Sin and Its Consequences

Genesis 9:18-27
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, March 13, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Gregory Broderick

We have recently preached through the flood account in which God brought judgment on the world with a massive, unique, and deadly flood.  Only eight people out of the whole world survived:  Noah and his wife, and Noah’s three sons and their wives.  Everyone else was wiped out.  The reason for the judgment is stated in Genesis 6:5:  “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”  So God wiped out all mankind, except for the eight.

Even in this great judgment, however, God behaved very graciously toward mankind.  He preserved the species via Noah and his sons.  Think about it:  If God had not preserved eight people, none of us would be here today.  He preserved the seeds and the animal life which He had made for mankind, and He did all this through the great ark project.  He even made a covenant with Noah and his sons after the flood, with various stipulations, blessings, and curses.

With such a reset on creation, with such a new beginning, we might think that man’s problems from before were all solved.  And we would expect that this reset ushered in a new and divine utopia where there was no sin and no problem.  But no such luck.  The great flood did not solve man’s greatest problem, which is his sin nature.  Despite all of God’s wonderful grace to mankind, despite God’s wonderful grace to the family of Noah, we see man back to his old ways at the end of Genesis 9—sinning against God and sinning against one another.  The population size may have dramatically shrunk from before the flood to after the flood, but man’s fundamental problem, his heart problem, remained the same.

You see, man is a sinner with a sin nature who sins.  And his sins bring trouble—trouble for himself and trouble for his descendants.  Sin brings only destruction and loss, both in this life and in eternity.  So let us examine this morning “Sin and Its Consequences.”

Sin

We know from our preaching through Genesis that sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s decision to reject God’s command and to believe the devil’s lie that “You will be like God.”  That all you have to do is disobey God, and then you will be like God.  They believed that lie, and so they rebelled against God and disobeyed God’s clear command.

Man’s nature was fundamentally changed that day by that action.  No longer was man morally neutral, as he was before, capable of choosing between good and bad.  In Latin, they call this posse non peccare (possible not to sin).  But after he sinned, after the Fall, man’s nature became corrupt and man became non posse non peccare (not possible not to sin), or, stated in the positive, man must sin.  He could only choose sin.

Soon thereafter, sin blossomed and spread in the world.  Cain murdered Abel out of jealousy (Gen. 4).  The proud Lamech boasted of his murderous intent also in Genesis 4.  And by Genesis 6, mankind’s sin had proliferated to the point that God was grieved that He had made man.  It says, “His heart was filled with pain” (Gen. 6:6b).  This is simply the outworking of man’s inward sin problem.  The problem was not with particular men, but with mankind as a species; with his fundamental nature.  So even though man was made in the image and likeness of God originally, man’s fundamental character became fundamentally twisted—twisted by sin and twisted with sin, inextricably intertwined.

Although Noah found favor with God, although Noah was a very, very righteous man, Noah was still a man.  Therefore, Noah was still a sinner, and, therefore, man’s sin nature did not die out with the millions who perished in the flood.  Rather, it continued through Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their wives.  God makes this plain in Genesis 8:21, saying, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of the thoughts of his heart is evil from childhood.”  Notice, by the time this statement is made in Genesis 8, only the eight members of Noah’s family appear to be living.  The flood has happened.  All the other people are wiped out.  The eight that God saved through the ark are living, and yet God says, “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart is evil from childhood.”

On top of that, Noah had just made a sacrifice to God, which was pleasing to God, and yet God declares this truth:  Man has not changed.  Man’s fundamental nature is the same.  He is totally depraved.  And because man has not changed and his nature has not changed, the sin problem remains.  Indeed, Noah seems to recognize this even in the making of this sacrifice.  We can infer, though it is not stated, that this sacrifice may have been a sin offering or at least a fellowship offering of a blood sacrifice that needed to be made so that Noah could approach God.  It was a blood sacrifice of clean animals.  We can infer that Noah understood, “I need to bring a clean sacrifice to atone for my sin so that I can go and fellowship with God.”  And it is very likely that Noah and his family had sinned at some point in their months’ long voyage in the ark, as anyone cooped up and under such strain might do.

