Well, we're going to be back in our series in the book of Genesis this morning. Genesis chapter 9. And let me remind you, we last saw in our journey through Genesis that as Noah and his family emerged from the ark after the flood, they had some new beginnings in store for them as they started out afresh. Those who had corrupted God's way on the earth had been judged by God, being destroyed by that worldwide flood. We know that Noah began this new era on the right track by means of worship and sacrifice. That's the first thing he did when he got off the ark. That's a good way to start out. The Lord had renewed the command first given to Adam for them to be fruitful and multiply. He gave them that command not once, but twice. Verse 1 and verse 7 of Genesis chapter 9. The Lord changed their diet from just plant-based to one that could include meat. The Lord also instituted the requirement of the death penalty for man or animal responsible for taking the life of another. And in doing that, government was instituted that was in Noah to take and if mankind was going to carry that out, government was instituted and ordained to carry it out by men, shall their blood be shed. And then the Lord made a covenant with mankind by promising that He would never destroy the world again by the way of a worldwide flood. And He gave a reminder, He gave a token of His promise with the rainbow in the sky. Now we might expect that after God's demonstration of wrath against evil, and God's merciful deliverance of Noah and his family from the flood, You might think that human race ever after would adhere to the path of good and right. That was not the case. The very next account in Scripture shows mankind's sin nature on full display. And we're going to take a couple of weeks to look at this, but I want to read the whole verses 19 through 29. And we'll come back and finish it up. A difficult area of Scripture. And some preachers would skip over it. I believe in preaching the whole counsel of God. And so I'm going to do that. And next week I need you praying for me. Because the subject next week is going to be a little bit different. It's going to be difficult to bring out the truth that needs to be brought out for us to see why this was being said to begin with. Genesis 9, verse number 19, says here, these are the three sons of Noah, and of them was the whole earth overspread. Talking about Sham, Ham, and Japheth mentioned there in verse number 18. Verse 19, and Noah began to be in husbandmen, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and was drunken. And he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and 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. And their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brother. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. And Noah lived after the flood 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. Now, scholars tell us that the Hebrew word that's translated there, uncovered, where he was uncovered after he got drunk, clearly indicates a deliberate act. This was not accidental. It was not a mere unconscious effect of the drunkenness, but drunkenness does cause folks to cast off restraints. And the idea is that Noah cast off the restraint that he once knew and allowed himself to be uncovered in his tent. Now granted, there was no indication of any law against strong drink at this time. Nevertheless, we can learn much from the account here and the correlation between drunkenness and nakedness or sexual impropriety. Now we're going to get into the nakedness and the sexual impropriety next week. I know probably some expected that I would skip over this, but we're going to try to handle it in such a way that it will be appropriate in a mixed setting. Let me first call your attention to some resemblance between Noah's new beginning and the beginning of Adam. Adam was blessed by God and told to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. And like I said, in like manner Noah was blessed here in Genesis 9 verses 1 and 7 and told to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Adam was placed in a garden to dress it and keep it according to Genesis 2.15. Noah began to be a husbandman and he planted a vineyard. He was dressing and keeping that vineyard. Amen? In Genesis 9.20. It was by partaking of fruit from a particular tree in the Garden of Eden that caused Adam to transgress and fall. It was the forbidden fruit that God said, you're not to eat of that. In Genesis 3.6. And it was the fruit from a vineyard that brought about Noah's indiscretion in Genesis 9.20-21. Now the sin of Adam resulted in the exposure of his nakedness. Remember that? And we read that in Genesis 3-7. And so too we read that Noah's drunkenness here led to his being uncovered in his tent. It led to his being naked as well in Genesis 9-21. Adam and Eve's nakedness was only adequately covered by another. That was by the Lord God Himself. In Genesis 3.21 when the Lord God slew animals to provide coats of skin to replace the inadequate fig leaf covering that Adam and Eve had come up with by themselves. And we know that Noah's nakedness was only adequately covered by another, his two sons. They were not involved in the incident. Went backward and covered their father's nakedness. Adam's sin led to a curse upon his posterity. That curse is upon us. Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5.12. And so did Noah as well. His sin led to a curse upon his grandson. And we're going to get into that. Why the grandson instead of the son? And we'll get into that next week. But this morning, we see also that Adam had three named sons that are mentioned in Scripture. Cain, Abel, and Seth. Noah also had three sons mentioned, Japheth, Ham, and Shem. And each had a son who manifested great wickedness, Cain and Ham. Cain was the son of Adam and Eve, and Ham the son of Noah and his wife. Now, almost immediately after Adam's sin, there was an important prophecy that was given related to the consequence of what had transpired. And it was a prophecy concerning redemption in Genesis 3 verse 15. The very first prophecy related to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And almost immediately after Noah's drunkenness, his nakedness, another important prophecy was given that was tied to the consequences of what had transpired. And this one concerned the history of Noah's sons and their progeny. Understand what Noah was doing is he was prophesying when he talked about the curse against Canaan and talked about his sons there. It was a prophecy that was given. Now, when we read here that Noah planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine and was drunken and was uncovered within his tent. There in verse 21, we are reminded of the Holy Spirit's comment upon the Old Testament Scriptures. It was given by the Apostle Paul in Romans 15 and verse number 4. And it says this, For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning. What's here was written for our learning. How can you skip over it if it's written for your learning? You can't. That's why it's necessary to preach the whole counsel of God. And this is not the first time that I've had to deal with unsavory subjects as we preach through the books of the Bible. And so it's probably not going to be the last time either. But this week and next week, we're going to be talking about some things. You say, well, what does that have to do with me? It really has a lot to do with all of us. It really does. So we ask, I ask the question this morning, what are we to learn from what we see here? What are we to learn from what we see here? First thing I want us to understand is we find here one very clear proof of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. What I'm preaching out of is the Word of God. In the Bible, we know that human nature is shown in its reality. We are shown the ugliness of what sin does. Even some of the flaws of those that we deem as heroes of the faith, those flaws are faithfully depicted and they're recorded in God's Word. It's human to err because of sin. But we know it's also human to conceal, try to conceal the blemishes. We don't want folks to know the skeletons we got in our closets. We don't want folks to know certain areas of our life. There's certain things that There are certain stories about my life I will not tell you, okay? Because that's our nature. I mean, there's some things that are there that I'm not proud of, some things that I choose to conceal those things. You think about some of the ones we admire. I admire Noah. You think about, he found grace in God's eyes. He was a just man. He was perfect in his generations. He walked with God. What's not to like about that? But, we see a blemish here upon what's written about Noah, don't we? We just do. Think about Moses. Man, Moses was a great man to God. God used him in great ways. But man, when he got over there to the edge of the promised land and the Lord God had told him to just speak to the rock and not strike it again. And he struck the rock and said, man, why did he do that? Noah was like us. He had a problem with his flesh. He got mad. He let his temper get the best of him and caused him to disobey. I think of King David. King David is one of the most beloved characters. Man, there toward the middle part of his life, later part of his life, he messed up. I mean, he messed up big time. Some things, no doubt, we have a hard time understanding how God could continue to use him. But then when you look at your life, at my life, and you look at the things that are there, we come to understand God can still use us. I mean, God can forgive us of our sins. God can use us for His honor and for His glory. And we could spend time this morning talking about others like King Solomon. I mean, King Solomon's one too that just really amazes me. Somebody that wants that many number of women in his life. And I like the one I've got, thank the Lord. But I don't know that I would want a harem. And what comes with that? But anyway, we know that he loved many strange women. Not a good thing. In fact, he'd been warned against that in the law. There was a warning there in God's law to kings concerning accumulating mistresses like that and also concerning going down to Egypt and getting horses. I mean, there was things that he didn't pay attention to. Now if the Bible was nothing more than just another book written apart from divine inspiration, the defects of its leading characters might well have been ignored. Or if recorded at all, they would