The Integrity of Enduring Obedience, Part 2

When you ask someone to tell you about the Bible character named Noah, they'll likely mention a wooden ark filled with animals. Noah's Escape from the Flood is an adventure that's forever attached to his name. But today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reminds us that there's another facet to Noah's story that inspires our walk with God.

We'll look at Genesis chapter 6, where we gain insight into the personal disciplines and virtues that mark Noah's life. Chuck titled today's message, The Integrity of Enduring Obedience, and we begin with prayer. We call out to you today, O God. We wait upon you as David, who wrote, I waited patiently on the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He lifted me up out of an horrible pit and placed my feet upon a rock.

He established my going and put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many will see it and fear and trust in you. We wait on you, Lord, to rescue us. Ours is a world of corruption, marked by frequent acts of violence, open murder in the streets, deceptive kidnappings, harsh mistreatment of children.

There are those who are predators, who would do harm to the young. And there seems to be so little restraint, not just abroad, but in our own land. Rescue us, Lord. Rescue us. We come just as we are. We haven't somehow dressed up to come before you.

We do not bring animals of sacrifice. We come through Christ, who is our mediator, and we call upon you for help. There are so many who suffer today. The pandemic hasn't left.

Another phase has struck. Some lie dying in their beds today. There aren't those who nurse them, care for them, help them. There are others suffering other illnesses.

Some are in dark places with little hope of change. There are those who wait upon you for treatments that will enable them to recover from cancer and other illnesses. Those we love and care about are going through times like this, and we pray that you would rescue them. Give them the discipline to stay with the treatments, to see them to the end.

Use those treatments to bring hope, and do what only you can do, bring healing. There are those who represent us, Lord, in difficult places. Encourage them, use them, speak through them, bless them. Thank you for the joy of a ministry that we share in together. Meet our needs, Father, through the faithful giving of your people.

Remind all of us that our hope is only in you. And so we come just as we are before a God who loves us and his son who gave himself for us. We pray through Christ's name. All his people said, Amen.

You're listening to Insight for Living. To search the scriptures with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. Chuck titled his message, The Integrity of Enduring Obedience. Noah is a man I'm calling a person with the integrity of enduring obedience.

There's a reason to give him that title. But before I get there, let's notice how the story begins. Noah's left out of the picture altogether.

In fact, we, the reader, have a very privileged position in this narrative. We get to stand right alongside the living God as he talks to us in his word about what he sees and what he plans to do about it. This is before he even encounters Noah in the account. I'm looking at Genesis chapter six, verse five, and really it's a frightening scene.

Look for yourself. The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth. He saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. What we have here is the great truth of universal human depravity. We're not too deep into the scriptures, are we? Just six chapters, just begun the sixth chapter, and already the civilized world is shot through with depravity. We read that the Lord saw this. The reason I mentioned a privileged position is because no one else sees it except the Lord, and we're given the opportunity through the narrative to stand alongside and to hear him as he describes what he sees in this fifth verse. He goes on.

Look for yourself. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. The New Living Translation says it broke his heart. The Hebrew text says literally he grieved unto his heart.

When we grieve deep within our hearts, the colloquial English response or description breaks our hearts. He's looking at the whole world. No one else can do that. But when you are omnipresent God and you are the omnipotent one who created the world, you have no difficulty seeing everything that's there. And he's never lied to us, nor could he, being holy.

So he tells us the truth. Here is an earth that is wholly given to evil. God saw that the inhabitants of the earth, only evil continually. The Hebrew text reads evil the whole day.

Isn't that an interesting way to put it? Meaning all day, all night, every day, every week, every month, every year, constantly habitually evil. And that little word so begins to turn our attention to God's plan, which he tells us about before he even tells Noah. So the Lord was sorry. Verse 7, he goes on to say, I will wipe the human race I have created from the face of the earth. That's his right, since he is sovereign. We live in a day that worships earth, unfortunately, rather than worshipping the one who created earth. But when you worship the Creator, you understand he has the right to do with earth however he pleases, without even explaining his reason. But in this case, he explains it. Because of this universal depravity of humanity, I will destroy every living thing, all the people, all the large animals, all the small animals, even the birds of the sky.

I'm sorry I ever made them. I am grieved deep within my heart. We stand there, it's sort of taken our breath away as we hear the story unfold in the scriptural text. And then we see suddenly, but Noah! First time the word grace appears in the scriptures is in this eighth verse of Genesis 6. Noah found grace.

It's really a play on word, it's the consonants in reverse, the Hebrew term is, and it's translated grace. Noah found the Lord's grace. How good of God to notice. He's still looking. He's still observing. He doesn't miss anything. Silent, yes.

Absent, no. He finds Noah and gives us an account of the man, why I would shout the word, but Noah! When you're reading your Bible and you see the word like, but Noah found grace, read on and you'll see why. Because he was a righteous man. He was blameless as a person living on earth at the time.

Amazing! Every other one is corrupt. Violence is everywhere. Evil at every turn, but Noah! But Noah, not with him.

