Faith is believing what God has said simply because He has said it. And in particular, believing Him about what He says about a relationship to Him, that it is available to those who repent of their sin and put their trust in His grace and His mercy. Welcome to Grace To You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Today, John will continue his series titled A Faith That Pleases God with a look at the life of Noah.
Now, you probably know the story. God tells Noah to build an ark, and he sends a worldwide flood and spares Noah and his family. But what can that familiar story teach you about how you should face trials and about your faith in Jesus Christ? Stay tuned to find out. But before we begin today's lesson, it's important to mention that this broadcast would not be heard in this community and thousands of others like it, if not for some very important individuals.
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Some years ago, we asked John to talk about the vital partnership we have with this radio station and many others like it. here's what he said. Yeah, there's no magic about Christian radio. It depends on somebody to prepare the message and somebody to put it on the air. We are deeply, deeply thankful for the station staff, leadership, owners, and even the folks that support the station, the other broadcasters who make up the lineup on this radio station, because that partnership allows us to do what we do.
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So pray for us at Grace to You, and pray for the supporting radio stations that make this program available. And also, stay tuned as we continue our study from Hebrews 11 on a faith that pleases God. Yes, friend, I encourage you to contact your local radio station. Let them know you appreciate their commitment to airing Bible teaching programs like Grace to You. You'll encourage them more than you know.
But right now, stay here as John MacArthur continues his series of Faith That Pleases God. All right, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. And we're going to look at Noah and the work of faith. The great story of Noah is summarized in one verse.
Verse 7 of Hebrews 11, by faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Now one of the things you would note from that is that you just read a Bible verse that condenses Genesis 6, 7, 8 and 9. In that sense, it is a very cryptic verse. It assumes that you know the story. And that's a fair assumption because after all, this book was written to whom? To whom?
Hebrews. They knew the story. They were extremely familiar with the story. In fact, the whole chapter is cryptic. The references to Abel, brief.
The references to Enoch, brief. The references to Noah, brief. A little more detail with regard to Abraham and Sarah. The references to Moses, relatively brief. References to others, brief.
And in verse 32 you just have names, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets.
So the assumption here is that these people know the Old Testament. They're familiar with these characters and their stories. And certainly every Jew was familiar with the astounding story of Noah. Noah is the next in the list of faithful men, men whose lives were marked by faith. I remind you that James said, faith without works is dead.
What he meant by that is that true faith is supported by action. And Noah is certainly the classic illustration of that fact in the Old Testament. His action of faith is in some ways more remarkable than anyone else. The Bible everywhere and always teaches that men come to God by faith alone and then go on to live in faith, that simply means to take God at His Word and trust in that Word as true. Never by works or self-effort or ceremony, moral achievement do you reach God.
You always come to God by faith. It has always been so, it has never been any different. But when the gospel of grace and the gospel of faith came along, being preached by Christ and the Apostles, it seemed to the Jews of that day like a new message because Judaism, which of course originally was a message of salvation by grace through faith, had been corrupted into a system of works.
Now this is the most remarkable judgment event in the Old Testament, the destruction of the entire human race with the exception of eight people. History tells us that God will judge sinners, the Bible tells us that God will judge sinners and He does and He judges every sinner one at a time. It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment. Every sinner faces the judgment of God one sinner at a time. But periodically there are these massive judgments.
What brought about this judgment by God? Let's go back to verse 5, Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That was what did it. God saw that the iniquity, the wickedness of man was great on the earth, it was so sweeping that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually This is chronic rather than spasmodic Every thought every idea every motive every imagination and therefore every deed the result of every thought was an expression of the fallenness of man, the depravity of man.
You know, it must have been so staggering for Noah to hear this. There were millions of people in the world by this time. We can't know the exact number but I've heard everything from eight million to a hundred million. I mean the world is densely populated. In the first place, people live for nine hundred plus years and you can produce a lot of children in that amount of time.
Just to believe that this is actually going to happen certainly is an act of faith. There must have been something in him that would sort of parallel the skeptics that Peter tells us when they hear about the Second Coming say, that's never going to happen, all things continue as they were from the beginning. The same kind of skepticism must have existed in the mind of Noah at least at one point when he talked to himself, but everything goes along normally the same way. How can this possibly be? And if that's hard to swallow, try this on, verse 14, make for yourself an ark of gopher wood.
You shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.
Now God hasn't told Noah how He's going to destroy the world yet, right? He just says in verse 13, the end is coming. I'm going to destroy the whole human race." Noah doesn't know how.
So he gives him a command without an explanation. The explanation doesn't come until verse 17, I'm bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish.
So at the beginning, God says to Noah, build a big box, ark, teba. In Hebrew, the word is used throughout the flood narrative and it really means box or chest. It's not shaped like a boat. It's not shaped like a ship. It has no propeller.
It has no pilot. It has no sails. It has no rudder. It has no captain. It has no navigator.
