November 3, 2024
Sermon Part 4A: “Loving Others First By Blindly Walking Backwards!”
The chorus of the great gospel hymn, entitled “Love Lifted Me” says: Love lifted me! Love lifted me! When nothing else could help Love lifted me. Love lifted me! Love lifted me! When nothing else could help Love lifted me.
I pray one day that every member of the Body of Jesus Christ becomes “Lifters of those who have committed sins.”
Good Morning Saints, and How Excellent is the Name of Jesus Christ, the Lord!
Introduction
There is an old adage that says, “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.” This is evident in the story of Noah and his three sons, while he was in a state of intoxication from drinking too much wine from his vineyard.
Over the next two weeks, let’s see what lessons we can learn from this unfortunate episode in the life of Noah and his family, to help us grow deeper in our love-walk with Jesus Christ. There can be no moving forward in Jesus Christ, unless you are first willing to walk backwards, and cover the sins of your brother with the blood of Jesus Christ. Receive the engrafted Word of God with meekness, which is able to save your soul. (James 1:21)
Summary of the Episode of Noah and His Sons
Last week, we detailed the unhappy incident of Noah’s drunkenness described in Genesis 9:20–27. Here is a quick summary, and then I will share with you my perspective on the story; some of which I mentioned last week. In summary, the story goes that after the Flood, Noah became a farmer, planted a vineyard, and made wine. One day, Noah drank the wine and became drunk, and was “uncovered within his tent.” (Gen. 9: 21) Noah’s son Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his brothers outside the tent.
As shown in the picture of above, Shem and Japheth took a garment, and they laid it on both their shoulders and walked backwards, looking the other way so they would not see their father’s nakedness, and covered him with the garment. (Note: the picture shows it incorrectly done, with the sons holding the garment above their heads and looking the other way.)
In Christian Circles, many folks have taken from the Text, that Noah while intoxicated undressed himself and became naked. Thereafter, that Ham came into the tent and “saw” his father’s nakedness and went out and told his brothers about it. But, if we read the text closely, it does not say that Noah uncovered himself. Rather, it says that Noah was “uncovered” within his tent. You may need to read Verse 21 a few times to see it in a different light. This then leaves room for the possibility that someone else may have uncovered Noah. Today, and over the next few weeks, progressively, I will reveal more details of the uncovering of Noah that we must learn from, as we walk with God under the New Covenant.
Next, if we read Verse 24 closely, it makes clear that Noah did not undress himself. The Scripture says Noah “woke up from his wine, and “he knew what his younger son (Ham) had done to him.” The text does not say Noah knew what Ham had “said” about him to his sons. It says, Noah knew “what” the younger son had “done” to him. This makes clear that Ham was the one who uncovered his father. Let’s also make clear that Ham was not in his youth when he did this to Noah. The reference that Ham was Noah’s “youngest son” is only to identify him as the last born of Noah’s sons. At the time of the Flood, Ham was a grown man with a wife, and after the Flood he had children, Canaan being one of them. (Gen.7:7 & 10:6)
The Bible does not give us the specific details of “what” Ham did to Noah. But, Noah a Prophet of God, the Bible says “knew what Ham had done.” In the Spirit, God revealed to Noah “all” that Ham had done to him. Ham’s motives for doing evil, the actions he had taken in uncovering him, and afterwards, deceitfully telling of his drunkenness and nakedness to his other brothers.
