Genesis chapter 9, now this is not an easy chapter to finish
off with. These verses that I have read
are not, I've actually have just avoided them for the last few
weeks, trying to decide whether to go ahead and preach on them
or just go ahead over into chapter 10 and 11. It's not easy to preach
from. But there's some meat here for
us. There's some instructions here for us. And just because
it's difficult doesn't mean you don't handle it. You just handle
it carefully. In this chapter, we have the
fall of Noah and his prophecy. In chapter
9, as we've already looked at in weeks gone by, God blesses
Noah and his sons. He tells them to be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth, the same thing he said
to Adam. Also in this chapter, in verse
5 and 6, capital punishment is instituted for murder. You look over there in those
two verses, and surely your blood of your lives will I require,
at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand
of man, at the hand of every man's brother will I require
the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his
blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. This is the
first mention of how to deal with murder. You know, when Cain
murdered Abel, God put a mark on him and drove him out. And
then one of the sons of Cain murdered a man, and he was driven
out. He said, if Cain's punishment
is sevenfold, what's mine going to be? But here is the first
time that the institution of capital punishment is set forth
for murder. And then after that, verses 8
through 18, God establishes his covenant with Noah. He tells
Noah that he will not destroy the earth again by water. And he gives him a sign, a rainbow. He said, I'll put my bow in the
cloud and it'll be a token, be a token to you. And when I see
the bow, I'll remember my covenant. And then in verses 19 through
29, this is where we're going to look at tonight. We have Noah's We have the record of Noah's
fall and his prophecy concerning his sons. I've done a lot of reading on
this. There's no way I can bring all this out. But if you have
the time, you go back and you can read somebody. You can read
John Gill. And he traces out a lot of the history of this
prophecy on these different tribes and all of these different nations
that have come from these three boys. Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
It's very interesting. It's really interesting. But
this is what Noah does. He falls here, and after that,
he gives a prophecy on his three sons. Now, we don't need to make
any more out of this, out of his fall, than what the Scriptures
make of it. We do know that Noah was a righteous
man. This fall does not say, well,
now he's unrighteous. No, he was a righteous man. We
know that. He's a just man. God said he
was. He's a just man. He was a man who was justified
by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's also
a man who was upright. That is, he dealt justly with
other men. He was just in his dealings with
other people. And it says in the scriptures
also that he walked with God. Here is a man who walked with
God. It is said in Scripture that Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. Noah built the ark. Think of
what this man did. He built the ark. He witnessed. This man witnessed the judgment
of God against sin. He witnessed God's judgment against
sin. He witnessed the human race being
annihilated from this earth because of sin, except for him and his
family. Noah stepped into a new world
that was swept clean of sin. He stepped out into a world in
which he was now the head, like Adam. He was now the head, head
of the family. Like his father Adam, he fell. Like his father Adam, he sinned. He sinned. He became, it says,
he became a husbandman. He grew a vineyard. He got drunk. He stripped down
and passed out right there in his tent. You know, it's evident that the
word of God is inspired by God. Because if men only wrote the
scriptures, they would have left out many of the sins of the patriarchs
or they would have made excuses for them. God does not make excuses
for them and God does not cover them up or hide them from us.
He had them written in his word, as Paul wrote in Corinthians,
for our learning. This is for our learning. There
are some things to learn from this. And here are some lessons
I thought of that we need to learn from this. All that I said
about Noah here, all the Scripture says, it doesn't leave, it's
Scripture. He's a righteous man, just man, walked with God. But
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Altogether vanity. Man still, even after God saves
a man, he still has that depraved nature in him. Still has it. One writer said this, the best
of men are men at best. That's all they are. They're
just men at best. At no time. At no time are we
free from falling into sin, at no age. It doesn't matter if we have
believed the gospel for 50 years, 60 years, 70 years. At no time
are we free from folly. Noah was over 600 years old. Noah walked in his generation.
They said he walked perfectly in his generation. Noah walked
before that wicked generation that God wiped out. Noah walked
in his integrity, the integrity God gave him. He walked in righteousness. This man held to the true worship.
This man. And what does he do? He grows
a vineyard and gets drunk and purposely uncovers himself. Purposely stripped down. And
he passes out. All that we need, all that we
need is a temptation. Look over in Galatians chapter
6. All that needs to happen is for
God to allow a temptation to come along. Galatians chapter 6, in verse
1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. That's all it takes. That's why
I say all it takes is lest you be tempted. Consider yourself,
we're all men and women of like passion. We all have the same
nature, same fallen nature. We have it. We still have that
old, depraved nature of sin. You know, that nature never improves
with time. As much as we sit here under
the gospel, as much as we listen to the gospel preached, as much
as we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, it never improves
that old nature. It's still just as vile and just
as rotten as ever. And it's still in us. It's still
in us. And we must daily mortify the
deeds of this flesh. We have to daily fight against
these things. Sometimes they're stronger than
at other times. It says this over in 1 Corinthians
10. Wherefore, let him that thinketh, he standeth. Take heed, lest
he fall. Let him that thinks he's standing.
