Well, we are continuing our study of Genesis. We have embarked on a study on the first 11 chapters of Genesis. And we have reached this point in Genesis chapter 9. The last time I was with you, we looked at the earlier verses. from verses 1 to 17. And we notice four things there about Noah after he came out of the ark. We notice that he was given that mandate that was given to Adam to go forth and to multiply. And we notice it was given to him twice. And we are led to believe that his son certainly took up that mandate and repopulated the world. And therefore they were told to multiply life. Secondly, we notice that There was a change in the diet. Mankind was now permitted to eat meat. And we looked at that under sustaining life. And third thing we noticed, protecting life. that if someone would take the life of a man then the murderer was to be put to death. And we noticed that this was the institution of the civil magistrate of government to order and to direct society. And we notice, no matter how unpopular it may well be with our sanitized generation, that the civil magistrate has the power of the sword. And that's not to decorate someone, but to administer capital punishment upon evildoers. And fourthly, we notice that Noah and his family were to enjoy life. They were to enjoy life because they would be told, God had promised, that he would never send a flood upon the world again. And no matter how heavy the rain might be, Noah and his family were to be assured that it would not result in a flood. For God had made a covenant with them and with all flesh that he would never do that again. Well, we want to finish off the remaining verses in chapter 9 from verses 18 to 29. And the title I want to give to our meditation this morning is, To End Well. to end well. And I basically have two points that I wish to highlight with you. Two points from these verses. And the first point is a family tragedy. A family tragedy. And this point will cover verses 18 to 23. And we have a number of things that we wish to highlight from these verses under the heading, a family tragedy. We notice first, disgrace. And we have that in verses 20 to 21. 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. Well, these verses again remind us, if we need to be reminded, that the Bible is no ordinary book. The Bible would testify that it has been physically written by man, we acknowledge that. But man is not the author, it has been inspired by God. If man was the author, we would never find incidents like this recorded in the Word of God. But here we have before us a notable saint, one that we noticed earlier on was one who walked with God, one who found grace in the sight of God, one who was truly a patriarch, one who was truly a person who loved the Lord his God and served him in his day and in his generation. and one who had great faith and who did all that he did despite the opposition and despite the ridicule that he faced. Day after day he remained faithful when many were unfaithful. But here we have him fallen. Here we have him down and out. Here we have him drunken. a man of faith, a child of God, fallen. This would never be recorded if this book was authored by man. This is one argument that we can use. This book is special. This book tells us the truth as it really is. This book magnifies God and his wonderful grace. It does not in any sense flatter man. Even the holy men of God are not flattered. Their mistakes, their faults, their sins are exposed. And we don't stand here today and we don't gloat over the fall of any saint of God at all. These things have been recorded for us, for our learning, for our humbling, for us to realize that even as a saint who knows the grace of God, we can easily fall. There's no excuse for it. We're not going to excuse it, but it can easily happen. And therefore, all the days of our lives, we are to walk softly before our God. We are to cry out, keep us from temptation, deliver us from evil. We are to realize more and more our own wicked and sinful heart. And we are therefore to walk humbly before God. What else can we notice here? Well, we are told, Noah began to be a husbandman. What do we find? Noah was a busy man. Noah got about working. He wasn't idle. He wasn't lazy. He didn't stay in his tent. Here he was in a new world, a world that had been destroyed. Was he going to sit back? Was he going to let his sons and their wives look after him? No, no. Noah was a man who was up and about. He saw this opportunity and he took up the vocation that his father had. Lamech was a farmer. It was good enough for Lamech. It was good enough for Noah. He was not going to be idle. And we must note friends there was nothing wrong in starting a vineyard. There was nothing wrong in growing fruit. There was nothing wrong in making wine. None of these things were wrong whatsoever. The Bible makes it clear. Psalm 104, which we read on our prayer meeting night last Wednesday. And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine. Verse 15 of Psalm 104. These things have been given to us by God. They are there for our use. This is the first mention of wine in the Bible. We're not inclined to believe that Noah didn't know the effect. He would have known. He just went to excess. And this is something that we are to be reminded of. God lavishes with many blessings, many things he has given to us for our good, that we might enjoy the life that God has given to us. But what is our propensity as mankind? Our propensity is to abuse the