Genesis 918 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were
Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.
These three were the sons of Noah.
And from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.
Noah began to be began to be a man of soil, and he planted a
vineyard. And he drank of the wine, and
became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father
and told his two brothers outside.
Then Sham and Japheth took a garment, laid it both on both
their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the
nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned
backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness.
When Noah woke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had
done to him, he said, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants
shall he be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the
Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be a servant, and May God
enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and
let Canaan be a servant. And after the flood, Noah lived
350 years, and all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he
died. He may be seated, and May God
have his blessing at the reading of his word.
Let's pray together this morning.
Gracious Father, we think we've strung about the name of Jesus a
lot this morning. We thank you for the power
that's in his name. We thank you for the power
that's in the word that we're about to open up and speak to.
Lord, I pray that you would allow it to speak to our hearts
and our lives and be an application to how we live
Monday through Saturday of this coming week.
We pray and ask in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, Norfolk, VA, at First Baptist Church, Pastor Ken, on
sunny, sunny days, Sunday days, he would go out and greet people
as they were getting out of their cars and coming in for
worship. And he noticed that day, the
third in line was a tall guy with a with a golf shirt, golf
pants and a teenage son. And as he was getting ready to
shake hands with people, as I said they were third in line, he
could hear them complaining, the grant, the teenager complaining
about why do I have to go to church?
Why do I have to go to church? And finally the exasperated
father said, well, you have to go to church because my daddy
made me go to church when I was a kid.
And the teenage son said, well, I guess it didn't do much good
for you, did it? Because he was head off to play
golf. Well, as we think about that,
that story, it reminds us of some influences and the legacy
that we leave behind. For example, fathers who go to
church 3 * a month, who share biblical values in a
conversation over time with their sons, and who also
practice to the best of their ability what they believe, have
a greater chance of their son continuing to walk in their
faith. But it's also been proven
through those studies that if a father doesn't do any of those
things, then the faith becomes irrelevant to the son.
So how important it is it to set the example and to set the
legacy? We're going to talk about Noah's
legacy here in a moment. But an engineer had this note
taped inside his desk drawer at his office.
This was found after he died in a car accident.
The family found it and it said, this is not my life.
This is not my job. Christ is my life.
So what kind of example are you setting for your kids and your
grandkids when it comes to your walk with Jesus?
What do you want your kids and your grandkids to remember about
you when you pass from this life?
We're going to look at the legacy of Noah and what he left
to his children. So let's look at the early part
of Chapter 9, just to review a little bit as Pastor Drew's been
preaching through it and the story of Noah.
Chapter 9 gives us some very important information and
context in preparation for the end of the chapter.
We read and heard in Pastor Drew's sermon last week that God
was ready to replenish the earth after he had destroyed it.
He said to them be fruitful and multiply.
Some people have said that God is a cosmic kill joint.
Some pastors teach that sex is not right, it's wrong.
But here God is saying in the context of marriage, have sex,
have lots of it, have lots of it, and have lots of children.
He said the same thing about animals, to be fruitful and
multiply. Those animals that fly, those
that walk on the ground, and the fish in the sea, and man has
promised to have dominion over them.
Many animals would fear mankind and their presence as they do
now since the flood. Thank God gives Noah the decree
for capital punishment. A life destroyed means that the
one who destroys life is killed for the offense.
We see that repeated in Genesis 96.
Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man and his own image.
There's benefits to enforcing capital punishment in our
culture. A just society requires the
taking of 1's life. If they have taken someone
else's life, it would immediately reduce murder rates.
If capital punishment was experienced quickly, it would
add more power to the enforcement of the law.
But there's a risk in executing the death penalty.
The risk is that you could possibly execute someone who is
innocent, but I believe if all is done to make the case that a
person has committed murder, the evidence proves that a jury
convicts and the judge pronounces the sentence, then
leave it up to God. It's worth that risk.
Remember that someone who murders is murdering someone
who's created, created in the image of God.
That is how serious murder is. Lastly, before we get to this
text, God gives us an unconditional promise that He
will never destroy the earth again by flood.
The sign is still seen even to this day.
When you see a rainbow, and sometimes a double rainbow,
you're reminded that there's a loving and merciful God whose
promised never to destroy the earth again by flood.
