And I want to begin reading in verse 18. You and I have come
here to the 12th chapter, the latter part of the 9th chapter
in our studies of the book of Genesis. And I want to look today,
and maybe we'll entitle this study, Two Grievous Sins. Two Grievous Sins. In verse 18,
and the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem, and
Ham, and Japheth, and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are
the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth overspread,
populated. And Noah began to be an husbandman,
farmer, tiller of the ground. And he planted a vineyard, and
he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered
in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment,
and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered
the nakedness of their father, and their faces were backward,
And they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from
his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he
said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto
his brother. And he said, Blessed be the Lord
God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan
shall be his servant. And Noah lived after the flood
three hundred and fifty years, and all the days of Noah were
nine hundred and fifty years, and he died." In verse 19 we're
told there that from these three sons of Noah that all the earth
was populated. And it's amazing how the Lord
can bless family. God blessed Noah and his family,
we're told, as we begin this chapter, and said, Be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth. And it's been somewhere
now, probably 4,500 years or so, since that blessing was pronounced
upon these three children. And look how God has blessed
them. Look how they've multiplied. We're told today, that they estimate
our population to be somewhere around six billion people. And we all trace our lineage,
we all trace it back to these three sons of Noah. Surely, how
God has blessed that family. And if it's so concerning Noah
and him just a mere creature, a mere man, if God has so blessed
that family that they populated as they have today, how He'll
bless His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. If God has blessed Noah
and his sons, and the earth has been populated, how much God
will bless His Son to populate heaven and earth with a glorified
humanity that's just like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's His
eternal purpose. And the Scripture says that the
Lord Jesus is bringing many sons. into glory. Of the increase of
His kingdom, there will be no end. Surely, if today around
this world there is six billion people living at one time, come
from these three men, how much more can it be said that Jesus
Christ will have a number greater than that? If God blessed these
three men, will He not bless His Son? If He's populated earth
out of these three sons, He'll populate heaven out of His Son,
His blessed Son. And the Scripture says there
will be a great multitude that no man can number out of every
kindred, nation, and people, and tongue. And all of them will
look just like the Son of God, predestinated to be conformed
to His image. Now here in verse 20 and 21 is
a portion of my text this morning. When Noah is said here to become
a husbandman, he began to be a farmer or tiller of the ground,
and he planted a vineyard, and he made wine, and he drank of
that wine and was drunken. And the Lord exposed his sin
for all the world to see. Now, brothers and sisters, God
loves His people, and He makes no bones about that. He speaks
well of His people. But there are times also when
He exposes the sin of His people. The Scripture tells us in this
very book that you and I have been studying that Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord gave him grace. The
Holy Spirit said that Noah was a just man. and sincere in his
generation. That Noah did everything that
the Lord told him to do, he did. That Noah walked with God. That
Noah was a preacher of righteousness. That Noah moved by faith and
prepared an ark at God's command. But God was not pleased to hide
Noah's sin. He revealed it. He revealed it
to you and to me and He revealed it to all the world that we may
know that Noah got drunk. And you notice how the Holy Spirit
calls it what it is? He doesn't leave any doubt when
He exposes the sins of His people. He makes it so plain that there's
no debate about it. There's no doubt about what they
done. Noah drank of the wine and was We are told of Lot that
he lay with his daughters and they bore his sons. We are told
of David that he killed Uriah with a sword, that Solomon loved
strange women and was led after false gods, and that Peter cursed
and swore. When the Lord reveals the sins
of His people, He makes no bones about it. He leaves no doubt
what they have done. Noah was a man that was over
600 years old. Ain't that amazing? And he was
drunken. You'd think a man by the time
he lived to be 600 years old that he'd have known better than
this. But he was drunken. Solomon was an old man. And I
think one of the saddest verses that I've ever found in all God's
Word is in 1 Kings 11, verse 4. And it says this. It came to pass when Solomon
was an old man that his wives turned his heart after other
gods." Ain't that the saddest verse that you've ever read in
all the Bible? We're told of Lot. We're told
of Gideon. We're told of David. We're told
of Solomon. We're told of Peter. These were
men, no doubt, who loved the Lord. And there were times in
their life when they called on the Lord in their time of need,
and He heard them and delivered them. And how did they recompense
the Lord? All of them fell into grievous
and gross sins. Gideon made his idol. David lay
with Bathsheba. Lot committed incest. Solomon
turned to idols in his heart. Oh, it's not for me to expose
the sins of God's people. That's not what I'm doing this
morning. But God Himself has put them on record, and all the
world knows about them. If no other reason, it's for
this, to teach us that the best of men cannot be trusted in. The most godly man that you know,
don't put your trust in him. because he's a sinner still.