Whatever the theory, it gives way to reality in short order.  Genesis 9:18–27 is full of sin.  First, we see that Noah sinned.  Noah plants a vineyard, he drinks some wine, and he becomes drunk.  Now, I want to say that there is nothing wrong with wine.  Jesus turned water into wine in John 2.  Jesus appears to have drunk wine (Luke 7:34; 22:17).  In the word of God, Paul counsels Timothy to drink some wine (1 Tim. 5:23).  God gives fruitful vineyards as a good gift to be enjoyed by his people (Ps. 104; Isa. 25:6).  Indeed, wine was even part of the required sacrifices in the temple (Lev. 23).  There is no problem with wine, but there is a big difference between partaking of some wine and getting drunk.  Drunkenness is a sin that is roundly condemned in the word of God.  In Ephesians 5:18 we are told, “Do not get drunk on wine.”  Isaiah 5:11 says, “Woe to those who run after their drinks.”  In Titus 2:3 older women are warned not to become slaves to too much wine.

Drunkenness itself is a sin, and drunkenness also leads to other sins.  Ephesians 5:18 says drunkenness leads to debauchery.  We are not to be engaged in debauchery.  We are to be holy, even as God is holy.  In Proverbs 20:1 we read, “Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler.”  That is the opposite of what we are supposed to be.  We are to govern our tongues.  We are to be at peace with all men as far as it is in our power.  But drunkenness interferes with that by loosening our tongues, and even leading to disunity.

Just as often, drunkenness interferes with our ability to do what God has called us to do.  Just look here.  Noah was supposed to be the head of his family, the head of his household.  He was to lead them in righteousness.  Yet how do we find Noah in this passage?  Drunk, passed out, and naked in his tent, unable to lead his family in righteousness in such a condition.  He has no idea what is going on.  He does not even know what has happened until he wakes up later and is told of it (Gen. 9:24).  So it seems clear that Noah sinned in his drunkenness.[1]

This should be a sober warning to all of us.  For if Noah can fall, then so can we.  Noah was chosen of God.  We are told earlier in Genesis that he found favor in the Lord’s sight.  Noah heard directly from God (Gen. 6:13).  Noah worshiped God (Gen. 8:20).  Noah’s habit—more than his habit, his general practice—was to obey God (Gen. 6:22; 7:5; 8:18).  Noah had seen God’s awesome power and fearful judgment, experiencing it in a visceral way that few, if any, ever have.  Think about the experience that he had during the flood.  He saw the flood coming.  He saw all the people getting wiped out.  Maybe Abraham at Sodom, or Joshua with Achan, or Moses with Korah had a similar experience.  But this may be singular in all experiences with God—a total, worldwide flood to wipe everyone out.

So Noah knew God and he knew God’s fearful judgment.  God made a covenant with Noah (Gen. 9:1–17).  In other words, Noah was regenerated.  Noah was elect of God.  Noah was a better man than any of us.  Yet, in spite of all that, in spite of all that experience, in spite of all the work that God did in him and through him, Noah sinned.

This is a serious call to each of us to remain on guard at all times.  Sin is truly crouching at the door and ready to pounce on each of us (Gen. 4:6).  Just as the devil attacked Jesus when he was weak, thirsty, hungry, and alone in the desert, so the devil will come for us when he thinks that our guard is down.  If we repel the devil by God’s grace, he does not give up.  He merely retreats and waits for the opportune time (Luke 4:13).  Then, at that opportune time, he comes back.  When you are in anguish, he comes back.  When you are in your Gethsemane, he comes back.  When you are suffering terribly on your cross, he comes back to tempt you again, to destroy you.

Friends, we must never let our guard down in the war against sin.  We must be on guard and stay alert, for our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour, looking for you to devour, looking for me to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).  We must pay most careful attention to what we have heard.  We must heed the warning of the watchmen that God places over us (Ezek. 33).  That means our parents.  That means our pastors.  That means the delegated authorities that God puts over us.

