The sermon titled 'God's Blessing on the Restart' by Jason Dohm, focuses on Genesis 9:1-4, highlighting the restart of humanity post-flood with Noah's family. It connects God's blessing to Noah and his sons with Noah's previous burnt offerings and emphasizes the continuity of God's purpose for humanity to be fruitful and multiply. The sermon contrasts the pre-sin world of Genesis 1 with the post-sin world of Genesis 9, noting that despite humanity's corruption, God's blessings and purposes remain. The prohibition against consuming blood is linked to the value of life and God's ownership of it, emphasizing the need for substitutionary atonement through the innocent blood of Jesus Christ. The fear and dread of humans instilled in other creatures post-flood is explored, underscoring the change in human-animal relationships due to sin. The sermon concludes with a reflection on the significance of Jesus' sacrifice and the blessing of children, urging believers to appreciate the preciousness of life and God's grace.

Title of the message this morning is God's blessing on the restart population of planet Earth in terms of human beings has gone from I Don't know you look at the the estimates by scholars It's 200 million a billion some are some estimates are way higher than a billion. So a lot, two down to eight. So I don't think it's wrong to call this a restart of humanity. In Last week's text, Noah offered burnt offerings of the clean animals to the Lord, and God accepted Noah's offering and was pleased with them. The text actually says, the Lord smelled a soothing aroma.

This week's text flows from that beginning with these words, So God blessed Noah and his sons. We have this connecting word so which connects this blessing from God, God's blessing on Noah and his sons with Noah's burnt offerings and God's response to those burnt offerings. So that the reading of the sermon text backed up a little bit to connect these things, because we do have a connecting word that connects these things. So as we come to our text, let's ask God to help us. God, the life is in the blood.

Our life would drain away if our blood was spilled. And our Life as Christians is bound up in the blood of Jesus Christ. It's a very clear connection to these things. It's a good thing to be brought to this text because in the end it does bring us to Jesus Christ and a perfectly undefiled blood that can be offered in place of our defiled blood to give us life. Pray these things would make us wise and help us to walk in this world.

In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, we have four verses. We'll just take them one at a time. Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Genesis chapter nine. Please follow along as I reread verse 1.

So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Here in this verse we have a familiar blessing, if you're taking notes on the handout, blessing fills in the blank. A familiar blessing. This should sound very, very familiar. Turn back to Genesis chapter 1.

It's creation week, day 6. God makes man. And then we read this in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28. Then God blessed them, this is Adam and Eve, God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. I'll stop there because we're tying to this to Genesis chapter 9 and it is essentially exactly the same words.

So in chapter 1, God blessed Adam and Eve with these words. Now in chapter nine, God has reduced the population of humans to Noah and his three sons and their four wives through the global flood. And now the human population is restarting and God again pronounces this blessing essentially in the identical words. Now I want you to think about how significant this is. Please don't, because it's almost exactly the same words, it's essentially the identical words, because of that, don't treat it as a throwaway at all.

This is no throwaway. This is tremendously significant. Why is it significant? Because chapter one and chapter nine are radically different circumstances. The words are the same, but the circumstances are not the same at all.

The circumstances are radically different. In chapter one, nobody had sinned yet. So in no sense is the blessing of God could it seem out of place. And nobody in chapter one had a natural inclination to sin. Human nature was not corrupt.

In chapter 9, human nature has proven to be absolutely corrupt without exception. Even the man who walked with God, Noah, had to find grace in the eyes of the Lord. So Noah wasn't a sinless man. Noah was a man who found grace in the eyes of God and therefore walked with God. That's the sequence of the text.

He found grace and he walked with God. So human nature has proven to be absolutely corrupt without exception and yet here in chapter 9, humans can still enjoy the blessing of God, that's important to know, And humans can still fulfill our God-given purpose to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That God wants that is important to know. Now That, meaning living under the blessing of God and fulfilling our God-given purpose, would now require finding grace in the eyes of the Lord and would require substitutionary atonement, which was last week's text. We have these burnt offerings and then last week when we went to Leviticus 1 to say, what is a burnt offering?

