Well, hello church. If you would, open to Genesis 9. Genesis 9. We will continue this series on the neglected virtues. And we will look at the virtue of honor tonight from Genesis 9. And I'm going to read verse 18-29 for us. This is right after the flood. Verse 18 of chapter 9. This is God's Word. 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. 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, 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 of Noah, Noah lived 350 years, and all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. And so, Father, teach us about honor. It is more important than we realize. Would you make that clear to us tonight? We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. Before I begin to unpack this passage, I want to kind of walk us into this virtue of honor by reminding us how we're coming at all these virtues in this series. We're not just doing a word study where we take a virtue, you know, kindness, and then we just think about the word, we're looking at these Old Testament narratives, these stories where these virtues are embodied in people's lives. Because I don't know about you, it's very frustrating to hear, you know, honor, or be kind, or love, and then not to know what that looks like practically. So, we are getting real life examples of what it looks like to be, Ephesians 4 says it like this, to be the new man. To be the new man. Put on the new man, it says, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. That's you now. That's who you are. In Christ, you are the new man. And there are virtues, there is holiness that we now embody It is the true us. It is the new us. And we are learning to be what we truly are. And so today, I want to say you are someone who honors others. That is what you are. That virtue is a part of you and must grow in you and in me. And I want to tell y'all, My experience to kind of intro us into this with this particular virtue, because it is not a pretty one. Before I was a Christian, you know, I was saved at 18. Before I was a Christian, I knew nothing of honor. I mean, my parents made some attempts to try to teach me. I was unusually stubborn and I left in my wake a trail of dishonor everywhere I went. in school, with parents, in my home, in church settings, with law enforcement. Anyone I was supposed to honor, I dishonored. Which makes perfect sense because I didn't honor God, so why not dishonor every other authority in my life? Once I was saved, once I was converted, this is one of the first things the Lord began to teach me, was the importance of this virtue of honor. And it was not a quick process for me. Even though I was not arguing in some of the ways I was before, I was arguing theology now. It just kind of got spiritualized. I hadn't learned to honor bosses, so I got fired from a job as a Christian. because I didn't know how to honor authority. I was hired as a youth minister at a church early on in my Christian life, and I was a pain in the side of that pastor, I'm sure, because I did not understand honor. And it was the discipline, the kind discipline of the Lord in my life, and it was the example of many other believers who did understand honor and who honored me, that began to teach me the power and the beauty of this virtue. I could give so many illustrations, and I've preached on honor I think four times now, and I've given many of those in the past, of ways the church has honored me over the years. But I mean, as a young pastor, I remember 25 years old, and I'm being asked to speak with men who'd been preaching and pastoring 30 years, and they're treating me as an equal. That was quite gracious. But that honor, being honored how I didn't deserve, it actually made me want to become what they were treating me like. Their honor toward me inspired me and really empowered me in a sense to pursue the honor and the virtue that they were treating me as. And I think about Romans 13, 7. that says, honor anyone who deserves it. It says it like this, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. It's owed to them. There are people that you owe honor to. They deserve it. And to withhold it is to withhold something that is owed to them. Some of y'all know that this week I added to my plate a large time-consuming responsibility. I was elected to be on a board of governors for my kids' school, a classical school that they go to. And on this board, our first order of business, and there's a lot to do, is the first order of business is to honor those to whom honor is due. There's a lot of things. There's teachers to hire. There's all sorts of organizational things to do. But the first and most important priority is to honor teachers, to honor former staff, to honor anyone for whom honor is due. Who are we to withhold what is due to them? Scripture says. You know, some of you have leadership positions at work maybe, and you know, thank yous are good. You give somebody a thank you, that's good. Honor is better. Thank yous are often light. Honor is weighty. Weighty. You know, if you're a leader wanting to build a culture of excellence in terms of job performance with employees, build a culture of honor. If those that you're working for or working with feel