And when God makes a promise, He will keep it.
Think about some of the promises in Genesis chapter 14 that God
made with Abraham when he cut the animals in half and he had a
smoking Lantern and went between them.
And he said, if I keep this covenant that you're going to be
a father of many, a great nation, and you're going to have
the promised land. He said as sure as you can't put
these animals back together to bring life.
I'm making this unconditional promise.
We think of the promise of salvation first.
John 513 I write these things to you who believe in the name of
the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
And then the promise he won't recreate the world by the flood,
but by fire. It tells us the new heavens and
new earth will be created as God brings fire to destroy what's
here and rebuild it. In second Peter 310 it says, But
the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the
heavens will pass away with the roar, and the heavenly bodies
will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that
are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus
to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives
of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the
coming of the day of God? Because of which the heavens
will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly
bodies will melt as they burn. But according to His promise, we
are waiting for new heavens and a new earth.
And which righteousness dwells? How many looking forward to that
day? Yes, righteousness will dwell,
sin will be no more, and we'll be with God ever present with
Him. So let's move to our text for
today. First thing on your outline, I
encourage you to take out your outline and fill in these
blanks. We see that the patriarchs of
the renewed human race, the patriarchs of the renewed human
race, everybody was destroyed but Noah and his three sons with
the opportunity to multiply the earth.
So they become the patriarchs. So the sons of Noah, it says in
verse 18, who went forth from the ark were Shem Ham and
Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.
These three were the sons of Noah.
And from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.
Now this section of Chapter 9 has several interpretive
problems that have always plagued biblical scholars for
many years, but this passage has a direct reference to the nature
and the destiny of the Canaanites, which were Israelite
Israel's antagonists. So Noah had three sons who would
multiply the earth's Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Japheth first one we talked about is Shem.
Shem's descendants would become the nation of Israel.
Through him, Abraham would be born and be one of his
descendants. Then we read about Ham, and Ham
would become the father of the Canaanite nation which would
oppose Israel and live very wicked lives.
Notice that of all three brothers mentioned that Ham is
mentioned as the father of Canaan.
This becomes a significant part of the story as it unfolds.
And then Japheth. Among Muslim historians, Japheth
is usually regarded as the ancestor of Gog and Magog tribes
at the times of the Turks, the Khazars, and the Sloths.
Notice of verse 19, we see the first use of the word dispersed.
You'll see that again when Pastor Drew preaches on Genesis
Chapter 11. The Tower of Babel and the world
will be divided geopolitically and by language groups.
But God had a plan for Noah and his family, but it was revealed
to them one day at a time. Now we need to understand that
when we become a believer in Christ, the day, the moment we
cross that line of faith, how many of us would really want to
know the entirety of God's will for our life?
I think we'd be scared out of our wits if we saw that on the
day that we got saved. I think that's important.
But what does God do? He unfolds the scroll of His
will on a daily basis, and I think it's important that He
does that because then it causes us to be dependent upon Him as
we walk this journey through life and build dependence upon
Him. Noah had no idea how long he
would be in the ark and what the world would look like when he
got out of the ark and what his role would be after the flood,
but he faithfully followed God. So here's our first application.
God has a plan for us if we will, but trust Him to reveal to
US one day at a time. It's not always easy to do.
Sometimes we want to see the big picture.
Sometimes we see a decision coming down the road and we'd
like God to reveal to us exactly what we're supposed to do days
and weeks ahead. But God is faithful.
He's never late, and He always shows up and shows us exactly
what we need to do. So we need to be dependent upon
Him. Second, we see the problem that
came because of Him seeing Noah naked, the problem with Ham and
Noah. Look at verse 20.
Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard,
and he drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered
in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers
outside. Then Sham and Japheth took a
garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward
and covered their nakedness, the nakedness of their father.
Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their
father's nakedness. Verse 24, When Noah woke from
his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him.
And we'll talk about what that is in the next point.
But notice that Noah was a successful farmer.
Notice it says he was a man of soil.
And so at the beginning of creation, agriculture sprung up,
and now after the flood, agriculture begins to blossom
once again. If you look at verses 20 through
27, you see the similarities to the first creation and the
establishment of man on earth. First of all, the planting of a
specifically cultivated area, a vineyard.