We must resist sin.  We must resist the devil, even to the point of shedding blood in our struggle against sin (Heb. 12:4).  I am pretty sure I know what happened with Noah.  He was tired.  He had been involved in a hundred-year-long project of building the ark and surviving the flood.  He had been through a harrowing and traumatic event.  He was surrounded by death all around.  And even though God promised to bring him through, it must have been scary to be on the ark and to watch the waters rise when everyone else was getting wiped out.

Noah had experienced the high high of seeing God’s promises manifested in his life in an intense way, by both the flooding and by his miraculous rescue through the flood.  Maybe Noah thought he needed a break, and so he let his guard down.  More likely, he thought the time of danger had passed and he could relax.  We know it takes a while to plant a vineyard, to produce fruit, and then to turn that fruit into wine, so this is not the day after or the week after or the month after he came out of the ark.  We are not told how long after, but it took some time.  And maybe even this successful crop was a milestone:  “We made it!  We made it through the flood.  We can produce food for ourselves again.  Finally, we made it to the other side and we can breathe a little.  We can let our guard down.”  Whatever the thought process, Noah let his guard down, and sin struck at that opportune moment.

The application will be different for each of us in terms of keeping our guard up.  But we must ask, “Where am I apt to let my guard down?”  Perhaps it is with drugs, or alcohol, like Noah.  Perhaps it is being away on a business trip, when I do not have the responsibilities of home and family right on top of me.  Perhaps it is when I am on the college campus, where no one can see me.  Maybe it is when I am alone in my room with my phone in the dark corners of the Internet.  Maybe it is in my thought life, where no one else knows what I am thinking.  Maybe it is with my feelings or my emotions, which I keep bottled up.  Maybe it not one particular thing.  Maybe it is a station in life for some of us:  I got married.  I bought my house.  I’ve had my children.  Whatever it is—I have arrived.  I can let my guard down a little.  I have had that baby that I wanted, so now I can relax.  My kids are all in school, so I can relax.  My kids are all out of high school—I can relax.  The last one got married—I can relax.  I am retired—I can relax.  I got promoted and made all the money—I can relax.

Whatever it is, stay on your guard.  The devil and even our own flesh are as likely to strike us after triumphs as during tragedy.  Remember Peter, the godly man.  After he confessed the Christ—he was the first one, the one bold enough to confess, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,”—he turns around and almost in the next breath rebukes Jesus, whom he has just confessed as the Christ.

When we are high, we are in danger of falling.  We must take every thought captive, including and especially the thought that we can ease up in our battle against sin.

So, first, Noah sinned.  Second, Ham sinned.  As Noah lay drunk and naked and passed out on his bed in his tent, Noah’s son Ham comes in and dishonors his father by gazing upon his nakedness.  It is clear from the context, from Noah’s reaction, and from the juxtaposition of Shem and Japheth’s response that Ham did something wrong.  It is not merely that he walked in and was surprised to see Noah there and scurried out.  No, the implication is that he lingered in his gaze.  The Hebrew word here seems to indicate a beholding or to look and to see with understanding.  The same Hebrew word is used in 2 Samuel 11 when David gazes upon Bathsheba.

In our time, we must guard our gaze carefully, for sin is all around us.  It is in our culture.  It is on our TV.  It is on the Internet.  The reality is that as we shine our light into the darkness, we are going to see some darkness.  We may see, hear, or think things that are sinful, and in such situations, we must flee from sin and take every thought captive.  In such situations, we must answer, “It is written,” as Jesus did in the desert.

Ham’s problem is not what he saw, but how he reacted.  As I said, he seems to have lingered or gazed upon the shameful sight.  We are not told why he did this, but whatever Ham’s motivation, he sinned in doing so.  You may be tempted to blame Noah for this, and Noah bears part of the blame for this.  But Noah’s error and sin do not absolve Ham of his sin.  Ham dishonored his honorable father by gazing on his nudity and by prolonging or participating in Noah’s shameful state.

Ham also sinned by gossiping about this to Shem and Japheth (v. 22).  This is the kind of thing that could have been handled quickly.  Ham walked in, and, had he responded properly, he would have covered Noah and gone out.  After all, Shem and Japheth come up with the blanket solution.  Or if Ham was not swift enough to come up with that, he could have at least gone to the front of the tent and stood there and let no one else in.  He did not need to give an explanation why.  It says that Shem and Japheth were outside.  There was no reason for them to know of Noah’s problem inside the tent.  And it does not appear that Ham went to Shem and Japheth seeking help:  “Hey, there is a problem with Dad in the tent.  What should I do?”

