Good morning everyone. Let's
begin by standing and singing 354, what a friend we have in
Jesus. 354. What a friend we have in
Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything
to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless
pain we bear All because we do not carry Everything
to God in prayer Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? ? Will all our sorrows share ?
Jesus knows our every weakness ? Take it to the Lord in prayer
? Are we weak and heavy laden ?
Cumbered with a load of care Precious Savior, still our refuge,
Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends these spies forsake
thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield
thee, Now we'll find a solace there. Thank you. Turn to Psalm 11. I'm getting
myself straightened out here. Psalms chapter 11 In the Lord
put I my trust, how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your
mountain? For lo, the wicked bend their
bow, they may gray their arrow upon the string, that they may
privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple,
the Lord's throne is in heaven, his eyes behold, his eyelids
try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked in him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon
the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible
tempest. This shall be the portion of
their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his
countenance doth behold the upright. Let's pray. Father, we come this morning
thankful for our time together and Lord for that first message
that you brought to us. Lord, we're so thankful that
you've decided to raise up a place where the Gospels preach faithfully
week in and week out. And Father, we're thankful for
the one you've sent to bring that message and for the one
you sent that that message is about. And Father, we ask that
you Continue to watch over us Lord watch over the churches
where the Gospels preached everywhere this morning that Christ is declared
father. Let that message be clear open
up eyes and ears and hearts as you bring the message and Lord
we just ask that you continue to watch over and care for this
congregation Lord we ask that you continue to watch over and
care for us personally during the week when we're away and
father just Please continue to care for us in Christ's name. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 445. There's not a friend like a lowly
Jesus, the lowly Jesus, no not one. 445. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] There's not a friend like a lowly
Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. None else could heal all our
soul's diseases. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is
done. There's not a friend like the
lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. No friend like Him is so high
and holy. No, not one. No, not one. And yet no friend
is so meek and lowly. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all
about our struggles. He will guide till the day is
done. There's not a friend like the
lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. There's not an hour that He is
not near us. No, not one. No, not one. No night so dark but His love
can cheer us. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is
done. There's not a friend like the
lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Did ever saint find his friend
forsake him? No, not one, no, not one. Or sinner find that he would
not take him? No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is
done. There's not a friend like the
lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Was there a gift like the Savior
given? No, not one, no, not one. Will He refuse us a home in Heaven? No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is
done. There's not a friend like the
lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Thank you. Let's be turning to Genesis,
chapter 9. In this chapter, now we've read
that the flood of God's wrath has now dried up. And in these
29 verses, Moses records for us the next 350 years in the earth. 350 years and 29
verses and it's from the perspective of Noah and his three sons. Noah's life spanned the Old Testament
or the Old World and the New World. He's the head of his family. He's the patriarch and he's the
head of this world, this new world here. And that's because
God gave him and his sons dominion. He gave them dominion over the
world and he subjected all creatures to him. The Lord said, I've put
the fear of you, the dread of you in their heart. And that
word was never spoken when God said that to Adam, when he gave
Adam the dominion. There wasn't fear in the hearts
of those animals. But now, There's fear, and he's
given the animals, every creature, for meat to these men and these
families, these men and women, and before they had only eaten
the green herb, and now there's meat for them to eat. Now, in this text, what we find
here is Noah is made of God a prophet. He's made of God a prophet. He's a magistrate too, if you
will. He declares the judgment that will be. And we read now
in verses 18 and 19, Genesis 9, 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 so, the Lord's telling us that from this family,
all the world that all the people we see here now are all from
descended from this one family we have Noah and his wife and
we don't read that they had any more children but highlighted
for us are Shem, Ham and Japheth and them and their wives they
had children and all these or from that one blood of Adam and
Eve. And so from them all the families
of the earth are spread upon the earth. All men of every race,
every shape, every size and color descends from this one family.