We see that here in verse 20. We see that in Genesis 28, we
see the partaking of the fruit, specially cultivated areas
producing wine. And we see this in this passage
where Noah is drinking wine that he has been able to harvest the
grapes and make into wine. And we see the result was
nakedness in Genesis 37. And then we see the nakedness
had to be covered in Genesis 321 when God had to kill animals and
put skins over Adam and Eve. So the brothers covered Noah's
nakedness and then the pronouncement of a curse against
the snake, the ground, and the pains of childbirth, to name a
few consequences of sin. And we're going to see a curse
proclaimed and declared by Noah in just a moment.
But one thing we keep mentioning for emphasis is that the flood
did not resolve the depravity of man.
You would think in a generation or two after this great flood,
and it whittled it down to just eight people, that people would
remember and think about it. But no man became more and more
and more depraved as time went on.
It's just like us. If we're not careful, we can
develop spiritual amnesia. We see God do miraculous things
in our life, and sometimes when we get to the next circumstance,
it's difficult. The next trial or the
tribulation, we kind of forget about what God did in the past
in a miraculous way. We need to be constantly
reminding ourselves, and that's what the Scriptures do,
especially in the Old Testament. But in this narrative we see the
first major act of depravity, depravity after the flood.
Noah's success led to personal sin.
He was really good at what he did.
He developed his vineyard. He grew the grapes.
He pressed them, made them into wine.
But now he becomes drunk with wine.
Now the Bible is very clear in Ephesians 517.
It's OK to drink alcohol in moderation, but drunkenness is a
sin. And so it appears that Noah, as
he became successful, he began to drink, and he was in a
drunken stupor, as we read here, while he was sleeping.
And Ham came into the tent and discovered that his father was
naked. In the Hebrew it says that Ham
went to his brothers and gloated over his dad's drunken state and
nakedness. In Habakkuk 215 it says woe to
him who makes his neighbors drink.
You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at
their nakedness. Proverbs 20 verse one.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is LED
astray by it is not wise. To the ancients, however, even
seeing one's father naked was a breach of family ethic.
The sanctity of the family was destroyed and the strength of
the father was made into a mockery.
Him apparently stumbled on this accidentally, but went out and
joyfully told his two brothers if it as if he had triumphed or
had something on his father. The wine is said to cheer the
heart in Jude 9, Jude yeah in Jude 9, and then Psalm 10415 and
alleviate the pain of the curse in Proverbs 31.
Six. But it's also clear that has
disturbing effects. What seems to be a trivial
incident becomes a major event. Noah's drunkenness and nakedness
showed that the natures of his three sons would be perpetuated
by their descendants. And Noah's strength and success
and growing grapes led him to lack of self-control and
ultimately to sin. My good friend Scott Pearson,
who was retired pastor from Cornerstone, he said this a
number of years ago and I wrote it down and I've kept it in my
quotes. It says an unguarded strength is
a double weakness. You see, when we think we have
this natural talent OR this great spiritual gift and we're
successful at it, one of the dangers is, is we get proud and
at some point we crossover and think it's all about me.
And then we're vulnerable to sin.
We're vulnerable because we don't see that that's a
weakness, being proud in our strength.
And so we have to guard our hearts.
And so our application here is when our strength becomes our
weakness, we cannot control the consequences of our personal
sin. Be careful, don't gloat.
Always give glory to God. Always depend upon Him and thank
Him for what he has given you, what He's gifted you to do
naturally or with your spiritual gifts.
Third, because of what happened during the time of Noah's
drunken stupor, the punishment was declared on Canaan.
Look at verses 25 to 27 of Genesis 9.
He, Noah, said cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he
be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the
Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.
May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
and let Canaan be his servant. No Notice Noah's curse, Noah's
curse. Noah in his curse references
Canaan, which would have been Ham's youngest son.
Now, some say the punishment was given because of one of four
things that may have occurred. And by the way, we don't know
exactly what happened even very clearly through the text in
Hebrew. But here's some thoughts that
some people have, some commentators.
First of all, Ham slept with his mother.
That's the phrase saw the nakedness or uncovered the
nakedness of his father. But we have no evidence or proof
of that from the text. Ham or Kanan could have
castrated Noah. Could be true, maybe, but
there's no proof of that. But Noah didn't have any
children after this. Some believe that Kanan, the
youngest grandson, committed a perverse sexual act with his
grandfather. Others have said that Ham was
involved in a preferred sexual act on his father.