Saints, do not forget that Noah walked with God (Meaning, in the Spirit, he walked up and down, to and fro, and arm and arm with God). (Gen. 6:8-9) Just because Noah got drunk (sinned) didn’t mean that God’s grace and Covenant Promises of blessing had disappeared and stopped flowing through his life. God’s grace was smeared on Noah before he sinned, during his sinning, and after he woke up from his drunken stupor! While Noah truly made a poor judgement in over indulging in wine that had profound negative consequences, he was still God’s Man! And, God’s anointed and prophets are not to be touched with evil or harmed. (Ps.105:15)
Also, as I noted last week, when the incident occurred, it appears likely that Ham’s son Canaan, (Noah’s grandson), was in the tent too. Instead of directly disciplining Ham for his actions, Noah pronounced a curse on Canaan and his descendants, that they would be the servants of Shem and Japheth. (Gen. 9:25-27)
Noah would not have spoken the curse against Canaan except that he had been involved in the incident. For the Scripture states that a “curse” cannot come, nor take effect without a cause. (Prov. 26:2) Also, the curse applied only to Canaan and his descendants, and not to Ham’s other children Cush, Mizraim, and Put. (Gen.10:6) Noah being a “just man” would not have singled out the curse on Canaan, if the evil work only involved Ham. (Gen. 6:9)
Furthermore, as noted before, from Leviticus Chapter 18, which is devoted to the avoidance of sexual immorality, the children of Israel were Commanded by God through Moses to abstain from the practices of Egypt where God had delivered them from, as well as the doings of the Canaanites. Among such practices were the uncovering of the nakedness of family members, starting with the father and mother were not to be uncovered. (Lev.18:8) Through a Bible Commentary last week, I demonstrated that Canaan was the ancestor of the line of Egyptians and Canaanites who Noah had prophesied would become the servants of the descendants of Shem and Japheth, and ultimately they were enslaved and destroyed.
Given what we are able to glean from Scripture, when we think about the salacious actions of Ham against his father, they stem from acting on “evil imaginations from his heart.” Ham went into his parents’ tent and saw his father drunken and passed out. In the “evilness of Ham’s heart,” he imagined his father completely uncovered, and then went about uncovering him.
In “Ham’s heart,” he also conceived an image, and acted on it, of telling his brothers of their father’s nakedness and drunkenness, apparently with the motive to embarrass and disgrace Noah. He hoped his brothers would see their father, the Holy man of God, lying there in the tent intoxicated and helpless. This perhaps in hopes of diminishing the brothers’ love and respect for Noah, and to see him in a different light; as less than perfect. Let me tell you Saints, if you don’t already know, God hates the sowing of discord among His people, as shown in Proverbs 6:12-19.
12 A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;
14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.
15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Indeed, Ham was a son with very low character and esteem for his dad. While after the Flood, God had blessed all three sons and established His Covenant with them, Noah acting justly, could not reward Ham with his patriarchal blessing of inheritance as he gave to Shem and Japheth. Instead, Noah made no mention of Ham. (Gen. 9:25-29) From youth, children are to honor their fathers and mothers so that they might be blessed and have longevity in the earth. (Ex. 20:12 & Eph. 6:2-3) For sure, this episode was a tragic day in the life of Noah and his family; and would bear evil fruits within the generations to come.
Noah’s Episode from God’s Perspective
While this episode was an uncomfortable part of Noah’s life, it serves as a reminder that even those who are Anointed and Prophets of God are prone to attacks from Satan to do evil, from the “imaginations of man’s heart.” That is of course until Jesus Christ came, and God gave to us a “new heart” made of flesh, rather than a “heart of stone.” (Ezek. 36:26, Jer. 31:33, & Heb.8:10) More on this will be discussed in detail next week.
Nevertheless, Noah’s episode serves as a warning to born-again Christians about how, like in Noah’s case, “one” careless decision to become over indulged in the drinking of wine, can sully and damage the reputation of even the most godly person in the eyes of society, and in the eyes of Church folk too. About Satan, at I Peter 5:8, the Apostle Peter warned, as follows:
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
While being drunk with wine is a sin, it would behoove each of us to examine Noah’s weakness/fault from God’s perspective, and not our own. Too often within the Body of Christ, we learn of the sins, or perceived sins, committed by fellow Christians and rush to judge, condemn, and gossip to others about them. Just like Ham sowed discourse among his brothers.
All the while Christians refuse to pick up a mirror, of any size, to look within their own eye, to see the large beam therein. Sadly, it seems almost impossible these days to see Christians keep “bad news” about somebody else to themselves, and deal with it God’s way. In Matthew 7:1-3, Jesus warned that we are not to judge one another, as it has a way of coming back with worse consequences on the judge, than the accused.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
This was the case with Ham, as he lost his father’s blessing, and his descendants bore the curse of servanthood. We showed last week how the curse placed upon Canaan impacted his family line. When evil is sown it always yields a greater consumption of corruption. (Gal. 6:8)
As born-again Christians, if only we would devote our selves to seeing all things from God’s perspective (His Word), then we would have a much greater understanding about the nature of sin, how God views it in mankind, and then we would be more apt to deal with the sins of others perpetrated against us, and others, as God intends us to. Like Jesus Christ handled the sins of the woman caught in adultery, for whom others sought for Him to shame, judge, and condemn her to death by stoning. (John 8:10-12) But, Jesus forgave her and told her to go and sin no more.