It is A person placing their hands on an animal which is figurative for the transfer of sins from the guilty to the innocent and then killing that animal and the animal being consumed in the flames on the altar. That is what a burnt offering actually is, as defined specifically in Leviticus chapter one. The point is that When humans find grace in the eyes of the Lord and when God deals with their sin Even though human nature is corrupt now when God deals with their sins by Transferring the sins to a substitute Humans can still enjoy God's blessing and fulfill our God-given purposes. If you were Noah and his sons, how this would have been music to your ears. We think of it through a modern context, not as if Noah and his sons, not having heard these words, not knowing the mind of God, and now God reveals his mind.

You can still live under my blessing. You can still fulfill the God-given purposes that I've given to humanity. This must have been music to their ears. After this catastrophic judgment of God, it would have been so good to know that it was still possible that the global flood was not the last word to humanity, but that mankind would still be able to live under God's blessing and fulfill our God-given purposes. It would have been very, very natural to wonder, does God still want the earth filled with people?

The answer is yes. Do we have new marching orders so that multiplying and filling the earth is no longer the God-given purpose? The answer to that is No. Yes, man can still live under his blessing. No, our marching orders haven't changed.

We're still supposed to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Two questions. Number one. Question number one. What about the women?

What do you mean, what about the women? God blessed Noah and his sons. Okay, well that's half the population. The population of earth has gone from whatever down to eight. Only four of them are named, Noah and his sons.

What about the women? The answer is a husband is a head of household. He is the representative head of the household. In Genesis 2, 24, 2 become one in marriage. So, the women actually aren't left out at all.

The women are included because the two have become one and in the blessing of the representative head of the household, the household is blessed. The marriage is blessed because the two have become one. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 9, Eve eats first. God calls Eve. No, God calls Adam.

Oh Adam, representative head, You two have become one. What's been happening in your household? Remember? So the women actually are not excluded in this blessing. They're included through the representative head by being one with their husbands.

So the blessing of Noah and his sons includes the wives. And I would just add this obviously. Since fruitfulness is part of the blessing. Good luck man being fruitful by yourself. Fruitfulness part of the blessing.

Wives included in the blessing. So that's question number one. What about the women? They're right there, they're included in them in the blessing. Question number two, is this two things, thing one, God is blessing, and thing two, God is directing to be fruitful and multiply, or is it just one thing, God is blessing and the blessing is fruitfulness?

Let's try to sort that out. Could be two things, could be one thing. I would say the answer is two things. God is blessing and God is directing to be fruitful and multiply but these are two things that are tightly connected and should be kept together because they had been kept together in Genesis chapter 1 when God said it. The same two things in the same exact order joined together and the same two things in the same exact order in Genesis 9.

So I think this is the signal to us that these two things are tightly connected. In other words, I don't think we should limit the blessing to just the ability to multiply. God is saying, I'm giving you the ability to multiply and that's the blessing and that's all there is here I do not think we should reduce it to that But I think that we should acknowledge That these two things are bound together in exactly the same way in chapter 1 and in chapter 9 because they're said exactly the same way in chapter 1 and chapter 9 and that children are a blessing So I don't want to restrict the blessing to say that the blessing is only that I think it we have warrant to say it goes beyond just that. But that certainly children are a blessing and they're part of the blessing here. Psalm 127 verse three makes that so clear.

Listen to Psalm 127 verse three. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. So if you want to know if The directive, the direction, God giving direction to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth is just a command to have more people and that it's totally disconnected and a totally separate thing from the blessing. We just go to Psalm 127 and it says, they're a reward.

They're a heritage from the Lord, they are a reward. So let's not be reductionist to say that all that is here is the blessing of children and that God blessing Noah and his sons is only that and nothing more. I think that is much too reductionist. There is more in view in God saying you can live under my blessing than just you can have children. Don't be reductionist but let's also not untether these two things from each other as if being fruitful is nothing more than a bare command to have children.

That's not what this is saying either. This is more than just a bare command to have children Maintain the tight connection that scripture does where fruitfulness is included in and part of the blessing of God pronounced in these two places. Okay, verse two. Continuing to the next verse, Genesis 9 verse two. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, 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." So you should probably keep a finger in Genesis 1.

We're going to keep going back and forth. Genesis 9, Genesis 1, Genesis 9, Genesis 1. So back to Genesis 1. Here in verse 2 we have an unfamiliar follow-on. So in verse 1 we had a familiar blessing.

