Covered The Nakedness

Number of years ago when I came to Bloomington, there was a man who would, he and his wife had an omni horizon. It was green or yellow, some light color. And he would sit out in the church parking lot with the New York Times Sunday edition. And he would read in the parking lot until the very moment when the service was to start. He was in grad school. His wife was in grad school. I don't think they had children. And everything about him gave off the smell of superiority. He was condescending in everything he did, at least at church. And his wife wasn't much better than he was. And when I started preaching at the church, I spoke on the authority of scripture and the authority of preaching. And it was very offensive to a number of people in the church. My first elders meeting, I got called on the carpet for making a point of the authority of scripture. One of the professors who was the moderator of the elders board said to me, Tim,

why did you make such a statement of the authority of Scripture in your first sermon? And I said, well, I want everybody to know what the benchmark of the ministry of the Word would be in this church. I'm just coming. And he said, well, don't you know that there are people in this church that come from a different presuppositional basis? I'm just glad he didn't say epistemological. And I said, yes, and that's why I said what I said. A little bit later, this young man that would sit and read the New York Times, set up an appointment and came in my office. And he said to me, you know, I find offensive your assumption of authority when you're preaching from the pulpit. And so we talked, you know, and he just kept pushing. And finally, I said to him, do you know what? When I preach, it is the word of God. And I mean, that guy blew a gasket.

He couldn't believe I'd said that. But you realize that that is the universal testimony of the church down through the ages. That when our shepherds preach to us, it is the voice of God to us. I know it's hard to get your mind around it. If you think it's hard for you to get your mind around it, it's really hard for the preacher to get his mind around that. Because we know what we are. We know we're jars of clay. We know. We have feet of clay, of dust. But that's a good preparation for our text this morning. And I want to say to you, when you make a decision about whether or not you're going to go to church on Sunday, or whether or not you're going to bring your children and your wife, I want you to ask yourself, why is it that so many of us find it so easy to leave half our family at home on Sunday morning? Do you hear me?

I cannot remember a Sunday that our family was not in church together. Not one. So you say, well, that's because you weren't eating processed foods. But with Kennedy coming, you know, we'll all be in church. The wife, the husband, the children, because nobody will be sick anymore because we won't be eating processed foods. No, it was because we hungered and thirsted. for the assembly of the people of God. And it was the high point of the week for us. It wasn't something that we sought to escape. Abigail Huck is in this congregation. Where is Abigail? Abigail Huck's mother is a polymath. There's nothing that she touches that she doesn't do well. It's depressing to her husband, I think. But that's why we made him an elder and not her.

And I remember that when her children began to play soccer in Cutters, the local soccer club, I remember that she immediately became the manager of one of the teams. And then she got put on the board of Cutters. And I remember her saying that in the meetings that they had deciding on tournaments and things like that, that the parents always pressed to have the tournament Sunday. and actually would say in the meeting that that gave them an excuse to miss church. Remember your mother saying that? You've probably never heard her say that, but go home and ask her. She'll tell you that's the truth. And I think a lot of people in our churches are those people that say that they're happy to find an excuse. So with that as a rebuke to begin this worship, just be glad I'm not Calvin.

Let's read the word of God as it's found in Genesis 9 verse 18 through 27. This is the word of God and it is eternally true. Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah and from these the whole earth was populated. I love to read the NASB because they have in the margins the literal word. They'll have a footnote and they'll say literally. And literally here, the word isn't populated. The word is scattered. From those three men, the whole world was scattered. Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward, literally, so that they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. And so he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. This is the word of the Lord.

Now, this account of Noah's sin of drunkenness is a rather typical account of the sort of lives lived by those heroes of the faith that scripture names personally in the great hall of faith, which is John, Hebrews chapter. Who said that, Martin? Very good. Hebrews chapter 11. I thought it was 12 and I had to look and it was 11. But 12 is the discipline one, I think, you know. So get so that you know somewhere in Scripture where things are. This is a great chapter to know where it is. Hebrews 11. And so here we have an account of him being drunk. And I'm telling you, that's pretty typical for what Scripture says about the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Now that should be an encouragement to you.