Job tells us what is man, that he should be clean. Or he that
is born of woman, that he should be righteous. Behold, God put
us no trust in His saints. God puts no trust in His saints. The heavens are not clean in
His sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man who drinketh iniquity, like water. And Isaiah said,
therefore cease from man. Cease from him. Cease to trust
in him. Don't put your hope in man, whose
breath is in his nostrils. For wherein is he to be accounted
of? Brothers and sisters, if there's
no other cause for God exposing the sins of His saints, it's
to teach you and I, there's but one man we better put our confidence
in. There's but one man we better
lean upon. There's but one man we better
set as our example as we walk through this life, and that's
the man Christ Jesus Himself. And Noah drank of the wine and
was drunken. what a horrible and grievous
sin drunkenness is. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit. Know you not that
no drunkard has eternal life abiding in him? Why did Noah
get drunk? And it should be amazing to us
that this man who had experienced the blessings of God and lived
to be as old as he did should commit such a grievous sin. Why
did he get drunk? Let me give you two reasons,
and in giving you these reasons, I hope it humbles us and I hope
it makes us watchful and prayerful. The first reason I can give you
that this godly man stooped to this grievous sin, it was in
his heart. It was in his heart. I read where one commentator
said, Noah got drunk by accident, that he had no idea what he was
doing, and he began to sip something that he'd never sipped before,
and he sipped too much, and he got drunk. That may be so. I
don't know. But I know what the Bible says
about drunkenness. The man that is deceived thereby
is not wise. And I know where sin comes from.
It comes from a man's heart, not his hands or his lips, but
from his heart. That which is within a man, that's
what defiles a man. What's in a man? The Lord Jesus
said wickedness. Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, adultery, idolatry, wickedness, deceit. This sin
came from Noah's heart. When the Lord said, I'm going
to take your old heart out and put a new heart in, don't think
for a minute that He took the old heart away. Don't think for
a minute. When the Lord saves a man, He
seeks us to be a sinner. Every sin that can be imagined
lurks within the old heart, and it can come out. Why did Noah
sin? It was in his heart to sin. Noah
was drunken. Abraham lied. Lot committed incest. David committed murder. Solomon
committed idolatry. Peter denied the Lord. And where
did these sins come from? We can blame other people. We
can blame our neighbor. We can blame the devil. We can
blame our circumstances. We can blame the church. But
in the end, who's at fault? Noah drank. Nobody twisted his
hand. He didn't strive unto blood against
this sin. He drank himself, and he was
drunken. And the fault lies there with
him. You and I are living in a time
where nobody wants to accept responsibility. Either everybody's
sin has turned into a sickness or it's somebody else's fault.
Brothers and sisters, that don't work, does it? It just don't
work. When I sin, it's because it comes
from in here. No sin comes from without a man.
It comes from in his heart. And God exposed his drunkenness. God exposed it. Boy, there's
been times that I've sinned, and I've prayed, Lord, please
don't reveal what I've done. Lord, hide my sin. And I tell
you, He's not always been pleased to do it. And I've wet my face
with my tears because the Lord has exposed my sin. To my shame
and embarrassment, He's exposed it. And I'll say this this morning,
brothers and sisters, if you and I can live in this world,
and we can lie, we can cheat, and we can steal, and we can
live in sin, and God never exposed that sin to embarrass us, and
He never reproves our conscience to our shame and repentance,
you have no reason to believe you're one of His. Can the Lord's
people sin? You bet they can sin. And they
can fall into grievous sin. But there's one thing about it.
They'll not get by with it. The Lord has a way of embarrassing. He has a way of shaming. He has
a way of burdening the conscience of His people. Where does sin
come from? It came from within Noah. That's
why he sinned. And the second reason is, and
I hope this makes us prayerful and watchful, He sinned because
God left him to try Him. I tell you, temptations lose
their power when the Lord is near. But let Him leave us to
try us. And I tell you, the smallest
temptation will bring us down. The most difficult thing for
us to do is remain humble. The Lord blesses us, and what
do we do? We get independent. We get lifted up. We think we're
something. My mountain stands firm, we say. I've got strength enough to endure.
And what does the Lord do? The Lord said, I'll show you
what's in your heart. I'll show you how weak you are.