dishonored, they're not going to stay, or they won't be happy, or their job performance will be below par. If you're at the bottom of the totem pole at work and you want to make your way up into higher places of responsibility in that organization, one quick way to do that is obviously get good at your job, but another is begin to honor coworkers, begin to honor authorities, and you will quickly rise. Because there are a lot of people not doing that and they don't understand the power of honor. One of the things I'm looking forward to in this serving on this board is I'm going to be working closely with the man who owns and manages the Chick-fil-A on Nine Mile, a godly man. I don't know anybody in this city who understands the importance of honoring all people like that man and how he leads his business. I mean, I hear stories over the years of people who have bad jobs where they're getting tons of criticism. You know, they're working customer service or something and they're just hearing it all day. And they'll actually go to eat at the Chick-fil-A on Nine Mile because they know they'll be honored and respected and treated with kindness. What a powerful reputation to have in the community. And part of why this virtue is neglected in the West is because we're in the West and not the East. Eastern cultures are called honor-based cultures for a reason. Any of us who have spent time in Eastern countries know it is not the West. It's not like the West. There is an honor in how people treat one another, especially those in authority, but all people. And, you know, in the West, we did at one point, you know, you go back 50, 60 years ago and people did know honor more than they do now. I mean, it was a different America at that time in terms of how honor was displayed. But at this point, we live in a culture that the norm is children disrespecting parents, wives disrespecting husbands, employees disrespecting bosses, and they don't even know they're doing it. But the scriptures. Tell us things like Leviticus 19.32. You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man. And you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. Fear your God, honor the Lord, honor an old man. And it equates them. Romans 12.10, outdo one another in showing honor. So there should be some sort of competition going on in the church trying to out-honor one another. One-up one another in terms of how we honor each other. To build a culture of honor is how we pursue health and maturity as a church. Many of you, those of you who've been at the church for a while, you know our goal as a church is not to become a big church. It is not. Our goal and aim as a church is to become a mature church. A healthy church. And one of the biggest gauges that we can test ourselves by on how much progress we're making in maturity is how well do we honor one another? And not just how well, you know, the test of maturity isn't just how well do we honor each other when we show up here in a service. That's important, that must happen. But the real test is how do we honor one another in our homes? Because I can tell you this, if we are not honoring one another in the homes, it will not happen in the church, and it will not happen in the workplace, and it will not happen in the culture. It starts in the home. It starts in the home. And that's what this passage makes very, very clear to us. Genesis 9, Noah and his sons, we get this. With so much clarity, I think what we really see here is honor is just more important. It's more serious than we think it is. We just don't think this is that big a deal. And I hope Genesis 9 and 10 wake us up tonight. Remember the context here of Genesis 6-8. We have the flood narrative. God has wiped out humanity through a flood. He saved one family. Noah and his sons. And that language is important. So if you look at chapter 9 verse 1, it says, God bless Noah and his sons. And now look at verse 8. God said to Noah and his sons with him, I will establish my covenant with you and with your offspring after you. So God's covenant is with Noah and his sons. That's the foundation for every other family and culture and civilization from that time onward. And can you imagine walking off that boat? It is not what the kids' books show. I can promise you that. I mean, there may have been a few little trees sprouting up and some grass, but it was largely dead carcasses Dead bodies. Tohu wabohu in Hebrew. Desolate wilderness. Formless and void. God had wiped out humanity. He had cleared it out. And they walk out of this boat. And they are seeing the awesome and horrible effects of the judgment of God. And what is the first thing they do when they come out of this boat? Are they shaking their fist at God and saying, how dare you judge people so harshly? No. They are not. They are feeling overwhelmed. I mean, put yourself there. Would you not feel overwhelmed? Sobered in your mind? How was I spared? How was I in that boat with my family and everybody else wasn't? You're overwhelmed by the mercy of God. That's what it says about Noah. He found favor in the eyes of God. Mercy, grace. He wasn't a perfect man. He wasn't saved because he was sinless. He was saved because God had mercy on him first. And