be minimized. Because that's just the way it is. In fact, this awful incident in Noah's life might well have been altogether omitted. Let's just leave the good stuff in there. Let's just stop talking about his life. Let's just say he lived 950 years and he died. That's not the way it is. The fact that this is actually recorded and that no effort is made to excuse Noah's actions is evidence that this is truly depicted here. When we see the Bible's characters recorded as such, we come to understand that Moses here who is the author of the first five books of the Bible, Moses, and along with the other writers of Scripture elsewhere, had to have been written by divine inspiration. You can't say anything different. Especially when they line up with one another, there are no things that are contrary. We know that the accurate depiction even of its heroes and their bad moments, shows that the Word of God is, in fact, His Word. And it shows the inspiration of Scripture. Second thing, we come to a better understanding that man at his best estate is altogether vanity. I want you to pay close attention to what I'm about to say, because this is real important. I mean, we can look at Noah and we can point a finger and say, boy, he didn't have any business doing that. Look in the mirror, OK? We can look in the mirror and we can understand. But you go back and think about some of the things that you've been involved in. Boy, I didn't have any business doing that. Just didn't have any business doing it. I did it. Thank God He forgave me for it. But here we see the utter and total depravity of human nature. Genesis 9 deals with the beginning of a new dispensation, the dispensation of human government, which we covered the dispensations in our recent series on Wednesday night as we were going through and looking at those dispensations and what those things meant. But here the dispensation of human government, and just like the dispensation that preceded it and those dispensations that follow it, We saw the failures of mankind in each dispensation. And what we see here is Noah had a failure. He had a failure. It's shown and it's openly displayed. Noah and his family, understand this, they had an environment where the evildoers of the previous dispensation of conscience had been eliminated. Yeah. It was just Noah and his family now. All the evildoers that had caused such commotion before the flood and brought about the flood, they were no longer there. But Noah and his family had God's blessings pronounced upon them. The sword of governmental authority was placed in Noah's hand. And yet we see that Noah failed to govern himself and so he fell into open wickedness which affected his descendants. We're going to see that effect next week. Lord willing. Come to understand that all of mankind is essentially evil at their core, and that includes us. And we don't need to forget that, lest we slip and fall. Anytime you think, well I'm above that, you better watch out. And we see here, we'll talk about that in just a minute. But the third thing I want us to see, we learn the danger and awful evils associated with drunkenness. Now, I hope that this is not a problem with anybody in here. I don't know of anybody that's associated with drunkenness in our midst. And you think, well, preacher, you could just skip over this. No. No. It need to be talked about. And I'll tell you why here in just a minute. But it is surely significant, and it's designed as a solemn warning that this first time that wine is referred to in the Scriptures, the first time it's referred to in the Scriptures, it's associated with drunkenness, nakedness, shame, and a curse. Now again, there was no prohibition that I can find. There's no law up to this point. The Mosaic Law didn't come until later. There's no prohibition. And you know, there's some things that come up in our life in this day and time in which we live. There's no prohibition. There's no prohibition against using artificial intelligence. Is there going to be some great wickedness associated with it? Yes, there is. taking and creating friends and relationships between artificially created beings on their own. I don't understand that. But don't think that new things that come on the scene can't drag you down and put you in a place where you don't need to be. Should Noah have known to be diligent? We'll talk about that a little bit later, but I want us to just think about, and he didn't know it at this time, but drunkenness, nakedness, shame, curse, they're mentioned quite a bit together in Scripture. I think with me about Lot. In Genesis 19, verse 31-36, and I'm going to turn over there and read it. Lot's two daughters got their daddy drunk twice for the express purpose of, well, the men left after the destruction of Solomon and Gomorrah. We've got to preserve seed of our father. And so they got him drunk twice. And each one of them committed incest with their dad. The fruit of which was the Ammonites and the Moabites, two of the most wicked groups of people in the Old Testament. Think about 2 Samuel 11 verse 13. David, after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and Bathsheba became pregnant. That's what happens. He got Uriah the Hittite drunk to try to cover up his adultery. He said, man, if