And He pulls away from us. And He leaves us to ourselves.
And what happens? Down we go. Down we go. Peter said, Lord, though all
men deny thee, not me. Well, Peter, we'll see. We'll
see how strong you are. We'll let you fall by a little
maid, and we'll see then how strong you are. Most of you remember
the story of King Hezekiah, the king of Judah. The man got lifted
up in pride. The Lord told him, by the prophet
you're going to die. And he began to weep and begged
the Lord to spare him. And the Lord sent a prophet and
added fifteen years onto that man's life. And he gave him a
sign. The sun went backwards ten degrees.
And those princes down in Babylon heard about that. And they sent
ambassadors down there to Hezekiah. And Hezekiah got so proud of
himself and showed them all his kingdom. And Isaiah came to him
and said, who was that coming down here to you? What did they
want from you? And you know what Hezekiah said?
Why, these men coming to me. And they're from all the way
down to Babylon, that great city Babylon. And they come to me. I must be somebody. And Isaiah
said, what did you show them? He said, I showed them everything.
I showed him all my secrets. Showed him how much money I have,
my treasure, my war room and all my weapons. I showed him
everything. Oh, how he was lifted up in pride. And you know what the prophet
told him? He said, everything you've shown them, in a few days
from now they're going to come back and carry it all into Babylon.
And your sons that you love, they're going to carry them down
to Babylon. They're going to be the eunuchs. of the King of Babylon. And you
know why the Scripture tells us that Hezekiah did that? You
know why he got lifted up in pride and you know why he fell?
In 2 Chronicles 32, 31 we have this, "...and the Lord left him
to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." Was there love there? Yes, there
was love there. Was there faith there? Sure,
there was faith there. I'll tell you something else
that was there too. Pride and unbelief. Noah was a believing man. He
had in his heart love for God, and he walked with the Lord,
and he obeyed the Lord. But there was something else
in his heart too. this potential to commit this
grievous sin of drunkenness. I can't this morning stress enough. It's impossible for me to stress
enough what a fallen and miserable creatures the best of men are. There's no doubt Noah was the
most godly man upon this earth at this time. He was the best
man on this earth. Yet he grievously sinned against
God. You know what David said about
himself and everybody else? Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. The necessity that you and I
see in this, that every moment of our life we need the Savior's
blood to cleanse us. We need His righteousness to
clothe the shame of our nakedness. And we need a faithful and merciful
High Priest between us and the Father to plead and maintain
our cause. Our cause is not always good,
is it? One man said one time, if you
want the Lord Jesus to plead your cause, make sure your cause
is good. Well, is drunkenness a good cause?
Sin is not a good cause. That's why we need a mediator
between us and God. Our cause is not good. Noah drank
and was drunken, and if Jesus Christ had not been a faithful
advocate with the Father to deliver him from this condemnation, Noah
would have perished in his guilt. He would have perished in his
guilt. Why did Noah sin? It was in his heart. Nobody blamed
himself. Why did Noah sin? God left him
to prove Him, to show him what was in his heart. Here's another
aspect of Noah's sin, and I think that you and I can relate to,
and it's this. I hope this humbles us and makes
us ashamed. You and I are so fallen by sin
That we can take that which is good in itself, and necessary
in itself, and sin by it. What's wrong with that? Nothing. Nothing's wrong with
being a killer of the ground, a farmer. It was an honorable
occupation, but Noah took his honorable occupation and used
it to sin with. I don't know of an occupation
you can't use to sin with. That's how far we've fallen.
You're a welder. You could use that to sin with.
You're a nurse. You're a businessman. I'm a preacher.
Do you know a single occupation that you and I cannot so abuse
and misuse that we take it and turn it to that which is sin
in the eyes of God? I've often said that you can
put a man, any man, in a cave by himself and feed him with
sufficient food and drink, and with nothing but clothes on his
back, and that men are so sinful within that cave, living by himself,
he'll not only sin, but he'll find a way to manifest that sin. We are fallen creatures. These poor evolutionists have
been telling us for years now that we begin from some slime
or insignificant cell And we've been experiencing this upward
development ever since. Well, I've got news for them.
