Noah Gets Drunk / God Ordains Human Government (Genesis Chapters 7-9 The Flood - Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. The point I want to stress, this is a global flood. The entire earth, everything living on the whole earth died.

The Global Flood and the Rainbow Covenant

Now, liberal scholars have tried to make it out that no, no, no, this was just a localized flood. It only affected this one area in the Middle East. Well, that's problematic for several reasons. Number one, it denies the plain reading of the text.

If it was a localized flood, there'd be no need to take the animals on board. They would have just lived on and existed elsewhere all over the earth. At this time, well, Noah could have just migrated.

It took a long time to build the ark. Noah could have just migrated to another region. He didn't have to build the boat. But the biggest evidence, the strongest support of a worldwide flood, what did God do?

After the flood was over, he set the rainbow in the sky. And that was a sign of the covenant that God would never again flood the earth again. What's the promise? He would never again bring a worldwide flood because we've certainly had floods.

So, if this is a localized flood, the promise and the rainbow, it just doesn't make any sense. So, here's the point. God's judgment came upon the whole world just as the curse back in Genesis chapter 3 came upon the whole world.

And the thing that we're concerned about today is the gospel. That Jesus Christ died for the sins of what? The whole world, not just for one people group on the other side of the earth. Now, let's move on to Genesis chapter 8 verse 1 says,.

Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters subsided. Of course, when it says that God remembered Noah, that doesn't mean that God was up in heaven doing whatever God does.

And he's like, oh yeah, I forgot about that guy I left on the ark. We better take care of that. Now, obviously, that's not the point. Here is the point. Matthew Henry writes this in verses or about verses 1 through 3.

He says,. The whole race of mankind, except Noah and his family, were now dead. So that God's remembering Noah was a return of his mercy to mankind, of whom he would not make a full end. The demands of divine justice had been answered by the ruin of sinners.

God sent his wind to dry the earth and to seal up his waters. The same hand that brings the desolation must bring the deliverance. And to that hand, therefore, we must ever look. Are you looking to that hand this morning?

That hand of deliverance. So the water is receding. The earth is beginning to dry up. Noah sends out, first he sends out a raven. Then he sends out a dove. And the dove goes out and it comes back because it has nowhere to go.

Then he waits seven days, sends out the dove again. And this time it comes back with an olive leaf in its mouth. So that's a good sign. Noah waits another seven days, sends out the dove. And that time it doesn't come back because there was dry land.

So now Noah understands it's coming time to exit the ark. He waits another seven days and then the Lord speaks to him. Look at verses 15 and 16. And God spoke to Noah saying, go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you.

And then the first thing that Noah does when he gets off the ark, he goes to church. Okay, not exactly, but he does worship. He builds an altar, which really tells you where his heart is. Remember, Noah is a man who walked with God.

So this shows you his priorities. He's a man after God's own heart. Noah is a godly man. But we'll see that even godly men sometimes fall. We'll see that in a moment in chapter nine. All right, let's start chapter nine, starting in verse one.

Human Government and the Limits of Civil Authority

So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and on all that move on the earth and on all the fish of the sea.

They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat the flesh with its life. That is, its blood.

So we learn a few things here. First, the command originally given to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. That is given again. So there is a reset. Instead of saying that we all descend from Adam and Eve, which is true.

Now we can just go back to Noah and his children. So now the Lord is going to do something new. God, in chapter nine, he institutes human government. Verses five and six. Surely for your lifeblood, I will demand a reckoning from the hand of every beast, I will require it.

And from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood. Here's the institution of human government. Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed.

Why? For in the image of God, he made man. So now there is going to be a system of government where man will be in a position of responsibility and authority to make sure justice and righteousness is upheld.

So if someone murders somebody else, the powers that be, men are now responsible to see to it that that murderer is put to death. The principle later on in God's law is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

In other words, the punishment must fit the crime. There must be law and order. This is what God wants. He wants law and order on the earth. He wants righteousness upheld on the earth. This is why governments exist.

Why? To punish evil. That's the whole purpose of government. Government is said, the Apostle Paul in Romans 13, he says, the governing authorities do not bear the sword in vain. He also says that the governing authorities are ordained by God.