they were overwhelmed with the mercy of God. But look back at chapter 8 and verse 20. And look at Noah's spiritual leadership of his family. This is family worship. Maybe the first family worship in the Bible we see right here. Noah leading his family spiritually. Verse 20, Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man. For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again strike down every living creature as I have done." So God accepts Noah's worship, but God is not naive as if He thinks all of sin has been eradicated. He says, I know, people are wicked from birth. I have not dealt with the sin problem. And it's interesting, I'll just kind of a side note here. Many theologians, they point out that after the flood, this is really a second creation. It's a recreation. We see a lot of parallels between Genesis 1 and 2 in Genesis 8 and 9. So it says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. We see in Genesis 1 and 2, God's providing food. He's given a new world to humanity to live in. We see the same thing in Genesis 8 and 9. Genesis 1 and 2, Adam is working the soil, right? Genesis 8 and 9, Noah plants a vineyard, becomes a man of the soil. And so the flood narrative is a type of second creation, a recreation. And think if you've never read your Bible before, right? And you've only read chapters 1 through 8, and you get to this point. You're thinking, this is the second Adam. This is the man who will come and do it right. This is the new Savior of humanity. Noah is flawless up until this point. He's the Savior of humanity. He's built the ark. He's brought his family through this flood. He is the Father of all humanity. Look at chapter 9 verse 18. The sons of Noah went forth from the ark. They were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah. And from them, the people of the whole earth were dispersed." Now think about, you're one of the sons of Noah. Put yourself there. Try to imagine you're one of his sons. What do you think of your dad? What do you think of your dad at this point? He heard the voice of God with such clarity that he knew exactly what type of ark to build, and he spent 120 years building that ark and preaching to people to repent because of the judgment of God coming. And nobody listened, and he kept preaching, he kept building, and he brings the family in, and you're all saved. What do you think of your dad? How highly must his sons have thought of their father? I just don't think you can overestimate the amount of respect his family had. This is the hero of the ancient world. There were no superheroes. There's no supermans and batmans. It's just Noah. It's just their dad. He is the only moral example. He is the savior of humanity. I'm sure everybody thought he's what Genesis 3.15 was talking about, about a serpent crusher. To come. He's the one who's going to eliminate sin and bring in a new sinless world. He makes atonement for his family's sins as soon as he comes off the boat. He sets up a new world with law and hunting and agriculture. And he's the judge and the king of this new world. all the way up until verse 20. And we have a turn in the narrative. He began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard, and Noah drank of the wine and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. Just read it for the first time, you're going, I did not see that coming. And if all you've ever read is the kids' picture Bibles, you're glad that they didn't include that part, right? That's unexpected. Righteous Noah is now drunken naked. The Savior Noah is now the sinner Noah. And it's amazing how many times Bible teachers want to ignore this reality. We want Noah to be this great, moral, virtuous man, and ignore the fact that he's drunken naked in his tent. I don't think we need to ignore either reality. I think we can look at Hebrews 11 which says, by faith Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood. We can look at Genesis 6 that said, Noah did everything God commanded him in constructing the ark Or 2 Peter that says he preached righteousness. Or Genesis 8 that says he found favor in God's eyes and atoned for his family's sin. We can look at all of his righteousness and say, he's a righteous man. And then you go, but what about laying naked in his tent drunk? And I would say, that's a bad day. That's a terrible moment. I don't think we have to conclude he's not converted. and he's a hypocrite. I don't think we have to do that. I think there's a category in Scripture for saints of God who are virtuous and righteous, but they still sin. There really is virtue. There really is a faithfulness, but there's moments of unfaithfulness and terrible sin. Does that sound familiar? Anybody relate to that? That was Noah. That's us. We're just like Him. We're just like Him. Now there's a different type of sin that shows up in verse 22. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father. If you read up on this, depending on who you read, some people will conclude and they'll read a lot, a lot into that word saw. Saw the nakedness. I'm not willing to read too much into that other than the fact saw. Some go really far sexually and get into some deep perversions with what Ham may have done. I don't think we need to go there. But what I think is clear is that he's not accidentally in his father's tent. He's looking for dirt on his father. He's looking for failure in his father. Because as soon as he finds it, what does he do? He runs out and shames his father to his brothers. The sin of Ham is that he dishonors his father. Which, again, in our culture, it just doesn't seem that bad. You've got to remember guys, many of us have grown up, I don't watch a whole lot of TV now, but I grew up watching TV and I remember every single father figure in every single show was the one person that was continually dishonored. Everybody else was smart and witty and intelligent and clever. The kids and the wife especially. And the dad was the butt of every joke. He was the one who was continually dishonored. And it's just normal. And nobody thought anything of it. It's humor. It's American humor. You know, we don't realize how terribly serious dishonoring a father is. We laugh at that stuff in our culture. And here's something else to remember. I mean, over 50% of America at this point doesn't even have a father figure in the home to honor or dishonor. There's just no category whatsoever. So we need to remember when we look at scripture and it says Ham dishonored his father, that's no small thing. That is no small sin. I think most of us here are trying to get into exactly where we're at. If any of our kids spit in our face or slapped or hit us or something, we would say, completely unacceptable, greatly dishonored, there would be consequences. But what about rolling the eyes? What about talking back? What about arguing? Is that dishonor? And if it's dishonor, how serious is it? You know, let me remind us of Romans 1, when Paul begins the list of every bad sin he can think of, and he's going down his list, he says they are full of envy. Romans 1. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossips, slanders, haters of God. Inventors of evil, here it is. Disobedient to parents. Remember, that's one of the Ten Commandments. Honor your father and your mother. Remember in the Old Covenant? Children that would continually dishonor a parent could be, not always, but they could be put before the community to be stoned publicly. This is not a small thing in the mind of God and in the history of God's people. And I know we think things like this. I get what Scripture is saying there, but my dad isn't honorable. Well, neither was Noah at this point either. The question is not, can you find sin in your father? Of course you can. The question is, will you be like him and expose it and bring shame upon him, or will you be like the other two sons that honored him? It's always the question. You know, those of you who are in the military, You've heard the phrase, salute the uniform. Because you'll have commanding officers that are not respectable men and you won't want to submit to them or honor them, but you salute the uniform, the place of authority that they hold. And there are places of authority and people of authority that God has called us to honor, even if their character is less than honorable. Look at verse 23. Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders, and they walked backward to cover their father's nakedness. There is so much to what's happening here. I don't have time to unpack this, but this is the language of Genesis 3, when God kills an animal, creates a garment, and clothes the nakedness of Adam and Eve. To what? To cover their shame. Honor covers shame. Honor. Covers. Shame. Listen to John Piper's definition of honor. Honoring someone is treating them with words and deeds as worthy of your service. They may not be worthy of it. So honoring means treating people better than they deserve. 1 Timothy 6. Here's an example. Let all who are bond servants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor. Now their master may be evil, but it says regard him as worthy of all honor. Treat him that way. Accredit to him an honor that may not be earned. Philippians 2.3 says, in humility count others more significant than yourselves. So you get in the front of the line, not to receive honor, but to give it away. To give it to who it is due. I mean, guys, do we go to work and think, who could I honor today? In marriage, do we think, how could I honor my spouse? Children, do you think about how you could honor your parents? Or are we always just wanting to be honored? And be praised and be recognized. Look at verse 24. It says when Noah awoke from his wine and I think what he's doing here is he's prophesying. He says cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants. He shall be to his brothers. Now, Read that carefully, and you're going to be going, why is Canaan getting cursed? I thought it was Ham that sinned, right? Ham's the one who sinned, and now Canaan's getting cursed. So here's what I think is happening. I think Noah comes out of the tent, and I believe he's prophesying that his grandson, Canaan, is already cursed because Ham is his dad. He's saying you're a wicked man. You're an evil son and your son is cursed because you're his dad and he's gonna be just like you. Just like you dishonored me, just wait, he'll dishonor you. Just like