A Man Called Noah
Noah's Ark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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NOAH'S ARK | Week 2
NOAH'S ARK | Week 2
Theme verse: Matthew 24:37
Phrase this week: "...in the days of Noah"
Text: Genesis 5:21–32; 6:8–10; Hebrews 11:7; 2 Peter 2:5
Big idea: One person who walks with God can stand in a generation that's going the other way.
Opening: A Question
Opening: A Question
Jesus said, Matthew 24:37
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
He could have said
"the days before the flood."
He actually uses that phrase in the very next verse.
He could have said "the days of violence."
I MEAN.....That would have been true.
But when Jesus named that generation,
He named it after one man.
There were probably cities full of people.
IN FACT,
LOOK WHAT IT SAYS IN Genesis 6:4 IT MENTIONS "the heroes of old, men of renown."
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
So here's the question for you this morning:
If someone named THE CURRENT season of your life.....
what would they name it after?
Your job?
Your stress?
Your phone?
Or would it be named after the fact that...
in the middle of all OF THE DISTRACTIONS
AND GRAVITAIONAL PULL OF OUR CULTURE,
you walked with God?
Last week we looked at the world Noah lived in.
Today I WANT TO look at the man.
LET’S TALK ABOUT...
LET’S TALK ABOUT...
Where Noah Came From
Where Noah Came From
Genesis 5 is a chapter most people skip:
names,
ages..... "and then he died."
But two things in this... matter for Noah.
first.....is a man named Enoch.
22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
In a chapter where...
every other paragraph ends with...
"and then he died,"
Enoch life ends differently.
IT SAYS....He walked with God,
and THEN one day God just took him.
Now LET’S....JUST FOR A SECOND....
follow the family line.
Enoch has a son named Methuselah.
Methuselah has a son named Lamech.
Lamech has a son named Noah.
SO.....Enoch is Noah's great-grandfather.
THE TERM..."Walked with God"
was SOMETHING THAT WAS already in Noah's family story
before he was EVEN born
HE CAME FROM A FAMILY THAT WALKED WITH GOD
IN OTHER WORDS....
Noah didn't invent a walk with God.
He inherited a testimony
and THEN HE made it his own.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY....
Some of you are here TODAY..... because GRANDMA prayed.
And THEN some of you are the first in your family to walk this road
LISTEN TO ME.....
WHAT THAT means IS....
you are someone else's Enoch.
YOU THINK YOU WASTED YOUR LIFE AND NOW IT’S TOO LATE????
YOU THINK YOUR DONE BECAUSE YOU FOUND OUT TOO LATE....
OH MY LORD.....
YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT...
NO MATTER HOW FAR ALONG YOU ARE IN YOUR WALK WITH CHRIST...
GOD CAN STILL USE YOU TO BRING ABOUT VICTORY FOR GENERATIONS TO COME
YOU ARE NOT DONE.....
YOU ARE JUST GETTING STARTED
SO THE FIRST REASON CHAPTER FIVE IS IMPORTANT IS BECAUSE...
IT TELLS US WHERE NOAH CAME FROM
WHO HIS FATHER WAS
AND THE GODLY MEN THAT HE CAME FROM
The second thing is in verse 29,
when Noah is born:
LOOK WHAT IT SAYS....
29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”
Noah's name sounds like the Hebrew word for rest or comfort.
His father LAMECH is worn out from the cursed ground,
and he holds this baby and says....
"Maybe God will bring us relief through this one."
It DEFFINATELY wouldn't come the way Lamech pictured.
But God IS GOING TO use (NOAH) to carry the human race... through
the worst judgment the world had ever seen.
LET’S LOOK AT ......
What God Gave Him
What God Gave Him
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah's name in Hebrew is two letters: נח. Nun, chet.
The word for "grace" is the same two letters, reversed: חן. Chet, nun.
Noah...... Grace......Same letters, flipped.
Then watch the order.
Verse 8 says Noah found grace. GEN 6:8
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Verse 9 says Noah was righteous. GEN6:9
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
Grace comes first.
Righteousness comes second.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY.....SOMEBODY NEEDS TO HEAR THIS....
A lot of people think,
WELL.... "Noah was a good man, so God saved him."
But the text starts with God's grace....not Noah's goodness.
Genesis 8:21 says
21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
This included Noah.
every inclination of the human heart.....
evil from childhood.
Paul says it plainly:
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Noah didn't earn grace.
He found it,
and then he lived like someone.....
who had found it.
OH COME ON.....
ARE YOU LIVING LIKE SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN GIVEN GRACE?
OR ARE YOU TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE GRACE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?
LET’S TALK ABOUT......WHO NOAH WAS
Who He Was
Who He Was
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
"A righteous man"
"A righteous man"
Righteous means right with God.
