Chapter 9, beginning with verse
18, and we'll read through the end of the chapter. And the sons
of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth,
and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah,
and of them was the whole earth overspread. Noah began to be
a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the
wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his nakedness, or saw the
nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers without.
And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon their shoulders,
and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father,
and their faces were backward. They saw not their father's nakedness.
And Noah woke 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. And he
said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be
his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and
he should dwell in tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.
And Noah lived after the flood 350 years, and all the days of
Noah were 950 years, and he dined. Let us pray. Our Father, We are
thankful for Your Word, which is a lamp unto our feet, a light
unto our path, the entrance of which gives us light to the understanding,
and understanding to the simple. We are thankful, Father, that
we have this Word, for we know it's inspired, for we know that
all Scripture is given by inspiration, and it's profitable for doctrine,
reproof, and instruction that the man of God might be truly
furnished unto all good works. We ask tonight, Fathers, we look
at your word that the Holy Spirit would take the things of Christ
and reveal them unto us. May we see what you have for
us here in this passage of Scripture, not only the historical account,
but the application of it to the hearts of your people. Help
us to see what we need to see. Pray for those who are sick and
going through trials. Thou knowest every case. Pray
though for those who've lost loved ones. We ask Lord your
help for them. Cause us in our hearts to worship
you tonight. To bow down in the dust where we belong and lift
our eyes to see him who's worthy of all praise and honor, even
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in that blessed name we
pray. Amen. Now in the study of The first
days of the created world and the newly altered world, which
we're dealing with now, of the days of Noah and his progeny,
his offspring. It's important to note that the
times of events and their chronology are not always in the order of
occurrence. Chapter 11 actually occurs before
chapter 10, but we'll look at that later on. Neither is the
amount of time often recorded, saving the record of the lifespan
of the fathers, how long they lived, and how much time has
passed from the exit of the ark to the planting of the vineyard
is not known, but it is apparent that some time has expired, because
verse 18 indicates that Canaan was born already to Ham. In fact,
some say that it was Canaan that discovered the nakedness of Noah,
as it was he who has actually received the curse and not Ham.
Suffice it to say that however long it took to plant a vineyard,
to bring it to productivity, to harvest the grapes, to make
wine and imbibe the same, was a substantial amount of time.
And this account in Noah's life is a picture, another repetition
of the picture of the fall All the elements are here, the water,
the spirit, the ark moving upon the face of the deep, the command
of light to shine, the singular window through which all light
comes, which is a picture of Jesus Christ. We have gardens,
we have tillers of the ground, we have the promise of the Messiah,
we have the burnt offering, we have the slaying of beasts, the
world made anew, and the revelation of natural depravity. And it's
the story that is declared throughout this entire book, throughout
the Old Testament. And it is what men like to call
the old, old story, the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now in this episode, it is as if the declaration of chapter
8 and verse 21, which reads, For the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth, is ominously illustrated in the
life of Noah. It is a further and an illustration
that everyone who has tasted of the grace of God, found grace
in God's eyes, He is but a breath from falling into sin, succumbing
to the pleasures of the flesh. Believers are not mighty creatures.
There are no super-Christians. All believers are sinners, saved
by grace. As Mark, who didn't like to serve,
and left the company of Paul, as Paul and his Jewish ceremonies
disrupted his ministry, as Peter and Barnabas at Antioch chose
to sit with the Judaizers, the lawgivers and law keepers, rather
than with those who had been saved by the grace of God. Believers,
all of us, will bend to the will of the flesh, and the only thing
that will keep us from that, the only thing that will keep
us from that, from the full realization of
the ruin that could occur is the resisting grace of God. Never mistake this. Never mistake the restraining
grace of God as indicative of your personal strength or your
personal righteousness because it's neither of those. What was God risking you to say?
Take your headquarters in the dust. Don't ever graduate from
being a sinner, because if you do, you graduate from needing
grace. Noah's sin here, his error, is
the demonstration of Paul's words in Romans chapter 7 and verse
25, when he said, with my mind, I serve the law of God. But with
my flesh, I serve the law of sin and death. has had tremendous
experiences. None of us have experienced things
like he did. He has seen the power and wrath of God. He's
seen the grace of God and his wondrous salvation. Built an
ark. Saved all the animals. Saved
the world, really. Started everything over anew.
