Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I've entitled this morning's
message, Noah, a sinner saved by grace. We read in Genesis
chapter nine of this last portion of Noah's life. We read beginning
in verse 20, As I said, this is the last thing recorded concerning
this remarkable man, Noah. We read in Genesis chapter 20,
or chapter 9, verse 20, and Noah began to be a husbandman and
planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and
was drunken. and he was uncovered within his
tent. And Ham, that's his third son,
his youngest son, and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness
of his father and told his two brethren without. He was seeking
to have his father exposed. He was telling his brothers of
the shameful conduct of his father. And Shem and Japheth took a garment,
a blanket I suppose, 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. They didn't want to see their
father's nakedness. They made sure they did not see
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
brethren." Now, Canaan was the son of Ham, and it could be that
it was Canaan who first saw the drunkenness of Noah, his grandfather,
and went and told Ham about it. And Ham went and told his brothers
about this. We don't know how long Noah and
his family had been off the ark. It was some time, because Ham
didn't have a son when he got off the ark, and now he has a
son, Canaan. So it's been several years that
have taken place. And Noah becomes a farmer, and
he plants a vineyard. He drinks of the wine and becomes
drunken. As a matter of fact, he passed
out, because when it says he woke up from his wine, now that's
shameful conduct, it's sin, it's wrong, there's no justification
of it, but here he is, laying naked, passed out in his tent. Ham sees it. Ham wants to expose
his father. Have you ever wanted to see someone
exposed? That's the way Ham was. He wanted his father to be exposed. He wanted his sin to be seen.
So he goes and tells his brothers about it, and they'd have none
of it. They took a blanket upon their shoulders, walked into
the tent backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. Now, what are we to learn from
this? Number one, only the Bible tells
the truth. Now let me repeat that. Only
the Bible tells the truth about me and you. Now if I'm writing
my own autobiography, I'm going to make it look a whole lot better
than it really is. I'm always going to try to present myself
in a more positive light. I'm going to try to impress you.
I'm not going to really be honest, but the Bible is the inerrant
word of God, and it tells the truth. And here we have the truth
of this man, Noah, this final chapter of his life, this shameful
sin that he committed. And the Bible makes no attempt
at covering up. It's a part of the inspired record
given for our good. And I hope you'll see how this
is given to teach us something. Now, the second thing I would
like to say about this is Noah was clearly still a sinner. He was a sinner before he went
into the ark. When he came out of the ark,
he was still a sinner. Noah was a sinner. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. Noah was still, after all he'd
experienced, clearly a sinner. Now, he was a saint. He was a
man of faith. He was a man who feared God.
He was a man who walked with God. He was called in the New
Testament a preacher of righteousness. He was a man that God had saved,
truly, and he was still a sinner. Now, every believer that is not
in heaven is still a sinner. Now listen carefully. While a
believer has been born again and has a new nature, a holy
nature, birthed by the Spirit of God, given a new nature that
was not there before, he still has the same old nature that
he was born with, a sinful nature, and that nature never gets better. You don't become more holy, you
don't become less sinful. That old man Paul described it
like this in Romans chapter 7, I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." In that description in Genesis
6, verse 5, and God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination, the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually, that still describes the old nature of the
believer. That's why Paul said, O wretched
man that I am, not that I was, but that I am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death." Now, Noah was still a sinner. Now, the third thing I'd like
to say is Noah is an example of salvation by grace. Noah, a sinner saved by grace. Genesis chapter 6 verse 8 says,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now Noah was a sinful
man, just like I am, just like you are. He was a sinful man,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now Noah is such
a clear illustration of God's grace. God told Noah to build
an ark, and there was salvation only in the ark. Everybody in
the ark was saved. Everyone outside of the ark was
drowned. God's grace, God's favor was
in the ark. And understand this, God's grace,
God's favor is in Christ. If you're going to have God's
favor, you must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's favor is
nowhere outside of Christ. There's nothing but justice and
wrath, but in Christ there is God's favor. Let me say this
about God's grace. God's grace is eternal grace. You know what
that means? That means if God gives you His
grace, you have always, before time even began, been the object
of His grace. It's called election. According
as He hath chosen us in Him. before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. Thank God for election, the eternal
grace of God. We read, He saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. His grace is sovereign grace.
