I'd like to invite you now to stand with me for the reading of God's Word. We'll turn first together to Leviticus chapter 17 as we read verses 8 through 14 together. Leviticus chapter 17 verses 8 through 14. Beginning in verse 8. Also you shall say to them, Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who offers a burnt offering of sacrifice, and does not bring it to the door or the tabernacle of meeting to offer it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from among his people. Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make it atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood. Whatever man of the children of Israel or of the strangers who dwell among you who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. for it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, you shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off." Amen. And may God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Would you now turn with me in our New Testament reading to Hebrews chapter 9. as we read verses 11 through 18 together. Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 through 18. Beginning in verse 11. The Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, but the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place, once for all having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from good works or dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For there is a testament There must also be of necessity be the death of the testator, for a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Therefore, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood." All flesh is like grass, and all of its glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And all of God's children said, Amen. Please be seated. Will you join me in another word of prayer? Gracious, gracious God, Pray once again that you would give us what we need, Lord, in order to hear from you and to obey you. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would encourage us, that you would strengthen us, that you would give us your eternal perspective, and that we would respond to you by faith. I ask, Heavenly Father, that you would help me to make clear your word to these, your people, For it is in your precious name we pray. Amen. If you haven't done so already, I would like to ask you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 9, verses 1 through 7. It feels strange to say that this is the last Sunday of the year. and that we won't meet together again until next year. But such is the case. Amen? Genesis chapter 9, verses 1 through 7, and I have entitled this sermon, The Sanctity of Life. Would you follow along with me as I read our text this morning? So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall eat not flesh with its life, that is, its blood, Surely, for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man, and as for you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth. and multiply in it." Again, may God add a blessing to the reading of his word. In 1994, it seems like such a long time ago, a story came out that a young 16-year-old boy in Philadelphia decides that he is going to approach an ice cream truck And he's going to steal the contents of his till. That is, as we all know, the place that he puts his money in. The young man comes to the ice cream truck, tells this man to give him all of the money that he has in his truck, demanding it. And when the driver refuses, the boy shoots him. And as this father of three lay dying inside his truck, this young 16-year-old Philadelphian youth and others that come gather around mock this man. They laugh at his agony. They laugh at blood coming out of his body. They mock him. They ridicule him. They accuse him of being weak. They even come up with a rap song, and they entitled the rap song, quote, They Killed Mr. Softy. So not only do they mock this man as he lies dying, they make up a song making fun of him. Well, shortly after this occurs, the mocking, that is, a fellow ice cream truck driver and a friend to this man who is dying comes to the scene. They're friends. checking in with him, sees what happened, notices that these teenagers are singing songs, making fun of this man one of them just shot. He tells reporters, quote, it wasn't human. People were laughing and asking me for ice cream. I was crying. They were acting as though a cat had died and not a human being. The basic issue we hear that story is that people and life do not matter in our modern day. We live in a day when human life is no longer regarded as sacred. The devaluing of life is spreading not only through violence that we see and take into our hearts and minds and souls through movies, but various video games, through abortion on demand, resulting in the deaths of close to 1.5 million babies in America alone. The other end of life, the push for euthanasia, is also furthering the eating away at the sanctity of human life. All of these problems stem from the erosion of a commitment to the Word of God as the standard of truth. If we were to throw out as a society the Bible and accept evolution, hook, line, and sinker, man, we are told, is nothing more than an animal. And there is no basis for humanity or morality, giving man permission to do what he wants, when he wants, to whomever he wants. Noah and his family emerged from the ark. All human and animal life except for that that was on the ark had been destroyed. We look here at a new beginning of the human race which God had judged because of its corruption and violence all the way back in chapter 7, verses 11 through 24. It is significant to mention here that the first thing God affirmed to Noah was the sanctity of human life. And what we need to see here as we look at this text is that the reason God affirms life is because all of us were made in the image of God. That He gives us dignity and value and worth because we were made in the image of God. God wanted to establish a foundation for the proper view of human life before the earth was repopulated. Our text shows that God values human life, and as his elect people, so must we. God blessed Noah and his sons, and God's blessing here provided for the propagation, the priority, and the protection of human life. And I did not intend for those three all to be peas, amen? In verse 1 and verse 7, we see that human life is to be propagated to promote God's purposes on the earth. Verses 2 through 4 shows that human life Priority over animal life, excuse me. Verses 5 and 6 indicate that human life is to be protected through capital punishment for murder. Would you follow along with me as I read