Sermon Cloud

 

Biblical Faith is an Obedient Faith

Hebrews 11:7

July 20, 2008

Grace Fellowship Church

Series 3 Sermon 49

 

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.

Introduction

As in all times there are many people who claim to have faith in Christ who in reality are as unsaved as someone who has never heard the Gospel.  I remember serving at a church as a summer missionary and I would go visiting with the pastor and he and I would meet people who claimed to be a member of the church he pastored.  But yet he, in his year or two on the field there had never once met them in church.  They claimed to be Christians and said when they die they would go to Heaven but never went to church or had any kin of spiritual life to speak of.  Many, many people are living lives of gross self deception.  They are illegitimate in reality but think themselves to be right with God.  If you asked them they would say that they have saving faith.  But what does Scripture say?

 

The person who has biblical saving faith having been justified by faith will prove the legitimacy of that faith by living a life of trust in both the promises of God in Christ Jesus and in humble obedience to God’s Word.

 

This was the case for Noah.  Verse 7 states that Noah became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 

 

Through our series in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer has over and over exhorted us to steadfast faith, enduring faith in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And here in verse 7 we have the witness of righteousness that comes by faith.  This is the witness of Scripture.  The message of Scripture has been and always will be salvation by faith alone in Christ and His finished work on the cross alone. This is the foundational doctrine of Christianity.  Martin Luther said that the church either stands or falls on the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  This doctrine means that we can only stand in the courtroom of God in judgment with a righteousness that does not belong to us.  We must have Christ stand in our stead in order for God to declare us not guilty on the day of our judgment.  The biblical imagery is magnificent.  We must have our filthy, disgusting rags covered by the glorious righteousness of the Son of God Himself and the Scripture teaches that the only way this can happen is by faith.    

 

The church at Galatia had been taught this doctrine.  But some Judaizers had infiltrated the church and began to teach that in order for these Gentiles to be real Christians starting with circumcision they must also keep the Law of Moses.  Paul writes this letter to the Galatians to combat this heresy.  Listen to Galatians 2:15 and 16.

¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

 

Salvation or justification is by God’s grace, through faith in Christ Jesus alone.  It is not a mixture of belief and works of the law.  The only work that will accomplish justification is the work of Christ and we as believers are the beneficiaries of that righteousness.  So within this doctrine we must understand that by our outward holiness or inward piety we can not add one strand of righteousness to the covering that Christ has given us to stand before God justified. 

 

Now of course there are those wolves in sheep’s clothing who will then teach that because we are justified by faith that it does not matter what we do from that point on because our works do nothing for us.  So they will tell people that once they believe then they are eternally safe no matter what they do.  This is flawed human logic.  Human logic is tainted by sin.  This is the same human knowledge that leads to hyper-Calvinism that says if God only saves the elect and I have no idea who the elect are then by my evangelizing I will just get in God’s way or witness to someone who is not elect, therefore, I will sit on my hands and close my mouth and not witness to anyone.  Both of these are forms of heresy. 

 

Many times we must shun our flawed, sin tainted logic and look at what the Word of God says. So you have two opposite extremes at play here.  You will have those false teachers that teach if you are going to be a Christian then you must keep the Law of Moses or in our modern time you must believe in Jesus and then add certain works to that.  And then you will have the false teacher that says it does not matter what you do because you are justified by faith so have faith and live like you want.   

 

This is why many people stumble over the doctrine of justification by faith.  How can we be justified apart from our works?  How can we really receive a righteousness in faith without us doing righteous deeds?  And so people tend to go to opposite extremes.  You have the Catholic Church which denies justification by faith and says we are justified by works of tradition.  Then you have churches that preach an easy believism that is just seeking decisions for Christ.  And many see this because of the so called contradiction between Paul and James. The people who hate the doctrine of justification by faith will say is that there were two camps in the early church.  There was the Pauline camp that said justification was by faith and then there was the James group who believed that justification came by works. 

 

Listen to Galatians 2:16 again.

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

 

Now listen to James 2:24.