That Noah is a hero of faith. And here we have his sin. In Hebrews 11, verse 7, it says, By faith, Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, having become reverent, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Now, what other heroes are listed there? Well, verse 4, by faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. Verse 5, by faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death. Verse 8, by faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. Verse 11, by faith, even Sarah herself. Well, what do we know about Abraham? Not once, but what? Twice he passed his wife off as his sister. Great hero, eh? And what do we know about Sarah? He said, this is ridiculous.

You know, she heard the angels talking about it, the Lord, and she laughed. And then when they called her on the carpet for laughing, what'd she do? She lied. I did not laugh. You know, she laughs. And then she says, I did not laugh. You know? Now, can you recognize these people? Huh? You can, because they're you, aren't they? These are the people that God calls to himself. gives them the gift of faith, and then records their name in scripture. Verse 31, by faith, Rahab, the harlot, did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Verse 32, what more shall I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Donald Trump, Jephthah, David, and Samuel.

I put Donald Trump in there because I think Samson's probably as close as you come. Although it does seem that God is continuing to work with President Trump. I am flabbergasted at many of the things I have seen in the last year. And it may be the bullet. We're not exactly sure, but the king's heart is a river that's directed by the hand of God. And so here these men are. Think of Samson. He's in the hall of faith. You know, think of David, the favorite hero of faith of every wife. You know, I mean, women, they don't like David. Men do, but women don't really like David.

And these are our heroes of faith. And it ends by saying, verse 39, and all these, all these names, having obtained a testimony through their faith. So listen, don't aspire to be better than the people that are listed in Hebrews 11. You're not. You won't be. You will sin. You will fail. And that's the reason that we need God. That's the reason we need the Holy Spirit. We need the word of Jesus to be preached to us and then the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to soften them. And without either one of those two, we're dead in the water. But when we have the word of our Lord and then the softening of the Holy Spirit, then there's hope for us because God has set his affection on us.

Here in Genesis 9, we have a part of that testimony concerning the one patriarch who's seed. By the way, every time you see in the Old Testament the word descendant, the Hebrew word is seed. And it's very important that you always think seed when our English Bibles do descendant so that you think biologically and physically about the people that God gives you in the womb of your wife. This is your seed. We don't have any problems with this with an apple, with tomatoes, with the garden in the spring. And so you little ones, you're the seed of your daddy. And so be careful. Protect the seed. Protect the little seedlings. It's a beautiful image. Descendant is so sort of pathetic. He is my descendant?

you know, but he's my seed. Oh, okay, I got it, I got it. And so since the flood, every single seed of Noah, or I should say it the opposite way, since the flood, every single man ever born, every woman ever born, every child has been the seed of one man, and that's Noah. Jew and Gentile, Arab and Chinese, black and white, Congolese and Rwandan, Mexican and Canadian and American, Chinese and Taiwanese. We are all the seed of Noah. All of us have Noah's genes. All of us are Noah's sons since Noah is the father of us all. And in this sense, genetically, since he is our father, we are all brothers.

Verse 18, now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was scattered. So Noah is the patriarch, and that's literally patri and ark. That's father ruler. In our nation today, Half the people are angry over unhindered immigration and want the borders closed and the foreigners expelled. Much of the support for the election of President Trump has been permeated by nativism. Now, what is nativism? Well, the Encyclopedia Britannica defines nativism as, quote, a political stance that prioritizes the interests and well-being of native-born.

or long-established residents of a given country over those of immigrants, typically by advocating or enacting restrictions on immigration. Those who hold this view tend to reject or avoid the term nativist and instead identify themselves as what? Nationalists, patriots, and populists. Okay? Unquote. So among people who are politically conservative, much is made of their own identity, and they seek separation from others. Whether those others are a different nationality, a different skin color, a different age, how often I'm labeled and spit on in the socials as, quote, a boomer, all right? A different citizenship, Honduran. Or in Germany, it's the Syrians that all the conservatives are saying out with the Syrian refugees, right? Or a different race, Jewish or Arab, a different religion, Hindu or Muslim. Yeah, absolutely Muslim. Now listen, we must recognize that our hostility against Germans, Japanese, Jews, Muslims, boomers, Central Americans, non-citizens.

