If you're visiting this morning, we are working through the book of Genesis, and we are this morning come to, we've come this morning to Genesis chapter 9, verses 18 through 28. Genesis chapter 9, first book of the Bible, verses 18 through 28, and that is found on page 9 in your pew Bible. And I thought that this section was so important that we will just give the attention to verses 18 to 29 and complete chapter 9 this morning of Genesis. Let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 18. 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 a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard 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 Shem and Japheth took a garment laid it 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 awoke 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 his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. As you were reading through that narrative a moment ago, the verse that should have stuck out to you, the verse that should have deeply moved you, are the actions of Shem and Japheth. They walk backward, refusing to look upon their father's nakedness. And as they walk backward, they fling a robe and cover his whole body so that none of it could be seen. Now that's, if you think about it, quite a remarkable event, especially in light of the fact that we know nothing like that even in society to this day. What is news today? What is news today? We sit in front of the TV and we are glued to all kinds of perverse scandals, aren't we? We are glued to the scandals of leaders who have fallen and all of a sudden all of their shame, all of their awful things they've done are put right out in front of us all. And we sit there and we watch this with eager anticipation, seeing just how far this guy is going to spin out of control and lose everything. Oh, we love that stuff. We're driven on that stuff. Turn on the news. We don't know which one's coming tomorrow. What political leader is going to face some kind of open shaming scandal? I mean, this is what makes reality TV today. This is what makes it go. My sister growing up, I hope she never listens to this sermon. My sister growing up was the one who always got in trouble. And she would always complain to my parents. She'd say, Chris, it's just as bad. Chris is just as bad. Chris does just as many bad things. And I would whisper in her ear so my parents didn't hear, I'm just smart enough not to get caught. The fact is, if I ask the question this morning, and you were honest, what sins are you hiding? We're all exposed. What sins are you hiding? If your life was uncovered, what would it show? What would be brought out in the course of your life if it were brought out here today? The problem is, is what Hebrews says, there's no creature hidden from God's sight, but all things are naked and open to him, to his eyes, to whom we must give an account. So before the one to whom any of this matters, the one who sees everything, who knows everything, who has the ability to look through walls, who has the ability to see what goes on in bedrooms, who has the ability to see what's going on in hearts, he's the one before whom everything is naked and open. Interesting scripture would choose that language. Here's the problem. You know what judgment is? You know what the final judgment is? The final judgment is the uncovering of sin. Whenever God judged, and Job would say this, you strip men of their clothing. Whenever God was judging, and Ezekiel talks about this with Israel, he laid open naked and bare. He was pulling down fig leaves that Adam and Eve had put on, and he would come in and he would judge and expose. And so the question the Lord always wanted his people to think about throughout the course of history was how could somebody ever be clothed before Him and stand before Him and that He would actually accept it. I raised this this morning because the single great figure celebrated in the early world that then was as righteous, the one who was an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith, the one who in chapter 6 said Noah was blameless and perfect in his generation, he walked with God that blessed saint of God now before us we're studying bare naked and drunk in a tent now no one had the ability to go in there and see that so why did God put this here I want to get here this morning in other words I want to end up here this morning so that everyone sees how wonderful the Lord has been and what He's doing here. I want to land with 2 Corinthians 5. This is my goal in the sermon. It's to get right here. For we, in this tent we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. The New Testament's picking up on this a lot, and I think it has this event in mind. So I want us to think about that this morning, how having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. What is coming? What is going to happen in the new heavens and the new earth? We'll get there. Last week, we studied the flood event, and the flood event was actually the events that took place after the flood event in the world that now is the world that really ushered forth the world as we know it since Peter had divided it up that way and we really studied something remarkable that God in in wonderful what theologians have called common grace flooded this earth with all sorts of blessing and preservation so that this continued judgment would not happen and God would not continually wipe it out over and over and over and over again. And so notice everything that was listed there at the last section in chapter 9, that God is going to preserve seed time and harvest. He's going to feed the earth. There's going to be seasons. And I believe the Lord wanted us all to see how remarkable after he had smelled that sacrifice of Noah, that soothing aroma, which we looked at last time, what ultimately that pointed to. After God had done that, and then He floods the earth with blessings, everyone should say, look at how