Noah's life exemplifies faith in God's divine warnings, even when those warnings are contrary to all human experience and logic. The sermon highlights that Noah's faith was not based on his own righteousness but on God's grace, leading him to obey God's command to build an ark, despite the immense time, ridicule, and lack of response from others. The core lesson is that true faith means believing God's Word as the ultimate basis for knowledge and action, regardless of external circumstances or popular opinion. Ultimately, Noah's faithfulness, even with only his family saved, serves as a model for trusting God's provision for salvation, which is found in Jesus Christ.
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Good evening, football fans. You know, it's absolutely delightful to see this room so full on this evening. There was a church I was in two weeks ago where a group of about fifteen left the eleven o'clock service just so they could see the Minnesota Vikings. And it didn't bother me at all. to see that forty-two or forty-one to forty-two to nothing slaughter of the Vikings when they chose. But to come together to open up the Word of God on this Sunday evening, it is an absolute delight to see each one here.
I would like you to turn in the book of Hebrews to Hebrews chapter eleven. Hebrews chapter eleven is the great chapter on heroes of faith from the Old Testament. What I would like to do in these evening meetings this week is look at some of the lessons of faith that we have exemplified for us in some of these Old Testament saints. Now, there are too many of them for us to look at all of them, so I'm just going to be selective. I'm going to pick a number of different individuals. But I do pray that God would teach each one of us something of what it means to live by faith, to walk by faith, to live the kind of life of faith that is pleasing to Him.
Now, the individual that I would like us to look at tonight is mentioned here in Hebrews chapter eleven. and verse seven. It is Noah. It says in Hebrews chapter eleven and verse seven, by faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. We have one verse here in the book of Hebrews.
It really reflects four chapters in the book of Genesis that had to do with Noah. Genesis chapter six to nine. But you'll notice the way the writer of Hebrews began. By faith, Noah being divinely warned. Noah being divinely warned. What was the basis for Noah's faith? It says here that Noah was warned by God. He was divinely warned. The basis of his faith was the message of God to him.
You will recall in Genesis chapter six, that it says that the wickedness of man had increased to the point where God said, I repent that I have made man. The intent of the thoughts of men's heart is only evil continually. And God determined that he was going to wipe out the human race. But it says in verse eight of Genesis six that one man, one man, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. There was one man who was spared. It says that, verse nine, that Noah was a righteous man.
He was blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. But I would suggest to you that Noah was not spared because of his righteousness. He was not spared because of his good works. Noah was, in one sense, a righteous man, but in another sense, the Bible says there is none righteous. No, not one. There was no one who was righteous in himself. In Genesis, chapter six, verse eight comes before nine. Verse nine, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Grace comes before obedience. Noah found grace. And because of that, he responded to God. His righteous life was the result of God's grace in his life. Salvation is always by grace and not by works. The Bible says we love him. Why? Because he first loved us. So God's grace warned Noah. of the judgment that was about to come upon the earth. There was going to be a flood, a great flood, that would destroy the human race.
Notice how it is described in Hebrews. It says, By faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen. That was the flood. It was something that was not yet seen. There are some things that are not seeable. Have any of you seen God? Have any of you seen His love? Have you seen His grace? Have you seen His omnipotence? You cannot see God. Now, we can see some of the things that are the effects of God's power and His love and His mercy, but we cannot see Him.
You cannot see the future. The things that are lying before us in the future, they are all, they are all unseen things. When they occur, then we can see them, but until they do occur, they are part of the unseen. And one of those unseen things was the flood in Noah's day. Before it occurred, it was a thing not yet seen. And so God... warned Noah of this unseen thing because it was future. Not only was it something that was unseen because it was future.
If you go back to Genesis, the flood was unseen because there never had been a flood like this before. There was no rain in that time. There had never been a flood on the earth. flood was contrary to Noah's whole experience. It was contrary to everyone's experience. It was even contrary to the natural climate on the earth at that time. But it says that by faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, mowed with godly fear, prepared an ark.
