covenant ordered and sure, you'll
find it in your spiral hymnal. Don't worry, I'm not going to
lead you in music. Tom's going to come up and do that. But I
wanted to call your attention to that hymn so that we can understand
the passage of Scripture I want us
to read together. If you'll turn with me to 2 Samuel
chapter 23. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ. We worship a God who is faithful
to his promises. And just the promises that he's
made to us in his word, but the promises that he made to his
son and the son to his father and the Holy Spirit to the father
and the son in the covenant of grace before time ever began. It's an eternal covenant where
God Almighty promised to give to his son a people. The Lord
Jesus Christ entered into that covenant relationship with his
father. This is before man was ever made and promised to redeem
them and to do everything necessary to put away their sin and to
make them righteous and acceptable in the sight of God. God the
Holy Spirit, the third person of our triune Godhead, entered
into that covenant relationship and promised the Father and the
Son to make the gospel effectual and alive and to make his people
willing in the day of his power and to bring them to faith in
Christ so that everyone that the Father chose, everyone that
Christ redeemed, the Holy Spirit regenerates. And there is the
hope of our salvation based on his promises. You hear men talk
about salvation and they'll say, well, you know, if you believe,
God will save you. And our gospel says, I have saved
you and you will believe. You hear men say, well, you know,
if you repent, God will forgive you. And our God says, I've already
forgiven you and you will repent. The covenant of works, the freewill
works gospel says, if you serve God, he'll bless you. And the
covenant of grace says, I have blessed you and you will serve
me. It's a completely different gospel.
It's a different God. It's a message of life or a message
of death. It's a gospel that's completely
dependent upon our God keeping his promises versus one that's
dependent upon you keeping yours. What hope, what freedom, what
liberty we have in Christ. And that was David's hope. And David, you know, speaks prophetically. as the Lord Jesus. And so when
we read these verses in 2 Samuel chapter 23, we understand them
in light of this gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in an
eternal covenant that cannot fail. And so in 2 Samuel chapter
23, now these be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse
said, and the man who was raised up on high, that's the Lord Jesus.
He ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of God. And
the father said to him, sit down here at my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool. So our Lord has been raised from
the dead and ascended on high. He's the anointed of the God
of Jacob and he is the sweet psalmist of Israel. The spirit
of the Lord spake by me. There's our hope. The natural
man cannot receive the things of the spirit. They've got to
be revealed by the spirit of God. And that's our hope and
prayer this morning that the spirit of the Lord would speak
to us. The spirit of the Lord spake
by me and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said,
the rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must
be just, ruling in the fear of God. Our God reigns. We've seen this already this
weekend. Over the living and the dead, he's sovereign. Over
the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth,
no man can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Here
he is. Verse four. and he shall be as the light
of the morning when the sun rises." We woke up this morning to a
little liquid sunshine, but it'll be gone, I think, in the next
hour or two. So, but here's the sun that rises
over the horizon that that like it, that reminds us of the, of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he shall be the light of
the morning when the sun rise at the even a morning without
clouds, as the tender grass spring it out of the earth by a clear
shining after rain. And then this is David's last
words. Although my house be not so with God, none of our houses
are our families or the tabernacle of our own flesh is as it ought
to be. David said, although my house
be not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant. There's that covenant of grace
where the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit before Adam was
ever made, established the salvation of their people. And so he says,
Although my house may not so with God yet, he's made with
me an everlasting covenant. And this covenant is ordered
in all things. Everything necessary to ratify
this covenant and to fulfill the promises of God were accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. Ordered in all things
and sure, sure, certain, no way our God can fail. David goes
on to say, this is all my salvation. All the hope of my salvation
is bound up in the promises that my God made. This is all my salvation. This is all my desire. I don't
have any interest in going anywhere else to find any place else where
I can find the hope for my soul and the forgiveness of my, this
is all my salvation, all my desire, though he make it not to grow. Todd and I were talking this
morning and I was encouraged to hear him agree with me that
the older we get, the less confidence we have in ourselves. And some of you young people
will learn that I think as the years go by. But that's what
David was saying. Although he'd make it not to
grow, I look at my life and I don't see any growth in grace. I'm
more dependent upon him now than I've ever been before. And I
see more of my sin now than I ever saw before. Yet, he has made
with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Let's stand together. Tom's gonna
come and lead us in that hymn, number 21, in your spiral hymnal,
number 21. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. made of eternal ages past, made
of covenant sure and fast. God my Father chose his own in
the person of his Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him
eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly Stood
as my great surety, For my price he offered blood, To appease
the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and He brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Hymn number
125, I think it is. Yes, 125 and your hardbacked
hymnal. Okay. We have a special also. Number 125. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow For nothing good have I Whereby thy
grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's
Lamb Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain, He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. We'll have special music now. Caleb and Adam, special music. Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature Long the distance that he fell Far removed from hope
and heaven Into deep despair and hell But there was a fountain
open And the blood of God's own Son ? Purifies the soul and reaches
? ? Deeper than the stain has gone ? ? Praise the Lord for full salvation
? ? God still reigns upon His throne ? ? And I know the blood
still reaches ? Deeper than the stain has gone. Conscious of the deep pollution,
sinners wander in the night. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, they still fear to face the light. Fist the blessed consolation
That can melt the heart of stone That sweet balm of Gilead reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon his throne And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone All unworthy we who've wandered
And our eyes are wet with tears As we think of love that sought
us Through the weary, wasted years Yet we walk the holy highway
Walking by God's grace alone ? Knowing Calvary's fountain
reaches ? ? Deeper than the stain has gone ? ? Praise the Lord for full salvation
? ? God still reigns upon his throne ? ? And I know the blood
still reaches ? Deeper than the stain has gone When with holy choirs we're standing
In the presence of the King And our souls are lost in wonder
While the wide-robed choirs sing Then we'll praise the name of
Jesus with the millions round the throne. Praise him for the
power that reaches deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon his throne And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone I'm so thankful for that. Thank
you, men. One of the great blessings for
me in having a conference is that I get to sit and listen.
And it's been such a blessing yesterday and Friday night and
looking forward to this morning. I want to thank these men again.
Kevin, Kimberly, thank you for coming all the way from California. And Todd, appreciate you being
here, brother. Let's ask the Lord's blessings.
Our Heavenly Father, we know that the hearing ear and the
seeing eye are both of you. Lord, we do pray that you would
open the eyes of our understanding. We pray that you would cause
us to have ears to hear thy voice and, Lord, that you would, by
your power and by your spirit bring us to bow and to rejoice
and to believe all that you've done and all that you've declared.
We thank you for these men and we pray for your blessings on
them as they stand to speak. And Lord that Christ to be lifted
up and that we would be drawn in faith to him. For it's in
his name we ask it, amen. Kevin, you come brother. Good morning. If you will be
turning to Genesis chapter 9, it'll be our text for this morning. While you're turning there, I
want to thank each of you. I try to thank Greg and Tricia
every day, and I feel like we're at an all-inclusive resort. I'm
grateful they are given to hospitality, but as are many of you. It takes
a lot to have a conference, and I'm thankful for you. Trash has
to be taken out and floors got to be swept. And I appreciate
that. I'm thankful for each of you.
Our text this morning, the Lord's word is a two edged sword. I can't make it that way. He
does. And there's two responses to
the gospel. Generally speaking, you either
bow to the word of God or you butt against it. That's, that's
the two responses in the heart. When someone hears the word of
the Lord, there's either hatred or humbleness. I'm not equipped
to make that happen. And isn't that something you
can read the same passage and one person will cry and say,
thank you, Lord. You showed me your grace one
more time. And another person will say,
I can't stand hearing that. And they'll store them out. That's
amazing. That's what we handle. This story
here, somebody said, this is a horrible story. Why are you
even reading this? This is terrible. And this has blessed me so much. This is a beautiful story. And
I'm going to give you keys to the house before we even start.
I'm going to tell you my end before we get there, before we
even start. Let's read this here in Genesis chapter 9, beginning
in verse 18. Genesis 9, verse 18. And the sons of Noah, that went
forth of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. And Ham is the
father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah.
And of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to
be a husband. He was a farmer. And he planted
a vineyard. He drank of the wine and was
drunken. And he was uncovered within his
tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without.
And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders
and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father.
And their faces were backward and they saw not their father's
nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger
son had done unto him. And he said, cursed be Canaan,
a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he
said, blessed be the Lord, God of Shem, and Canaan shall be
his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and
he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his
servant. And Noah lived after the flood
350 years. And all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. We've been going through Genesis
there in San Diego, and it's been a blessing to me, and I
think it has been to those brethren too. Our Lord told plainly, he
said, Moses wrote of me. And the Lord revealed himself
to us as we went through Genesis, and it's precious. Each day of
creation, that's Christ. He's our light, crossed our light.
