WHEN A GOOD PERSON FALLS

Genesis 9:20-28

               

                There was once a faith healer on the platform at coliseum and he said, “I have
faith that 2 people will be healed…where are you?”

                 A man ran down the aisle named Harry. When he was asked what his ailment
was, he replied, “I can’t talk wite [right].”  He was instructed to go behind a curtain. 

                Another man name Frank hobbled down on crutches.  He said, “I haven’t walked
in 20 years without crutches.”  He was told to go behind the curtain with  Harry.

                Then the healer said, “Frank, you’ve been healed, slide those crutches out under
the  curtain one at a time.”

                They appeared, and the place came unglued.  The healer held up those crutches
and broke them over his knee, and everyone cheered! 

                Then he declared Harry to be healed and said,  “Harry, the next sentence you
speak will be the first you’ve ever said normally. Usher, take him a mic.  What would you
like to say, Harry?”

                Then everyone heard the words, “Fwank well down!”

                Have you ever fallen down spiritually while running the Christian life? Have you
ever been tripped up by the devil?

                Now, if  men were writing the Bible apart from the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
this text about Noah's drunkenness would not be included in the Scriptures. We humans
would like to see the story of Noah end in a grand and glorious way, but ending it on a
sour note is not our way of ending this story. However, the inclusion of this incident in
the story of Noah is a striking proof of the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. In the
Bible human nature is painted in true colors; the characters of its heroes are faithfully
depicted, the sins of its most prominent personages are frankly recorded. It is human to
err, but it is also human to conceal the blemishes of those we admire. Had the Bible been
a human production, had it been written by uninspired historians, the defects of its
leading characters would have been ignored....... the fact that it is recorded ....is evidence
that the characters of the Bible are painted in the colors of truth... that such characters
were not sketched by human pens, that Moses and the other historians must have
written by Divine inspiration.

                This passage is included as a warning to all of us that have  served the Lord, or
sought to, for a long time. We need to know that we are never beyond the possibility of
a  shameful fall into sin.
                The last chapter in Noah’s life is shared with us briefly. After his great act of faith
in building the ark and preaching to  a condemned generation for more than one
hundred years, he fell. After surviving the destructive flood that brought  judgment upon
the earth, he fell. After being made steward of the earth much like Adam in the
beginning, he fell.  After being the recipient of a special covenant from God, he fell.

                It catches you by surprise. You do not expect to find  this kind of incident in the
life of this good man.

                Surely he will come to the end of the journey of life with honor and be  a blessing
to his children and grandchildren to the end of life. Surely he will become the honored
patriarch of his  family, exercising a positive influence over their lives to the end. But, no,
he fell! He fell into shameful sin. He came to the end of life with a terrible cloud over his
life and his family.

                The record of his fall is given to us in brief and helpful language. It happened
while he was pursuing the normal activities of his life.

                After his salvation through the ark, he became a farmer. He began to the till the
earth and enjoy the produce of the  earth. As a part of his farming activity, he planted a
vineyard.

                In this vineyard, he planted some grapes, and from those grapes he made wine.

                He drank of the wine and became drunk, and in his stupor exposed his
nakedness in a shameful way much to the amusement of Ham.

                In defense of Noah it might be noted that he may not have realized the potency
of fermented grape juice, the new climactic conditions after the Flood possibly being
different from those that had prevailed before.

                Noah's experience with wine is the first mention of wine in the Bible. That the
first mention of wine should carry with it such a shocking tragedy is a warning to all
about the great peril of booze. This warning is almost universally ignored, however.

                While Noah was intoxicated on  the wine, he disrobed and fell asleep in his tent.
His son Ham happened upon his father in this drunken state,  evidently took a careful
look at his father’s condition, went out to tell his brothers about it. When his two
brothers  heard about their father’s condition, they did a very respectful thing. They took
a covering, backed into his tent so they would not look upon his nakedness, and covered
him with the covering until he sobered up.

                When Noah became aware of what he had done, and of the actions of Ham, he
had a strong reaction. He  pronounced a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham. He would be
the servant of the other descendents of Noah in the  years ahead. He also pronounced a
blessing on the other two sons for their respectful behavior.