He's strong. He can endure. Take heed lest
he fall. And then this also, this lesson. We never sin alone. Somebody
always gets hurt. Someone always gets hurt. And
it can mar a man's testimony for life. Noah walked with God. God said
he's a righteous man. He built the ark. The animals
came in. He lived after this, after the
flood, after he stepped off that ark, he lived 350 years. What do you know about him? This
sin. There's two things that people
know about Noah. He built the ark and he got drunk. Those are two things that people
know about Noah. The last thing we know about Noah, this is sad,
the last thing we know about this servant of God is his fall. When you watch almost any TV
program that makes a program on David, King David, they don't
ever miss the sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband
Uriah. They don't ever miss that. You'll never miss it. It can
mar a man's testimony for the rest of his life. And then this
should teach us also that salvation is truly all of grace. All of grace. Noah, how are you
better than the ones God just killed? Noah would say, I'm not. Only by the grace of God I am
what I am. Only by grace. It teaches us
that salvation from beginning to its end is all of God's grace. All the way. All the way. Look
at all of God's servants throughout the Bible. They've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. David, Abraham, Jacob. That deceptive Jacob. All of
them. You can just go throughout the
history of them. They're all, all of them, came short of God's
glory. And every one of us have to.
We have to. Saints are sinners saved by grace
and sanctified in Christ, yet they are still sinners. Still sinners. And this should
teach us our need. Our need of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need His righteousness because
we sure don't have one and we'll never come up with one. We need
His righteousness in order to stand before God, in order to
be accepted. We need His righteousness imputed
and imparted. We need it in the new birth.
We need it. Now, we make no excuse for sin.
We're not going to make an excuse for Noah's sin or anyone else's
sin or our sin. I'm not going to make excuses
for sin. It's as bad as it gets. Sin is as bad as it gets. But
the Scripture says, thank God for His Word, if any
man sins, we have an advocate with the Father. We have one
to represent us. We have one to plead our cause. Jesus Christ the righteous. We
have an advocate. If any man sins, and the real
rendering of that is when? When any man sins, because we're
going to sin. His blood can wash away all sin. You know, all my
sins were future when Christ died for me, when Christ died
for you, when He died for His elect. All of our sins were future. We need to give constant attention
Lastly, we need to give constant attention to his word, to prayer,
and to preaching. In the disciple's prayer, he
said, lead us not into temptation. Pray. Lord, keep me from being
tempted. And this should teach us our
absolute dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ at all times
to keep us. Lord, You keep me. You keep me. We never begin in the Spirit
and wind up being made perfect by the flesh. That's what Paul
said to the Galatians. That never happens. We start
in the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit, and we end in the Spirit.
At no time do we do anything in the flesh. Except sin. Except sin. And now, Noah's curse
in prophecy. Verse 22, And Ham, the father
of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two
brethren without name. That sounds harmless, doesn't
it? That sounds harmless. You know, the Scriptures doesn't
give us a lot of light on this, but there are some things that
are inferred here. And if you'll notice, In verse 24, and I'm
not going to put my two cents worth in on it, but, And Noah
woke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto
him. Something happened. Something happened. Noah knew
what his younger son Ham had done unto him. And he cursed
him for it. Cursed him. Ham saw the nakedness
of his father. And here's what he did. Here's
what he did. He went out and he told his two
brethren. He published his father's sin. He published his father's fall.
He actually took pleasure in it. Probably Noah had maybe disciplined
him a few times over this. And now Noah, fallen into a drunken
stupor and passed out, ham-reveled in it. He took pleasure in it. He did not honor his father. The Scripture says honor your
mother and your father. He went to his two brothers and
he ridiculed his father to his family. That's what he did. He ridiculed him. Instead of
hiding the matter, instead of covering it up, instead of having
compassion on his father, the head of the family, he went out
and just published it. He broadcast his father's sin. He did not honor him. In his
heart, God, you see, God looks on the heart. God sees the heart
of Ham. God sees the animosity. He sees the reveling in this
fall of his father. And he goes out and he just tells
his brothers. Here's what happened. Ham revealed his wicked heart.
Ham was nothing more than a rebellious, God-hating rebel. And his ancestry
proves it. His grandson is Nimrod. He became
a mighty man. That means he became a mighty
rebel. His son, Nimrod. We'll see that next time. He
hated his father. It's evident Ham hated Noah by
his actions here. And he hated his father's God.
He did not worship God as his father did. Ham was at least
100 years old when he did this. He was not a young, foolish boy.