good God has been to stay this sad world. I mean, it's been rightly said that God would flood us with every single blessing right now in fullness if we could handle it. And remember, Paul would evangelize the pagans this way. God has filled your hearts in Lystra to the pagans worshiping other gods. Filled your hearts with food and gladness that you might repent, that you might come to him. So we've seen this throughout history, God preserving and upholding. And even though he fills our hearts with foods and gladness, even though he continues to do this to this sad world, he's reminding us something this morning. This world isn't it. We've not arrived. It would have been great if we could close out the Bible after Genesis 8 and 9. But we don't. And the Lord doesn't want us because He's so good getting too caught up in the pleasures of this life, living for this world, to forget that we don't belong to this world. that he's bringing forth, his goal is to bring forward a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness shall dwell. Then we will have it in glory. Then we will be ultimately satisfied. And that's his goal. And so what this passage this morning does, and I hope you begin to see and put this together, notice how the whole thing is framed so that you would be reminded of God's ultimate goal here to send or deliver. That hadn't happened yet. In verse 18, this is what we read. The sons of Noah who went out from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And it was from these that the whole earth was populated. So you had these three kind of heads, if you will, of the human race, each representing, as we see in Scripture, spiritual realities. And verse 20 begins with a remarkable statement, doesn't it? And Noah began to be a farmer or a tiller of the soil, as the translation says. And he planted a vineyard. Now that should stand out for a moment. Noah planted a vineyard. He's tilling the soil. And every inquisitive or thoughtful reader might say for a minute, wait a minute, didn't God curse the ground? at the beginning at creation and he had cursed the ground and remember after the flood immediately after the flood the first thing god said was i will never curse the ground again for man's sake something was different it was rough in that first world tilling the soil probably way worse than any of us has an idea because after this when god's common blessings flooded this earth things were lightened. The load was lightened, if you will. And remember Noah's father. Noah's father had said about Noah, oh, this one, this one will give us rest because he is going to comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. We're getting comfort. I believe that what's being suggested here is that before the flood, it was so weary to work to provide for your families they felt nothing but unending agony doing it and we should all stop and say look how much time we have in the united states on our hands and how much time we waste but i want you to think about this for a moment the lord promising here through this all that he would feed us that there would be winters and and summers and seasons and harvest and all of this as long as the earth remains, putting a bow in the sky, telling us he's not going to repeat this. Well, in Genesis 9, what happened was remarkable that he had flooded this earth with so much goodness. Now, in the next section, what happens with Noah? He's subduing. He's fulfilling. And he's cultivating the ground and he's tilling the soil and now developing what is called viniculture or the developing and the cultivation of grapes. Commonly blessed in the ancient world and there's a lot of study on how old this practice is. I think some of you do it here in Escondido. It's a fun thing. Everything had been developed through agonizing toil just to have food to live and here's noah and what's he producing wine wine and the scriptures throughout as i have read the scriptures and studied the scriptures speak of wine not as a curse but as a blessing wine itself being a blessing from the lord the psalms say filling the heart with gladness providing comfort and cheer as much as some people want to tell us differently that is the way the scriptures portray it and that's the way the scriptures describe it but here's where it all goes south it's verse 21 then he drank of the wine and was drunk and became uncovered in his tent noah starts enjoying that freedom a little too much doesn't he and noah started enjoying the vineyard a little too much, and he becomes totally inebriated, drunk, and where does it lead? His clothes come off. Boy, there's a long history of alcohol leading people to take off their clothes, isn't there? And Noah starts enjoying this, and what we have here, and you'll see this repeated even with Lot and his daughters, which is an awful scene. Here is Noah totally shamed in humiliation of his sin and the question that we all come to as we initially open up Genesis chapter 9 is what is God showing us why is God opening this up have you begun to put this together yet have you put the big picture together last week we had a fascinating recreation event didn't we the Holy Spirit shows up in verse 1 and 2 he is hovering against making the waters to subside you have all the major creation themes again there are the birds and the land and they're all entering into the land coming out of the ark sixth day remember and there is noah and the animals coming out and they fill the earth and the lord said fill the earth be fruitful and multiply but after this very creation event what's the first thing you have recorded in the very next scene a lush vineyard blessing food dominion over the land animals and then fall the whole thing's repeated this is repeating everything of genesis 2 and 3 that's how we should see this here's the head of the new world the head of the world that now is and in the very opening scene he has taken god's goodness that should have been