Paul affirms this. He said this to the Athenians
in Acts 17 verse 26. He said, God hath made of one
blood. all nations, of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation." So we're looking at all men,
all people here from this family. Now, other than those details,
the Holy Spirit, after 950 years of Moses' living, The Holy Spirit has deemed it
necessary to reveal to us one sin of Noah. He's recorded for
us one sin of Noah. And there's many things that
could have been written. We could have heard of the adventures
of Noah and how he and his sons overcame and adjusted to this
new world and had to figure things out, like it's the Swiss Family
Robinson adventures or something like that. But no, he records
this one sin of Noah. I'm sure Noah sinned many other
times, but it's one sin, one thing that Noah did that's recorded
for us. And what the Lord intends by
that is to show us a picture of the gospel of grace. That's why he recorded this for
us. It's to teach us Christ. It's to show us the gospel of
grace. It's to show us that which is
false and of the flesh and that which is true and of faith. We see two religions revealed
in this passage. Paul told the Romans that whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might
have hope, the hope of the gospel, the hope of the gospel. So two
religions are spoken of here in this text. First, let's begin
with Noah's sin in verses 20 and 21. And Noah began to be
in husbandmen, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of the
wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. People without the Spirit of
God can look at this and know, this is sinful. What Noah did
here is sin. And we that have the Spirit of
God, we that are sealed with the Spirit of God, we also look
at it and say, this is sinful. What Noah has done here is sin. We're told in Galatians 5 that
drunkenness is one of the works of the flesh. It's one of the
works of the flesh. And so what we see here in the
scriptures is that they make no excuse. They don't try to
hide the sin of the people of God. The sin of the righteous
is never hidden. It's not obscure. We're not trying
to pretend like this stuff doesn't happen. We see it plainly that
all men are sinners, including the righteous, those that are
just with God. The scriptures tell us Noah was
a just man and perfect in his generations. Noah walked with
God. They tell us why Noah was just
before God, why Noah is perfect before the holy, true, and living
Almighty God. Because Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. He looked to Christ, the Redeemer,
the promised seed who should come to redeem his people from
their sin, from their death. that we fell into. an atom, that
we came into an atom. And so the scriptures reveal
to us our sin, our iniquity, our trespasses, our transgressions
against God, that we might know and hear the grace of God. That we would know, I cannot
save myself, I cannot deliver myself, the best of the best
of the best are sinners. And I see that same disease,
I see that same wickedness in my own heart. Lord, save me,
have mercy on me, a sinner. Save me, Lord. And so the scriptures
don't hide the fact that all men are sinners, including those
called just and righteous by God, who find grace. They don't
hide that fact because the scriptures are showing us you cannot save
yourselves by your works. No matter how good, no matter
how hard you try, you and I cannot save ourselves by the works of
the flesh, not even under the law, not doing the best we can
do. We can't save ourselves. We need grace. We need a Savior,
and God has sent that Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, on
the very surface of this passage, we're being taught here how we
are to love our brethren and care for our brethren. Because
the truth of it is, there's coming a time when we are going to need
that same love and care from our brethren for our own faults,
our own sins, our own failings. We're going to need them to show
us love and care. So we want to show them care
and love in the same respect, in the same manner, to do for
them what we hope they'll do for us in Christ. Love begins
with an understanding of what God has done for me. Be ye kind
one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. That's how we're to be towards
one another. That's how we minister grace
to our hearers, to one another, according to the grace which
we ourselves have received and been taught of our God. And so
Paul, we see it in the scriptures, he's obviously, this was a problem
in the churches, men thinking too highly of themselves, thinking
they have something to teach others and to tell others and
how to fix things and get things right. And so they do that, not
coming with an air to hear, but coming to instruct and tell others
how they are to be. And so the scriptures show us the iniquity in our own hearts.
It shows us the iniquity in our own hearts and what we are in
Adam and our need of the grace of God. It's always been a popular teaching. It's always been a teaching.
And it's a continued teaching to this day where men speak of
progressive sanctification. We're not progressively sanctified.
We don't do anything to progressively get ourselves better and better.
Meaning, we don't fix this flesh. We're not improving this flesh
little by little. My flesh and your flesh is just
as wicked and corrupt and vile as it was, as it is now, as it
was before we heard the Gospel. We ever need to hear the Gospel.