must never cause us to forget that in Noah and his three sons, we are all brothers. That is the starting point for all nativist political rabble-rousing. We're all susceptible to selfishness. Individually, in our marriages, I'm the man. Or when it comes to... My children are better than her children, or when it comes to my church is better, or when it comes to our nation, our state. You know, we all prefer Indiana over California, right? Everybody with me on that one? You know, it's not a hard one, is it? But we must be very careful to not do this in a way that denies the fact that all men come from Noah. All of them. Black, white, Islamic, Hindu, Christian. And it's interesting that Calvin, in his sermons on this text, he has three sermons on this text, and he gives them consecutive dates. Now, yesterday we were saying, today it goes three sermons. It's interesting that he cops to being a Gentile. He just flat out says, all of us have sort of a degenerate.

This is what Calvin says. In other words, we're inferior. And you know who he talks about being superior? Jews. He just constantly mentions the fact that Jews have the supreme position of respect among the races of men. Because why? Because God recognized that they were very bright. Is that what scripture says? Now, the Bible says, hey, listen, you guys are going to think that you were chosen because you're a superior race. Because there were more of you. Because you were gifted. No, no, no, no. God chose you because you were nothing. Remember that? And so Calvin just cops to it. He says, yes, right now the Jews have fallen away. But he says the time will come when their position of pride.

will be resurrected, and that's what a lot of Romans is about. And so I want us to start this text by recognizing that when it talks about the fact that all men scattered out of these three sons of that one man, Noah, that has very real application to our life as a nation and our politics right now. You can separate Christians by those who have a heart for the lost and those who couldn't give a rip. And the ones who can't give a rip are content for their church to grow simply by having children. And there are no people in the church who are lost. They're not invited. They're not there in church.

Because the people are assured of their superiority, their superior theology, they believe in having children, they don't marry homosexuals, you know? And listen, this is not who we were when God called us. Think what you were when God called you. Here we have an Arab, you know, who shows up with... Didn't you have like one of those... Bones through a nose. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A bone through the nose. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And his father was from the Mount of Olives and was a cobbler for a time. Now think about this. Not many of us were wise in the world eyes. Not many of us were rich. I've been thinking recently about the rich people that I have had in my congregation. And let me tell you.

You don't ever want to be rich. Mary Lee, we'd go on vacation. There was one rich man in our church. Every time we went on vacation, as soon as we got off the plane in the rental car, we'd start arguing about how to handle the family. They were filthy rich. And I remember Mary Lee again and again would say the deceitfulness of wealth. Not many of us can handle power, can handle riches. can handle gifting. It goes to the head of most of us. And so don't ask for something that will corrupt you, all right? Now, I want to get back to the issue of not just the unity of man, but the separation of man, because you may not know this, but this text here has been the basis of some of the most awful divisiveness that the race of man has had in the last two to three centuries. And particularly, Shem, Ham, and Japheth have been thought to be the progenitors of the three major skin colors, races, whatever you want to call, and can you guess who blacks?

and Africans were said to be descended from. Who? And they called it what? The curse of Ham. And Presbyterians in the south of the United States at the time of the Civil War said what? And Lincoln basically said the same thing. He was a little bit different. What they said was that this race is under a curse. They're subhuman. They can never vote. They can never fully participate as citizens in this country. And so they need us to care for them benevolently because they're defective. As a race, they're defective. Now listen, all of you, this is America's heritage. This is what Lincoln thought when he came into the presidency.