²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

There is obvious tension.  But if we look at the context of James 2 we are dealing with justification by faith but from a different angle than what Paul was dealing with.  Paul was dealing with Judaizers who were adding the Law of Moses to salvation.  They were saying that it was good to have faith in Christ as long as you kept the Law. 

 

The situation in James is different. James has been dealing with people who either don’t want to listen to preaching or either they listen and don’t apply the sermon to their lives making necessary changes.  Then there was the issue of the sharp tongue and people claiming to be pious or religious when in fact they were not.  Then there was the problem of the church acting like the world and giving good seats to the wealthy while the poor were neglected and treated wrongly.  And when we get to James 2:14, James asks a very important question.  Listen as I read verse 14.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

The issue here is a person who claims to have faith but absolutely is not obedient to the Word of God.  And James asks if that type of faith can save that person?  Verses 15 through 17 answers the question.  Listen again as I read.

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

 

Let me read the rest of the passage.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

 ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”— and he was called a friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

 

The debate has always been over the nature of faith.  If we really are justified by faith alone in Christ alone then what does that faith look like?  That is the question.  Paul rebukes the Galatians for their mixture of faith and works of the Law.  James rebukes the readers of his epistle for their lack of obedience to the commands of Scripture.  Both extremes, the faith plus Law of the Galatians and the faith minus obedience of the readers of James, are illegitimate.  Neither are the saving faith that the Bible teaches.   

 

This is why it is so important for us to wrap our minds and hearts around Hebrews 11.

 I think Hebrews 11 is sort of an explanation of what Paul and James said about saving faith.  Both James and Paul are in the same theological camp.  Both believe that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone and both believe that a person who is truly justified by faith will be marked by humble obedience, even sacrificial obedience to the Word of God.  So this morning we must see and understand what this justifying, sinner saving faith looks like and acts like. 

 

How does saving faith express itself?  How is it lived out before a watching world?  How does it prepare itself for coming judgment?  How does faith act in the call of God to do things that may not make any sense to the world around you? 

 

And we can answer these questions and more in the life of Noah.   

 

Over the past several weeks our subject has been real, biblical, saving faith.  One of the great fallacies of our times is the idea of the lack of evidence needed to prove legitimate saving faith.  Often Gospel proclamations consist of a call to place faith in Christ and that immediately you are saved and eternally secure never to question the authenticity of your conversion.  But this flies in the face of what Scripture teaches about salvation.  We are told in 2 Peter 1:10 this.  ¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;

2 Corinthians 13:5 says, ⁵ Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!

 

These commands to examine yourself was written to professing Christians not people being evangelized.  Saving faith is proven over the long haul not the short run.  Unless God allows you to die early your faith or lack there of will be proven over the years of your life in the life that you live.

 

So this morning I want to hold up the mirror of God’s Word and let you see a man who was far from perfect but exemplified the type of faith that is both saving and pleasing to God.

 

Context

Thus far in our series we have been given two examples of men of faith and one example of what we are to believe.  We were shown that true faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.  The first evidence of faith is believing what God has said.  Then our lives, in similar ways to Abel, Enoch, and Noah, will be marked by obedience or the conviction of those unseen realities. 

 

Remember Abel was accepted in his offering to God because He obeyed the revelation of God.  Cain was refused because he did what was in his heart and not what God had commanded.  Last week we saw Enoch.  Enoch pleased God and walked with God and from that we learned that real saving faith believes in the person of God and trusts in the promises of God.  That comes from verse 6 of Hebrews 11.  Look at verse 6.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

 

This week we turn our attention to Noah.  What child of Christian parents does not know the story of Noah?  We all know that Noah built the ark and God flooded and destroyed the world and everything in it except for what was protected by the ark.  Every time we see a rainbow we are reminded of the promise of God to Noah to never destroy the world with water again.  That is why we do not fear every time it rains. 

 

I want you to notice verse 7 of Hebrews 11.

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.

 

Everything that Noah did was by faith. His faith led him to obedience to God’s Word.  By faith he was warned of God that that the earth and everything in it would be destroyed except for he and his family.  By faith he built an ark.  By faith he and his family were saved from the flood.  And this faith which led to obedience accomplished two very important outcomes.