I get him drunk he'll go home. and he'll lay with his wife. But he was a man of character. He said, I'm not going home when all of my soldiers out on the field fighting. He was better than David at that. David was at the palace and everybody else was out fighting wars. It cost him, he got dragged into sin, didn't he? By his own desires. It didn't work out the way that David had hoped though, because Uriah was a man who had character. Think back at 2.15, it says these words, Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puteth thy bottle to him, and maketh him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their naked. And so we're going to take a look at that phrase next week, because it has to do with what we're looking at in chapter number 9. It's a very important part of it. Proverbs 20, verse number 1, tells us that wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Now, granted, Noah didn't have that knowledge. But, should he have maybe been a little more wise in what he was doing? I think so. Look at Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23. And we're not told, by the way, that it was the first time that Noah drank, the first time that he got drunk. It's just what happened this particular time. But Proverbs 23, look at verse number 29. This is the only other place I'm going to have you turn this morning. It talks about what drunkenness will do for you. And it says in verse 29, "...who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes, they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine." Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder, that thine eyes shall behold strength. utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again." Listen, I've heard people saying, well, I can handle mine. I can handle my alcohol. You ever heard anybody say that? Well, you know that alcohol can handle you too. It just can. Galatians 5 verse 21 shows drunkenness to be one of the works of the flesh. The practice of which prevents one from inheriting the kingdom of God. Also in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 10, drunkards are found in a list of folks that shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now drunkenness commonly leads to other evils as it did in Noah's case by giving occasion for his son to sin and that's a great lesson to learn. Be careful especially about new things that are on the scene. Now, I have no idea if there was a fermentation process before the flood. It would have taken longer, I would think, there before the flood. But as things change with the climate, it happened a lot quicker. It doesn't matter. The drunkenness is the problem here, and the drunkenness commonly leads to other evils as it did. And we'll take a look closer at that next week. But here's the fourth and really where I want to drive this home to you this morning. We learn of our need to be vigilant. You say, but preacher, I don't drink. Wines are not a problem with me. It doesn't matter. Are you vigilant? The things that have come on the scene, there's a need for vigilance. In my lifetime, computers have come on the scene. I remember my mom and dad, we had just had our daughter, Charity, Susan was pregnant with Phillip, and the PCs came out. IBM PC Junior, they bought one because they knew that computers were going to be the future and the kids were going to need to know how to do them. We've come a long way, baby, since then. But can I tell you that as good things that can come out of that computer, there's so much more evil that can be associated with it if you're not careful. And it can happen innocently. I remember when we first were introduced to the Internet, innocently, making a search for go-karts. Don't go do it at home, okay? But seriously, we just, we did a search on go-karts and what came up was the most vile, wicked junk that you have ever seen in your entire life. Now, you can allow something like that to drag you into it or you can be, you can be abased by it. You can say, no, I got to get that out of my life. I can't do that. You know? And it's a choice. You've got to choose to do the right thing. And it's so much more evil today than it was back then. I use mine every day. I am able to do exceedingly more cross-referencing and study. There are so many good things that are there to be able to use. And there are preachers that do right now. I do not use A.I. to get my sermons. There are places that are promoting it. You need A.I. to get your sermon outlined and get your sermon. No, that's not the way it's supposed to be. You're supposed to get in the Word and study the Word. And let the Lord give you what you're going to be preaching. Anyway, that's a rabbit trail. We've gotten on a rabbit trail, but it's an important rabbit trail because we need to learn to constantly be vigilant in our lives. To constantly watch and pray in our lives. And I think this incident of Noah, he wasn't very diligent in this thing. Believers are not immune from finding themselves in situations that can have a great negative impact on their lives and the lives of those they love. I've seen it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. Even in men of God who have preached in the pulpit. Listen, having a great testimony of faith in the first 600 years of his life did not keep Noah from succumbing to the lust of the flesh and messing up in a later time of testing year. Think about 600 years. What was he known for? Well, he was known for some pretty good things in that first 600 years. Listen, there's a great need to be vigilant because the sin nature is still within us and nothing but a constant dependency on the Lord can enable us to guard our lives from great evil. That's the only thing that can do it. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about many of Israel's bad examples during the time of the exodus that they needed to learn lessons from. And he listed the things in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. You can read that chapter. And he tells all about them coming out of the wilderness and the things that happened to them in the wilderness and how they were drawn into evil. But 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11 and 12 says this, Now all these things happened to them for in samples. And they are written for our admonition. Now that sounds pretty close to what he told the Romans in Romans 15.4 about these things were written for our learning in the Old Testament. He said, Wherefore let him that thinketh, he standeth. Take heed lest he fall. You think you stand? You better be vigilant. You better be vigilant. No experience, I'm quoting something, Arthur Pink here. I saw a quote by him on this situation. He said, no experience of God's mercies in the past can deliver us from exposure to new temptations in the future. And that's what I'm talking about. You're going to come across some new things in this world that we live in. Technology is advancing at a mind-numbing pace. And the things that are coming out, you better guard. You better guard. what you do with it, you better guard how you let it affect you. This incident in Noah's life should be a solemn warning to every child of God. Noah gives us a prophecy here immediately following this incident that Lord willing we're going to take a look at next week, but I want you to notice how the closing verses of Genesis 9 record nothing more of Noah's life except his death. He was walking with God. God had him build the ark. God had him to do some great things there through him and his family. And then all of a sudden, we find him being drawn into drunkenness, which led to nakedness, which led to immorality. In 1 Corinthians 9, Verses 27 says the Apostle Paul records his diligence. He said, "...but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be attached away." Think about the last 300 years of his life as a blank. The last 300 years, we're not told anything. Now before the flood, in the first two-thirds of his life, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a just man. He was perfect in his generations. He walked with God. And I hope those things are true in your life today. And if they aren't, you can find grace in the eyes of the Lord, only by the provision that He has made for you through the Gospel. Christ died to save us from our sins. He died on the cross. He was buried. He rose again the third day. And praise God, we are saved eternally by doing that. But that doesn't mean that you can't fall into deep sin. After the flood, in the last one third of his life, Noah started his new beginning Worshiping the Lord. And that too was a great way to start a new beginning. And when you get saved, a great way to start your new beginning is being in the house of the Lord, being faithful, serving the Lord. That's what you need to do. But listen, shortly thereafter, it couldn't have been more than 50 years, Noah failed in his diligence. And it cost both him and his family. Oh, may we not slip in our diligence. And if for some reason we have slipped in our diligence, may we find our way back to the Lord and renew our walk with Him. And that's what I want you to get out of this. Be diligent. If you fail from your diligence, get forgiveness and get back. Amen? Father, we thank You for the Word of God. Lord, we thank You that these things that we see in the Old Testament were written for our admonition. They are given for our learning. And Lord, help us to learn from the mistakes that folks like Noah made, others before us made, that we might learn from from history. Help us not repeat history. Noah was not diligent. If we're not diligent, we're going to find ourselves falling as well. We're going to find ourselves in some things that we shouldn't be involved in. Help us to be diligent. Lord, if there's one here today that doesn't know Christ, help them to come and know Christ today. That's the most important thing. Without that, there's really no way to be diligent without Christ in your life, without that basic righteousness that comes from Him. Lord, may we look to You each and every day, realizing, Lord, that we still live in this flesh, this sin-cursed flesh. We are saved by grace. We are on our way to heaven, and one of these days we're going to leave this flesh behind and we'll praise God. Hallelujah, we're glad for that. But now, for now, we've got to guard ourselves. Help us to guard our hearts, guard our lives, and realize that it affects us, affects those around us as well. Have Your will and willingness. Invitation, we pray in Jesus' name.