Moreover, we know that an honorable solution was available.  In fact, an honorable solution was implemented by Shem and Japheth.  But Ham is not involved in that solution.  It appears that Ham’s telling was either salacious gossip, which is a sin, or malicious gossip that was meant to demean Noah in the eyes of his other sons.

Gossip, either way, is a sin (Prov. 11:13; Lev. 19:16), whether boldfaced gossip, as we see here, or more subtle forms of gossip.  Sometimes people even use prayer as a cover for gossip.  “Let’s get together and pray about that situation.  Did you hear about this?  We can pray about it.”  It is good to pray about things, but it is not good to gossip.  Gossip is a sin, and so is dishonoring Noah by advertising his sin to others who did not need to know.  Ham’s obligation here is to honor his father, and there were other ways of honoring his father.  He did not need to go and gossip and dishonor his father.

Remember that Noah, despite his sins, is an especially honorable man.  First, he is their father.  But, second, he saved their very lives by his word that he preached to them.  He is called blameless before the people of his generation in Genesis 6.  It does not mean he was sinless, obviously, but he is called blameless.  He was an honorable man whose habit was not to sin.

Ham dishonored his father, and he dishonored the man of God of their time.  Noah was the man who heard from God and brought the lifesaving word to them.  He was worthy of double honor, as both their father and as the man of God in their time (1 Tim. 5:17).

I want to make clear that it is no defense that what Ham said was true.  What Ham said was true.  He went and told his brothers outside.  It was true.  It is still no defense.

As we have noted, and we note here all the time, every one of us is a sinner.  Whether redeemed or not redeemed, sin remains in us.  Fathers are sinners.  Mothers are sinners.  Elders, teachers, even pastors—we all sin.  Even redeemed people, godly people like Noah, will sin.  Even very holy people will sin.  King David, a holier man than any of us, sinned terribly in adultery and murder.  Peter, a better man than all of us, rebuked Jesus.  Peter was rebuked later for his Judaizing.  Even honorable people are going to sin.  We are not to tear down our brothers and sisters in Christ, but we are to build them up.  Second Corinthians 10:8 and 13:10, and First Thessalonians 5:11 tells us to encourage one another and build each other up.  The authority God gave is not for tearing you down but for building you up.

I also want to make clear this does not mean that we overlook sin.  We do not overlook sin in anyone, even in the men of God.  But we must act charitably and handle it in the quietest way that leads to repentance.  This is the principle of Matthew 18:15 and following, that if your brother sins, go and show him his fault.  If he repents, good.  It is done.  If not, bring someone else.  If not, tell it to the church.  See the progressive idea of the least amount of people that need to know to bring that person to repentance.

The Bible sets an even higher standard for accusations against elders and pastors (1 Tim. 5:19).  This is for a couple of reasons.  First, the men of God are more liable to false and slanderous accusations.  It happens to us all the time.  But also, our sin is even more grievous than a normal person.  We are called to represent God and to speak for God, to speak the words of God, and so we are held to an even higher standard (1 Tim. 3:2).  So, occasionally, even men of God must be publicly rebuked, publicly confronted for the good of the flock (1 Tim. 5:20).  So I want to make clear that we are not talking about covering up sin; we are talking about handling it in a correct way.  And do not, like Ham, delight in spreading the sins, whether real or perceived, of God’s delegated authorities over you.

The principle here is not, “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”  The principle here is, “Don’t over-advertise.”  Do not go and tell in the schoolyard the mistakes that your parents make at home.  Do not mock or look down upon your father, your mother, or your delegated authorities, even when they commit errors.  Even when they sin.  When it is proper to go and speak to someone about the sins of your authorities, go either to that person or to God’s delegated authorities over him or her.  It is the Matthew 18:15 process.  None of us are unaccountable.  But do not go and simply spread it around to anyone who will give ear to it.  This is an improper dishonoring of those to whom you owe honor, and it sows disunity and division in Christ’s church and against his command.

