Well, today we return to Hebrews chapter 11 as we continue our exposition through this great epistle written originally to Hebrew Christians who were struggling with persecution and how valuable it was for them to cling to the tenets of the New Covenant when their forefathers had had a relationship with the God of Israel. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob through the terms of the Old Covenant, and it was their embrace of Christ in the New Covenant that was causing them such persecution from their Jewish brothers and sisters in their community.
And so this writer writes to them, probably to a community of Christian Jews in the city of Rome, though we do not know that for certain, but he writes to them to persuade them, yea, to warn them that they cannot leave Christ and be saved. Before Christ came, the terms of the Old Covenant were all that was given and what God had given must be embraced, and that is the way to be reconciled to God, to believe what He has revealed and to live in the light of what God has given. But now God has given more. Christ has come. The New Covenant has come. There is a new and living way, a fuller expansion of what God has done in salvation. And even though it is true that the Old Testament saints were saved by the work of Christ on the cross, saved by that work even before Christ had come, nevertheless, now that He has come, one cannot turn from Christ to something that came before Christ, rejecting Christ in the process, and so this book of Hebrews is written to bring these people along and to confirm them strongly in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus faith becomes an important word, doesn't it? And now we come to this chapter that's entirely given to the concept of faith. If faith is the important ingredient in our relationship with God, then we need to know what it is, how it operates, what it looks like, what it produces, and chapter 11 does that for us. It describes true biblical faith, defines true biblical faith, and then more than anything illustrates true biblical faith in the lives of many people, starting with the Old Testament people of God that were so dear to these Hebrew Christians, but showing them that whatever God has revealed in any generation, in every generation, whatever God has revealed must be believed and it must be obeyed. And so we return to Hebrews chapter 11, the great hall of faith.
I've used that term before, but I haven't really explained it. Some people call chapter 11 a record of the heroes of faith, and that's certainly a good label. Some of the people, however, have called Hebrews 11 the hall of faith, and I think what is meant by that, at least what comes to my mind, is to picture ourselves in a great room, perhaps in a museum or in a mansion, a castle or something, and here is this hall that is dedicated to the portraits of many, many, many people. Of course, in most cases, it would be ancestors of the people who own the mansion or some other political figures, but in this case, these are the portraits of men and women who have exemplified God-honoring faith, and so we go around from portrait to portrait to portrait and consider what each one is telling us, and when we get to the end, we have a much better understanding of faith, without which it is impossible to please God. Now, so far we have covered two of the portraits in this hall of faith, two that are before the flood, namely Abel, who by faith offered an acceptable sacrifice to God, which greatly angered his brother Cain, who killed his brother out of jealousy and anger, condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. We're going to briefly scan the Bible to get a full picture of Noah, beginning with the history of Noah in Genesis chapter 5 and following, and I already read chapter 6 to you, but the account of Noah begins in chapter 5, the last four verses of chapter 5, and do you remember, we looked at chapter 5 earlier, and that is the genealogy from Adam to Noah. It encompasses Abel, it doesn't mention him because he's died, it encompasses Adam's and Eve's next son beyond Cain and Abel, which is Seth, and traces a line of descent from Adam all the way to Noah, Noah being the 10th generation from Adam.
Along the way there are some notable names, and one of course is Enoch that we looked at, and he is found here in the hall of faith. But Noah shows up in that genealogy in the last four verses of chapter 5, and there we learn some important things about him. We learn that he was the 10th from Adam, as I mentioned. We learn that his father was Lamech, and his grandfather was Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived. Now I haven't done a lot of work in this chapter to work out all of the dates and the relationships, but some have concluded that Methuselah died in the year that the flood came. He had a long life, and that's certainly possible, and of course that tells us therefore that Noah not only knew his father, but he knew his grandfather, in fact he knew his grandfather for about 600 years.
It's just hard for us to get our minds around the time frames of these people in this era, this antediluvian era, because even though there were only 10 generations, the length of their lives and the working out of the numbers that are found there would lead us to believe that this period was probably at least 2,000 years long. And so Noah comes up at the end of this genealogy, and here we learn of his parentage, and we also learn that he fathered three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who will also be mentioned in the account to follow. But the main chapters of Noah's life are chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9, four chapters in the book of Genesis.
