Nobody’s Perfect
Genesis 9:18-28
Intro: A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who, when he was mayor of New York City. Laguardia’s nickname was "the Little Flower" because he was only five foot four and always wore a carnation in his lapel.
He was a colorful character who used to ride the New Your City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio.and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.
One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, ......the mayor turned up at a night court ...... in an area that served the poorest ward .....in the city.
LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening .......and took over the bench himself.
Within a few minutes, ......a tattered old woman was brought before him, ...... charged with stealing .......a loaf of bread.
She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, .......her daughter was sick, ...... and her two grandchildren ......were starving.
But the shopkeeper, ....... from whom the bread was stolen, ....... refused to drop the charges.
"It's a real bad neighborhood, your Honor." .......The shopkeeper told the mayor.
"She's got to be punished to teach others around here ......a lesson."
LaGuardia sighed.
He turned to the woman and said, ........"I have got to punish you.
The law makes no exceptions ...... ten dollars ......or ten days in jail."
But even as he pronounced sentence, ...... the mayor was already reaching into his pocket.
He extracted a bill and tossed it into his hat saying, "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; ...... and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town .....where a person has to steal bread ......so that her grandchildren can eat.
Mr. Bailiff, ..... collect the fines and give them to the defendant."
The following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady ......who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren,...... fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner.
While some seventy petty criminals, ...... people with traffic violations, ...... and New York policemen, .....each of whom had just paid fifty cents ...... gave the mayor a standing ovation.
Here is my question. ..... Did the elderly lady in the story get what she deserved?
Clearly the answer is,..... of course not.
She had stolen a loaf of bread.
Yes, ......she may have had a reason,...... but stealing is stealing....... and regardless of the reason, ...... punishment would seem to be ......the order of the day.
Folks .....What we see in the story .....is called grace.
When someone is given something they did not work for nor deserve.
Mayor LaGuardia, rather than demanding punishment of the woman herself,......paid the fine ......and then further helped her cause .....with the collection of the fifty-cent fines ......and then gave the money to her.
It was more than she deserved. ...... It was grace.
(story taken from sermon by Jeffrey Smead, It’s all about grace)
. This morning we are back in Genesis, chapter 9.
. We come to what has been described by many commentators and preachers as a rather bizarre story. This is the last account of Noah’s life here in Genesis.
. Lets read the story.
. 18The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.)
19From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.
20After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard.
21One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.
22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers.
23Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.
24When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done.
25Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:“May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”
26Then Noah said, “May the LORD, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant!
27May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.”
28Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood.
29He lived 950 years, and then he died.
. I will be honest with you, I almost skipped right over this story.
. It is difficult to comprehend what God is telling us in this story.
. I have several commentaries in my library on Genesis and access to hundreds of sermons concerning this passage of scripture.
. One of my goals as a preacher is to always understand for myself what is in God’s word before I share it with you and I struggled with this passage.
. I could have dissected are tried to explain why Noah cured his grandson for what his father had done.
. Noah was drunk, passed out in his tent and verses 22-25 tell us this:
22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers.
23Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.
24When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done.
25Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:“May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”
. Why would a grandfather curse his grandson for something his father had done?
. Many believe that Noah had already seen in Ham’s son Canaan, the evil traits that Noah had seen in his son Ham.
. He realized that Canaan was the bad apple in the family that did not fall far from his fathers tree.
. I believe that it was prophetic. Guess who was the Nemesis of Abraham and the nation of Israel after they have returned to the promised land.
. The Canaanites had grown from simple depravity of their patriarch Ham into a sexually debased society.
. In Leviticus 18, God is warning the people through Moses not to be like the Canaanites.
. Look at verse 3 of Leviticus 18: God is instructing Moses.
. 3So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life.
. For the next seventeen verses, God describes the Canaanites.
. I Have highlighted just a few of the acts that describe them.
. 7“Do not violate your father by having sexual relations with your mother. 10“Do not have sexual relations with your granddaughter,
. 15“Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law;
17“Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter
. 22“Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman.
. The list goes on and on. Canaan and his descendents were a depraved people, perhaps Noah was forewarning his other sons of who their nephew and his descendants were to become.
. Many preachers use this scripture to preach on the dangers of alcohol. There are many dangers in the abuse of alcohol.
. Look at verses 20-21 again:
. 20After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard.
21One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.
. Some may think that Noah got off the boat and just got drunk.
. Many years had passed since they got off the boat.
. He had to have had enough time to plant a vineyard, grow the grapes and then he had to learn how to produce wine.
. We know that he had at least four grandsons because Canaan was the youngest son of Ham.
. Noah knew what he was doing, he knowingly got drunk.
. Wine or alcohol is a blessing and a curse according to scripture.
. The psalmist writes that wine is a gift from God in psalm 104: 15
. King Solomon in Proverbs 31:6 says to,
. Give wine to those who are in distress.
. Paul told Timothy, his protégé, to drink a little wine for his stomach. Obviously they recognized the medicinal qualities of wine.
. Jesus changed the water into the finest wine at the wedding in Cana in John chapter 2.
. That wise king Solomon also says this about wine in Proverbs 20:1
. 1Wine produces mockers; alcohol leads to brawls. Those led astray by drink cannot be wise.
. Translation, getting drunk is not wise.
. In Proverbs 23:20
20Do not carouse with drunkards or feast with gluttons,
.In writing to the Ephesian church, Paul warns them in 5:18
. 18Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.
. In 1 Timothy, the same book that Paul told timothy to drink a little wine for his illness, Ha also gave him guidelines in choosing elders or deacons or pastors for the church. In those guidelines are warnings about drunkenness.
. 1 Timothy 3: 1-5 says this:
1This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position.”
2So an elder must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach.
3He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money.
4He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him.
5For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church?
. Tucked in there between all the things an elder must be, is one thing they cannot be. A drunkard.
. While alcohol is a gift, it can be a curse.
. Perhaps God is taking this opportunity to show us what can happen if we get drunk.
. You may find yourself naked and passed out for all the world to see.
. Those are some lessons and applications we can glean from this scripture but for me, I see something else also.
. Who is this man who is passed out, drunk from too much wine.
. This is the one man whom God chose to save. In all of humanity, Noah was the best of the best, the cream of the crop.
. Noah, out of all people stood resplendent in God’s glory. In the backdrop was the rainbow that signified God’s covenant with him and all mankind.
. Noah was the man.
. Look back at verse 6:9 of Genesis here.
. 9This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.
. The writer of Hebrews used Noah as an example of faith in his spiritual hall of fame discourse.
. Look at Hebrews 11:7
. 7It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
. This great man of God, one used as an example of faith, lay in his tent, drunk, passed out and naked for all who came in to see.
. Noah, the one God chose to populate the world, just like Adam, had brought sin into the world. Noah was a fallen man, just like Adam.
.R. Kent Hughes in his commentary on Genesis wrote this about the fall of Noah.
“…Scriptures here record Noah’s fall in order to instruct us that this great pre-diluvium who had so honored God was a flawed man- a sinner”.
. A man who was in need of God’s grace.
. Why, because he was just like you and me. He was just a man.
. Nobody is perfect. We get a glimpse into the life of Noah, the common man, not Noah, the Hero of the faith in this passage.
. We see a man who is just like you and me, a sinner in need of God’s grace and forgiveness.
. Have you accepted God’s grace this morning.
. His grace was given to us through the death of Jesus Christ on a cross for our sins.
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
It Is All About Grace; Jeffrey Smead, (sermon central)
R. Kent Hughes, Genesis, Beginning and Blessing, (Crossway Books)