Saints do not miss this. As mention before in this Series, God is the “Covenant making and keeping God,” for those who love Him to a thousand generations. (Deut. 7:9) Let’s now go back in the Bible prior to this sinful episode with Noah, just before God made an Everlasting Covenant with Noah and all of mankind. Turn to Genesis 8:20-21. After the Flood, once on dry land, the first thing Noah did was build an altar unto God. With a humble heart, Noah liberally offered sacrifices of every clean animal to God in thanksgiving for saving his family from the Flood. (Gen.8:20)
Noah worshiped God with his whole-heart, and God “smelled a sweet smelling savour.” The sacrifice of “Noah’s heart” to God was well pleasing to Him. Jesus Christ said that “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” (John 4:24)
When a “man’s heart” is completely open to God in worship of Him alone, as Noah’s was, God has free course to reveal the deep things of God; hidden truths to those who love Him. (I Cor.2:9-10) This is “Insider Information” that God imparts of blessing, knowledge, understanding, as well as chastening for the worshiper’s outcome of God-good in the earth. The Prophet David is recorded as saying at Psalm 51:6:
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Noah offered unfeigned love and worship to God. He worshipped the only Living God in truth, and in return within the “heart of Noah,” God made him to know wisdom (Insider Information). God shared the meditations of His heart with Noah; making an Everlasting Covenant with him and all of Mankind. Examine closely Genesis 8:21-22, and see all that God promised:
And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
The Everlasting Covenant, which God swore within Himself, assured, for mankind’s sake, that as long as the earth remained, God would not curse the ground again and destroy the earth by water. That there would be seedtime and harvest, four seasons, and night and day without ceasing. But look Saints, this is very important and most often missed in Christian Circles. God also said in His heart that the, “imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
Yes, this is also a part of the Everlasting Covenant that will not cease as long as the earth remains: “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Just as surely as we see the seasons change, night and day, and seed-time and harvest without ceasing; the imagination of “man’s heart” (inner-man, the spirit, soul, and mind of the soul) are evil from his youth.
Since the day Adam transgressed against God in the Garden of Eden, until the earth ends, every person born into this world has the “imagination of evil in their heart.” (Rom. 5:17) A lust that lies within the “heart of human beings” to imagine evil and ignited by thoughts from Satan, make humans prone to commit and practice sin. Within human beings is the nature to sin.
King David wrote at Psalm 51:5 that he was, “shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This is the inner-truth about us all, and God wants us to acknowledge it from “our hearts.” Before Christ, “our sinful hearts” basked in the practice of evil, and we were in need of God, His love, and a Savior whose name is Jesus Christ. (John 3:16 & Rom. 5:8) For we are nothing without God!
As Noah worshipped before the altar, God the knower of men’s hearts, saw the deep things of “Noah’s heart,” and although loving, devoted, and well-intended to do good there was also lurking within Noah an evil imagination, as is the case in all people. While Noah was a just man who walked with and in God, he still had flaws that would make him prone to sin.
Though God hates evil, and sin is a stench in God’s nostrils, for the sake of Noah and all of Mankind, God’s love, mercy, and grace weighs heavier. In God’s meditation and pondering about Mankind, He had already prepared, from the foundations of the world, a solution for the problem of man’s sinful nature. (Titus 1:2) Thus, God said in His heart for “man’s sake,” that He would not destroy the earth again, as He had done with the Flood.
In revealing the Everlasting Covenant with Noah, God was not only giving a Prophetic Word about the spiritual condition of the “heart of Mankind,” but also the spiritual condition of “Noah’s heart,” and the “hearts” of his family members. God also was in effect warning Noah that in this new world in which he would walk with God, the whole earth had been blessed and fruitful unto him. But Noah also needed to be vigilant because sin was crouching at his door.