 

PNP

This morning from verse 7 I want you to see those two outcomes of true, biblical, saving faith.

 

1.  The first outcome of saving faith is the condemnation of the unbelieving world. 

2.  The second outcome of saving faith is the receiving of the righteousness required for salvation. 

 

Purpose

My purpose this morning is to show you from the text that the obedience that accompanies biblical faith will always be a two edged sword.  One edge will show the world and the church that we indeed are legitimate believers and heirs of righteousness and the other edge will heap condemnation on the unbelieving world.  In other words it is important how you live. 

 

The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16 that we believers are set out by the Father in order to be a witness to a watching unbelieving world.

¹⁴ "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵ nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket , but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

 

RPNP

So look with me at how Noah is an example of two outcomes of true, biblical, saving faith.

 

1.  The first outcome of saving faith is the condemnation of the unbelieving world. 

Look with me again at verse 7. 

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.

 

Now I want us to go back to Genesis and get the whole story on Noah.  Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 4. 

As you turn I want you to keep in mind that Adam has fallen bringing sin on the entire planet.  No matter what Al Gore says or thinks we as sons of Adam have no chance of saving the planet.  It is cursed because of sin and ultimately will be replaced.  Adam and Eve were given the Gospel in Genesis 3:15 where God told them that He would raise up a redeemer who would destroy the serpent and that redeemer would come from the seed of the woman.  Of course that was a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain.  They have another son and name him Abel.  Abel of course was killed by Cain and Cain was cursed further.  I want you to look at Genesis 4:16.

¹⁶ Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

I want you to keep in mind that every child that Adam and Eve had are not mentioned.  The ones that are mentioned are for the purpose of showing us the character of God. 

 

Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and had a family all his own.  This family is often referred to as the ungodly line of Cain. I want you to keep this in mind.  Look at Genesis 4:17-22.

¹⁷ Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. ¹⁹ And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. ²⁰ Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. ²² Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

 

Something very interesting and kind of a sidebar this morning but notice in verse 22 that the sister of Tubal-cain, the last person mentioned in the ungodly line of Cain, was named Naamah.  She sticks out like a sore thumb because she is the only sister mentioned by name in this chapter.  Why?  For some reason God decided to include this women in the lineage.  You find this same name in 1 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 12.  She just so happens to be an Ammonite woman that Solomon married and had a son by the name of Rehoboam who would succeed him as King of Judah.  Rehoboam, the son of this Ammonite woman whose name happened to be Naamah, brought all kinds of depravity to the nation of Israel. I want you to listen to 1 Kings 14:22-24 that will shine a huge spotlight on our passage this morning.

²² Now Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³ For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

 

You would think that Solomon, as wise as he was, would have heard the name of this Ammonite woman and stayed away.  But he did not.  He went against the Law of God.  Now keep that event in the back of your mind.  The ungodly line of Cain is in chapter 4 of Genesis.  Now I want you to see the other line coming from Adam and Eve.  Look at verse 25.

²⁵ And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

Abel is replaced in the lineage of Adam by Seth.  Through Seth the godly line of Abel would be continued and we find that line in chapter 5.  We looked at that lineage last week and for the sake of time will not revisit it except to look at verses 25-32.

²⁵ When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. ²⁶ Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁷ Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.²⁸ When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son ²⁹ and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” ³⁰ Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. ³¹ Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.³² After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 

 

The ungodly line of Cain would end with a man named Lamech who took two wives and had three sons and he himself was a murderer.  The Godly line of Seth would continue through Noah who had one wife and three sons who were called to do something fantastic. 

 

By the way, the line of Seth would end at the Lord Jesus Christ and He will have many sons and daughters all of which are adopted into the household of God through faith in Him and redeemed by His death.  Christ, the son of Adam, would redeem all of the godly line of Seth and then the entire household of God. 

 

So back to Noah.  We are told in Genesis 5 verse 32 that Noah had three sons and then the narrative comes to an abrupt halt.  Chapter 6 through 9 is the story of the flood and the covenant with Noah then the genealogy picks up again in chapter 10 and verse 1. 

