An Altar or a Vineyard? Gen. 8:20, 9:20
And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord.
9:20 And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.
These two verses bring a stark contrast to our attention:
1. In one text: Noah built an altar and saved his family
2. In the other: he built a vineyard, turned toward financial success and earthly comfort, and fell into such disgusting sin that before the damage could be stopped, one son’s view became irreparable.
So these contrasting texts bring a question to everyone in this congregation:
What are you building? Are you building AN ALTAR OR A VINEYARD?
Illust: Story is told of a pastor many years ago in PA who believed strongly in the Family Altar. His daughter came home one day from the public school to announce that she had taken her first dance instruction.
Lunch was ready, but before a bite was taken, that father gathered his family together and they prayed. When done, he stated that his daughter had taken her first and last dance lesson, and then headed to the school to meet the principal. He was told it was part of the curriculum and that his minority view was not sufficient enough voice to altar the curriculum, and that his child was no better than any other children and should not expect favored treatment.
He then went to the school board. He was told that no other member of the clergy had complained. And then was finally told that he should consider enrolling his daughter in a school in a slum area that did not have a dance program because of their insufficient facilities.
This pastor, this father, then let it be known in the community that either the school board would respect the conscientious convictions of the family and assign his daughter to another study, excusing her from all dancing lessons, or he would mortgage every stick of property he owned and move his family from such a godless community.
This father fought for his family, the same way Noah fought for his, and in doing so, saved his family from the terrible flood.
In Gen. 6 taken out of the following three verses: 6, 18, 22
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord… and God said unto Noah… with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and they wife, and they sons’s wives with thee….Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
That’s what it takes to save your family. The building of the ALTAR.
I’m sure it was not easy for Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Their father was thought to be crazy. He stood for and practiced an odd religion that believed it was going to rain enough so that it would send a great flood which would destroy everything.
AND NOAH and his family stuck out like a sore thumb.
Listen: if you build that family altar, you too will stick out in your community.
Your Family will know it
Your Neighbors will know it
Your Church will know it.
And as a result of Noah’s perseverance, his family benefited from the most valued of all possessions: A Man’s Faith.
Heb. 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Yes sir, he built an altar! His family was saved because of it!
We’re living in a day of decreasing morality and increasing carnality.
Fathers are taking more stock in their prized hunting dogs than in whom their children date…
They tie up their dogs at night and let their children run free.
Something wrong with that picture.
Living in a day when children are being swished away by government agencies because their parents are using the biblical form of discipline in the raising of their children.
Don’t tell me it’s not so… for we know of a personal friend in Illinois, who had it reported of them that they spanked their child. Somehow, this mother heard that the Agency was coming to take her child away, and she fled with her child out of state. They arrested the father… all this taking place over Christmas a few years back, and he was held in jail through New Years.
A lawyer was hired, and they begin to fight the system. He was released from jail and it took 3 months before that mother and her daughter could safely return home. Finally, the table was turned and they filed a lawsuit against the state of Illinois and won, but not before losing a huge amount of money in fighting it all.
Listen: I’ve talked to some parents who have thought it too dangerous to follow Biblical instruction and have used alternative ways to bring up their children, and I’m telling you upon the authority of God’s word…
You had better follow God’s plan and God’s way no matter what the cost!!!
Pr 22:15 Foolishness [is] bound in the heart of a child; [but] the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Pr 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Pr 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
That is part of training a child…
Pr 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Tit 2:4 (speaking of the older women) That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
This is all part of building an Altar!
It takes time, effort, patience, longsuffering, sacrifice, and most of all love
BUT that ALTAR is the very thing that will bring about the salvation of your children!
AND because of Noah’s building of a family Altar, his family was saved from the terrible flood!
However… look at the other side now… Look at what took place in Noah’s life after the flood!
9:20 And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.
Illust: A Chaplain who served in Viet Naum said, “The worst wasn’t to die, but to see one’s soul change.”
What took place in Noah’s life to cause his soul to change?
What happened to a man who had found favor in God’s eyes, who had seen and survived God’s devastating judgment, who had experienced the rainbow, who had an intimate relationship with almighty God?