again verses 1 and 7 and the propagation of life? Beginning in verse 1, so God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. verse 7, and as for you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it. We go back to verses 20 and 22 It says, then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal, of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." God here in verses 1 and 7 is God's restating of a resolve according to His covenant of grace to respond to man's sin by the working of His grace. The point being that God will never again flood the earth, and in His mercy, He is collecting all those of the elect who are His. He gives us a blessing. That is the restoration of mankind's original creation mandate, you can see in full in chapter 1 verse 28. It says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Like Adam and Eve were to fill or propagate the earth, Noah and his wife, his sons, and their wives are now mandated to fill the earth as well. It brings with it the picture that homes are to be built, fields are to be planted, The earth, once again, teeming with life, reflecting the abundant heart of our Creator according to His covenant of grace. But the idea here in this mandate is the biblical calling for parents to raise their children as unto the Lord. We are called to have and raise our children, but we are to enjoy them, to watch them grow, to experience with them as they're learning new things, to worship God because they are in our lives, to raise them to know the Lord, and all of this knowing that we cannot control the outcome of whether or not they will walk with the Lord. The problem here is the result of the fall of man in chapter 3. That giving birth to children, raising children, feeling disappointed at times by their choices, watching some of them willingly go astray, will be, by and large, one of the most difficult things that you and I will be called upon to go through. We may even blame ourselves for their doing so. Even that difficulty of watching our children willingly go astray, and you may not see it as such, but it is in and of itself a grace from God. Because through them we see our own limitations, our own sins. And God will use them to draw us closer to Himself, to sanctify us. The difficulties of raising children and watching them struggle will, Lord willing, cause us to see that our utter dependence is on the Lord. That we can't somehow overcome our own selfishness to do what is right by our children. We will see that we don't always respond as we should. And we'll cry out to Him for help, guidance, and His mercy. Because He is a good, long-suffering God, He will comfort us. The words mandate and calling, which we see here in verse 1 and verse 7, do not somehow imply that we have to raise our children that God has given to us as if doing so is some kind of a duty. That's like a job. We leave our job and we go home to a new job. Having them, as hard as it may be, is a blessing from the Lord, amen? Even our grandchildren or our great-grandchildren. We have to be careful, beloved, to say that God sovereignly will use our mistakes. He will sovereignly use our children's mistakes for His own glory. He will use our shortcomings for His glory. and he will do so even when we cannot see how he is using them. So the idea behind this blessedness of getting to do the very thing that Adam and Eve were called upon to do is that we get to have children, we get to propagate, we get to build up the people but raising children, learning to trust God with them, learning to trust God with our greatest mistakes and raising our children is hard, but a blessing because in the midst of it, we witness his faithfulness to his own as per described by his covenant of grace. They're a blessing. Remember, To show you how imperfect I am, I used to go out of my way to annoy my mother. It was like a hobby. It was like reading or playing checkers or playing hockey. Amen? And at the time, I did not understand how in the world that could be used by God for His glory and His sovereign purposes in my mother or father's life. And they may not either. But because it's a blessing to raise children, we can know, amen, that God is with you as you raise them as gifts that come from above. Secondly, verses two and four, two to four, excuse me, we are reminded by the word of the priority of humans made in the image of God over creation. Beginning in verse two to four, where it says, and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, and on every bird of the air, and on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea, they are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. We go back to chapter 1, verse 28. It says, Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. We have to notice here in verses 2 through 4 that as God calls them to have dominion over this world after its sin has been brought forward, there is an omission between what we see in chapter 1 verse 28 and what we have here in verse 1 and verse 7, verses 2 to 4. fill the earth are in both chapter 1 verse 28 and in chapter 9 verse 1 and 7 but the difference however is the dominion of chapter 1 verse 28. Chapter 9 verse 1 and verse 7 do not have the command to have dominion Well, the point as it relates to verse 2 is that God in verse 2 now adds a point as to how sin affects our ability to have dominion over creation. As God's image bears in the creation mandate, you go back to chapter 2 verses 19 through 20, God puts the animals in front of Adam for him to name them. and that spoke to Adam's peaceful coexistence and mutual trust as he worked the land and took care of God's creation. Most animals, because of sin, will no longer willingly serve man and wild animals are now a threat to us. We now are a threat to them. The exception being domesticated animals like sheep and cattle and cats and dogs and so on. The question is, Why does the text reveal this to us? Again, we look at just how devastating sin's effects are. Remember in chapter 3, the automatic effect of sin in marriage was the way in which Adam and Eve and people in general blamed one another for their sins. When God came to Adam and Eve and asked what in the world happened, the first thing that Adam does is blame his bride. His bride, Eve, then blames the serpent, and so on and so forth. The point, however, here is that at one time, we had the help of our animals. They pointed out to Adam a need man had to find someone who was like him, who could perfectly help him, but we nevertheless had the privilege of the help of animals. And so once again, God shows us the devastating effects of sin. Notice what he says here in verse 