used for his glory and he drank and now he's drunk naked and exposed before us and here's where we get to the question of what god is teaching us this morning what was the first thing adam and eve did after they had sinned in the garden of eden and they were sober and they realized they had sinned against god the first thing they did is what They tried to cover their nakedness with clothing. And here's Noah, naked. And what is God telling us? Even though God started over, even though God did this great recreation event, the narrative said one thing last week that had not been made new. Remember it? God said, God said, remember what He said, that everything, as He looks at this, He said in verse 21, I will never accursed the ground because of man, and then we have the problem, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. The problem of sin has not gone away. The problem of sin has not gone away. And here we are in chapter 9 and what God wants us to see is everything is restated for us so that we see that the program's continuing. Man has fallen. He needs a covering. And his life is totally incompatible with being before this presence of a holy God. That's still the problem. That's still the problem the text is setting out for us. We are still naked before this God. A deliverer had not come. Noah was not the deliverer. That's what it's telling us. Noah was not the Savior. He's fallen. And so Adam and Eve were naked before God. Sin had stripped away their original righteousness. And now they had stood before a holy God with no clothing. Noah now is stripped in this recreation event. He is a type of the first Adam, only that he has now followed the first Adam all the way through. No clothing, no power to cover, naked and shamed to the one to whom it matters, and the tents don't block it. So that's the initial thing. Now I've got, this morning, a drunk man in front of me in the text. What do you think I should do with that? What do you think the pastor should do when he comes to a text where the Lord highlights a certain sin and puts this right here in the text? Well, you would say, okay, pastor, you need to apply that to us, right? God is telling us something, isn't he? God's telling us something. I'm sure in a large body like this that alcohol is a problem for some. I'm sure. And looking at the history of abuse and how it has hurt people's lives it is hurting some of your lives they said i just read a study that 92 of americans report that they have now been involved in binge drinking within the last 30 days drunk i was just listening to mike tyson the other day not one you ever really want to listen to but it was fascinating to listen to him talk about his life and mike Tyson is a seriously disturbed individual. But I was amazed by the openness of which he spoke about his life. Here's what he said. I want to change my life. I want to live life now. I want to live my sober life. I don't want to die. I'm on the verge of dying because I'm a vicious alcoholic. I haven't drank or took drugs in six days, and for me, that's a miracle. I've been lying to everyone else that thinks I'm sober. I'm not. This is Mike Tyson, not a pillar of piety. And I come to this particular sin here in Genesis chapter 6, and I think, well, why is God showing us this? And I believe that God is showing us this because drunkenness is a sin that so masters people because it leads to an exposure of their lives they can't stop. They can't prevent it. That's where it goes. It's taking them down to exposure. And this is what I believe the Lord putting this here is the kind of sin we see and how easy this sin is that you fall into it and it can take you somewhere quick and at the end leaving you naked and open and unable to control the problem and i think here we are at the very beginning of the world that now is and let me introduce to you noah drunk and naked i'm going to come back to how god deals with this and this is where it gets really exciting. But let's start with some bad news first. What happens to Noah? Verse 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his brothers outside. So Ham makes an invasion into Noah's tent. And the emphasis here is that he gazed upon Noah. In other words, this wasn't an oops kind of thing. This was, he gazed and in total perversity, he took delight in this. He takes delight in the shame of his father. What a sad moment, isn't it? It's a tragic moment. It really shows the perversity of the human heart. And here's someone who should have been loved and respected and held with high regard. And notice how wicked the human heart is. And then what does he do? He doesn't just do that. Then he leaves him there in that shameful state. and he runs outside and publicly proclaims it. You say, what are you doing, man? This is your dad. Look at our father, that drunken fool in the tent. There he lies naked, publishing it on the outside. And so he ridicules his father, proclaims it in the open to his own brothers. Now, you know there's something more going on here. You know there's something more going on here. what's being repeated what did satan do satan intrudes into the garden where adam and eve are and oh he worked hard he worked so hard to bring adam and eve into a state of nakedness before god he tried to accomplish that what's the first thing he said said ah when you eat your eyes are going to be open you'll be like god and what happened they were naked and they saw it they saw their sin. They realized they were fallen. And so Satan tried to do this. And when we see the connection here to the original garden scene, things become all the more clear for us because who's the first one God cursed? Satan, the serpent. You, Satan, are subdued. You're going on your belly the rest of your life, all the days of your life. And then God separated out two peoples on the face of the earth, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent until the deliverer would come who would crush