He certainly is one of the primary figures in the history that is found in the book of Genesis. And three of those chapters are devoted to the subject of the flood in one way or another. They took place during a little more than 120 years out of Noah's 950 year life that he lived. And if we broke these chapters down, it would look something like this. Chapter 6, warning of judgment, chapter 7, arrival of judgment, chapter 8, removal of judgment, and chapter 9, aftermath of judgment.
Now can I just take a minute to try to skip through, skip quickly through and lightly through these chapters, but I do think it's very difficult for us to get an understanding of Noah's great faith until we understand what was going on in his life as recorded here in the book of Genesis. In chapter 6, we have first of all a description of the human condition in those days, and it's not good, it's bad. The human race has descended into the greatest degradation and sinfulness that could be imagined. So much so that God said, I repent that I have made man, it's time to wipe man off the face of the earth. It's hard to believe that such degradation could come so quickly, but then we remember it came even more quickly than that. The very first generation, the first son of Adam was a murderer.
How quickly human sinfulness takes one down a destructive path. And here all of society had gone down a path of great degradation and destruction, but in the midst of this we find this wonderful statement that Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. And then it goes on to tell us that Noah was a righteous man. It tells us that Noah walked with God, that's what was said of Enoch.
Enoch walked with God, a special designation for those who live close to God. And Noah also walked with God, and Noah was a righteous man in his generation, meaning of course relative to the sinfulness of most of the people around him, because in his inner man Noah was a sinner like all of us. Noah was not righteous through works. Noah was righteous by faith in the imputed righteousness of God through the promised Messiah that would come, namely Jesus Christ. And so he was made righteous the same way you and I are righteous, but he was a recipient of God's grace. He evidenced that in his life of faith and in his life of obedience, his life of righteousness.
He was exemplary at a time when the whole world around him was the most wicked that could possibly be imagined. Noah was godly. And God therefore told Noah what was coming, the judgment of the flood, and instructed Noah to build an ark, a boat, in order to preserve him and his family, Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives, eight of them altogether, and a sufficient representation of the land animals to preserve them so that they could multiply and replenish the earth again after the flood was over. Now from all we know, up until this time, it had never even rained on the earth. Earlier in Genesis we're told that there was no rain, that the earth was watered by a mist that rose up. There are a number of things about the antediluvian world that we do not fully understand. It's changed so much, it's not like that anymore. The flood changed more things than we can realize. If you want a real good understanding of the changes, the force of the flood, the changes that took place because of the flood, get ahold of that classic book by Henry Morris entitled The Genesis Flood and read it. How many of you have read it? Let me see your hands.
Wow, it should be a whole lot more. That book was written many years ago, I suppose 50, 60, 70 years ago. Henry Morris is now with the Lord, maybe 80 years ago. He was a scientist. He was an expert in geology and in the effects of water upon the earth and a firm believer in the Bible.
And he gives such wonderful information about the flood and what its effects upon the earth were that it convinced me, if I had had any doubts before about the truthfulness and veracity of the Bible in regard to the Genesis flood, they were certainly answered by the reading of that book many years ago. I don't even think I still have a copy. I remember loaning it to someone. I think I know who, but I won't mention who.
Nobody that's here. And I don't think I got it back, but I really need to acquire another copy. It's the kind of book you want to be able to give to people and hope that they will read it and benefit from it. But at any rate, God commanded Noah to build a gigantic ocean-going vessel on land. From what we can tell, he wasn't even close to the ocean because of a flood that was coming when no rain had ever fallen on the earth, apparently. And Noah did it.
That's what's so amazing. Noah, this is Noah's faith. Noah believed God, and Noah did what God said, and Noah constructed the ark. Now this ark, it's given, the measurements are given to us in cubits in the Bible, and a cubit is generally considered to be 18 inches. And so if you take those cubits and translate them into feet, you will find that this ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. As tall as a four-story building. That's a big boat. And it had three decks.
Each of the decks would have had a ceiling height of 15 feet. And there were compartments on all of these decks, places to store food, places for different animals of various sizes to be kept. And this was all designed by God. The instructions were given to Noah by God. We only have just a glimpse of the instructions that God gave. But we get some idea of how detailed instructions can be when we realize the instructions that God gave to Moses for the construction of the tabernacle and all of the furnishings. And God gave exact details in all of that. And clearly he did the same thing for the ark. And Noah got to work because he believed that a flood was coming, as God had said. Noah didn't procrastinate. I've thought about that. If Noah said, well, it's a ways off.