He's our heaven, capital H heaven. He's our firmament. That means
atonement, recovery. It's him. But I'm going to summarize,
if you'll let me, Genesis chapter six through eight, and I'll go
real quick. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, it says.
After that, the Lord told Noah he was going to be gracious to
him. He came to Noah and he came first, just as that Holy Spirit
does convicting of sin, convicting of Christ's righteousness and
convicting of judgment. He came to Noah and said, I'm
going to destroy this whole earth. That's how the Lord spoke to
Noah. He said, make thee an ark. You have an ark. There's salvation.
I will provide is what the Lord told him. Noah believed God and
he obeyed him. There was faith and obedience
walked hand in hand. He believed God. He was put in
that ark. The Lord put him in there. He
said, come thee and all thy house into the ark. And he was sealed
with pitch within and without. There wasn't a drop of wrath
was going to touch no one. And that pitch was on the inside
so he could see it. That's the blood of Christ. He
was sealed forever in that ark. He saw God's punishment of sin.
Can you imagine that? those anthropologists, someone
was working on their PhDs, and they estimate the population
of the earth in Noah's day was somewhere between 750 million
and 4 billion. That's pretty wide range, but
how many people's on earth? A lot. How many survived? Eight. They were on that ark
and they looked out and it wasn't the Bahamian shelf with crystal
clear water, like down in Key West. Bodies floating, rubble
all around. Death and carnage. He saw the
judgment of the Lord, what the Lord thought of seeing and what
he did with it. Finally, he sent out that dove and that raven.
The raven didn't come back. It could live on anything. It
could sleep on top of a floating dead body. It could eat death,
carry him. But that dove couldn't. And that
dove returned to the ark. That's its only home. Lord's
people come back to Christ. That's our only hope. That's
our only, only salvation. And it comes a second time with
an olive branch in its mouth. What's the only thing come out
of our mouth if we know the Lord? Peace. Salvation's accomplished. That was it. Noah, after the
Lord kept him in that ark for a year, he sent him loose and
he built an altar and he sacrificed to the Lord a sweet smelling
saber. Picture in Christ our sacrifice,
our propitiation, that acceptable bloody sacrifice. He's our sweet
smelling savor to the father. And because God was pleased with
the sacrifice, because he had accepted the sacrifice, he made
a covenant with Noah to show him he was accepted, that the
sacrifice was accepted and he gave him the rainbow. Natural
man says, well, that rainbow means God ain't going to flood
the earth again. That rainbow's Christ. Everything in it. Seven colors, the number of perfection.
Purple's closest to us. We see royalty. We see Christ
between us and the God we offended. And when the Lord looks at us,
he sees red. He sees the blood. Changes your attitude about a
rainbow, don't it? And we still have that token. We may see it
today. I'm excited. We preached it.
Don't rain much in San Diego. We got to the rainbow and I didn't
watch the weather channel to decide what I'm going to preach
on. And everyone in that church there got to see a rainbow within
a couple of days. I was thankful the Lord gave us that. That's
a covenant of grace, covenant of substitution of the blood
of Christ. And that was stirred up in Noah's pure mind, as Peter
said. He was brought into remembrance
of Christ every time he looked at that rainbow. What a gift
the Lord's give us. How gracious he is to an undeserving
people. Believer still has that token
in our day. And then Noah was a type of Adam, picture of him. He was the head of the earth.
He was the head honcho. He was in charge of everything.
There's just eight of them. That was God's prophet on this
earth. He was the head of it. He was given much responsibility.
Now throughout Noah's life, he's seen all this. The Lord showed
him his judgment and his mercy and his covenant. He spoke with
him. He's found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a
blessed man. Would you agree? Noah was blessed. The Lord said Noah was a just
man and he was perfect in his generation. Noah was righteous. He was a sinner saved by grace.
That's what he was. What's our hope of being saved?
Many people struggle with assurance. God didn't say Noah was perfect
for now. Not that Noah could be perfect.
He said he is perfect. And what the Lord says is true.
