Well, look at the story this
morning. This is the last recorded story of Noah. Genesis chapter nine. Pick up
in verse 18. And the sons of Noah went forth
out 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. You think about this. They've just gotten off the ark.
It's taken some time. This chapter takes place over
about 300 years. But the Lord has delivered them
safe on dry ground, safe and sound. And all the world is going
to be repeopled through these three men, Japheth, Ham, and
Sheth. And you think of the enormous
responsibility Noah had at that point. He's the patriarch, the
patriarch of the entire world at this point. The government
is resting on his shoulders. He is the preacher, the spiritual
leader of all these people. Think of that amazing responsibility. Go on reading. Look at verse
20. And Noah began to be in husbandman. He's a farmer and he planted
a vineyard and he drank of the wine and he was drunken and he
was uncovered within his tent. There's something about that,
this nakedness of Noah, it makes us wince when we hear it, right?
If he just would have said, the scriptures would have just said
he was drunk, well, that's one thing, you know, and that's bad. But
the fact that he's naked, that he's uncovered, there's something
to that. It makes us wince inside of us.
It shows us how detestable the Lord views sin. Your natural
ability is to wince at that. It's so much greater with the
Lord and his detesting of sin. Verse 22, and Ham, the father
of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two
brethren about that. 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. He had been in a drunken stupor.
and knew what his younger son, Ham, had done unto him. And he
said, cursed be Canaan. It's very interesting. He didn't
say cursed be Ham, he said cursed be his son, Canaan. 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 Noel lived after the flood
350 years, And all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. 950 years, that is almost an
entire millennium. That's a very long time to live. And I think this is interesting.
This man that the Lord used in such great and powerful ways,
Noah, he had done so much for this man, this man who lived
so long. The Lord is pleased to condense
everything he wants us to know about this man to roughly five
chapters of scripture out of close to 1,000 years of living. And I find that very interesting. 1,000 years, five chapters. You
know what that tells us? It tells us there's a whole lot
about Noah that we just don't know. You think about how many
happenings, how many occurrences, how many interactions he had.
That man probably had stories for years. told his grandchildren
and their children and so on. But the Lord is not pleased to
reveal those stories to us. He's pleased to reveal this story
to us. Now, why doesn't he reveal the
other ones? Because we don't need to know. It's that simple. But if
he does reveal this story to us, that means there's something
from this we need to know. Lord is giving this to us for
a purpose. And you think about this. Only
God would be so honest. If we were writing a book about
one of our loved ones, right, and this little happenstance
comes up, we would probably omit this. We'd probably say, no,
we'll just leave that out. We'll find a more favorable story
to tell towards the end of their life. Not that we're more gracious
than God. That's not it. It's because their connection
with us. We don't want to look bad, so we won't put this story
inside there. We would omit this. But God deals
with absolutes in an absolute honesty, and he gives us this
story. What do we need to know? What
do we need to know about this story that the Lord gave us?
A few thoughts on that. Turn back a few chapters to Genesis
chapter five and look at verse 28. Look at verse
28 of chapter five. And Lamech lived in 180 and two
years and begat a son, and he called his name Noah, saying,
this same shall, what's those words? Comfort us. Concerning
at work, toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord
hath cursed. Now, what Lamech is telling us
there is this. Everything the Lord reports about
Noah in this book is given for one purpose, just one. That's
to comfort us. Who's the else? It's God's people.
And make this very, very simple. This can't be overemphasized
enough. How do you spot those people? How do I know if I'm
one of those people? All those people answer to this
one name, sinner. I'm a sinner before God. I can't
work out my own righteousness. I can't even take a step toward
righteousness. I'm in the hands of a holy and
a sovereign God, and I need mercy. My only hope is that Christ died
for me. That's it. They're sinners. That's
it. That's how you spot these people.
Everything that is written about Noah in this book, it's given
for one purpose, is to comfort those people. And that is not
just exclusive to Noah. You know, that's every word in
this book. If you were a sinner, think about
the glory of this. There is no bad news for you
in this book. This book has nothing bad to
say to you. It's all good news. Now, if you're
a righteous man, You have the ability to work out your own
righteousness. This book has a lot of bad things to say to
you. But to a sinner, there's nothing bad in here. It's just
comfort and hope and peace in Christ. That's it. And that's
the purpose of this teaching of Noah. So if we use this story
to tell young people about the dangers of substance abuse, I
mean, that's part of it, but that ain't it. That's not comforting.
