[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] Talk about how sin takes center stage again so quickly. We have just gotten through with a flood. You would think that after the flood and after God destroys everything, that man would wake up and say, I hate sin.
[0:30] I don't ever want to go back there. I don't want to do that again. I lived through it. I saw it. I know what sin brings. You would think that man would say, no way, we'll never go back.
[0:42] But the story that's told in Genesis chapters 8 through 10, which is what we're going to look at tonight, is the opposite story. We're going to watch a man who should know better. We're going to watch a man fall into sin.
[0:54] And so I want you to read with me, if you would, Genesis chapter 8 and verse 15. You'll just need to keep your Bible because we're not going to read all the way through 10. But we will go from verse to verse, and you can underline and mark some things and maybe get some help.
[1:09] We know where we're starting. 8 chapter 8, 15. We know he's getting off the ark. Look at 8, 15. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee.
[1:23] Bring forth of thee all the animals, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. And verse 18. And Noah went forth.
[1:34] And in verse 19, the last few words, he went forth out of the ark, and he built, verse 20, an altar unto the Lord. Of every clean beast and every clean file, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
[1:49] What a wonderful picture. Boy, the flood is over. It's been a year. The boat set down, and they get off the boat. And when they get off the boat, they make an offering to God, an offering and a sacrifice to God.
[2:06] Look, if you would, in verse 21. And the Lord smelled the sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake.
[2:17] The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. For the imagination of a man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done.
[2:28] If you've got your Bible open, I hope you'll underline this. And after the flood, destroying all the people, wiping the whole earth clean, starting all over again with only eight born-again people, eight saved people, eight people that believed in God.
[2:44] He still says the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Go down, if you would, to chapter 9 now.
[2:55] Chapter 9 and verse 1. God blessed Noah and his sons. And he said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every file of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, upon all the fishes, and to your hand are they delivered.
[3:14] Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb that I have given you all things. So basically, God lets man begin to eat meat, and lets him begin to eat the birds and the animals, and they're afraid of him.
[3:31] Verse 5, God says, At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of a man. You will not be able to commit murder and get away with it. Murder will be wrong.
[3:42] Starting here, no Mosaic law, nothing yet. Go down to verse 9. And I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you.
[3:53] Underline, I establish my covenant. That's going to be very important. There's some covenants in the Bible, and they're extremely important. In fact, the Old Testament is like saying the old covenant and the new covenant.
[4:05] He's going to establish a covenant with Noah and with his seed ever after him. Verse 11, I will establish my covenant with you. I'll not kill everybody again. Verse 12, This is a token of the covenant that I will make for perpetual generations.
[4:22] Last word in verse 12. Verse 13, I will give you a rainbow. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a token of a covenant. In verse 15, And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.
[4:41] And the water shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud. And I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that's upon the earth.
[4:57] Verse 16, I'm going to cover two chapters, and we can stay here forever. I just wish you'd look at this. This is one of the most beautiful pictures. Look what, you know, he put that rainbow there. That rainbow is not just for you to look at and say, I know God won't curse us again.
[5:10] I was with a fellow last week. It was 21 before he'd ever heard the gospel. When he got saved, he was so excited. He gives his testimony. He was so excited about hearing about Jesus. He started reading his Bible.
[5:21] He was in college. He was with a bunch of other guys in the dorm. And he was reading in Genesis. He got to where the rainbow was told about. And he jumped up out of his room. And he ran down the hall. And he knocked on the door of several of the guys. And there's a Christian college.
[5:32] A lot of Christians here. These guys came out. And he said, hey, I just want to tell you all. I don't know if you all know where a rainbow came from. But I know where the rainbow came from. Now I know all about it. And everybody else was like, we've known that since we were little kids.
[5:44] He said, I'm just telling you, this is magnificent. You now know why rainbows are here. But here's another thing. You know why rainbows are here? Look at verse 16. Did you notice what he says? He said, and the bow shall be in the cloud.
[5:54] And I'll look at it. And I will remember my everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that's upon the earth. God said, I'll see the rainbow.
[6:06] And I'll remember the promise I made to you. And I thank God he still sees a cross and remembers the covenant he made with us. Same picture. Verse 17. And God said unto Noah, this is the token of the covenant.
