not they should allow Gentiles into the church and how they're going to accept them are we going to force them to be circumcised are we going to force them to eat this way at the end of the conversation in Acts 15 19 James the pastor the church Jerusalem says this he said it is my judgment that we should not trouble the Gentiles who turn to God but we should write them to a stain from things polluted to idols from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood so there is a reference in the New Testament about not eating blood specifically in this new covenant situation where we're dealing with the Gentiles but going back to the passage in Genesis what does it mean to not eat blood this is actually a highly debated passage among commentators and theologians what does it mean when it says that we should not eat blood well the simple answer for many people as well you just don't eat blood at all but the idea of the text is that the animal has its life in it consider this for a moment when the Bible talks about the blood of something it's talking about its life when it when it talks about the blood of Jesus Jesus gave his blood what's it talking about giving his life right blood in that sense is life and this text tells us this is don't eat the animal with its life in it or its blood so the way that I understand it and I think this is correct is that animals are not to be eaten alive like a predator would eat an animal you know lions jump on an animal while it's still alive and eat it while it's dying and so we are to have a basic respect in how we treat animals in even in the butchering process that we are to kill them properly to use them for food that you're not to simply be as a beast in the eating of other beasts but that you were to eat as a man not as a predatory beast and so man is to properly slaughter and prepare the animal which in fact most of you probably know this but just in case you don't when we slaughter animals that includes removing the blood people often have a steak on their plate and there's this red stuff around they say oh it's bloody no it's not that's not blood that's myoglobin that is a protein that comes out of the muscle that's not blood the blood has been drained from that meat what you're seeing is not blood just so you know so eat your rare steak it's fine that's it yeah just saying it that's not blood it's not and the big question I would have and don't come and ask me afterwards because I haven't fallen on my answer yet is what about something like blood sausage first of all it's a sin because it's gross but I don't know the actual answer I will say this though throughout the history of the world it is only among pagan societies where the drinking of blood has been common and typically it is used in things like ceremonies of magic and witchcraft and things like that so there is a tie of drinking blood to a spiritual exercise and I think that that's an actual I think the reason for that is the rebellion against this command God says don't do it so what is the pagan do he does just what God says not to do so ultimately though I I think the the the heart of the text is that when we consider how we are to handle animals that we are to eat that we are to do so in a proper way that we are to butcher them properly and you might say somebody from Peter would say there's no proper way to butcher no there's a right way and there's a wrong way and there's we should do it the right way and we should ultimately have respect for the animals that we are eating and we are we should care for them in the process of preparing them for their food my wife and I are talking about getting animals for our yard and maybe chickens and maybe even a maybe fattening a pig you know these are things we're talking about how can we do it well even though we're probably gonna eat these animals eventually we want to have them a comfortable place while they're alive we don't want them to be miserable and we you know do our best to treat the animals well while they're alive and so there is a right way to do it and so we have this command about how we are to treat animals and not eat while the blood is in or while their life is in them and this rule in this life blood principle actually moves into the next command because what happens is in the command about the lifeblood of the animal God now switches to talk about man in verse 5 and he uses the same principle look at verse 5 and for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning so the context is still blood but now he's gone from the lifeblood of the animals which is important but to the to the kind of the biblical model of going from the lesser to the greater he goes from the lifeblood of the animals which is important to the lifeblood of man which is way more important so now he says and for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning so here's the reckoning I will excuse me from every beast I will require it and from man from his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man this text verses 5 and 6 specifically mark a major shift in human relations with other humans because from now on from this text forward not only would there be any eternal consequence for the taking of life men's life not only would there be an eternal consequence for taking the life of a man now there will be a temporal consequence for taking the life of man from now on taking the life of man would carry a worldly earthly penalty now were there penalties before this were there social penalties before this possibly because Cain when he killed Abel he was afraid that he might suffer a penalty that's why he cried out to God he says that people are gonna kill me right and later Lamech who is the descendant of Cain he bragged about the people he had killed and how he was he was ready for all comers you know if anybody wanted to come and attack him he was ready to fight back right because of the idea of there being some sort of retributive some sort of retributive justice somebody might come looking for me but now we have the establishment essentially of a rule of law that if someone even an animal takes the life of a man that there must be reckoning for that life and he tells us why in verse 6 because in verse 6 it says because he's made in the image of God why is it that man is so valuable because man's made in the image of God therefore if an animal takes the life of the man the animals to be punished his life is to be taken by the way I shouldn't have to say this but I will and if this offends you I hope that it would you would understand that's not my intention but understand this animal life is not as valuable as human life because everybody misses this we mix it up we get so upset about Harambee and all that stuff but listen if it's a choice between a little boy and a gorilla you kill the gorilla and the fact that we even have to debate that is like we don't even understand the image of God we don't understand human beings I didn't want to see the gorilla get shot but honestly if it's between a kid and a gorilla you kill the gorilla animals are not human and I know people that well my dog I love my dog you can love your dog but it's not a human being you know it's not human it's just not and so we have to understand here it says if an animal hurts a human if it kills a human that animals life is going to have to have a reckoning but he also says it about people it's not just animals that attack human beings that the animal will be punished but people who attack human beings a man who kills another man by man shall his blood be shed verse 6 is the foundation for capital punishment I was recently in a I was at a question and answer night I was one of three pastors who was receiving questions Mike you were there and one of the questions that came up directed at me because everybody knows I teach shooting classes and I teach self-defense classes what