It's not improving. It's still a fallen, corrupt,
dead mass of flesh. It doesn't do anything. Yes,
we do grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. We do grow in His grace. And we hear that word of Peter
who said, brethren, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. They do
war against us. But I haven't improved this flesh.
only that the Lord has taught me by His grace, call upon me,
look to me, seek me, don't take your eyes off of me. And that's
how you'll minister grace and kindness and gentleness to your
brethren, looking to Christ. You know, when my heart is set
on the Lord and I fill my time and my energy looking to Him
and seeking Him, it's a treasure that overflows my heart. But
when my eyes are caught up and focused on things of this world,
whether it be politics or the weather or some other thing,
I find I talk about the weather. and things that aren't profitable.
I just use that as an excuse. Those are the things in my heart.
But when my eyes are on Christ, that's what's on my heart. That's
the first thing that comes out of my lips. Something that's
blessed me to bless whoever it is that I'm talking to. So what I'm saying is, yeah,
we see this flesh is just as wicked, it's just as dead. I
don't want to feed it, I don't want to do those things, but
I see it. As Paul said, I find in the law
that when I would do good, evil is present with me. This flesh
is always right there, adding its thing, thinking its thoughts,
judging its judgments, and doing what it thinks is right, and
it's all wrong. When brethren encounter sin,
this is what Paul wrote to us. He said, brethren, in Galatians
6, 1, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. He's saying legalists, lawmongers,
and modern day Pharisees need not apply. You don't need to
come in here and lay heaps on somebody who's already hurt and
been broken by the Spirit of God who has a contrite heart.
What else are we going to add to it? Trust the Lord. You that are spiritual, you that
know your own heart and know your own sin, you go to the brethren
and encourage them and help them and preach Christ to them. That's how we'll be helped. 1
Corinthians 10, 11, and 12, Paul said, now all these things happen
unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. He said that
a lot because A lot of us think that we all do. In this flesh,
I think I'm standing. I think I'm doing good and doing
right, only to find that I've fallen. Only to find that, no,
I was not as good and as right as I thought that I was. And
the Lord shows his people that. And he shows us our need of his
grace. Now, religion has tried to remove
the sin of Noah. They try to say, well, The atmosphere
changed and the fermentation process was changed and so it
was stronger than what he thought it was going to be and that's
why he drank too much. That doesn't help anyone. That
only encourages a Pharisee to think that they can overcome
their own sin. That's all that word is good
for is a Pharisee. No, the Lord's showing us this
man sinned. He fell in sin because that helps. the Lord's people to know that
I cannot save myself. All are sinners. I'm a sinner.
There's no hiding it. There's no clouding it over or
darkening it. I'm a sinner and I need His grace
and mercy. That's who needs to hear this
message, sinners. That's who Christ came to save,
the sinner. And so, when we try to hide the
sins of the people of God here in the Word, we're missing what
the Scripture says, in that it hath concluded all under sin,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. Word to hear, I am a sinner,
and I need the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the Word I need. That's the Savior I need. It's
His salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. So sin is plainly recorded
in scripture because it shows us our need of grace. We're not looking to tolerate
sin in ourselves. I'm not looking to tolerate sin
in myself. I don't sin that grace may abound. That's not how I
live and that's not how you live. And you know this message is
not to encourage us in sin. Not at all. Believers grieve,
and they mourn their sin. But you that are perfect in yourselves,
we see these things, we're admonished by them in this Word, and we're
going to get into this passage. We'll see what I'm talking about,
the two religions that are here in this, and how the religion
of flesh deals with sin, and how the religion of faith, that
which is born of God, deals with brethren in sin. We that are
perfect in Christ, we know how to treat one another. We that are righteous in Him,
and so we trust the Lord. There's nothing that we can add
that God Himself doesn't add through preaching Christ and
Him crucified. Now, to this point, the spiritual
lesson that we've seen here is that none of us is without sin,
and we must be saved by the grace of God. I cannot do it by my
own works. I'm going to see. There's going
to be a day when I see what a sinner I am. And if God's in it, it's
for my good. If He shows it to me, it's for
my good, lest I should have confidence in His flesh and stand before
him in the confidence of my own works." That would be an awful
thing, a terrible, terrible thing. And so this passage here is given
to expose the flesh's work, that which man trusts in and thinks
that by his own works he has obtained life. There's two religions
spoken of in this text, one of flesh, The other of faith. We saw this in the beginning
with Cain and with Abel. One was of the flesh, one was
of faith. Now we see it here in these three
boys. One is bearing the fruits of
the religion of the flesh. That's Ham. And the other two,