I don't have to do this right away. And was ended up not finished at the end of 120 years. What would have happened then?
I really can't speculate. But you understand Noah believed God. Noah obeyed God.
Noah got right to work on the task that God told him to do. How he did this, I do not know. I'm assuming his three sons worked with him in the construction of the ark. He had them at the age 500, now roughly around 500.
And now he's 600 years old, so his sons are well-grown men. Did he hire additional help? Where did he get all this lumber?
Was it available? Could you buy this lumber in that day? Or did he have to go into the forest and cut down trees and make the lumber to make the ark? I mean, when you start thinking about what it took to construct this ark, number one, it's not surprising that it took 120 years. But number two, it's most surprising that Noah didn't just fade away at the immensity of the task and saying this is too big, too enormous, too much, nobody can do this. But he said, if God said it, I believe it.
If God said I can do it, I can do it. And he went to work and for 120 years he constructed this ocean-going vessel miles from the ocean on dry land in anticipation of the rains that would come and flood the earth when probably he nor anyone that he lived around had ever seen rain fall before. Noah did exactly as he was commanded. That's chapter 6, warning of judgment to come.
Chapter 7 describes the arrival of this judgment. After 120 years, the ark was completed and God said now get inside because it's going to rain. And Noah and his family and the animals that he prepared for got inside the flood and the Bible tells us God shut the door and I think they were there just a few days, maybe seven, when the rains began to fall and to fall and to fall and to fall. Now every Sunday school child probably knows that it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.
This story is one that we love to tell to our children and that our children love to hear. It's right alongside David and Goliath and what's one of the other famous stories that Sunday school children love to hear. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and so forth and Noah and this amazing account of Noah and the flood. And so it began to rain and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights but it was not just the rain. The Bible tells us that the fountains of the deep were broken up. Evidently there were great reservoirs of water under the earth and they were broken up so that that water rose to the surface. This in itself would have changed the topography. I don't think that the world looked before the flood exactly the way it looks now after the flood. I can't tell you how much it has changed, how great were the changes, but there seems to be indications that things were greatly changed as the earth broke up, great earthquakes I guess we would call it, and water rose to the surface. And there's an indication that before the flood there was a huge water canopy above the earth, well above the atmosphere, and it was full of water and all of that came down and that canopy is gone.
We think that helps explain how people could live so long because they weren't getting these destructive ultraviolet rays of the sun. They were filtered out by this vapor canopy above the earth which now came down in the flood. So water came from everywhere, not only came from clouds in the atmosphere like we're accustomed to, but from this huge vapor canopy above the earth and these reservoirs of water beneath the earth and all of this came to the surface and completely covered the world, all of the world, all of the mountains, even to 20 some feet above the tallest mountain. The world was completely flooded and all animals and humans on it were destroyed that breathed the air. Only the fish that lived in the water could survive this and everybody was wiped out in that great judgment.
That's the arrival of judgment, chapter 7. The removal of judgment is found in chapter 8 of Genesis and it simply tells the story of the rain stopped and then the water was still on the earth at basically the same level for 150 more days and then at the end of that 150 days it began to recede little by little by little and at one point Noah sent out a raven who didn't come back and a dove who did. The dove couldn't find any place to light all water. The raven, we presume, lighted upon something that was floating in the water and did not come back. Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. This time it came back with an olive leaf. Things are growing again. Not maybe in sight of where the flood has, where the ark has grounded, but the dove found it.
It couldn't be too terribly far away. The dove found an olive leaf and brought it back as evidence that the floods have receded sufficiently enough that vegetation is growing again and then seven days later Noah sent out the dove one more time and it didn't return. It found a place to nest and so Noah knew that it was now safe and God said, okay, now it's time for you to leave the ark. So he and his family and all of those animals got off the ark and the first thing Noah did was build an altar and worship God. He was a godly man and some of those extra clean animals that he took, all of the animals he took, pairs, male and female, except clean animals, apparently seven pairs of sheep and goats perhaps and of those clean animals, sacrificial animals, Noah now made an offering to God, a sacrificial burnt offering to God and worshiped God in the way that God had instructed, the way that God had instructed Cain and Abel to worship him with a sacrifice, an animal sacrifice where blood is shed and Noah understood this and Noah worshipped God and then set about farming and that takes us into chapter nine, the aftermath. Noah and his family had a new beginning, they were the only people in the world. God made a covenant with Noah, he references it in chapter eight and he gives it specifically in chapter nine, a promise to never destroy the world again by a flood and the sign for that is now, the sign of the covenant is the rainbow in the sky. Whenever you see a rainbow, you should be reminded of God's mercy in not utterly destroying but he saved humanity through Noah, he saved the animal creation by the activity of Noah and he promised that he would never destroy the world in the same way again and it becomes clear, he made that promise knowing that humanity would become just as wicked again as it had been before but God said I'm not going to destroy it by water again and every time you see those beautiful, marvelous rainbows in the sky, that's what you should think of. Don't let the evidence of man's degradation and corruption cause you to look at the rainbow and think of gay pride, the rainbow is the promise of God's covenant not to destroy the earth again by flood.
