(I opened by pretending to read a children story about Noah. Then I read 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.”
PRAYER
Now, the first part of Hebrews 11:7 tells us that God WARNED Noah - and Noah believed God. Faith is essentially believing God. Believing that God did what He did, said what He meant, and He’ll do what He promised.
ILLUS: Years ago I was visiting with some relatives and one of them said: “I’ve never met anybody who BELIEVED that God sent a flood that cover the whole earth”
Well, now she had! If the Bible says something happened… I believe it! And that’s especially true of the story of Noah and the flood.
ILLUS: Back in 2007, Reuters wrote a story about the Creation Museum in Kentucky. They wrote: “The Christian creators of the sprawling museum, unveiled on Saturday, hope to draw as many as half a million people each year to their state-of-the-art project, which depicts the Bible's first book, Genesis, as literal truth. While the $27 million museum near Cincinnati has drawn snickers from media and condemnation from U.S. scientists, those who believe God created the heavens and the Earth in six days about 6,000 years ago say their views are finally being represented.”
And Reuters lamented “almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by god in their present form within the last 10,000 years.”
Now, of course my faith doesn’t depend upon the applause of the media, or approval of scientists. I could spend Sunday after Sunday giving you true geological and historical reasons why I can believe that there was a literal man named Noah who built a huge boat filled with every kind of animal - a boat that survived a world-wide flood that washed the earth clean of all evil. And THEN… God started all over again.
I could give you all kinds of useful information to encourage your faith in that, but I only need ONE SOURCE of information for me to believe all of that is true! (PAUSE) God said it happened.
In Genesis 7:20-22 “The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And ALL FLESH DIED that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. EVERYTHING on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life DIED.”
Peter wrote: “… by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged (flooded) and destroyed.” II Peter 3:5-6
And most importantly, Jesus said: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26-27
THAT’S ALL I NEED. I don’t need my faith to be confirmed by geology. It is, but I don’t need that. I don’t need my faith to be confirmed by history. It is, but I don’t need that. If God said it happened… it happened.
And that’s how Noah reasoned. God warned Noah, and Noah believed him – and then he ACTED on that belief. Hebrews 11:1 tells us “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of WHAT WE DO NOT SEE.” Faith is not based on what we can SEE
Do you realize that Noah had probably never seen a flood? In fact, the Bible implies that he’d never even seen it rain. Genesis 2:5-6 tells us "God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground."
So, for 120 years… while Noah built the ark: Noah preached to people about a flood they’d never seen before. He warned of massive rains they’d never experienced. And he built a boat unlike any they’d ever beheld.
And the wonder is NOT that the people of his day did not believe. The wonder is that Noah DID BELIEVE! But that’s why Noah was chosen. He was a righteous man - a man of FAITH. When God warned of “events NOT YET SEEN” Noah believed God.
But how could Noah POSSIBLY believe in something he’d never seen? He believed because God told him so, and that was enough.
But that couldn’t have been easy for Noah! It’s never comfortable to step away from the crowd. Noah’s lifestyle… and his behavior “CONDEMNED” the world. “By (constructing the Ark to save his family) he condemned the world” Hebrews 11:7
ILLUS: My sister Barbranne had left Jesus and the church for the better part of her adult life. But when she reached her late 40s she began to realize she’d ruined herself spiritually and physically and she wanted to come back to Christ. She went out and bought a children’s Bible so she could reacquaint herself with the stories she’d heard as a child.
She started going back to church, and she began to change her lifestyle. But she still went to parties where her friends drank and got drunk. It’s just she didn’t get drunk. She’d go, enjoy their friendship and drink from a cup of Pepsi. When everyone else was drunk on the floor, she’d still be sober and having a “good time.” But at one of these parties, one of the men approached her and said “What’s the matter (pointing to her glass of Pepsi)? Are you too good to drink with us?”
She had never said anything to condemn him, but her behavior brought this man under conviction. He felt condemned by her actions. People don’t like that. They don’t like being reminded that they might be doing something wrong.
That’s why so many in this world despise Christians and the Church (not that there aren’t church goers and churches who give them good reason to despise them because of their self-righteousness and hypocrisy), but if we do our faith right, our very commitment to holiness will convict people of their own sins. They not going to like us!!!!
But notice it was Noah’s building of the Ark that condemned the world. He DID SOMETHING, and what he did made people uncomfortable, because it pointed out their own sinful lives.
NOAH BUILT AN ARK. Someone said: “It’s one thing to say you believe in something, but so much more to prove it.” Bob Perks
It’s kind of like Reuter’s response to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. It was just ONE museum! They weren’t staging protests, or burning buildings, or shooting people, they were simply saying the Bible is right!!!!
And Reuters reported that when the museum wasn’t even OPENED yet “Scientists, secularists and moderate Christians pledged to protest the museum's public opening. An airplane trailing a ‘Thou Shalt Not Lie’ banner buzzed overhead during the museum's opening news conference.”
