Adam and Noah were very very similar in their positions in the
earth and experience with God.
Both are told to multiply, replenish the earth and have dominion over
everything.
- Both were the heads of the rest of humanity.
- Both were given dominion in association specifically with
the fowl, beasts and cattle.
- Adam names them, and Noah is told God has a covenant with
man, beasts, cattle and fowl.
- Adam enters marriage covenant with Eve.
- Adam and Eve sin with regards to forbidden FRUIT.
- Noah sins involving FRUIT as well... grapes from which he
made wine and sinned in becoming drunk.
- Both were naked in shame after their sin, and both were
covered by another.
- Adam and Eve hear curses from God for their sin.
- Noah's utters a curse to Ham's son in regards to Ham's
mockery of his nakedness.
- Adam was clothed by God and Shem and Japheth clothed Noah.
Watch how the words given to Adam parallel the words given to Noah:
TO ADAM:
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them,
and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth.
TO NOAH:
Genesis 9:1-2 And God blessed Noah
and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth. And 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.
REGARDING FOOD:
Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold,
I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all
the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding
seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.
NOAH REGARDING FOOD:
Genesis 9:3-7 Every moving thing
that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given
you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood
thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I
require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand
of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of
man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in
the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply;
bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
God's words to Adam and Noah are almost identical.
- Adam's words included words about fruit.
- Noah's words included meat.
- Not only did God tell Noah to be blessed and multiply to
replenish the Earth, as He told Adam, but He even paralleled His words
to Noah concerning Adam's provision of food.
- While Adam could eat of any fruit, except a certain kind of
fruit, Noah could eat of any meat, except a certain kind of meat.
- Adam could not eat fruit of knowledge of good and evil.
- Noah could not eat meat filled with blood.
So as we see such a parallel between Adam and Noah, we can get a
clearer picture of the forbidden element God desires us to avoid.
- Something was forbidden to Adam that so closely resembles
the thing was forbidden to Noah.
- Putting both pictures together gives us a clearer
understanding of what God sees as forbidden.
- It shows us what we ought to avoid.
- It gives us a clearer understanding of what God sees as
acceptable and within His will, and His desire for everyone of us.
- Knowledge of good and evil is connected to meat with blood
still in it.
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground
made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and
good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Notice that every tree had the following qualities:
- Pleasant to the sight.
- Good for food.
- But notice the single element the forbidden fruit had which
the other fruit did not.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he
did eat.
Pleasant to the sight.
- Good for food.
- TO BE DESIRED TO MAKE ONE WISE.
- The third element is the damning element.
Similarly, all the meat given to Noah was good.
- The forbidden meat had one single element the acceptable
fruit did not, also.
- BLOOD STILL IN THE MEAT.
- LIFE OF THE FLESH STILL IN THE MEAT.
- The damning element was the blood in the meat.
The forbidden fruit and meat was so close to the acceptable.
- Think of it.
- Remove the single additional ingredient from the forbidden
and it would be acceptable.
- Remove the blood, and the meat was fine.
- Remove the element to make self wise, and the fruit would
have been fine.
The enemy always tries to get so close to the original, and leave
one element
in his offer.
- But that element is absolutely glaring when you think about
it.
- The meat required SHEDDING OF BLOOD before it was acceptable.
- This brings us perfectly to the issues we face in the days
of the New Testament.
- The shedding of blood speaks of the cross of Jesus Christ.
- Remove the shedding of blood from our religion is to leave
ourselves without salvation.
- Without life.
- Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins!
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things
are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
remission.
Removing blood means removing LIFE OF THE FLESH.
Galatians 5:16-18 This I say
then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the
flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye
cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye
are not under the law.
You cannot just train flesh to be good and not evil.
- Religions everywhere are trying that and its exactly he
fruit the serpent offered Eve.
- Sinful flesh that does good is still sinful flesh.
There is only one true remedy for sinful flesh, and that is DEATH.
- The great blessing in the Gospel is that Jesus' death counts
as our deaths!
- And that means we've got the remedy for our sin!
Here is the GREAT LITMUS TEST FOR TRUE CHRISTIANITY.
- See if your Christianity passes the test or not.
- WHAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LIFE FOR GOD?
- IT IS THE WAY YOU DO GOOD AND AVOID WHATEVER IS EVIL?
- OR IS IT BECAUSE CHRIST WAS SENT AND CRUCIFIED THAT YOU
MIGHT HAVE HIS LIFE?
DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS YOU DO AND THE THINGS YOU CANNOT DO?
OR DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THAT CHRIST DID FOR YOU?
DO YOU LOOK CONSIDER GOOD CHRISTIANS TO BE THOSE WHO DO CERTAIN GOOD
DEEDS AND AVOID CERTAIN EVIL DEEDS ?
OR DO YOU CONSIDER GOOD CHRISTIANS THOSE WHO LOOK TO THE CROSS AND
GOD'S DEEDS THROUGH IT TO LEAD THEM?
- Attention Good and evil deed addicts: don't worry about the
good that needs to be done.
- When a soul feasts on Christ's work on the cross, that soul
will do a whole lot of good.
- But it will be in the power of the Holy Ghost and not will
power nor flesh power.
What single truth did Paul seek to stress above all truths?
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I
determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified.
PAUL GAVE FRUIT OF LIFE!
- SHED BLOOD.
- MEAT WITH NO FLESHLY LIFE IN IT.
Is making one wise regarding good and evil more important that taking
away sin?
- This blows the cover off all modernism and false religion.
- It separates Christianity from every other religion that
exists.
- All religions point to self efforts to be good and not evil.