[6:20] Verse 19. The three sons of Noah will now overspread the whole earth. The nations will begin to be formed and it will spread everywhere.
[6:31] Verse 20. Sad verse. Horrific verse. Noah became a husbandman. He planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and was drunken and was uncovered within his tent.
[6:47] And Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father and he told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father.
[6:58] So that they didn't see their dad's nakedness. Verse 24. Noah woke up and he knew what his younger son had done to him. Verse 25. He cursed his grandson Canaan. Not to his face.
[7:11] This tells a prophecy. Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be to his brethren. And blessed be the Lord God of Shem. And Canaan shall be his servant. Then he goes on to give a prophecy about the other boys.
[7:23] God shall enlarge Japheth. And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. And Canaan shall be his servant. Skip down, if you would, to chapter 10 and verse 5.
[7:34] By these were the owls of the Gentiles divided in their lands. So God populated the world again through these three families. Four families. Noah and his wife and their three sons.
[7:47] And they began to spread all across the world and to cover the earth. Verse 8. Cush beget Nimrod. He becomes a mighty hunter. Verse 10. The beginning of the kingdom was called Babel.
[7:59] In chapter 2. In verse 21. The children of Eber. The ones that will be the Hebrews come along probably. And in verse 32. Last one. These are the families of the sons of Noah.
[8:09] After their generation in their nations. By these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. I'd like to tell you the story. There's a real fast reading of the chapters.
[8:20] Hope you'll read those chapters. Not a verse is wasted. Not a verse is there that's not important. But I believe there's some great truths we can take home. Let's ask God to help us as we look through these verses.
[8:30] Father, work in our lives and draw us to you. Teach us lessons that you're showing us from history, God. Teach us lessons that you're showing us from your word. Magnify yourself and make yourself big and powerful and real as you are.
[8:45] And we give you all the praise and all the honor and all the glory. For all that you do. In Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, the story starts in Genesis 8.15.
[8:56] And Noah waited on God. Even to know when to get off the ark. That's not going to be a point. I just thought I'd mention that to you. It's been a year. It's been a year that they've been on the boat.
[9:06] It's been a year with all those smelly animals. It's been a year with all the food. It's been a year they've been in the water. It's been a year since their feet touched dry ground. I've been on two cruises. And I'll just be honest with you.
[9:18] You know, my wife really likes that. But whenever we get to the dock and we get off and I walk on the ground, I always think that's pretty neat. I like it. I like walking on ground. It's been a year. But he waits.
[9:29] And he waits for the Lord to speak to him and the Lord to tell him to go out. And that might have been difficult after such a long time. But you and I need to learn that same lesson. We often move too quickly.
[9:41] We often step out of the ark when we're not supposed to. We often lean on our own understanding. And Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
[9:52] In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. And there's just a good little illustration here. Noah was finding out what was going on. He was using the means he had in his hand.
[10:04] He didn't have Google, but he had raven and dove. And he could find out what's going on out there. So he sends them out to check out things. And he sends out the birds and he gathers information. But even when he knows all he can know, he still waits.
[10:17] We usually gather information, make decisions, and don't wait on God. That's my typical way of doing things. Noah had already been a witness and a worker. And now he starts to worship.
[10:29] Look if you would now. And this will be number one. Noah and family worship. Look at chapter 8 and verse 20 if you would. Noah chapter 8 and verse 20. This could be a whole message.
[10:41] But look at this. Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl. And he offered burnt offerings on the Lord. On the altar. He offered animals to God.
[10:54] And that was a symbol. That's a symbol that's going to go all the way through the Bible. How many of you remember who was, what was that first animal that was sacrificed? When was that first animal sacrificed? Can you tell me?
[11:05] When was the first sacrifice? Genesis chapter 3. Three. And what was sacrificed? Probably a lamb. We know that from these other verses. And they were covered by those skins.
[11:15] And here they are getting off the ark. And there's already animals. Those animals are going to be sacrificed. And every animal is pointing to one person. Every animal that will die is a substitute. And that's pointing to a substitute that will come and die for us.