I'm glad to learn there's a little aside here with the coming in of the new administration that all embassies, United States embassies throughout the world have been ordered to stop flying gay pride flags on the embassy flag poles next to the American flag. Can you imagine that we've ever even come to such a place as that but that's exactly where we were. Aside, aside and we go back to the text. Now that's what we find in Genesis. Now there are a number of other references to Noah throughout the Bible.
I'm going to touch on them lightly. Some in the Old Testament, some in the New Testament and then we'll come to our text in Hebrews chapter 11. Noah's mentioned in two genealogies, I'll not quote them, one is 1 Chronicles chapter 1 verse 4 and the other one is in Luke chapter 3 verse 36. But there is an interesting text in Ezekiel about Noah's reputation.
Ezekiel 14, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, when a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out my hand against it, I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God. Well that tells you what kind of reputation Noah had in the eyes of God. The other two are clearly without argument two of the most godly men in the Bible. Daniel, I don't think there's a single transgression recorded in the Bible ascribed to Daniel.
That doesn't mean he was sinless but none is recorded. Job, that incredible man, he didn't say everything exactly right but he showed an incredible faith in God that most of us could never have demonstrated in the circumstances he did. And so Job and Daniel alongside Noah must be three of the most godly men that have ever lived and Noah is one of those three. We find a reference in Isaiah 54 to the flood as an encouraging analogy.
It's used as an illustration. God says this to the prophet Isaiah, For this is like the waters of Noah to me. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you.
We'll just stop there. This is a promise. Isaiah said basically yes Israel you deserve God's severe judgment but as God promised he would not judge the world again by flood as he did in the days of Noah so he is promising you that he will not wipe you out either as much as you deserve that judgment. It's an analogy of the mercy of God to Israel. But along with that we have in Matthew chapter 24 and a parallel passage in Luke but we'll look at the one in Matthew that the flood is a warning of God's final judgment. Matthew 24. But of that day and hour no one knows. He's talking about the second coming of Christ. But of that day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven but my Father only. For as the days of Noah were so also will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as on the days before the flood they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be. It's a warning.
Now often times we read that passage and we read into it the degradation that we know is there because we have also read Genesis. But what is being described here is really not conspicuously ungodly living. It's just normal everyday routine living. They were eating and drinking. He doesn't say they were getting drunk. They were eating and drinking.
Normal daily activities. Marrying and giving in marriage. Doesn't say they were involved in adultery and fornication but marrying and giving in marriage. Life is going on in the normal way until the day that Noah entered the ark.
What's it describing? It's describing people who are living normal lives though we know from Genesis exceedingly sinful lives as well. But that's not the point of what Jesus is saying in Matthew 24. He's saying life was going on as usual. Everybody assumed that life was going to continue as it always had and did not give serious thought to the warning of the second coming of Christ. Which is going to be a coming in judgment for those who are not trusting him and are not looking for him. And just as in the days of Noah people scoffed at the idea that there really was going to be a flood. They thought Noah was a crazy old man.
They didn't listen to what he said. They just kept going on with life. Day after day, month after month, year after year, morning and evening, morning and evening, daily routine. Eat your meals and go on with life. Give your sons and daughters in marriage and life goes on. Everything's going on as before until one day, bang!
The thunder sounded and the lightning struck and the rain began to fall and it was too late. In one of these days, dear friends, Jesus Christ is going to return. And we know that unbelievers scoff at that. Peter talks about that.
People who say, where is the promise of his coming? All things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. In other words, life is just going on the way it always has. It's going on for year after year, for decade after decade, for century after century, for millennia, millennia after millennia, millennia.