It's the reason why the people that wanted to see slavery ended did what? What did they do? Yeah, they established Liberia. They were colonizers. And so they would buy slaves out of slavery and send them back where they came from. In the Middle Ages, crusades, when they were preached, often started by the people that... said they would take up the cross and go on crusade, going to the local Jewish community and burning it down and killing the people. And they believed that they were doing the work of God. And the reason they believed they were doing the work of God is that the Jews had killed their Lord. And it was revenge. And it was how you got into heaven. Okay? I mean, you read the history of the Crusades, it's pretty clear that there is a consistent...

parallel between the preaching of the Crusades, the taking up of the cross, and before they leave, trashing, killing, or expelling the Jews from their community. And so when you come to German higher criticism in Scripture, what you find is that there was an awful lot of talk about genes and genetics and inferiority and superiority of races. And from this text, this is ground zero. And so from this text, they say, yeah, they're descendants of Ham. Well, who else was descendants of Ham? The curse is not put on Ham, but his descendants through whom? Through his son, Canaan. What do you know about Canaan? Who are the descendants of Canaan? We know from scripture, who are they? Huh? Yeah, the Canaanites, you know, the Ammonites, the Edomites.

All those people that were in the promised land and that God said that they would be wiped out, those were the descendants of Ham. So we know that. Now the descendants of Shem were whom? So who came from Shem? Well, yeah, but first whom? First Abraham. So Abraham was a descendant of Shem. And from Abraham came, you keep saying the Jews, but would you fill it out a little bit? Yeah, Jacob and Esau. And so both the Jews and Esau, Ishmael. I mean, not, I'm sorry, Isaac and Ishmael. I'm sorry. And so both the Jews and the Arabs came from Shem. Through Canaan came the Canaanites, and then through Japheth. Now, we don't understand this one as much, but what is generally said is that the descendants of Japheth included, and scripture tells us, Gomer, Magog, but likely Greeks, Europeans, Turks, and Asians. All right? This separation, this distinction, made and recorded here by God flows out of the seed of Noah. Meaning we all have one father and thus are all brothers, both through Adam and through Noah. But when we talk about the unity of the races through Adam and through Noah, what we have to remember is that

Let me read to you from Deuteronomy chapter 10. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing and then the command, so show your love for the alien for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. Now listen, we must not be predictable as Christians. We must never reflect a particular political party. Political parties are always a function of trying to get different groups together around this or that or the other thing, but they never determine us with the commitments of a Christian.

And so if the things you say on socials, if the things you say to your friends are all predictable and safe according to your political persuasion, you're not a Christian. A Christian is never predictable. A Christian always has these weird things that are like all of a sudden out of nowhere. What? Where did that come from? Well, you know, we all are one. And so when the Bible repeatedly, the Old Testament says that we are to love the alien because God loves the alien, repeatedly says in the Old Testament that the Jews themselves were aliens in Egypt. At the end of Nehemiah, it says that...

The pagans were not allowed to worship in the temple and come into Jerusalem because why? Do you remember why it says? It says because when you were aliens wandering in the wilderness, they didn't let you eat. They didn't give you water. They would not allow you on their land. And so people are, I am absolutely in favor of having immigration laws. I know you're all relieved to hear this. And I'm absolutely in favor of them being enforced, okay? But can we please realize how many of our homes had Mexican sheetrockers put up the drywall? How much we love going to restaurants that have people without a green card working in them. How often we go to hotel rooms where the maids are Honduran women. We have to be Christians first.

We may not be predictable according to the MAGA commitments. It doesn't mean we look down our noses at MAGA. What we should do is pity them that they don't have a Christian vision of the races the way we do. All right? Now, let's go to the sins that are mentioned here. First, the sin of Noah. Verse 20, then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. A vineyard wasn't the only thing Noah planted, but it was one of his priorities. Noah intended to drink of the fruit of the vine, and in time his vineyard produced grapes. The grapes were picked and pressed.