It's the same blessing as chapter 1. Here we have an unfamiliar follow-on. Follow-on fills in the blanks if you're taking notes that way. Okay, let's compare again. I'll just start at the beginning of 28 so that we get up ahead of steam.

Chapter one, verse 28. Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So chapter one, the follow on to God is blessing you, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. The follow on is have dominion over the other creatures.

The follow on in chapter nine is, and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on the other creatures. So chapter 1, have dominion. Chapter 9, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on the other creatures. Why this difference? Again, because chapter 1 and chapter 9 are radically different circumstances.

In chapter 1, sin and corruption and death are not in the world. There's no death in the world in chapter 1 because there's been no sin in the world in chapter 1. There's no corruption in the world. In chapter 9 sin and corruption and death are in the world things are radically different listen to Matthew pool before they before the other creatures loved and reverenced you as lords and friends." So he's saying, Chapter 1, the other creatures loved and reverenced you, humans, as lords and friends. Now, chapter 9, they shall dread you as enemies and tyrants." Listen to Matthew Henry.

You must have to be a Matthew to be a great commentator. Poor John Calvin, if he had only been Matthew Calvin, he could have been a great commentator. Listen to Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry says, man in innocence, chapter one, man in innocence, no sin, ruled by love, fallen man, chapter 9, rules by fear. I think these are helpful ways to think about this.

Man in innocence ruled by love, fallen man rules by fear. So the relationship between God and his image bearers has fundamentally changed with the coming of sin into the world and also the relationship between the image bearers and the other creatures has fundamentally changed. So, both are true. Our relationship with God has fundamentally changed since sin came into the world. We're image bearers, but it's not like it was before sin.

And the relationship between ourselves as image bearers and all the other creatures of God has fundamentally changed as well in these ways and this is a signal of that the differences here. Were the other creatures a threat to each other and or a threat to mankind before the coming of sin into the world? The answer is no. The other creatures were no threat to each other and they were no threat to human beings before sin entered the world. Death entered through sin.

Before sin there was no death. Before sin there was no death. The other creatures were not killing and eating each other before the corruption of sin came into the world and fundamentally changed the world. I want you to hear that. This is important stuff about how we view many things in the scientific realm now too, where scientists are saying there were billions and billions of years of death before mankind evolved to that point, that cannot be true and this be true.

The other creatures were not killing and eating each other, or humans, before the corruption of sin came into the world and fundamentally changed the world. So when Isaiah, inspired by God, prophesies about the end when the Messiah the son of David has restored all things the wolf Dwells safely with the lamb The leopard with the young goat the calf and the lion feed together. The cow and the bear graze and their young ones lie down together. The lion eats straw with the ox And babies play by cobra's holes. This is, wait, this is Isaiah 11 verses 6 through 9.

Go look at it sometime, Isaiah 11, 6 through 9. You'll say, that's not the world I know. Exactly, that's the point. When the son of David comes and restores all things, it's not going to be like the world you know. Thank God it's not going to be like the world that you know.

The wolf dwells safely with the lamb and babies played by cobra's holes and No one minds and no one even thinks I'd never really thought about this, but the commentators made me think about it. What if the other creatures didn't have a natural fear and dread of humans? What if the other creatures, we're one of so many creatures, What if the other creatures didn't have a natural fear and dread of humans? Listen to John Calvin. He says, Savage beasts indeed prevail and rage against men in various ways.

So he's acknowledging sometimes a beast does pick off a human. That's not true and he's not denying it. Some savage beasts indeed prevail and rage against men in various ways and no wonder for since we perversely exalt ourselves against God why should not the beasts rise up against us so the question is why don't they rise up all the time? Why is it the normal course of things, the rising up of other creatures against us? Here's what he says, nevertheless, The providence of God is a secret bridle to restrain their violence Just the working of God is a secret bridle To restrain their violence Whence it is that tigers elephants lions bears wolves and other wild beasts without number do not rend, tear, and devour everything human except that they are withheld by this subjection as by a barrier." So he names all these fearful creatures and says, the reason they don't rend you head from toe any chance they get is by this subjection as by a secret barrier.