Shem and Japheth, have heard grace. They've been delivered
by the grace of God. And they show that same grace
to their father. Everything our Lord does is for
our good. And this fall of Noah brings
out for us again. This is why the Spirit recorded
this sin. It's for our good. It's to show
us the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ once again. That we cannot
save ourselves, we need grace. We need the Redeemer, the Savior
whom God has sent. So let's look once again at verse
21. And Noah drank of the wine, and
was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. Now just understand
with me for a moment. This is showing us what we are
in Adam. In Adam we all come forth naked
in trespasses and sins. We all come forth dead in trespasses
and sins. We're under a lie. We're under
a false gospel by nature. We follow that which cannot save
by nature. In the tent of this flesh, we're
naked. We're naked. We're naked. If
all we see here is a drunken man who needs to straighten up,
then like ham, we set ourselves up as a judge who condemns that
one and says, look at what they've done. They need to fix this and
get this thing right. And we do go the way of Cain
and Canaan when we do that. Those are but dead letter professors
recorded for us in scripture. Read with me from Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1
through 3. This is a description of what
we are by nature in Adam. Verse one there says, and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. That's
how we all come forth, dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world.
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." This
is how we are, dwelling in this tabernacle, in this tent, which
is the flesh, we're naked. We're naked before holy God. He sees us for what we are. We're naked in our flesh. And by our sinful works, we've
ruined ourselves in Adam and in our own works. And just as
Adam and Eve tried to sow fig leaves to cover their nakedness,
So we do by our own works, to cover our own nakedness, and
to put on a good face before others. But what did the Lord
do? He stripped them of those things.
As soon as they plucked those leaves off the tree, those things
were dead. They were dead. They died. And
they began to rot and wither away. And God came and stripped
them from His people, and He clothed them with coats of skin. because it's a picture of a substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ who died
in the place of his people who shed his blood. Adam and Eve
should have died. Their blood should have been
shed, but an animal was shed by God, picturing Christ. Christ who should shed his blood
for his people to cover our nakedness. And so like drunken Noah lying
naked in his tent, that's how we are. That's how we are spiritually.
We're spiritually dead. Our way is the course of this
world according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And
that's describing more than drunkenness, murders, and adultery. That's
talking about the way of righteousness that we think is righteous before
God. What we think is good works.
That's what he's showing us here. That's the way of Ham. It's the
way of Cain. It's the way of Canaan. It mocks
man's death and sin. Only the gospel of God's grace
and the Lord Jesus Christ covers the nakedness of God's people. Only He, His blood covers the
nakedness of our sins and reconciles us to God. These two religions,
the one of flesh and the other of grace, is seen in the next
two verses in Genesis 9. First, we look at the religion
of flesh, verse 22. It's just a few simple words,
but it's telling us this is the religion of flesh. And Ham, the
father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two
brethren without. This is the dead letter religion
of works. It's the religion of flesh that
cannot save. It cannot clothe the sinner. It will not cover the shame of
the sinner. All it can do is see the nakedness
of the sinner, and it boasts of what it sees, and it goes
out and tells others to be seen. Do you see what they're doing
over there? Oh, it's terrible what they do. Did you see or hear what they
said? Did you do, did you see what
they did over there? All it does is point out what
people are doing wrong. It never does anything to clothe
them. It can't do anything to clothe them. It just points out
our sin. It's like the law. The law cannot
save. It just shows us what we are
in this flesh. I'm a sinner before holy God. He knows all things. I can't
hide it. I can't put it away. It's just
showing me what I am. And that's what Ham does. It points out in great detail
to shame the sinner. Don't be like them. Don't hang
out with them. Don't do what they do. They're wicked. Don't go by them. It's awful. You see what he's doing? He was
just telling us about God the other night, and now he's drunk,
laying naked on the floor in his tent. Man, that's just awful. That's how they are. Christ spoke
of this same spirit in the scribes and the Pharisees who sit in
Moses' seat. He said, whatever they tell you
to observe, do it, but don't do what they do. Don't be like
them, because they say and they don't do. They tell you how to
do things, but they don't do it themselves, and they lay heaps
of burdens on you, telling you how to fix yourselves and what
you got to do to get right with God and what you better start
doing and stop doing. They bind heavy burdens and grievous
to be born on men's shoulders, but they don't lift a finger
to help you. They don't do anything to give
you rest and peace and comfort for your weary souls. You're
thirsty, you're starving to death, and they do nothing for you.