4, but you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood. Before the fall, if you read back and you read carefully, what you'll discover is that man was a vegetarian. And now, because of sin, God has given us permission to eat meat. He says, verse 3, I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. Meaning, like the green herbs, humanity can now eat whatever we want. The only distinction that is made, verse 4, is that in our consuming of animals, we shall not eat their blood. Why? Why can't we have their blood? Leviticus chapter 17, which we read earlier, read verse 11 for you. Moses writes, for the life of the flesh in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Hebrews 9, verses 12-14, the writer of Hebrews writes, Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place, once for all having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your consciences from dead works to serve the living God?" The issue here, and there are two, is first of all a respect for life and the giver of that life. Blood throughout the Bible is symbolic of life. which comes by grace of God, the shedding of blood then symbolically represents the loss of life. To eat an animal with the blood still in it is tantamount to eating that animal while it is still alive, like another animal would do. In other words, the exhortation is to respect the fact that this has life and that we are to treat it as another animal would. But the second point, going back to Leviticus 17.11 and Hebrews 9, is that the blood of the animal and the draining of it will eventually go beyond respecting the life to being something that will symbolically atone for our sin. And that work, symbolically done, points to the greater reality that Jesus the Christ comes into the world, sacrificially gives of Himself, that His own would have eternal life. In other words, the draining of the blood through sacrifice points to the greater reality that Christ will come to eternally set us free from our sins. The point here is that we simply do not drink blood, but we are thankful to God for providing our bodily sustenance. And in allowing mankind to eat of the animals that God sovereignly provides us, God is affirming an animal's role as being subservient to men, to mankind. And in this way, we still have dominion, according to God's covenant of grace for His own. Let me say this. I have probably close to a 100-pound charcoal-colored Labrador retriever. Some of you have met him. His name is Nebuchadnezzar. The problem that we see in our society is that it's not wrong for someone to have a desire to help getting animals out of abusive homes or off of the street. The issue is that when animals and taking care of animals become so prevalent in my mind and in my heart, that it somehow removes what I am called to do to worship God, to study His Word, to serve His people, because serving animals becomes more important to me than is worshiping God. The point here, very simply, is that animals are not equal to man. They are subservient to us. They help us. and yet out of an act of worship to God we take care of His blessed creation. Thirdly, now verses 5 and 6, the protection of human life, and now we see here why we are to treat life with dignity. Would you follow along with me as I read, beginning in verse 5, Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning and from the hand of every beast I will require it. And from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man's blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, He made man." God now, in His grace, gives us a warning regarding the taking of life made in His image. Should we take it unduly, meaning in anger or for revenge, He will require our blood from us. You remember the same principle is conveyed by way of command in Exodus chapter 20 verse 13 where God says explicitly, you shall not murder. The point here in every imaginable situation from murder to abortion to euthanasia is wrong in the sight of God, or as God says, I will demand a reckoning. Notice verse 5, "...surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man, from which the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man." What he's saying here actually goes back to chapter 4 verse 9, where God demanded to know where Abel, Cain's brother, was knowing that Abel had killed his brother, or rather that Cain had killed Abel. The issue here is the sanctity of life is based on the fact that each and every one of us is made in the image of God and we are therefore bound to one another as brothers and sisters, now going back all the way to Noah. This points to something else as well. Some will argue that we have lost our image bearing because of original sin in chapter 3. The truth is, although we do not function as we were originally designed, the fall has not been removed, or the fall did not remove our image-bearing from God, that everyone bears His image. And therefore, it should be our desire to honor God by treating every human being with dignity and care. That isn't to say, however, that we are not at the same time called to be salt and light. There is a strange tension in the world that if a Christian calls something according to God's word a sin, because that's what God's word calls it, that we are somehow not being loving to people, that we are not treating people with care. But contrary to popular belief, the truth is that it takes a great deal of boldness, and I dare say love, in order to point out to someone that they are living contrary to God's Word. The argument is not that in our care for people, we somehow take off the hat that we are called to be his ambassadors in the world, calling sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. It is, however, that when we approach someone, that in our flesh, perhaps, we loathe, we don't understand their choices. or how they came to making those choices. We treat them with respect because they have been made in the image of God. Verse six, again, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for the image of God he made man. This is again a poetic statement of God declaring a reckoning for murder You may remember that Christ applies this command to not only murder, not only physical murder, but when we have hatred for our brother and sister. The point being is that when I hate someone, when I have built up anger and resentment towards them, the building up leads to murder in the heart. Physical murder. But we, who are in Christ, are to be a peaceable people. We are to be forgiving. And if need be, because we are different than the world, we don't handle conflict with one another the way that the world