Instead, deal with sin like Shem and Japheth.  Now, surely they were also sinners.  But here their conduct was outstanding.  They hear the report from Ham, but they do not sit there and engage in his salacious gossip.  They don’t seek every last so-called juicy detail.  They do not ask for every salacious part of the account.  They do not join in by tearing down Noah, the man of God, their honorable father.  They do not set themselves above godly Noah.  They do not pretend to be his superior.  They do not run away and avoid the problem either.  They do not wink at sin or keep this as a chip for later use.  They do not hide behind their mother or send her in to deal with the problem.  Instead, they quietly cover their father.

Notice the high honor they pay him as their father and as the man of God.  They cover him so that no one will see further the shame that Noah has brought upon himself.  They go in with their faces turned away, with the blanket between their shoulders so they will not see and compound Noah’s sin.  Their love covered over the sin of their father (1 Pet. 4:8) and prevented others from stumbling into the sin of Ham, whether by accident or by temptation.

This should be our approach to sin.  It is not hiding it.  It is not ignoring it.  It is not pretending that it does not exist.  No, they dealt with it.  But they do not participate in it and they do not improperly publicize it.  (GTB)  Likely, they were the ones who explained later to Noah what had happened.  In verse 24, we read that Noah did not know what had happened.  He did not know until he woke up what had happened, so he did not figure it out for himself.  He found out somehow, and it seems quite unlikely from context that Ham went in and confessed, “Here is what happened.”  It seems most likely that Shem and Japheth went and confronted Noah in a right way in his sin and told him what happened.  It was a proper and quiet confrontation along Matthew 18 lines.

So that is sin.  Let us look at its consequences.

The Consequences of Sin

1. Generational Curse

The consequences for this sin were grave for Ham.  First, Ham is cursed, as are his children.   As a parent, I could say that it is worse:  Ham’s son Canaan is cursed by name.  Verse 25:  “Cursed be Canaan!  The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”  Now, Canaan seemed closely identified with Ham.  Verse 18 tells us that Ham was the father of Canaan.  From Genesis 10:6, it does not even look like Canaan was the oldest.  Several sons of Ham are listed.  Usually they are listed in order.  Cush, Mizraim, and Put are named.  So perhaps Canaan was not the oldest, or maybe they died before Canaan, or maybe Canaan was the favorite.  I do not know.  Whatever the case, the punishment for Ham was a curse upon his children.  And clearly, the curse upon his children was a curse upon him.

This kind of curse is bad any time, but it is especially bad at this moment, at the dawn of a new age, a new world, when potential is all around.  When a new order is being established, Canaan was under a curse.  The descendants of Canaan, in fact, are among the most maligned people in the Bible, so this was no empty threat.  This was no empty curse from Noah.  The Hittites, the Hivites, the Amorites, the Jebusites are all listed among the Canaanites that God would drive out.  Those were listed among the descendants of Canaan.  Yet God drives them out before Israel when they come out of Egypt later in Exodus 33.  They were driven out and largely destroyed a generation later under General Joshua.  So God declares that they were going to be driven out, and they were driven out.  But most of them were wiped out and killed (Josh. 10).

The rest of Ham’s descendants did not fare much better.  The oldest son Cush, father of Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, the Sumerian city of Erech, the Akkadians, the Ninevites and so on—these are all listed in Genesis 10 as the descendants of Ham.  Mizraim (Gen. 10:6) is a name for Egypt, and in Genesis 10:13–14 we see that his descendants include the Philistines, the hated enemies of Israel for generations.  Indeed, when we look at the descendants of Ham, none of the peoples under Ham were a part of God’s people.  None of them were included in the covenant people of Israel.

Ham’s sin resulted in a generational curse for a thousand years or more through many, many generations.  There is, of course, an element of mystery here in God’s election.  God elects whom he elects for his saving mercy, and God elects others for destruction.  He can and does save the chief of sinners, like the Pharisee Paul or like the Jericho-innkeeper Rahab or like the immoral Samaritan woman by the well.