But what this story teaches, it is very, very comforting. I give you three things here.
Three things that are incredibly comforting about this story.
Here's the first point. This story expresses the everlasting
quality of God's grace toward his people. Think about that
everlasting grace, grace that is unchangeable. Once it is given,
it never stops. Now you're in Genesis five, switch
over to Genesis chapter six. Concept of the flood, the Lord's
decision to flood the entire earth, to wipe out all living
flesh, it was based on what God saw. What did he see? Genesis
six and look at verse five, this is familiar to you. And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only, that word
is so important, evil continually. I find it very interesting, it
doesn't even talk about the outward effects at this point. The outward
works, the speech, it simply talks about the heart, and this
is what the Lord saw. He looked down on every man,
every man, and what he saw that day is the exact same thing he
sees today. He looks down on man, collectively
as a whole, and he sees the thoughts of his heart, not even getting
to the works and the speech and things like that. Let's just
confine it to the heart. Every imagination of the thought,
that natural heart, only evil continuing. The Lord said, I'm
going to wipe out this flesh. Too violent, too evil, too wicked. It repents me, I've been made,
I'm just gonna wipe them all out. And what the world will
teach out of this is, except for Noah, right? except for the
eight, Noah, his wife, his sons, their wives, except for them,
they were good people, right? They were righteous people, that's
why the Lord saves them. Nope, God saw that the wickedness of
man, Noah, his wife, his sons, their wives, all together in
these exact same boat, what he saw in Noah and his family is
what he saw in every other man. But what does the Lord do? Look
at this, look at verse eight. But, there's that grace word,
but. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. How'd he find it? We, you probably
do the same thing. When it comes summertime, we
take all our winter jackets and we put them away in a winter
closet, right? We don't see them all summer and we bust them out
towards this end of the year. And so the other day I went and
got my winter jacket. I put it on and put my hand inside my
pocket. You know what I found? 20 bucks. It's a good day. Super
good day. Got 20 bucks for lunch, man.
That's good lunch right there. I wasn't looking for it, right? I found it when I wasn't even
looking for it. Was Noah have any interest in
the grace of God? Did he have any interest in finding
out Christ? Any interest in knowing God?
Any interest in salvation? No, none whatsoever. He was living
his life, doing whatever it is he wanted to do, pursuing whatever
the things he wanted to pursue. He was a rebel against God. He
hated God, even if he didn't know it. But grace found him. The Lord found him because it
had always been the Lord's purpose to save Noah and to save his
family, save them spiritually, save them forever, but also to
save them from this great flood. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. More particularly, God found
Noah. The Lord reached out and grabbed
Noah. That's what grace is. It is an intervention. You write
this down. If the Lord purposes to send
a man to hell, it's very simple how he does it. Nothing. He just leaves that man alone
to do what he naturally wants to do. When the Lord saves a
man, he intervenes. He reaches out with that arm
of sovereignty and he grabs him and he draws him to himself.
And this is the record of Noah because of the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ on his behalf, because of grace. This is the record.
Look at verse nine. These are the generations of
Noah. This is what he was like. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations and Noah, walked with God. Now, do we need
to massage the language here? I mean, he's a just man. He's perfect. He walked with
God. But I guess not perfectly, because we have this drunken
stupor he's in at the end of his life. Do we need to massage
this language? Well, just but not really perfect,
but not really. No, there is absolutely no reason
to massage this language at all. This is the account the scripture
gives of the new man in Christ Jesus. This is the new man. When
the Lord saves a man, he gives him a new spirit. He gives him
the very spirit of Christ dwelling in him. And when God looks upon
that spirit, this is what he sees. He's just. This man does
not sin. That new man in Christ Jesus,
he does not sin. He's a justified man. And he's
perfect. You know what that means? It
means whole. He lacks nothing. This is the very spirit of Christ
dwelling in this man. And if Christ lacks nothing before
his father, the man who that spirit dwells in, he doesn't
lack anything either. And he walked with God. Lord saves him. He told him, Messiah, that's
all you've got. Your only hope. You're going
to be saved. And this is by it, by Messiah, the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. No, before I ever taught you
a word or spoke to you, you were justified before me because he's
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That was his hope.