does, whereby we just find little opportunities and avenues to ignore one another. because we're different than the world in love. Treating my brother or my sister as someone who bears the image of God with me, I lovingly go to them looking to reconcile with them. The other thing that we have to be aware of that although we may not always appreciate what the government decides and how it responds or its laws or the way it carries out its laws, we're nevertheless reminded that the establishment of government The fact that police officers are called to protect people and citizens from violence, the military is called to defend its borders, nevertheless, comes from God Almighty. You remember in Romans 13, verses 1-5, the Apostle Paul says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinances of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror, to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good, but if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience's sake." arguing, is he writing that the Christian ought to be obedient to the government because we can expect that the government is going to do the right thing in every situation? Is that his argument? No, of course not. It's actually that the believer has to be obedient to the government because God sovereignly created it so as to restrain our evil. as his servant. In other words, government, police, is his servant. The issue that the word brings before us today is that God will use it to restrain our evil to the extent that if someone takes life, their life will be taken. The government is a tool to restrain our sin And when it yields that power in a sinful way, God will hold it accountable. But he will hold those who take life accountable as well. What does this mean for us today? What in the midst of this passage are we, as God's covenant people, reminded of? To put it in a nutshell, we're reminded of God's covenantal faithfulness. As it has been since the beginning of our study in Genesis, we've said repeatedly, over and over again, that what the book of Genesis does out of the many things that it shows us is that God, because of His covenant that He makes with Himself within the Trinity, And he begins to declare to the men of Scripture that their families and the covenant people that he is collecting is about one thing, and that is the collecting of his people, that we might be his people and he will be our God, that his elect would be his own and worship him for all of eternity. And what we're looking at, even in the midst of terrible sin, is that God is continuing on in that process by His grace and His mercy to the praise of His glorious name. In His covenant faithfulness, God has promised to never again flood the earth, to draw those who are His to Himself, the seed of the woman. And in that work of God, we, His people, have something to behold and worship Him for. Amen? The fact that God hasn't given up on us, that He hasn't, you know, balled us up and thrown us away is mercy. And He continues on in that. In His covenant faithfulness, He has blessed us with life, blessed us to fight any desire that we may have in our flesh to hate anyone, because humanity is made in His image. We are a people, therefore, of mercy. And even though the world may look down on us being merciful, we know that it is to the glory of His name. And finally, in His covenant faithfulness, He has given us order. Granted, our government, our police don't always get it right. We are, from this text, reminded that we have a government so that our sin will be restrained. You may be surprised to find out that a number of years ago, when I had first traveled from Portage, Michigan, where I'm from, to Kansas City, Missouri, on my way to a Bible study, in fact, I got a ticket. I got a speeding ticket. It was humiliating. because I was on my way to Bible study. I waited too long, dilly-dallying around, doing whatever, and I got a ticket. On this particular road, on the way to church, everybody and their mother passes by. I don't ordinarily get embarrassed by stuff like that, but that day it really grinded my gears, because I was on my way to church. I remember this police officer comes to the door and you know you have to roll your window down and you know I was very careful I put my hands on the the wheel letting him know that I didn't have some alternative motive. He comes up and he goes through this field. Give me your driver's license. Do you know why I pulled you over? Yes sir I do. I was speeding and I think I was going like 60 miles an hour in a 35 speed limit area. So what I'm saying to you is don't do that. That was horrible. Pull your window down, give me your driver's license and your doodad, and I handed it to him. He goes over and I think he spent 15 minutes. I went from being late to being very late in a matter of seconds. Amen? And my pride welled up. I was on my way to church! You can't give me a ticket! And I was mad at him. The next class day that I had was Tuesday. It was Hebrew. And I think this is the second year or so, and we go over this passage, and my heart sunk. That was my fault. He didn't pull me over because I don't even know. He pulled me over because I went 60 miles an hour in a 35 speed limit zone. I remember sitting there in Hebrew, we're talking about some important concept and I, my head sunk low and I was embarrassed. Oftentimes I realize we don't feel a temptation to eat the blood of an animal. But the idea is that we respect life that God has given to this animal. We respect, love people. We may not agree with them. We may not understand them. But because of his regenerating work within me, I don't have to understand them. Amen? I am called to respect them. In fact, Jesus goes far to say that when I have an enemy, I don't grow to resent them. I actually pray for them. And all of this is possible because of his grace, through the covenant of grace, to the glory of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God in heaven, we again thank you for your word. We thank you from We thank you for the encouragement we receive from it. I pray, Heavenly Father, that we would be encouraged this morning. God Almighty, you have called us to treat life with dignity, to respect one another, to pray for one another. And should it be that we have issue with one another, that we go to each other in love, looking to resolve that issue. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would season our speech to one another with grace, that we wouldn't sound harsh or condemning, but love one another well. We ask these things in your precious Son, Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.