Surely such a one will stand as a stalwart exemplar of great
faith and great resilience and great strength and incomparable
honor. Surely sin would not stand a chance against such a brave
soldier of the cross who has experienced the power of grace
freely bestowed. Where do we find such a great
and dedicated man, one who has obeyed God, built an ark, and
saved the world alive? Is he in the sanctuary of fervent
prayer? Is he out and about winning souls
for Jesus? Is he spending his days in meditation
of the glories of his Maker? No. He's drunk. He's drunk after experiencing
such magnificent grace. He is drunk. He's three sheets
to the wind, having overenjoyed the fruits of his labor. Now
drinking wine or other alcoholic beverages in moderation is not
a sin. But getting drunk or getting
high is a sin. because you lose control of your
mental faculties. It's a sin. Drunkenness in scripture
is a sin. Not drinking wine, but drunkenness. Noah has sinned against his maker.
And to add insult to injury, he's passed out. Sands Raymond,
buck naked, exposed in his tent. This is Noah. Noah, that all
the generation whose imagination was evil continually, of which
he was a member, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This
is Noah, the recipient of grace, a man whose sins will be remembered
no more. A man who has known God. A man who stands before the thrice
holy God as redeemed and righteous. even while he's laying here dead,
drunk, and naked. A child of the Father of Lights,
in whom there is no variable and there is no shadow of turning.
This is Noah, by Christ made a king and a priest unto God. Fraught with frailty, his mind
void altogether of thought, lying in an alcoholic stupor. Never
let us be aware that we are incapable of keeping ourselves. Let us continually fall in the
arms of sovereign mercy, even in this sad estate, defenseless,
Noah is yet the object of God's grace. If you don't understand
that, you don't understand the grace of God. David was the apple of God's
eye, a man after God's own heart. And God loved him just the same
when he was laying in adultery in the arms of Bathsheba that
he did when he danced in front of the ark when he returned to
Jerusalem. This is grace. We're saved by grace, not by
works, not by good deeds, and bad deeds doesn't affect the
grace of God. It affects us, and often affects
our relationship with God, but never, ever affects his relationship
with us. It never does. He has remembered
our sins no more. He will allow no accusation against
us. Even in this sad a state, He
is the object of grace. And when Noah's son does his
deed, it is God who stands for him as a defender of his honor
and his integrity. As weak as he is, as wrong as
he is, as wrong as he has done, He is God's child and one cannot
touch the Lord's anointing without paying the price borne of engendering
God's anger. Ham's sin was to mock his father's
nakedness, to make sport of the one whom God had chosen, to look
down on one whom God has loved, and that is no small thing. That
is no small thing. Over Matthew chapter 18, even
when the disciples started talking about who should have the best
place in heaven. If somebody's going to have the
best place, one of the other disciples is going to have a less place.
That simply means that. Our Lord dealt with that. Our
Lord dealt with that. He says, there ain't going to
be no best place. Everybody's going to have exactly the same place.