You know what that means? He's the cause of it. Grace is
not God responding to you asking Him to do anything. He says,
I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. Now, if anyone has a problem
with that, it's because you think you deserve grace. It's because
you think you deserve mercy. If you find fault with God with
this, you've all of a sudden become God's judge. I wouldn't
do it that way. Watch out. That's a dangerous
place to be. God's grace is sovereign grace,
and God's grace is saving grace. Grace is not an offer. Grace
is salvation. By grace ye are saved. He doesn't offer you grace. He
saves you by His grace. And God's grace is free grace. Being justified freely by His
grace. Nothing you need to do to measure
up. Nothing you need to pay. His
grace is absolutely free. If you got anything to pay, He
won't give it to you. He only gives it freely. And God's grace is righteous
grace. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. There's
nothing unclean about God's grace. Sin is punished. The believer
is justified because his sins were punished in Christ. Christ's
righteousness is given to him. God's righteousness and holiness
is exalted in the gospel of his grace. Noah was the example of
a sinner saved by grace. What an example. Now let's consider
his son for a moment, Ham. What Noah did was sinful. It was a shameful thing. It cannot
be excused. It cannot be justified. No one's
trying to justify Noah. What he did was a sinful thing. And as he lays naked in his tent,
there's significance to nakedness. What's the first thing Ab and
Eve knew after they ate of the fruit? They knew they were naked. Nakedness represents human sinfulness. Now they were naked before they
ate of the fruit, but they didn't have a sinful nature. It wasn't
even an issue with them. But now they have sinful natures
and they knew they were naked. That's when they went and tried
to hide from God and tried to provide their own covering, that
fig leaf covering, which was no good. Now here he lies in
his nakedness, and that represents sin. Now Ham sees his father
in the tent, and I can imagine the things he was thinking. He
probably had something against his father. And he said, look
at that hypocrite. He talks about walking with God.
He talks about following God. He talks about obeying God. Look
at him. He's nothing more than a hypocrite.
Look at him laying there drunk in the tent. I'm going to let
everybody know about this. Love covers a transgression. If you love somebody, you don't
want them exposed. But he had bitterness toward
his father and he wanted his father exposed. Now, this is a greater sin than
the sin of Noah. This desire to have him exposed
because there's such hatred in the heart involved. Have you
ever wanted to see somebody exposed. Sure you have. You know what
it demonstrates? How bad you are. Me too. I've thought of people that I
felt like have wronged me and I've wanted them to be exposed.
And if I wouldn't expose them, I'd hope somebody else would,
or if nobody else would, I hope it ended up happening to them.
And all that shows is the badness and rottenness of my heart. When
Ham wanted his father exposed, it was so contrary to love. Completely contrary. Love covers
the transgression. Love keeps no records of wrongs. Love covers all things with silence. Ham did not have this love. And you know when you want somebody's
sin to be exposed? Here's the problem. There's a
lot of problems with it. But Romans 2, verse 1 says, therefore
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art the judgest.
You look at someone. Now, in this thing of judging,
that doesn't mean you don't have a moral opinion. But if you look
at the fall of anybody and stand in judgment against them and
think, I wouldn't have done that. They should be punished. They
should be judged. They should be exposed. Listen
to this scripture. Romans chapter 2 verse 1 says,
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. Now, that's what the Word of
God says. Whatever you're judging somebody for, it's an act of
pure hypocrisy because even while you're judging them, you're committing
the same sins. Somebody says, I'm not. Well,
God says you are. I'm going to go with what God
says rather than what you say or what I say. This is God's
testimony. And for me to want somebody exposed
and to show them up shows the rottenness of my own heart. That's
what Ham was demonstrating. You know, the golden rule, do
unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Well, you'd want
people to cover your sins, wouldn't you? You'd want people to not
expose you, and everything Ham was doing was contrary to that. It was an act of pure hypocrisy. Now, if I really believe myself
to be a sinner, do I? I'm asking myself that question.
If I really believe myself to be a sinner, I will feel completely
unqualified to judge anybody about anything. Now, if I don't
feel that way, I don't really believe myself to be a sinner
in the scriptural sense. But if I believe myself to be
a sinner, I'll feel unqualified because of my own personal sinfulness. I'm unqualified to stand as anybody's
judge with regard to anything. Now, the only thing I'm to judge
is whether or not I'm hearing the gospel. The Lord says, judge
righteous judgment. I need to judge whether or not
I'm hearing the gospel of grace or a message of works that doesn't
give me any hope. But as far as judging somebody,
I've got no right, nor does any other man. Now, Ham exposed the
wroughtness of his heart in seeking to expose his father. Love covereth
a transgression. Now, let's look at Shem and Japheth's
actions. Now, Ham goes and tells them
about, go look at dad lying drunk in the tent, naked. They wouldn't
have any part of it. They didn't want to do that.
Look what it says they did. 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." They didn't want
to. They loved him. They didn't want him to be exposed.
They didn't want, you know, these boys obviously believe themselves
to be sinners. They knew they were not more
righteous than their father. They saw who they were and they
didn't want to take part in this conduct. They never saw the nakedness
of their father. Now in this, we have a beautiful
picture of the gospel. I'm Noah, sinful Christ Jesus
covers my sin with His blood, and He does not see my sin. Now that's the gospel. Let me tell you a story about
David. This is one of the biggest cover-ups in the Scripture. David
was up on the rooftop when he should have been out in battle
with the armies of Israel, but he was loitering on the rooftop,
and he sees Bathsheba. And she was, the scripture says,
beautiful to look upon. She was bathing. And he saw that. Now, the king could do whatever
he wanted, and with a horrible abuse of power, he had somebody
go get Bathsheba. bring her to him. And this is
David, the man after God's own heart. We see clearly David was
still a sinner. He was a safe sitter, but he
was a sinner. He sees this woman, and he has
her through a horrible abuse of his own power brought to him.