The seed is blessed, the land is blessed and will bring forth bountiful harvests, but the warning of God to Noah was that inside “his heart” there were evil imaginations that have the potential to influence him to do evil with the things he was blessed with. To use and abuse the things of the earth that were intended for his good and well-being.
Oh Saints, don’t you know every time God makes Covenant with a man and gives Commandments/Promises that the enemy Satan comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy? He comes to pervert and turn wicked everything God has blessed. Satan did it with Adam, He did it with Noah, he tried to do it with Jesus Christ, and he tries to do it with you and me too. (John 10:10, Gen. 3:1-5, Matt. 4:3-4, & Mark 4:14-20) And, the wicked-one will continue to influence Mankind to sin against God, through the “imagination of the heart,” as long as the earth remains.
In our world today, we don’t have to wonder why there is so much political uprising, crime, murder, whore-mongering, violence, lying, and cheating. We don’t have to question why bad things happen to good people. It’s because the ways of a “man’s heart” is full of evil imaginations from youth. We can forget about the world, and its nations, forging everlasting peace accords, because evil in the “heart of man” will cause discord, division, and war to eventually breakout. The prophet Jerimiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer.17:9)
So, in the process of time, the Bible tells us in Chapter 9 of Genesis, that Noah, became a farmer, planted the vines and harvested the grapes in which he made wine from. Thereafter, Noah drank the wine. But as Noah drank the wine, it was an evil imagination from within “his heart” perpetrated by Satan, that tempted him to lose control and over indulge. Noah knew he was doing an evil/bad thing in getting drunk. For remember, Noah was a “Preacher of Righteousness,” who had the Spirit of Jesus Christ preach through him to the people of the earth, judged by God to be corrupted and full of violence. (I Pet 3:18-20, II Pet. 2:5, & Gen. 6:11)
Before the Flood, Noah knew well that over indulging in wine and frivolity were wicked, and not of God. You may ask, how could Noah know getting drunk of wine was wrong, as there is no record in Genesis, prior to the days of Noah, that people even made wine from grapes? But, remember what Jesus Christ said about what would be going on in earth at His Second Coming, recorded at Matthew 24:37-39. It reads:
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Most likely, for most of Noah’s life, and certainly during the 120-years he was building the Ark, he had observed the people eating and drinking in wantonness, and preached repentance. He was fully aware of the dangers of drinking wine, as he saw the effects of intoxication on the people. Like no other character in the Bible, with the exception of Jesus Christ, Noah had enormous social pressure placed on him to conform to the ways of the people of his day. Surely at family and friendly gatherings and other times, Noah would have been exposed to, and offered, to drink wine and kick-back and enjoy the high-life. Instead, he resisted and walked with God. However, somewhere deep within the “heart” of Noah, he must have had the desire/longing to drink wine too.
The Bible does not tell us why Noah chose to plant a vineyard, nor why he chose to turn the grapes into wine. We are told, however, that when Noah consumed the wine, that he consumed so much that he got drunk and passed out in his tent. Studies have shown that most often, drunkenness results from a person’s desire to relieve and escape some type of stress, anxiety, or frustration in their life. For sure, Noah had gone through a tsunami of emotions: To have witnessed all of the people of the world, including his extended family and friends, and every living thing destroyed. To have survived the Flood with his family, which in my estimation with the exception of Jesus Christ Resurrection from the dead on the third-day, was the greatest miracle since the creation of Mankind. To spending more than a year in the Ark with only his family and the animals. To facing new pressures of an uncertain world in which he had to start a new civilization; having complete authority and dominion over the earth, and also with his family, having the responsibility for multiplying and replenishing the earth. Not even Adam faced these kinds of pressures!