But the Hebrew expression here means what it says.
It simply says Ham saw his father's nakedness in verse 22.
He was not involved with Noah sexually because that is a
different Hebrew word altogether.
Instead, Noah had already uncovered himself and Ham saw
him that way. And so that's how we should
accept what this text is telling us.
So Sham and Ham Japheth go backward with a covering to
cover Noah's nakedness in verse 23.
But in verse 24, Noah awakens from his drunken stupor and
realizes something has happened. Maybe Shem and Japheth informed
him of what happened. We don't know.
But then we see the curse Noah puts on Canaan, his grandson.
Some have said that the verses 24 through 27 give us a glimpse
of Israel's foreign policy going forward.
We see here the third of three curses mentioned in Genesis.
The curse of the serpent, the curse of Cain, and now the curse
of Canaan. Canaan became the father.
Of the Canaanites who became severely sexually deviant people
according to Genesis 10 and Leviticus 18, they were there
and Sodom, Gomorrah, they're part of the the group of people
who were created the immoral wickedness there.
Joshua conquered the Canaanites and made them slaves to the
nation of Israel, which Sham founded through his descendants.
We see the sins of Canaan were passed down to future
generations. It's interesting that Ham is not
mentioned in the curse but his son.
Ham's disposition toward moral abandoned thus bore fruit in the
immoral acts of his descendants the Canaanites.
And according to Leviticus 18, the Canaanites became very
immoral and practiced the habitual life of sexual sin.
No also stated in this curse on Canaan, the Canaan's people
would live in slavery to Shams descendants.
We see that prophecy there in Noah's curse, Leviticus 18 three
says you should not do, God said as they do in the land of Egypt
where you lived and where you shall not do as they do in the
land of Canaan, to which I'm bringing you, you shall not walk
in their statutes. God said from this, don't be a
part of those who disobey me as you go into the promised land.
Now, I grew up for what, 15-16 years in the South?
Maybe some of you've never heard this taken from this passage of
Scripture, but there's a serious misinterpretation of the curse
on Ham's grandson that's led to horrific teaching by too many
Christian pastors and teachers. When I was in seminary, one of
the commentators that they want us to read was Jameson Fawcett
Brown. And when I looked at his
commentary on these verses, look at what he says.
This doom has been fulfilled and the destruction of the
Canaanites and the degradation of Egypt and the slavery of the
Africans, the descendants of Ham.
You see they believe the curse of Ham caused the African people
to be black and to be LED into slavery and that was part of
God's will because of the curse. This is a false interpretation.
Ham's youngest grandson was cursed and resulted his
descendants were black skinned and became African people.
And the thought is because of this curse, they're deemed
inferior and condemned to a life of slavery for coming
generations. This is where Christians and
other countries and in the beginning of our country
justified slavery. The curse of Ham it's called.
It's an erroneous teaching. And I wish I had more time to
talk about this, but this is what justified in some ways, the
South supporting slavery heading into the Civil War.
They use this verse, this passage to support their reasons
for it. But here's what we should
believe as believers in Christ. First of all, you'll see these
on the screen. All men and women are created
equal and made in the image of God all across the board.
There's no room for prejudice for us as Christians.
Second of all, we're all one race, the human race with
diverse ethnicities. Thirdly, the cross and the
gospel in Ephesians 2 is the only hope for reconciliation
between ethnicities. This is important.
In Ephesians 2 it says that Christ died on the cross and he
tore down the dividing wall of hostility.
The Jews were not supposed to be with the Gentiles, but now that
has changed. They're now Jewish believers and
Gentile believers are allowed to worship together, to break bread
together, to fellowship with one another.
And so we see the breaking of the divide between ethnicities.
And fourthly, were to accept diversity of cultures and
ethnicity as God's creative work among his special creation.
It's great to go to African American church or a charismatic
church or different cultures. I've been to Kenya and to see
them dance in their beautiful outfits, the ladies and a guy
beating a bucket with his drumsticks and worshipping.
There's all kinds of ways and we gather around the throne.