They preach works. They preach works. And they tell
you what you can do, but they're not going to help you do it.
If you can't do it yourself, you ain't going to be saved.
If Noah can't get up and clothe himself before my brothers come
in, they're going to see his shame and nakedness too, because
I ain't going to clothe him. I got nothing for him. I'm just
here to mock him. I'm just here to show him what
he's done wrong. And so like the religion of this
world, Ham did not help the sinner. There was no love for his father,
no love whatsoever for his dad. Noah laid there completely naked
in his tent, but nothing to cover his sin. And Ham goes out and
boasts of his father's shame to be seen by his brothers. to
point out, look at what that did in there. Look at what he's
doing. And he did nothing to cover it. And that's what the
religion of this flesh, no matter what name it comes under, this
is what the religion of the flesh does. When it finds you, you're
going to be as naked and as ashamed and under the influence of a
false spirit as when it finds you. And worse, because now your
shame is going to go before you and be known by all. You're just
going to walk around naked and not realize that you're naked,
thinking that you're clothed and everything's good. And so
it's a mockery of God's salvation. That's what Ham did. Now, next, we see the true spiritual
religion, that which is of faith, that which is born in us of grace,
of grace by the Spirit of God, and we see this in Shem and Japheth. Verse 23, 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." Now, this, brethren, is what we're doing in the preaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We speak of what He's accomplished
for His people in His death on the cross when He came to lay
down His life for the sinner, for his people who are sinners
and cannot save themselves. I don't have the strength or
the ability to clothe myself. I'm out of my mind under a false
spirit. I'm drunk out of my mind. I don't
know what to do. I can't help myself. I'm laid
out naked in my tent. I can't do it. I can't make a
decision. I can't turn my life around.
I can't get it right. I need grace. And through the
preaching of the gospel, we cover the sins, the nakedness of those
that hear what we're saying, that hear it as the Spirit speaks
to the church, that says, yes, Lord, I need that blood. I need your righteousness. I
don't have any righteousness of my own. Save me, Lord. Cover
me. And so I declare to you, this
is what Christ has done. It's accomplished. Your sins
are put away. Believe Him. Trust Him. Trust His Word. Hear His Word. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. And you won't be ashamed. God's
not telling you, come to Him in your own works. He's saying,
come to me, my son. I'll receive you. I won't turn you away. My
faith is small. It's so weak and tiny. Lord,
will you receive me? Yes. Yes, I won't turn any away,
all who come to me. seeking forgiveness, seeking
righteousness, you shall have it abundantly, abundantly. And so that's what we're sent
to declare, to declare Christ. He's the covering. I don't need
to know all your problems. I don't need to know every sin
you committed. You don't have to confess nothing
to me. The Lord knows and he says, look to my son, behold
my servant whom I sent. I know what you did. I know what
you think. I know your foolish ways. I know
your flesh. Believe Christ. Trust Christ. That's why I sent them. Don't
come when you're good and you've straightened yourselves out.
Come now. You that hear now, believe. Trust. Trust. Believe. Trust Him by
faith. And you that do believe, and
hope in Him, that's of the Spirit. It ain't of the flesh. It's not
of the flesh. The flesh doesn't have faith.
