Did we get the idea that somebody becomes a believer? You look at him.
Scruffy, unshaven, dirty. Next week he's in church, three-piece suit, Bible in hand. Yep, he's a believer.
No, no, no, no. It's a Christian life, and it takes a life. It's not the Christian moment. And one of the things about our sin nature is that it develops in us the appreciation that Jesus Christ is at work in my life, and there's so much that needs to be changed, so much developing that can take place. And don't expect changes in everything in a moment.
It takes a life. If you've walked with Jesus for a while, you can probably look back over your life and identify areas where you've changed and grown. You can also evaluate your life and realize you still have a long way to go. That's the way the Christian life works, isn't it?
We may wish change happened faster, but it doesn't always. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. Today we have a lesson from our Vintage Wisdom Archives where Stephen Davey teaches from Genesis 11. He's called this message, Lessons from Sinning Saints.
What can we learn from the fact that even as believers, sin is still present? Genesis chapter 9 verse 20. Then Noah began farming.
This is after the flood. They've embarked from the ark, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself inside his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.
But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of his father and told his father and their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his stupor or his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he prophetically declared, cursed be Cain, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brothers. And 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. And Noah lived 350 years after the flood. So all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died. It's interesting the parallel between Noah and Adam. The first man to ever live, Adam sinned by taking or partaking of the fruit of the vine. Noah, the first man after the flood, would also sin by drinking the fruit of the vine. Both men would fall, and as a result, one would recognize his nakedness, the other would become naked. Both would receive a covering from someone else, and as a result of that sin, both would receive a curse.
And yet in that curse, there would be the promise of blessing. Now the sins of Noah were twofold. First of all, he became drunk, and drunkenness was of course against or a violation of God's command, especially as you read later in the Old Testament. But not only did he become drunk, he became naked. That is, he and his ludness we dare not even imagine, and yet in his tent, perhaps he shed his clothing in drunkenness. This man of God, the preacher of righteousness, now drunken and naked. Six different interpretations to this passage of scripture, which doesn't make it very fun for me. And yet the view that I normally will take, or the interpretation that I will follow, is that which literally follows the meanings of the Hebrew words, because I know there's safety in discovering what the literal text means. The word uncovered himself is the same Hebrew word, or words used in scripture for shameful exposure.
There's nothing particularly sensational here. He became drunk, and he took off his clothing. The confusion is in what Ham did.
Some would suggest at least he was drunk, some would suggest at least six different things here. Perhaps he had an incestuous relationship with Noah, that is he uncovered his nakedness, being a Hebrew idiom of lying with his wife, and yet the text does not indicate that. Some have even suggested that there is a homosexual violation here, and yet the text does not say that Ham uncovered the nakedness of Noah, but that Noah uncovered his own nakedness.
So what did Ham then do? It says when Noah awoke, he knew what Ham had two things. First of all, he saw, and the Hebrew meaning of the word means that he gazed, he observed, he watched.
He perhaps is behind some covering of the tent, and he is watching his father. But not only that, I think the real sin was in what follows. Would you notice again it says in verse 22, and he told his brothers outside. The Hebrew word told means literally, and you ought to add the words, he told with delight.
He was really enjoying this. Why? This was not only dishonoring the honor of his father, but perhaps even revealing in his heart that he had repudiated the faith of his father. Look at what he's doing, and he was delighted in his father's fall. Why do you think the tabloids make millions of dollars every year?
Why? Because they pander to the fallen nature of man that delights in the sorry side, the seedy side of humanity. So their stories are of the fights, the breakups, the divorces, the losses, and all of the seedy things that happen, the tragic things that happen to mankind. So Noah awakens from this stupor, and he makes a prophetic curse. Look at verses 24 again.
When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done. That is, he had mocked him. He makes a prophetic curse. That is, he is saying what will happen.
It isn't like, okay, Canaan or Ham, you are now going to do this. It's I perceive by revelation that this will be your future. And so he gives the curse.
In the curse is the promise. He notes verse 26, he says, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. Shem would be the father of the Semites. You can see in Shem the word Sem, Semite nations from which Israel would come. And so here is the promise of the coming Messiah. Japheth is the father of the Indo-European nations from which the majority of us, if not all of us, have come.