See, God commands children to respect their parents all their
lives. All their lives. If my parents
lived to be 100 and whatever, as long as I'm alive, I honor
them. Respect them. And protect their name. Protect
them. But remember this, there will
always be tares among the wheat, and there was one on the ark.
There was one on the ark. Ham. Ham was not a believer. Ham did not believe God. In the
kingdom of God, in this world, there will always be false believers. There
will always be. hypocrites. There will always
be wolves among sheep. The church, which is the kingdom
of God on this earth. That's the kingdom of God on
this earth, his church. She will never, she will never
be fully rid of these until she's taken completely out. We just
went through those parables. He said, let this wheat and this
air grow together. I'll separate it in the end. And then a man's conduct and
attitude reveals who and what he is. The fruit reveals the
root. You know, if you see an apple
on a tree, you know that's an apple tree and you know the root
is the root of an apple tree. I have never repented of this,
even when Noah, even when Noah cursed him. When Noah cursed
him, there's no sign of repentance at all. In fact, I think he just
blew it off as Noah just being angry. I bet he just laughed
at him and paid no attention to this curse. But I tell you
what, it was a curse from God. And it was a spiritual curse
that fell on him. When he cursed his son Ham, just
like when God cursed Cain. He said he put a mark on his
forehead. I really don't think there was a grotesque mark on
Cain's forehead. It was a spiritual curse that
fell on him. That's what happened to Ham here.
He was cursed. There was a spiritual curse fell
on him. Now notice, you'll notice here how Shem and Japheth, these two represent, see Shem
is the father of the Hebrews. Japheth is the father of Gentiles,
Europe, Asia, I mean, you can go through a lot of these different
places that came out of Japheth. All of Africa came out of Ham.
And those tribes, the Philistines, Egypt, Babylon, every one of
those are descendants from Ham. Every one of them. So Shem and
Japheth, which represents the believers from among the Jews
and the Gentiles, refused. This is just like God's people.
This is just like God's elect. This is just like someone who
has experienced grace. They refused to look upon their
father's nakedness. They refused to shame their father. They honored their father. They
refused to do it. And they actually took a cover.
And they walked in backwards and laid it over and covered
up the nakedness of their father Noah. And they didn't go out
and tell anybody. They didn't go out and publish
their father's sin like Ham did. They loved their father. They loved him. Proverbs 10,
12 says this, Hatred stirreth up strife, but love covereth
all sins. They acted like believers. They
acted like someone who had tasted that the Lord is gracious. Are you not glad that God has
not exposed everything about you? Are you not glad? There are some things that just
get covered up. But are you not glad? Scripture
says, Love covereth a multitude of sins. And they went in and
they covered the nakedness of their father. There is such a
parallel between Noah and Adam. Adam sinned, and he was naked,
and God covered him. Noah falls, he's naked, and he's
covered. I started to just bring that
list. I was reading from another writer. There's a whole list
of just what a parallel between Adam and Noah. But love covereth
a multitude of sins. Shem and Japheth love their Father. And they don't go out and tell
anyone. What a beautiful picture of them walking in backwards
with a cover and hiding their Father's sins. That's a believer. That's a conduct of a believer. Those who have tasted that the
Lord is gracious are kind and they forbear with one another's
sins. Cover them up. Gossip, slandering
people do not believe God. You can mark it down. Somebody
that's given to gossip, slander, does not believe God. Has never
had a new heart. Has never experienced grace.
Never had. And here's the curse. Because
of Ham's sin, a curse fell upon The curse fell upon him, but
did you know who he cursed? Cursed be thou Canaan. It was his youngest son. He cursed
Canaan. And no doubt, this was probably
given because Israel, years from that time, was going to go in
and possess the land of what? Canaan. And they had this prophecy
that those people are cursed. You're blessed. You're of Shem. You're of God. You're the covenant
people. You're the covenant people. So because of Ham's sin, a curse
fell upon his son Canaan and the rest of his other children.
He named Canaan, but it fell upon his whole posterity. And
this curse is not Noah's anger out of control. It is God's curse
upon him for his hatred of his father and his conduct and his
wicked heart. and his hatred of God. His hatred
of God. And here's a truth to learn. The Lord does visit the iniquities
of the fathers upon their children from one generation to the next. He does do it. Although every man and woman
will stand in judgment for their own sins, yet a man can sin and
destroy his whole family for generations. That can happen. It happened right here with Ham.
It happened. Now what kind of curse was it?
I've already given you a hint of it. The curse like that which
was put upon Cain was a spiritual curse. It was the mark of worldliness. It was the mark of Satan. It
was a mark of damnation. Here it is. It's in a nutshell. It's works religion. Ham, you
and your posterity would be totally given to works religion. Talks
about that whole word Babylon. That's the descendants of Ham.
That's the descendants of Ham. It is a works religion. It is
false religion. It is going after other gods.
