The Faith of Noah

Introduction

Alright everyone,

I’ve got a couple things as we start our time off tonight.

First, I wanted to recognize some of our people in this room. If you are a youth group leader, or you served this past weekend as a leader at LIFT…would you stand up just for a minute? Let’s show them some honor.

Here’s why I wanted to recognize that:

Being a part of the body of Christ is so much more than just consuming Sunday content. Being a healthy disciple is so much more than just showing up to events.

It’s being a part of the body in a way that allows you to use your gifts…and your stage of life to serve others.

That’s what these people are doing…and did do this past weekend at our student conference. One of the best things about this weekend, was being able to look around the room during worship and see…college min.…college min.…college leader…college min.

It was God revealing to me the influence that this ministry…and the people in this room can have on our church…can have on others.

If you’re not serving in ministry somewhere…and this is your church home. I want you to consider how you can be serving. Where Jesus might want you. And if you’re unsure…come talk to me. I’m sure I can help you find a ministry that needs someone like you.

Anyway…Romans says:

Romans 13:7 ESV

7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

I wanted to show them a bit or respect and honor…because they deserve it.

Second thing I want to do before we dive into our passage...

I wanted to start tonight by giving you a little update with where we are at in our series in Hebrews 11. I want to do this in order to give you some direction. I know that many of you are actually reading Hebrews as a way to prepare yourself for Thursday night messages…and I’ll just tell you.

I love that. Like, I’m here for that. I love the questions you’ve been sending in..both to leadership and into our podcast. We’ve answered a few of them, so keep on listening in the weeks to come and you’ll hear a few questions answered.

But anways…here’s where we are at. We’ve had our introduction where we defined faith. We spent essentially two weeks there as I preached one and we watched a message from Pastor Matt Chandler. And then we spent our third week in this series looking at the faith of Abel, and the faith of Enoch.

Now, because we had to take a week off when my Dad passed away, I’ve had to shift a few things around. Here’s what you should expect the next few weeks.

Tonight: We are covering the Faith of Noah. And then over the next couple of weeks we will be almost in a little mini series covering the faith of Abraham.

Actually next week we will be starting with Abraham and Isaac, as Regent Erickson brings us the word…and then we will go back and talk about the faith of Abraham to be called out of

So let’s get into our passage tonight. And as we do, I want to remind you of the foundation that the author of Hebrews has laid down.

First, is the definition of faith. We need to keep this in mind as we look at each one of these people in the OT. Our definition of Faith comes from the first verse of this chapter.

VERSE 1 SLIDE

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

That’s our working definition as we see the words “By Faith”. Which, if you’ll remember, is seen at least 20 times in this chapter. So when we see “by faith”…we are seeing the author say that by having assurance in the things hoped for…and being convicted of things not seen…this event came to pass.

That’s the first thing to keep in mind. The second is found at the beginning of Hebrews 12…which is the capstone of Hebrews 11…the purpose statement behind it.

CHAPTER 12 SLIDE

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So not only do we need to keep in mind the definition the author has given us…but we need to keep in mind the purpose behind looking at each one of these OT characters.

The purpose is that by looking at these witnesses in the OT, we would lay aside our weights/burdens....and our sins…and we would be encouraged to run the race of faith with endurance…and that we would turn our eyes to Jesus…who has authored and is perfecting our own faith.

So, with those two things in mind…let’s look at our passage for tonight.

Like I said, tonight we are looking at...

THE FAITH OF NOAH

And we see Noah come up in verse 7 of chapter 11. Let’s look at it together…and go ahead and keep your eyes there because I’ll read the whole verse and then take it a few words at a time.

Hebrews 11:7 ESV

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

So BY FAITH…there’s that phrase again. Meaning, by the vehicle of having assurance of things hoped for…and being convicted of things unseen…by that vehicle…what did Noah do?

He constructed an Ark.

And I love that in this first sentence…just in case we were starting to lose focus, the author of Hebrews makes sure to include part of the definition…Noah, by faith, constructed and ark…and why did he do that? Because it says he was warned by God concerning events as yet unseen.