And he's the one that keeps his word. I don't feel holy. God says I am if I'm his. If
you're his, if all your hope is Christ Jesus our Lord, that's
it. Cling to him alone. You're holy. The Lord says Christ
is our righteousness. He's our sanctification, our
wisdom. Was the Lord abundant in mercy
and grace to Noah? Was he tender and long suffering
and kind and loving to Noah? He was. Here's a story we ought
to get out of this text today. There was a righteous man. He
was righteous and he failed in sin. He was exposed of his nakedness. Someone accused him of his sin
and another covered him. Have we seen that before? I didn't
go back to Genesis 1. We've seen that before, haven't
we? This is proof that the Lord wrote
the scriptures through a man. I've heard many people tell me,
they say, well, man wrote the scriptures, you can't trust it.
No, man might've been the hand that held the pen, but God, the
Holy Spirit wrote the scriptures. We read Jonah. Jonah wrote Jonah. The last punctuation in the book
of Jonah is a question mark. The Lord asked Jonah a question.
Well, what was the answer to the question? Jonah wrote the
book of Jonah. that peevish prophet. He said,
that's me. You go read Philemon. That's
a beautiful, short read. And if you've got a sub, a footnote
at the bottom of that, it'll say by Onesimus written in Rome
by Onesimus, a servant. Onesimus physically wrote out,
I'm an unworthy servant. I've wronged thee. He wrote everything
for Paul. That's proof the Lord's wrote
it to us. Paul said, this was for our learning. The scriptures
are for our learning and we have much to learn. In this short
passage, we can learn a lot. I've learned a lot from it. It
was a blessing to me. Noah was just, he walked with God, and
he failed. Old J.C. Ryle said, the best
of men are only men at their very best. And all these old
patriarchs and the martyrs and the reformers and the Puritans,
they're all sinners who need a Savior. They're useful, they're
honorable in their place, but sinners after all. That's all
we could be. After God saves a person, they
still have an old nature with them. And it doesn't matter how
long you walk with the Lord, how much you mature, how much
understanding you get, the highest title you will ever have is a
sinner saved by grace. Noah was 600 years old when this
took place. He walked with the Lord 600 years.
That's pretty mature, isn't it? I won't make it that long. And
he failed. By God giving it to him, Noah
walked with integrity in a wicked world. He upheld true worship.
What does this mature, wise, experienced man do? He grows
a vineyard, he produces some really good wine, and he drinks
it and gets drunk on purpose. He uncovers himself and he passes
out. What a shame. All that any of
us need is a temptation, and the Lord allow us to act on it.
My pastor told me growing up, he said, don't you look down
your nose at David just because your Bathsheba hasn't showed up yet.
That's true. The Lord takes his hand off of
any of us. Paul warned us of this in Galatians 6. He says,
brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall, you which are spiritual,
you that understand, you that have a new spirit, you restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness. While we do that, he put a semicolon
there, considering thyself, lest ye be also tempted. Our old man
doesn't improve with time. We can sit on the gospel for
decades. We can grow in grace. And our flesh is just as vile
and as wicked as it ever has been. It's still in us. That's
what we're housed in. And we have to daily fight against
it. And some days are just harder than others. Some days are tough. But when we think, we have a
handle on it. Troubles on the horizon. Every year I live, I
think, well, last year, I was just an idiot. But this year,
I've got my act together. Bet you $5 what I'll think next
year. Paul said, wherefore, let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Solomon says,
pride go before destruction and a haughty spirit before fall.
I was speaking to somebody the other day. The Lord's word is
true. I say this often. If I was the
only person on a deserted island, if I was on a deserted island
all by myself, this word is true. There's an enemy encompassed
about me. I'm going to have trials. I'm going to have heartache.
I'm going to need to cry out to the Lord. It's true. Noah was a righteous man and
he failed. Next we see that we never sin alone. Someone always
gets hurt by it. It can tarnish a man's witness
of the gospel for generations to come. After Noah, after this
flood and after his fall, Noah lived 350 years. And you go ask
anybody about Noah and they remember two things. He built an ark and
he got drunk. Doesn't say anything else. 350
years is a long time. The Lord didn't comment on it.