There was a time when humanity was holy and upright and good
and walked with God. But by sin they fell out of life
unto darkness and out of life unto death, out of God unto the
devil, And ever since then, man has not made one step upward. He's not getting better. If anything,
he's getting worse. Man left to himself has never,
nor will he, nor can he, evolve one step higher than he is now. You and I are born sinners. We
live sinners. And if the Son of God does not
come to us and save us from our sins, we will die sinners. And the last step we take will
not be upward, but it will be downward into a devil's hell
to suffer the awful wrath of God for eternity. What am I saying
this morning? Take the best man in this world.
the most godly man in this world, and he's a sinner still. That's
what I'm emphasizing this morning. How we need a Savior. How we
need a priest between us and God. How we need a prophet to
teach us. A king to reign in us and over
us. Something else. Something else. Look what a grievous and shameful
sin drunkenness is. Drunkenness is a shameful, grievous
sin. There's all kinds of wickedness
dwelling in our hearts, but they'll stay there. They're confined
there to the heart. They'll not get out unless this
door is opened for them. And what door is that? The door
of drunkenness. Someone said drunkenness is the
key that opens the door to let all kinds of perverseness out
of a man's heart. Don't we see that here? Drunkenness
releases the beast that's within us. Noah was drunken and he was
uncovered in his tent and exposed his nakedness. Would he have
ever done that? No, he would have never done
that. Lot was drunken and committed incest with his daughters. Would
he have ever done such a thing? It would have been repulsive
to him to think about it. Then why did he do it? Drunkenness
unlocked that door to let that incest out that was within his
heart. The wise man said, wine is a
mocker, strong drink is raging. And he that is deceived thereby
is not wise. At the last it bites like a serpent
and stings like an otter. Thine eyes shall behold strange
women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things." Drunkenness
is the key that opens the door to let those perverse thoughts
and words and actions from our heart that will never in any
otherwise get out. Be not drunk with wine, for in
is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit. Consider this about
Noah's sins, and this is a grievous thing that happened. It gave
occasion for his son and his grandson to sin. My sin affects
only me. But it doesn't, does it? Noah's
drunken gave occasion for his son and his grandson to sin. Can you see the correlation between
these two? Noah's drunkenness and his son
and his grandson seeing his nakedness and making light of it? If you
and I believe our children are sinful by nature, And let us
be careful that we don't give an occasion for that nature to
manifest itself. Now hear me what I'm saying.
I read one time that I was telling a friend of mine about Spurgeon
was very careful where he took his two young sons. When he took
them out in public, he's very careful what he let them see.
If there was a magazine with a vulgar picture on the front
of it, He made sure their eyes didn't behold it. If there was
graffiti on the walls and it was filthy, he'd make sure they
turned their heads away. He was careful what he let his
young sons hear and see. And I was telling this to a friend
of mine, and he began to make light of it. He said something
to the effect, well, that's not their trouble what they see,
and what they hear is not their trouble. Their trouble is within
their heart. as though I didn't know that. But if you and I believe that
our children are sinful by nature, then why set before their eyes
and their ears that which brings that sin without? If you have
a mad dog, you want to keep him locked up. You sure don't want
to train him to unlock the gate, do you? That's what we're saying
this morning. I can't imagine us setting things
before our children's eyes and letting them hear things that
would develop this wicked nature and give it an occasion to manifest
itself if we earnestly believe that our children are as sinful
as the Bible says they are. Was Ham and Canaan sinful? Yes, they were sinful. But what
gave them the occasion to manifest this sin? It was Noah's sin. And can't you imagine when he
awoke from his wine, and when he found out what his sons had
done to him, how heavy his conscience must
have become? Not only that he had sinned himself,
but he had given an occasion for his son and his grandson
to sin also. Whatever our opinion this morning
is of moderate drinking, and I condemn nobody for that because
the scripture doesn't, but we'll all have to agree this morning
that drunkenness is a grievous and shameful act. Drunkenness. Now here's the second sin. First
of all, the sin of drunkenness, how shameful and grievous it
is. But here is the second sin, and
look at what Ham and Canaan's sin brought upon them. Here in verses 22 through verse
25, when Noah was drunk, and I imagine his Son Ham must have seen it, or
his grandson must have seen it, and they got together seemingly
and laughed and joked about the nakedness of Noah. And he awoke
and saw what his two sons had done unto him. But what I wanted
to emphasize here is this, and Ham the father of Canaan saw
the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without. Now, the Jews tell us in their
history a lot of things that they say that Ham and Canaan
did to their dad. And we've got no proof of that.