[11:28] And that will be Jesus. Some interesting little things that we'll learn as we get on further in the Bible. And you learn about the Passover lamb. They brought that lamb in. That lamb became a part of the, those animals have been a part of the family for a year.
[11:42] They've been feeding those animals for a year. You ever thought about that? For a year they fed an animal. I grew up on a farm. And farm people, you know, they got a whole different outlook on animals.
[11:53] You know, my family would go out there. We'd pet that calf and feed that calf. And we'd even brush that calf. And then one day daddy would say, we're going to eat that calf.
[12:06] And we would just, bam, shoot that calf, gut that calf, and eat that calf. And people that used to come out to our house, and we had rabbits. And I can remember some of the church people would come over to the house, and they'd like to play with the rabbits.
[12:17] And they'd like to play with the rabbits. And they'd come one day, and there was rabbits to be eating on the table. And one of the kids said, where'd that rabbit come from? And they said, oh, you remembered. They gave the name of the rabbit. And the kids said, I can't eat that.
[12:29] They couldn't eat that rabbit because they knew that rabbit. Well, they knew these animals. But you see, the Lord wanted them to be precious to them. He wanted to get them prepared. He wanted them to realize how precious it would be when he gave his son to die.
[12:41] He was symbolizing complete dedication. Noah was giving his family and himself in full commitment to the Lord. That's what's happening here. I'd like you to look at something else.
[12:52] Do you realize that God never asked you to give an offering? He doesn't provide you with the offering to give him. That's a deep statement. You didn't get it.
[13:03] God never asked you to give an offering that he didn't give you the offering to give him. In this story, they're about to go sacrifice some animals. They're going to take these animals. They're going to kill them.
[13:14] And they're going to lay them on an altar before the Lord. And in chapter 8 and verse 20, Noah built an altar. And he offered of these clean animals. You make a major mistake when you do not understand that God's making provision for your offering.
[13:28] He provides you with what he wants you to honor him with. You see what he did when they got ready to get on the ark. Do you remember what he said? He said, get all the animals two at a time. Get all the animals coming.
[13:39] I don't take time to go through all this because we'll never get through the end of chapter 10. But he said, get them two at a time. And he said, but there's some clean animals. You get seven of them. You get the seven of this kind of bird.
[13:50] You get seven of these animals. And you get all these special animals. And he had them bring in special animals. Bring in extra animals. If you go read that. But the reason was those animals were going to be sacrificed. And I want you to know that when God knew that he was going to ask Noah for an offering.
[14:08] And God provided Noah the offering before Noah needed the offering to give. That's a big Bible lesson. Noah got the offering given to him before he was asked to give the offering.
[14:21] You are given the offering before you're asked to give the offering. By the way, most people that say their Bible have that idea. A good example. Do you remember when the children of Israel in the book of Exodus will leave Egypt?
[14:35] When they get ready to leave Egypt, they will literally. Egypt. The Egyptians want them out of the country so bad. Now their firstborn has died. And everybody just starts giving them gold and silver and pots and pans and stuff.
[14:48] And they're just loading them down. And they get all the way back out into the wilderness. And many Egyptians have just literally given them all they can carry. Go read your Bible. And when they get out there, all of a sudden.
[15:00] All of a sudden, Moses steps out and says, God wants us to build a tabernacle for him. And those people said, hey, I got stuff. I got stuff. I can give stuff.
[15:11] And they gave more stuff than they needed. Because God had already given them the stuff to give. Can you say amen right there? Maybe you don't understand this about your giving. Maybe you have a problem with your offering.
[15:25] Maybe when it comes time to give an offering, you think in your mind, I don't really want to give that. That's my money. And old John Pearson gets up there. And he says, hey, it's time for you all to give you money. And every week, he tries to teach us another lesson about giving our money.
[15:37] But maybe if you just go back in the Old Testament, you'd find out that when old Noah needed an offering, God gave him the offering over a year in advance. Can you say amen right there? Watch this. Check out another Bible verse. See if it's true.
[15:48] 1 Chronicles chapter 29 and verse 12. I'd like you to read this. It's a good Bible principle. When you worship, worship costs you. But when it costs you, God gives you everything it costs you.
[16:00] So it really doesn't cost you if you're honest. 1 Chronicles chapter 29 and verse 12. He said, David's talking to God. He said, both riches and honor come of thee and thou reignest over all.
