I didn't want to leave out any
portion of Scripture for the sake of hurrying through it, everything is significant. And
this episode, this incident in the life of Noah, must be important,
else God would not have recorded it. It's a mystery, and it may
remain one still after tonight. I don't know. But there's something
here. May the Lord give us an understanding. All the scriptures Paul said
to young Timothy are given by inspiration of God, all of it.
Whatsoever is written, he said to the Romans, is written for
our understanding, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures,
might have hope. All the scriptures are given,
profitable for doctrine. The doctrine we will see mostly
denied is depravity. We will also see God's providential
dealing, God's sovereign decrees, all scriptures profitable for
doctrine, reproof—we'll see that—for correction, instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God might be perfect and truly furnished unto
all good works. Here is a story of Noah's fall
and Noah's prophecy. That's the title of this message,
that's the subject, Noah's Fall and Noah's Prophecy. Let's read
verses 18 through the end of the chapter. 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 husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. And 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. 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,
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
Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be
his servant. And Noah lived after the flood
three hundred and fifty years. Now all the days of Noah were
nine hundred and fifty years, and he died. Now this should
be, I hope, profitable. If anything, it will be thoroughly
interesting and informative. This passage deals with a terrible
fall that Noah took all of Noah and then the subsequent prophecy
that he uttered. And this prophecy that Noah utters
here foretells the future of the entire human race in just
a few verses. And remember, he said there in
verse 19 that all the earth descended from the sons of Noah. Noah's
sons, all of the earth. The whole world descended from
Noah's son. This is the new beginning of
the human race—the new beginning of the human race after the Flood.
Turn back to chapter 4. Look back there. Now what is man like after the
Flood, after God's judgment? What is he like? What did the judgment of God
produce? Sinless perfection? No. Man's the same. Genesis 4, verse 1, Adam knew
his wife Eve, and she conceived and bare Cain. Cain. Adam's offspring was Cain. A sinner, just like Eve. A sinner. A rebel by nature. Born in sin. a sinner by nature. Look at chapter
5, verse 1. Chapter 5, verse 1 says, This
is the book of the generations of Adam. And Adam lived so long
and bore a son in his image. Verse 3, in his image. What is
the image of Adam? Well, as is the earthy, so are
they that are earthy. As the first Adam, so are they
that come from him. Sons of Adam, they're all born
in sin. Well, here comes Noah, then,
chapter 6. Noah, chapter 6. Noah, chapter 6, verse 9. These
are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect. in his generations. Noah walked
with God, OK? The only reason he was just was
because God justified him. The only reason he was considered
perfect was because he was accepted in the beloved. The only reason
he walked with God was because God chose him to do so. Noah
begat three sons, verse 10. What were they like? Well, we
just read it. Sinners. Ham, in particular. Sinner. Noah was a sinner, saved
by grace. Verse 8 says, Noah found great.
Noah had sons, and they were sinners, just like Noah. And
the point is, the point is, that which is born of the flesh, our
Lord said in John 3, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Is flesh. And you would think after the
fall, or after the flood, that man would be at his best state
on his best behavior, wouldn't you? But what does the Scripture
say man at his best state is? Altogether, vanity. Noah proved
that, didn't he? The history of man begins with
failure, carries on with failure, and he'll be a miserable failure
until the day that Christ comes. That's all man is, a failure.
A fallen creature. Man is totally depraved. Man
is unable to stand on his own. Totally unable. Completely unable. Everything about us is dependent
upon God's sovereign grace. Noah's proof of that in it. Everything
about us is dependent on God's sovereign grace. And the only
one that will stand is that creature which is created in Christ Jesus,
that new creature will stand, and sinneth not. All right? All
right, look at verse 20 and 21 again. Noah, shortly after the
flood, after he was established on the dry land, Noah began to
be a husband, or a farmer, a gardener. He planted a vineyard. All right? How old was Noah here? He's over 600 years old. People talk about sinless perfection.
You know, you'd think if a man was going to obtain it, he'd
have it by now, wouldn't he? 60 years. Barbara, you've lived
60. How much have you learned? How
far have you come? How much progress have you made?
