There have been people throughout history who have made a name for themselves because they refused to cave into the pressures of their generation and stood above it. By their words and actions they showed that they were made of better stuff. Their greatness usually stood out because of some crisis in the period in which they lived. There was Churchill with World War II, especially the Battle of Britain, Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade, Washington and the Revolutionary War. And there was Noah and the flood. Sometimes we don’t think of him in this light but He was certainly a man for his times. As a matter of fact Genesis 6:9 literally says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.” And because of His faith in God, he withstood the onslaught of a generation who seemed intent only upon evil and pleasure. The greatest concerns of that generation were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, to quote the words of Jesus. It sounds an awful lot like our generation. But the same faith in God’s Word that sustained Noah can cause us not just to survive in our generation but also to flourish. And you can rise above the slobbery of this time and be a light for Christ as one who is different and transformed not conformed to this world.
The key idea for the passage is that true biblical faith will allow us to stand above our generation and make a lasting impact in it.
I. The Content of His Faith
The first characteristic of Noah’s faith we want to explore is the content of his faith. What were the words God spoke to Noah? From the Genesis account we have a very detailed look at what Noah heard but there are two items of God’s message that are important to glean.
A. The invisible
The first item is that God’s message related to the invisible. At the beginning of the verse we read, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen.” Noah was privileged to be the recipient of a message of impending judgment. It concerned things never before experienced. And it was omen of future events. The flood would not take place for another 120 years. Genesis 6:3 notes the Lord saying, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” So imagine yourself in this situation. You have another 120 years before you know that the world is going to be destroyed. And you are sure it will be destroyed but it seems so far in the future. By now Noah was 480 years old and has already passed through 4 phases of 120 years. Here was his next 120 years. To be faithful to that word Noah would need to spend those next 120 years proclaiming a coming judgment. Something about which the world would soon get tired of hearing.
Throughout the entire time that Noah would be building the ark he would not have one glimpse of an impending judgment. He would not see one strong local flood. There wouldn’t be 50 years of darkening sky or evidence of the waters of the deep being broken up. As a matter of fact Jesus said that all things continued as they were “until the day Noah entered the ark.” It was then that Noah saw physically, actually, the truth of the words God had spoken to him. So even though Noah had completed the ark and had gathered animals, except for the word of God, there was no other indication to show him that these things would soon come to pass. He didn’t see things getting darker on the horizon to encourage him to be diligent in his work. He was warned of things not yet seen. And this is what true biblical faith understands. We may not see with our eyes what it is God has told us until the very time. But faith sees it nonetheless.
What this means is that true biblical faith calls for perseverance. We may look for the Lord’s return but we must not lose heart as things become progressively worse before He comes. Noah continued through 120 years of persecution while he spoke about things not yet seen. I think it is safe to say that if Noah’s faith sustained him through that period of time then your faith, if it is genuine, will sustain you throughout your entire life. God’s message to Noah concerned the invisible.
B. The incredible
The second item is that God’s message related to the incredible. What was God’s message to Noah? In Genesis 6:13 God says to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood…the length of the ark 450 feet, its width 75 feet and its height 45 feet.”
Do you understand the incredible nature of what God was telling Noah? He told him that the entire world would be covered with water. He told him that he would build a boat, the size of which would not be surpassed until the 20th century (AD that is). This was some incredible stuff Noah had to assimilate. But the underlying idea with which Noah had to wrestle was, “Is God faithful in His speech? Can He be trusted?” even when he says some pretty incredible stuff. In other words, are you going to break your back doing a project like this over the next 120 years if you’re not sure your source of information is reliable? After all, many have done a plethora of stupid things over the years in the name of faith that was nothing more than their own grand illusion. And Noah didn’t want a 500-foot boat sitting in his back yard if it wasn’t going to be used. I remember, years ago, hearing about a man who built a wonderful classic sailing vessel in his back yard and when the time came to move it to the water he realized the masts were too high to get it out of his yard. He became the laughingstock of the area.
What God told Noah about this coming flood was incredible. All flesh will be destroyed? What God told Noah to do was even more incredible. Build a what? Many today mock the idea that there was a global flood. But there were even more who mocked in Noah’s day. Considering population growth rates and the lifespan of people there were probably a billion or more individuals on the earth in the time of Noah. And almost every one of them mocked Noah’s call for repentance to be rescued from this global deluge. The Apostle Peter noted that this would happen in our day. He said that in the last days mockers would come and hold to a steady state theory of the universe. In 2 Peter 3 he noted these would say, “‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.”