The flesh doesn't look to Christ. The flesh keeps looking to what
it did, or what it does, or what it needs to do. Keeps looking
to itself. Keeps looking to the nakedness,
rather than the covering. And so, we preach Christ. That's
how we we cover the sins of our brethren. And the Father says,
I see your sins no more, and so you and I, we don't dare look
at the sins of our brethren, because God isn't looking at
them. What do we need to look at them for? Trust. Trust the
Lord that he's put it all away. And he applies the blood of Christ
effectually to the hearts of his people, assuring them, this
is the one I need. I need his salvation. I need
Him, I need the Savior. Lord, save me. Don't pass me
by. You know, he tells us that God
commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
while we were just like Noah, lay down on the floor, drunk
in nakedness, naked in our tent, that's when Christ came and laid
down his life and shed his precious, precious blood for a wretched
sinner like me. And you that hear him and believe
him know, yeah, you don't even know the half of it, brethren.
God is merciful and gracious. That's why He sent His Son in
love for His people, to bless them, to comfort your hearts,
and to bless you for Christ's sake. Don't go the way of Cain. It does no good. It doesn't help
anybody just to keep pointing out their sin and to show off
that you can see what sinners other people are without seeing
the sin somehow in your own heart. But we're all sinners, we need
the grace of God, and Christ's blood is the covering for our
sin. Amen, amen. Now there's a clear distinction,
just in closing here, there's a clear distinction that God
makes between the children of God and the children of the devil. There's only two kinds of people
in the world, believers and unbelievers. That's it, the righteous, made
righteous by the blood of Christ, and the wicked who are left to
themselves to clothe themselves, and they never will, they never
will. And so sadly, I mean, that's what's declared here is the two
religions. And we want to go the way of
faith, God helping us. That's where we'll stay is in
the Lord Jesus Christ preaching him alone. Now sadly, wicked
men have perverted this passage. And they've made this passage
about race, about the color of skin and people being slaves. according to the color of their
skin. That's not at all, and it completely misses the blessedness
of grace, the blessedness of our God in Christ to save his
people, to cover their sin. What we're seeing here is a picture
of God just separating the elect, whether they're Jews or Gentiles,
which is Shem and Japheth, the elect Jews and Gentiles who are
His people, who are of grace, who walk and live by faith in
the Lord, looking to Him, as opposed to the cursed children,
Jew or Gentile, of Canaan. It's a spiritual thing. These
words are spirit, not flesh. They're not carnal words of flesh.
It's those that are of the flesh are pictured in Ham and his son
Canaan, and it's the way of Cain. It's that wickedness. So let's
read verses 24 through 27, remembering that he's talking about Jew and
Gentile. Elect Jew and Gentile in Shem
and Japheth. All right, and then in Canaan
is all the unbelievers who don't believe, who said, no, I'm going
to do it myself. I'm all right. I'm good enough to get there
myself, if that's what's needed. So Noah, verse 24, awoke from
his wine. He came to himself by the grace
of God. He delivered him, and he saw
what, I mean, he was covered by the blood, and the Lord blessed
him and raised him up. And he 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 where? In the tents of Shem, and Canaan
shall be his servant. Now, if anything, we find throughout
history and the scriptures that it was the sons of Canaan that
actually went and built tremendously great, powerful civilizations
and economies and trade and things like that. Egypt was founded
by a son of Canaan. Babylon and Babel were founded
by sons of Canaan. It shows those whose heart is
filled with this world, whose heart is filled with flesh. And
that's all they care about. And they set their minds to it.
And they build incredible things with the flesh, but things that
cannot save, things that cannot clothe us of our nakedness. And so we see this, that Jude
spoke of these, saying, woe unto them, for they have gone in the
way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for
reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Those are people who
are Jews and not Jews. Those are people that have just
done all kinds of corrupt, vile works in the name of religion. But Noah's prophecy here speaks
of Shem, from whom the seed of woman, the promised seed of woman
would come, those elect Jews. the Jews, that Christ should
come through. And when he speaks of Japheth,
he's talking about all the elect Gentiles that would come, what,
under the tent of Shem. Just as we've done. There's one
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
That name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether you're Shem or you're
Japheth, we come to Christ. We believe Christ. He is the
Savior of all God's people. whether you're Shem or Japheth.