Noah believe God. Nobody else did, but Noah believed God. Why did he believe? Now look at it. There was no basis for Noah to believe this warning, except for one simple fact. God spoke. God is the one who warned him. God had revealed that there was going to be a flood. And Noah believed what God had said. This is the one major difference that makes a difference between a believer and an unbeliever. Believers believe God.
Unbelievers do not. How do you know that anything, anything, is real or true? Well, this is one of the questions that philosophers like to dabble with. How do you know anything is true. And when you look at human philosophy, philosophers have basically come up with three answers. There are some things that I know are true because I experience them with my senses. I have seen them. I have touched them. I have heard them.
I know that this is a book right here in front of me. Because I can see it and I can feel it. Sometimes philosophers will say we can know the things that we can experience by our senses. There's another way. A second way they have said that we can know things. We can know things, some things, by logic or reason. Two plus two is four. Not five, not three. It has to be four. and you can work on mathematical things with logic. Go back to your old geometry theorem and you can prove those things because of logic.
There are some things that we know because of logic. There's a third basis for knowing things. There are some things that we know by feeling or intuition. But those are basically the three categories that human philosophers have come up with as far as a basis for knowing something, either sense, what we have seen, heard, and things like that, what is logical, or knowing it by feeling or intuition. Now, if you look at all of these criteria, This warning of a flood was ridiculous.
Had anybody ever seen a flood? Noah, you have no basis for expecting a flood. Is there any logical reason to expect a flood? Logic says no. No one dreamed of a flood. Noah, there is no basis. for believing that there is going to be a flood that is going to destroy the whole human race and cover this earth. But there's one area. There is one thing that human philosophers have overlooked. There is one sure source of knowledge that they have not conceived of.
The fact is, if God speaks, If God reveals something as true, if He reveals something about Himself, if He reveals something about us, if He reveals something about the world we live in, is that not a sure and certain basis for believing it? There is a fourth basis for knowledge, and it is the basis of revelation. When God speaks, we can know that something is true. Believers accept God and His Word.
Unbelievers do not. There are some people today who scoff at the Bible. There are some people who mock it. But I would have to say that we are living in a different generation. We are living in a new era. And there is a new kind of thinking today. When you were young, there were many rationalists who rejected the Bible and who scoffed at it and who would attempt to disprove the Bible. That is not what the majority of unbelievers are doing today. Today... The greatest threat comes from those who simply ignore the revelation of God.
They are just unconcerned about it. They don't reject it. They don't despise it. They do not scorn your faith, but they just ignore what God has said. Very few people today will say that the Bible is false or the Bible is untrue. Most people today are willing to make faith an individualistic thing. You believe the Bible? You find that the Bible helps you? That's very nice. I'm glad that it works for you. I don't believe the Bible, they will say.
I don't find that it works for me. I don't find that it is anything that is meaningful. In other words, what has happened today is that everything has become relative. Truth has become relative. There is no such thing as absolute truth. If something is true for you, then that's fine. If something is true for me, that is also fine. But people are saying today is that there is no such thing as truth that is true for everybody. you cannot impose your beliefs on other people.
But you know here in Noah's day, God spoke. And when God speaks, what he says is true, whether anyone will accept it or not. God said judgment is coming. Did anyone believe him? Well, Noah did. But the great, great majority of people did not believe those words of warning. The flood was a reality. It was coming. God said it would come, and it did come, whether anybody believed him or not.
You know, there's great tragedy today that God still says that judgment is coming. There is still a judgment that is coming. This book of Hebrews says that it is appointed into men once to die, but after that, the judgment. The Apostle Paul said in Second Timothy chapter one, or Second Thessalonians chapter one, verses seven to nine, that at the end of this age, the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from His presence, away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. Do you believe that this is going to happen? If you are a Christian, you will say, you will probably say, yes, that is going to happen. Why do you say that that is going to happen? Because this is God's word. God has said it. God has spoken. This is God's revelation. The believer does not question it. He does not argue with it.
He does not pick and choose what he likes from Scripture. He accepts it and believes it because he believes God. There are many unbelievers who will reject this. It does not surprise me when an unbeliever rejects the Word of God. What does disturb me, and I've seen this much more in the last ten or fifteen or twenty years, is that there are many of those who are growing up in evangelical churches. There are many of those who say they believe the Bible, but they are much more prone to pick and choose those parts of the Bible that they want to believe, and they are much more prone to reject certain things from the Bible that they don't particularly like.
