It Takes Faith (Part Four) Series

IT TAKES FAITH (part four)

Hebrews 11:7

INTRODUCTION: Last week we looked at Hebrews 11:5-6 and the account of Enoch. The next verse in Hebrews talks about Enoch's great-grandson, Noah. As we continue our series on what it takes faith to do we'll see it takes faith to commit to the seemingly impossible.

Hebrews 11:7, "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 comes by faith."

1) Noah was warned.

First we see that God warned Noah that the flood was coming.

Gen. 6:9-22, "This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it.

Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

Noah did everything just as God commanded him."

God chose Noah because he was righteous. And his righteousness was a result of his faith for it is faith that declares us to be righteous as the bible supports. Noah was blameless. He wasn't sinless but he was without a lifestyle of sin; he was above reproach. Noah stayed true to God when those around him weren't. This was because Noah walked with God; he was close to God. That faith and closeness enabled him to live righteously in an unrighteous world.

We see that God warned Noah of his coming judgment and told him what to do and Noah obeyed. When we have faith God will warn us of things. I think this is mainly seen in His Spirit pricking us about heading into a situation that would not be good or making a poor decision or engaging with certain people. There will be a feeling of uneasiness; a warning sign from God that something isn't right. We can ignore it and proceed or we can heed it and change our course of action.

Perhaps there will be times when God's warning comes and we have the opportunity to warn others. I believe Noah did that. 2nd Peter 2:5 calls Noah a 'preacher of righteousness'. Noah took the warning that God gave him and shared it with the people as he took to building the ark. People were going to be inquisitive as to what in the world this guy was up to. Noah had continual opportunities to share what God had divulged to him.

God may alert us regarding a situation someone else is dealing with and he wants us to speak to them about it. so we go to them and warn them that what they're about to do will not turn out well. And, as with us, they can heed the warning and avert a dangerous situation or ignore our intervention and suffer for it.

I've seen it happen where people have gone against my warnings and things turned out badly for them. I know I haven't always heeded the warnings I've received but the point is that God will give us warnings and when he does we need to heed them and perhaps even share them.

2) Noah was moved by holy fear.