Faith Like Noah - Righteousness by Faith
Faith Like Noah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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“I’m a good person. I loved people, I did good things. The good things I did were more than the bad things…I’m a good person.”
These are all words that won’t mean much on judgement day.
We are in a series of messages on the life of Noah titled Faith Like Noah. In comparison to the world around him, Noah was a good guy, but it was his faith that was his righteousness. Most are familiar with the story of Noah and him building the ark, saving his family and two of each animal. The covenant God made to never flood the earth again, but after God made this covenant, this is said of Noah:
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.
This is written right after God spoke his promise to Noah. We don’t know how long after, but there is not a word wasted in the word of God. Noah was not perfect in his actions, but by his faith in God, he was a righteous man.
If you have your Bibles, open up to Hebrews 11. This chapter is know as the hall of faith. The chapter starts off with a definition of faith before giving examples of faith.
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
The last two weeks we talked about what faith is. Everyone has faith in something. Faith can result in righteousness and eternal life if our faith is in Jesus Christ the Son of God. If our faith is found something else other than Jesus, then our faith is in the wrong place. Jump down to verse 7:
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.
Faith is what drove Noah to build the ark. He could not see the rain clouds or even anticipate the floods, but out of holy respect and submission to God’s word to him, he built a big boat. It was his faith that saved him and his family.
Then it says that: “By his faith he condemned the world...”
This statement might seem harsh, but it is. God’s word to Noah in Genesis 6 was that God was going to destroy everyone and everything. Judgement was coming. It was not Noah choice that judgement was coming, but Noah’s faith spoke condemnation to the world.
I remember from my time in the Navy and there were so many creative ways people cursed, were generally foul mouthed and used the Lord’s name in vain. I always thought it was funny that they felt the need to apologize to me for their language. When I read this about Noah, I understood what was happening. By faith, my actions, speech, testimony, I was condemning the world around me.
Every time Noah cut down a tree, milled a log, hammered a nail, crafted a wall, a door…he condemned the world. It was his faith lived out in his actions that condemned the world because it exposed their lack of faith.
Faith in God condemns the world because it exposes a lack of faith.
Faith is more than just words. It is action, it is stepping out and doing things that cause question. Why would they do that? Just as I’m sure Noah got questions, our faith should cause the world to be condemned and the world to ask…why would they do that?
Do our actions as believers condemn the world as much as our words?
Then Hebrews 11:7 ends with:
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.
“and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”
When someone is an heir of something, they really don’t do anything to inherit that which they inherit. If a man builds a business and wealth over his lifetime and dies with just one who is 6 months old, what has the son done to earn the wealth he just inherited? Nothing. It is the same with righteousness. We cannot ever earn righteousness, but like Noah, we can inherit or become an heir of the righteousness that is by faith. This is good news.
Here’s the neat part about this. This inheritance of righteousness for Noah is also by Jesus alone. Noah’s faith was not in the ark, it was in God. His faith was not in his ability to build a boat, it was in the grace and favor of God. The ark and the ability to build it came from his faith.
So often we see the result and think that is what we strive for, but in reality, we strive for faith and all the action and results flow from the faith…not the other way around. Faith comes first, righteousness follows as an inheritance, not something to be earned.
Turn with me to Genesis chapter 8. We are going to pick up the story in verse 15. I am skipped ahead a bit from last week. Last week we ended with the animals being sent to Noah and getting on the ark. Where we pick up the reading, the flood has happened and has receded and things are dry again...
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 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.
Noah’s response to the grace and mercy he was shown was worship. Building an altar and sacrificing animal was first and foremost an act of worship. Additionally, this sacrifice by Noah foreshadows the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Noah’s grateful sacrifice to God was pleasing to God. Still today, the grateful worship and self sacrifice is a pleasing aroma to God to this day.
God then makes a covenant both with Noah and the world to not curse the earth in the same way he has just done. This covenant is not based on human effort though. Sure, Noah was “righteous and blameless”, but he was still a sinner. God could see what would become of man from then on and still made the covenant.
God even says “Even Though...” God’s covenant was made even though our heart incline toward evil. Not just a few inclinations…EVERY inclination of the human heart is evil.
There is no one that can escape this truth. Evil is evil…I know we can tend to point our fingers at certain types of evil and call it greater, but evil is evil. The evil inclinations of my heart is just as bad as anyone else’s evil inclinations. They may be different, but no less and no more evil.
The writer of Hebrews understands this as he writes about Noah: that by faith, Noah inherited righteousness. Not his good works, his faith.
Turn with me to Romans 10 as we begin to wrap up. To have a Faith Like Noah means we also have a righteousness like Noah. A righteousness that is not by works or following the law…it is a righteousness by faith. Here is what Paul had to say about this in Romans 10:
5 Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Our salvation is not by our works, it is by our faith. Our faith to believe in Jesus. Not just that he existed - even the demons believe that, but to believe in all that Jesus taught, and in all that Jesus did. This is the start of the journey. In looking back at Noah, his belief in what God said prompted him to build an ark, a boat, in the middle of the desert to save his family and animals from all over the world. Certainly he did not know all of the ins and outs of how it would all come to pass, but he stepped out in faith and put action to his belief.
God calls us to do the same today. Believe what God has done through his son Jesus. Profess your faith in Jesus as Lord out loud. Begin your walk in faith as an heir of righteousness. Not your own righteousness - that doesn’t really exist, but a righteousness that is by faith.