Genesis 9.18-28
Gospel song
Call to worship:
Pastor Zack McGuire
OT: Psalm 24
NT: Mark 1.9-15
song:
Come behold the wondrous mystery
Historical reading:
Pastor andrew logionw
Apostles Creed
song:
I stand amazed
Terenzi baby dedication - Dr. Brett Eckel
Confession & Pardon:
dr. brett eckel
song:
King of kings
Sermon:
dr. alex logionw
Genesis 9.18-28
Introduction
What traits do you have of your parents? We all have them. Whether it’s how we look, the same way we talk, postures or movements we make – we all inherit attributes from our parents. When you have kids you then see the same thing in your children, don’t you? The way they look or the things they do, we can see ourselves in our kids.
Unfortunately this is true of our sin too, isn’t it? Sins of fathers and mothers passed down to their children. Is there anything more infuriating or humbling than seeing your kids sin the same way you do? Maybe the only thing more anger inducing than seeing your child sin like you is seeing them sin like your spouse or your in-laws. One of our children, I won’t mention them by name, has a propensity to get food and start eating before anyone else is sitting down and this child may or may not have an uncle who plays guitar and leads music here at church who does the same thing. But how many times have we heard stories of people who struggle with alcohol, or anger, or adultery where more often than not they confess their dad was the same way? Or their mom was the same too?
Our Scripture passage this morning reveals that the truth of hereditary sin, generational sin, is ancient history. Just like Hollywood today is seemingly nothing but remakes and superhero franchises, there is nothing new under the sun. This is the case even before properly recorded history. Just like Avengers 45, or whatever we’re on now, this scene with Noah is a bit of a remake of what we’ve already witnessed in Genesis.
A 2nd Adam
In fact, like the live action Lion King that Disney released a few years ago, Noah’s postdiluvian story is almost a shot-for-shot remake of Adam’s story. Did you pick up all of the similarities? Noah recapitulates Adam in several ways. Both Noah and Adam are in covenant with God. Both Noah and Adam have a type of fall involving fruit. They both have a son who’s revealed to be the seed of the serpent. Both narratives include curses and blessing and both end in death.
Last week Pastor Kevin led us through the Noaic Covenant and showed us from both Genesis 1-2 and Hosea 11 God was in covenant with Adam. What we’re seeing here in Genesis reminds us why it’s so essential that we embrace covenant theology. Scripture is covenantal by nature. The word testament (Old and New) comes from the Latin testamentum, which means covenant, so when we refer to the Old and New Testaments, we’re saying, old and new covenant. God has only ever related to His human creatures via covenant. Since Adam, there has never been a person in relationship with God outside of covenant. It was true of Adam and now through Noah, God’s people continue in covenant with God.
And as Adam fell by means of taking the fruit of the tree, here Noah has a type of fall taking the fruit of the vine. Like Adam was found naked and ashamed because of the fruit, so Noah is found naked and ashamed because of the fruit. What the Holy Spirit is showing us through the prophet Moses is that original sin was not washed away in the floodwaters. Sin entered the ark with Noah and his sons and sin remains in this postdiluvian world.
Also, like Adam’s son Cain was proven to be of the seed of the serpent, now we see that Noah’s son Ham is of the seed of serpent. Now what I don’t know for sure is what exactly happened with Noah and Ham. Some scholars believe that Ham was not honoring his father – leaving him in shame and mocking his father to his brothers. Other scholars think the scene may be a bit more sinister – that it involved some sort of voyeurism, or homosexual incestuous activity. It is interesting that the ESV makes a note to connect Genesis 9.24 with Habakkuk 2.15, which says, Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink- you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness.
While we can’t say for sure what went down, what we do know for sure is that Ham is revealed to be the seed of the serpent, which evokes a curse from Noah on Ham and his future posterity. Just as the scene of Adam’s fall in Genesis 3 renders the curses on the serpent, Eve, and Adam, now this scene with Noah yields a curse on Ham and his progeny. I think it’s important at this point that we take a minute to distinguish what the curse of Ham is not. Most of you have probably never heard of this, but some of you might have. Hundreds of years ago there were some who believed and taught the Hamite theory, which said that people with black skin descended from Ham and are cursed by God. The Hamite theory was the reasoning behind the systematic institution of slavery. It’s sad that this has to even be said, but this interpretation of the Bible is evil racism condemned by God.
Obviously that is not what the curse of Ham is, so what is the curse of Ham? Well, the text tells us in verse 25 – cursed be Canaan. The descendants of Ham became known as the Canaanites. They practiced idolatry for generations. These were the people occupying the Promised Land as Israel wandered in the wilderness. Moses is teaching Israel where the Canaanites came from and why God was about to execute His justice against them through the Jewish conquest of the land led by Joshua.
Notice also that Noah’s story ends with his death. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died (Gen 9.29). Just like Adam, Noah died. The words that finish every story of every person you’ve ever known – and he died; and she died.