But we cannot use the exceptions to avoid the clear Scriptural teaching.  Our children will suffer for our sins, and their children and their children, down through the generations.  In Deuteronomy 5:9 God declares, “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.”  In Deuteronomy 28:18 he says, “The fruit of your womb will be cursed.”  This is speaking about children.  And in Deuteronomy 28:32, he says, “Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation.”  You see, you sinned, but your sons and daughters will be given to another nation.  Psalm 109:10 speaks of an evil man:  “May his children be wandering beggars  .  .  .  driven from their homes and ruined.”

God can save anyone.  God can elect anyone.  But the uncomfortable yet biblical reality is this:  Our sins matter, and not just for us.  They matter for our immediate family.  They matter for generations to come.  They matter in eternity.

Men, if you do not lead your home, your sin matters for you and the generations after you.  Wives, if you do not submit to your husbands, your sin matters for you and the generations after you.  Those who speak evil of the Lord’s anointed, your sins matter.  Those sins you do by yourself, so you think no one else knows and it is no one else’s business—those sins matter for you, for your children, and for their children, for generations.  So that is consequence number one: being cursed through the generations.

2. Breach of Relationships

We can be sure that there was a serious breach of relationship between Noah and Ham due to Ham’s sin.  Father and son should have a close and loving relationship.  A son should respect, admire, honor, and emulate his father, and a father should love the son that God gave him.  That father should teach and train him.  That father should experience the joy as that boy flourishes into an honorable man of God.  It is a work of God, but it is also fruit of the father’s labor.  He should enjoy those fruits.

By his sin, Ham did serious damage to the blessed father/son relationship.  Ham shamed and dishonored and disrespected his father, and his own father cursed Ham and Ham’s children after him.

As we said, we do not know how long this was after the flood.  Clearly, some time had to have passed, maybe many years.  It is likely several years, at least.  But we know that Noah lived a total of 350 years after the flood, yet this is the last interaction we see between Noah and Ham.

Sin, shame, cursing, and derision were all brought about by Ham’s sin of debauchery and dishonor of his father.  But Ham is not alone in this.  Noah has a share as well.  Though we have largely focused on the consequences of Ham’s sin, and rightly so, Noah’s sin opened the door for all this trouble to begin in the first place.  If Noah were not passed out and drunk, Ham could not have seen his shameful nakedness, Ham could not have gossiped about it, and Ham would not have gotten himself into trouble, at least not this way.

Noah is not free of responsibility, and he did not escape the consequences either.  First, the descendants of Ham and Canaan, whom Noah cursed, are also the descendants of Noah.  Canaan is Noah’s grandson, and Ham is Noah’s son.  The curses that Noah pronounced—God’s curses—were on his descendants and so, in a way, on himself as well.

Second, Noah’s relationship with his own son was harmed.  As painful as it may be for the son when the relationship is breached with the father, it is equally or more so painful for the father.  The curse was just.  The curse was right.  The curse was divinely ordained.  But you can bet it was painful for Noah to pronounce it.  Even though it was just and right and divinely ordained, it was painful all the same.

Finally, Noah bore great shame for his sin and for his lack of self-control.  He bore that shame before Ham, who walked in and saw.  He bore that sin before Shem and Japheth.  Even though they did not look, they knew about it, and they had to go in and cover him.  Surely, he was diminished in a way before their eyes.  He bore the shame of the whole household.  We are not told that his wife or his daughters-in-law walked in and saw any of this, but, surely, they heard about it when the curses were pronounced.  Surely, they lived out the consequences of it when they were sent away.  And, of course, Noah’s sin is before all who have read Genesis 9.  If you ever feel bad about how many people know about your sin, just imagine poor Noah.  Everyone knows about his sin.

Prior to this Genesis 9 account, all we know of Noah is that he was righteous and blameless among the people of his time.  He was an incredible man, and an incredible man of God.  But now, because of the events recorded in Genesis 9, his record is besmirched, and besmirched with shame.  So there are many consequences, but shame is a consequence of sin.

Now, let us look briefly at the application.