about the death penalty what do you think about the death penalty and I just went back to Genesis 9.6 I said Genesis 9.6 tells us that there is a consequence for shedding man's blood now the Bible will later describe exceptions for instance the exception of self-defense Genesis or Exodus 22 talks about a man being in your house at night and being struck that he dies and there's no punishment for that because that guy was in your house and he got struck so that he dies there's an act of self-defense that happens there and there's other passages that talk about unintentional killing you understand under the Mosaic Law they had things called cities of refuge which was if you killed a man unintentionally you could run to safety so that his family wouldn't exercise retributive justice against you you had a place where you could go and be safe so the Bible does understand that there are things like unintentional killing what we would call manslaughter and there are things like self-defense but when it comes to the intentional and I would even go as far as to say premeditated murder of another human being there is one consequence that is the highest consequence of all and that is life for life that the life is to be forfeited and people say well the Ten Commandments say thou shall not kill no they don't the Ten Commandments say thou shall not commit murder and that lines up with this text and if you commit murder what do you deserve death that is the command and this is by the way we're gonna talk about this next week when we get into the covenant this is universal because later we're gonna see when God makes his covenant with Noah it's with him and his descendants and the animals and the earth like everybody's a part of this so it's not as if there are some exempted people this is universal and the command is simple if a man sheds the blood of another man so too shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he him and somebody says well wait a minute who gets to decide who gets to decide who's right who gets to decide who's wrong who gets to carry out justice and I do agree with many commentators that what we have in Genesis 9 is not only is the establishment of a penalty but we have establishment of the rule of law that there will be those who have the responsibility to enact these rules and carry out these laws so in a sense human government can be traced back to Genesis chapter 9 because someone has to be rightfully carrying out the standard I know especially over the last year we have experienced a lot of negative in our government we have seen grabs for power we have seen people over exercise their authority we have seen people mistreated right now pastor James Coates in Canada is behind bars for preaching the gospel yes we have seen the government go too far we have seen the government overreach we have seen terrible things happen but I will remind you that even in the midst of corruption government itself is put in place by God for a purpose and if we say we don't want any authority then we are denying what God has established because Romans 13 clearly says God does establish the state for the purpose of exercising its mission its purpose of being a blessing to those who do good and a punishment for those who do evil in fact what is Romans 13 tell us the government government does not bear the what the sword in vain the government has the sword for a purpose what is the purpose of the government having the sword to strike fear in the heart the evildoer that's the government has the right to exercise capital punishment do they always do it right no they often do it wrong and so we we should stand for righteousness in law and righteousness in government but I have to remind you that does not mean that we call for the abolishing of the death penalty because the death penalty was created by God therefore there's a right way to do it you'll hear these arguments sometime they'll say well it's been proven that the death penalty is not going it is not a it's it's not a thing that's going to cause people not to do it the death penalty is not a deterrent thank you the word in my head and the word in my walk away from my notes I get in trouble they'll say the death penalty is not a deterrent you know what you say to that who cares because that's not what the Bible says the Bible doesn't say God established a death penalty to make it a deterrent he says he established a death penalty because man is made in the image of God that's the reason the death penalty is not and by the way it is a deterrent for the guy who killed because he's not here anymore so it is a deterrent for at least one the idea that it's not a deterrent well let's define what that means but even if it's not a deterrent that's what it was that's not what it was put there for it was put there to honor the image of God in man because when you attack an image bearer of God you are attacking God himself James tells us this he says be careful how you use your tongue because when you use your tongue to curse people made in the image of God there's danger in that because what are you doing you're cursing God the one whom they're made in his image people say well the death penalty is barbaric and primitive well so is substitutionary atonement on the cross God is not above using the simple things to confound the wise God in fact does use those things which we might call barbaric to make his points so I want to draw to a close this section ends in verse 7 with a repeating of verse 1 and you again that is Noah and his sons be fruitful and multiply swarm or team on the earth and multiply on it so this section is is bookended by the same blessing we have blessing in verse 1 blessing in verse 7 and we have what it is a cultural or civilization civilizational mandate the family is to be prized and to be a blessing our food is a blessing from God eat all you want and eat what you want and understand this there are penalties when you attack an image bearer of God one might even go as far as to say don't hate your neighbor but love your neighbor as yourself simple standards for civilization contained in this mandate from God this section opens up a lot of doors for conversations about God's authority and really that is what is in view here God is sovereign and when the sovereign speaks and gives commands we ought to listen for he has authority over mankind and in this he makes universal proclamations to all men one of the most dangerous things we can do as a people is forget who is in control God is the one who saved Noah from the flood God is the one who blessed Noah after the flood and God is the one who is providing Noah with these mandates and God is still on the throne today and the wonderful thing is is the Bible doesn't end here but it continues down through the ages and we get more and more understanding of God and his character and his nature we do get more commands but all the commands of scripture can be summed up in the final most important command given to us through the Apostle Paul is that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent God has commanded all men everywhere to repent here's the problem I think as conservatives many of us can really many of us could really support most of what I said today pro-family yeah pro-eating of meat yeah pro-death penalty yeah I don't want an electric chair I want electric bleachers you know this is the thoughts right this way people think I'm a conservative therefore I'm a Christian no you can believe all those things but if you have not repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ you're still lost even today because those cultural mandates though they do produce a culture that God calls for that's what we we should want to live the way God wants us to live but the first and most important command that we must never forget is that God has called all men everywhere to repent let's pray.