He commits adultery with her. She becomes with child. And in
order to try to cover it up, He tried to get her husband back
in from the army, and her husband was a fine man, you're right,
he's in the list of David's mighty men in 2 Samuel 23. But he gets him drunk, tries
to get him to go in to his wife, and he's such an honorable man,
he won't do it. He says, the armies of Israel are staying
out in the field, I'm not gonna go sleep with my wife. So he
made several attempts to get him to do so, and when he saw
it wouldn't work, He gave him a letter, he knew what a faithful
man he was, and he knew he wouldn't open it. He said, you give this
letter to Joab. So he told Joab, you take him to the hottest point
of battle, move back away from him, let him get killed. And
this man had his own death warrant and a letter, and he was such
a faithful man, David knew he wouldn't open it. So he gives
it to Joab, and sure enough, that's what takes place. Joab
is implicated in this to kill this man, and he was killed. David committed cold-blooded,
premeditated murder in order to cover up his own sin. You know, the scripture says
the thing David did displeased the Lord. And David went on like
this for some time. And finally, the child of Bathsheba
had already been born, so it had been over a year. And the
Lord sends a prophet to him by the name of Nathan. And Nathan
tells a story. He tells a story about a man
who had a little lamb that he treated it like his child. It
ate at his table with his family. Oh, he loved this lamb. And this
man was a poor man. He had a rich neighbor who had
many sheep. And somebody came to visit his
rich neighbor and he said, I don't want to use one of my sheep,
I'm going to go get that fellow's sheep. And he went and took that man's
little lamb and slew it and fed it to his company to make sure
he didn't have to kill any of his lambs. And when David heard
that story, he said, that man's going to die. He'll surely die. David was angry. He was furious. And Nathan said, Thou art the
man. You're the one who's done this.
You know, one of the things I see in that story is, why is it that
we can see so clearly other people's sin, and we're so not quick to
see our own? David wasn't, but now he says,
I've sinned against the Lord, and Nathan says, the Lord hath
put away thy sin. You see, it had already been
put away. And this is when David wrote Psalm 32. First, he wrote
Psalm 51, that great psalm of repentance, and he wrote Psalm
32. And here's what it says. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. In this story of these two boys
covering up their father, we have a picture of the gospel.
Here's what the Lord does for every believer. First, he forgives
their sin. You know, that's where salvation
begins. It doesn't end with the forgiveness
of sins. It begins with the full, free, complete forgiveness of
sin. And here's why that sin was given.
It was covered. covered in the blood of Jesus
Christ. That sin was covered. Now, that sin was not only covered,
it was not imputed to me. It's not denying the reality
of my commission of the sin. Everything you think about yourself
Then you think, well, I did this wrong. I did that wrong. It's
true. I've committed this sin. I've committed that sin. That's
not going to go away. That's true. But if you're a believer,
here's your only hope that God doesn't charge you with that
sin. Well, how can that be right? Because he charged it to his
son. His son was made sin. The sins that I've committed,
he bore in his own body on the tree. He became guilty of those
sins and he died under the wrath of God for those sins and the
very righteousness of his son is given to me. Oh, blessed is
the man whose transgression is forgiven. whose sin is covered,
covered in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose iniquity
is not imputed to him. Oh, what blessedness. And we
have the gospel in that illustration, these boys with their love for
their father. Now, if you're one of the Lord's
people, he loves you. He forgives your sin. He puts
it away. He covers it. He doesn't impute
it to you. He gives you the very righteousness
of his son. That is the gospel. Now verse
24, Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son
had done unto him. And what took place? 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. Christ came through Shem. And
Canaan shall be his servant, and God shall enlarge Japheth,
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. That's a picture of
being in Christ. and Canaan shall be his servant.
And Noah lived after the flood 350 years, and the days of Noah
were 950 years, and he died." Here's the end of this blessed
man's life. Now, and he died. There are three
words used in the scripture that describes the death of the believer.
Noah was a believer. These words describe the death
of every believer. First, blessed. Blessed are those that die. Blessed
are those that die in the Lord. You see, if I'm in the Lord,
my death is blessed. The best day of my life is the
day of my death because I'm going to awaken perfect likeness to
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to be a sinner
anymore. I'm going to be in His presence, sitting at His feet. Another word used to describe
the believer's death is precious. Precious. in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. It's precious to the Lord. Anytime
one of his saints die, like a Noah or any other believer, it's precious
in the sight of the Lord because he loves that individual. That
individual is going to spend eternity with him. He gave himself
for that individual. And then there's the word gain. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ and to die is gain. That's true of Noah. That's true
of every believer. He died blessed, precious, and
gain. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. praying that God will be pleased
to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard send your request
to todd.neibert at gmail.com or you may write or call the
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