Sermon Tone Analysis

Faith is a great motivator, hope is perhaps the most powerful motivator that there is.

Noting helps you save you money better than the hope of reward.

If I’m saving for a holiday to Fiji then I can endure the sacrifices necessary by the hope the faith that I will be on that beach in Fiji relaxing away from all the stress of my life, and that hope gives me strength and motivates me to endure the sacrifices.

If I give up saving and end up spending the money that I had saved then it is because I lost hope.

Either I decided that the trip was never going to happen because I was just never going to be able to save the money so I might as well give up, or I decided that siting on that beach in Fiji was not going to be all that great after all and the thing that I want now is better than that trip.

But either way I lost the hope of what that trip would be for me.

Now this is just a small illustration of the power of hope.

But our hero’s of the faith in this chapter of Hebrews, they had a much greater hope than a week in Fiji.

In fact what we will come to see in this chapter is that they had hope in a reality that is beyond this world.

And it was that great hope that enabled them to do impossible things and to endure impossible things and by this hope they obtained a good report.

A good report is a great thing to have.

We would like to leave our mark on this world, to make a difference.

We all would like people to be able to say good things about us at our funeral, But that is not the reward that gave these men and women the courage and strength to endure with great patients.

The reward that they sought was far greater than a good report only, yet that was one more aspect of the reward of there faith.

And it is also one of the rewards that we too can have through faith.

Last week we looked at the report of Able who through faith offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.

He obtained the witness that he was righteous.

He became the first martyr by being killed for his faith and obedience to to God.

Great is his reward.

Then there was Enoch who walked with God and his report was that he pleased God.

So much so that God spared him from death and took him.

And pleased God because of his faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God because to please Him you must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Today we wil be looking at Noah’s Faith

and this he did

The Ground Of Noah’s Faith

When we have faith in a future reward that can be a powerful motivator in our life.

But another powerful motivator is faith in a future consequence or judgement.

For example, I have faith that if I don’t pay my mortgage that the bank will forclose and take my home away.

So I’m motivated to make sure I pay my mortgage.

We can see from our text that Noah’s faith was based on the warning of God

As we saw in verse 1 Faith is the evidence of things not seen and this verse links back to that definition of faith by saying that Noah was warned by God of things not seen.

What things were not seen

Gen

This is the warning that Noah received of the Lord.

That the earth and everything in it would be destroyed.

Now this was a thing not seen yet Noah believed God’s warning.

We also have been given a warning of a coming judgement.

Noah believed God when He warned him of coming judgement.

I wonder, do we believe God’s warning of judgement?

True faith will always result in action.

There is a resurrection...

Our life now is brief one day we will enter into eternity.

If we truely believe this then we will act on that faith.

Just as Noah did.

The Action Of Noah’s Faith

Gen

Why? because of faith.

He believed the warning of God.

True faith will move us to action.

Our passage says that Noah was moved with fear.

This fear in the Greek is not fear as in he was afraid of the coming judgement but rather it is a Godly fear.

Fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.

Noah had respect for God and was in awe of God, he reverenced Him as seen by the fact that even before God gave him this warning he walked with God.

So because he reverenced God, when God warned of a coming flood he believed God by faith.

It is this reverence of God and respect to His word that moved him to by faith to prepare an ark.

This was his faith in action.

as James says

So Noah’s faith was true faith that produce works.

And what were those works

first we see that he prepared an ark to the saving of his house.

He wisely made preparations for the coming judgement.

If we truly believe that Jesus will return then we will prepare ourselves for His return.

So then faith itself is our first and most important preparation for the return of Christ.

Note also that Noah’s faith moved him to make provision for his house.

They could have chosen not to believe Noah and not to enter into the Ark but Noah made provision and shared the word that God had given him and they believed as well.

Our faith will impact our family.

If Noah had not believed then it is likely that his family would not have believed and they all would have been destroyed.

But there was something else that Noah did as part of his preparations

Noah was a preacher of righteousness.

He proclaimed the warning and coming judgement despite, no doubt, rejection, mocking, and failure.

He preached because he believed God.

If we truly believe that Jesus is returning then we must prepare ourselves.

make provision for yourself by placing your faith in Jesus and becoming an overcomer.

make provision for others by telling them and warning them of the coming judgement.

Do we truely believe that Jesus is coming back?

do we believe that those who have not placed their faith in him will face eternal damnation?

if we do then we will be telling others, despite rejection, persecution, and failure.

Why? because faith, true faith is a powerful motivator.

Finally we look at...

The Reward Of Noah’s Faith

We have seen that his faith was grounded in the warning of God and that his faith moved him to take action but what was His reward.

The reward is what we hope for and it’s this hope that will help us to persevere through every challenge we face.

The first thing that we notice is the salvation of his house.

God used him to condemn the world.

Through his preaching of righteousness his words which could have been the words of salvation became a proclamation of destruction.

Yet he and his house did not suffer the same fate but rather they were delivered from the wrath of God.

Because of His faith in God’s word and his obedience in building the ark he and his family were preserved.

He also received the promise of God through the covenant that God made with him after the waters receded that God would never again destroy every living thing.

Noah became the symbol of hope for the whole world and received the commandment to repopulate the earth.

God used him to condemn the world.

Through his preaching of righteousness his words which could have been the words of salvation became a proclamation of destruction

Then we see that he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

An heir is someone who receives an inheritance.

Not something that they have earned and yet they are benefactors of the estate.

this is his greatest reward because by faith Noah became a benefactor of the righteousness of God, not earned by his own works none the less he enjoys all of the benefits as though he himself was righteous.

This is the righteousness which is by faith.

This is the same righteousness that Abraham inherited when is says that he believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness.

This is the same righteousness which is made available to you and I today.

the righteousness which is by faith.

We read earlier in 1 john that faith is this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.