you brought shame on me, just wait, he'll bring shame on you. Just like you treated me, just wait, he'll treat you the same way. Your son is a curse because you're his dad and he's gonna be just like you. The New Yorker, that magazine, put out an article some years ago. I don't know if they would do this at this point, but they did at that point. They said the problem with teenagers is their parents, and the whole article went on to talk about all the problems in teenagers, and then it said the root of all the teenage problems is their parents. Canaan's problem was his dad, Ham. He was cursed because Ham was his dad. I'll say it like this. The way you allow your children to dishonor you will not only affect them, but it will affect your grandkids and your great-grandkids and every future generation after you. And I can prove that from chapter 10. Chapter 10 gives us 70 nations. Not 70 people, not 70 families, 70 nations. And it shows two things. It shows the family line in the history, the lineage of those that dishonor their father and the lineage of those that honor their father. So Noah had three sons. Look at their legacy. The family history and legacy of Noah's son Japheth. And we won't read over all of these, but there's many nations, obviously, that came from him. One of those, it isn't mentioned in the Bible, obviously, but is America. The family history and legacy of Noah's son, Ham. You ever heard of nations like Egypt, Babel, or the Babylonians, Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh? How about the Philistines? all the Ites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, all those wicked God-hating nations came from Ham. That's his descendants. He showed his depravity, the depravity of dishonoring his father, that's the trail, that's the lineage, that's the legacy. And then look at the family history and legacy of Shem. You trace this out and you'll reach Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Trace that down, you'll find Judah, Ruth. You can look at the genealogy in Matthew chapter one and see this. Rahab and Jesse, the father of David, many more down to Joseph and Mary down to Jesus. Through the line of that man Shem who displayed the virtue of honor, we finally reach Christ. Honor is a little more important than we think it is. It really is. I want to close with one thought on Christ and the virtue of honor. And if you would turn to Proverbs 15.33. I want to look at one little verse and then we'll be done. It says this. Proverbs 15.33. And it's one little phrase, it's just four words of this verse. Humility comes before honor. Humility comes before honor. If you are here and you want honor, you want respect, Which, if you don't, you're lying. I know you do. We all do. We want to be honored more than we're honored. We want to be respected more than we're respected. It's a natural desire. We desire that. But here's what we have to understand. Humility comes before honor. You can't be raised up and honored without first being humbled and brought low. Doesn't the gospel teach us this? Isn't this what the gospel teaches us? That the Son of God, worthy of all honor, understood humility comes before honor. Let me read Philippians 2, this portion. Listen to this. He who was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, He, what? Humbled Himself. Becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory and the honor of God the Father. So the only one who is truly worthy of honor, understood and displayed, humility comes before honor. Here's my last exhortation to us. How do we become people who get good at honoring others? How do we one day get the honor that we desire? Philippians 2, that same passage says right before what I just read, it says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Don't try to be honored yourself, in other words. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, cross church. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. You must be a people who honors. You must, and you are. You have that mind in Christ Jesus to look at other people who are worthy of honor and to honor them. But you must go low. You must be humble. You must be wanting to put someone else forth as you refrain from desiring honor. And this is why we exist. That in that, God gets honor. Christ gets honor. The name that is above every name gets honored as he rightly should. Amen. Let's ask the Lord to help us in these things. Father, Lord, we. If we have any acquaintance, if we know our hearts, Lord, if we know our hearts even a little bit. We know that we want more honor than we want you to get. Then we want others to get. We want other people's honor and we want your honor. We're just like ham. And so, Father, be merciful to us and forgive us. And would you change us, Lord, to be who you've made us in Christ, to have this mind that you've given us in Christ so that we would consider others more significant than ourselves, so that we would look for opportunities to honor others, especially those in our home. And Lord, in all of this, we want you to get honor and glory that is due to you and you alone. And so Father, please help us for your name's sake. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.