Noah, though happy and overjoyed that God had spared his family from the Flood, Satan, most assuredly would have been tempting Noah daily while growing the vineyard, with fears of an uncertain future with God. So, Noah may have chosen to make wine of the grapes to perhaps help calm his fears and relax. The day Noah drank the wine, perhaps as he started drinking, he thought about his past experiences and the road ahead. The more he thought about his troubles, the more wine he consumed, until he became intoxicated and past out. While drinking, Noah yielded to the evil imagination of his “heart,” and may have said to himself something like, the “heck with it all let’s get drunk!” Proverbs 23:7 says, “as a man thinks in his heart so is he.” The spirit of fear, which comes from the devil had done its evil work within the “heart” of Noah. (II Tim.1:7)
Yep, Satan just tapped, and kept on tapping on a lust in Noah to drink wine and over indulge in it, until Noah conceived the sin in his heart and produced the harvest of drunkenness. James, the brother of Jesus Christ, described the process of how sin is sown in the “heart of man” and reaped; and as long as the earth remains this will be. James 1:14-16 states:
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Simply put, when Noah drank the wine and got drunk and passed out, he erred. He lost vigilance, and listened and obeyed an evil imagination in his “heart” put there by Satan. Rather than keeping his mind on God, and the Covenant Promises of Blessings, he allowed negative emotions to carry him away. For just a little while he drifted from “God’s Word to his wine.” The very thing he preached so passionately against, he found himself indulging in it. This sin, opened the door for Satan to then use Ham to imagine and carryout the evil acts against Noah.
You see Saints, from God’s perspective, left to Mankind’s own devices, he is simply prone to sin because the “heart of man” produces evil imaginations. The “heart of man” will always produce evil from it, because it has been corrupted by sin due to the fall of Adam, and it is ruled by Satan. But, for man’s sake, God who is rich in love, mercy, and grace has blessed and preserved the earth until the Day of the Lord.
God was not in shock and awe when Noah sinned. In his omniscience, God knew he would sin, but was giving Noah the heads-up to watch out for the evil in his “own heart.” Because there would be seed-time and harvest. Whatever Noah would sow in his heart, good or evil, he would also reap it. Noah’s sin would have negative effects on many; his families’ well-being, the omission of the patriarchal blessing of his son Ham, and a curse put upon Canaan and his descendants.
In closing, from all of this we learn, first and foremost, that without God, “man” is helpless to prevent the imagination of evil within his “heart,” from producing the work of sin in his life. We also learn that when people commit sin, it only leads to more sinning. Noah’s drunkenness led to Ham’s sin of uncovering him, and deceitfully telling his brothers about his father’s drunkenness and nakedness in his tent. This in turn led Noah to pronounce a curse on Canaan and his descendants, some of which were even the children of Sodom and Gomora. We also can see from today’s Message that every person born into this world has a “heart” with evil imaginations, and until they become born-again Christians, are under the rule of Satan who entices them to commit sin and iniquity.
Now Saints, you may have noticed that throughout this Sermon, I have placed quotation marks around the word “heart,” the “heart of man” or “the imagination of the heart of man is evil from his youth.” I did this for special emphasis. Praise God, in Christ, we who believe in Him, have been given a “new heart.” Here is a news flash for you! In your “born-again heart,” (spirit, soul, and mind of the soul) there are no evil imaginations. In our hearts are only the imagination of “Good” works ordained by God before the world began. Checkout Eph. 2:10.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Our “born-again hearts,” have been made to follow after Jesus Christ. To walk in the good works of Christ. So answer me this. What was the first good work Jesus did for us? The answer is: He gave His life unconditionally on the cross for all of Mankind, walking backwards through the annals of time, from Adam to the last person who will be born into this world, Jesus covered and washed away the sins of the whole world. One time, for all times!
With unmerited, unlimited, and unconditional love and forgiveness God, through Jesus’s sacrifice reconciled the world to Himself. (II Cor. 5:18-19) Therefore as followers of Christ, in like manner to how Noah’s sons Shem and Japheth walked backwards and covered their father’s nakedness, we must first be willing to walk backwards to cover (forgive) the sins of our brothers and sisters, as well as Non-Christians whose hearts are dominated by Satan and evil imaginations. Yes, Saints to move forward in Christ, we must first be willing to walk backwards to forgive sin; to become, if you will Moon-Walkers for Jesus!
Next week, we talk about the blessing of walking backwards in Christ to move forward together with others. Amen for the preaching of the Word of the Living God!
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