[16:13] And in thine hand is power and might. And in thy hand is to make great and to give strength unto all. Would you look at verse 12 and just underline something? Where do all riches and honor come from?
[16:26] Help me. I want you to read it to me out of the verse. Riches and honor what? Come on. Riches and honor what? Riches and honors what? Okay.
[16:37] And in whose hand is power and might? In whose hand in? Thine hand. And in thine hand is to make great and to give strength to all. Verse 13. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name.
[16:52] But who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? I want you to read out loud with me this part of the verse. So you ready? You got your Bible open there?
[17:03] It's on behind me. Would you read it? It says, for all things. Read it out loud. Are we ready? Go. For all things. Read this part with me.
[17:15] Of thine own have we given thee. Read that. Are we ready? David said, we're building you a temple, God. But I know that everything I have came from you.
[17:26] If you know Bible principles, you know this. All the money you have came from God. I know you thought it came from working at DuPont or Kroger or Walmart. You thought it came from the company you work for.
[17:39] But the Bible says it all comes from God. I know you thought it came from how smart you are and how hard you work and all the degrees you have. But the Word of God says the money you have comes from God.
[17:50] The Bible says that God gives you the power and the might and the strength. And David said, boy, God, I'm just so honored you'd let us give an offering to you.
[18:01] Because everything we give to you, you gave to us. And whatever you gave to us is all we're giving back to you. That's in verse 14. That's how God does it.
[18:13] So here we are worshiping. Noah gets off the boat, builds an altar, offers animals God gave him to offer. Worships God. You come to church every week.
[18:25] And God asks you to take what he gave you and say, I love you enough, God. And I recognize who gave me what I have. I recognize that what I have came from you.
[18:38] You grudgingly pay your taxes. But if you lived anywhere else in the world, you'd probably be excited to pay your taxes. If you were living in Great Britain, you'd probably say glory to God for American taxes.
[18:48] If you're living in South America and your sales tax was 19% plus a tax on your house plus a tax on your income, you'd probably be glad to come back to America. And here's what he said.
[18:59] He says, you know, you live there and you give to your government. Here's what God says. I gave it all to you. And you're giving back to me. So when you worship, when you come in here, you know why giving back to God is worship?
[19:12] Can you get this with me? You know why giving back to God is worship? Because you're saying, I know who gave this to me. And I come here to say to you, God, that this week you gave me all this money and you gave me all this time and you gave me all this ability.
[19:24] You gave me all this strength. And I know it came from you. And for that reason, I'd like to give you some of it. Just so I could say to you, hey, God, I know it came from you. So here's something to say. Thank you. You ask for 10% in the Old Testament.
[19:37] In the New Testament, man, it's grace given. It's like, I love you. I give you even more than that. And I want to give it to you, God. I want to give it to you. I want to because I know you're God. I know it came from you. By the way, and then you also give to say this.
[19:47] Hey, everybody, I want everybody in this room to know something. I give to God because I know where it came from. And some of you walk around arrogantly saying, I'm not going to give to God because he didn't keep me on the ark. Here's what Noah could have said.
[19:58] I built the stinking ark. And if you want to know how I got through the flood, I'm a smart guy. Now, I came up with an idea to build an ark. And I built an ark. And I got all them animals in there. And I built them. Hey, that's my ark and my stuff.
[20:11] He could have said that, but he didn't say that. He said, boy, God, thank you for getting me through the flood. I'd like to make an offering to you. And he worshiped God. He taught his kids something, by the way. The beautiful thing in the story is that the Lord smelled a sweet savor and he accepted the sacrifice.
[20:27] The Lord smelled a savor. Look, if you would, in verse 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. He said, man, I smell it. I smell sweet respect and honor from me. I smell sweet worship from me.
[20:40] And he said in his heart, I won't curse the ground anymore for man's sake. And even though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, I still won't even smite anymore every living thing.
[20:51] They're still just as stinking wicked as they were before the flood. But I won't. That's a picture of what he does when he accepts Jesus' sacrifice.