Ham will become the father of the African, the Egyptian, and the Arabian nations. Now there are some people back in Genesis chapter 9 here that believe the Africans or the black peoples are consigned to slavery. And that God even ordained it as such in this curse. And I've even heard that from evangelical lips. There's one very clear way of discovering whether that is true or not.
Read what the text says. Would you note verse 25? Who is cursed? Ham and all his descendants? Who? Tell me.
Let me hear you. Canaan is cursed. One branch of the descendants of Ham.
Not all of the descendants of Ham. Just one and that is Canaan. Canaan would be the forefather of all of the Canaanites.
You remember them? They were inhabiting the land that God had promised to Israel. And when Joshua led the people into Canaan, they had to do what?
Subjugate and overthrow, bring into or into their authority who? The Canaanites. From the Canaanites we get the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Amorites and the Jebusites and all the other zites. These are all those that came from Canaan and now in fact they cease to exist as a nation.
The curse has been fulfilled. So I've mentioned the descendants of Ham and Shem but what of Japheth? I want to give you some interesting features about his descendants. It's told here in this curse that God would enlarge verse 27 Japheth. Enlarging means that he would conquer. He would enlarge his borders and this is exactly what's happened.
Let me share a few thoughts with you. Gomer who is mentioned here is the forefather of the German or the Germans. That's where we get that nation. One of Gomer's sons, Targum established Turkey.
They always named their nations after themselves being modest as they were. In fact the Armenians came to be called the house of Targum. Especially interesting to me in this passage is the mention of three sons. Would you look at chapter 10 verse 2? The sons of Japheth were Gomer and Magog and Medi and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras. Now these three underlined Magog, Tubal and Meshech have given us the northern people or the Russians. In fact Ezekiel mentions Magog in the Hebrew word for chief prince is the Hebrew word Rosh or rush from which we get our English word Russia. Now by the way we're not talking about millions of years ago.
We're talking about 4,000 years ago and this is so clearly seen in the histories kept by man and especially this table of nations. Now the two tribes Tubal and Meshech is found in the writings of Herodotus who indicated that by his time the names had developed into Meskenn and Theobelion. These two tribes would push north and east of the Black Sea into what is now Russia. In fact these two tribes are now used as the dividing marks of the modern state of Russia. Tubal is now Tobol on the Tobolsk River.
Meskenn is now Moscow on the Moskva River. It's fascinating to me when I think of that but God made every nation and that he appointed not only their times that is how long they will exist but their boundaries. God is in total control. He is not only the creator of nations.
He is the controller of nations. Chapter 11 if you would turn there now introduces to us the story of the Tower of Babel and this is a story of great mystery. It's pretty well documented that astrology and even the zodiac and idolatry ultimately trace their roots back to Nimrod and his kingdom of Babylon but note where Babylon got its start. Chapter 10 verses 8 to 12. Now Cush became the father of Nimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth and he was a mighty hunter before the Lord in the face of the Lord it should say. Therefore it is said like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the face of the Lord.
This is a spite. This is a hunting in spite of the face of the Lord. Nimrod is the first man to be called mighty and this refers to his prowess in hunting not animals but the souls of men that he will use in building his kingdom of Babylon. In fact his name Nimrod means let us rebel. His father Cush had heard the curse and he said I am not going to abide by that and my little boy will grow up one day to be the rebeler the builder of a nation and thus we have Nimrod.
Now turn back to chapter 11. Let's look at the first few verses. Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words and they came about as they journeyed east that they found a plane in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another come let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly and they used brick for stone and they used tar for mortar and they said come here's a violation now of God's command in chapter 9 to replenish or fill the entire earth. They said this come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven.
You notice those words are italicized. It could be translated atop into heaven. This is their religious system.
This is replacing God. This tower will reach the heavens. That was their declaration.
Notice what they said and let us make for ourselves a name lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. This tower was a monument erected to symbolize the rebellion against the command of God. I want to read you something simply because archaeologists have discovered these towers like ziggurats and they have found that at the top of these towers were altars and rooms dedicated to the worship of the signs of the zodiac. In fact they have found those symbols painted and drawn on the walls. You see what we have today in modern astrology it is not modern it is going back in its roots to the ultimate rebellion that God would one day in this chapter come to stop.