So, God warned him of something…something he couldn’t see (remember our definition of faith), warned him of something he couldn’t see…and that warning gave Noah the conviction to act.

The first thing we can learn about our own faith when looking at Noah is this.

FAITH PRODUCES ACTION

And first and foremost we need to revisit this time and time again that...

FAITH PRODUCES ACTION...TO SAVE YOU

Let’s look at this at the most basic ground level, and then build upon it. Let’s start with the faith we are first given for salvation. Remember our scripture from Ephesians a couple of weeks ago? I’ll put it on the screen.

EPHESIANS SCRIPTURE

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

And also Jesus speaking in John.

JOHN SCRIPTURE

John 6:44 ESV

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

That’s Jesus saying that salvation starts with the Father drawing us…and Ephesians saying that the faith we have is a gift from God.

So in your life…if you are a Christian. God gave you the gift of faith. He opened your eyes to himself.

But what happened then? If you were truly given the gift of faith…your were spurred into action. Because...

FAITH PRODUCES ACTION

The faith placed in you, caused you to be spurred into the action of repentance, the action of confession, the action of submission, the action of belief.

Faith is the charger you plug your phone into every night that allows your phone to produce the actions that it does on a daily basis.

So without that action that Faith has produced in your life…you wouldn’t desire to be here. You wouldn’t find this beneficial. You wouldn’t want this. But if you are a Christian…you do desire those things because God has given you a faith that has produced in you the actions to become one of his children. Actions that we can’t boast in because God gave them to us in the first place…but actions that nonetheless were spurred on by Faith.

We have that, and we know that Noah had that type of faith as well.

Now, you’ll notice that we haven’t gone into the Genesis to read the story of Noah just yet, let’s do that now. Go ahead and turn to Genesis 6. I want you to see that Noah had the type of Faith we are talking about…the faith that led him to be a child of God.

Look at Genesis 6:9

Genesis 6:9 ESV

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

Noah. Walked. With. God. Meaning…he was in relationship with him. You can only do that if you are a child of God. If you belong to him. If you have faith in him.

So we see that the faith of Noah produced the action for him to be saved…literally by a boat in the midst of flood…you can’t get a more literal definition of salvation than that…God saving you from certain death by telling you exactly what to do and how to do it…and if that’s not enough, God makes it happen to.

Did you know that in the story of Noah’s Ark…it’s God that shuts the door to the Ark?

Genesis 7:15–16 ESV

15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

So even in the midst of his actions, produced by faith, to save himself…Noah was still carried along the whole way by God. If that’s not an image of how dependent we should be on God I don’t know what is.

So anyway, back to Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11:7 ESV

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

It’s not just that the action of building the Ark brought Noah salvation…what does it say in the second half of verse 7? That “By this he condemned the world and became and heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

Heir of righteousness means that he inherited salvation from God, like we talked about…but what about that whole “condemned the world” part?

Let me tell you what it means, and then I’ll explain. It means that...

FAITH PRODUCES ACTION TO SANCTIFY YOU

Faith doesn’t just produce action to save you, it produces action to sanctify you. Meaning, it produces the action necessary to keep you walking with God…and to continue growing to look more like him.

Where do I get this? I get it from that statement that Noah condemned the world…let’s understand this a bit more.

First of all, what was the world like in the time of Noah? Well, Genesis tells us that.

Genesis 6:11–13 ESV

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

What was the Earth like? It was corrupt. Wicked. Violent. Bad enough that God decided to destroy it…therefore…condemning the world. God had already done that. God was already doing it. So why does the author of hebrews say that it was Noah who was the one condemning the world?

Because, the author of Hebrews is showing us here that the faith that Noah had, was causing him to be more like God. To desire the things God desired. To do the things God wanted for him. That’s literally the definition of sanctification. Sanctification is the process of becoming more holy.

That’s what the author of Hebrews is accenting here. Noah, condemned the world alongside God, because Noah was constantly in the process of becoming more pure and holy like God.

Let me give you some evidence. 2 Peter…speaking of what God was doing in the OT, peter says this about Noah.