God told him this. I'm wiping out all flesh. I'm
wiping everybody off the face of this earth. I'm going to save
you. You go build a boat. And you know what he did? He
believed God. The Lord told him he believed
God and he obeyed. That's the obedience of faith.
What is the call? The call is this. Come to Christ.
Believe on him. Trust him. Look to Christ alone.
Trust his death. Trust his righteousness. That's
the only way you can possibly come. Look to him. That's the
call. And when the Lord makes that call effectual, what does
the man do? He obeys. It's the obedience
of faith. We come to Christ. We believe
on him. Noah believed God. And you know
what he did? He built a boat. He built a boat to the exact
specifications the Lord gave him. He did it before one drop
of rain ever fell on this earth. All that while, just building
this boat and everyone mocking him. What are you talking about?
What's rain? What is this? What's a boat? It's this right
here. And the Lord said, get in. And
he got in by faith. The Lord sealed him up. And what
a beautiful picture of Christ. That rain came down, those floods
came up, and it wiped out everybody on the earth. All that death,
all that destruction, it was all just. And the Ark took the
brunt of those waves and that rain for Noah and his family
and brought him to the other side, safe and sound, on the
shore. What a wonderful picture of Christ
and his church. It doesn't get any better than that. And then
what happens? And he plants a vineyard. And
he gets drunk. And he loses control of his faculties
so bad that he becomes naked in some sort of strange way.
Why? Because that old man of sin was
still there. He was given a new man, just,
perfect, walked with God. But you know what was still there?
That old, wretched, defiled nature. And you know what? He carried
that to the very day he died. When the Lord's dealing with
a man, he's a sinner by birth, born with that fallen, evil,
sinful nature. When the Lord saves that man,
he gives him something new. That old nature doesn't go anywhere.
It doesn't change. It still rears its ugly head.
It still doesn't believe God. It still rebels against God.
And here this old man is rearing up his head against God. Yes,
he had a new man. He was just and he was perfect.
That new man in Christ Jesus always is. But that old man,
he was still there and he was still so very lively. Now, here's
comfort in all this. This is my point. What Noah did
was wrong. He was disgusting, he was despicable.
There was absolutely no justification for it whatsoever. He was without
excuse. But thank the Lord for this.
Did it change his standing of salvation and redemption before
God at all? Not one iota. The long enduring
grace of God to his people. Why? Why didn't it change his
eternal standing with God? for this reason, because his
eternal standing before God was not based on him and what he
did, because nobody would be accepted if that was the case.
His eternal standing before God was based solely on this, Jesus
Christ. His death, his righteousness,
his thankfulness, his faithfulness, his redemption was based, that
eternal redemption was based on Jesus Christ and nothing more. And as long as Christ is accepted
before his father, God's people will always be accepted before
his father. Eternal redemption has been secured,
and it is an eternal redemption that we can't send away. We can't
mess this up. This is the best possible case
for us. You can't mess this up. If you're one of his, you're
one of his, and he's gonna have you one way or the other. That's
just the way it is. That being said, we should be
very, very careful about our conduct as we walk through this
world, shouldn't we? Very carefully. I thought of
two reasons. Now, if you are like me, I have
a lot of people that I love. People who do not know Christ,
particularly my children. At this point in my life, and
I think I'm being honest when I say this, if I could have anything,
according to the Lord's will, anything, the Lord save my kids.
That's what I want, right? And I know that if the Lord does
save them, it will not because I was a shining example to them,
because I put on a good show, didn't mess up or anything like
that. It will only be because God loved them, Christ died for
them, and his grace is irresistible and invincible. That's it. But,
that being said, with every opportunity I'm given, I want to point them
to Christ. With every single opportunity. I want to preach the gospel to
them, I want to make sure they're at services. To do that, and
for them to take me seriously, I'm going to have to have some
credibility. And you think about Noah at this time. Noah had this
great position of leadership. He was the ruler of the entire
world at this point. He was a spiritual leader. He was the preacher.