                What can we learn  about the fall of a good man from the downfall of Noah?
 I.        THE FALL OF A GOOD PERSON GENERALLY COMES THROUGH THE UNEXPECTED.
UNEXPECTED

                This was true in the case of Noah. When you consider what this good man had
withstood, it is a total surprise  that he would fall in the way he fell. He had successfully
withstood the strong and gross temptation of the world that  God destroyed in the flood.
He had withstood the temptations when everyone was committing sin. He and his family 
were the only ones on the earth that had not sold out to a godless lifestyle.

                He had been faithful to the Lord for one hundred and twenty years while he was
working on the ark,  and the world  was heaping upon him its ridicule. Can you imagine
the mockery and scorn that Noah must have endured as he worked on the ark? Yet he
never compromised; he never budged, but rather stood firm in his devotion to the Lord.

                He did not defile himself with the sinful pleasures of the world.

                Yet as he gets down toward the sunset of life, as he is pursuing his life’s
vocation, he  becomes drunk,  and he shames himself before the Lord.

                The first time the use of alcohol as a beverage occurs in the Bible it leads to a
shameful situation in the life  of a good man.

                The Bible does consistently condemn drunkenness.  What was involved in the
nakedness of Noah is not clear, but at least we know  that it was inappropriate behavior
for a good man. Evidently the intoxication led to the breaking down of inhibitions,  which
led to the nakedness.

                Can you imagine it? What a corrupt world was never able to do, a bottle of wine
did.

                Usually  when a good man falls it is through some little thing, some unsuspected
compromise in life. This means that as men,  who have served the Lord for a long time,
there is no stage in life in which you can relax. The enemy will pursue you right up to your
deathbed.

                The experience of Noah is also a reminder to us that we carry the capacity to fall
around with us in life. Noah could  not blame his fall on anyone except himself. There was
no one else around to tempt him.

                One of the important lessons of warning in this incident of Noah is that this sin of
Noah's occurred in Noah's life not when he was young and inexperienced, but when he
was over six hundred years old and had demonstrated, before the flood, exceptional
faithfulness and godliness in a world gone crazy with sin. "It is not the young and untried
Noah who sins. It is the seasoned man of God, ripe in experience, who is here brought
low."

                Noah had faithfully been a great "preacher of righteousness" (II Peter 2:5) in a
world that despised such preaching. Then he had demonstrated tremendous faith in
building the ark and in boarding the ark. His burnt offerings after the coming of the ark
further demonstrated the man's great consecration to God. Yet, after all this, he fell into
great sin that left a scar on his life and reputation forever afterwards. All of this warns us
that no achievement in the past guarantees victory in the future. That as long as we are
on the earth we need to be on our guard against temptation. We need to remember that
"him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (I Corinthians 10:12).

                There are warning shipwrecks all around us of veteran preachers and veteran
saints who have fallen into great sin after they have for many years lived gallant lives for
Jesus Christ and have stood strong amidst great temptation and evil. Their fall warns us
that the battle is not over until we are home with the Lord, and we should never let
down our guard until we have reached the golden shores of eternity.

                How we need to be ever mindful that the best person in this church is capable of
a tragic, shameful fall at any point of the journey, including the last days of life.

I.        THE FALL OF A GOOD PERSON GENERALLY  COMES THROUGH THE UNEXPECTED.
UNEXPECTED

II. 
II.        THE FALL OF A GOOD PERSON ORDINARILY CARRIES ITS GREATEST IMPACT ON
THOSE HE OR SHE LOVES THE MOST.

                This was obviously true in the life of Noah. His three sons were much beloved to
this dear man. They had joined him  in his commitment to the God of creation, had been a
part of the construction of the ark with him, and had been  delivered by the Lord from
the destructive judgment of the flood. They had been there with him when he built an
altar  and offered the sacrifice in worship to the Lord after the flood. They too had been
witnesses as God put the first  rainbow in the cloud. But things would never be the same
for them after the fall of their father.

                Exactly what was involved in the action of Ham is not clear. What we know for
sure is that he went into the tent and found his father naked in a state of drunkenness.

                Noah's drinking led to Noah's disrobing. It was a sinful disrobing. The Hebrew
word used here for "nakedness" actually means 'shameful nakedness' and is often used
to describe immoral behavior.

                The Hebrew word here for "uncovered" clearly indicates a deliberate act and not
a mere unconscious effect of drunkenness. The sins of drunkenness  and impurity are
twin sisters.

                We cannot conceal our sin, and even if we do the sin in private it has a way of
becoming known in public.