It says in Roman and Revelation chapter 5, we're going to
celebrate who God is from every tribe and every nation and every
language together. So diversity is good.
We should celebrate that. We should encourage that.
Let's look. Lastly and Noah's blessing.
We saw his curse, but he did give a blessing here as well.
Noah's words elevate his first son, Shem, and who would be
Keenan, subsequent master. This shows that there will be
strife among the siblings. Japheth, who is the youngest
son, is giving a blessing that his descendants will populate
much of the land and prosper. Notice the words enlargement and
dwell in tents. They would be nomadic people
traveling, but they would have vast amounts of land.
And let's look at the last two verses in this chapter.
As we wrap this chapter up, says after the flood, Noah lived 350
years. All the days of Noah were 950
years, and he died. This present document between
the old world and the new, IT has a double character being the
close of history before the flood and now the beginning of
life after the flood. As the civilization,
civilization grew and they continued to walk with God after
the flood. Noah was a hero in the Bible,
but like many as he got older he gave in to the temptations of
the flesh and he had the 1 scar in his life that we remember.
That's why Paul writes in First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse
11. Now these things happen to them
as an example, but they were written down for our instruction
on whom the end of the ages has come.
One of the great things that was instilled in me as a young
believer in Christ was the idea that when you read the Bible,
you see the scars of great men and women to learn from their
example so you can avoid the consequences of sin, the
heartache of disobedience, and the results of those actions in
your life. We think of David, a man after
God's own heart. That's what God called him.
And then he got into adultery and murder and he sought
forgiveness. In Psalm 51, at the end of his
life, God said he was still a man after his own heart.
I think it's all allowing Christians to be killed, putting
them in prison, and yet he becomes Paul and does miraculous
things. And so God can redeem the things
in our lives. But if we look at our lives and
look at what the Bible says, we can avoid those consequences,
those heartaches, if we learn from the examples that are
written therein. So this begs the question, what
kind of legacy will we leave behind?
What kind of legacy will we leave behind?
The application, The integrity or sin of a person will affect
future descendants. How you live your life.
What do you want your kids and your grandkids to remember when
they shuffle through your papers, your pictures, the
memories in their minds? What do you want them to
remember about you? Yes, you've done some things
wrong. Yes, you forgot forgiveness.
Now you're walking blameless, but what kind of a legacy are
you leaving behind? And as we look at our key
thought just before we pray, God will bless us if we exhibit
self-control over our sinful flesh and stay obedient to Him.
God will bless us if we exhibit self-control over our sinful
flesh and stay obedient to Him. God will bless us if we exhibit
self-control over our sinful flesh and stay obedient to Him.
As we pray, let's bow our heads and our hearts.
I just want to give you a challenge today.
Maybe you're here today. Maybe you want to say from this
day forward, I want to be more intentional.
Intentional and living out my faith as an example for my kids,
for my grandkids. Some of us in here, we've lived
a pretty long life of sin, but God has forgiven us and washed
that all the way and we can move forward from here we are today.
For others of us that may be just to rededicate ourselves to
going to church, to having conversations with our kids and
our grandkids and then walking the talk as I talked about the
very beginning of the service in the illustration to make an
impact and a difference in your kids and grandkids lives never
get bad and every eye closed. Maybe here today, maybe say, you
know, I want to continue to dedicate myself to do that, or
today I want to begin to dedicate myself to do that.
Just slip your hand up so I can pray for you.
Say I want to build a legacy that my kids, yes, will find me.
Yes, will find me faithful. Then when I look through all
this stuff and look through our Bibles, they'll see that we had
a relationship with God. Anyone else before we pray
today? Yes, Father, you see these
hands. You know the hearts.
Lord, I just thank you, Lord, that we can learn.
We can learn from so many people in Scripture.
And Noah's a simple one of the cases.
Lord, as we looked at today, what a great man.
He found the favor and grace of God when it was time to build an
ark when no one knew what rain was.
And he must have been laughed at and mocked at for 120 years as
he built this ark. And then God closed the door
with his family members and the animals, and he was found
faithful to do what you wanted. And Lord, despite this blemish,
he leaves a godly legacy. May us, despite our blemishes,
be found forgiven and blameless and setting the example for the
next generation and the next generations to come through our
descendants. We pray and ask these things in
the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.