He didn't give it to Moses to tell us what happened. The last
thing we know of him is his fall. What does everybody know about
Jonah? He's a peevish prophet. He was disobedient. He went and
got that ticket to Tarshish. He said, well, the Lord must
be the Lord's providence. They were not sold out. There's
room on the boat. He was still the Lord's prophet
though. This should teach every one of us that hears that salvation
must be all of grace. When we see all these prophets
of old, every one of them failed. Everyone was fickle and feeble
and completely unable. What does that mean? Salvation's
of grace. It's not of man. Must be. If we ask Noah, Noah, how are
you any better than all those the Lord just drowned? He would
say, I'm not. I am what I am by the grace of
God. This shows us salvation is all
of grace from the beginning to the end. All of God's service
throughout scripture, everyone has sinned and come short of
the glory of God. Abraham, Jacob, all of them,
and all of us too. All of us. We should see our
need of the righteousness of another. We should see our need
of a covering from our Lord Jesus Christ. We need him before that
holy God that we offended. Of ourselves, by ourselves, seeking
our own righteousness, we're nothing but just like Adam and
Eve. We're naked. We're uncovered and we're fallen. Now, we're
not to make excuses for sin. What Noah did was wrong. But
thanks be to God for his word. My little children, these things
I write unto you that you sin not, John told us. And if any
man sin, when any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous. You're going to fall. I'm going
to fall. But I have an advocate. When
our brothers and sisters fall, we go in and reveal them and
go whispering. You have an advocate. So we looked
at yesterday. I hope you want to solve a problem. Preach Christ. You want to help
somebody that's sad? Preach Christ. Somebody needs
to be brought down a peg or two. Preach Christ. That's it. We have an advocate. When a believer
sins and we will, we have an advocate with his father. His
blood will wash away all our sins. It's easy to look down
our nose at people that sin different than we do. But does it take
a different payment for sin, for their sin versus mine? Is
something other than the blood of Christ required? It's not,
is it? It's the same. The cure is the
same. He's the same. Some argue that
Christ's blood of Calvary was only for past sins. That was
2,000 years before my birth. All of my sins were future sins
when he hung on that cross. One more thing to learn is we
need to give constant attention to the Lord's word and prayer
and to preaching. So we're not led into temptation.
Our Lord taught us to pray that way, didn't he? Lord, lead us
not into temptation. Keep us from it. And through
that, through the hearing of the word preached, through seeking
his word, we're brought to pray, Lord, you must keep us. Not,
well, I'm just, I'm so strong now, I can resist. That's not
the case. Lord, you must keep me. What
a total dependence we have on him for all things. For all things. I get so proud and thinking I
can do something. Thinking I provide for my family,
or I did this, or I did that. And I know I can't take my next
breath unless the Lord give it to me. I get to use all my illustrations
I burn up in San Diego. They're new to you. But somebody
got real mad a while back. We had a president that said,
you didn't build that. And I thought, well, he spoke the truth in contention,
didn't he? We didn't. The Lord gave us the
strength and the muscle fibers and the food in our bellies,
didn't he? We never begin in the spirit and end up perfect
in the flesh. We begin in the spirit, we walk in the spirit,
and we end in the spirit that he's given us. Our flesh does
nothing but sin. That's all we are. Now the accuser. Curse and the blessing. Verse
22 says there in Genesis 9, 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without. He published his father's sin. Ham took pleasure in telling
his brothers about it. He didn't honor his father. He
didn't honor the name of his father. He didn't honor the God
of his father that his father told him about. He published
it. Why do you think he did that? Could be Noah's chasing him over
the same thing. Maybe Ham's laid up drunk a couple
of times, and he whipped him. He said, I got him now. For whatever
reason, out of self-righteousness and pride, he knew somebody did
something wrong, and he wanted justice. Instead of having compassion
on the head of his family, he spoke out. They didn't have no
billboards back then. There was eight people on earth.
We was driving through Canada one time. They had these posters
hanging from a bridge, an overpass of anti-abortion. And it was
violent looking. And there's a place in West Virginia
there across the street from an adult bookstore that was big
signs up. And there was a man with binoculars
that would write down the license plates. We had to drive by there
to get gas when I was in the military. And he was writing
down people's license plates that pulled in there to make
sure there was nobody in the church. That's pretty blatant, isn't it? There's
eight people on earth. He didn't have to scream. He
didn't have to put up a sign. He didn't have to build a big
tower to tell people about it. He walked out to his brothers
and said, I don't want to say anything, but... He whispered it. I really don't
want to bring this up. I probably ought not say nothing,
but... You know what dad did? You know
what he did? What may seem harmless to us,
God looks on the heart. And Ham revealed his true heart by what came out of his mouth.
Did mercy come out of his mouth? Did grace come out of his mouth?