It's a box. And by the way, it's only used this word one other time in the Old Testament. And it is used in Exodus chapter 2, 3 through 5 to describe the box that baby Moses was put in to float down the Nile. God used a box to save Moses so He could save Israel. God used a box to save Noah so Noah could save the human race.
In both cases, the box was a refuge from death to provide a future, one case for Israel and another case for the human race. The Ark of the Covenant is a different Hebrew word altogether.
Now God then says, make a box, back to verse 14, make it of gopher wood. We don't have any idea exactly what that is. There are some suggestions as to what it is. It appears nowhere else in Scripture. May have been kind of a cedar pine which was plentiful.
Now remember, Noah was not a ship builder and this wasn't a ship. This was a box. This is an immense task. He can't do it on his own, very likely. Even with three sons helping him, he would have had to hire multiple carpenters and design people to effect this thing and to move around the pieces of this giant box.
And he says, God does, you shall make rooms, compartments or dwellings, likely they numbered in the thousands and then cover it inside with pitch. That is a kind of caulking substance. Pitch by the way is related to the Hebrew verb to smear, smear it, seal it so it doesn't leak. Then verse 15, it gets very interesting. This is how you shall make it.
Now if he's thinking of a box just for him and his family, hey, that would be...you know, an 8 by 10 would do. He doesn't know what the box is for. This is how you are to make it. The length of it is 300 cubits, the breadth or width is 50 cubits and the height is 30 cubits. 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high.
This is not a design for speed, this is not a design for easy guiding, this is a design for stability. It is the largest vessel ever built until the 19th century when giant ships were built because steel was used, iron was used. The ark then is way ahead of its time. Nobody would have understood this kind of design, another indication of the divine nature of Scripture. Its length is six times its width and keeps it stable in the midst of tossing seas.
Now when God gives Noah the command to do this, it is a hundred and twenty years until the flood. This is what you would call a long-term project. Did he start building immediately when God commanded him?
Well it's very likely he started thinking about building and then he had to figure out how to build. And then he had to try to find some people who could design a building like that, a box like that. They don't really know how long it took to build it but the assumption can be he probably started very early and began to put the design together and thoughts together and then to assemble the components and begin to build.
Now in this box, Noah doesn't know it, he's going to spend a year. He's going to spend a year floating over a drowned planet. Why am I doing this? Verse 17, because I'm going to bring the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven Everything that is on earth shall perish I love this beginning behold I even I Supernatural judgment is coming. I'm doing this.
I'm going to drown the world. The word flood of water is a technical term, mabul, that is used only in Genesis 6 through 9. It is as if God picked a word exclusively to describe the flood. It has one other use in Psalm 29.10. His purpose is to destroy all air-breathing creatures, everything excluding those in water who will survive.
Everything that is on the earth shall perish.
This is not a local flood, this is a worldwide flood. The Bible is clear when it discusses the theology of the flood, that this is a universal flood because it compares it to the coming destruction. Second Peter 3, it tells us that in the way that God destroyed the world by water, He will destroy the world by fire and that is a universal destruction in both cases. There are lots of indications that this is a worldwide flood and the most obvious one One is that's exactly what the Bible says, only eight people survived. And if of every living thing in all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark...now he's starting to get the details about why the box is so big...keep them with you alive, male and female, of the birds after their kind, of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
You know, that would be my first question when I heard the part about, you're going to bring two of every kind. You immediately say, just exactly how am I going to do that? How am I going to get two of every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing into this thing? A little further information tells us that they will come. They will come.
God is going to gather them. This is an astounding responsibility. This is a great opportunity to exercise a little doubt, wouldn't you say? Are you kidding me? A flood?
What is that? There's never been one. Rain? What is that? There's never been any.
What are you talking about, rain? What do you mean, flood? Here? And by the way, Noah was living in a wilderness. There's no water there.
This is a remarkable opportunity for a little bit of sensible doubt, I would think. I suppose if were any of us, we would have said, could you go over that again? Rain? Flood? Float?
Boat? A boat? Two of every kind of animal? That's what makes it so remarkable in verse 22 when it says, Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. Folks, that is a monumental act of faith, an absolutely monumental act of faith.
And because of that, of course, he was spared. Why him? Go back to verse 8, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Why did he find favor in the eyes of the Lord? Verse 9, because Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time and Noah walked with God.
I think that's pretty amazing because it was Noah, Mrs. Noah and the kids and their wives in the world. And you think living the Christian life is tough and you're surrounded by all these folks stimulating you to love and good works? Can you imagine what it was like for Noah and his family to live in a world that was so corrupt every other human being was drowned? This is a remarkable man, not to be underestimated.
This is a man who believed what God said was true, which tells me he believed in sacrifice like Abel did, which tells me that he believed that he was a sinner and needed a sacrifice for his sin and he needed to receive grace and forgiveness from God. This tells me that he knew what it was and it says it here as it did of Enoch, that he He walked with God. He was in true righteous communion and fellowship with God. He was a righteous man. God made a promise, that's what a covenant is to this man.