Look at chapter 6 starting in verse 1.

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, ² the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. ³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.⁵ The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

 

Of course there has been and probably always will be a lot of wild eyed speculation about verse 4.  The sons of God took wives of the daughters of men and they had children. What is that talking about?  I and probably you have heard all kinds of things about this passage like this is angels marrying people and having children who were giants but let me make it clear what is happening.  Remember Rehoboam?  His mother’s name was Naamah and she was an Ammonite.  The children of Israel were forbidden to take wives and husbands from anywhere but the tribes of Israel.  But they intermarried with the people of the land that they were supposed to drive out and instead of maintaining the pure undefiled worship of God they corrupted it by bringing the paganism of their wives and husbands into the worship. 

 

The same thing is happening here in Genesis 6.  The godly line of Seth was supposed to maintain purity.  If you remember that in the lineage of Seth in Genesis chapter 5 there is the mention of other sons and daughters.  The Bible tells us about these sons and daughters in chapter 6.  Instead of seeking out spouses from the godly they saw the daughters of Cain and his family and began to take wives of them. 

 

Surely this could not be so bad.  After all you marry an unbeliever and it’s possible that they may become a believer.  Right?  Wrong.  Single Christians are never to marry anyone unless you have seen lots of evidence of saving faith and commitment to Christ.  This is an Old Testament principle and a New Testament principle.  I want you to listen to the passionate words of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 13:23-29.

²³ In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. ²⁴ As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people. ²⁵ So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. ²⁶ "Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin. ²⁷ "Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?" ²⁸ Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite, so I drove him away from me. ²⁹ Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

 

Paul tells believers not to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever.  Let me say this as well.  This has nothing to do with race but everything to do with spiritual qualifications for marriage.  I was warned by a well meaning woman at a church one time when I preached on Nehemiah 13 that I should not take such a stand against believers marrying unbelievers because her Christian daughter married an unbeliever and now he is saved and they were studying to be missionaries.  I told her in very kind words that I would always say what Scripture said and that her situation was unique in that God decided to save that man regardless of their disobedience to Scripture.  Most unequally yoked marriages do not turn out that way. 

 

And they did not turn out that way in Genesis 6.  Look again at verse 5.

⁵ The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

 

So how bad was this intermarriage in God’s eyes?  Look at verse 6 and 7.

⁶ And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. ⁷ So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Wickedness had grown so bad that God decided to destroy mankind.

But then we get to Noah.  Look at verse 8.

 ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

The favor of God is grace.  God had revealed Himself to Noah and Noah had saving faith.  Look at verse 9.

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

Noah is given three descriptions here in verse 9. First he was a righteous man.  Second he was blameless in his generation.  Third, like his great grandfather Enoch, Noah walked with God. 

 

Noah was the recipient of grace upon grace.  First he was not born into the ungodly wicked line of Cain.  His fathers had walked in the ways of the Lord and found grace in His sight as well.  The longevity of these men gave Noah the second grace in his life and that was to have godly examples living and breathing in his life. 

 

I want you to get this picture.  Like most of us Noah had his father and grandfather to look up to.  But he also had his great, great grandfather, his great, great, great grandfather, his great, great, great, great grandfather, and if my math is correct his great, great, great, great, great grandfather Enosh the son of Seth.  Seth died just 14 years before the birth of Noah.  Here is a great example of a godly legacy.  Imagine with me for a moment.  Noah, just a kid, about 45 years old, goes to his father Lamech and says, “Dad, I understand that Grandpa Methusaleh is my grandfather and that Grandpappy Jared is my great, great grandfather but who and where is my great grandfather? What happened to him?” 

 

And then his dad and grandfather can tell him all about Enoch who walked with God.  They would say to him, “Noah, your great Grandfather walked with God.  He was a man that pleased God in all that he did and he was so pleased with him that God took him.”  Noah would probably ask, “Dad, where did God take him?”  “Son, God took him to heaven with Him.”  Adam has died and we buried him.  Just shortly before you were born we buried Seth.  Death is awful and it is the curse that God put on us because of our sin and because of Adam’s sin.  But your great grandfather was so pleasing to the Lord he did not have to experience death.  Noah, you should strive to be like Enoch.” 