But why should WE believe in a universal flood that took place in the days of Noah? First and foremost, because God said it took place, but also because the alternative explanations are ludicrous. One explanation was that a local flood destroyed the inhabitants in Noah’s region. Come on, get real, why go through the work of building an ark. Just rent a U-Haul and move. God is smarter than that to tell someone to build a boat when a moving company is all that is needed. Think Abraham. Also it is incongruous to think that so many civilizations around the world would have global flood stories that center on some boat and have other significant similarities to the Genesis account if it didn’t happen. Then look at Noah’s boat. Shipbuilders will tell you that the ratio dimensions of Noah’s ark make it one of the most stable boat types. And the Genesis account was written at a time before these rules concerning boats were understood. Also, this deluge explains the fossil record so well. And as we have seen flood-like occurrences in Mount St. Helen’s eruption we find that many of the same processes that formed the world after the flood also worked in miniature scale at Mount St. Helen.
Yes, Noah heard the incredible from God, but because it came from God it was trustworthy. Real faith can see what God says, not as that which produces doubt but that which spurs true faith because God is trustworthy as Noah found.
II. The Evidence of His Faith
What God told Noah was incredible. Yet Noah’s trust in God’s Word caused him to believe it. And this brings us to the next characteristic of Noah’s faith. This is the evidence of his faith. Three attributes of Noah’s faith proclaim the evidence of it.
A. His attitude
The first attribute of Noah’s faith that proclaims the evidence of it is his attitude. Look at how the author describes it. “By faith, Noah being warned by God about things not seen, IN REVERENCE prepared an ark.” Noah’s attitude toward God was one of holy fear or reverence, deepest respect. He didn’t question God by his demands. In reverence he went to work. And what we must understand here is that he didn’t allow ridicule, persecution or peer pressure to dissuade him from his task. There was no fear of man in his heart because he had a fear of God. The quotation we have in our bulletin this morning by William Gurnall sums it up. He said, “We fear men so much because we fear God so little. One fear causes another. When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.” Noah’s great awe of God allowed Him to do what He was told by God.
Nor did he allow the fact that he had never seen a global flood nor such a large boat to dissuade him from the task at hand because his reverence for God overshadowed the difficulties. We could say it this way; the overwhelming greatness of the task and the persecution were small in Noah’s sight in comparison with God. God was much bigger to Noah than anything else he would ever encounter.
Real biblical faith causes God to be big in our eyes. If your problems are bigger than God then your faith is not resting in the God of the Bible. If your sin and its hold upon your life is bigger than God then your faith has not settled upon the God of Scripture. If persecution and the allurements of this world can cause you to forsake God or at least put Him on the back burner then your faith has not discovered the God of the Word.
True biblical faith causes us to truly reverence God. If you truly believe that God is the greatest in the way the Bible describes Him then we will diligently serve Him in the midst of conflict and difficulty. Reverence for God is a quality that those who know God possess. How do you know if you possess biblical faith? You have a blessed fear of God. This is the beginning of wisdom.
Reverence also allows us to say, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Reverence is what allowed Noah to condemn the world who didn’t want to believe the words of God. Because of his reverence he boldly proclaimed the truth of God’s Word without backing down, without compromising and without giving in to a world that beckoned to Noah to “do something better with your life than build a boat.” But his reverence caused Him to do what was best, that is to obey God. And this brings us to the next attribute of Noah’s faith that proclaimed the evidence of it. This was his action.
B. His action
In verse 7 we see, “in reverence, he prepared an ark.” Here is the crux of the faith matter. True biblical faith is obedient. True biblical faith is not devoid of works. Works do not save an individual, this is true, but faith without works is not a faith that is vital or alive. Noah’s faith caused him to do what God had said. When you look through the flood account you find that four times the passage describes Noah’s action. 6:22 says, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” Noah obeyed God. And his obedience wasn’t half-hearted. It was according to all that God had commanded him. Imagine with me if Noah had not followed all God had commanded. “Well I don’t like using this tar stuff to cover the wood. It’s too sticky. I use this flour paste instead.” Noah’s faith would be sunk (literally). Real biblical faith doesn’t choose what parts of God’s Word to obey. It obeys.