And while Shem and Japheth, they never saw his nakedness. They
never saw this stupor because they went in backwards. That
sin was covered the entire time. They never actually saw it. They
knew about it. They knew about it. And they never told anybody
and they never talked about it. But in the back of their head,
they knew about it. And when Noah was preaching to them, I
bet it was hard to listen to. I bet they'd lost some trust
and respect. He had lost some credibility
with his boys. So, if I'm going to lead my family,
if I'm going to preach the gospel to my kids, I'm going to have
to have some credibility. I want to conduct myself in a
good way that I have that credibility with them. And this is not me
just pontificating. This is scripture. Listen to this. First Peter 3.1
says, likewise you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands,
that if any obey not the word, the Lord hasn't saved them. They
also may without the word be won by the conversation of the
wives while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with
fear. Right there. You may win them
over just by them saying, she fears God. Look at the way she's
treating me. Look at these things. There's
an interest there. I want to hear what she's hearing right
there. I want to go to service. I want to hear what she's got
right there. That's scriptural right there. Here's the second
reason we should be very careful about our conduct as we walk
through this world. This is what Paul said. Second
Corinthians 6.3, he said, giving no offense in anything, that
the ministry be not blamed. Here's what Paul is saying very,
very simply. You act up, you act out in an unwholesome way,
those people who know you, They know who your God is. They know
what you believe and who you believe. They're not going to
blame you. They're going to blame him. And
they're going to blame his message. This man says he looks to Christ.
This man says he's looking to Christ for everything in his
salvation, that he's bringing absolutely nothing to the table.
This man is hoping to be received on the wings of free and sovereign
grace. Look where it got him. Look where
it got him. Look at this rebel right here.
Look how he's acting. That's what grace will get you
right there. People won't be in line. Paul says, be very, very
careful not to offend because they're not going to come after
you. They're going to come after your master. And his name is
too great. It is too high. It is too holy
to be blasphemed. That's why we should be very,
very careful about our conversation. But as for this thing with Noah,
thank the Lord for this. This made absolutely no change
in his eternal standing because he was justified by Christ. Now,
the second thing here is this. This incident that involves Ham
and Shem and Japheth, this is a beautiful picture of law and
grace. Now, go back to your text in
Genesis 9. Look at verse 22. Verse 22 of Genesis nine, and
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and
told his two brethren without. Now go down to verse 24. And
Noah woke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done
unto him. And he said, curse it be Canaan, a servant of servants
shall he be unto his brethren. Now, like I said to you before,
this is very interesting. Who exposed the sin? Ham's wrong
here. Ham is worse off than Noah at
this point. He's exposing his father and
all his sin. Ham does the exposing, but yet who does Noah curse?
He curses his son. The one who was under Ham is
the one who was cursed. In all this, Ham is an interesting
example of God's holy law. What did he do? He looked in,
He saw Noah in the drunken stupor, saw him in his nakedness. He
reported what he saw. He exposed what he saw. Who was
cursed? He who was under Ham was cursed. Them that are under God's law
are cursed. Now, I want you to look at some
things with me about the law for a moment. Turn over to 1
Timothy 1. All these are going to be very
familiar scriptures to you more than likely. So if you just want
to hear me read them, that's fine as well. But if you want
to look at these, Paul has some interesting things
to say here. First Timothy one, look at verse
eight. Paul says, but we know that the
law is good. Nothing cursing about the law.
The law is good if a man use it lawfully. Knowing this, that
the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men steals, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Now, Paul opens with this statement,
the law is good. The law is good. There's absolutely
nothing cursed about the law. The law is good. The law is beautiful. The law declares the character
of God and the perfection of God's standard. What will God
accept? What will he accept? What must
I be? What must you be for me to be accepted by God? I must
be in perfect conformity to God's holy law. He is a God who loves
righteousness and he hates evil, wickedness, iniquity. It declares
how holy, how just, how righteous God really is. There's nothing
wrong with God's holy law, it's beautiful. It declares the glory
of God. There's absolutely nothing wrong
with the law, not cursed in any way. But Paul says this, law's
good if a man use it lawfully. If there is a lawful use of the
law, there is also an unlawful use of the law. What is the lawful
use of the law? This is what Paul says in Romans
3 20. I'll read it. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. This is the singular purpose
of God's holy law only has one purpose. That's it. It exposes
sin. That's the only thing it does.
Just as Ham stood there, he looked inside, he saw Noah's nakedness,
he saw his drunkenness, and he reported on the sin that he saw.