 

After all, Lamech had very high hopes for Noah. Fourteen years after the death of the new hope that was Seth through whom a redeemer would come Lamech thought for sure that this son would be the one.  And in a sense he was.  Remember Genesis 5:28-29? Look at it.

²⁸ When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son ²⁹ and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.”  

 

Listen to me this morning.  Adults, you may not come from a godly heritage.  The line which produced you may be like that of Cain’s full of wicked unbelieving people but that does not mean that you have to continue that line.  You have the opportunity in Christ to start a godly line right now.  The Lord Jesus Christ has given all of us who have been justified by faith the opportunity to make a fresh start and if he has given you children give your children a godly legacy.  And if you have no children you should pray that God would give you some spiritual children to leave a legacy for. 

 

Here is how you leave that legacy.  First be like Enoch and walk with God.  Like Paul forget those things that are past and press on toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Live in such a way that your life is marked out and distinguished from the world around you.  The people that live next to you may be totally reprobate.  Your extended family may be pure heathens but you can make generational differences in the ultimate outcome of your family and the people you influence by your life.  Listen, your children will tell your grandchildren and your great grandchildren and onward about your life and how you lived.  Children are naturally geared to ask questions.  You may not live to hear it but don’t you want to know that when your children tell your grandchildren about you they will say that you were godly and loved the Lord.  Don’t you want them to know even if they never see you that you were a faithful believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? 

 

That is the desire of my heart.  Let me give you some practical ways to do just that. 

First, write.  Write down the meditations of your heart.  Journal your spiritual pilgrimage and how the Lord has blessed you.  Leave them for others or your children to read and learn from.  I have made it a discipline to type out all of my sermons since about 2001.  I have them all.  Some of them I am proud of and others I am not so proud of.  But who knows?  One of my great grandchildren may one day be reading a sermon I wrote to preach in a church in Nowhere, Missouri and they will be converted.  Maybe they will live in a time worse than ours where truth is so hard to find and they will be instructed in the Lord as they read the expository series on 1 Peter or Hebrews or some other book of the Bible.  If the Bible is outlawed and it is unavailable I have included the text in those sermons. 

 

Second, leave them a great library.  We live in a day where books are very affordable.  I bought $1200 worth of books just a couple of weeks ago from CBD for $125 with shipping.  I bought the sermons of Martin Luther (seven volumes), the works of John Wesley (7 volumes), and the sermons of G. Campbell Morgan in five volumes.  When I see great books on sale I buy them because even if I never get to read all of it maybe my children and grandchildren will be able to.  I have bought all the works of Jonathan Edwards and am collecting the works of Charles Spurgeon and Martin Lloyd Jones.  I buy good books in hard back at discount prices so that I can leave them when I am gone.  And you should do the same. 

 

Third, live out the same commitment to Christ that you want them to have.  Show in all that you do that you are committed to Christ and that you want them to be.  The natural slide of succeeding generations is to move away from the faith.  So they need desperately God’s intervention which we should pray desperately for but also the example of a life well lived.  Demonstrate hard work to your sons and grandsons and ladies demonstrate the massive importance of godly motherhood and womanhood to your daughters.  And if you do not have children then demonstrate these things to a watching world.  God chooses to bless our efforts at godliness. He will not bless our lack of effort. 

 

Now this cuts both ways.  Like Noah, a life well lived will be a witness to some and to others it will be a witness against them.  Look further with me in Genesis 6 starting in verse 10.

 ¹⁰ And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 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. ¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵ This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. ¹⁶ Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷ For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.

    

I told you earlier that saving faith is a faith that trusts in what God says and obeys the Word of the Lord.  If Noah had not found grace in the eyes of the Lord he would have been just like Lamech who descended from Cain and had three sons with two wives who were all wicked and hated God who ultimately would be wiped off the face of the earth. 

 

But Hebrews 11:7 has something to say to us about this whole event.  Turn back with me to our text this morning.    