For instance, there are things that the Bible says about the about judgment just as God spoke to Noah. There are things that the Bible says about the judgment of the human race who do not accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. There are some who call themselves evangelicals that want to question that. They believe or they would like to believe in a kinder and gentler theology. They would like to have a more optimistic hope for those who do not receive Christ.
They would like to have more of a hope for those that are firm adherents of pagan religions in the world. And they would rather believe that there will be very few who will be lost. How do we decide an issue like that? Let's take a vote. Think about that. Supposing we were to take a vote tonight as to whether the world was flat or whether it was round. And let's suppose that this auditorium tonight happened to be flooded with those who were members of the Flat Earth Society so that we take a vote.
And that eighty-three percent believe that the world is flat, that the earth is flat and not round. You know what? Our vote makes no difference. It really doesn't matter whether we believe that the world is flat or whether the world is round. What really matters is whether the world is flat or whether the world is round. It's the reality that is important and our vote and our belief is not going to determine anything. It is up to us. to discover the truth and align ourselves with that rather than try to recreate something just because we want it to be that way.
There seem to be a number of people who would like to put the things of God up for a vote. God doesn't put anything up for a vote. The truth is not determined by a democratic vote. God warned Noah of judgment to come. How many believed his message? Noah did. Noah's family did. But that was it. The great majority rejected that. Noah was right.
Noah and his family, everyone else was wrong. You know the result? They were saved. Everyone else was lost. God warned Noah. He not only warned Noah, but he also instructed Noah as to the means of deliverance from this judgment that he warned him of. God told him to build an ark. Not only did he tell him to build an ark, he gave him directions for the building of the ark. He told him how, what kind of wood she used in the ark.
He told him how, big to make the ark. He gave them the measurements of the ark. He told him where to put the door of the ark. He told him what animals to take on the ark. He told him what provisions to take with him on the ark. Notice there weren't any precedents for Noah in following this. He didn't have any shipbuilders that he could consult. There weren't any structural engineers as to how he should go about doing this. All Noah had to go on, all he had to go on was one thing.
It was the Word of God. And Noah accepted it and responded. Notice what we read of here in Hebrews chapter eleven and verse seven. It says that Noah responded first with an attitude And then secondly, he responded with an action. It says that he was moved with godly fear and he prepared an art for the saving of his household. His attitude was that of godly fear. His attitude was that of reverence. There was a reverence, a humility, a sense of awe in the presence of God.
was ready to listen to God because he had that kind of attitude. And then he built an ark. What did Noah do? He simply did what God said. Why? Because he believed God. And isn't that what faith is? Faith is taking God at his word and believing what he has said. And Noah's faith resulted in action. He listened to the warning of God and he acted. He listened to the promise of God and he rested in it.
He listened to the direction of God and he did it. That is what faith is. Now, what is remarkable to me when you look at Noah and Noah's faith, when you look at the obstacles that he was facing, they were incredible. Most of us would have been deterred along the way. For instance, there was the length of time. It took a hundred and twenty years for Noah to build this ark. A hundred and twenty years. There was a hundred and twenty years of his preaching to his generation.
And for a hundred and twenty years, Nothing happens. There's going to be a great flood that comes across all of this world that's going to destroy the human race. And for a hundred and twenty years, Noah went outside and he looked up into the sky and all he saw was sunshine. A hundred and twenty years. In that time, Noah surely could have begun to doubt He surely could have begun to doubt himself, but he didn't doubt God, and he was not sidetracked.
For a hundred and twenty years there was another obstacle. There was the obstacle of the ridicule of his neighbors. Noah was like a man building a ship in the Sahara Desert, far away from the ocean. His neighbors must have taken Noah as some kind of a nut. But Noah believed God. And he would rather be called a fool than ignore God and be the real fool when the flood came. Noah believed God. And then not only was there the ridicule, not only was the hundred and twenty years and the ridicule during all of this time, but there was a great lack of response to his preaching.