Why would these people do this? Well, because this museum stood for God in a world that rejected God and His Word.
Reuters wrote: “Opponents argued that children who see the exhibits will be confused when they learn in school that the universe is 14 billion years old rather than 6,000.” But that wasn’t really the problem! The problem was that the museum refused to CONFORM to the thinking of our world.
And that’s exactly why Noah probably got all kinds of grief from his neighbors and the gawkers who’d travel for miles around just to see this strange boat he was building.
And that’s exactly why YOU – when you take your faith seriously - will encounter people who will mock you, or avoid you, or will give you a hard time in the hopes of making you trip up in your faith.
Jesus told us: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:10-11
In John, Jesus told His followers: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:19
IT’S JUST PART OF THE DEAL!
But, in spite of the mocking and laughter and even hatred he probably experienced, Noah still had to build the boat. And you have to believe that, at times, it had to be lonely.
Someone once wrote: “Noah built the Ark and voyaged alone with his family. His neighbors laughed at his strangeness and they perished in style. Abraham wandered and worshipped alone. The Sodomites smiled at the simple shepherd. They followed the fashion, and fed the flames. Daniel dined and prayed alone. Elijah sacrificed and witnessed alone. Jeremiah prophesied and wept alone. JESUS loved and died alone.”
Sometimes following God can be a lonesome experience. That’s why Jesus said we needed to count the cost. We need to decide whether it’s worth it to (sometimes) stand alone to follow God.
Now… why was NOAH willing to pay the price that he paid? Hebrews 11:7 says“…in reverent fear (Noah) constructed an ark for the saving of his household.” He built the boat to save his family. True, Noah preached to everyone, and tried to save others (2 Peter 2:5 says he was a “preacher of righteousness” NKJV) but his major focus was that his life’s work would save his loved ones.
The same should be true for all of us. We should build our faith in Jesus so strong that our lives influence our children/grandchildren, so that they will love Jesus as much as we do. Because we want to save them and be with them in Heaven.
Now, a couple final thoughts. Did you realize… there were some things that were left out of the plans for the ARK that that even a ship built only for survival should have had (taken from a sermon by Chris Talton)
1st - There were no lifeboats. Not a single one. When Titanic hit the iceberg, one of the great tragedies of that collision was that they didn’t have enough lifeboats. They didn’t think they’d need them. But the Ark had NO lifeboats. There was no “plan B”. If the ARK didn’t float – it was all over - everything was lost. Noah’s total faith and trust had to be in GOD and in God’s ONE PLAN of salvation.
And that’s the way with us. There is no plan B. Apart from Jesus there is no hope. Jesus is the only way this thing works for us, and Jesus only works if we place ALL of our trust in Him.
2nd - There was no rudder and no ship’s wheel on this giant boat. Noah had NO WAY to control which way the ship was going to go. He was TOTALLY at the mercy of God. He had to let God take control. He had to let God take him wherever God wanted him to go.
We could learn a lot from Noah, because God had a direction He wanted Noah to go, and God has a direction that He wants us to go. Ephesians 2:10 tells us “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
I read a guy once who mocked the idea that God has a blueprint for our lives. He didn’t God would do such a thing for us. BUT GOD DOES HAVE A BLUE PRINT! Ephesians 2:10 says that God has prepared good works in advance … for us to do. It sounds like a blueprint to me! God has a plan for your life, and the adventure is finding out what He can do in your life.
ONE LAST THING. The story of Noah and the Ark, is the story of the Gospel message. The first part of the Gospel message is this – there’s a judgment coming. And if you don’t get on-board, you’re going to drown in your sins.
Ephesians 2:1-3 tells us that before we became Christians… we “were dead in the trespasses and sins in which (we) once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience —among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and (we) were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” We were (like those in Noah’s day) children of wrath… doomed to destruction.
But those who lived in Noah’s day had a choice. Peter writes that “the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished… The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” II Peter 3:6 & 9
God was patient even with the people before the flood. He gave them over 100 years to repent, but they just didn’t want to change their lives… so they died.
But all they had to do was BELIEVE that God wanted to save them, and all they had to do was REPENT of the lives they’d lived - to leave their past lives and get on board the one vessel that could save them. Because, on their own, they didn’t stand a chance.
And that’s what God wants us to realize - you can’t make it on your own, you’ll drown in your own sins; you’ll perish in your despair and misery. But there’s ONE WAY, and only one way, to avoid the devastation sin can cause in your life. That way is through Jesus (we used a graphic of Jesus at the door of the Ark with the following passages on either side) Jesus said “I am the way the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) And “I am the door. If anyone enters through me he will be saved…” (John 10:9)
You see, the only thing you need to decide is this: Are you willing to accept Jesus on his terms? I Peter 3:20-22 sums it up this way: “when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
We appeal to God, through baptism, for a good conscience. And we do that through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But this is a “Limited Time Offer.” There will come when the door will be shut, and no man can open it.
INVITATION