[21:02] In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 2, the Bible says, And walk in love as Christ also has loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
[21:16] When I stand before God, God doesn't look at me and say, well, I smell sweet stuff on you, Austin. He doesn't look at me and say, Austin, boy, you really accomplished some great stuff. You're a good guy. He looks at me and says, I'll let you into heaven because I smell the savor of an offering made by Jesus Christ on you.
[21:32] 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17, the Bible says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, whenever you read the Bible, you ought to look for in Christ. The way I stand before God holy, the way I stand before God clean and pure, the new creature is in Christ.
[21:48] I stand in Him. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 6, I am accepted in the Beloved. I'm accepted in the Beloved. I'm never accepted by my own person.
[21:59] I'm never accepted for who I am. I'm accepted in the Beloved. The second thing I'd like you to see. I'll go over that. Just let me remind you of this. Where did the offering come from? Could you remind me of that?
[22:10] Where did the offering come from that Noah's going to make on that altar? Where did that offering come from? Can you tell me? It came from the Lord. Where did the money you make this week come from? Who did it come from? It came from God.
[22:20] By the way, where did the health come from to get you able to get out of your seat and get back in that car out there and drive back home? Where did that come from? It came from God, didn't it? You know, we come in here to worship God because we honestly believe this with all our hearts.
[22:32] He owns us. He owns everything about us. The smartness I have came from Him. The ability I have came from Him. Hey, you know, some of us can, man, we're just sharp, buddy.
[22:45] I mean, we are smart. We pick up things. And it's so easy to get proud and think, I did that. But Noah knew. I didn't build an ark. God built an ark. I didn't preserve that life on that ark.
[22:57] God preserved that life. I didn't get through that flood on my own. God got me through that flood. And I'm going to worship God. And what are you going to do? The second thing I want you to look at is God establishes a covenant with man and animals.
[23:07] This is an important thing for you. You know, I realize that tonight's kind of a hodgepodge. But you're the Sunday night crowd. You can just grow and learn from this. But watch this. God makes a covenant. Man worshiped Him.
[23:20] Now God makes a covenant. Look at Genesis chapter 6 and verse 18. But with thee I will establish my covenant. And thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee.
[23:32] You need to understand, I will establish my covenant. You ought to underline that. And that's where God makes an agreement with man. And God sets up some parameters. And God says, this is how I'm going to work.
[23:43] This is how I'm going to work. In chapter 8 and verse 21, He said, I will put no additional curse on the earth. I'll put no additional curse on the earth. In chapter 9 and verse 11, He said, I will have no more universal floods.
[23:57] In chapter 8 and verse 22, He said, I won't interrupt the cycle of nature. I won't stop spring, summer, winter, fall, winter. I won't stop that.
[24:08] There may be interruptions here on a local level, but I will let it go on all around the world. He established capital punishment to say life will be respected. He put up a rainbow to say, this is the way you can remember I made an agreement with you.
[24:23] I'll not kill man anymore. And I'll remember not to kill you. And you'll remember that I won't kill you. And then I want you to go with me to chapter 8 and verse 20. And I want to talk to you about some covenants just a minute.
[24:34] Because I really think it helps you understand salvation. I really think it helps you understand salvation. I really think it helps you understand what He's done for us. It's in Genesis chapter 8 and verse 20. Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and every clean file.
[24:47] Verse 21. The Lord smelled a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.
[24:58] Neither will I again smite anymore every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains of seed, time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. So here's some things about the covenant that I want you to write down and remember.
[25:13] When God makes it, now there are different types of covenants. But the covenants I want to show you tonight are unilateral. One-sided. Sometimes there are covenants where I say to you, I'll buy that car from you for $2,000.
[25:26] I'll give you $2,000, you give me that car. So if I do what I say and you do what you say, we got an agreement. But there are times when God simply says, nope, here's the thing, I'm making an agreement.
[25:37] And I don't need nothing on your side, it's all going to come off my side. Watch this. Genesis chapter 9 and verse 8. And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you.
[25:52] I establish. He does. There's no if. There's no if you do this. There's no condition. He says this is unilateral. Chapter 9 and verse 11. I will establish my covenant with you.
[26:04] Chapter 9 and verse 12. And God said, this is a token of the covenant which I make between me and you of every living creature that's with you for perpetual generations.
