If you're a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. This evening we're in verse 7. I'd also invite you, perhaps, if you'd like to, to open your Bible to Genesis 6. Maybe you put your finger there for this evening where once again in Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, learning about the Christian faith, saving faith from our forefathers in the faith, even the patriarchs before the Flood.
We've already considered Abel and Enoch tonight, Noah, two weeks ago or two times ago when I preached in verse 4, we saw that by faith, Abel worshiped. And we saw in verses 5 and 6, by faith Enoch walked with God. And this evening in verse 7, by faith, Noah witnessed fore God. He witnessed about salvation and about judgment, and he witnessed through his family and to the world.
And so we want to think about saving faith once again from God's holy and inspired word. Let me invite you to consider Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
This is God's word. Let's pray together. Father, help us to understand your dealings with Noah and your grace and mercy amidst judgment. And we pray that you would teach us your word.
We ask that you would grant us a like faith with Noah, a faith in you, and in your promises. And so we ask that you be honored through it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Well, you can be asleep at midnight and receive multiple automated computer generated warnings, right? Text messages, voicemail messages, email, sometimes all three at once of tornadoes seen or as yet unseen. And each morning makes your phone beep or cheap or well, disturb your sleep. You can see tornado warnings on TV.
You can watch your weather maps and see the rotation of the storms and the intersection of air masses and have it all explained to you by those in the know. Some of course heed the warnings and spend their night under the stairs or in a bathroom. Others calculate their odds, gauge their weiriness and wait in bed to see if things worse than others do nothing at all or sleep through it all. But it's all very visible that is you're getting these messages because of things that are seen and anticipated.
But God's warning to Noah concerned things not yet seen. His warning would have seemed, I think, incredible. Never know as day, some understand from the scripture that it probably had not yet ever rained. That is, we're told in Genesis earlier that a mist came up from the earth and watered the ground.
It's possible Noah had not actually seen rain, but in any case, he had certainly never seen a rain that would bring a flood that would kill all the life upon the earth. That was unprecedented and unseen. How did Noah respond? Noah believed the Lord about that which he did not yet see.
He trusted the Lord for salvation given in God's way and in doing so he witnessed about God to his family and to the world. So this is the same faith in its fruit that Christians are called to. Let me highlight four things for us this evening. By faith, first of all, Noah respected God's warning of impending judgment.
And by faith he built a shelter for he and his family. And by faith, thirdly, he condemned the world for its wickedness. And fourthly, by faith, he received the gift of God's righteousness. Now that's a mouthful.
Let's unpack that. The thing is by faith, Noah respected God's warning of impending judgment. Hebrews 11 verse 7, by faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear constructed in ark. God's word of warning concerning judgment to Noah.
We have to understand that judgment was deserved and good and delayed and absolutely certain. It was certainly deserved. And to make this point and to see this point so that we don't think as we ponder the Noah story that God did something wrong or that God was unjust in some way in what he did. Let me invite you to consider the text from Genesis chapter 6 for a moment.
In Genesis chapter 6, God goes out of his way to make it clear that his judgment was absolutely well deserved and he wasn't wrong in bringing it. Let me invite you to hear the words of Genesis 6 verses 5 to 22, a little bit at rank, but I want you to remember the story. Verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and he grieved him to his heart.
So the Lord said, I will blot out man who I have created from the face of the land. Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens where I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God and Noah had three sons, Chem, Pam and Jafon. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight. The earth was filled with violence.
God saw the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh. For the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold I will destroy them from the earth.
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you want to make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits.
It's breadth, 50 cubits and it's height, 30 cubits. Make a roof of the ark and finish it to a cubic above and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh and which is the breath of life under heaven.
Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you and you shall come into the ark. You, your sons, your wife and your sons wives with you and of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring to every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female of the birds according to their kinds and of the animals according to their kinds and every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind.
Two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them. Noah did this.
He did all that God commanded him. It was deserved. God's judgment is always good and right. Yeah, Packer says the truth is that part of God's moral perfection is his perfection and judgment.
What a God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong be a good and admirable being. Moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection. And not to judge the world would be to show moral indifference. The final proof that God is a perfect moral being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong is the fact that he has committed himself to judge the world.
God's judgment in the day of Noah was deserved and it was good but it was delayed. He was patient in Genesis 6, 3 just before the reading we read. God said, my spirit shall not contend with man forever for his flesh. His days shall be 120 years.