2 Peter 2:5 ESV

5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

So…herald here is the same word for preacher. It means a to be a public messenger, a proclaimer. Peter describes Noah as someone who preached righteousness to the wicked world around him…which lines up exactly with what the Hebrews author says when he says that Noah condemned the world publicly when he built the ark.

All that to say this....the Faith that Noah had, produced actions in him that made him look less like the world and more like God.

Let me say that again. The Faith that Noah had, produced actions hin him that made him look less like the world and more like God.

His faith literally produces actions that sanctified him.

And this is a perfect example, that we too should be set apart from the world. That we too should be condemners of evil and lovers of God.

Now, I don’t have the time to get into every single nuance and tangent that can happen when I say that we should be set apart from the world. For now, just know this. Of course I don’t mean that we should all be monks, forsake the world, retreat to a monastery, and just build up our own personal godliness.

Of course I don’t mean that we should walk around finding unbelievers and just walking down the street going…sinner, you’re going to hell, you don’t belong to God, you’re condemned...

Of course I don’t mean that. There is a balance every Christian needs to have to be in the world but not of the world.

But, let’s start with that understanding and give me the grace to say a few pointed things to you. To ask a few pointed questions.

Do your actions show that you condemn the world and love God? And what do I mean by “the world”? I mean the things of this world. The things that promote sin, the things that promote evil.

The things that are not of God, but instead draw yourself and others away from God.

Being a lover of money, lazy, greedy. Looking at porn, being lustful. Seeking self gain with your career choice or your college major.

Do you look more like your friends who are unbelievers than you look like Jesus? Notice how I didn’t say you shouldn’t have people around you who aren’t believers…Jesus even had that. But…he never stopped looking like Jesus, even when he was around them.

What about you? Who do you look like when you’re around your friends on a Friday or Saturday night? Or sitting alone on a computer? Or hanging out with your significant other when no one else is around?

Do you look like Noah? Who had a faith that produced the actions to condemn the world and seek God?

Do you have enough assurance in the things of God you hope for…enough conviction of the things of God you haven’t seen…to stand alongside Noah and condemn the evil in the world that so easily knocks on the door of your life?

I’m guessing for every single one of you…the answer is no in some area. Because we are not perfect, we are not God. We all have places in our lives that we do not condemn sin the way we should. If you were to follow the story of Noah, you’ll see that he had weak places too.

But…he had the faith that pleased the Lord. And I want the same for you.

So what do you do? What do you do when you realize that your faith is not producing the actions to sanctify you? When you’ve been fighting with your particular flavor of sin and you feel hopeless...

Well, you take inspiration from Noah. From all the OT saints. You take inspiration from them and do exactly what it says in Hebrews 12.

HEBREWS SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

What do you do? You take the feelings inspired by Noah and this story right now, you commit to physically lay aside that sin, to seek to endure in your race…and most importantly…you turn your eyes to Jesus.

You get your eyes off of yourself, and you turn your eyes to Jesus. The founder of your faith…the one who wrote your faith.

The perfecter of your faith…the one who is consistently and constantly desiring and working for your faith to be perfected…for your faith to produce in you a greater sanctification.

How do you turn your eyes towards him? In prayer, and submission. In seeking and desire. I want to give you a chance to do that now.

If you’re feeling that need, go ahead and take time right now to just pray to God, to seek Jesus, to ask for forgiveness, to repent…which means to cast aside that sin and commit to not return to it…take that time…bring who Jesus is to the front of your mind and just rest in him for a few minutes.

As God to reveal to you practical and real ways you can condemn the world like Noah did.

If that’s not you tonight…if you don’t want to do that, if you don’t desire to turn your eyes to Jesus. Then I’m sorry. I’m not sorry we are doing this right now.

I’m sorry that you love your sin so much that you’re not willing to let it go. I’m sorry that your heart is so hardened that you’d rather stay condemned in your sin like the world, than to be apart from it like Noah was.

I’m sorry, and I beg you to reconsider…and I pray that God would change your heart. And…if he so chooses, would lead you to repentance.

Let’s take a few moments to ourselves now, and then I’ll come up and wrap it up.