[26:15] Underline, perpetual generations. In verse 13 he says, I'm going to give you a token of the covenant between us and that will be a rainbow. And then he says in verse 15, I'll remember my covenant.
[26:28] He says, it's the bow. It was an eternal one and it was a grace one. This is the first covenant mentioned in the Bible.
[26:39] And there's a rule if you study your Bible that you go back and find the law of first mention. When God starts talking about something, you find out what God's talking about. And you find out how he uses the word and you follow it through the Bible. A good Bible study for you would always be to go find out what's going on in the beginning and follow it.
[26:54] For example, it was very interesting. In my Sunday school class this morning, we read in Isaiah where the Lord was pleased to bruise the sun. And then I took them all the way back to Genesis and showed them in Genesis where he said that her seed would bruise the head of the serpent and his heel would be bruised.
[27:14] Bruised, bruised. All you've got to do is follow the Bible. The Bible explains the Bible pretty good. The Bible is the best commentary the Bible has. Because the Bible will tell you what the Bible is trying to say.
[27:25] So here we've got a covenant. The covenant, Noah's the recipient of the covenant. The covenant was God's idea. God decided to save the human race through Noah and his family.
[27:39] It's a one-sided covenant. God towards Noah, no conditions. Noah, I'm not going to kill the whole earth again with a flood. I won't do it again.
[27:51] Period. He didn't say, I won't do it again unless y'all make me mad again. He said, I won't do it again. And he gave a sign and it was an everlasting one. I just want to throw a couple of things at you because I want to get to the last point that I want to talk to you about.
[28:07] Even in our own church, I sometimes hear things and maybe I think it's because you haven't read enough Genesis. God has other covenants. He got some covenants with Israel. He gives them a covenant, a promise.
[28:19] I'm giving you certain land. And this isn't a political statement. This is a biblical statement. God said to Abraham, I'm giving you this land. It's yours. From now on, I give it to you.
[28:32] He said, I'll multiply your seed. It'll be an everlasting covenant. And there won't be, you'll be a great nation. And I'll give you certain land. And I was going to show you all the verses, but we won't.
[28:46] I just want you to know, God made a promise to Noah. There won't be another worldwide flood that destroys everybody. He made a promise to Abraham. I'll make a big nation out of you, a great nation out of you.
[28:57] So when the nation of Israel came back together again as a nation, shouldn't shock any of you. When they can't get rid of that little smathering of people, shouldn't shock you. God made a big promise. And when God makes a promise, it always comes true.
[29:07] By the way, if it don't come true with Israel, it won't come true with my salvation. So God said, Israel, yep, I'll make a nation out of you. And then he said to him, I'm going to give you certain pieces of land. And he gave him certain pieces of land. Then he told David, I'm going to let, I'm going to, he told David, he said, David, I'm going to make sure one of your sons sits on a throne.
[29:23] And that son will be Jesus. He'll sit on a throne forever. I just want you to know that just a couple of things. We're under a covenant tonight. I'm under the covenant of grace. I'm under the fact that God, through Jesus Christ, forgave my sin and gave me salvation.
[29:39] And the God I serve makes a promise and he keeps his promise. He made a promise in the book of Genesis about the flood and he's kept it. Hadn't been a worldwide flood since then.
[29:49] In fact, his scientists can't believe there ever was one because it's just so illogical that it won't happen. You know why it's illogical, don't you? Because God quit doing it. If God had kept on doing it, it might be going, yeah, that happens all the time.
[29:59] But they don't happen all the time. God did it once, said it won't ever happen again, and they ain't never going to happen again. You say, brother, sometimes I wonder if global warming, I'm afraid the glaciers are all going to melt. We're all going to be flooded. Not happening. You say, how do you know?
[30:11] I got a promise. Y'all can all worry about the global warming all you want. Antarctica, Antarctica and Jupiter can all melt, but this place ain't going to get flooded again. You say, how do you know that?
[30:21] I forgot the promise of God on it. Amen. I'll hang my hat on that. He said he wasn't going to let it happen. It ain't going to happen. He said, Israel's going to get land. They're going to get land. And I'm going to make you mad. You ready?