Let me read you something rather interesting from a man who's done a lot of study. He says the text speaks of the top of the tower as being that which was dedicated to the heavens as a place of worship. This is the meaning for the reason that astrology which focuses on a study of the zodiac originated in Babylon. You will find that it was the Chaldeans another name for the inhabitants of Babylon who first developed the zodiac by dividing the sky into sections and giving meanings to each on the basis of the stars that are found there. A person's destiny is said to be determined by whatever section or sign he is under.
By the way do you know what yours is? I think most of us have stumbled into that knowledge which points its finger back to rebellion against God. From Babylon astrology passed to the empire of ancient Egypt where it mingled with animism and polytheism. The pyramids were constructed with certain mathematical relationships to the stars. The Sphinx, you know that huge monument still in Egypt today?
If you've ever toured there you've seen that. That has astrological significance. It has the head of a woman symbolizing Virgo the virgin and the body of a lion symbolizing Leo. Virgo is the first sign of the zodiac.
Leo is the last. So the Sphinx which actually means joining in Greek is the meeting point of the zodiac. When you see the Sphinx it is simply saying in effect this is the beginning and the end. Our religious system is eternal. It is the alpha the beginning and the Omega the ending. You see false religion even way back in the time of Nimrod sought to obliterate the true beginning and end. And isn't it interesting when Jesus Christ comes to rule he will state in the latter chapters of Revelation, Revelation chapter 21 I believe, he will say I am the alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and the end.
And I would warn you with this if you read the horoscopes stop. It is a dangerous thing that traces its roots back to the idolatry of Babylon. Well God confounds the language verse 5 and the Lord came down to see the city and tower where the sons of men had built and the Lord said behold there one people and they all have the same language and this is what they began to do and now nothing which they purpose that is evil to do will be impossible for them therefore let us perhaps an indication of the Trinity go down and they're confused their language that they may not understand one another's speech and the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city that was the plan of God I don't want you erecting a one-world government I don't want you to have one city ruling all the world I want you to scatter develop into the nations that I have designed. So he came down and took care of that which would create a common barrier even today. You know it's hard enough to understand each other even when we speak English much less when you have another language in fact I was reading one pastor who illustrated this point with a lady in his congregation who was a kindergarten teacher and it snowed a lot where they lived and she taught and snow suits were required one day she was with a lot of difficulty helping a little boy into a snow suit and it was one of those infernal kind you know with the ties and the snaps and the buttons and it took her about five minutes and finally when she got the boy in it he looked up at her and he said this isn't my snow suit.
With the grace of kindergarten teachers you know they deserve a Medal of Honor anyhow she pulls this boy after untying and unsnapping everything she finally gets him out and then he continues his story this is my sister's snow suit but my mother said I could wear it today. If I'd been that teacher there'd be one less kid on planet earth there's great difficulty in communicating you know in fact the coming kingdom is prophesied by Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 9 where God says through him in the kingdom I will return to the peoples a pure language that they may all with one consent worship me. Isn't it fascinating to know in heaven we will all once again have the same language the Spaniard the Chinese the Mexican the American we will all be able to communicate with one language and I think communicate perfectly. Now I want to take a practical turn in this sermon and I want to give you several things that will be helpful from this passage unfortunate as it is. One thing is perfectly clear to me as I studied this passage had we written the Bible we would have left out the sins of the patriarchs there would have been things that we would have ignored but God doesn't. In fact I think that's another proof that God determined the content of this book. Sometimes the Bible is so comprehensive that it's embarrassing sometimes it probes and we wonder Lord why give us these last five verses of Noah's life let it end on a good note.
Why? Because I think that God wants us to learn not only from the successes of the Saints but their failures as well. Let me quickly give you seven lessons from the sins of Noah.
Number one, if you're taking notes you'll find a place for this. A believer is never immune from sin. A believer is never immune to or from sin. Noah was 600 years old when the flood came and he had lived his life righteously for 600 years and then in his later years he marred his perfect record. Is this unique in the Bible?
Absolutely not. Moses in his later years struck the rock declaring for himself some glory due only to God. When David was in his 50s he fell into immorality. This leads me to the second point and that is this, past success doesn't guarantee future safety from sin. See you don't inoculate yourself by all of the successes of the past week. Satan doesn't say well you know he's been really good this past week we won't bother him this week.
Nor does he say in the first point well that person you know they're almost in heaven let's leave them alone. It persists to the grave. Thirdly, small temptations are often the most dangerous.