- ONLY CHRIST POINTS TO WASHING AWAY SIN AND CRUCIFYING THE
SINNER.
Its like comparing trimming hedges to chopping down the tree!
- Reformation from Delinquency is nothing to be compared to
Resurrection from the Dead.
The meat that was acceptable was meat whose blood was shed.
- Acceptable meat corresponds to acceptable fruit OF LIFE.
- The fruit of Life is connected to the thought of SHED BLOOD.
We must translate these Old Testament commands of eating and not eating
into New Testament, contemporary issues.
- Don't think you have it made today just because there are no
trees of Life or forbidden trees in our backyards.
- The same PRINCIPLES in those commands to Adam and Noah apply
to us today in a spiritual form.
- In fact, the unseen forms of those commands we have
today are far more serious than the visible forms of fruit on
trees and blood in meats.
- Spiritual unseen things are eternal.
- Visible things are only temporal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
- Since the acceptable meat was meat in which there was no
blood, then the acceptable Fruit of life corresponds to necessary SHED
BLOOD.
Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood
of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
This statement of Jesus is so fitting because the picture portrays that
blood has been shed.
It shows us the aspect of LIFE as opposed to punishment of death!
- Acceptable meat was bloodless meat.
- Blood had been shed.
- It was like Adam's acceptable fruit of Life.
- Shed blood corresponds to LIFE!
John 6:47-54 Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that
bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are
dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may
eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of
the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can
this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise
him up at the last day.
John 6:63-64 It is the spirit that
quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, and who should betray him.
Sandwiched between the references to BELIEVING HIS WORDS in verses 47
and 63 were symbols of that thought.
- The symbols of believing on Him were the eating His flesh
and drinking His blood.
- These symbols represented the fact that HIS BLOOD WOULD BE
SHED.
- And that represents the ACCEPTABLE MEAT that corresponds to
the FRUIT OF LIFE.
John 6:67-69 Then said Jesus unto
the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord,
to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we
believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God.
No wonder Peter said WE BELIEVE.
- No wonder he said, "Thou hast the words of eternal life."
You must believe this and make it part of your life TO RECEIVE ETERNAL
LIFE FROM IT.
To eat meat with blood, with this in mind, spiritually represents
people who do not believe they need Jesus who shed His blood for our
souls.
- They do not need a Saviour to shed His blood.
- Since the Lord shed His Blood on Calvary, they think they do
not need Calvary since they do not need shed blood.
- They do not need the work of the cross.
- Just get knowledge of good and evil and do the good and
avoid the evil, and all will be fine.
- Sound familiar?
The serpent tried to get Adam to eat knowledge of good and evil.
- He leaped at the opportunity to veer man away from the fruit
of life.
- He was so determined and bound to offer this alternative.
- And today, religion that speaks more about what is good
versus what is evil, than speaking about Jesus' blood being shed, is
religion that is serpentine!
Even Christian circles that speak more about what we can do to do good
and avoid evil than what the cross has done in supplying God's efforts
of salvation is
SNAKE FRUIT.
Anything to get the stress off the SHED BLOOD and the CROSS is Satan's
desires to kill and destroy you.
- The serpent still offers this forbidden fruit today.
- To concentrate upon your efforts to do good more than the
truth of God's efforts to give life is to be heading into the wrong
direction!
John 6:50-51 This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of
this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is
my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
To talk only of Jesus doing good and not evil is to stray from the
vital part of Jesus' life in shedding His blood.
Acts 10:38-40 How God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about
doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God
was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in
the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a
tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
Peter made sure He spoke of the Gospel of death, burial and
resurrection when he referred to Jesus doing good.
To miss the cross is to miss the entire point of Jesus.
- The cross destroys the sinner and makes the person a new
creature.
- The cross is Jesus' shed blood, remitting our sins and
putting us back into Adam's state before he fell and threw us all into
sin.
Watch your life.
- Take inventory of what you consider the most when
considering GOD and CHURCH and your CHRISTIANITY.
- Is it more of what you do that is good and what you don't do
that is evil?
- Or is it more of WHAT GOD DID TO GIVE US LIFE?
The serpent said...
Genesis 3:4-5 And the serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil.
PAUL THE APOSTLE SAID:
Ephesians 1:17 That the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in
the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward
who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he
wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his
own right hand in the heavenly places,
SERPENT: Your eyes shall be opened to know good and evil.
PAUL: Your eyes shall be opened to know the hope of His calling, and
his great power to us according to the power wherewith He raised CHRIST
FROM THE DEAD.
I want my eyes opened to hope of Christ's calling.
I want my eyes open to the power towards me according to the power God
used to raise Jesus from the dead.
PAUL:
Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord:
Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death;
I don't want to know good and evil.
- I want to KNOW JESUS CHRIST.
- EXCELLENCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS.
- KNOW HIM IN POWER OF RESURRECTION (involves idea of blood
shed),
- And FELLOWSHIP OF SUFFERINGS (involves idea of blood shed).
- Being made conformable unto his death (involves idea of shed
blood).
Analyze every sermon you hear.
- Contrast every candy-stick of Christians with the cross
principle.
- Find out if GOD'S WORK is stressed more than MAN'S WORK.
- GOD'S EFFORTS AND NOT OUR EFFORTS.
- GOD'S POWER AND NOT WILL POWER.
- LIFE AND NOT CONDEMNATION.
- Ask God to fill your soul up with revelations of His work on
the cross.
- Feast on these things when you read the Bible.
- Read Christian books that are packed with this truth.
- Listen to Gospel songs that are praising this work of SHED
BLOOD.
- Read the Bible to understand more of His work.