[30:32] Everybody's ready to get mad at me now, right? I've been thinking about I need a new church anyway. So let's go to Genesis chapter 9. The next thing is wine brings chaos.
[30:44] Wine brings chaos. And I don't try to stir you up or make you mad at me. And if you're honest, you should know that by now.
[30:54] But in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 19, the whole earth is now over. The three sons will be overspread. But the world is starting to grow. And the kids are all having kids.
[31:06] And Noah is the big great granddaddy of everybody. And he plants a vineyard. In verse 21, he drank the wine and he got drunk. And he was laying naked in his tent. And his son, Ham, saw his nakedness.
[31:19] And he went outside probably laughing and mocking his daddy. He ain't going to believe this old man is drunk laying in his tent. And Shem and Japheth, they respected their dad enough to back up with their cloth and throw the cloth over their dad.
[31:31] And he woke up. So just let me go through a few things with you because I've got like six minutes. But watch this if you would. This is a first mention of wine. Remember me talking to you about first mention of wine, first mention of anything?
[31:43] And always go to the first mention. I don't like wine. I'm just going to tell you up front. I don't like wine. You say, well, brother, does the Bible say we can't have a drink of wine? No, it really doesn't say you never can't have a drink of wine. If you're dying, it says go ahead and give you some.
[31:55] Or you can use morphine. When you're dying, you're dying. Just go ahead and give them something to kill the pain. It says that leaders ought not drink it. People that have got to make decisions ought not drink it. We can see that too. You've seen that. I've got six messages I preach to Peruvians about that.
[32:07] But can I just remind you that the very first time alcohol is mentioned in the Bible, a guy gets drunk and curses his family. Sin has consequences.
[32:19] Canaan will follow in the steps of his dad and do wrong, make him a servant and wicked and perverted. Abraham will lie and his son Isaac will do the same thing. The son sinned. He mocks his father instead of honoring him.
[32:32] He mocks his father instead of honoring him. I'd just like to throw something at you. I really want you to think about this.
[32:45] Is it wrong to raise grapes? No. Was it sin in having a vineyard? I don't think so. Did he not know he would get drunk?
[32:57] Oh, I think he did. Ben, these are pretty smart guys. Don't forget they were already making music. Already doing all kinds of stuff long before the flood. I think he knew exactly what he would do. That's not the point. I just want you to think before I leave here because I only preach on stuff when I get to it.
[33:12] So when I get to it, I think I can stop a minute. And I'll just tell you that probably the most wicked, condemning, vicious, vile venom on the planet is not Coke.
[33:28] It's not any of the other drugs. It's alcohol. And somehow it's become prestigious. One famous preacher likes to drink beer with his church members after church.
[33:39] So you think that's sin. Well, I won't even go where I think on that, but I'll just say it this way. You know, I'd hate to be the guy that said, let's all take a beer and there be somebody that just had a tendency to get drunk and not ever really quit being a drunkard.
[33:54] I've watched what alcohol did in my family. I've watched what alcohol did. And the first time it gets mentioned in the Bible, if you were just reading your Bible for the first time and you'd never read the Bible, you read this chapter, you'd be like, wow, that getting drunk stuff was bad deal.
[34:09] Ham didn't get cursed. He's the one that saw him naked. His son got cursed and a whole line got cursed. Well, I don't understand all that. I don't think it had anything to do with slavery.
[34:20] I don't think it had anything to do with making a certain race of people less than another group of people. But I will say this. I think it showed you why it's pretty stinking wicked. You might ought to be careful with that stuff. Actually, I'm not sure that he even told Canaan what was going to happen to him because he was talking about his sons.
[34:49] He may have said it to him. He may not have. In verse 25, he said, says, and he said, cursed be Canaan. I don't know if he said it to himself. I don't know if he said it to his son. Verse 26.
[34:59] And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. And God shall enlarge. Verse 27. Japheth. Noah speaks about the future of all of his sons.
[35:10] And that was kind of a tradition back then. Dad gathered all the kids in, sat them down and say, he said, Dan, you're like a dumb donkey.
[35:21] Down between the big loads on both sides of you. And you told another one of his sons, you guys are vicious guys. You went out and you killed those people. And they tell what's going to happen in their future.