It's about standing.
THIS IS where Noah was before God.
HE WAS IN RIGHT STANDING BEFORE GOD
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY.....
THIS MESSED ME UP......
I WONDER HOW MANY THINGS DO WE HEAR AND READ IN THE WORD OF GOD....
THAT WE ACTUALLY DON’T REALLY BELIEVE....
IN OUR MENS STUDY GROUP THIS LAST WEEK IT WAS SAID....
IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW
IT’S ABOUT WHAT YOU BELIEVE THAT GUIDES YOUR LIFE
WE CAN HAVE ALL OF THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT A SITUATION....
BUT IF WE DON’T ACTUALLY BELIEVE IT TO BE TRUE...
THEN WE DECIEVE OURSELVES
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
NOAH.....believed God,
THEREFORE NOAH....DID WHAT GOD TOLD HIM TO DO
and that belief put him in right standing with God.
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE HEARD GOD SAY SOMETHING....
OR READ IN HIS WORD THAT WE ARE TO DO SOMETHING.....YET WE STILL HAVEN’T DONE IT
FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS......DEAD
IF WE TRULY BELIEVED WHAT HIS WORD SAYS....
WE WOULD DO IT.....AM I WRONG?
I MEAN IF I BELIEVED THAT MAKING A DECISION WOULD SAVE MY FAMILY...
I WOULD DO WHATEVER THAT THING WAS
NO QUESTIONS ASKED....
NO....I WON’T COMPROMISE.......WHY
BECAUSE MY LIFE AND THE LIFE OF EVERYONE I LOVE DEPENDS ON IT
IT’S NOT NEGOTIABLE
NOAH WAS RIGHT BEFORE GOD
This is the first time the word "righteous" appears in the Bible.
And it's the same pattern..... we see later with Abraham:
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
From the very beginning,
God's way of making people right has been the same.
Not by earning it.
By believing Him.
THE OLD CHILDRENS CHURCH SONG.....CAN HE COULD HE WOULD HE
WHEN YOU SAY......PASTOR CHRIS....
HE CAN’T..........NOT WITH ME
HE COULDN’T............NOT WITH ME
HE WOULDN’T...........NOT WITH ME
PASTOR CHRIS I’M A MESS
I’M AS BAD AS THEY COME
OH MY LORD HELP US....
IM HERE TO TELL YOU....IF YOU SURRENDER YOUR LIFE TO HIM AND ACCEPT HIM AS LORD AND SAVIOR.....
HE CAN.....WITH YOU
HE COULD.....WITH YOU
HE WOULD......WITH YOU
.........HE DID FOR YOU
CAN SOMEBODY GIVE HIM SOME PRAISE......
OH COME ON SOMEBODY......
That's the same righteousness offered to you today.
Paul says ....
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Noah looked forward and believed God's word about the flood.
We look back and believe God's word about the cross.
Same faith, same grace.
GOD SAID......HE WAS.....
"Blameless among the people of his time"
"Blameless among the people of his time"
That word "blameless" in Hebrew is tamim.
It's the same word used later in Leviticus for an animal brought as a sacrifice:
one "without defect."
It means whole.
Complete.
Not split down the middle.
It doesn't mean Noah never sinned.
It means he wasn't one person at home..
and another in public.
He was the same all the way through.
And notice IT SAYS.....
"among the people of his time."
The generation we looked at last week.
Every intent.... only evil.
That's where Noah was whole.
BLAMELESS
If you've ever been to a symphony,
you've seen the orchestra tune before the concert.
Dozens of instruments,
and they don't tune to each other.
If every musician tuned to the person sitting next to them,
THE small differences would add up across the room,
and by the end of the row, nobody would be in tune.
So instead, one instrument plays a single note.
Usually it's the oboe, playing an A.
And every musician in that room tunes to that one note.
They don't ask,
"Am I close to the guy next to me?"
They ask,
"Am I matching the note?"
That's what...
"blameless among the people of his time" means.
Noah didn't measure himself against his neighbors.
If he had,
he would've looked like a saint just for not being violent.
Being "better than them" would've been easy.
Noah tuned to God.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY....
CHURCH....
that IS the trap we fall into.
We look around and say,
"I'm not as bad as that guy.
I'm doing better than most people at work.
At least I'm in church.
UNDERSTAN THIS.....
you can be ahead of everyone around you and still be out of tune.
The question was never
"Am I better than my generation?"
The question is
"Am I IN TUNE WITH GOD?"
THE SCRIPTURE SAYS.....
"He walked faithfully with God"
"He walked faithfully with God"
There it is again.
The same phrase used of his great-grandfather Enoch.
Not "he believed in God."
He walked with God.
CHURCH....
Walking is daily,
one step after another,
at someone else's pace and in their direction.
The prophet Amos asks a simple question:
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
To walk with God,
you have to be going where He's going.
MOST OF US HAVE been through an airport with one of those long moving walkways.
You step on, and it carries you forward.
YOUR WALKING BECOMES SUPERSONIC
IT’S AMAZING
Have you ever tried to walk the wrong way on one?
You find out fast:
if you want to go against it,
you have to keep walking just to stay in place.
And the moment you stop,
the moment you just stand there,
you don't stay where you are.
You QUICKLY get carried right back where everybody else is going.
That's what living for God in a culture like Noah's is like.
The whole world is on a moving walkway headed one direction.
And standing still is not neutral.
If you don't walk, you get carried.
Paul says it this way:
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
CHURCH....
You don't have to try to conform.
You just have to stop walking.
The walkway does the rest.
Prayer is a step.
His Word is a step.
What you watch,
how you talk,
how you treat your family;
those are steps.
Skip enough of them,
and you'll end up back with the crowd...
AND without ever deciding to go there.
...AS THE WORSHIP TEAM COMES...
LET’S TALK ABOUT.....
What It Cost Him
What It Cost Him
I need to show you the other side of Noah,
because this wasn't easy for him.
Peter gives us a detail Genesis does NOT:
5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
He didn't just build quietly.
He spoke.
He warned people.
And look at the result.
Noah and seven others.
Eight people.
His wife,
his three sons, their three wives.
Out of everyone he preached to,
the only people who walked into that ark were his own family.
These weren't strangers.
They were neighbors,
people he did business with,
people whose kids he had watched grow up.
They didn't listen.
And he knew what was coming for them.
Hebrews says something hard about it
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
Notice two words:
"holy fear."
Noah wasn't afraid of the flood so much as he took God seriously.
That's a big difference.
The people around him had no fear of God at all,
which is exactly why they had nothing to fear until it was too late.
HIS REVERANT FEAR AND RESPECT FOR GOD...
MADE HIM MOVE
IT SAYS....
by his faith he "condemned the world."
Not by pointing his finger at them,
but by obeying.
Every PIECE OF WOOD he cut.... quietly said,
"God meant what He said."
NOAH’S faithfulness exposed their unbelief.
THINK ABOUT THAT.....
That's lonely.
Sometimes walking with God means
you're the one who doesn't laugh at the joke,
and GUESS WHAT....
nobody WILL THANK you for it.
But LOOK AT what God said about Noah centuries later, through the prophet Ezekiel:
14 even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.
When God wanted to name the most righteous men in history,
Noah was on the list.
The world never applauded him.
God did.
OH MY LORD....
Faithfulness is not measured by...
how many people listen to you.
It's measured by whether you listened to God.
Living Like Noah... Now
Living Like Noah... Now
Jesus said,
"As it was in the days of Noah."
That means the days we're living in...
will need some Noahs.
Paul describes what it looks like:
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky
Same word picture as Noah:
blameless in a crooked generation.
Tune to God, not to the people around you.
Match the note.
TUNE TO HIM AND HIS WORD
...STAND TO YOUR FEET...
Keep walking.
If you stop, you'll drift,
not because you decided to,
but because the world is moving.
Lead your house.
Noah's faith reached his family.
Eight people were saved,
and seven of them were there because of one man's walk.
Joshua said it centuries later:
"As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15).
Be faithful even when nobody listens.
You may be the only Noah in..
your office or your family.
That's not an accident.
That's an assignment.
CAN I GET ALL OF OUR PRAYER TEAM WHO IS SERVING TODAY TO COME FORWARD AND STAND ALONG THE FRONT
EVERY HEAD BOWED AND EYE CLOSED
Response
Response
I WANT YOU TO Think of one place in your life where you're the only one.
The only believer at your job.
The only one in your family who prays.
Picture that place right now.
The faces.
The walkway moving the wrong way.
If you're willing to say,
"God, I'll walk with You there.
Even if I'm the only one.
Even if nobody listens,"
then I'd like you to JUST STEP OUT INTO THE ISLE.
You don't have to come forward. ....
JUST stand.
Look around for a second.
You're not as alone.
(PRAYER TEAM STRETCH HANDS FORWARD AND PRAY TOGETHER)
2ND ALTAR CALL....PRAYER TEAM STAY
And if you've never found grace,
if you've been carried along by the world
and you know it,
the same grace Noah found
is right here for you.
The altar is open.
WOULD YOU Come and meet Him TODAY
Closing
Closing
Next week we pick up the next phrase in Jesus' sentence:
"in the days before the flood."
We're gonna watch Noah do something nobody had ever done,
for a reason nobody around him believed.