The grape juice fermented and became wine, and Noah drank that wine, so much of it, in fact, that he became so drunk that he lay in his tent exposed, naked. There is no need to see anything more in this than nakedness. It's just that we don't have the horror at nakedness that they had then. What it says is that he was naked. We take nakedness lightly, but we're wrong in this. Noah was wasted, and he lay drunk and naked in his tent. Then came his son Ham. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, verse 22, and he told his two brothers outside. Ham entered the tent where Noah was drunk and naked. He saw his father's nakedness. He went out of the tent, and he told his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, Father is in there naked.

I was just in there and I saw him. It's probably about what he said. Now, what's wrong with this? Well, we know what was wrong with Noah's drunkenness, don't we? We know what that sin was. Noah had given in to his animal nature and instincts, and he became like a brute beast. Through his lust for wine and the loss of dignity and memory it brought him, He had degraded himself in a terribly shameful way, even to the point of exposing himself to his son. But what was wrong with Ham's actions and words? Why is his son Canaan cursed? Well, the sin of Ham is seen maybe not as easily in what he did and said as in what his brothers did after he told them the tale of his father's shame. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father.

told his two brothers outside, but Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backwards so that they did not see their father's nakedness. The father is sinned and shamefully so. The father has degraded himself in his drunken nakedness. He's brought himself to the level of a brute beast. It is terribly shameful, and yet he remains what? He remains the patriarch, the head of the household, the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Wine and drunkenness lead us to lose the dignity that separates man from beast. Drunkenness reduces us to such degradation that like Noah, we lie in our tent naked to anyone walking in on us. To such degradation that like Lot, you remember Lot?

We commit incest with our daughters, becoming animals in our inebriation. Scripture is true in its warnings to us. Proverbs 20, 21, wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise. Proverbs 23, 20 and 21, do not be with heavy drinkers of wine or with gluttons, eaters of meat, for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty and drowsiness will clothe one with rags. Proverbs 31, 4 to 7, it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to desire strong drink, for they will drink and forget. Now Mary Lee would probably like it if I didn't read the next verse. She was reading my sermon to me on the way up to remind me of what I was going to say. And when she got done the next verse, she looks at me and says, what's that about? Well, the next verse is give strong drink to him who is perishing.

And so the solution to what's done that's evil under the influence of drugs and of alcohol is not to say, well, no drugs or alcohol. The solution is for us to remember that there are times and things to forget. There is a time to forget. That time is when you're sick. when you're in pain, when you're dying, when your life is bitter. The problem with Noah was that Noah was the leader of the survivors of the human race at that time. And so Noah was not in a position to be drunk and lying in his tent naked. He had duties. He had obligations. And so it was wrong, and it's wrong for kings to do it. Why is it wrong for kings to do it? Well, if kings do it, they forget their responsibilities to be vindicators of the poor and the oppressed. They forget their duties. So the lover of wine is a man who degrades and torments himself, and it is always a tragedy to observe such a man. He thinks he hides his degradation from others, but he doesn't. He smells of alcohol in the middle of the day.

He smells of alcohol at church Sunday morning. Trust me, people aren't as stupid as you think they are. He fools himself thinking his secret is safe with his family. His very body odors give him away. And part of his degradation is that he himself doesn't know this. Now then, the drunken naked man's family, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Comparing the response of Ham, so the response of his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, we see Ham spreading his father's shame while his two brothers contain it. Okay? His two brothers hide it. They hide it from their own eyes, backing into the tent, averting their gaze. Then they cover their father's nakedness with a blanket. They also hide their father's nakedness by that from anyone else's eyes. And so Shem and Japheth were honorable sons, and Ham was a dishonorable son. Shem and Japheth respected their father's authority. Ham disrespected his father's authority.

Now, what are we to learn from this account of the righteousness of Shem and Japheth? First, to his sons, every father stands in the place of God, the Father Almighty. It is the one Father who dignified our father with fatherhood. And we owe to our father the respect and submission that God himself places on our father. Now listen to Calvin from his sermon on this text. He says, the main thing we have to gather from this passage is how despicable that crime is when children rise up against their fathers and dishonor them. Children are ingrates. Do you know what an ingrate is? An ingrate is somebody that can't say thank you. And he says, by definition, children are not grateful. They don't say thank you. All right, so say thank you. Okay.