This is the curse that's on him. He'll never find God. He'll be
given to false worship and worldliness and works religion. That's what
he'll be given to. And the only ones that'll be
free from this curse are the elect of God out of Shem and
Japheth. Out of them. All others are of
this world. Now, outwardly, outwardly. It looked like Ham was blessed.
God cursed Ham. But then here comes his grandson
is Nimrod. He's a mighty man. I mean, he
becomes a very, very great man, a very forceful man. They build
the Tower of Babel. And out of him comes Egypt. Israel
goes down into captivity to Egypt for 400 years. But it's in Egypt
that they learn what true redemption is. It's in Egypt they get the
Passover. And finally, it's Pharaoh that's
drowned in the sea and Israel set free. It looks like outwardly that
Ham's winning, doesn't it? It looks like he's the blessed
one. And it looks like Japheth and Shem are not the blessed
ones. Because look at Babylon. Look how rich they were. But
they didn't know God. Those who are blessed are those
who know Christ. It's not what you possess, it's
who possesses you. That's who possesses you. Oh, it looked like he was the
one who was blessed with a natural man. The Philistines came out. How much did the Philistines
just harass Israel? For a while. For a while. But
all those of the earth All those of works religion are going to
perish. You see, the blessing is spiritual.
It's spiritual. It's a spiritual blessing that
he's talking about here. Look at then here at Shem and
Japheth. In Noah's prophecy, he understood
this. Look here. And Noah awoke. Let
me see. Let me find my place here. He said in verse 26, and
he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. He didn't say blessed
be Shem. He blessed the Lord God of Shem.
And what they're saying, one of the writers I was reading
today, this was interesting. Blessed be the people of the
covenant God. Blessed be the people whom God
has made a covenant with. No one knew that the covenant
of grace would follow through Shem. That the seed of the woman,
which is Christ, would come through Shem. He knew that. That's why he said, Blessed be
the Lord God of Shem. And Canaan. Canaan was going
to be his servant. He was going to be his servant.
Oh, he understood that the God of Shem, which was Christ, the
seed, would come through Shem's seed. He knew that. And that
the fullness of Israel would be the gathering of the Gentiles
through Japheth's seed. You see, right back here. You
see, there's so much here in this prophecy. There's so much
here. Here we have Shem and Japheth,
Jew and Gentile. The Hebrews came out of Shem. And then you had the Gentile
world, a big portion of it came out of Japheth. And he talks
to them, he says, Japheth is going to dwell in the tent of
Shem. Well, how's that going to happen? In Christ. He says,
in Christ, he has broken down the middle wall of partition.
And in Christ, Jew and Gentile are one. We're one. So early on, he gave the prophecy
that he's going to save some Gentiles along with some of these
Jews, with Israel. And that Ham's descendants would
become the servants of Shem and Japheth. You know, after they
took over Canaan, that the Canaanites became their servants and they
had to pay tribute. You go back, I think over in
the first Kings is one of them. I didn't write it down, but over
in first Kings, I think it's chapter nine. They were taxed
and they became hewers of wood and they became the servants
to Israel. The Canaanites did when they
went in and took over their land. God used the Canaanites to develop
this great land flowing with milk and honey. It looks like
Ham's descendants are blessed. And what happens? Israel comes
in and takes it over. God gives it to Israel. He gives
it to Israel, his son. Noah praised the God of Shem
for His electing love. That's what he praised Him for,
for His electing love. And for that covenant of grace
that's given to His people through that blessed seed, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He blesses Him for His grace
and for His salvation that's coming on His people. What a
prophecy here. And Noah assures his sons, Shem
and Japheth, he assures them that their oppressive brother
will not rule over them, they will rule over him. I thought
today when I read that, I thought that old nature, it's still in
us, but it doesn't rule. It doesn't rule. That new man
rules. In Christ he rules. And do not all things serve God's
people. Do not all things serve His elect. All things are yours in Christ.
The Scripture says all things work together for our good. Then that means all things serve
us. It serves for our good. Eternal
good. There is much more. I'm going
to close. But there is much more to this
prophecy than I can bring out. This was not easy to put together. I'll be the first to admit that.
From these three men, we have a real insight into the population
of the whole earth and the outcome of it. And these three boys in
this prophecy concerning these three boys, Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
and how the Messiah would come through the seed of Shem and
the Gentiles from Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem. God's
going to save Gentiles. when the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. In Christ we are one, Jew and
Gentile. Well, that's the fall of Noah
and it's sad. But it's also a prophecy. It's a prophecy of salvation.
It's a prophecy of Christ coming and saving centers for among the Jews and
among the Gentiles. And in Him, we're one. In Him,
we're one. All right, Mike. I hope I didn't
confuse the daylights out of you. I was talking to Todd about this
today, and he said, that's a hard one. He said, I've never tried
the first one. I said, well, I don't know. I
probably shouldn't.