That likely means that there would be 120 years before the coming of the flood. There would be over an entire century for the continuation of mankind before the flood on account of God's patience with mankind. The earth was so wicked of course and without apology God could have judged it on the spot and instantly. But in his grace and in his patience he delayed judgment for over a century while Noah built the ark.
Why did Noah build? He believed the warning. He trembled at it. Says in reverent fear he knew that he and his children and his generation deserved it.
And so the delay of God's judgment is because of his great patience and grace. But don't mistake the delay of God's judgment even in our generation of the final judgment. Don't mistake that for uncertainty because there is a coming future judgment of all the world when God will judge the world in righteousness. As the Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 3, at the end of times, markers will say, where is the promise of his coming?
The coming of Jesus. For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were for the beginning of creation. But, as Peter said, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. But he is patient towards you.
Not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. So God's patience is a time of grace. God's patience is not a failure of his promises. So we should believe the warnings because the warning of judgment is certain.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 24 verse 37, and Jesus is the most loving person there has ever lived upon this earth. He said, for as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving and marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.
People know his day when on about the regular activities, the stuff that people engage in, ignoring the repeated warnings of judgment until it was too late. And although the Scripture did not record it, there could be no doubt when you think about Noah's position that he must have been a ridiculed man. That the world, as it was aware of the building project he had engaged in, must have thought he is bad, he is out of his mind, he is nuts. What does he think he's doing?
He probably thought he was crazy. Just as people probably think, some do. You're crazy for being a Christian, for believing in issues of life and death, salvation and judgment, heaven and hell. But saving faith believes God's warnings.
And that's the first thing I want you to see. In reverent fear, he believed. The second thing I want you to see is that by faith he built a shelter for his household. In reverent fear, Hebrews 11 verse 7 constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
Now there is a whole lot of obedience packed into that short phrase. He constructed an ark. I have a friend named Cory who built a canoe in his garage. Noah built an ocean liner in his backyard.
You hear about qubits in the Bible and it translates to feet, roughly 450 feet long. 75 feet wide, 45 feet high. Think of the excuses that Noah, not to mention Mrs. Noah, might have given in argument with God.
It's going to cost too much to do, right? It's not feasible. It's going to take too long. How will I support my family while I build this thing?
Both this size will never float. It will sink to the bottom. All kinds of things might have been said, but Noah set aside all excuses and persevered in obedience until it was done. Twice we learned in Genesis chapter 6.
We read it in verse 22 in Genesis 7 verse 5 that Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. He built an ark for the saving of his household. Calvin says obedience flowed from faith like water from a fountain. And so he built it.
He didn't do his own thing. He trusted in God's way. And then as Noah entered by faith into the ark, as the means by which to be spared the judgment of the flood, we can say this. So you and I are called to enter into by faith Jesus, as the means by which we are spared the judgment of hell.
As Noah entered the ark, we who trust in Jesus enter into Jesus, we believe into Jesus and our shelter in Jesus, like Noah was sheltered in the ark. We shelter for safety in the Lord Jesus. This is also in the scripture that he built the ark not only for his own salvation, but also for that of his household. God told him this is not just for you, but this is for your wife.
This is also for your sons. And this is also for your sons wives. You are all covenantally related and you are invited to enjoy the benefit of the ark that Noah is building. And what's introduced here of course is the household principle at work in God's covenant promises.
These household principles are carried through throughout God's covenant promises. As God reiterates it with regard to the covenant of grace, the promises for you and for your offspring after you. And so believing parents here should be reminded that God is interested in your children. Frankly, a believing person here should be reminded that is interested in your spouse.
Mrs. Noah was invited under the ark. The sons were invited and the sons wives who were covenantally bound. They were all invited to do what?
Well, God wanted the promises of his grace to be offered to them all. He wanted them included in the community that was going to enjoy the benefits of his promise. He wanted them to hear the truth that all have sinned and the glory of God that are justified freely as a gift of his grace. He wanted them to hear that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
And so likewise with our families, our aim is parents with our children not to be to stack them full of truth like putting paper and kindling wood and logs in a fireplace so that when the fire is lit, there's plenty of fuel for the flames to work with so that the Spirit of God who alone can create life in them will have plenty of seed, plenty of fuel to bring them to maturity in Christ. One of our elders mentioned that a good testimony for a child in the churches, not that they grew up rebelled and then had a crisis conversion, but a good testimony in the churches that they grew up and never knew a day when they weren't convinced that the Lord Jesus loves them and gave himself for them. It's normal for children to walk and to learn to walk that is and then grow up not remembering when they learned just that they do it. And there's actually been some kind of significant disability or injury if a person doesn't learn to walk until they are an adult and then they remember the whole process that is involved.