And so, these words aren't carnal, fleshly, physical words, they're
spirit. These words are spirit. As Paul
said in Romans 2, 28 and 29, he's not a Jew, which is one
outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh,
He is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. All you that believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are sons and daughters of Abraham. You are
children of promise. That's what God gives you. You
that hope in Him, There's no mystery whether you're a child
of God. He's revealed it to you already. He's manifested it to
you by faith, which looks not to self, not to your own works,
but to Christ. It says, I have no other hope
but Him. And that's your hope. And that's where you rest. You're
a child of promise. Believers, Jew and Gentile, are
born of one blood, even of Jesus Christ, were brought by His grace
and power into the tent of Shem, and like Him were saved by that
one blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we, my believing brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise, and all the redeemed
sing the same song in heaven. They say it this way, Thou wast
slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. I don't care if you're
a direct physical descendant of Canaan. You that have the
grace of God are a child of Christ, a child of God in the tent of
Shem and Japheth. You're not of Canaan, you're
of Shem and Japheth. And you that are descended from
Shem and Japheth and don't believe Christ and trust your own works
and preach the flesh, You're a son of Canaan. You're just
like Canaan and Cain. And so, brethren, we see in there
the two religions. One of flesh, the other of faith
and grace. And we stay right there in the
Lord Jesus Christ, our covering. He is the salvation God has provided
to cover all our sins. And the Lord Jesus Christ, I
pray He bless that word to your hearts, brethren. All right,
I'll pray, and then who's, brother, are you gonna hand out the, all
right, so we'll take the Lord's Supper, the bread and the wine.
You that believe the Lord Jesus Christ, this table is open to
you. You that have no hope in your
flesh, that bread and this wine is for you. He said, my body
is broken for you. and my blood is shed for you,
that look to me, that believe me for all your righteousness,
trust, venture wholly upon him, he shall not fail you, he shall
not fail you, he saves his people to the uttermost graciously,
graciously. Now let's pray and then brother
if you'll hand out the bread and the wine. Our gracious Lord
we thank you for your grace, we thank you for your mercy,
and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the
blood of our Savior, which was shed for us. We thank you, Lord,
for giving your body as a sacrifice to our God, to our Father, to
make an atonement, to satisfy the justice of our God, to deliver
us from the curse that we brought ourselves under by our own works
and sin. Lord, we thank you for this grace.
We thank you for your salvation. We thank you for opening our
ear to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches, that word of
grace and peace. Lord, let us deliver us from
that way of the flesh, that way of Cain and that way of Ham and
Canaan. Keep us from trusting that flesh
and what we've done and laying burdens on others. Lord, help
us to cover the sin of our brethren with the blood of Christ, preaching
Him, speaking of His glories and His grace. Lord, we thank
you for this time together as a body, as brethren, to take
this bread and this wine. We ask that you would bless us
in Christ, keep us in Christ, keep us ever looking to him.
And Lord, we thank you for the fellowship that we'll have afterwards
in the meal. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. I'll read from 1 Corinthians
11, verse 23. We'll take it together. I'll
just read through and then we'll take the bread together and then
the wine together afterwards. For I have received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the
same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given
thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which
is broken for you, this due in remembrance of me. After the same manner, Also he
took the cup, and when he had supped, saying, This cup is the
new testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink it in
remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he comes. Brother Joe's come and sing a
hymn and then we'll be dismissed and pray you all stay for the
meal. There's plenty back there. Thank
you everyone who prepared. I'm thankful. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. My song shall be of Jesus. Well, we're not getting it. We'll
sing it acapella. It'll be an easy one. My song shall be of Jesus. Yeah. A song shall be of Jesus. His mercy crowns my days. He fills my cup with blessings
and tunes my heart to praise. My song shall be of Jesus, the
precious Lamb of God, Who gave Himself my ransom and bought
me with His blood. My song shall be of Jesus when
sitting at His feet. I call to mind His goodness and
know my joy's complete. My song shall be of Jesus, whatever
else befall. I'll sing the grace that saves
me, that triumphs over all. My song shall be of Jesus while
pressing on my way to where my home shines glorious in pure
and perfect day. And when my soul shall enter
A song of praise to Jesus, I'll sing forever
there. Thank you.