Well, what if he lives 600? Surely he'd make some progress
by then. No, he didn't. He's still a man. Still a man. 600 years of learning,
supposedly. Learning. Says he walked with
God. 600 years of God's providential
dealings in his life. Miraculous. Providence. Six hundred years of mercy and
grace he experienced at the hands of the Lord. Six hundred years! Six hundred years! And most recently,
very shortly after he was the striking object of God's miraculous
saving mercy, one of only eight people on the whole planet Spared
by God a special if anybody believed in election and sovereign mercy
and grace know what the identity surely that keep him from falling
surely. A special object of sovereign
grace and covenant redemption God said you have I made my come
surely that keep a man from falling surely. 600 years. A miracle. witnessing this miracle
of God in his life. In spite of all that, Noah failed. Noah has his worst failure of
all, doesn't he? Noah falls into open wickedness. This is a lesson to us. This is a lesson to us that man
is essentially evil. That's what God said there in
chapter 8, didn't he? 21, the imagination of man's heart is
evil from his youth. Who was left? Noah and his son. That's all that was left. Man. So he's talking about it, isn't
he, Rick? Man. The rest of mankind was destroyed. Only Noah and
his boys left. Who's he talking about? Noah. Noah and his son. Man is essentially
evil. Here's a warning to us. to let
him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Now,
what Noah did in that tent, we don't know. We don't know. God doesn't see
fit to go into detail. That's fine. That's good. We might feed upon that. feed
our own lust or whatever. Whatever he did in that tent,
we don't know. But we know it was a terrible wickedness, whatever
it was. I know this, too, that, you know, after this incident,
you don't hear any more of Noah. Noah's not smoking anymore. Three hundred years, Noah lived
after this. But you don't hear anything about him anymore. He's
ruined. It ruined him. The Lord didn't damn him, but
it ruined him. Noah was an old man, and he fell,
didn't he? Moses. When Moses struck that
rock again, God killed him, didn't He? He ruined him. David was
an old man when he fell. It ruined him. He was a goner. God didn't destroy any of those
men, did He? Thank God. Thank God for sovereign
covenant mercies. Noah thanked God for covenant
mercies, didn't he? All Noah's hope All Noah's hope
was in covenant mercies, wasn't it? He had no hope in himself. No hope. No hope. I'm sure he thought, well, if I'm saved, it's got to be
covenant mercy. As old as I am, you'd think I'd
learn something by now after that incident, John. I'm sure
he thought, I'll never, I'm never going to learn anything, am I?
I'm never going to be better. I'm never good. No, no. Thank God for covenant
mercy. Thank God for his mercies. His
covenant that he made with me is ordered in all things. And
sure. And although my house is not so yet, he's made with me
this everlasting covenant. It's all my hope, all my hope,
covenant mercy. Sovereign grace, Noah, his hope,
his trust, his his All of his peace came from sovereign grace. More than a doctrine, it was
the stay of his soul. Sovereign grace. Blood. Blood that makes atonement for
a sinner. That was all Noah's hope. All
his hope. And all of this speaks of the
perfect man. Noah knew Christ. Yeah, he did. Noah knew Christ. The perfect
man. And all our hope, all Noah's
hope, all anyone's hope is found in that perfect substitute, Jesus
Christ, that man approved of God, and that righteousness which
he established, that man with clean hands, a pure heart that
God accepts on our behalf, a fit man, an able man, a righteous
substitute, a man approved of God on our behalf. That's all
our hope. All our hope. All. All our hope. But He's a good
one. He's a sure hope. He's all our
hope. I'm telling you. Henry, you're liable to take
your worst fall. An old man. You're getting to
be an old man. You're not a young man anymore.
You'd think you'd be done with some things, wouldn't you? You're
not, buddy. That's what Paul said. Paul's the one that wrote
that. And Romans says, oh man, the things that I would, I don't
do. The things that I would not,
that's what I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. Noah probably said the same thing.