You would not think a man like that would change, but he did.
Look at verse 21 of ch. 9 (after he planted a vineyard) And he drank of the wine, and
was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
He went from having the blessings of God to becoming a boozer.
Even though the world was starting over… all was new… all was pure.
Yet there was still the element of temptation and sin.
Doesn’t matter to the devil if you’re a pew warmer or a preacher… he still
wants your soul!
Jesus told Peter who was to become of the greatest NT preachers…
Lu 22:31 …Satan hath desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat:
Just as God is no respecter of persons, neither is the devil!
Doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, sick, healthy, short, tall, big or small, white,
black, yellow or blue, the devil will always be after you!
And Noah was no exception! He fell to temptation and he changed!
He went from an Altar builder to a Vineyard planter.
He concerned himself with personal pleasure rather than the safety of his family!
I ask you this morning, are you building an altar or a vineyard?
And if it’s a vineyard, when did it begin? Was it when you thought it wasn’t really that important to follow God’s views in the training of your children?
Was it when you felt that church really wasn’t that important and started laying out?
Was it when you felt that your obligations to the spiritual things of God were not
giving you enough time for your own desires and selfish interests?
Was it when you felt that reading your Bible wasn’t as important and you just didn’t have enough time during the day?
Was it when you stopped being consistent in your prayer life, and soon found yourself going two and three and four days without prayer?
Do you understand what a vineyard produces? FRUIT
There is a sowing that is done.
And then there comes a reaping.
For you cannot sow without having some sort of harvest!
What I’m saying is this: What you are doing in putting God 2nd in your life, not only has ramifications on yourself, but upon those closest to you!!!!
I know of more than one man who was raised in a godly home, was brought up in church, and yet when he got married and started having children, he felt that since his dad had been too strict on him, he was going to allow his children much more lenience, and he did.
Wasn’t too long before those children became so materialistic minded, that church held no meaning to them whatsoever.
One particular child, who probably would have pursued the ministry had his father built an altar instead of a vineyard, today is pursing carnal things instead of those things which are godly.
I know of another man who put so much more stock in his job than his children, and eventually led his own children into sin shame.
Such was the case with Noah.
Ge 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Noah was drunk. He was naked. And Ham had gone into his father’s tent, unaware of his father’s nakedness.
What he saw was his father’s carnality instead of his spirituality.
He saw his father in a base moment of exposure, wallowing in the same moral senselessness out of which he had prayed his entire family to save them from judgment.
It was too much for Ham. It left a curse upon him that went on for Generations.
That vineyard can sure get ahold of you easily! It happens way too often, because someone has let down their guard, and the devil has waltzed right on in.
Preaching to someone this morning that has become intoxicated with idolatry.
You say… I don’t worship idols… Ah but you are…
For anything that takes the place of true worship towards God is considered in the Bible, Idolatry!
Whether it’s a job, hobby, entertainment, social standing, a relationship
with someone…
For some, it doesn’t take much to draw them away from Christ, because they are shallow to begin with… have never really settled strongly and firmly upon that Rock!
The father these boys had known who was once respected and trusted, who had led them into the safety of the Ark, was now a slobbering, vulgar, indecent drunk stretched out helplessly on the floor.
I’m telling you.. if you trade your ALTAR for a VINEYARD, it will rob you of all the blessings of God, the safety under God’s umbrella of protection, and an eternal home with the Heavenly Father.
It will leave you a trophy in the devil’s showcase…
You’ll be stripped, robbed, naked, wretched and poor.
And unless there is an awakening… you’ll end up in a devil’s hell and eventually cast into a lake of burning fire for eternity!
Ah, but look at verse 24
Ge 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
Oh yes, that is the price of shame, of indulgence… to look into the face of your child and see your personal guilt.
And to know that your child is cursed for the rest of his life… you’ll constantly ask yourself… how did I allow myself to get into this condition? Where did I lose my way?
The answer is this: it’s when you stopped building an Altar and began building a vineyard! The one will lead to the saving of your family. The other will lead to shame.
Someone needs an awakening this morning… and awakening that says… it’s time to change. It’s time to come back to God… come to your senses.
Re 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