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.

In reverent fear, because Noah had saving faith and saving faith is marked out by radical obedience to the Word of God in spite of present situations Noah built this ark. 

 

Can you imagine?  It has never rained on the earth.  Noah and his sons are out everyday chopping wood and making boards and building this huge boat that is about the size of an NFL football stadium and his neighbors and brothers and sisters, Lamech did have other sons and daughters, would come by and ask, “Hey Noah, what are you building?”  “An Ark.”  “Why?”  “God said he is going to destroy the world with water by making it rain and loosing the fountains of the deep and all the flesh on the earth will drown except for those in this ark.” 

 

Can you imagine the ridicule?  What’s rain?  What’s a flood?  God’s talking to you Noah? Sure.  In 2 Peter 2:5 Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness.  And just like Noah, when we live out our faith by obedience to the Word of the Lord we are proclaimers of righteousness as well. 

 

And in that proclamation we do two things.  By the way, it dawned on me several years ago after a lot of frustrating personal evangelism with very little success what a Gospel witness actually is.  One of many helpful passages to me was understanding 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.  Let me read it to you.

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written,
"I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE." ²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. ²² For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

 

Here is what I came to understand.  My evangelism would always have results. The results are different.  One, if that person is called by God then it is possible that God will save that person on the spot or God will use that witness at a later time.  But if that person is not called by God then that same Gospel that saves one will further condemn the unbeliever.  The elect of God will see the Gospel for its reality.  They will see it as the power of God unto salvation and if they are not elect they will see it as foolishness or stumble over it. 

 

This is why I am a happy Calvinist.  It is because God has given me a very easy job in evangelism.  I simply tell the Gospel.  The results are up to God.  Only God can save but my witness may just like Noah bring condemnation on an unbelieving world.  Look at verse 7 again. 

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 the same goes for us.  By our lives we give testimony to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and that testimony either shows the light of the world to a person whom God is saving or it heaps condemnation on the world.  This is why people hate true Christians.  People who call themselves Christians and live like the world are no threat to unbelievers.  But when you walk with God the life that you live shows them how wretched they actually are and it is easier for them to ridicule you, mistreat you, or even kill you than to come to grips with their own depravity.  That is why the Pharisees murdered Christ and that is why the true church has always been a persecuted church. 

 

I could give you a plethora of Scripture here but for the sake of time lets see the second point quickly as I close.  The first outcome of saving faith is the condemnation of the unbelieving world.  And….

 

2.  The second outcome of saving faith is the receiving of the righteousness required for salvation. 

Look at verse 7 again with me. 

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.

 

Listen, Noah did not work for his salvation.  He was not by nature a righteous man.  He was declared righteous by God because God had bestowed upon him saving faith.  Listen, the fate of the world did not rest in the hands of Noah at all. A sovereign God had determined in eternity past that Noah and his three sons would build this ark and carry on the line that would produce the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was sovereignly determined and the Lord revealed Himself to Noah thus making him an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.    Notice that Noah is an heir of righteousness.  In other words the righteousness that Noah had was not his.  It was handed to him. 

 

If I am an heir then that means someone else worked for it, not me.  So where did Noah inherit this righteousness from?  The same place that we inherit righteousness from and anyone else who has ever been declared righteous inherits it from and that is from the perfect obedience to the Law of God by the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrificial atoning death on the cross for the sins of His elect people from Adam to the very last of the human race who will be saved. 

 

So if we are going to be like Noah, then we must have Christ as our coat of righteousness to stand before God.  And we only can have that righteousness by faith alone in Christ alone by the grace of God alone. 

 

Are you a recipient of the grace of God?  Have you been given the gifts of repentance and faith in Christ for salvation?  If not then you go to the source of those gifts and you ask and you seek and you knock until the door is open.  Seek the Lord while He may be found and don’t stop until He answers the door and bestows upon you the righteousness that only comes by faith.

 

The promises of Christ are alive and well today.  Christ says, “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  “All who come to Me I will in no wise cast out.”  Seek the Lord today.  Let’s pray.