Now to be sure, either way when a person learns to walk, that is when a person has spiritual legs to walk with God with, that is a glorious thing and it's all a gift of his grace and God in his own timing works differently in different people. The ordinary way is for one generation to tell the next generation the praise worthy deeds of the Lord so that they learn to walk in truth and they learn slowly and they fall down many times but they do. The point of all this is to remember that the ark was not only for Noah, the believer, but those who were covetly bound with him were to enjoy the blessing of the ark and what he had preached, what he had said, what he had promised. That's not the same course that there will be no esos or Judas's among the people of God even raised in Christian families.
We know that among the three boys of Noah one did a terrible thing but also let's not despair of our wayward children, at least pray for them, but if you remember God redeemed a self-righteous Jew named Saul who as an adult man who had been raised in the church of his day instructed in the scriptures but ignorant about the heart of the truth and grace even going so far as to persecute the church, Jesus stopped him in his tracks, showed him himself and transformed him into the apostle Paul. God can rescue the chief of sinners in any age and so be encouraged, parrots. Don't give up praying if you have children who have not yet entered the ark of salvation who is Jesus himself. By faith Noah built an ark for the saving of his household, that's the second thing.
Thirdly, by faith he condemned the world for its wickedness. Hebrews 11, 7, again, by this he condemned the world. That is he witnessed to the world. Don't misunderstand the language of condemning.
It doesn't mean he was mean, doesn't mean he was a sour puss or that he was himself personally a judgmental or a critical or a hyper critical or a holier than thou kind of person or that he stood on the street corner like some of those so called preachers do in places like Fayetteville and college campuses, maybe you've encountered these folks who scream insults at people they don't even know telling everyone they see that they're going to hell indiscriminately condemning everybody whether they wear shorts or flip flops or jeans or skirts or have a beard or a clean shaven or whatever, right, these folks who, well, they never have any real good news for sinners at all. They don't weep, apparently, for people who are lost like sheep without a shepherd. Their only word is condemnation and judgment. Don't think of Noah like that.
Undoubtedly Noah was a joyous, grateful, thankful, peaceable man. Why? Because he knew that he deserved hell, but God promised him heaven, God promised himself ation. And so he was happy in Jesus, so to speak.
And undoubtedly, he also began to grieve like God over the violence of the people that deserved judgment. But his obedience, as another put it, his life of obedient faith was like a bright light taken into a dark cave. It exposed all the bats hanging in there. If it hadn't been for Noah, perhaps someone from that godless generation could have argued, but I never heard about God's impending judgment.
But Noah in building the ark robbed of all their excuses. So as Christians we should remember, God did not send his son, the Lord Jesus, into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world might be saved through him. Our message is positive.
It's fundamentally positive. Now of course for the good news to be good, you need to embrace the bad news that you need to be rescued. But our message is fundamentally positive and Christians should be joyful and grateful and thankful and peaceable. Even as our witness is a witness to the truth about God who has said he will judge the world.
But Dr. Grievous, of course, but it also brought a delight us that we get to be ambassadors of good news. Sometimes our efforts are well received, sometimes our efforts are met with rebuff. Sometimes they're well received.
I know a man who invited his neighbor over for dinner. His neighbor was not a Christian, but he was a Christian. And at the start of the meal, the man poured wine for them and offered a toast to the creator of the fruit of the vine, giving thanks to him. It seemed a small thing following Paul's instructions in 1st Corinthians.
So whatever you do, whether you eat or you drink or you do it all to the glory of God. Well, afterwards, the neighbor said that until then he had never heard a Christian speak well of wine. And it softened his heart. It opened him up.
And he inquired some more about Christianity. And eventually he came to faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Because somebody spoke positively about God and his good gifts. And sometimes when we witness to the world in very simple ways, God uses that.
Of course, sometimes our efforts are met at least as far as we can tell with rebuff. A pastor friend of mine named Michael tells his story. I think he says it was during the summer of my freshman year of knowledge that I sat in the living room of my parents' house and a discussion about Christianity with my dad. I didn't grow up in a particularly religious, let alone Christian home.
We went to a church a bit when I was young, but that got less and less frequent. The older the kids got. And when my brother and I figured out how to flip the circuit breaker to keep my parents alarmed from going off while that was about it. But I had become a Christian four years before the conversion of my dad.
And during the summer of my sophomore year of high school, and though I was going to church regularly, I didn't talk a whole lot, he says, with my family about being a Christian. We didn't really know how to talk about these things. But I was trying to start talking about them more. I wanted my parents to believe.