[35:35] The funny thing about the curse was it wasn't on him. It was on his son. And I'd just like to say this. Your sin often affects your children more than they do you.
[35:47] Your sin often affects your children more than they do you. Your sins get imitated. It's more caught than taught.
[35:57] It's actions, not words. Your actions are speaking so loudly I can't hear what you're saying. Noah will have a horrible stain on his name.
[36:11] It's the last thing that's mentioned about him before he dies. He's going to live 350 years. I want to finish well.
[36:26] I'd like to finish well. Man, old Noah, what a man. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And he built a boat and saved his family and saved the human race. And saved all the animals and greatly used the God.
[36:37] And he built an altar, planted a vineyard, and got drunk, got seen naked by his son, cursed his kids, lived 350 years, and died.
[36:48] I'd just like to say a couple things. Parents. Years ago, my son Chris told me that I wasn't a good dad.
[37:03] And I had quite a few problems raising my kids. So I'm not a perfect dad. But I tell you this, if I were you and I were a parent, one of the scariest things in the world would be to know that little eyes are watching every move I make.
[37:16] That's scaring me to death. It scares me now. They watch you in your house. They know what you really say and what you really do. They know you when you're not at church and know when no one is watching. When you go home and you think you can relax, you're being watched by little kids.
[37:30] They hear everything you're saying and everything you're doing. And you hurt them and stain them, mess them up. In old age, we get lazy. We begin to coast.
[37:45] In all the years I've been in the ministry, I've heard this over and over. We leave the ministry for the young. Do you know if anybody's going to go knock on doors around here? You old people don't go, do you? You know, there's a cutoff.
[37:59] You don't need to serve. After you get to about 35, you shouldn't. It's below your dignity to knock on a door of witness to somebody. That's okay. Don't worry about it. You're old enough. You're important.
[38:11] Noah. We coast. We need ministry for the young. We feel like we've paid our dues. We don't carry our part of the load.
[38:24] Our passion dries up. The flame goes out. We're here, but not really. God, I just say, why don't you let your last works be better than your first.
[38:41] Let your life count till the end. Don't start drying up like the world teaches you to do. You know, Florida is a waiting room for heaven or hell.
[38:55] Once you reach a certain age, you don't need to work anymore. All you need to do is go down there and sit in the sun. What do you do? You don't die. Something's wrong with that philosophy. Oh, Noah bothers me.
[39:06] We won't get to human government. I'll just skip it all together. We'll start up with Abraham next time. But I would just say to you, listen, look, I'm 58. Fix me 59. And I am so scared I'm going to get lazy.
[39:20] I am so afraid that I'm going to think the other guys ought to do the stuff. And I would challenge you. We're never to the point we don't need to talk about Jesus.
[39:32] We're never to the point we can say, you see these gray hairs? And could I just say, if you want to play that game, I probably played that game as well as most of you. I've been on the mission field.
[39:42] I've preached in another language. I've been beat up. I've had my daughter raped. I've had my home broken into. Out on the battlefield. I've been there. But that's no excuse for us to quit.
[39:56] I would like to think when God calls for a warrior, and I'm 75 years old, if I still got a brain about me, that I'll stand up and grab my sword, the Word of God, and step up to preach and teach and do the work of God.
[40:10] I know I can't be your pastor after a certain age. I won't really be fit for that. But I promise you this, I have no intentions of stopping. I ain't going to stop giving. I'm going to give more.
[40:21] I ain't going to stop praying. I'm going to pray more. I'm not going to stop visiting or talking to people or witnesses or sharing Jesus. I'm going to do more. In the last few months, all I've been able to think is, hey, your day may be coming sooner.
[40:34] You better get your rear in gear. Noah planted a garden, got drunk, got naked, got laughed at, cursed his kids, lived 350 years, sitting on the back row of the church, and died.
[40:53] I don't want to be that guy. Father in heaven, I love you. And Lord, I feel like it's just me and you in this room right now. God, I pray you'd touch hearts. I pray you'd wake us up.
[41:05] I pray you'd motivate us. I pray you'd challenge us. Help us not to be lazy. God, help us to do something for you. Help us to serve you. Help us to work in our lives. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.
[41:19] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com, where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
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