Oh, wretched man that I am. How could I do this? Who shall
deliver me? I know my Redeemer lives. That's
the only thing that keeps me. He's my keeper. And that's all
our hope, people. That's all our hope. We're going
to fall miserably. We're going to fail miserably. Don't count
on it. No confidence in the flesh. Don't
do it. Not in yourself, not in anyone,
not anything. Put all your confidence in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In heaven alone. We're going
to fall. May God keep us from it, but
we're going to fall. Thank God for sovereign grace.
Thank God for covenant mercy. Thank God for the blood that
makes propitiation from on the mercy. This is. It's a good hope, and that's
the only hope we've got only hope centers of God. All right,
look at the prophecy that Noah gave, and he didn't just give
this in a fit of anger. Deborah, he sinned. What right
did he have to? in the flesh to totally get mad
at his son. He's the one that's laying there
like that. Right? He's the one. And Ham, of course, Ham sinned. But this wasn't just a fit of
anger. He didn't just, you know, say,
Cursed be Ham! No, no. God spoke through him
and gave this prophecy here. All right? Read it. Verses 22
through 27. In Ham, the father of Canaan
saw the nakedness of his father and told, or went out and talked
about it with his brethren. And Shem and Japheth, it says,
took a garment, laid the garment on their shoulders and backed
into the tent and covered their father with it. What a pitiful
scene this is. A righteous man, a just man. And Noah awoke from his wine,
verse 24, and knew what his younger son had done, and he said, Cursed
be Canaan. A servant of servants shall he
be unto his brethren. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.
Canaan shall be his servant. And God shall enlarge Japheth.
He shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his
servant." The occasion of this fall, or the occasion of this
prophecy, is a terrible fall, isn't it? The first thing I notice
here is what prompted this prophecy was a terrible fall. Does that
remind you of anything? The first prophecy. What was
the first prophecy uttered? God uttered it, didn't He? In
Genesis 3, verse 15. What was the occasion? A terrible
fall. There are many correlations here. And when, you know, Noah awoke
from his nakedness, Adam, after he fell, knew he was naked. And
on and on the types go. But God made the first prophecy,
and the testimony of that prophecy was what? Genesis 3.15. As the Lord said in Revelation,
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of all prophecy. All prophecy
has to do with Him, doesn't it? Has to do with Christ. And that
first prophecy, was concerning Christ, and this one is too.
This one is too. This foretells the coming of
the Messiah, of the lineage. Now remember, all mankind comes
from these three boys. And this foretells the lineage,
the house, the household, the family from which the Christ
would come. In spite of a terrible fall, in spite of this horrible
blackness that man, that Noah and his son had fallen into. In spite of this terrible fall,
we hear this prophecy of mercy and grace. Verse 26 says, God
said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Canaan shall be his servant.
Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Turn over to Luke chapter 3.
Luke chapter 3. You know, the scriptures O Elihu
said, Great men are not always wise. Arthur Pink, I have gleaned from
him a book by him on Genesis, gleaned many good things from
him in our studies on Genesis, but he missed this. He never
mentioned Christ in this prophecy concerning Shem, but that's what
it's all about. what this prophecy of Shem is
concerning. This is the testimony of Christ.
Look at Luke 3, verse 22. The Holy Ghost descended in a
bodily shape like a dove upon him, or Christ, and a voice came
from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I
am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be
about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Heli, Heli, Joseph. Mary also, now, is in
this lineage. Mary is also. All right, read
on. Read on down, look it down at
verse thirty-six. And it gives the lineage here,
which was the son of, which was the son of, which was the son
of, verse thirty-six. Which was the son of Cainan.
It's a different one. It's not the Cainan, it's the
son of Ham. It's a different one, OK? Different
spelling. Different son, which was the
son of Cain, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son
of Shem, which was the son of Noah. Read on down, verse 38,
which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was
the son of Adam, which was the son of God. Christ, you see, came from Shem.
Blessed be the Lord God who comes from Shem. He said that's what
that prophecy is all about. That's the reason he uttered
that. He told of the coming Messiah. In spite of this terrible fall
and this horrible curse, though a curse was made on him, yet
the blessing was to be had from the son of Shem, who was the
son of God. Son of David, Son of Abraham,
Son of David, Son of God, Christ. Son of man, Son of God, right? Son of Shem, Son of God. That's a picture of Christ. All
right, back to verse, back to the text. Look at verse 26. Blessed
be the Lord God of Shem. Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ,
who's the God of Shem. Blessed be him, and Canaan shall
be his servant. Canaan shall be his servant.