Did abundant love come out of his mouth? Ham was a God-hating rebel, and
he hated his father, and he hated his father's God. And people
said, well, it doesn't look like that to me. It looks like he
was doing the right thing. He was seeking justice. You did
wrong. You better get to apologizing.
That's not the case, was it? It's not what the Lord records
for us. And he wasn't just a misguided teenager. This got to hold up,
man. This wasn't a young adult trying
to figure things out, and he made a bad decision. Ham was
at least 100 years old. This was a 100-year-old man.
He was well-seasoned, wasn't he? He knew what he was doing,
and he did it willingly. There's always wheat next to
the tares. There's a tare on that ark. Ham was on that ark. In this world, there'll always
be wolves among the sheep. There'll always be hypocrites.
There'll always be false believers. There'll always be accusers trying
to sort everybody out and set things right. And they'd always
use the honor of God to say something. Well, no, we learned better,
and we know better, and we ought not do these things. It'll always
happen. And I thought, man, if I could
go through and just clean out a place, if I did have that ability,
I don't. But if I could set everything
right, and we did everything right, and there's only the Lord's
wheat there, what does the scripture say? There must be heresies among
you. It ain't going to last more than 30 seconds. It ain't possible. The Lord didn't say it wouldn't
be. The body crossed, his local symbols will never be rid of
the accusers. And if we're on that private island all by ourselves,
there'll be an accuser with us. that we wanted right here. Ain't
no way I could be a child of God. There's no way he could
have saved me. I'm not good enough. Look at
what I thought. Look at what I did. Told Peter, get thee behind me,
Satan, didn't he? There was no repentance in him.
Him didn't apologize after this. He didn't beg for forgiveness
from his father. He says in verse 25, and he said,
cursed be Canaan, which was Ham's youngest son. A servant of servants
shall he be unto his brethren. Even when Noah cursed him, it
didn't faze him. It didn't faze him. He probably
thought, well, dad's just mad. It'll blow over. He'll get over
it. God cursed in Ham just as he
cursed Cain. It was a spiritual curse. Outwardly,
it looks like everything was fine. Looks like he prospered. Had Nimrod, didn't he? Ham's
son, he became mighty. Babylon came out of Ham. Egypt
came out of Ham. Ethiopia. Sodom and Gomorrah,
that's a huge metropolitan area. How successful. But they were cursed. Just as
that great accuser of the brethren was. What seemed to be so successful. They had Christ on a cross and
they killed him. He said, I won. Everybody thought he was defeated.
And that was the very act that crushed his head. He bruised
our Savior's heel, and in doing so, the Lord crushed his head.
Canaan was Ham's youngest son, but what a picture. The land
that Israel was going to go into was prepared by Canaan. He served
Israel. He became a servant, just as
the word says, doesn't it? That curse fell on a lineage
of Ham. God visits the iniquities of the father on the following
generations. Oh, that us fathers would bow
to the word of God. That I would bow from my children's
sake and my grandchildren's sake to the word of God. I pray he'd
be with me. Allow me to believe God, believe
his word. Here's the blessing. Shem's the
father of the Hebrews. I should have gave you that beforehand
too. Ham's the father of Cain. Shem's the father of Hebrews.
And Japheth, he's the father of the Gentiles, the Europeans
and things. Picturing God's elect of Jew
and Gentile. And both of them refused to dishonor
their father. They refused to expose his sin. Why? Because their sin had been
covered. They knew something of grace.
They knew something of forgiveness. They had been forgiven much.
A man can't forgive unless he's been forgiven. You can't love
unless you've been loved. You can't cover sin unless your
sins been covered. They love Christ and they love
those that Christ died for. That was their father, but that
was their brother in spirit too. It says in verse 23, and Shem
and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders. Jew and Gentile. What's the difference? It's what we bear. It carries
across both shoulders. We've all been covered. All the
children of God have been covered, robed in his righteousness. They
put it on both their shoulders and went in backwards and covered
the nakedness of their father and their faces were backwards.
They didn't even look on it. and they didn't see their father's
nakedness. Someone come to me with a problem, a marital problem
or whatever, and said, you know, we're having troubles, and here's
the reason. I don't want to hear it. I don't need to know. Here's what God's word says.