Application

1. Don’t Sin

The bottom line is that sin brings only destruction, disunity, and death.  So the first application is:  Don’t sin.  It is not worth it.  It is not worth your dignity.  It is not worth the sorrow and the grief that it will bring to you.  It is not worth the future of your children and your grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.  It is not worth eternal hell, which every sin merits.  It is not worth offending and grieving God, our loving and merciful Father.  It is not worth grieving the Holy Spirit, who resides in all those who are saved by grace through faith.  It is not worth spitting upon the sacrificial act of love by the God-man Jesus Christ, who suffered and died to pay for our sins and to free us from slavery to sin.  Having been so saved, having confessed Christ as Lord, when we sin, we especially dishonor the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf.  In short, sin is not worth the just and natural consequences that it brings.  Don’t do it.

2. Repent of Your Sins

The second application is:  Repent of your sins.  We are never told that Ham repented.  It seems quite likely, especially from Hebrews 11, that Noah repented of his sins, and perhaps Ham did too.  We are not told, but Ham did have some good fruit in his life.  He was chosen by God.  He went into the ark.  He obeyed the word.  He likely helped build the ark project.  So we hold out some hope for Ham.  But we are never told that he repented.

Whatever Ham did, whether he repented or not, we all know that we must repent of our sins.  God commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).  Without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sins (Luke 13:3).  Without forgiveness of our sins from God, we are all doomed to eternal hell, the just punishment for our sins.  God justly forgives our sins in Christ who fully paid for them by His life and by His death.  But that forgiveness is only for those who are in Christ, only for those who confess Christ as Savior and Lord.

God commands us to take hold of His offer.  He offers it to all.  God commands us to take hold of that offer by faith in Christ, and then repent of our sins and prove it by our new life.  Prove our repentance by our deeds.  Prove our salvation by living out the life that God requires, as covered in Romans 5 and Romans 6.

Oh, there will still be consequences for your sins in this life.  There will still be consequences for sins in our children’s lives.  But the great and eternal consequence for us will be no more, if we are in Christ.  It is marked, “Paid in Full” by the blood of Christ, for all who truly trust in Him.

So repent; repent once and for all.  Deal with the great consequence—eternal hell—deal with that great consequence by faith in Christ.  Then go about living for Him who died for you.

3. Be a Shem and Not a Ham

Application number three:  Be a Shem and not a Ham.  Don’t sin, don’t gossip, and don’t publicize others’ sins.  Instead, deal with sin in love.  They covered Noah’s sin in love, and yet they confronted him with honor and with respect due him.

So don’t sin, don’t gossip, and deal with sin in love.  And having done so, be blessed, as Shem was blessed.  Genesis 9:26:  “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!”  The blessing is directed to God, but this is a blessing pronounced on Shem also.  There is great blessing that comes with righteous living.

It is not always easy to live righteously.  You may find yourself backing into a tent with a blanket over your shoulder.  You may find yourself mocked by your brother or facing an uncomfortable conversation with your father about all that has happened.  So it is not easy, but there is blessing in this way.  There is great blessing in this way.  Not necessarily the blessings that we think of—money and power and prosperity and all that.  No, the great blessing is life with God, the smiling countenance of God upon us.  Your God.  You see, God becomes your God.  He is the God of Shem, but He is also the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Ed, the God of Vernon, the God of Brian, the God of Ruth, the God of Rev. Buddingh’, the God of me, and the God of you.  God is my God, and I am His.  This is the greatest blessing possible.

Conclusion

In conclusion, brothers and sisters, sin is indeed serious.  Let us never downplay its gravity or its consequences.  Sin is serious for us.  It is serious for our children.  It is serious for generations.  It is serious enough that God became man, and that God suffered infinite wrath on the cross and died for our sins.

Sin is serious, so let us reject sin.  Let us reject its immediate consequences.  Let us reject its generational consequences.  Let us reject its eternal consequences of hell.  It is simply never worth it.  But instead, let us be like Japheth or Shem, righteous men and women who submit to God, who resist the devil, and who receive a blessing, even life forevermore.  Amen.

[1] Some hold the view that Noah’s drunkenness was accidental and thus not sinful. Although the best view appears to be that Noah sinned in his drunkenness, the matter is not essential and true believers may hold differing views on this point.