That is to say, this is God's idea. So God's system of government is to protect people, to protect life, to protect liberty. That's why government exists, to punish evil so there will be a reward for doing good.

Here's why government does not exist. However, government does not exist to dictate every area of your life. That is tyranny. So human government started right here in Genesis chapter 9. Some call it the dispensation of human government.

And God has granted them, human government, a certain sphere of authority. All of this was to prevent the world from spiraling out of control like it did before the flood. Now I like to say, some people will call government a necessary evil.

I like to say that it's necessary because of evil. And God has delegated to men certain authority. There is, of course, a civil authority. There are authority structures in the home. There are authority structures in the church.

So just one last point. Just because the Bible says government is ordained by God, that doesn't mean a leader is necessarily approved of by God. That's not what that means at all. It's just that human government was God's idea.

It's ordained by God. That doesn't mean that God approves of every man or woman in a position of authority and what they do. Just because, here's the point, just because a man is in a position of authority, that doesn't mean he gets to decree whatever he wants and you have to follow it.

Again, that is not what God ordained. That is tyranny. Human government only has a certain role, a certain amount of authority given by God. Only God has all authority. Anytime a man tries to take that authority that wasn't given to him by God onto himself, that is tyranny.

And it's godly at that point to resist. So every government must be under God. Alright, look at verses 12 through 15. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations.

I have set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and you and the earth. And it shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.

And the water shall, here's the promise, the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. So the rainbow is the sign of God's covenant with man that he will, well, he really is covenant with all of creation that he will never again destroy the earth with water.

The next time God destroys the earth, the scripture says he will do it with what? He will do it with fire. John the Baptist talked about this. Remember he said, I baptize you with water. That's the anti-type of the flood.

But there's one coming after me that will baptize with fire. The rest of this chapter tells the unfortunate story of man or a man of God living in a backslidden condition. Noah, it says, plants a vineyard.

He begins to drink of the wine and he got drunk. And then some questionable things happen that we don't have time to get into. But here's just a summary. His two sons, Shem and Japheth, acted honorably.

His other son, Ham, and or his son, Canaan, Noah's grandson, Canaan, they acted dishonorably. Noah became drunk, disrobed in his tent, something happened. And in the end, the line of Ham received a curse.

The other sons, Shem and Japheth, received a blessing. And this is really the end of the story of Noah. It says he lived on a few hundred more years and then he died. This great man of God seems that after he got off the ark and planted this vineyard, he never really did anything great for God again.

He lived on and then the chapter ends with Noah dying. It's pretty sad, pretty sad. And Noah, it seems, did not finish well. But here is where the good news comes in. Because remember, I told you how as far as things go, as far as things go that have already taken place in the scripture, the flood is the clearest expression anywhere in the Bible of the wrath of God.

Noah’s Drunkenness, the Curse on Ham, and Finishing Well

Now, is God a God of love? Yes, we know that. Is he also a holy God and a God of justice? Yes. Must God, because he is consistent with himself and with his own character, must he punish sin? Yes. Therefore, the ark, because you have this narrative of the judgment of God and the wrath of God alongside it, there is the deliverance, the salvation offered by God.

Therefore, the ark is a picture of Christ. Just as Noah and his family were delivered from the judgment of water by being in the ark, so we can be delivered from God's judgment of fire if we are in Christ.

He is our shelter in a time of storm. And there is a storm coming. And it's up to us to warn people about it. There is a storm coming. It's called by many names. Armageddon, the day of the Lord. There is a storm coming.

And like in the days of Noah, the preaching, through the preaching, people are being warned. And here's our message. Get into the ark. The storm is coming. Get into the ark. Enter into the ark of safety by placing your faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin.

Christ the Ark of Salvation and the Coming Judgment

Let's pray. Lord, I thank you that in the midst of wrath, you remembered mercy. You remembered Noah and delivered him and his family. And Lord, I pray that you would deliver families today. And just as there was only one door into the ark, there is only one door into heaven.

As Jesus said in the gospel of John, he said, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. And Lord, if there is anyone here who has never trusted in the gospel of grace, I pray that they would do that today.

And if there's someone who has never been baptized, I pray that they would follow through with your commandment. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.