Isn't that a good way to be? What's God saying? Well, I think,
I heard your pastor say this recently in Proverbs 31. The root word of opinion and
heresy is the same. Well, I think. I think next time
somebody tells me, I think the scriptures. No, go ahead. Tell
me what your heresy is. Horrid, isn't it? They didn't
go out and tell anyone, Shem and Japheth. They loved their
father, and they honored him. And they covered his sin. I was
about to get up and say, I'm going to preach your bulletin
today. Kimberly asked me that article I wrote. She said, when
did you write that? I said, I don't even remember
writing it. If we want to serve God, everybody says, I want to
be a servant of God. Good. Here's your chance. Start
loving. Be merciful. People want to be
long suffering until the suffering kicks in. Everybody wants to
bear burdens until you bear it like a backpack and it's heavy
and your back hurts and your feet get tired. It's all fun
and games until it comes to the doing. Until it comes into practice,
we hit it with shoe leather. but they actually acted like
someone that experienced grace. The wisest man that ever walked
the face of this earth, born of Adam, Solomon, he said, hatred
stirreth up strife, but love covereth all sins. All of them,
all sins. You who believe, aren't you glad
that the almighty God hasn't exposed your nakedness? Has he covered you in his own
garment from his shoulder? Did he remove his garment and
put it on you? Did he bear your burden? True love from the Lord in a
person's heart covers sin. Peter had that experience. He
told us, he said, above all things have fervent charity. It's love.
Have fervent love among yourselves. For love covereth the multitude
of sins. Where did these boys learn this? Noah told them, didn't he? Their
daddy told them. Told them of Adam. Adam fell
in the garden. He fell in sin. He was naked.
He knew it. He was exposed. And God covered
him. He slew a lamb. And fig leaves
is going to keep wilting. God said, I'll provide myself
a lamb. I'll cover you. Shem and Japheth
showed the conduct of a believer. They had been forgiven and they
forgave. They were covered and then they covered. They were
loved and they showed love. Gossiping, slandering people
that, and I have a flesh too. I have an old nature. There's
things that you hear something, and the reason I wrote that is
because I said, well, I don't want to say nothing but. I didn't
hear somebody else say that comes from me. We have an old nature.
But someone that just thrives on gossiping and slandering people
and secrets and whispering, they don't believe God. They haven't
had a work of grace done in them. They've never been given a new
heart. Boy, we pray that we have. And I want this old man that
I live in to be done with. The older I get, the more wicked
I am. Somebody said one time, they said, well, the world's
getting more wicked. Scriptures say so. I said, well, we can
sin more efficiently now. We can do it quicker. But the
heart of man hasn't changed. But as I age, as I get older,
I get more wicked. If I was alone on a deserted
island, this world is getting more wicked every day. We get
tired of it, don't we? Well, it says in verse 26, And
he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall
be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and
he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his
servant. The Lord's gonna increase the
Gentiles. He's told us from the beginning. We don't think that's
a big deal, but we have a high priest. We didn't grow up seeing
that. That's important. The Lord saved
an elect out of Israel and he saved an elect out of the Gentiles.
What a blessing we have. So would he really do all this?
Would the Lord really curse a whole section of people that hated
him anyway? They willfully sinned against him. Ham willfully went
out and told his brethren, Would he really bless this many people
inside of somebody? For one or two people? For a
remnant here and there? He said, I'll give nations for
you. I'll give nations for you. Does that make me proud? It gives
me a humble heart. I was driving the other day. There's so much traffic here,
just the same as it is in California. And I thought, look at just the
thousands and thousands and thousands of people walk around as in the
days of Noah. That doesn't make me proud and
puffed up. That breaks my heart. I'm going
to go tell him and shake him. Believe God. Believe his word.
Look to his son. You don't know what kind of mess
he in. Verse 28 says Noah lived after
the flood 350 years and all the days of Noah were 950 years and
he died. I pray however many years I have
on this earth that if there is a memory of me, It'll be a memory
of me serving the Lord and not this flesh that I am. I pray
it for all of us. But I won't really care, because
I won't be here. I'll be with him. Why? How could
I be in front of a holy God I offended? He covered me. I fell. I was naked. I was accused. And that's the truth of that
accusation, wasn't it? And another come in and covered
me. That makes me want to walk every
day in this earth covering the sins of my brethren. What they
do, I don't care. I don't want to hear it. I love
them. I love you, because that's what I want from you. Some of
y'all have known me for a long time. Forgive me as the Lord
forgave me. Amen. Thank you, Kevin. This is your
time to take a break, and we'll all stand together and sing a
congregational hymn, the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin.