How Noah Lived Right in a World Gone Wrong
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
God has a lot to say in this chapter about sin...
In verse 5, we see the spread of sin...
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
In verse 13, we see the solution for sin...
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
In verse 14, we see the salvation from sin...
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
Now, having said that, it’s a principle with God that the more degenerate the times, the more definite the testimony. God always has His special man—a Moses, an Elijah, a Daniel. Before the Flood He had Noah.
And, Noah lived in a day of:
Spiritual Decay
Social Decline
Sinful Display, and
Sudden Destruction
Noah was a bright shining light in the prevailing moral darkness.
In an impure world, he was pure.
In an unrighteous world, he was righteous.
In a world that dismissed God, he walked with God.
Can you even imagine the pressure Noah would have faced to live wrong?
You think about it…There was no church to attend, no Bible to read, no brethren to run to.
It’s makes me think how in the world did he manage to live right in a world gone wrong?…Well, that’s exactly what I want to preach on for a little while this morning… “How Noah Lived Right in a World Gone Wrong”
The Word of God tells us exactly how he did…Let’s take a look:
I-He had the right salvation
I-He had the right salvation
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
This is the first time this word grace is used in the Bible. It is a Hebrew word which means kindness or favor. It comes from a root word which means to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior.
Grace is unmerited favor; it is getting something we do not deserve—Noah found grace.
He was not a godly man because he came from a long line of godly men, for God has no grandchildren.
He was made a godly man because he discovered eternal life in the generous, overflowing grace of God.
He had to see himself as a sinner in need of the grace of God.
Noah didn’t work for God’s grace; it was freely given to him by God. God still continues today to give us His grace freely.
When we look at verses 8 and 9, we are given four very interesting things…Remember, Noah had the right salvation, and I’m about to prove it to you...
If you write in your Bibles, here’s four keywords you need to highlight or underline...
Genesis 6:8–9 (KJV 1900)
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Grace—We first must be saved. How are we saved? The Bible teaches us that it’s by grace through faith…
Just—We are justified in God’s eyes. The word just means to be right. When a person truly gets born again, he begins to live right.
Perfect—This word means entire, without spot, or complete. As we grow in Christ, we gain more victories and become more balanced in our Christian life.
Walked—As Noah grew in the Lord, he gained a consistent walk with God day by day.
These four things show us the stages of the right salvation!
II-He had the right Scriptures
II-He had the right Scriptures
Now, I know in the introduction, I mentioned that Noah had no Bible to read, and that’s true, he didn’t, so you might wonder how did he have the right Scriptures when he had no Bible...
Well, he did the same thing you and I are to do...
He trusted what God said…
He trusted what God said…
Noah might not have had the written Word, but God spoke to him…God has chosen to speak to us today, not audibly like He did back then, but through His written Word that we hold in our laps today, and we are to do with it as Noah did with the audible Word back then...
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
And lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him,
And he shall direct thy paths.
Not only did Noah trust what God said, but...
He told what God said...
He told what God said...
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
The Bible here tells us that Noah was a "preacher of righteousness." This means that he warned people about the coming judgment and urged them to repent of their sins.
He did the same thing we are to do today and that is, preach the Word!
How did Noah live right in a world gone wrong? He had the right Salvation, He had the right Scriptures, then we see...
III-He had the right Standards
III-He had the right Standards
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
We are told that Noah was “a just man and perfect in his generations” and that he “walked with God.” That Noah is declared “just” (that is, justified) speaks volumes.
He entered fully into the salvation of God and was given the absolute standing before God that belongs only to the justified soul. Along with his justification he received power to live a godly life.
The Bible says he was “perfect” literally, without blemish in a morally corrupt world.
He was perfect “in his generations”—the word no doubt has reference to Noah and other men that lived at the same time, but, the word has a deeper significance.
The word translated “generations” here means “to go in a circle.” It suggests that Noah found a new center of gravity for his life in God. As a planet goes in circles around the sun, so Noah’s life revolved around God.
Without his life revolving around God, Noah, would have, no doubt, falling into the outer darkness of the wicked age in which he lived, but the world didn’t attract him. He found a greater attraction in God, and henceforth his life revolved around Him!
Indeed, he did walk with God…I believe Noah had high, holy, and heavenly standards…He had the right standards!
IV-He had the right Ship
IV-He had the right Ship
God told Noah in verse 14 to build an ark, and we see in verse 22 that Noah did according to all that God commanded him...
Now, I want you notice this morning...
Noah’s ship was designed by God:
Noah’s ship was designed by God:
We read in verse 14, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.”
We’re told that Noah was to cover the ark with “pitch.” We would know this as tar…it seals cracks and makes them waterproof. But I want you to notice that the word “pitch” is the Hebrew word kapar. It literally means, “To atone.” The word kapar is the root for Yom Kippur, which is “The Day of Atonement.”
Only on this one occurrence is the word kapar translated “pitch.” ON every other occasion, 70 other times, the word is translated “atonement.”
You know God was telling Noah? “I want you to cover the inside/outside of the ark with atonement.”
Hey! That is exactly the work that Jesus came to do. He came to shed His blood for the kapar, or the atonement for man’s sin. His atonement is the only thing that will keep the waters of God’s judgment from our lives.
Verse 15 tells us how big the ship was...
Translating the dimensions to what we would use today, we would find that the ark would be approximately 3 million cubit feet. It would have weighed nearly 14,000 pounds and looked like a coffin! Noah’s ark may not have been fancy or fast; it’s purpose wasn’t either one of those; it’s purpose was safety! Hey! Would you expect anything else from God?
It wasn’t fancy and it wasn’t fast, but it was going to make it to safety without a shadow of doubt!
And by the way, the ark was plenty big enough to hold all who desired to enter...This is a picture of the sufficiency of Jesus!
He is able to save all who will come to Him! Let me just tell you this morning, there’s room at the cross for anyone!
I mentioned a moment ago that the Ark would have looked like a massive floating coffin, In other words, when people saw the ship they thought of death. When Noah entered the Ark, he was identifying with death, and when we come to Jesus, we are identifying with His death on the cross and our own death to sin!
Verse 16 tells us there was one door to the ship...The door was located at the bottom of the ship to make it accessible for anyone to go through the door. John 10:9 says, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” - The door is not a plan, a program, or a party, but it’s a person! Jesus is the door!
If any man gets to Heaven it will be because he walked through the door of salvation!
Noah’s ship was driven by God:
Noah’s ship was driven by God:
There’s some things we don’t find in the design of the ark…Noah didn’t have a windshield on it, so he couldn’t see where he was going. He didn’t have a rear view mirror on it or a side view mirror on it, so he couldn’t tell where he come from. Noah didn’t have a gas pedal to speed it up, or a brake pedal to slow it down…He didn’t have a steering wheel or a rudder, so you know what all that means?
Noah had no control over the Ark…He couldn’t do a thing about it, he didn’t control where it was going or how it was going.
God was driving the ship…Some of us need to quit trying to steer our lives and just trust the Lord to get us where we’re going!
All God give Noah was one window according to verse 16…It was at the top of the boat and it was only about a foot and a half square...
All Noah could do is stand in the middle of the ark and look up at Him.
Hey, let me tell you this morning, some of us need to quit trying to steer the ship because we don’t have the wheel anyway, all Noah had was a window and all he could do was stand in the ark and look up!
Noah’s ship was delivered by God:
Noah’s ship was delivered by God:
The ark rested on the mount in the seventh month and the seventeenth day. This was the same day Jesus arose from the dead. After the first Passover, the seventh month was changed to the first month. The lamb was slain on the 14th day, the same day Christ was crucified. Three days later would be the 17th, the day of the Resurrection.
It all points to Jesus!
There is only one place where safety and salvation can be found.
We don’t have an Ark, but we do have a Savior and His Name is Jesus.
He died for our sins on the cross…and He rose from the dead.
Conclusion
Conclusion
How can you and I live right in a world gone wrong?
Have the right salvation
Have the right scriptures
Have the right standards
Have the right ship
And you can find all of that in one name this morning, the name of Jesus!
10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