Nobody accepted his message. Nobody accepted his preaching. He stood alone against the world. Have you ever gotten discouraged because you felt that you were standing alone? That you were seeking to serve the Lord and no one responded? Nobody listened to you? Everyone ignored you? Noah was still faithful to God and would rather be right standing with God rather than be wrong with the whole world standing with him.
Now let me say something about obstacles. Noah had a number of obstacles. And I think that the obstacles that each one of us face in our lives, the obstacles to our faith, each one of us is going to have different kinds of obstacles. The obstacles that you face are going to be different from the kind of obstacles that I face. There are some who have faced the obstacle to their face of losing a child or losing a husband or a wife. There are others who face a hostile employer or a hostile teacher.
I was talking to a girl at Emmaus this summer or this last week. She's interested in going with us and one of our Emmaus summer mission teams. This year we're hoping to take a group to China. We have a tremendous opportunity of getting into China and spending five weeks there teaching English and using that as an opportunity to get to know people. and share the gospel with them. And there's a girl who was interested in going into China with us. And I was talking to someone about her, and she says, you know, and they told me, you know, her parents, her family is utterly opposed to her being with a man.
They don't want to have anything to do with him. Well, her opposition, her stumbling block to her faith comes from her home. But there's one thing that is common for all of us, no matter what kind of obstacles and no matter what kind of deterrence we face, there's one thing that we all are going to have to face. We are going to have to decide whether we are going to believe God or not. Are we going to trust Him? Are we going to follow His word? Are we going to believe Him? That is what Noah did. And we see here also the results of his faith.
Now, Peter, in Second Peter chapter two and verse five, calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. All of the time he was building the ark. He was preaching God's message. He was warning men. And he was warning women of judgment to come. What did he accomplish through all of this preaching? You notice what it says here in Hebrews eleven? He prepared an ark. He prepared an ark for the saving of his household. For the saving of his household. A hundred and twenty years of preaching.
In the end, how many followed him? There were only seven. There were only seven. His wife, his three sons, and their wives. That was all. Noah didn't lead millions to the Lord. Didn't lead thousands to the Lord. Didn't even lead hundreds to the Lord. What kind of preacher was Noah? It certainly wasn't any Billy Graham. He didn't reach any one outside of his own family.
How many people have you led to Christ in your lifetime? And a lot of us think of ourselves as failures in this area if we have not led a large number. Was Noah a failure? I sure would like to have my name written in Hebrews chapter eleven, one of the heroes of faith. Noah was a man of faith who is a godly example to us in Scripture of a man of faith even though no one responded to his teaching except his own family.
The real question is not how many have trusted the Lord through our witness. The real question is whether we have been faithful in our witness. Noah was faithful. even though seven people were the only ones who listened to him in a hundred and twenty years. He had one convert every seventeen years of preaching. But that was not an insignificant achievement. In some ways, it is more difficult and more important to reach those in our own family than it is to reach outsiders. There are many Well-known preachers, well-known evangelists who have led thousands to Christ and have lost their own family.
There are many who have won the respect of the great Christian world as a whole, but have lost the respect of their own family. Family members are not impressed by superficialities. Family members are not impressed when we put on a show in front of other people. Family members don't care how eloquent you are and how brilliant you are and how many thousands of people you have spoken to and what kind of charisma you have. Family members, if you are inconsistent in your life, know it and you cannot hide it from them.
They see our weaknesses and they see our sins the way no others do. Noah won his family to the Lord. There are many evangelists who have led thousands to Christ and they regret the fact that they have not seen their own son or daughter trust the Lord. How did Noah get his family to follow him? Well, if you look at Genesis, He was a man who lived a godly life. He was Genesis six, nine, righteous and blameless, and he walked with God. And when he walked with God, he walked into that ark, and his family members followed him.
I think one of the saddest accounts in Scripture is the contrast that you have in Genesis between Noah and Lot. Lot, the Bible says, was a righteous man. He was a believer. But his whole life he tried to live as close to the world as he could. And when he was warned by God that the city of Sodom was going to be destroyed because of its wickedness, Lot came to his family, and he urged them to flee from the city with him. Lot had a wife.