                Noah nakedness was observed;  he  would not have been observed in his
nakedness if he had not been drinking. It was his drinking which ultimately caused the
observation. One does not sin alone. Noah's sin resulted in the sin of one of his sons.
Ham, one of the sons of Noah, saw the nakedness of Noah—a nakedness caused by
Noah's drunkenness.

                This observation  was an act  of disrespect toward his father.  Ham then went
and told his brother  about it. I think he was making  fun of  his father in his compromised
condition.

                Ham told his brothers with the intent of getting his brothers to look upon Noah,
too. This is typical of sin. If it sees a forbidden sight, it endeavors to get others to also
look upon the sight. Sinners encourage others to sin.

                The fall of the father opened the door for the fall of his son.

                Fortunately for Noah, Shem and Japheth were of a different character than Ham.
Instead of broadcasting Noah's failures and going to see Noah's shame, they took action
to correct the problem.

                Shem and Japheth, responded to the fall of their father in an appropriate
manner. Instead of  joining Ham in his disrespect, they took a covering, backed into his
tent, and carefully covered the nakedness of  their father.

                When Noah awoke he became aware that a great evil had been done to him,
great enough to inspire a great "curse" on the son of Ham, Canaan. Some speculate that
Canaan was involved in the sin with his father. The Jews have a tradition that this was so
—but Scripture does not affirm the fact.

                However, the curse was that Ham’s son Canaan would be the servant of the
descendants of Shem and Japheth. This is our first introduction to Canaan  whose
descendents would later be driven out of the land that bore his name by the descendents
of Shem.

                It all  started as a very small thing, but before it was finished generations had
been affected by the fall of Noah.

                What we are to  understand is that when a good man falls, he hurts some of
those that he loves most. Noah never imagined that a  little indulgence in wine could
have such a harmful impact on his family for the years to come. This reality  should
encourage all of us to watch our step spiritually to the end of the journey. Much is at
stake in our being  faithful to the end.

I.        THE FALL OF A GOOD PERSON GENERALLY COMES THROUGH THE UNEXPECTED.
UNEXPECTED

II. 
II.        THE FALL OF A GOOD PERSON ORDINARILY CARRIES ITS GREATEST IMPACT ON
THOSE HE OR SHE LOVES THE MOST.

III.
III.        THE FALL OF A GOOD PERSON SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARILY CATEGORIZED AS
FINAL.
FINAL.
                This is the last recorded deed in the life of this good man. This fall does not mean
necessarily that it ended the  usefulness of Noah before God. He evidently continued to
exercise some influence over his little family for the years  of life that remained.

                However, I base my final observation on something I find in the New Testament.
In the Hall of Fame for the faithful  found in  Hebrews 11, the name of Noah appears.
Interestingly no mention is made of this shameful  incident in his life. It is as though the
sovereign God that he served has forgiven and forgotten the wrong that he did. 

                God’s forgiveness did not cancel out the negative impact of his deed upon Ham
and his grandchildren, but it did  restore him to the fellowship of the Lord and to
usefulness in the service of the Lord. This is a good reflection of the  kind of God that we
serve. No failure has to be final.

                This stands in contrast to something going on in our society today. Pete Rose is a
name known to all baseball fans.  He played the game of baseball with intensity and
dedication that made him one of the super stars of his day. While  he lacked some of the
physical skills that others may enjoy, he made up for it in dedication and zeal.
Unfortunately, Pete ended his career under a cloud of shame. He was guilty of indulging
in gambling, and probably even  gambled  on the team he managed, the Cincinnati Reds.
The powers of baseball have been unforgiving. Even though lesser players have been
elected to the Hall of Fame for baseball, not Pete!

                God did not treat Noah like that! Even though he fell into disgrace and shame,
God forgave him and gave him a  place in his Hall of Fame for faith.

                If you have failed in the latter part of life, take courage. Your failure does not
have  to be final. Our God is a God of grace and forgiveness.

                           You’re not a failure because you fall, but you are if  you don’t get back up.

                If you get up just once more than you fall, then you’re a success!

Conclusions

                There are lessons for us to learn from the experience of Noah. Good men can
fall! Years of faithful service does not  give you immunity against a fall. You must be
careful---the fall will probably come through some unexpected thing.

                There is also the sobering possibility that you will hurt some people that you love
when you fall.

                But if you have  fallen, the fall does not have to be final. God can still forgive you
and restore you.