Noah’s Faith
Text: Hebrews 11:7, Gen. 6
Intro:
This has been a rough week for the church. We have had to say good-bye both Andrea and Bro. Bush. It is always heard to lose a loved one, but to lose two within just a few days can be devastating. It is times like this that we look to God and wonder if He really does know what it going on down here? Does He care that we are hurting? Couldn’t He have let us recover the loss of one loved one before taking another? Probably, we could just boil our questions down to one word – “Why?”
I’ve heard that word spoken several times this week. I’ve heard it spoken by not only by grieving family and friends, but I’ve heard it in the fathoms of my own heart. As your pastor, I want to be able to give you the answer and so I have pounded on heaven’s door pleading for an answer. The answer I received was the story of Noah.
I. Trust in the Personhood of God
Genesis chapter 6 tells of that world where everyone was doing wicked. Hate and violence were everywhere. People had rejected God, His teachings, His love. God had decided that He was going to destroy all of mankind. Satan had so corrupted the entirety of the human race that He did not feel like it was worth redeeming.
Things must have been really bad. It is hard to destroy something you have made. When you have put time and effort into something, you wish to preserve it. But a strange thing happened, as God was taking a final inventory of the immorality of man, God noticed Noah. No, God had not forgotten Noah – not even for a moment. What the author of Genesis wanted us to see was that though the world had gotten to the point that it should be destroyed, God could not do it because there was yet a righteous man left.
It is hard for us to understand God. In fact, we can’t. He is so far higher and greater than us that He exceeds the scope of our imaginations. We cannot understand the One who inhabits eternity. We cannot understand the One who comprehends and knows all things. If our parents did not live to please the Lord, sometimes we grow up with a warped sense of who God is. We may fear that God will abandon us, hurt us, or just doesn’t care. God knows this and so He tries to show Who He is throughout Scripture using images we would understand.
Genesis – Creator & promised Redeemer
Exodus – the Passover Lamb
Leviticus – High Priest
Numbers – water in the desert
Deuteronomy – He becomes the curse for us
Joshua – Commander of the army of the Lord
Judges – delivers us from injustice
Ruth – our Kinsman-Redeemer
1 Samuel – all in one, He is the Prophet/Priest/King
2 Samuel – King of grace & love
1 Kings – a Ruler greater than Solomon
2 Kings – the powerful prophet
1 Chronicles – Son of David that is coming to rule
2 Chronicles – the King who reigns eternally
Ezra – Priest proclaiming freedom
Nehemiah – the One who restores what is broken down
Esther – Protector of his people
Job – Mediator between God and man
Psalms – our song in the morning and in the night
Proverbs – our wisdom
Ecclesiastes – our meaning for life
Song of Solomon – Author of faithful love
Isaiah – Suffering Servant
Jeremiah – the weeping Messiah
Lamentations – He assumes God’s wrath for us
Ezekiel – Son of Man
Daniel – the stranger in the fire with us
Hosea – faithful husband even when we run away
Joel – He is sending His Spirit to His people
Amos – delivers justice to the oppressed
Obadiah – Judge of those who do evil
Jonah – the greatest missionary
Micah – He casts our sin into the sea of forgetfulness
Nahum – proclaims future world peace we cannot even imagine
Habakkuk – crushes injustice
Zephaniah – the Warrior who saves
Haggai – restores our worship
Zechariah – prophesies a Messiah pierced for us
Malachi – sun of righteousness who brings healing
Matthew – the Messiah who is King
Mark – the Messiah who is a Servant
Luke – the Messiah who is a Deliverer
John – the Messiah who is a God in the flesh
Acts – the Spirit who dwells in His people
Romans – the righteousness of God
1 Corinthians – the power and love of God
2 Corinthians – He is the down payment of what’s to come
Galatians – He is our very life
Ephesians – the unity of our church
Philippians – the joy of our life
Colossians – holds the supreme position in all things
1 Thessalonians – our comfort in the last days
2 Thessalonians – our returning King
1 Timothy – Savior of the worst sinners
2 Timothy – leader of the leaders
Titus – foundation of truth
Philemon – our Mediator
Hebrews – our High Priest
James – He matures our faith
1 Peter – our hope in times of suffering
2 Peter – the One who guards us from false teaching
1 John – source of all fellowship
2 John – God in the flesh
3 John – source of all truth
Jude – protects us from stumbling
Revelation – King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
The Alpha and the Omega,
The Beginning and the End, and
He is coming again and the One who makes all things new. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/blogs/philip-nation/in-every-book-of-the-bible.html)
Jesus tells us that He is the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep and that God is our heavenly father. God loves us very much. He could not destroy Noah, because He loved Noah. Noah was doing right. Noah was faithfully serving God. So though God had thought to destroy mankind, He couldn’t because God’s own righteousness, grace, and justice would not allow Him to do so. We can trust the Personhood of God.
II. Trust in the Prescriptions of God
When God told Noah to build an ark, He told Noah exactly how to do it. He told Noah that it was to be made of gopher wood, pitched in and out with pitch, the length was to be 300 cubits, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. It was to have one window, one door, and three stories.
God laid down just exactly how he wanted the ark to be built. God gives us prescriptions on how He wants us to live. If God tells us to make it 300 cubits long, then we better not try to get away with 299 cubits.
Jesus said that we had to follow Him for He was the only way to heaven. People don’t want to do things God’s way, they want to do them their own way. Cain wanted to sacrifice vegetables when God required a blood sacrifice. King Saul wanted to keep the best of the livestock for himself when God commanded it all to be destroyed. Simon the Sorcerer wanted to by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than to surrender himself to the will of God.
Today, people want to worship God at home alone, in nature, or over the TV/radio/internet rather than at church with fellow believers though God tells us that we need to worship together. People want a God that serves them rather than serving God.
Whatever God says in His Word to do, we must do. We may not like it. We may not feel like it. Maybe we would rather do something else. But God is God. He knows the future. He knows what is best for us. He even knows us better than we know ourselves. When He tells us to do or not to do something, then we can know that what God says is the final word.
III. Trust God’s Protection
When you have trusted God’s personhood and followed his prescriptions, then you can trust in God’s protection. We do not know what it was like for Noah and his family during the storm. We do not know if they suffered seasickness. I am sure that they were tempted to doubt God. I am sure that they wondered if God had forgotten them as they looked outside that one window only to see water everywhere.
In the storms of our lives, when it seems like God has forgotten us, we can trust God that He will protect us. When the waters of sorrow rise, they will not sink our ship. When the winds of adversity blow, they will not cause us to capsize. When the fire of trials and temptations burn hot, they will only purify and not burn us.
Conc:
As an aged Christian lay dying, a friend called to say farewell. “I have just had three other visitors,” said the dying man, “and with two of them I parted; but the third I shall keep with me forever.”
“Who are they?” “the first was Faith, and I said, ‘Goodbye, Faith! I thank God for your company ever since I first trusted Christ; but now I am going where faith is lost in sight.’ Then came Hope. ‘Farewell, Hope!’ I cried. ‘You have helped me in many an hour of battle and distress, but now I shall not need you, for I am going where hope passes into fruition.’
“Last of all came Love. ‘Love’, said I, ‘you have indeed been my friend; you have linked me with God and with my fellow men; you have comforted and gladdened all my pilgrimage. But I cannot leave you behind; you must come with me through the gates, into the city of God, for love is perfected in heaven.’” - Sunday School Chronicle.