the head of the serpent and put an end to this warfare. So in the first vineyard scene after the flood, it's all over again. Satan comes in through him and he mocks the nakedness of God's people see it the whole picture is the devil himself mocking at god saying are these are these your people are these the ones through whom the promise comes these messes look at them is that the seed right there and he goes out and he publicly broadcasts it now what a terrible scene especially if you were ever to think about the righteous uncovering their sin themselves before the world you know that satan's whole mission for you you know satan's whole mission for you and his demonic realm is to do what he waits he lies crouching at the door and what is he doing he is trying desperately at the right moment to shout out and ridicule and say look look at them and how bad it is when we open the door this was the lord's great concern with david with basheba remember that when that had happened the lord said to david he said after david had done those awful things with basheba the lord said you david have given opportunity for the enemies of israel to mock that's what you've done this is what they're waiting to do and it's all over the psalms you go through the psalms the the righteous are constantly crying out about this problem they realized it how long will you turn my glory to shame the wicked lie in wait for the righteous seeking their very lives they want it open they want it exposed this is what happens all the time they want to expose christians as hypocrites satan's uncovering satan's broadcasting now what's the first response of noah well god cursed the serpent and so noah wakes from his wine and what does noah do noah does the same thing and when he knew in verse you see it there in the verse that his younger son had done this to him what does he say cursed be canaan a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren he takes ham's son and he places the curse on that line that he would be a servant to his brothers and remember that was declaring just like jacob and esau it was the curse that this is not a son this is of the seed of the serpent and so now you understand throughout history this all begins to come together for you now you understand why the Lord was so intent to wipe out the Canaanites. The Lord wanted them wiped out of the land. Why did the Lord want them wiped out the land? To teach everyone what they represent. They represent the seed of the serpent and they can't dwell with us. And so when Israel came in the land, the Lord said, you take them all out. You get them out of the land. You purge the land from them. But Israel didn't do that. They joined with them. They married with them. They shared their altars and the lord was saying that's like joining the world they're cursed you have nothing to do with them and so this is what happened in the history of israel that that with israel in the battle to overcome and purge and receive canaan and remember on the last day this is exactly what we enter we enter the land of milk and honey in revelation and it's purged and on the outside says revelation are all the murderers and adulterers and dogs it's saying that that's what the lord's doing for us so here we are coming back to the narrative noah's drunk shame exposed the seat of the serpents mocking and the question of the narrative at this point is who is going to cover Noah's shame and then you come to the really exciting verse in verse 23 don't you but Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both of their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father they wouldn't even gaze upon They would not take any delight in it. They wouldn't so much as turn their head to look. Walking backwards, they dropped a row and covered the body of their father. What a remarkable verse, huh? What an exciting verse. What's the first thing Adam and Eve did after they ate? Well, they went and they tried to sew fig leaves together to cover. What did God do? God killed an animal, and God put garments on them. The Lord came down and shed blood and covered their shame. What are Shem and J-Peth showing us? You know the Lord loves and desires and loves to cover your shame. That's an overwhelming thought, isn't it? Because the world doesn't do that to you. This is what moves me more than anything. The overwhelming love of God who from the beginning took a giant robe of righteousness and flung it over the filthy lives of sinners. That's what he cared about. That's what he wanted. You know this is shown to you everywhere. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing there at his right side to accuse him filthy now joshua was dressed in filthy clothes and he stood before the angel and the angel said to those who were standing before him take them off then he said to joshua see i've taken away your sin and i'm going to put rich garments on you then i said put a clean turban on his head same thing it's all over the place put clothes on them i don't want them like that years ago when i was preparing for ministry i had a um a pastor say to me he said chris he said never i've learned one thing about ministry he said never be surprised about the sins of the people you serve and you could apply that right in your own families never be surprised about the sins of your children never be surprised and act in astonishment of what people can do and that has really helped me if you know your own heart especially and i've come to the conviction that that most of what people do today when they gather together and they sit around the table is most if you if you ever surveyed and thought about the heart of most people's discussions around the table what is it they're talking about other people's sins they're talking about the things that irritate them about other people what they're like how they act what they do and we sit there and say so and so man they have such a problem look at what they do and we size them up you know we we size them up and we've got all their particular weaknesses figured out and we focus on this and that's the basis of most of our conversations the actions the irritations the sins of people it's like my father and i when we used to talk we'd always would say and i think i've said this to you before man that guy's strange over there that guy's strange. What a strange duck. And I finally said to my dad one day, do you think we're strange? We don't ever see our own. It's not a distinctively Christian way of speaking and acting because notice all over the scriptures the way that the Lord speaks of love. Whoever conceals an offense seeks love. But he who repeats a matter separates close friends. Proverbs 17. Proverbs 10. 12. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers offenses. I don't want that talked about. How about this? Love doesn't take into account the wrong suffered. Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And God says, that's how I want you to act why because that's the kind of love i have shown to you and that's why when jesus raised at the second coming and he said he talked about all these things these little things that nobody cared about in life and he said he gave a cup of cold water but then he said something shocking in the midst of all that i was naked and you clothed me and the people what do you mean we when were you naked and we clothed as much as you did it to the least of my brethren you did it to me you didn't publicly parade it you love them you're never more like your lord when you do that and this is the most amazing thing when we see what shim represents who does shim show us noah awakes and he says to shim blessed be the lord the god of shim may canaan be his servant. Shem means name. The blessing is on the one with the name. God puts his name on Shem. Who was Shem? Study from Shem. Here's what we're getting. Shem to Terah to Abraham to Israel to Christ. The Christ would come who is given the name above every name from Shem. He is a Shemite. And God's covenant of grace would pass through that line of shim. And when the promised one came, what did he do for you? What did Jesus do for you? It's an overwhelming thought that on the cross, I'm blown away to think about that on the cross, he took that shame when he had done no wrong, no sin, no drunkenness, and he had his garments stripped bare publicly and open to tell us that before the judgment seat of God, he hung there, cursed for you. suffering in your place so that he might announce to you today, I'm not even looking upon your shame. I'm walking backwards and I'm dropping a garment on you so I don't see it. That your sin might be forever dealt with. You say, well, Shem is Israel and then you come to one more brother, Japheth, which means enlarge. May God, verse 27, enlarge Japheth. And may he dwell in the tents of Shem. May Canaan be a servant also. May God open wide Japheth. And may he come into that tent. Who's that? Well, that should be the most exciting thing you've ever read because that is you. God, at the beginning of the new world, had planned to evangelize the whole world to the Gentiles with the gospel. These two brothers, Shem and Japheth, cursed seed represents the devil's seed. But these two brothers throughout history of the seed of the woman, think about it, comes through Shem. And what happens at the cross? The whole thing splits open and the door is opened up wide to the Gentiles so they can come. And that is what Paul was saying all over the place. The door's open the doors open the doors open and the gentiles are coming in to the tents of shem and they're one new people one israel of god when you come into this tent the lord wants you to know you're covered and there's a place of forgiveness and grace i don't know what you've done in the course of your life but if you are open with god because everything is naked and open to him if you've come to him and repented of your sins and believed in his son you know what the lord does for you he casts a robe on you i'm not going to look upon it not going to look upon your shame outside says revelation are the dogs outside are the drunkards the sexual moral the moral the more murderers the idolaters whoever loves and practices the lie in other words you don't want to be a canaanite it's going to be a bad day for you on that day if there are any outside the lord says come come into the tent of shem and japheth i'm coming again says the lord and all who have come to me naked for dress as we sing i forgive them and you will enter the new heavens and the new earth in revelation 22 where i promise this is not going to be repeated there's no more curse says revelation 22 the curse is over but the throne of god and the lamb shall be in it and we get to reign there forever and ever and ever let's pray oh lord our god we are grateful that you care to instruct us in these things we couldn't get this just anywhere you have spoken to us in your powerful word and given us the words of life and you announce a covering that you delight to give to all who realize their nakedness, that they're cold and blind and that they need a covering. And we praise you that you have been faithful to the ends of the earth today to enlarge that tent door, opening it wide, that whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ should not perish, but have everlasting life. Encourage us with these words and strengthen us now that we might go out and not use our liberty as a cloak for vice. That we would not think that putting on cloaks of liberty to do what we want to do and continuing in sin that grace may abound is ever permitted by you. But that we might use that liberty within the bounds of your good law to glorify you and to enjoy you forever. Thank you for setting us free. Bless your people today in the knowledge of forgiveness and love and righteousness and truth. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.