Ham is wrong, but as a type of the law, that's exactly what
the law does. It simply sees the truth, it reports on what
it sees. That's it, that's the only thing
the law does. Now, what is the lawful use of
the law? Listen to this, this is Romans
3.19, now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God." Every man
as he's born in this world is born under this law. And this
law says the same thing to every natural man. You're guilty. You're
guilty from birth. You have violated me with your
very first cry. That law looks at every man,
natural man, and he says, you, guilty. You know what the lawful
use of the law is? To agree with it. I'm guilty
before God. I've sinned away all my rights.
I've got no claims on God. I'm in the hands of a sovereign
and I am shut up to mercy. Mercy I don't deserve. What does
the law say about every man? That he's guilty and this is
the lawful use of the law to agree with the law. I'm a guilty
sinner before God. Now If that is the lawful use
of the law, to agree with what it says, then what is the unlawful
use of the law? What did Paul say? He said the
law was not made for a righteous man. What's he saying there? He's saying if a man could attain
to righteousness by the do's and don'ts of the law from trying
to keep it, he wouldn't need a law in the first place. He
would be upright. He would be innocent. He would
have a righteous nature. He would simply obey his nature.
He wouldn't need a law. The law was not given for a righteous
man. Who was it given for? For sinners. The law was never given as a
mechanism of salvation. The do's and don'ts of the law. Lord, here's my best. Here's
my best efforts at keeping your law. The deeds of the law, I've
brought them before you. This is why you should save me.
Here's everything I've done. It's never the purpose of the
law. and no man can attain to righteousness
in that respect. Paul said this, he used an interesting
phrase, I read it to you. He said, therefore by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Deeds
of the law, what are the deeds of the law? It's anything. Any
mechanism of salvation, any proposition of salvation that says God will
if you fill in the blank. and you fill in the blank with
whatever it may be. God will save you if you accept
Jesus Christ and you allow him to be your personal savior. Deed
of the law, right there. God will save you if you stop
sinning and you try real hard to never sin again. You feel
real bad about it, and then you try real hard never to do it
again. As long as you're more successful than not, you'll be
okay. Deed of the law. That's salvation
by works. That is the unlawful use of the
law. Approaching God based on your
deeds of the law. Anything I do says, Lord, you
should accept me because I. That's a deed of the law. That's
an unlawful use of the law. Now, there is no salvation in
that. Turn to Galatians 3 for a moment. Through these verses, Paul shows
us there's absolutely no salvation in the law, in the deeds of the
law. Galatians 3 and look at verse
10. It says, for as many as are of the
works of the law, same as deeds of the law, are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Now Paul's giving a warning
here, saying if you approach by this manner, if you approach
by the law, Lord, save me because I, fill in the blank, understand
this, you are on your own. He who continues in all these
things, if you approach by the law, you are a debtor to do the
entire law. That means every thought, every
intention, every act of the will, every imagination, Every word,
every act, all day, every day, must be in perfect conformity
to God's holy law. If you are going to come this
way, coming by the law, by the deeds of the law, understand
this, you are on your own. You are a debtor to do the entire
law. Now, look at verse 11. Just so
he can squash this and put it to bed, but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident. It's evident. No
man can come this way. No man can keep the law. And
the truth of the matter is this, and only believers understand
this, I've never once kept the law. No man has ever once kept
the law. Somebody says, I've never murdered
anybody. I mean, I've kept the first one. The simple fact that
I have ever thought ill of another human being, I have murdered
their character. I have broken God's holy law. Somebody says,
I've never cheated on my spouse. Never once happened. For a man
to simply look at a woman in lust, he's already done it in
his heart. We're lawbreakers. We've done
nothing but break God's holy law the entire time with every
breath. But I think this is beautiful,
what he says. He goes, it is evident for the just shall live
by faith. Everybody's born under the law.
Everybody's born under the curse of this law. And this is man's
religion. This is the way every natural man comes in some way,
shape, or form by the law. But the Lord has people, a just
people, people justified by Christ. And here's how he causes them
to approach. by faith, by faith, looking to
this one man, to looking to this Savior, Jesus Christ. Now look
at verse 12. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. You know what he's
saying here? He's saying law and faith have absolutely nothing
to do with one another. Law and grace have absolutely
nothing to do with one another. Like he said before, if you approach
by the law, You're on your own. You're a debtor to do the entire
law. If you want to come that way,
man says, well, you know, I did my part and now, you know, the
blood of Christ will take care of the rest of it. No, no, no,
no, no. There is no mixing of law and grace. You come this
way by law, you are on your own, a debtor to do the entire law.