I don't know. They said some very grievous
and vulgar things that they did to their dad and his grandfather. But what I wanted to look at
this morning, whatever is implied here, it simply stated that they
saw the nakedness of their father. And instead of covering his nakedness,
he told it without. He spread it abroad and shamed
his father. This word told, he told his brethren,
it means to announce, to reveal or to expose. It carries a sense
of praise. In other words, they went out
and announced it. They revealed it and they were
happy about it. Ham wanted others to know what
his dad had done. He gloried in the fall of his
dad. It's not enough that he knew
about it, I want everybody else to know about it. If drunkenness had been Noah's
practice and Ham had spoken to his dad about it, and his dad
wouldn't take heed to him, and then he went and humbly told
his brethren, that would be a different story. But that's not the case.
We're only told that this dear man fell this one time. He got
drunk one time, but that was enough for his own son to maul
him. I think one reason this story
is told that it reveals the first time
these two sins are mentioned. It's the first time you read
about these two sins. One is drunkenness, and the second
is tailbearing. Drunkenness and tailbearing.
That's the first time we see these sins mentioned. And no
doubt they're mentioned to teach us how grievous and shameful
both of these sins are. You know what a tailbearer is?
Here's what Solomon says about a tailbearer, the wise man. Revealeth secrets. He revealeth
secrets. And things that should remain
secret, that would do nothing but hurt people, and embarrass
people, and discourage people. He reveals secrets. But he that
is of a faithful spirit, he concealeth the matter. Love covers a multitude
of sins. And listen to what else Solomon
said about Telbar. The words of a talebearer are as wounds. Wounds. Would you think about
going up to somebody with a big knife and stabbing him and opening
it up? Would you think about that? You
wouldn't even think about doing that. But he said that's what
a talebearer is. He's as wounds that go down deep
into the inner part of the belly. It's wounds. Look what talebearing
has done. It's separated chief friends.
It's separated husband and wife. It's brought wars. It's brought
murders. It's done some grievous things, revealing secrets that
don't need to be revealed, telling on people that don't need to
be told about. And if you'll look sometime in Proverbs 20,
verse 19, you'll see the motive behind it all. Proverbs 20, verse
19. You put that down and check it,
and that will give you the motive for tail bearing. What two grievous
sins. God help us to avoid them both.
I want to finish this chapter, so let me do that right quickly.
I don't know very much about the remainder of this chapter.
But in verses 25 through verse 27, this curse that came upon
Canaan and the blessing that came upon Shem and Japheth, look
at them this way. I don't know if these have a
greater fulfillment in the last days or not. Maybe they do. I
don't know. But he cursed Canaan. And out of Ham came all the inhabitants
of the land of Canaan. We remember when the Jews went
into Canaan. That's where the inhabitants
of Canaan came from, from Ham. Out of Shem came the Jewish nation. And we can see how that would
literally fulfill, can't we? Canaan, the descendants of Canaan,
possessed the land of Canaan. The Jews came in and either killed
all of them, Or they used them for woodcutters to draw water
and taxed them. They were servants. That was
literally fulfilled. And then, of course, out of Japheth,
this third son, came all the nations of the Gentiles, we're
told, in chapter 10, verse 5. By the sons of Japheth were the
isles of the Gentiles divided. So here we have these three great
nations. We have Canaan, And then we have Jason, the Gentiles,
and we have Shem, from whom all the Jews came out of. These three
nations. Albert Barnes has this to say
about this, and this is very interesting. I don't know very
much about this, but there's a blessing in this, if you and
I could understand more of the history of this world and how
God has used these families to populate the world by. But Albert
Barnes mentions a couple of things. He says that the Lord blessed
Japheth. He shall enlarge Japheth. And how? Barnes said he enlarged
his territory and his inhabitants. And he began to name all of these
nations that were occupied by the sons of Japheth. He gives
Europe. He says all of Europe was populated
by the sons of Japheth. And you look on your map at Europe,
and it's a huge place. Most of Asia was occupied by
the descendants of Japheth, the Gentile. Americas, North America,
Central America, South America, that's a huge place. And all
of it was populated by the sons of Japheth. But he said God not
only enlarged Japheth with territory and inhabitants, but he says
this about it also. He enlarged them with science. with architecture, with the ability
and the means to travel the world and to civilize the world. All
of this came from the race of Jacob. The Greeks, he said, they
brought in their philosophy. They conquered the hostile world
and civilized it. Rome came in and built roads
through all of that world. And he said this, here comes
Shem. with his Bible in his hand into
this civilized world, walking on the roads, coming to Japheth
to persuade him to come and dwell in his tents.