He says, and because they're ingrates, they don't know the honor that God has done their fathers and mothers. And then they don't know how much they owe their parents because they were begotten by them. And they don't know that their mothers bore them, nourished them, sustained them. And they don't know the hardship and toil their fathers endure to keep them up. Oh my goodness, your zoo of men. Think of the work it takes to keep them up. Yeah, yeah. So in that respect, children are like animals. It's Calvin, not me. Children are like animals. Consequently, we must all the more remember that teaching. Even the Gentiles have said that piety...

is the virtue of reverence. And it's directed first to God and then to fathers. That's what Calvin says. Even the Gentiles say, you know, you owe respect and reverence to your father because you owe it to God. All right. He continues, yet scripture adds that God honors those whom he gives lineage to, which means children. Proverbs 17, six, grandchildren are the crown of old men and the glory of sons is their fathers. He communicates to them his majesty in part as if he were making them his lieutenants. The word father is sacred. In other words, a father is the lieutenant of the father from whom all fatherhood gets its name. All right. Therefore, those who rise up against fathers and mothers and mothers and dishonor them either in deed or in word show themselves to be contemptuous of God.

That is certain. And that injury is not directed only at the mortal creature, but God imputes it as done to his own person. God takes it personally. When you speak and act in a way that disrespects your father, God takes it personally. Okay? God takes it personally. We see the same thing in the law. God says, let him be cursed who disparages his father and mother. Let whoever rises up against father and mother be stoned. If the father and mother come before the judgment seat and they say, here is our child who is incorrigible, on their word alone, the child is to be stoned. And then a bunch of references where scripture commands us. Now, it would seem, says Calvin, it would seem on the surface that that would be excessive. But God takes vengeance on the scorning of his majesty.

When children rebel that way, it is a sign they know God no better than they know men. And they must necessarily be devil-possessed. When they reach that point, they deserve to be exterminated. Because the earth is infected with that kind of putrefaction. You know what putrefaction is? That's what Dan George spent his day working in. You know, he was working on a septic tank. That's putrefaction. It's not a nice word. That's what Calvin uses to describe children who are disrespectful to their mother and father. They deserve to be exterminated because the earth is infected with that kind of putrefaction. And that sort of thing heaps God's vengeance upon the entire people throughout the entire land. That, in short, is what we have to remember. So first, we are to give honor, respect, and obedience to our fathers as God's vice regent in our life and to our mothers. He stands in the place of and represents God to us. We're not to mock him. We are not to make fun of him.

We are not to despise him either publicly or in our hearts secretly. We are not to refer to him as my old man. We are not to roll our eyes at our sister or our mother when he speaks to us. We are to honor him when we live under his roof. And we are to honor him when he is old. Remember the one time Jesus addressed the issue of the fifth commandment about honoring our fathers and mothers was him saying, you guys, Your priests say to you that if you have designated your money, Corban, you know, for religion, that you're not allowed to help your parents with that money. And he says, thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your traditions. And so the one time Jesus talks about it, he talks about the duty we have to honor our elderly parents. All right, so this doesn't stop when you move out of home. You're not, what's the word, ex?

You know, when you stop. Emancipated, not X. Emancipated. You're not emancipated from the fifth commandment when you move out of your home. Scripture in the fifth commandment says, honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord, your God, gives you. We're to give honor, respect, and obedience to our fathers as God's vice regent in our life. He stands in the place and represents God to us. We're to cover his nakedness. We are to take care. as we do so, not to gaze on it ourselves. This does not mean we cover up our father's crimes. Violence and incest are crimes, and they are to be reported to the proper authorities. And this is not a violation of the fifth commandment, nor the example set for us by Shem and Japheth. You all know what I'm saying here. Your father is under the authority of your pastors and elders.