Verse 27, And God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in
the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. A dwelling
place. In other words, the tents of
Shem shall be a dwelling place for Japheth. The tabernacle of
Shem shall be a dwelling place of Japheth." All right, turn
over to Isaiah with me now. Turn over to the book of Isaiah.
And as I said, this should be thoroughly interesting and informative
to you. Isaiah 43. Turn over there. Isaiah
chapter 43. See the descendants of Ham. Listen
to me now. The descendants of him. And he
made sure that he said it twice came can't came in. Came in was
the son of him came in this is who the Lord God through Noah
was cursing came in came in came in nights the descendants of
Cain were the king or descendants of him with a cane and that's
who were. The Egyptians. and the Ethiopians. All the descendants that came
from Ham, the Canaanites, are the Egyptians and the Ethiopians. The descendants of Shem are the
Israelites. the Hebrews, descendants of Shem. Blessed be the Lord God of the
Hebrews, the Israelites, Shem. The descendants of Japheth are
the Romans, the Greeks, the Anglo-Saxons, Gentiles that dwell in the tabernacle
of Shem. We're going to see that. Look
at Isaiah 43, verse 3. He said, I'm the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee, to be your servants. See that? Read on. This is talking about
Christ. You were precious in my sight.
Thou hast been honorable, I have loved thee, therefore will I
give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, I am
with thee, I will bring thy seed from the east, gather thee from
the west. I will say to the north, Give
up, to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far, my daughters
from the ends of the earth. Every one that is called by my
name, I have created him for my glory. I have formed him,
yea, I have made him." And Psalm 8, verses 5 and 6 says God made
him to be a little lower than the angels, crowned him with
glory, yet a little lower than the angels, yet he's put all
things under his feet. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess, and every soul shall serve him. The Lord God
of Shem. Everyone's going to serve him.
The Lord God of Shem. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. And all of his people are blessed
in him. All right, turn back to the text.
Back to the text. Let's look at this curse of Ham,
the blessing of Shem, and the care of Japheth. Noah's prophecy,
like I said, is an outline of the entire human race, the future
of the human race. It's an outline of the whole
human race. The curse of Ham, verse 22. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw
the nakedness of his father. and told his two brethren was
out. Now what happened, we're not, we're unsure of, but it
was wicked. He was bad. And Ham's wickedness
was, Ham's wickedness more went further
than the act. It went down to the root, the
depth of his depraved heart. That fact that he delighted,
what he did was he delighted in his father's fall. He was
delighting in his father's exposing of his father and sneering at
it. And that's what he goes out and
laughs and sneers and talks about it to his brethren, what he saw
about his father. And this reveals a thoroughly
depraved heart. Ham manifested also a total disrespect
for his father. Total disrespect for his father.
And so he was cursed. Cursed. And those prophecies
and curse upon him sons. He says he said that sons of
him came in which will proceed from Canaan shall serve him. Canaan should be his servant.
And Canaan should be the servant of Japheth also came all right. Let's see this in the scripture
look over to Exodus chapter 20 Exodus chapter 20. Look over there. Exodus chapter 20, it says, and
keep your place there in Genesis, Exodus chapter 20 says in verse
5, and this is recorded four times, people, four times God
records this statement here. In the middle of verse five,
he says, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me. Esau sold a birthright. He hated
God. Cain, he hated the way of God. The same thing, them that hate
me. And he cursed his children. Look back at chapter 10. Chapter
10, verse 6. Look at chapter 10 of Genesis
now. Genesis chapter 10. Genesis chapter
10. The Lord said he cursed Canaan. Chapter 10. Look at verse 6. The sons of Ham were Cush Misraim,
Phut, and Canaan. Cush. Who came from Cush? Nimrod. We're going to study
that in a little bit. Nimrod and the Tower of Babel.
