Good morning and welcome in. Today we’re going to take a look at a passage of scripture but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story.
In the summertime when the temperature starts to warm up our family likes to do a lot of four wheeling. There are numerous trails close to our home that we can access. We pack up all the children along with snacks and drinks and off into the woods we go. We make sure to bring some large cups in order to pick some berries on the way. We may even come across some tasty wild mushrooms.
There was one time that we decided to take a break and have a picnic. We came across a nice rolling area of green grass that was as large as a couple of football fields. We parked the four-wheelers and grabbed the coolers and snacked on our lunch as we watched some of the children play with a frisbee that they had brought on the trip.
As the children were running around they came up to me and asked me a question. What are these white things sticking out of the ground? They were referring to a few PVC pipes that came up out of the ground approximately 3 ft high. I explained to them that they were vents. For what they asked? The children didn’t realize that as we sat on that grassy mound, not too far underneath our feet was the old city dump that had been completely buried and completely hidden from view.
When we hide something it means that we put it or keep it out of sight and conceal it from the notice of others. In our Christian faith, this is what God does for us through his grace and forgiveness. Instead of exposing the garbage dump of our sins to others, he simply covers them all up, and hides His face completely from them.
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Psalm 51:9
To hide means to put or keep out of sight and conceal from the view or notice of others.
Each of us in this world, whether we want to admit it or not, have all sinned in the eyes of God. Everybody has since the beginning of time. All of us have come short of the glory of God at one time or another because the Bible concludes that there are none righteous, no not one. But just like each member of the community brings a bag of trash to the dump, to eventually be covered up and buried, all of us need to bring the bag of sins inside of our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ: to be forgiven, forgotten, and buried forever.
How many times when you were a child can you remember having a completely filthy room. You knew it was a mess but when your mother wanted to access it in order to put your clean clothes away, you stood by your door and asked her not to look inside. Maybe she was sweet enough to put a blindfold over her eyes as she put your clothes away.
God hides his eyes from the mess of our iniquities when we confess them to him from our hearts.
Noah was a man who found grace in the sight of God. Because of his great faith in God he built a giant ark to save his family and the animals from the great flood. The grace that was extended to Noah from God, his children were all partakers of. If it wasn’t for Noahs favor in God’s sight, his own family would have been lost in the flood. We learn from the flood that Noah understood how forgiving and merciful our God is. But this is a lesson that one of his sons hadn’t learned yet.
Genesis 9:18-27
And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
The scriptures teach us that Noah was one of the most faithful men in the scriptures. He was completely blessed by God but had too much to drink one day. He overdid it and went to bed completely uncovered.
Here’s a man that God chose to save all the animals off of the planet and to deliver his family from the great deluge. Instead of having respect for that and understanding his own faults, the son chose to expose it to his family rather than cover it all up. He became a faultfinder of the man God had placed as an authority in His life.
How would you feel if you made a mistake and someone decided to go out and tell everybody else about it? I bet you would be just as upset as Noah was. Not only would you be committing the sin of being a busy body but you would be involved with gossip as well weather it’s true or not.
Instead of taking a good look at their own sins, people want to take a look and expose the sins of others. I think it makes them feel better than others as they become puffed up with the pride of self righteousness. Even the Lord Jesus taught that people needed to pull the plank out of their own eye before attempting to pull the mote out of their brothers eye. In the parable of the proud Pharisee, he could only see the faults of his neighbor rather than taking a look inside the coldness of his own sinful heart.
God wants to conceal our sins and completely blot them out.
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; Colossians 2:14
If Noahs son had truly believed in the forgiveness and mercy of God, he would have realized that the only reason why he was saved from the flood was because of God’s grace. God covered up his sin for Noah’s sake which is the same thing he should have done for his own dad. That show loves. God wants to conceal our sins and completely blot them out.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD. Psalm 25:7
Are you speaking evil about others or are you following the way of Christ and covering up the sins of another because the truth is, real charity covers a multitude of sin.
Herein lies the meaning of mercy.
Let’s think about those things for today and Lord willing I’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. till then, bye-bye everybody.❤️
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Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 