Do not allow him to destroy the lives of your siblings or somebody else. It is a crime. Do not allow it. You go to those who are in authority over your father. And in that connection, what you have to remember is that all authorities are fathers. And so if you go to the larger catechism on the fifth command, The Westminster Larger Catechism, question 144. Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment? And the answer is by father and mother in the fifth commandment are meant not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts, and especially such as by God's ordinance or over us in place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth. Family, church, commonwealth. Your boss, President Trump.

Okay? You can dislike them. You can criticize them. You must honor and respect and obey them. I mean, it's just, I feel like I'm, I just feel hopeless on this. The amount of rebellion in the conservative reform world today makes me disgusted. And so my best friends are promoting it. You have no right to use the Constitution as a weapon. to diss your civil authorities. You just don't. That's not what America is. America is not the land of the rebels and the home of the disrespectful, you know? And it's not necessary for our freedoms for us to think that we're superior to those who we're under their authority. And what you don't realize is if you've cultivated the ability of looking down on every single person that has civil authority, I guarantee you that you aren't teachable under my preaching right now. Because authority is a fabric. You look down on people that have political authority over you. God has put them there. They have God's authority, just like your dad does. And if you cultivate disrespect towards those authorities, oh my goodness, please don't come to me for counseling. You won't listen to anything I say. You just won't.

I mean, I'm old. I know. You know, some young men, oh, they just know everything. They know what's wrong with you. They know what's wrong with their wife and what's wrong with their father and what's wrong with the president and what's wrong with the FBI and, you know, what's wrong with pre-millennials. And it's just like, oh, my goodness. I just wish I lived long enough to see your children when they grow up. Because rebels give birth to rebels. And so listen, the Bible says that you owe respect and submission to all those God has put in authority over you. It's in Peter. It's in Romans. It could not be more clear. And yes, just like your father, there are times to go to other authorities. And there are times to vote against the president. Aren't you glad that we got rid of President Biden?

Aren't you glad we had the vote? You know, I've been dying and going to heaven since President Trump was inaugurated. But you know, way back when Obama was in the White House, I could not stand the man because he was for partial birth abortion when he was in the state legislature of Illinois years ago. I despised him. And so every time I wrote about him, I was so careful to force myself to write President Obama. And it just was like sandpaper on me, you know. President Obama, President Obama. Remember that Sarah called that scoundrel Abraham. Lord. I'll bet that cost her at times, don't you think? Not you, Vanessa, but the woman behind you. All right.

And when it comes to your pastors and elders, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this will be unprofitable for you. Now, one more thing before we're done. Verses 24, 25, and 26. I want you to notice that, third, those of us who are fathers are not to cower in fear over our sins. Note how Noah blessed and cursed his sons. And then verse 27. It's interesting that here Calvin goes on a long discussion of the authority of the preaching of a pastor. And what he does is he talks about how bad the consciences of every man are, including pastors, and how sinful pastors are. He's talking about himself. And he's talking about the fact that when you have sinned, say like Noah did by getting drunk and being naked, You don't want to tell anybody what to do, you know? Right? And so much of the absence of leadership in our homes is because of the bad consciences of our fathers. Do you understand this? And so I want to end by saying to you, as men and as mothers,

You do not have the right of abdicating the position that God has put you in. And so God spoke blessings and curses through Noah's mouth as soon as he had committed the sin that caused the sins of his sons or of his son. And so Calvin says again and again, God has chosen to put sinful men in the pulpit to preach to you. He said, in this sermons on this, he says, God does not send them angels. David is not an angel, and neither is Dan, and neither are any of the pastors or elders, and neither am I. Lower yourself to be fed by us.

We know it's an indignity to you. We would love to be able to keep our mouths shut. You say, liar, liar, pants on fire, noses as long as a telephone wire. No, trust me. You have no idea how often at the Lord's table, when we're administering the Lord's table, when we're in praying, when we're preaching, that our sins are washing over us. And we know that we're not worthy. of being your shepherds. And so you have to pray for us that God will give us faith, that he will use his word through Noah, because Noah spoke by the word of God the blessings and curses, okay? Let's pray.