What's Babel? Babylon. The Babylonians, you
see, came from Nimrod. the Babylonian. Mizrim, who's
Mizrim? Psalm 78, you don't have to turn,
let me turn for you. Psalm 78 says this in verse 51. Listen, this is so amazing. Psalm 78 verse 51, it says, God
smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strengths
in the tabernacles of Ham. You see, the Egyptians come from
him. That's Mizraim. Mizraim, the
Egyptians. Now, Babylon and Egypt. These were two great empires
for a while, but eventually they became subjects and, yea, even
slaves to the Medes and the Persians. The Persians came through. The
Persians were a light-skinned people. And they came through
and made slaves out of the Babylonians and the Egyptians. The Persians
and then the Greeks and the Romans captured Babylon. The Greeks
and the Romans captured them. And all of Africa are descendants
from Ham. And they've been a continent,
a whole continent under the dominion. Every country in Africa is colonized
by some country. The French, the British. All right, let's look at the
blessings of Shem. The blessings of Shem. Look at verse 26 and
verse 27 in chapter 9. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Canaan shall be his servant.
Two things are promised Shem. Two things. Blessing and the
service of the others. Shem, look at chapter 10, verse
21. Look at verse 21 of chapter 10. Got it? And to Shem, also, the
father of all the children of Eber. Eber. Who's Eber? That's where we get
the word Hebrew. Hebrew. Eber. Hebrew. Hebrews come from Shem. Blessed be the Lord God of Eber. In other words, God's going to
be the God of the Ebers, the Hebrews. He said, I'm the Lord
God of Israel, who are Hebrews, right? I'm the God of Abraham,
who's the father of the Hebrew, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Hebrews. Our Lord himself said, salvations
of the Jews. Judah came from the Hebrews.
Hebrew, Eber, Eber. I'm the God of the Hebrews. Canaan
shall be his servant. Let's look at that. Joshua chapter
9. Look over here. We'll see this.
Joshua chapter 9. And I hope you're seeing the
Lord's marvelous hand and providence in all this. If anything we see
in this, that's what we'll see, is how God's working all things. He works all things out. Every
little minute detail in the history of mankind, God Almighty has
worked it out according to his divine purpose, and that divine
purpose being to glorify himself, to bring forth the Messiah, everything
be put unto his feet, and all his people gathered in one. God's purpose, it says there
in Ephesians 1, verse 11, is to gather together in one all
things, even in him, in Christ, unto his feet, in him. Everything points to him. The
lineage, all of these endless genealogies point to Christ. Every person, you read through
the Chronicle, you think, what's the point in reading that? There's
a point. And somehow it points to Christ. Whoever it is, whoever
the name is written, it's going to lead to Christ somehow. You
can count on it. If we had the capacity, if we
had the time, we'd go through there and study them all, the
histories, whatever's recorded. Joshua 9, we just read there
how that God said, God said that Cain shall be his servant." Joshua
9. Here are the Hebrew children,
all right? Here are the Hebrew children coming into the Promised
Land. Joshua 9, verse 27. Joshua made them, that day, hewers,
or that is, the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites. These were these these enemies
of the Israelites, these sons of Ham. Hewer made on hewers
of wood. Enslaved them. Hewers of wood
and drawers of water for the congregation. He said, I gave Ethiopia and Seba
for thy ransom, for the congregation, for the altar of the Lord. He
made them servants. The perfect type of Christ, Joshua,
a good type. All right, look over at Judges.
Let's look over here. Joshua, Judges. Look at Judges chapter
1. We'll see it again. Judges chapter 1. Look at verse
28. Judges 21, or Judges 1, I mean. Verse 28. It came to pass when
Israel was strong that they put the king in lies to tribute.
Made them pay taxes to them. Made them their slaves. Look
at 1 Kings. Turn over to 1 Kings, chapter
9. 1 Kings, chapter 9. We see the
fulfillment of what the Lord said would happen. 1 Kings, chapter
9, verse 20. 1 Kings, chapter 9. This is King Solomon now. King
Solomon. is the king. Now, all the people
that were left, verse 20, all the people that were left of
the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, who are they? Canaanites, Canaan, sons of Aaron,
which were not of the children of Israel, their children that
were left after them in the land whom the children of Israel also
were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a
tribute of bonds service unto this day. See that, Charlotte? Isn't that amazing? It's carried
right on through. Canaan's going to serve Shem. They're going to serve Shem.