blessings that God has given to us. We could think of many things God has given to us, but if we don't use them correctly, if they're not sanctified to us, they can become sinful in of themselves. I'm not going to elaborate but sex is a gift that God has given to mankind. Yet in our day and generation and indeed probably throughout the whole of humanity it has been abused. You could think of children. What a wonderful gift to have children. But how many parents adore their children or their grandchildren? How many place upon them the love and the affection and the devotion that should be given to God only? And these things that we highlight, there's a balance and we have to get the balance right. And poor Noah here, He didn't get the balance. There was nothing wrong in taking a glass of wine, but he took too many. That was the problem. And the Christian, the believer, what about us? What's going to be our response? Well, we have it in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18, where Paul is giving practical exhortations to the Ephesians. What does he say to them? And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Here is our exhortation. The people in Ephesus, they were too keen to be filled with wine. And when you're filled with wine, it leads to excess. You're not in control of yourself. Well, the Christian is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Speaking to each other in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. This is what the Christian is to emulate. This is what we are to follow. We're not to be taken up with alcohol or wine or any other excess. We are to be filled with the Spirit of the living God. And then there'll be no disgrace in that. None whatsoever. Poor Noah. His drunkenness and his nakedness was a disgrace. And there's no excuse for it, although we take the warning. That's why it's there, in order that we would not fall into the same trap. Well, secondly, we would notice under this heading disrespect. Verse 22, what do we have here? And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without. We don't know the details of what went on here. And it's good that we don't. But from my own point of view, I believe that something more happened than simply Ham saw his father's nakedness. That's all I'm going to say. You can elaborate upon it yourselves, but the Bible doesn't give us anything more than that. But whatever happened, it was disrespectful. We know that the law had not been given at this time. The law came in codified form in Exodus chapter 20. Honor thy father and thy mother. that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. But although the law was not given in codified form, we are certainly of the opinion that the law, in essence, was written in the heart. And therefore, Ham knew what he should do. And Ham knew that what he was doing was disrespectful to his parent, to his father. And by his reaction, not only what he saw or what he may have done, he went out and told others about it. And he told his two brethren without. If he had any respect for his father, he would have kept it to himself. He would not have broadcasted it. But he gloated in what he saw. He was completely and utterly disrespectful to his father. Well, this commandment has ramifications and applications to all of us. It obviously means that we are to value and respect our mother and father, give them the honour that's due to them. We are to make sure that we love and reverence them and give them their true and right place in our lives. Obviously, when a son or a daughter gets married and they leave the home, they don't have exactly the same relationship with their parents. But nevertheless, they will reverence and they will respect their parents. And they will work this out in their own lives according to their callings and to their situation. But this is incumbent upon us even when we go up and set up our own homes and have our own families. We remember our parents. And we reverence them and give them the respect that's due unto them. And we provide the care that we can when required. Everyone's different. We all have our different circumstances. But nevertheless, this must undergird our response to our parents. And as long as they're alive, we are to give them reverence and respect. But we know this commandment teaches us that we are to give reverence and respect to all those who have power and authority over us. Like the policeman, like the teacher, like the Sabbath school teacher, like the minister, like the civil magistrate, like our governments, like our prime minister and our first minister. I know I'm speaking in a general sense, but most of our leaders in our parliaments are not God-fearing. They don't care about the Bible, the God of the Bible. They're not sympathetic towards Christianity. They have no care or concern about the church or Christians. They're more concerned about Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism or any other ism other than Christianity. That's a generalization. I know there are exceptions and we should remember those who are exceptions. We should pray for them that they would be able to maintain their testimony in what is a very hostile environment. But I'm addressing people here who will probably agree with what I have just said and they're not sympathetic towards our leaders. we would remind ourselves that ultimately our leaders, whether they be dictators or despots, whether they be upright or whether they be vile individuals, they have been appointed by God. And we need to bow to his sovereignty and realize that In his infinite wisdom, he has appointed leaders who will ultimately be used to advance the cause of the kingdom of Christ. Exodus. I was reading this through our family worship. Exodus chapter 22 and verse 28 this week. Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. Now when it talks about the gods, it's not talking about false gods. The gods there with a small g is referring to our leaders. Thou shalt not revile your leaders. That's what it's saying. Nor curse the ruler of thy people. Do we need to hand, do we need to raise our hands here and acknowledge our sin? How we have said terrible things about our leaders? thou shalt not revile the gods." We don't have to agree with them, but we have to treat them with respect. This is what happened here. Ham may well have said to himself, here's this great man of faith, look at him, drunk, naked. I'm going to tell everyone He's not the kind of person that he should be. He's a hypocrite, is he not? A great man of faith went through a wonderful experience. What good has it done him? He's no better than the common criminal. What is he? A drunkard, and a naked drunkard as such. Thou shalt not revile the gods. Thou shalt show respect to all whom God has put over us. We need to bow to His sovereignty. Thirdly, Decency, verse 23, and Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward and covered their nakedness of their father and their faces were backward and they saw not their father's nakedness. Simply here, they were decent. They recognized that this man had fallen. This wasn't his normal way of life. This was out of character. This man was overcome by temptation or whatever. This man was simply foolish for a season. And which one of us can say that we're not the same? If everybody knew all the things that we said and did and fought, they would think differently of us. Is that not true? But here were two sons who did not engage in the disrespect that was shown by the youngest son, Ham. They treated their father with respect. They remembered that he is, regardless of what he has done and the state that they found him in, that he was the one who brought them into this world It's their flesh and blood, and therefore they were going to show respect. Now, they didn't excuse the sin, no. They did what the Bible would teach us concerning what we might say, little things like this. They covered it, because they loved him. Proverbs tells us, One or two verses from Proverbs is upped here. Chapter 10, verse 12. Hatred stirreth up strife, but love covereth all sins. This was a family matter. They didn't want it to go outside the family. Keep it confined within their own tent. They weren't going to broadcast it. Love covereth all sins. Proverbs 12, verse 16, a fool's wrath is presently known, but a prudent man covereth shame. This is what they did. They didn't broadcast it. They covered it up. Proverbs 17, verse 9, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends. This could have been a terrible incident that would have ruined Noah's life had it got out. But they were going to contain it. Decency. Get things in perspective. A poor man has been overcome. He's disgraced himself. There's no point in making things worse. These men acted with decency. Well, the second heading I have here is a family prophecy. A family prophecy. And it covers verses 24 to 29. And here we have Noah's only recorded speech found in the scripture. We're told Noah awaked from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he begins this family prophecy. And we will notice one or two things as we go through it. We have here in verse 25, Canaan, enslavement. And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Notice he didn't curse Ham. Instead he cursed his son, Canaan. Two things that we might notice here. You may have forgotten. It will be easy for us to forget, but The book Genesis was written for a purpose. Every book in the Bible written for a purpose. And it was written for an original audience. And the original audience, we believe, was the people of God who came out of Egypt. And it was either written for the first generation, who died in the wilderness, or it was written for the second generation. And maybe it was for the both of them. We can't be absolutely certain. But anyway. it would certainly be of application for the second generation who were about to go into the promised land and conquer the people in the promised land. Now who was in the promised land? It was the Canaanites. That's who was in the promised land. And they were to be assured by this, by reading this, that when they go in to the promised land, God is with them and God has placed a curse upon the descendants of Canaan. And they are to go in and they are to destroy the people of Canaan. And it was to encourage them. And it may well be that when Noah cursed Canaan, the son of Ham, that by the spirit of prophecy, Noah was identifying the common fault that was in Ham was also in Canaan. And again if we go back to the promised land and as we go back to the Canaanites who were in the promised land you'll find that the sexual depravity was also in the Canaanites. I'm not going to elaborate it but if you want to go to Leviticus and you'll see the sins of the Canaanites. how the people of God were urged not to live like the Canaanites and they were not to commit the sins that were committed by the Canaanites in the land of Canaan and many of these sins were