He had sons, he had daughters, he had sons-in-law. But when he urged them to listen to the word of God, they all thought that he was joking. His sons did not follow him out of the city of Sodom. His sons-in-law did not follow him out of the city of Sodom. His wife and his daughters began to follow him, but his wife even looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.
There were only two daughters who followed him. Lot lost most of the members of his own family. One of the things that I have an opportunity to do in teaching at Emmaus is work with young people, those who are getting started in life, those who are about to be married, some of those who are young married. And I get an opportunity to talk to them about what their lives are going to be like, particularly in their relationship to their children. How are they going to reach them for Christ.
A couple of years ago I was in Victoria, British Columbia visiting the family of my son-in-law and we were at a Bible study and the question came at that night as to what are the greatest threats to our family today. It was interesting to hear some of the answers. Some of them were saying that it was the television or it was the corruption that comes in our government or in our society. They attack on family values. Others thought it was the educational system that we had, that we have. Somebody, one even said crime and violence in society or abortion and the erosion of morality.
Now, I think all of these are vitally important issues. But I think that... One of the great mistakes that we have made today is that there is a much greater threat to our Christian family. And we're often too blind to recognize it. The greatest threat to the children in the family is the family itself often today. It is fathers and mothers who do not love each other. It is fathers and mothers who are not walking with God and who are not walking in faith. I have seen parents who have been greatly concerned about their children.
It's incredible what parents will do for their children today. If you look at the homeschool movement, the effort that some parents make for their children, for their very education, is incredible, an investment in time and effort. There are parents who monitor the TV. They are careful about the friends of their children. They are active in community causes. They take their children to church in Sunday school. And those same parents wind up getting divorced. And then they wonder why their children are messed up.
You can't go through a divorce in the family without the children being affected. Every parent that I've ever talked to who is getting divorced somehow has blinders and thinks that they can do this without affecting the children. You cannot do that. Do you love your kids? I tell these young people, if you love them and want to see them come to the Lord, the most important thing for you to do as husband and wife is to love each other and to love the Lord. Do not expect things that are taught in Sunday school or taught in church or taught in young people to have much effect on children's lives when the parents are filled with tension in the home.
You notice that it says here that Noah condemned the world. How did he condemn the world? He condemned the world by his life. He condemned the world by his preaching. He was God's instrument to give them opportunity for repentance. God waited for their response. But in the end, there were only eight people who were saved. Noah condemned the world by his life and by his witness. Is the world condemned by your life and by mine?
One of the tragedies also today in the Christian church is that the world does not see really much different between us and unbelievers. We don't condemn anyone because we don't speak to anyone. He became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Scripture emphasizes that sinful man can only be accepted as righteous before God through faith. Our lives, our works are sinful. They condemn us. Noah was righteous because of the grace of God, not because of his works.
He responded to God in faith and he believed God. Do you believe the warnings of God today? The Bible says that there still is a warning of judgment for the world. Peter says in II Peter III that many will scoff, many will mock, many will say where is this judgment that has been promised for thousands of years now? The Bible says that the delay of judgment is not the denial of judgment. The delay of judgment is the grace of God giving men and women that little bit of extra time to repent and to respond to God.
Faith listens to the warning of God. Noah was a man of faith. He was a hero of faith because he listened to God. He believed God. He believed God's warning. He believed God's promise. God made a way of deliverance to Noah through the ark. There is an ark provided, an ark of salvation that is provided for men and women today by which we can escape that future judgment. And that ark is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the one who has borne the penalty for our sins. He is the one who is the one who is able to be the Savior of the world. My Savior and your Savior. He is the one that God calls us to put our faith and trust in. And if we trust Him to be the Savior from our sin, then God will save us. Now I know the great majority of you here tonight are here because you love God and you love His Word. Is there anyone here who has heard the gospel before, maybe heard it for years, but you have never really yourself believed God's Word and trusted in His Son?
Would you believe Him tonight? Would you trust Heed His warning. Would you trust His Son? Would you accept Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior? Would you be the ninth person that would go on that ark with Noah who believed God? Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for a man of faith like Noah. We pray that his life and his faith would be an example to each one of us, that we would believe you in all of the circumstances of our lives. We pray in Jesus' name.