This morning then, let us return to Genesis chapter 9. The verses I wish to focus on are from verse 1, basically to verse 17. I want to draw some lessons from these verses. And the title I'd like to give to our meditation is Living in the New World. living in the new world. We read the remaining verses of chapter 8 just to highlight one or two things. We looked at chapter 8 last Lord's Day and I want just to speak briefly on verses 20 to the end, 22 of chapter 8. There we have The first mention of an altar in the Bible. Noah builded an altar. Noah was one who worshipped God and he recognized the wonderful divine deliverance that he and his family had experienced. Here he was coming out of the ark And he came out to see a new world, a world that had been changed and transformed from the world that he knew previously. And the first thing he did is to worship God and he provided sacrifices. And we know that God found these sacrifices acceptable. And this of course is again reminding us and pointing us forward to that ultimate sacrifice undertaken by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the altar and who is the sacrifice. And as the Lord smelled a sweet savour here, when these animals were offered up in faith by Noah. So it is friends when Christ offered up himself as that once for all perfect sacrifice to satisfy the just demands of God's holy and inflexible law. In some real sense it pleased the Lord It pleased his father, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our propitiation. Oh what does that mean minister? What does that mean? I don't hear that word often and some of our modern Bibles don't have it in the Bible. Why not? Because it tells us friends that God was angry and modern man doesn't like to hear about an angry God. Modern man is delighted to hear about the love of God and so are we, but there's a balance. There's a balance that we need to hold up and when it says that God was propitiated It means that his anger was turned away. Oh Christian, rejoice when you hear this. God's anger was poured out upon the Son of God. Rejoice in that, that he was condemned in your room and in your place. And now his anger is not towards his people because he has been propitiated. He has been appeased. He has been satisfied. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ paid the penalty for that holy law that we've all broken. God is no longer angry towards his people in Christ. Oh God will chastise you, yes. And we bless God that he's a perfect father and he will chastise his people when the occasion demands it. He will not spoil his people like some parents will spoil their children. No, no. He will not do that. But He will chastise. But He doesn't chastise as a judge. He chastises as a Heavenly Father. A perfect Heavenly Father. And He knows what you need. And He knows what's good for you. And we could also say in a related manner, not exactly the same, but related, that He will send afflictions upon you. in order that you might grow, in order that you might flourish, in order that you might be more sanctified, these afflictions may come upon you not because of sin, no, not because of sin, but because the Lord wants to bear more spiritual fruit upon you. That's why. That's the God of the Bible. That's our Saviour. That's the one who loves his people with an everlasting love. You've heard it friends from the pulpit. You've heard about a God who loves his people with an everlasting love and can only deal with them in love. That's the God of our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then very briefly, while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. These things, friends, in a very real sense, had ceased for the last just over a year. Noah was in a flood. The whole earth was covered in water. The whole system of the earth was completely upside down, we might say, in everyday ordinary language. And here God was telling Noah as he came out of the ark, as he faced this new world, there is going to be normality. And this normality is going to continue for as long as the earth continues. In other words, Noah, and we'll maybe develop this later on, in other words, Noah, you can go out and you can build a new life knowing that there's going to be regular seasons, summer, winter, day and night, hot and cold. These things are going to continue. You have nothing to worry about. What happened before is done, it's dusted. We've dealt with it. Now a new beginning, a new life, and that life is going to have regular cycles. And here we are today friends, despite what the atheists and the evolutionists will try to tell us, This word in verse 22 stands and will stand until the end of time. We don't need to worry about climate change or global warming or whatever people might call these things today. God has said it. The matter's over. We believe it. Well, one or two things then from chapter nine. One or two headings here. First of all, what have we got? We have got multiplying life. Verse one, for instance, God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. This is basically what he said to Noah. go and multiply. But do you notice friends it's repeated there in verse 7 and you being be fruitful and multiply bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. It's doubled Noah, you are to go out. You are to populate this new world. You are not to be afraid. You are not to be frightened. You are to go out and fulfill this mandate. And he says it twice to him in order that he might know this is what is required of him. As far as we can say, we don't believe that Noah had any more children. Maybe someone might say differently, but we don't find in the Bible that he had any more. And therefore, this mandate fell to his three sons, and they would repopulate the earth. Now, why did God say this to him twice? To go forth and repopulate and multiply? Well, you can just imagine, here was Noah coming out of the flood, and everything was now new. What if God is going to send another flood? What was Noah going to say when the next time he saw a shower of rain? Was this rain a precursor to another flood? Is there any point in bringing children into this new environment when it could be destroyed? Like it was before, because as we know, as verse 21 of chapter 8 tells us, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. In other words, although the environment had been changed, the heart of man was not changed. And what had happened before was going to happen again. Wickedness would increase. And we witness that today in our own society, do we not? Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, for God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That is true today. That is true today in here, in Partick. This is our hearts by nature. This is the heart of the minister by nature. Every imagination of the heart is only evil continually. What a terrible testimony. But that's the way it is. And therefore Noah and his sons would be saying to themselves maybe, well what's the point? Well God would tell them, that they are to go and populate. And God was to tell them basically that children are a blessing. And is this not something that society needs to grasp today? So often children are looked upon as burdens. Now of course there is work with children. No one's going to deny that. And any parent will know there is commitment, there is work with children. But the Bible's position and God's word would tell us that children are to be regarded as a divine blessing. