Real Life/Real Faith #2 - Noah

A Man The World Could Not Change

Text: Genesis 6-8 (Read Genesis 6:1-11)

Introduction

We are visiting a long time and often told historical account; Noah and the world wide flood. Often times this story is told with Noah being the lead character and the one who the story centers on. However, who we endeavor to see more clearly through Noah’s story of faith is GOD HIMSELF!!!

Have you ever been in a setting when the WRONG decision (and the people making them) seem to surround you and even encouraging you to follow their lead? Noah was definitely in that kind of setting. Everything about Noah, his family, the culture around them, his faith, and his God stands as a true reality.

Don’t forget, Noah and those of his family were sinners who had rested their faith completely in the one true living God. Notice what God can do and will do with/for them in response to their faith.

1) Real Darkness Surrounding One Family

Notice the great growth of darkness

As the population grows, so does the ungodliness of man!

The historical setting could not be any darker!

This was a time not just engulfed with the external acts of sin, but also every heart was completely given over to wicked thoughts and imaginations.

Notice God’s grief (vv6-7)

When you consider the birth/death date of Methuselah (death date same as when the flood came), God gave the wicked world 969 years of grace.

2 Peter 3:1-7 “1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: 2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

This was a perfect time to raise a family to be a Gospel light.

2) The Real Faith Of One Family

One real family rose to the occasion

The last 120 years of that period, Noah was preaching and preparing the ark.

Few listened and even fewer believed.

In the midst of wicked men and a dark culture was a family who remained faithful and continued to live in light of God’s holiness and train their children to fear God.

A dark era is the “perfect time to raise a family of light.

No doubt this was anything but an easy task.

Noah continued with a “God first” model when raising his family.

True witness demands separation from sin.

They remained unspotted by the world’s pressure to indulge sin.

Quote: Holiness is not something we are called upon to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we already are. - Martin Lloyd Jones

Where was Noah’s family when God commanded him to erect an Ark?; right there with him.

Notice God’s grace (v8)

Divine favor was not something Noah wins, but rather something he finds.

We can’t overlook Noah’s age and the implications that brings.

This pursuit of God that brings him to finding God’s favor came from a faithful genealogy.

Who else comes to mind who “walked with God?” (Gen. 5:24)

Notice God’s instructions (ark, animals…)

Notice Noah’s obedience to all of God’s commands.

True faith always leads to faithful obedience.

Through all of the distractions of a mocking world, Noah submitted himself to give attention to God’s details.

Noah was resolved to trust the direction of God even if that meant being alone.

Ultimately, it was the fact that Noah and his family believed God’s promise that their family was delivered from the great flood.

Build an ark: 600 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 60 feet tall; three levels; window in roof or running around the top level; ONE DOOR..........

3) Real Salvation For One Family

Notice God’s summons to enter the ark

The salvation and the ark were planned by God, not invented by humans. There is only one way of salvation and there was only one door in the ark Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), Ge 5–8.

The word for “pitch” is the same as the word “atonement.”

Salvation and the ark were planned by God and not human’s invention.

God invited them in, they came in, and God shut the door.

Salvation inside the ark is total; destruction outside the ark is total!

Notice Noah’s patience

They waited for seven days in the ark before the commencement of the flood.

They waited through forty days and nights of rain.

Noah’s faith enabled him to keep the storm on the outside of the ark.

They waited through a total of 150 days (5 months & 30 days) before the waters started to decrease and the ark rested on a mountain.

How did Noah determine when to exit the ark?

Sends out a raven TWICE (Noah moves from passive to active investigator)

It does not return (feeds on dead things on top of the mountains)

Sends out a dove THREE times (a valley bird)

First it came back with nothing

Second it came back with an olive leaf

Third it did not return

Even though the dove does not return, Noah does not leave the ark until God tells him. God, and only God, can give the green light Victor P. Hamilton, “Genesis,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 17.

4) Real Worship To The One True God

Noah went from building ark to building an altar.

Noah and his family stepped out into a NEW LIFE.

They understood that coming to and following God by faith allows me to experience the covenantal blessings of God.

In hind sight, they understood that EVERY SINGLE STEP of faith were interconnected and brought them to where they currently stood.

Their faith in the true God carried them beyond the floor and into a new life.

WHAT WILL YOU ALLOW YOUR FAITH TO CARRY YOU TOO???????