But when a man comes this way, truly by the grace of God, when
he comes in faith, all faith alone. All my eggs are in this
basket. My only hope rests in this one
man, Jesus Christ, his death, his righteousness. I've got nothing
else. Absolutely nothing else. There's nowhere else to go. I've
got no reserves. I've got no plan B. This is the only thing
I have. It is my only hope before God
that Jesus Christ died for me. That's it. Singular faith. That law and faith, they don't
have anything to do with one another. Look at this, verse
13. It speaks of the Lord's people.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Lord's people, we were born under
that law by nature. Cursed, we cursed ourselves under
that law. But what did he do? He became
a curse. He took the curse of his people,
he bored in his body, He went to Calvary, suffering under the
wrath of God. And through that death, he put
that curse away, never to be seen again. Now we are covered
to where God sees nothing but his darling son. Now, if Ham
and Canaan represent the law and those who are under the law,
surely Shem and Japheth represent grace. Beautiful, wonderful grace. Go back to your text. Look at 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 consider this
illustration. These two boys come in and they take a garment,
a mantle is the word, and they wrap it around their shoulders
to where it cuts right along here. So Shem's on one side,
Japheth's on the other. And they walk in backwards with
this garment on. Because of the way that garment is put down,
they never see their father's nakedness. They never see his
drunkenness. As they come in backwards, the
whole thing is covered. This is the work of Christ for
his people. What did his work do? What did
his death accomplish? It covered us. Now, keep in mind,
this illustration accommodates our human intellect. This is
just things we understand in the human world, covering something
that is filthy. Justification is much, much better. It's not just that he covers
my filth, because here's the thing. Shem and Japheth, they
never saw Noah's nakedness and they never saw his drunkenness.
They never saw his sin, but they knew about it. And that thought
was always there. But this is the work of Christ.
This is how great justification really is. He covers us in this
respect. Noah was still dirty under that
garment. He makes us clean. every wit clean, washed by the
blood of Christ, where the reality of justification is this, if
right now your hope is Christ and Him crucified alone, you
have no sin. You have been washed clean in
the blood of Christ and it is gone. And that garment, that
mantle, Christ's righteousness, it's not just a robe that we
wear on the outside, it's the reality of who we are. This is how close Union with
Christ really is between him and his church. When he did right
before his father, when he kept the law before his father, every
member of the elect did as well because we were in him. Not just
a robe that covers us, we are righteous with the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Justification is so much better
than this. Not just covered, but made whole, every whit hole. And this is the scripture that
applies here. Colossians 1 21 and 22 it says in you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works
Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight God that one who sees everything the discerner
of the heart, the one who would never not see sin. It can't hide
from him. When he looks at his people right
now, as he is, so are we in this world, this is what he sees.
He sees nothing but his darling son, his death, his righteousness,
and that's it. This is the grace of God. This
is the work of Christ for his people. Now, I'll give you this
last point, and I'll let you go. This story also teaches us
what true brotherly love looks like. Now, we use that word,
I love you, right? We use that a lot. We express
it to people we love. That's great. We should tell people
we love them. But love without action is no love at all. Christ loved his church, so what
did he do? He gave himself for it. Love without action is no
love at all. This is what love looks like.
What did Shem and Japheth do? They covered their father. He
was naked. He was drunk. There was absolutely
no excuse for him whatsoever. And they said, Ham, be quiet.
They put that garment on. They wouldn't even look on him.
And they walked backwards and they covered their father's sin. Now, this is my charge and this
is your charge right now in this world. We look to Christ. Look
to Christ, come to Christ right now, believe on him and love
your brethren. Love them. And this is what Ephesians
4 3 says it says endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. That's what I want. I want peace
in my home. I want peace in my church. I
want peace with my brethren. How's that peace going to be
achieved? A whole lot of this right here. You're going to have
to cover me. And I'm going to have to cover
you. And that's true love. I'm going to leave you all there. Been a pleasure meeting with
you this morning.