Life is going on. It hasn't happened. It's not going to happen until one day, the trumpet's going to sound and then it'll be too late. Are you looking for his return? Are you longing for his return? Do you believe in him and therefore are ready to welcome his return?
Because if you're not, you're going to be caught by surprise. And the surprise of the people in Noah's day is a reminder of how surprised unbelieving people will be in that day when Jesus returns, whatever day that may be. Well, I'm going to skip the one for sake of time in 1 Peter 3 about the long suffering of God and read one final one in 2 Peter 2, which says, for if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness. This is a bit of new information that we're not told in Genesis. A preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.
We're now told that while Noah was building this ark, he was also preaching. He was warning people. God says a flood is coming.
I don't know what else he had to say, but I'm sure he had that much to say. God says a flood is coming. Believe him. Get ready. Pay attention. It's coming. Judgment is coming.
Noah was a hell fryer and brimstone preacher. Judgment is coming. Get ready.
Be prepared. And they laughed him to scorn. They paid him no attention. And consequently, the only ones who were saved were Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives, and everybody else was wiped out. God was merciful to give them warning. God was merciful to provide for those who would believe. But nobody believed, and they were all wiped out. Now that brings us to consider, at least for a few minutes, the text in Hebrews 11.7.
Back to what it says. 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 heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. In this text, in the Hall of Faith, we have, number one, evidences of faith and, number two, rewards of faith. And we have four evidences of faith. Noah's faith can be described in this way. Number one, faith believes God's word. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark, and so forth.
Faith believes the word of God. In spite of what seems unlikely, yes, improbable, yes, impossible, if we're correct that it had not rained until the flood, then nobody had ever seen any rain, let alone a flood. It had never happened before.
And so, it's unprecedented. So, what are you going to believe? The revelation of God Almighty, who created this world and everything in it, and who has kindly warned of a judgment, a much deserved judgment to come, but what he's warning about has never been experienced, it's never been seen. Now, what are you going to believe? The scientific evidence that there is no such thing as rain, there is no such thing as a flood?
The human experience, I've never seen rain, I've never seen a flood of any size. Or are you going to believe the word of Almighty God? By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, nevertheless believed God and prepared the ark. Faith believes God's word. Faith respects God's word.
By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear. It's one thing to read the Bible, to believe the Bible, at least to your own satisfaction that you believe it. It's another thing to treat the author of the Bible and the book that he has given with reverential godly fear. This is the word of God. There's no other book in the world that can say that. All others are books of men, men like we are.
We honor those who are good and helpful in some way, but we don't reverence them. Ah, but we reverence Almighty God. We're moved with godly fear at what we know of Almighty God and the revelation which he has given. Faith believes God's word. Faith respects God's word. Faith obeys God's word. Moved with godly fear, he prepared an ark. He built that ark. I'm looking forward to getting into heaven and learning more about that construction project. I just cannot get my mind around it, and I want to know more about it. But I believe it happened because God's word says so.
It's as simple as that. I believe God. I believe his word. Faith does that. Faith testifies to others about God's word.
The four things. Four evidences of faith. Faith believes God's word. Faith respects God's word. Faith obeys God's word. Faith testifies to others about God's word. He testified to others while he built the ark. He was a preacher of righteousness and was a great testimony to his faith in God. And what he believed, though he and his family were the only ones in the whole world who believed it, he was right and they were wrong.
He was saved and they were destroyed. I know too many people who base what they believe on what their friends believe, or what their friends consider to be acceptable. I'll put my finger to the wind and if the people that I know accept what I want to believe about the Bible and about my Christian faith, then I'll go ahead and believe it.
And if they don't, then I'm going to retreat real quickly. I want a religion that is acceptable. I want one that my friends accept. I want one that other people agree is okay.
I want one that other people say is right. And in Noah's day, everybody, everybody who was thinking that way died in the flood. Noah had to take a lot of reproach, a lot of scoffing, a lot of ridicule for 120 years. But he was right and they were wrong. What he believed was true and what they believed was false. What he believed saved himself and his family.
What they failed to believe brought about their destruction, the evidences of faith. Number two, the rewards of faith are found in this text as well. Faith obtains a righteous standing. By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, himself and his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. How did Noah become righteous?