What integrity. The entire world situation does not in any way turn his head or draw him into it. His focus is clearly, fully, and constantly on the Lord as God. In fact, he not only is declared not sinless, but blameless before the Lord, and he walks in close fellowship with God. He's a father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, three sons. Now God saw the earth was corrupt and filled with violence.

He observed all the corruption of the world. So God said. Up till now, Noah has no idea of what we already realize. Because we were the ones from the narrative who were brought into the story, not Noah. This is Noah's first occasion to hear God's plan. And the Lord says to him, I've decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence.

Yes, I'll wipe them all out along with the earth. No pushback from Noah. No resistance. No argument. Noah's silent.

In fact, he stays silent for chapters in the account. So the Lord goes further. Verse 14, he has a rescue plan.

The rescue is available to any who will get into it. Build a large boat from cypress wood. Waterproof it with tar inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout it.

Amazing plan for escape. Here are the dimensions. Verse 15, 450 feet long. A football field is 300 feet long. So it's a football and a half field long.

75 feet wide, a little less wide than a football field. And we read 45 feet high. Four and a half stories. I should have talked with our maintenance crew this week and found out how high this ceiling is. I would guess it's fairly close to that height.

Maybe a little more. This is one sizable barge. There's no steering mechanism because there would be no steering. It's a floating vessel made only to float. And Noah is told to build it. The reason I chuckle at that is because in another place of the scriptures we read, Noah is not a ship builder, he is a preacher of righteousness. So this preacher is told, build this massive boat. Charles Rowery in his study bible in the footnote adds that it had the capacity of carrying as much as 522 railroad stock cars.

522. Each stock car could hold about 240 sheep packed into each car to give you some idea of capacity. This is one big boat.

It would take 120 years to build it. During which time Noah continues to preach. And there is not one convert.

Noah, his sons, their wives, and Noah's wife, eight people. Not one from the crowd around him. In a former church we were packed to the gills. People didn't follow our instructions so they parked all over in places often where they shouldn't. So our neighbors hated us to put it mildly. And we tried our best to win them over and encourage our people to park where they should. But they didn't, being depraved.

So they followed their own whims and it just made the neighbors angry. I was preaching back then on Noah and the ark and decided I would go out and measure it in the parking lot. So I took the necessary tools with me to measure them and I had a marker and I marked off here. And then I walked it way down 450 feet. And when I reached down to mark it off down here, I felt the presence of someone near me. I saw his shadow first and I figured it was a neighbor.

They tended to come out when I went outside. They wanted to visit with me. And this man was no exception. He said, you're the preacher here? And I said, I said, yeah, I am.

And I shook his hand and he reluctantly shook mine and he said, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm actually measuring the ark. He said, with an expletive, I'll leave out, you're not fixing to build one of those things here, are you? I mean, it's bad enough to have cars parked all over, but 450. Wherever Noah built it, it got the attention of everyone.

Think about it. Furthermore, boats weren't built in that area. It wasn't a boat building area. Furthermore, it had never rained. Water came up from within the earth until the flood. So there had not been rain. Therefore, there had never been a flood and then never seen a boat like this. I mean, can you imagine the mockery? Can you imagine people who have been described for us rather vividly in verses six, seven and eight of this passage, as they would yell at Noah, faithfully building the boat, faithfully driving the pegs year after year, faithfully erecting the ship until it's full size, not one convert.

When a person is a preacher of righteousness, he is faithfully declaring the good news that there is hope beyond this life, that there is a way of escape. And so when the door was put into place, I am certain that Noah would take advantage of that moment and remind those who were watching with their mouths open by now that this door is the way to escape the flood that's coming. But of course, they doubted there would be a flood.

They had no reason to believe. They thought Noah was losing it. After all, by the time the ark is built, he's 600 years old.

So he's getting up in years and they're thinking it's starting to happen. Here's old Noah still pounding away on his boat. Not one convert. Interesting, there were no pegs provided on the boat hull to hold on to if you missed the door.

You had no more chance of survival than those dear people in Afghanistan clinging to the wheel wells or the fuselage of these giant airships as they're rolling down the runway about to take off. And you, like I, stared and clucked your tongue and thought, what a shame. In Noah's case, he had told them. In fact, the last verse of this sixth chapter reveals why I call him a man of enduring obedience, integrity of enduring obedience. So Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.

Exactly. At 600 years old, trying to convince people to get onto a boat to escape a great flood, you can imagine the pushback Noah received. And yet, Noah persisted. Chuck Swindoll has much more to show us about this fascinating chapter of Noah's life, and we urge you to join us again next time when Chuck continues his message about the integrity of enduring obedience. This, of course, is Insight for Living.

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My power works best in weakness. Again, if you're listening in the United States, call 1-800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash monthly companion. Join us when Chuck Swindoll concludes his message about the integrity of enduring obedience, Monday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, the integrity of enduring obedience, was copyrighted in 2021 and 2022. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.