It's like God has made a wall in their brains so that they have a natural fear and dread of human beings. Say, well we have guns. Are you carrying one? Why aren't you carrying one? Because you have so little to fear from these predators.

Matthew Henry says this, What is it that keeps wolves out of our towns and lions out of our streets and confines them to the wilderness? But this fear and dread it's a legitimate question. That's a real question. What is it that keeps wolves out of our town and lions out of our streets? This fear and dread that was planted in them by God.

Again, John Calvin says this, therefore the fact that oxen become accustomed to bear the yoke, that the wildness of horses is so subdued as to cause them to carry a rider, that they receive the pack saddle to bear burdens, that cows give milk and suffer themselves to be milked, that sheep are mute under the hand of the shearer. All these facts are the result of this dominion, which although greatly diminished is nevertheless not entirely abolished." I think all of that is true. We take it for granted because that's how things are. You know, the question is, why are things the way they are? Because God has put in the other creatures a natural fear and dread that if they didn't have it would really be a frightening world.

And we wouldn't have the help from these animals that we have. The other creatures don't generally hunt us and kill us. Why is that? Because of God doing this, giving them a natural fear and dread. Why can we use so many of these other creatures for our benefit?

They submit themselves to our use. Why is that? It is because God has put a natural fear and dread in them. The fear and dread of us, people, is on them by the decree of God and God has given them into our hand. That's why on all these questions.

Verse 3. Verse 3. Genesis chapter 9 verse 3. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things even as the green herbs.

In verse 3 we have a new food source. Meat. Food fills in the blank on the handout. A new food source. Let's compare again to Genesis chapter 1.

The very next thing said in chapter 1 is this, verse 29. And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yield seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yield Seed to you it shall be for food Fruits and vegetables for food in Genesis chapter 1. For us and for the other creatures too, if you go into the next verse, chapter 1 verse 30, you see that the herbs are given to all the other creatures too so that lions really would eat straw in Genesis chapter 1 because they're given the same food source that mankind was given in Genesis chapter 1 Were humans eating animals before Genesis chapter 9. The answer is this, not with the permission of God. We don't know for sure whether they were or weren't.

We just know that they didn't have the permission of God to eat animals, use animals as a food source before Genesis chapter 9. Now Noah and his family and all of their descendants, including us, can use animals as other creatures as a legitimate authorized by God food source. We do know that in Genesis chapter 9 people had been sacrificing animals before this Abel in chapter 4 Noah in chapter 8 and that God respected and accepted and was pleased with some of those sacrifices So we know that God didn't say, whoa, don't don't you shouldn't be killing animals. God was accepting and pleased with some of those sacrifices. We look across Bible history.

Here's what we find in the garden. They were given fruits and vegetables to eat. Here, there's a significant change after the flood. Noah and his family and their descendants, Our food could include eating all other creatures. It's not a command to eat them, but it's legitimate to eat them based on what is said here.

In Exodus, We have a narrowing for Israel. So the descendants of Abraham are given laws about what they can and can't, the other creatures that they can and can't. So it narrows from it's everything here in Genesis 9 in Exodus, when Israel is given the law, it's narrowed to clean versus unclean. But those are types to teach about clean and unclean, holy and holy, sacred and common. So those categories are not fundamental, meaning it's nothing about the pig that makes it wrong to eat.

God is using it as a teaching tool. The reason Jews couldn't eat pigs was it is a teaching tool to teach them about clean and unclean, holy and unholy, sacred and uncommon things. But now that Christ has come and we're living under the new covenant it broadens back out again to all Creatures Paul says this in first Timothy 4 verses 4 and 5 and this isn't the only place This is a crystal clear place. So I'll just use it and keep moving. First Timothy 4 verses 4 and 5, Paul says, for every creature of God is good.

So, those clean, unclean distinctions weren't fundamental about good and not good. It was a teaching tool of God. Every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. So it is set apart, sanctified, just means set apart, for our use as food.

It is set apart by the word of God, meaning God says it's okay. We have verbal sanction from God to do this and by prayer. I think that just goes right back to is to be received with thanksgiving. We should pray over this food and thank and acknowledge God you gave us this food. It is sanctified by the word of God.