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is that man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127. We need to embrace this. Our society needs to have a biblical view concerning children and raising families. And we need to see these children as a blessing. That's why we are so saddened when we hear about abortion and the blight that it is upon our society. Let me quote something here. Abortion up until the end of 2023, 18,207 babies were aborted in Scotland. at the end of 2023. These are the latest figures available. That is 1,600 more than the previous year, 2022. A 10% increase. Society doesn't want children. That's what's happening. the other side. We've noted that we're killing the unborn and nationally our birth rate is decreasing. Our birth rate is decreasing. We believe that the birth rate should be around 2.1 per woman. 2.1. per woman. In England and Wales it fell to 1.49 in 2022. In order to maintain a constant population, what does that tell us? Well it tells us that each woman must have at least two children. in order to maintain the population. And what is happening now is more people are dying than are being born. It's going to cause a great problem to us. Because if this continues, we will not be able to support and look after the elderly. Noah was told to go forth and multiply. So must man today. It doesn't mean to say you've got to have five, ten, or fifteen children as some people did have in times past. We're not saying that at all. There is a role for birth control, we do believe, but we must look upon children indeed is a blessing. And we must remember parents who are bringing children into this world and as a congregation, as a church, we should remember them and we should pray for them and we should encourage them because it's not easy. It's certainly going against the grain. And we should rejoice when we see new life, new physical life in our congregations. But of course, ultimately friends, as a gospel congregation, we should be concerned that we do not know and do not experience spiritual conversions. We don't experience the new spiritual life. This is what we long for. This is what we cry out for. This is what we need. And we are to go forth and multiply. And we realize that we cannot do it ourselves, but we can cry out to God that he would do it. And we are to see that our greatest need as a congregation and as a denomination is to see the evidence of the new life. And we rejoice with what we've heard today regarding Nobleford in Canada. Oh would it be wrong for us friends as a congregation to be in a godly sense jealous? I think it would be. We see what God has done there. Would it not be wrong for us to plead to God that he would indeed add to our number, add to us? Oh that we would see new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are very happy for all who are here and all who profess faith. We're very happy, but should we not have a desire to see more? Of course! Go forth and multiply and replenish the earth. We find today, not just in our own congregation, but in other congregations, what do we find? Those who have gone through the church, who have been here and other places, they've been regular, maybe they're communicant members, they've gotten old, got sick, and then gone into glory, and no one has come to replace them. It should be a concern to us that we might cry out to God. Well secondly, We have here in these verses from chapter 9, we surely have sustaining life. Sustaining life. Verse two to four, for instance, would cover this. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. We know that at the beginning Adam had a harmonious relationship with the animals. He had dominion over them. They were not fearful of him. He ruled over them. Since sin came into the world, that relationship changed. Now here in the new world, the Lord was going to put the feet of man upon the animals. Why? Well, for one reason. Noah and his sons were now going to become hunters. Adam never was. But now the Lord, he gives the animals as meat, as food for mankind. And therefore, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth. So God changed our diet. We still eat, obviously, fruit and vegetables. And if someone wants to be a vegetarian, that's a matter for them. But we cannot compel people to become vegetarians or vegans. The Lord has given us animals in order that we might eat. Why? We might wonder. I don't think the Bible gives an answer to it. Possibly, and I stress underlining possibly, it is because man was to become weaker and weaker and weaker and he may need some more strong food to sustain him. That's only a theory. We are not told. But God has now increased our diet so that we can lawfully kill and eat animals. But we are to realize here, friends, that the life of the animal was important. When we look at the covenant that God made with Noah, it is with all flesh. all flesh. And verse 5 for instance, surely your blood of your lives will I require it, at the hand of every beast will I require it. And that verse would teach us and tell us that we are not to kill animals willy-nilly. For food, yes, but not willy-nilly. The Lord cares for animals. And we are to bear that in mind. And we are to realise that, as we shall find out, God has a care for human life, but he also cares for the animals. We do know that later on in the Old Testament, God introduced the Old Testament dietary laws for his people. There were certain things that they couldn't eat, there were clean things and there were unclean things, and the Jews were required to keep these dietary laws. And we know that at the beginning of the Christian church these dietary laws became a problem for the infant church. The gentiles were wondering about it and at the council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 these matters were dealt with along with the most important matter the matter about circumcision and basically the issue was as we looked at it when we went through the book of Acts The issue was, should the Gentiles become Jews in order to be saved? And the Jerusalem Council came down firmly with the view that the Gentiles did not need to observe the Old Testament's ceremonial law. They had to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. and they would be justified by faith. That was what was required of them. And they didn't have to become Jews, they didn't have to be circumcised, and they didn't have to obey the Old Testament dietary laws. That was determined. And Peter's vision that came earlier in Acts chapter 10 was reminding Peter that the Lord told him not to call anything unclean that he had cleansed. Now I'm not going to go off on a tangent regarding this matter about the Old Testament dietary laws. I don't wish to deal with that at the moment. I know