That's what the Lord said. All right, now let's look at
Japheth. Back to chapter 9, and I'll hurry
with this. Chapter 9, verse 27. Let's look at this last Briefly at this last prophecy
of Noah concerning Japheth. And we come from Japheth. That's
where we come from. We come from Japheth. All right,
look at it. It says in verse 27, God shall
enlarge Japheth. I told you the Greeks, the Romans,
Anglo-Saxons, and so forth, shall enlarge Japheth. Boy, he's all
over the world, isn't he? Anglo-Saxons and so forth. The
Greeks and the Romans, Anglo-Saxon, write, God shall enlarge Japheth,
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, the tabernacles of Shem. He shall get in on what Shem
was blessed by. You see the significance of that?
Huh? He shall dwell in the tents of
Shem. What's the tent in the tabernacle of Shem? Huh? God
tabernacled with Shem. God's the God of the Hebrews.
God's the God of the Israelites. God tabernacled with Shem. The
Hebrews, the worship of God was established with the Hebrews.
We get in on it. The Greeks get in on it. The Romans get in on it. Us,
we, the Anglo-Saxons, we get in on it. Romans 11, and I'll
quit. Romans 11 says this, and this is a a fulfillment of that
prophecy. I believe most assuredly this is an allusion
to that, alluding to that. Romans 11, Romans 11, it says that a wild, it says
verse, let's see if I can find, I didn't write the verse number
down. It says, verse 24, let's read from there. It says, thou
were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and
were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree. How much
more shall these, which be the natural branch, be grafted in
their own olive tree? In other words, it says that
we were grafted into that natural tree. We were grafted, or we
were made to dwell in that tree. of the Jews that olive tree.
The sons of Japheth are made to dwell in Christ as it were
wild olive branches of people that were not called people.
He said, I've called them a people because I bless Shem. Blessed
be the Lord God of Shem and the sons of Japheth are going to
dwell in the tents of Shem and the Messiah of the Jews. The
Messiah being Christ himself and we're going to We got in
on that. Why? Because this is the prophecy
of Noah. It all came out of that. You
see all that in there? It's amazing to me. We could
go on and on with this, on and on, and all of the ramifications
of that. Noah may have uttered that in
haste and out of... He was angry at his son. The
wrath of man shall praise him. Moment. There's not an idle word
in all of the scriptures, but God recorded it for a divine
purpose to show us his mighty hand. He's in control even of man's sins. Man's sins somehow
are going to work his purpose. That's how sovereign our God
is. All right, stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, we marvel.
We marvel at Your sovereign hand, Your providence, Your power,
Your glory. Truly, this is Your glory, that
Thou art God, that beside Thee there is none else. In You, everything,
everyone lives. moves and has its being. God
in whose hands our breath and our ways are. There's nothing,
no one, nothing is not in your divine sovereign control. And this, oh Lord, this amazes
us. Absolutely amazes us. Truly our
God is great. Our God is dreadful. Terrible
is our God. Our God worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will." Everything. He said, I create
peace, I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Thou art in control. Thou art God, and beside thee
there is none else. We praise you for this. We want to exalt your holy name,
your character, your sovereignty. We exalt you for who you are.
We bow before you. We acknowledge that we are in
your hand to do it as you please. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.
And we bless thy name that thou hast enlarged the borders of
Shem and grafted this wild branch into the olive branch. And we
are made partakers of that which we had no right by nature. The
people who were not called a people are now called the people of
God. Us, rebels, wild Gentiles, idolaters as we are and were,
thou hast grafted in according to your divine, sovereign, miraculous
will and purpose. We marvel at it, Lord. We marvel
at it, your sovereign grace. We praise the name of our great
God and his sovereign grace and all these things that meet in
and head up in Christ the Lord, our Messiah, in his coming, his
living, his dying, his rising again, his ever-living to be
Lord over all, the dead and the living. We praise his name. In his name we have met together
tonight and hope that you might profit the Word in us. In Christ's name, amen.