God said so, sanctioned it by his word, and by prayer. God, we give you thanks for this. Okay, that's the new food source. Verse four. Genesis nine, verse four.

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. So you can eat flesh, but I'm prohibiting something. Here in this verse we have an associated prohibition, a do not. So prohibition fills in the blank, an associated prohibition. So we can eat the flesh, meat, flesh is meat, but not with the blood.

We are not to eat or drink blood. You say, how do you eat blood? Actually, blood is only liquid until it congeals, so it'll solidify. You should be thankful that's called clotting and it keeps you from bleeding to death. Be glad about that.

We are not to eat or drink blood and we are not to eat flesh with the blood still in it. That's what's being said here. In first Samuel 14, there's a great battle and the people haven't eaten all day. And when the battle is ended and it's time to eat, they're just, they're killing animals and eating the meat with the blood in it because they're famished and a saw actually withholds them from this and he has a large stone rolled to a place so they can drain from the blood, they can drain the blood from the animals that have been slaughtered. You can go to 1st Samuel 14 verses 33 and 34, it sort of sheds light on what is being said here.

So You kill an animal, you can eat the flesh, but you have to drain the blood first. And that's why Saul had this large stone rolled to a location so they could slaughter animals on this large stone and use that for the draining out of the blood so they wouldn't be sinning against what is being said here and in other places in the law. This is common practice today. So if you're like me, you're a city boy and all flesh, First of all, I don't even think of it as flesh. What do you mean flesh?

Like meat. I think in terms of drumsticks and steaks, okay, and it comes prepackaged in foam and cellophane and it was never really part of an animal. Okay, so I'm a city boy. So for other city boys and city girls, this is common practice today. If you go to slaughterhouses, they're set up to drain out the blood, and it's actually for sanitation reasons, for health reasons.

But here in Genesis 9, the reason isn't health and sanitation, at least that's not what's said. It was good for health and sanitation, but The basis for it given in our verse is the life is in the blood. That's the base. In a modern slaughterhouse, health and safety is the basis for why they're doing it. But here in our text, The reason is the life is in the blood.

That's why you can't eat flesh with the blood in it. The blood has to be poured out on the ground first, then you can eat the flesh. Okay, what is this about? And does it matter today in the new covenant? What's this about?

Doesn't matter, We're in the new covenant. Should we even care? Okay. I'm going to start with the second question. Does it matter to us today in the new covenant?

The answer is yes. I think. There's debate about that among the commentators, but the answer is yes. Unless it isn't. I think it is.

Here's why I think it is. Because in Acts 15, when the question on the table is, do you have to be circumcised to be saved? And the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem are writing a letter to the Gentile churches to say definitively, absolutely not, you do not have to be circumcised to be saved. They write a number of instructions and one of those instructions written to Gentile believers under the New Covenant is abstain from blood. So I think this is enforced today.

I think this has things to do with New Covenant believers today. And I think that's because of what this is about. So I've started with the second question, does this have anything to do with New Covenant believers? I think yes. Now what is it about?

I think the answer is yes. It has something to do with us because of what it's about. It won't take long to write down these notes. Life belongs to God and it's precious. I think that's what this is teaching us.

Life belongs to God. It doesn't belong to you. Didn't come from you. You don't own it. It came from God.

God owns it and it's precious. That is the big banner that hangs over verse 4. Life belongs to God. Don't you eat flesh with the blood in it is teaching us that life belongs to God and it is precious. I'm glad we only took four verses this week, but I'm not glad in this sense.

This is part one, animals eating flesh but not with blood in it, is Part one of a two-part statement of blood and the preciousness of life. So let's just do a sneak peek ahead to verse five, and there's more, but verse five at least makes the point. Surely for your life blood, image bearer, Okay, so we're still talking about blood in 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.

So men can kill beasts, but beasts can't kill men and men can't kill men because life belongs to God and it's precious and God as the owner of life draws those lines. No one else can draw those lines. Only God who gives life can draw those lines. Listen to what Paul says of the Lord Jesus Christ in Colossians one. So Colossians one, Paul goes into the stratosphere talking about Jesus and the glories of Jesus.