We can know of. Preacher of righteousness. A man for 120 years said no to all kinds of immorality and now with a cheap flask of homemade wine he's brought to his knees. Small temptation and yet it was the most dangerous. Perhaps that's what the writer of scripture means when he says take heed while you stand lest you fall watch out for the little things. Number four, temptations are always changing faces.
By the time you master one another one comes along. But I say changing faces because ultimately all temptation says the same thing. Whose voice are you going to listen to? The voice of God or the voice of the world system? Your flesh and Satan. Fifthly, sin never affects the sinner alone. This is probably one of the most tragic parts of sin. It never affects just you and me.
You say ha ha no. My sin isn't affecting anybody but me. In fact no one even knows but it is that sin in your life that keeps you from being the kind of husband, father, believer, testimony that you want to be and someone is robbed when you and I get away from what God would have us be. Sin someone wrote is like a pebble thrown into a pond of water.
Although the pebble strikes only one place the ripples from its force stretch outward. Number six, and I want you to mark this one well. Believers never have an excuse for sin. And I stress believers because of 1 Corinthians 10 13 which you could perhaps jot that reference into your notes. There is no temptation confronting you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear. When we sin we say no to God's escape plan. Number seven, God never ignores sin even in the life of a saint. God never ignores sin.
He never plays favorites. Sin will always bring guilt whoever you may be. That guilt may bring the loss of joy.
It will bring loss of fellowship but there are always consequences. There are two further lessons before we quit. That we can learn from our own biography of sin that God has given us.
We're like Noah. We're not in here but we can certainly see the similarities and that resides in our sin nature. And I want to give you quickly two very positive results or lessons that we can learn from our sin nature.
I know that sounds odd. You mean there's something positive to be learned about our sin nature? Yes, I didn't say sin. There's nothing positive about sin. I don't want anybody to call me this.
We can say pass faster. I sinned and man you're right it's great. I learned that positive lesson. Please, this is the sin nature.
Let me give you two things. God can use the awareness of our nature to sin to develop appreciation for our position in Christ. Paul the great apostle cried to God in chapter seven of Romans. He said, Lord, whatever I want to do I can't do it.
And whatever I don't want to do it seems like that's what I'm always doing. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Who will excise from me the sinful nature? The body of death is referring to the Roman custom where a man committing murder is taken to the cross and before he is put on that cross strapped to him if this murdered victim is a slave or someone of ill repute or perhaps not a Roman citizen. They'll take the dead body and they'll lay it on top of the murderer and strap it to him wrist to wrist, neck to neck, waist to waist, leg to leg and then they'll put him on the cross. That is what's referred to as the body of this death.
And he will die a hideous death with his victim cheek to cheek. And Paul says who will deliver me from the body of this death, this wicked old man, this old nature that's strapped to me. The awareness of his sin was so great. But then he concludes the chapter with I thank God through Jesus Christ. There is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. It also develops gratitude for Christ's work in us. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are literally continually passing away.
Behold all things are continually becoming new. Do we get the idea that somebody becomes a believer? You look at him, scruffy, unshaven, dirty. Next week he's in church, three piece suit, Bible in hand. Yep, he's a believer.
No, no, no, no. It's a Christian life and it takes a life. It's not the Christian moment. And one of the things about our sin nature is that it develops in us the appreciation that Jesus Christ is at work in my life. And there's so much that needs to be changed.
There's so much developing that can take place. And don't expect changes in everything in a moment. It takes a life. But be confident that it is Christ who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Philippians chapter 2 verse 13. Do you fail? Yes. Do you sin?
Yes. But you know your sins are forgiven because you gave your life to Jesus Christ. Though your sins were as scarlet, they've been washed as white as snow.
This is the story of Noah, a saint and a sinner. Did he fail? Yes. Did he sin?
Yes. And God gave it to us to learn. And yet God would write Noah's epitaph in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 that by faith Noah inherited the righteousness of God.
So have you and I if we have come to the cross of Jesus Christ. With that we conclude today's lesson and this series from our Vintage Wisdom Archives. The series is entitled Origins and it's Stephen Davies exposition of Genesis chapters 1 through 11. Stephen taught this series back in 1988 but we knew you'd be blessed by hearing it aired again now. A few weeks ago we brought you a series from a section of Acts and beginning next time we're going to return to Acts and finish out that important book.
Be sure to tune in for that. In the meantime we'd love to hear from you. You can send Stephen a note if you address it to Wisdom International P.O.
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