And He heard the promise and He obeyed the promise.
Now all of that sort of gets us to the point of Hebrews chapter 11. As I said, we don't want to go into a whole lot of detail.
So let's go back to Hebrews chapter 11 and consider what the writer tells us and it's a remarkable testimony of this man's faith.
Now I just want to tell you three things about his faith, okay? Just three things that are listed here. One, he obeyed God's Word. He obeyed God's Word when it was way beyond anything he could experience or conceive or comprehend. It says, in reverence he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household.
In reverence he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household. a hundred and twenty years. Over that period, he built a massive 15,000 ton ship in the middle of the wilderness for one reason, because God told him to do it and God told him the flood would come and the judgment was inevitable and he obeyed. This is the essence of faith. Faith doesn't have to understand, it doesn't have to comprehend.
Faith reaches out for something that is beyond experience, beyond comprehension. I think we understand that a little bit. We walk by faith and not by sight, right? We've entrusted our eternity to God. We living in faith trusting Christ for a heaven we never seen escape a judgment we never seen The Bible says that all sinners will go to hell The Bible says that there will be a holocaust of divine judgment on the earth in the future by fire.
We believe that. We have not seen that. But we live in faith and by faith we obey the gospel which is the ark of safety for us. God has provided for us an ark to rescue us from future judgment and we have gone into that ark. The ark is Christ.
So his faith is first of all demonstrated in his obedience to God's Word in a matter which he could not experience or even conceive. Finally, his faith not only showed up in his obedience but it showed up in his preaching. We could say it this way, he obeyed God's Word and he announced God's judgment. You might say, well he believed it but it was so bizarre he really didn't say much about it because he was afraid people would think he was crazy. No, it says also in verse 7 that by his obedience in building this massive box in the middle of the wilderness because it was going to rain and there was going to be a flood the likes of which no one had ever experienced, he condemned the world.
He condemned the world. That very act was a constant statement for a hundred and twenty years that judgment was coming. Judgment was inevitable. And that is why it says Noah was a preacher of righteousness and God preserved him with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly." Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
So the generation of Noah's day had to spurn sacrifice and atonement. They had to reject repeated warnings and repeated messages of judgment and righteousness. Revelation had to be despised and rejected in this mad dash into corruption. But Noah's faith is marked by his obedience and doing exactly what God told him to do and his willingness to be a preacher of righteousness and give the message that went along with the work he did proclaiming the inevitable coming, devastating worldwide judgment and the drowning of the human race. He was preaching that the only escape is righteousness.
How amazing. And how many converts did he have? None. The third thing that is said about him is he obeyed God's Word, he preached God's judgment, he received God's righteousness. He became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." Well that sounds like a Pauline concept, doesn't it?
That sounds so New Testament. He became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith. He believed God and because he believed God's Word, God granted him righteousness, imputed righteousness to him. That's what it means in verse 8 of Genesis 6, Noah found favor or grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was a righteous man, blameless in his time.
Noah walked with God. He is a righteous man. He is blameless before God. Is he perfect? Oh, no, no.
We know that, don't we? When you get into chapter 9, you find that he was guilty of a sin. He was caught naked and drunk. No, he's not a perfect man before men, but he is a perfect man before God, because by faith righteousness was credited to his account. We're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
Today we continue John's study called A Faith That Pleases God.
Well, friend, when you're cultivating the kind of faith God wants, it's critical to know what His Word says. And with that in mind, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the MacArthur Study Bible with hundreds of charts and maps and especially with 25,000 footnotes that make the meaning of Scripture clear. This all-in-one study tool can help grow your faith like never before. And starting today, running through Friday, October 30th, you can get the MacArthur Study Bible with the Legacy Standard Bible text in brown leather soft cover at 25% off the regular price.
So if you don't have a MacArthur Study Bible, now is a great time to pick one up. Take advantage of the reduced price when you contact us today. Go to gty.org or call us at 855-GRACE. With the 25% discount, this is also a great time to do some early Christmas shopping. Again, this sale only pertains to the Legacy Standard Edition of the MacArthur Study Bible in brown leather soft cover.
Our phone number one more time, 855-GRACE. call weekdays from 7.30 to 4 o'clock Pacific Time, or go to our website anytime at gty.org. And as you join us each day this week for John's study, A Faith That Pleases God, let us know how it's deepening your relationship with the Lord. We'd love to know if you've been strengthened by one of John's books or booklets, and especially if the Lord has used this ministry to bring you or someone you know to faith in Christ, email your story to letters at gty.org, or you can mail your letter to Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412.
Now for the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be back tomorrow as John continues his look at the nature of saving faith with a look at the exemplary faith of Abraham It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth One verse at a time On Grace to You