The Last Adam
The end of the Noah narrative makes clear to us that Noah’s father was wrong. Noah was ultimately not the one who would bring us relief. Noah was not the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. Noah died.
But the pages of the New Testament shine a light on what was shadowed in the Old revealing the one who would not only die, but would die and rise again. Both Noah and Adam were pointing us to The Lord Jesus, who is the last Adam; who is the true and better Noah. The covenants that God cut with Adam and Noah were both leading us to the New Covenant, cut with the blood of Jesus himself. This New Covenant (testament) is the fulfillment of the old; it explains the old.
Noah’s blessings on Shem and Japheth recapitulate the first blessing that came in Genesis 3.15, but we see clearly now that Jesus is the fulfillment of Genesis 3.15; He is the meaning. Jesus is the seed of the woman who crushed the serpent’s head. Jesus is the one who inaugurates the New Covenant and the new creation. Jesus is the one who brings blessing, not only to Israel, but also to the entire world, to the nations.
But unlike Adam and Noah, Jesus didn’t fall. Jesus went through the waters of baptism and into His temptation in the wilderness where He endured the temptation of the devil and Jesus did not fall; He did not sin. And the irony of this good news is that Jesus brings blessing to His people by being cursed – cursed on the tree. Galatians 3.13 says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”
Jesus endured the curse of Adam’s sin – the wrath of God and death – on the cross so that we might experience the blessing of His righteousness and eternal life. Like Adam and Noah, Jesus died – the good news is not less than that, but it is so much more. Because Jesus didn’t merely die like Adam and Noah, Jesus died for Adam and Noah and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. And because Jesus wasn’t guilty like Adam and Noah, death had no power to hold Jesus, that’s why on the 3rd day Christ resurrected from the dead.
From Adam to Christ
This is good news because, like Noah, we inherit Adam’s sin. Because we inherit Adam’s original sin, we practice sin in thought, word, and deed, by what we do and by what we leave undone. We do not love God with our whole heart; we do not love our neighbors as ourselves. We are guilty of breaking God’s holy eternal Law and so we justly deserve eternal conscious punishment in hell.
I know what you’re thinking – “this doesn’t sound like good news yet.” The good news is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5.8). The good news is that there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8.1). The good news is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom 10.13).
The means by which God saves us is what the Reformers called sola fide, faith alone in solus Christus, in Christ alone. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved. And it’s really important that we’re always very careful to define faith because faith is one of those “junk drawer” words – when you say the word faith people import all sorts of meaning. We explain the meaning of faith every week because (1) every week each one of us should be evaluating our own faith – working out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2.12); (2) the more you hear and understand the definition of faith, you can explain it to others – your children, your family, friends, neighbors, anyone who needs the good news of Jesus!
The Reformed tradition has long defined faith in terms of 3 facets. What are they? Knowledge, assent, and trust. Faith begins with knowledge – we must know the good news of Jesus. This is why we gather as a church for the preaching of the Word, this is why we catechize our children, this is why we tell people about Jesus because no one is born with knowledge of the good news of Jesus. People need to know that they are guilty of sin against the one true and living God and that the death and resurrection of Jesus is their only hope for forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
But knowledge of the person and work of Christ in and of itself falls short of saving faith. Faith levels up from knowledge to assent. Assent of the good news is the difference between simply knowing what Christians believe and saying, “that’s what I believe.” To assent means to confess and not deny the good news of Jesus.
But both knowledge and assent together do not yet constitute faith. The triad of faith is complete with trust. You must transfer your trust to Jesus alone. You must intellectually and emotionally trust fall into the good news of Jesus. Just like you’re trusting the chair you’re sitting in to hold your weight, you must place the full weight of your guilt before God and your hope for righteousness, forgiveness, and eternal life on the person and work of Jesus.
And the Bible says that if God indeed gives you the gift of faith, you will repent. When Jesus began to preach the good news in the Gospel of Mark he declared, “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1.15). Repentance is the fruit of faith. Repentance means (1) to confess your sin and (2) to turn from your sin. Is your faith in Jesus? Do you repent of your sin?
Because the truth is just like Adam and Noah, we’re all going to die because we’re guilty of sin. And on the last day we’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. If you do not have faith in Jesus, if you will not repent then you will receive judgment and condemnation on that day. But if your faith is in Christ and you repent, then Jesus already endured your just condemnation and you will be declared righteous before God and you will live forever in the resurrection of the new world with the family of God.
Conclusion
We may have inherited the traits of sin, guilt, and shame from our father Adam, but the gospel declares the good news that, in Christ, we have been adopted by a new Father – our Father in heaven. And when the Father adopts us, He begins to give us the traits of our brother, Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. God conforms us to the image of His only begotten Son! Look up to your brother, Jesus. Look to His sinless life. Look to His cursed cross. Look to His empty tomb.