Many people claim today to be God’s children but refuse to do what He says. Real believers will be like the one Isaiah speaks of. Those with true faith will allow God to open their ear to listen as a disciple. Biblical faith brings about obedience. God called Noah to build an ark. This called for great effort on Noah’s part. He was going to be building this ship for more than a century. He was going to receive ridicule from those around him for more than a century. He was going to be persecuted for his faith for more than a century. Yet it was that faith that caused him to be obedient to God. He did all that God commanded him. What about you? Do you have faith that makes you obedient to the Word of God? God calls you to live differently than the world. But do you find yourself simply caught up in being like the world when God calls you to be a light in it? God calls you to shine wherever you are. No excuses. No compromise. Trust Him. Then obey Him because faith without works is dead.
C. His attainments
Finally the third attribute of Noah’s faith that proclaimed the evidence of it is his attainments. The passage lists two attainments Noah achieved through faith.
1. (temporal) Salvation for his household
The first attainment Noah achieved through faith was salvation for his household. Verse 7 says, “In reverence [he] prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world.” We might call this a temporal achievement. An achievement limited to this world. I say it is temporal because I don’t think the author is speaking about the spiritual salvation of his family. I believe he is describing their physical escape from the global deluge. I call this temporal but his attainment in this area is truly significant. It was a momentous event. You could say it was so important that it was cosmic. Maybe you’d retort, “But he only saved 8 people. In 120 years of proclaiming this impending judgment only 7 others listened and believed. His results were very limited and minute in scope.” But to you with a doubting heart, I tell you, look around. Look at each and every person in this place. Where ever you go look at every person and animal. This is what Noah accomplished. It is a pretty significant achievement if you ask me. He didn’t just save his family he saved civilization.
So let me ask you, what are doing to impact your household to make a difference for God? Will you be remembered by what you did for God in the next century? Noah is remembered 6000 years later. I think this is significant. You need to ask yourself how God wants to use you to change your family, to change your community, or even to change your country. What it will take for you is to walk by faith. Noah too, the Scripture says, walked with God. The immense work he set out to accomplish for God was accompanied by a walk with God that sustained him day by day. He would not have completed his task God sent him to do without having this daily walk with God.
He was a man for his generation because he walked with God. You will be swept down in the undertow of the world’s current if you do not walk with God. If you want to be a man or woman for your generation you need to daily walk with God. This is what faith is all about. If God’s Word is trustworthy then you need to walk with Him in it. You may not have such wide sweeping generational impact as our father Noah but you never know. The shoe salesman who led D. L. Moody to Christ never knew the impact he would have on the world.
2. (eternal) Righteousness for his inheritance
The next attainment Noah achieved by faith was righteousness for his inheritance. This is an eternal achievement. The verse says, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” We have been speaking about this righteousness by faith for several weeks. We have said it is the central truth of the Scripture. Because he believed God, God credited his faith as righteousness. His works didn’t save him but his faith did. His obedient action came out of his faith. Noah received an eternal inheritance of righteousness because of his faith. He didn’t gain what the world was offering him and that was good because what the world offers is a pathway that leads to death. He received eternal life through the righteousness God bestowed upon Him.
And God wants you to have this same righteousness so that you too might receive eternal life. But He will give it to you only if you are willing to humble yourself and forsake your own attempts to earn God’s favor. If you will receive it in faith through the work Jesus did for you by taking your sins upon Himself on the cross. He will give you eternal life if you will repent of your sin and trust Him.
Now let me speak to every believer here today. Will you think only of small things for yourself because it is too much work and pain and sacrifice to live above a generation and be transformed instead of conformed? Some of you will heed this call to radical faith in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Your faith in the Word of God will cause you to discipline yourself and your time to be effective for Christ now. But some of you will set your sights on your pleasure and comfort to dissuade you from thinking the effort is worth the results. But I tell you that I am going with the first group I will diligently help any of you who are interested in making an impact in this generation for Christ. If you are willing to put off the wicked practices of this world and allow the Word of God and the Spirit of God to mold you into the image of Christ so you have a vibrant testimony for Him then let me help you.
Spend yourself for things that are invisible and for the things that are incredible. And if you keep going, pressing on in following the Word of God for the next 120 years I will be there beside you. Throw aside that which is hindering your walk and testimony for Christ and follow me as I follow Christ.
Will you be a man or woman for our times? Let God make you one through faith in His Word. Let me close with the words of the apostle Paul, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (by faith in the Word of God), so that you may prove what the will of God is.” Be a Christian man or woman for our times. Go forward for Christ.