there are people who have different views and some people will not eat certain things, which I accept. I have no problem with whatsoever. and I would direct your attention to what the Apostle Paul does when he deals with this matter in Romans chapter 14 and verse 14 for instance it says concerning this issue, I know and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing an unclean of itself but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean To him it is unclean. And there's my position. This is where I would stand. But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. What I principally want to note here under this heading is that the animal, or the life of the animals, is important to God. He values it, and therefore we should. And therefore we'd ask the question, is killing animals for sport acceptable? I would be inclined to say no. We have dominion over the animals, certainly. And if it was deemed appropriate that a cull had to be undertaken for some reason, I would have no problem with that whatsoever. But for sport, to go out to Africa, for instance, and shoot lions and tigers, as people would do at some time, and shoot wild animals and use their carcasses to promote what they did, How do you feel about that? Well, I believe here that God would say that's not what the life of the animal is for. He says here, at the hand of every beast will I require it. We have to justify what we do with the animals. Now this would remind us, as we've said, that God cares for the animals. Well, if God cares for the animals, who have no soul, surely we are to realize that God cares for mankind, for every single man, every single man, woman, child who has an eternal soul that will live forever and forever. Isn't God not revealing this to us that human life is precious if he regards animal life as precious. Surely friends we are justified to realize that the life, the soul of every human being is precious and surely that's something that you personally must take on board We know that we're inclined to be full of pride. Yes that's true, but we also should realize our importance in the sense that God has made us body and soul and therefore we are valuable. What shall it profit of a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? Oh, unbeliever, think upon that. Think about having everything that this world could give you and yet lose your soul. Because everything you have in this world, one day you will leave it all behind. And maybe your possessions are a curse to you. and you'll leave behind what was a curse to you and it may well be a curse to someone else who'll get your possessions. You have a soul. No animal has a soul. Consider this then, that you must commit yourself to Christ Jesus, because you cannot save your own soul. This is the very essence of Christianity. You cannot save your own soul. Oh, you can ruin your soul, yes, but you cannot save your soul. Only one, and that's Christ. Time's going on. Thirdly, protecting life. If the life of animals was valuable, how about the life of man, the physical life of man? Well, he deals with this. Here God is telling us that if someone kills another person, if someone murders another person, then it is lawful to take the life of the murderer. Now, we know that modern man finds this absolutely, utterly repugnant. We know that. But society is full of hypocrites. They're very happy to legalize abortion. I don't want to go into graphic details, you know about it, but it is absolutely barbaric. But somehow they think that someone who has committed murder should not be put to death. It's a terrible thing. And somehow people might think that they're more righteous and that they're more holy than God himself. Such is the depravity of man. Here is the Creator telling us, Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. From here friends, from this verse here, from this section, we have what we would call civil government. It has been instituted by God. It has been instituted for the order, the good order of society. And basically what has happened here is God has given a mandate for there to be people in our society who rule and govern over us, who have the sword and who can use the sword lawfully. They are to punish the evildoers and to reward the righteous. That's what civil government is all about or the civil magistrate if you like. That's why we have law and order in society. It comes from here. It's something that God has instituted and God has said if there is someone who has committed murder, not manslaughter but murder, and has been duly tried and tested and been found guilty, then the law of the land would say that that person should lose his life. Now today, people don't look upon punishment as they should. Punishment is there to punish, first and foremost. But society today has this kind of mentality that we're out for to rehabilitate people. That's never God's intention. You commit a crime and you're to pay for it. It may well be that the person might, after the punishment has been carried out, obviously we're not talking here about capital punishment, but if the punishment has been carried out, it may well be that the person may well, in some sense, be reformed. And it may well be that others who are looking on, that they might not be so keen to commit the crime because they know they shall be punished. Now these are spin-offs but the reality is God would have retributive justice and if someone has committed a crime they are to be punished. regardless of whether they will be rehabilitated or not. This is what we find here. And the government have been given that authority. And sadly today, what do we find? That our governments, particularly in the Western world, do not adhere to this. In other words, they think that they are better than God. Well this is one reason why we continue to pray for our governments. That they might rule in the fear of God. That our governments might recognise that they have a mandate from the King of Kings and from the Lord of Lords. and that they have principally a duty to protect their citizens and to punish evildoers and to reward the righteous because God would have order in society. And therefore we recognize that The Lord has, if you like, two institutions, the church and the state. They have both been set up by God. The church does not interfere with the state. It may comment. It may give advice. Give warnings, yes, but it does not interfere with the civil magistrate. The church, our sword is the Word of God. Our sword is the Holy Spirit speaking through the Word of God. The state, it has the physical sword. a sword that can take away life. We have to distinguish between things that differ. This is what it was like then in the new life, in the new world. Things had changed. And this is the world that we find ourselves in today. As Noah did. new life in a new world. And we bless God that through Noah and through the covenant that we will look at on another week, it reminds us and points us to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, about that great Saviour, the one who came to seek and to save that which was lost. living in the new world. Amen.