of a sexual nature. And therefore, this is what we find here, to encourage God's people to go forth and not to tolerate or to emulate or to follow the behavior of those that they were going to eradicate from the promised land. Well, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be unto his brethren. And this is exactly what happened. From the people of Canaan, there did come some advanced civilizations, like the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians. They all came from Canaan. And some of these civilizations brought many blessings to the human race. but they were to be a servant of servants, because of what Ham had done. The second prophecy regards Shem, verse 26. And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. Shem was Noah's second son, but every time the sons of Noah are written for us in the scripture, Shem is always put first. Shem was the second, but Shem was the most important. And what we find here is, it's not so much that Shem was blessed, But it says, blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Why? Well, Shem, from Shem, Abraham was going to come. And from Abraham was going to be the people of God, Israel. And what was going to come from Israel? Judah. And Judah, what was going to come from Judah? Was the Messiah. And when he says here, blessed be the Lord God of Shem, he is speaking prophetically, blessing God because he's going to work through Shem, through Abraham, through Israel, through Judah to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who would ultimately bless the whole of mankind. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. not so much Shem, but because God was going to work through Shem and that prophecy has been fulfilled. Christ has come in the fullness of time and that's why we're able to come out wherever we are, wherever we have an audience, wherever we have a congregation and we can speak positively be about what God has done in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. He has fulfilled that promise that was first given in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 when he promised the one who would crush the head of the serpent. And this is what we find here in that prophecy. Shem, enrichment, From Shem would come the Saviour. And this is our wonderful hope that He has come and He is coming again. Well, lastly and thirdly, we have Japheth. Japheth was Noah's first son. In verse 27, God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." His firstborn. History will tell us that from Japheth came what we generally call the Gentile nations. And the word Japheth is very close to the word that means to enlarge. And this would remind us that the Gentiles have really spread out all over the world. The Hamites, whom we discussed earlier, built large civilizations in the east. The Semites settled in the land of Canaan, but the descendants of Japheth spread much farther. And that has been fulfilled also. I don't know if you can remember, but we looked at the book of Acts, and we went through that book, and we were delighted to see the progress that the Gospel has made. When the Holy Spirit came upon the infant church, they began to preach in Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And we have here, in the early church, this prophecy being fulfilled. For someone has said, quote, the descendants of Noah Three sons were represented in the early church. The Ethiopian treasurer, a descendant of Ham. Paul, a descendant of Shem. And Cornelius and his family, who were the descendants of Japheth. We've all come from them. This is how mankind spread. It was through the sons of Noah. We have no record that Noah had any more children. And therefore that mandate that was given to him and to his sons, his sons fulfilled it. Ham, Shem and Japheth. And they went out and spread over the whole of the known world in their day. And then we have the end. And Noah lived after the flood 350 years. And all the days of Noah were 950 years. And he died. We would be inclined to believe that this was a blot on his life as a believer. But because The Spirit of God was in him. Because he knew the grace of God, this fall was not terminal. He would have been restored. And it reminds us, friends, that we are to end well. That's what matters. You know, some people can talk about a good conversion. They might have a very clear and decided Christian testimony. They might be able to talk about the time and what happened and the change, how they went from living in the world and committing sin to embracing Christ. And they can talk about a transformed life. But ultimately, friends, what matters is how do we end? How do we end? That's what matters. Well, as we sang earlier in Psalm 37, although he fall, yet shall he not be cast down utterly, because the Lord with his own hand upholds him mightily. There is wonderful encouragement then for us to continue on the narrow road that leads to life, knowing that by the grace of God we are upheld, we are sustained, and he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus. And therefore we are not to be ashamed or we're not to be scared or frightened to take up the cross and follow, because ultimately it's the Savior who saves It is Him who takes us to glory and it is Him who will give us a beginning and who will give us an end that we might end well in faith looking forward to that great day when we shall be glorified and brought into His eternal kingdom. Amen and may God be pleased to bless His word to us