Here's some of what he says. All things were created by him, Jesus, all things were created by Jesus and through him, all things were created through Jesus and for him all things were created for Jesus. So human beings don't get it twisted. You are the image bearers, the crowning creation of God on earth, and the other creatures are given to you for food. They're given into your hand, but life belongs to God.

You're an image bearer, but life still belongs to God. They have been given into your hand and given to you as a source for food, but life still belongs to God and it is precious. There has been a fundamental change where the wages of sin is death, so we're in a world filled with death, and all creation groans for the restoration of all things at the return of Jesus. And so the animal kingdom and them being a food source is part of that of the creation groaning for Jesus's restoration of all things but but we are not allowed to think that life is cheap okay with the global flood and God wiping away all that life all that death death on a scale that planet Earth has never seen before might make you think, oh, life's cheap. No, no, no.

Wrong conclusion. The right conclusion is sin is terrible. You should hate sin because God hates sin The the message from the global flood isn't life is cheap So I'll just wipe out well just send all that death because it doesn't matter the The message from the global flood is God hates sin. The message of the flood is not that life doesn't matter to God, So I'll just wipe it away because it doesn't matter to me. The message of the global flood is that God hates sin and the wages of sin is death.

That's the message from the flood. Not that life is cheap. So after this massive instance of death, God is communicating this does not mean that life is cheap. Wrong conclusion. I still own life and life is precious.

But I hate sin and the wages of sin is death. So human beings, image bearers, God has given you something precious to sustain you. God has given you something precious to sustain you. But don't lose sight of who owns those lives. God still owns those lives.

And what death means, don't let death become so common that you stop linking it to sin The wages of sin on earth And what the future holds for believers and unbelievers alike What does the future hold for believers a time where the lion Will eat straw with the ox There's not going to be death in heaven. Now, how much of that is literal, how much of that is figurative, do you care? I don't care. It's wonderful either way. It at least means there's no more death and you don't have to fear death.

What does it hold for unbelievers? The wages of sin is death and not just physical death, eternal death. Applications, I'll give you two. Let me give you three verses about the blood. By the way, this is our Lord Supper meditation, So pay double close attention.

Three verses about blood. Leviticus 17 verse 11. I read it last week. It is about burnt offerings. Leviticus 17 verse 11.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. I gave you the blood to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. This is the whole basis for the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament. The life is in the blood, the blood makes atonement for the soul.

Next verse, Hebrews 9 verse 22. Listen to Hebrews 9 verse 22. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Remission means forgiveness.

There's no forgiveness unless someone sheds blood. You can only be forgiven if an innocent one will come and shed his blood for you. And it can't be defiled blood like your blood. It has to be perfectly undefiled blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Last verse, Ephesians 1 verse 7. This is glorious. Listen to Ephesians 1 verse 7. In him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

You Want to know if God is rich in grace? Watch Jesus shed His blood for sinners, to redeem sinners, to buy back sinners out of the self-imposed bondage to sin, the self-imposed slavery to sin. He's buying them. What's he buying them with? His blood.

Why is he doing that? It's the riches of his grace. It's the piling up of his grace is the saving of sinners and redeeming them out of their self-imposed slavery to sin. Will you live and die under the blessing of God or under the curse? Depends on who's going to die for your sins.

Depends on whose blood will be shed for your sins. Will you live and die under the blessing of God If there has been a burnt offering for you, if you've laid your hands on the substitutes that your sins have passed from you to the innocent one, or will you live under the curse? Will you die for your own sins? This is the key reason why blood is so precious because it points to the blood of Jesus Christ, the only way that you can be saved. Two.

One of the blessings of God is children. Be fruitful and multiply. Did you know that is the thrust of all of scripture? So I know you can make a case for restricting children. I've heard them all.

And they're secondary And they're secondary arguments. Just acknowledge, they're arguments made secondarily from this, that, or the other. The thrust of scripture is be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. And children are a blessing.

It's part of the blessing of God. They're a reward. There are a reward. Thank you for the truths that you put before us in scripture. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has shed the only blood that could purge the stain of sin from anyone, the only innocent blood that there is to be shed.

Thank you for Jesus and his innocence that he knew no sin. Thank you that he was willing to shed his blood for sinners. Life is in the blood. Thank you for life in Jesus, we pray in His name, amen.