By faith. And God imputed to him righteousness by his faith, just like Abraham. God imputed righteousness to Abraham because he believed God and God counted it to him as righteousness. And Noah believed God and God counted his faith to him as righteousness. And his transgressions, which were real, just like all sinful sons and daughters of Adam are sinners, but his transgressions were all blotted out and he had a righteousness in his standing before God based upon the coming Redeemer because he believed the word of God. He had a righteousness by faith.
Faith obtains a righteous standing with God and faith impacts the lives of others. Did Noah's sons have the same degree of faith, the same level of faith that Noah had? Well, we don't know for sure, but they didn't leave their father and go to the world and say, I can't take this ridicule anymore.
I'm going to be a cool guy. Let the old man take all the ridicule. They stayed with him. Noah's faith was such that it had a great impact, at least upon his own family. Disappointingly, not on anyone else, but upon his own family, faith impacts the lives of others as well as our own.
A closing comment from Jeffrey Wilson. Noah believed, feared, obeyed, and was saved. Others disbelieved, mocked, were disobedient, and perished.
So can I give you a few closing lessons? First of all, about salvation. Noah embraced the way of salvation that was made known to him. Physical salvation in the flood, and no doubt holding on to the promise that God made to his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, Adam and Eve in the garden, about the one who would come and crush the serpent's head and would bring salvation. Noah embraced the amount of revelation that was given to him, and that's how he was saved.
Others treated the warning of a flood with contempt, and they were destroyed. Noah, a sinner like all other men, was saved by faith in the word of God. He did not escape judgment by his innocence, he escaped judgment by his faith in the word of God.
And that's the way it is for all. Secondly, lessons in God's long suffering, just briefly. How long did Noah build that ark? 120 years. How long from the time that God revealed the judgment was coming until the day the judgment came?
120 years. Why did God wait so long, particularly when nobody was believing him? Because God is long suffering.
Aren't we thankful for that? Aren't you thankful that God didn't strike you dead and send you to hell the first time you had a sinful thought about God? But he's long suffering, and that's why most of us are here this morning, is because of the long suffering kindness of God. God was long suffering to give them 120 years to hear, believe, and repent. God was long suffering to give them many entreaties from Noah, a preacher of righteousness.
They heard that for 120 years. God is long suffering. But third, there's a lesson about God's judgment. And that is that though God is long suffering, it does come to an end. What's amazing is that he suffers as long as he does.
Very few of us would have that much patience. His long suffering is amazingly great. But his judgment is absolutely certain.
It will not fail. God said it would rain and flood the earth, and 120 years later the rain fell and the world and its population was destroyed. God did exactly what he said he would do, whether anybody believed him or not. God has promised that judgment will come. Because it has not come yet, some take refuge in that and say, oh, it's never going to come.
That's a pretty poor place to take your refuge. Look at what happened in the days of Noah. If God says it's going to happen, it's going to happen. If God says that Jesus Christ is coming again to judge those who don't believe in him, that will happen. If God says that those who don't believe in him shall spend an eternity in hellfire and damnation, you can be certain that that is true.
Don't let that be you. And finally, a quick lesson in how to please God. We please God by faith. By faith it is impossible to please him, but by faith, believing the revelation of God and acting accordingly, we can please Almighty God. By faith we believe what he has revealed.
We believe the God who gave the word and we believe the word that God gave. By faith we persevere in obedience even when it is difficult. I cannot imagine how difficult it was for Noah to continue this for 120 years, but he did. By faith he did because he believed God, and therefore by his faith he pleased God. By faith we demonstrate our faith to others as Noah did.
Noah's faith was visible in the construction of the ark. Now, the world turned that into a laughing stock, into mocking, but it was a testimony. This is a testimony of what God has revealed. This is a testimony of what I believe.
This is a testimony of what God says is coming. It was there, day by day, board by board, nail by nail. If it had nails, I assume it did. They watched that thing go up and laughed and mocked the one who was building it until the rain came and I expect they were pounding on the door, but it was too late.
And they perished. Faith demonstrates your faith to others. Noah's faith was visible in the construction of the ark. What about your faith is visible to others? What about your faith is visible to the people in your home? What about your faith is visible to the people that you go to school with? What about your faith is conspicuously visible to the people where you work? Because faith makes the testimony of God visible to those around us. Shall we pray? O God, give us faith like Noah's. Let our lives impact our families, our children, our grandchildren, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers. O Lord, work through our unworthy lives that you have saved by grace through faith and cause us to be an instrument of salvation in the lives of others. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.