And so he says that summer night I sat down in the living room with my dad and I tried to explain to him the gospel. How God made us for a relationship with himself. But we have all rebelled. How our rebellion deserves to be punished.
But God has come to our rescue in his son. How Jesus on the cross took the place of his people. How he was punished for their sins. And they were given credit for his record of perfect obedience.
How believing in Jesus as your substitute changes everything. And throughout the conversation he says, my dad listened and voiced his objections. And after a while, then my dad got quiet. He asked me a question in my goal.
Are you telling me that if I don't believe what the Bible says about Jesus? I'm going to hell. Well, maybe the hardest question I've ever had to answer. Because no matter how I tried to explain hell as the just consequence of our rebellion against God, my dad just grew angry.
He actually left the room and he came back about a half hour later and he told me I forbid you ever talking with me about Christianity again. Sometimes it goes like that. Not according to your plan and your rebuffed. But I don't know.
Did you catch it in there? He says I had become a Christian four years before the conversion of my dad. And I had been very strongly rebuffed. But eventually they had joined together in the worship of Jesus.
He, Michael, it's not to present the good news. That was his heart. And part of that good news is we deserve hell and that's what we can be saved from. And by building an arch of salvation, Noah was necessarily passing on the bad news.
But for 120 years, people had time to repent, time to believe, time to hear Noah speak of the grace of God, time for them to look to God for salvation. Well, that brings us to the fourth thing. By faith we learn that Noah received the gift of righteousness. That is, the writer says, by this in building the arch he condemned the world and he became the heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
This is righteousness by faith it says. Not righteousness by works. It's not speaking of his work of obedience being the reason he's righteous. Now it's speaking of an imputed righteousness, a gift of righteousness, an alien righteousness that was credited to him, the righteousness of another accounted to him and received through faith.
When we trust in Christ, God not only declares us not guilty, but he declares us positively righteous. Jesus, of course, is the ground of that. He's the reason for that because he was accounted guilty in our place and because he perfectly obeyed as a human ought and in our place that we might be righteous in him. We saw this when we looked at Abel.
That's how the word here is used of Noah in our text. In Genesis 6, perhaps you remember reading it in verse 8, it says, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. That's the common word for grace. That is, he found undeserved favor in the face of his own personal demerits.
He was, after all, a child of his generation and like the rest, a guilty sinner. But God was gracious to him. And so because he found grace in the eyes of God, that grace worked in him and he trusted in God. And so he received the gift of righteousness through faith.
It was not his righteousness or his lifestyle or his obedience that produced God's grace, but God's grace declared him righteous and God's grace produced a change in his lifestyle. That's why in our text in Genesis, we read in Genesis 6 verse 8, after the destruction of the world of wickedness where every thought of the heart is only evil all the time. It says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And then there's a new chapter heading in Genesis.
These are the generations of Noah. And then it says, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Understand the order of events there.
It's not Noah was a righteous man. Noah was blameless. And so God favored him. But no, God graciously favored him.
And that produced in him a man who was righteous in the eyes of God, blameless and walked with God and then worked out his obedience. And a gift of that kind of righteousness, it will shape your witness. I like a story Scott Rolley tells. He met with a guy who said, he didn't really like the idea that he had to share his faith.
Rolley said, you don't have to share your faith for God to love you for the guy left. And a few weeks later, Rolley heard several people say about this God, hey, we'll get into him. He's really sharing the gospel with everybody. So Rolley caught up with the guy and asked him what was up.
And the guy said, well, when I heard that God loves me even when I don't share my faith, I just had to tell people about it. When you know deep in your heart that Jesus loved you and gave himself for you, that it is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus and Jesus has become for you wisdom from God and righteousness from God and holiness and redemption, then you can be one like one poor beggar telling another poor beggar where you found bread. Just as the ark as we conclude was the only means of salvation from God's judgment for Noah and his family in his day. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way that God has provided for salvation from his coming judgment on the whole world.
And everyone on the ark was saved from the flood. Everyone not on the ark was lost in that flood. And so it is that everyone who trusts in Christ's shed blood will be saved, but everyone who trusts in anything else will be lost. Believe in him, dear friends, trusted him and you will be saved.
Let's pray. Father, thank you that you gave your son and spared him not that in him we might be spared. We bless you and we thank you, grant saving faith for each of us. And for our spouses and for our children and our grandchildren and their spouses, for ten generations and beyond in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Let's stand together and sing.