What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 38

"He That Hath Understanding, Let Him Calculate the Number of the Beast" (continued)

There are many spiritual lessons that we can learn from Noah's failure, but first of all we must say this, actual drunkenness is a sin before God, and "strong drink," drinking intoxicating beverages, has always been, and still is, the cause of much of the misery that is in the world. Therefore, Christians should abstain from even the appearance of this evil. Remember, if Noah had not drunk the wine to begin with, he would not have become "drunken".

So we have seen that when the battle was over, Noah began to let down his guard, he became unalert and unwatchful. And this is just the time that satan will make his next move, as he provides that which will strengthen the natural man in order to weaken the stand of the spiritual man. Consequently, we find Noah partaking of the works of his own hands, "And he drank the wine, and was drunken." In the Bible when the word "wine" is used in a bad sense, it is speaking figuratively of that which yields to the lust of the natural man, it is speaking of the loss of self-control, it is speaking of the natural man exhibiting the worst part of its character, it is speaking of the natural man being governed by evil. This is why the Lord gives us this command in Ephesians 5:18: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled {in} the Spirit".

Therefore, we find that the Word solemnly declares, "And Noah awoke from his wine," - yielding to the desires and lusts of the natural man, Noah had been put to sleep spiritually! One of the most important things we can learn from this is that we face one of the most dangerous times in our spiritual life right after we have stood our ground in a spiritual conflict against "spiritual wickedness." Even though the battle seems to have let up, we must devote ourselves to prayer, continually staying alert in it (Col. 4:2); we must stay alert "in the Spirit" for the next move of the enemy will most certainly be a move to satisfy and strengthen our natural man in some way, in order to put us asleep spiritually.

Beloved, Noah's failure cannot take away from the fact that Noah was God's man, and that God accomplished mighty things through Noah because, through faith, Noah wholly depended upon his Lord. And God's final verdict upon Noah is that Noah became an heir of Righteousness, which means Noah is joint-membered with those who are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. However, the Lord wants us to learn this from Noah's mistake. Noah did not remain alert after the battle, and the result was that Noah did not keep his natural man under subjection to God's Way; and God's Way is always the way of the Cross, the way of self-denial. Thus, for a time, Noah came under satan's rule, and satan had the ground he needed to bring forth a Nimrod.

"Now these are the  generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood" (Genesis 10:1)

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 39)