But they were arguing about this, and He says, you're looking down
on your brother by doing that. You're down-minding. You're despising
your brother by doing that. In Matthew chapter 18, He says
this. In verse 10, he says, take heed, pay attention, take heed
that you despise not one of these little ones, that you don't look
down or down mine on one of these little ones. For I say unto you
that in heaven their angels, not just the angels, the ones
who's being looked down upon, their angels, do always behold
the face of my Father which is in heaven. What does that mean? That means that the angels that
are assigned to you and every one of you, all believers have
angels assigned to you. They watch over you and care
for you, guard you. They're guardian angels. This
is for God. You remember the story of Elijah
when he was camped out and his servant went out to get some
water to fix breakfast and he looked up on the hills and the
hills were surrounded with a horde of enemies, completely surrounded. There's boxed in just two of
them. And he comes back and says, Elijah, we're in trouble. The
whole armies of the Sumerians are out there. They're going
to kill us. He says, oh, don't worry, son. There's more of us than
there are of them. He said, what are you talking about? He said,
Lord, open his eyes. He opened his eyes and he saw that surrounding
all that army was a host of angels. host of angels. Now their angels
look steadfastly in the face of God when the one they are
assigned to is looked down upon. What does that mean? The best
anybody has ever come up with that I can understand simply
means that when God sees this happen, His expression changes
and the angels fly to the rescue of the one who is looked down
upon because Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, came into the world
to save sinners. And that puts us all in the same
boat. All of us in the same boat. We're
all sinners, all saved exactly the same way. All saved exactly
the same way. Now, Ham or Canaan has looked
down on Noah. All who have children know something about this. They
know full well what their children are, and sometimes they remind
their children of what they are. Remind them of that fact. But what I know about parents
being a parent myself, and I know about you also, that you will
countenance no one to speak ill of your children. Now you might
speak ill to them, and you might have to straighten them out with
a strap. But let somebody else say something about your child
and the hairs on your neck will stand up and you'll be ready
to fight. You know that's the case. Now they have talked, Ham
has talked badly, has laughed and mocked at one of God's children. God knows His children. He knows
Noah. He knows Noah whom He has loved
from all eternity, whom He chose in Christ before the foundation
of the world, whom He sent Christ to the cross to die in His room
instead and become His substitute. He knows Noah and He knows he's
laying there dead drunk right now. He knows that. But He'll not have Ham talk about
it. He'll not have Canaan talk about it. He'll not have it. This is the way God operates.
He will countenance no accusation against anyone against His child,
lest his anger be kindled. Therefore now there is no condemnation
to them that are in Jesus Christ. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. It is Christ that died. God is
jealous for His glory and His glory is tied up in the salvation
of that wretched man laying there dead drunk for His glory and the glory of
His grace because it's a proof without a doubt Noah could never
deserve anything from God and yet God graced him God graced
him My mom taught me that if I had nothing nice to say about
someone, to say nothing. I've not always followed that
rule, but it's a good rule to follow. Best learn that lesson when speaking
of God's children, I'll tell you that. Ham learned the lesson,
and learned it the hard way. There is a possibility, as I
said, that it was Canaan who first saw Noah's nakedness, and
maybe went and told his father Ham, and then Ham joined in with
the young man in his laughter and his mocking. It was Canaan,
after all, that received the curse. Our Lord said, Cursed
be Canaan. Cursed be Canaan. That curse,
according to this, was servitude. To who? To his brothers. Not
to anybody else. To his brothers. Many in Ursat's
theologian have ventured theory as to what and to what extent
that servitude or slavery meant. Many so-called theologians in
the Civil War used this to support slavery in the South. But since the Bible essentially
states it as a fact, you're going to serve your brethren. States it as a fact. And the
Bible doesn't elaborate on it. Maybe we should quell any notion
of adding to the Word of God. And if we take the words as prophetic,
when God says this, back in our text, in verse 25, He said, Cursed
be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
And he said, Blessed be the Lord of Shem. Now Shem was the land
from which Christ came from. And Canaan shall be his servant.
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in tents of Shem,
and Canaan shall be his servant. So this is what God said. This is all He said. This is
all He said. We take these words of God as
prophetic. Would they not fit the scheme
of Israel ultimately defeating and occupying the promised land
of Canaan? Did not Canaan become the servant
of Israel? This we know as fact. And fact
trumps theory every time. Two things are learned from this
account of the life of Noah for us. First, God's children are
sinners saved by grace. You need to learn that. We need
to learn that every day. Don't we? Because our mind will take
us elsewhere. Our flesh will certainly take
us elsewhere. We're sinners saved by grace. Secondly, God is our
defense. God is our defense. Noah had
no defense for what he did. There was no excuse for it. He
wanted to get drunk, so he piled on the wine. There's no excuse
for what he did, but God defended him. God is our defense, and
He will deal with those who oppose according to His will and according
to His schedule. He said to His children, He says
to you, fear not little flock, for it is the Lord's pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Fear not. Father, bless us so
we understand and we pray in Christ's name.