Unprecedented Faith
“Noah: End Times Faith”
Genesis 6
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Now, if I had to name someone who could easily be identified as the Poster Child of unprecedented faith, it would be Noah. I have come to that conclusion because of what we see happening in his world and in our own. And truthfully, I don’t see much of a difference between the world we live in today, a world people are calling “Unprecedented,” and the world that Noah lived in.
So, let’s take a look at Noah’s world. The first thing we see is that wickedness was rampant, not only in humanity’s actions but also in their thoughts; in other words, evil was all they could think about. Let’s take a look.
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5 NKJV)
And then we’re told a little more about what was going on.
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So, God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-12 NKJV)
Back in Noah’s time, we see corruption, that is, sin in all its forms, and all sorts of sexual immorality. And I’m not seeing much of a difference in our world today.
But tell you what, let’s keep digging, and what we see are people who couldn’t care less about what was going on. This time, however, it’s Jesus who gives us this information.
He said, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39 NKJV)
In other words, they were more concerned with their own lives than with all the evil that was going on around them.
And this should give us pause. Why? Well, it’s because of what the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1. In verses 8-32, he lists sins, not the full extent, but enough to get our attention. But then he gets to the end, and listen to what he says.
“Knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:32 NKJV)
And that is what we see in our world, and even in some of our churches. We are all sinners, yes, but we shouldn’t look away from our sins. Instead, we should confess and repent of them, and we shouldn’t approve those who are doing them.
Now, while there is much more to be said about this and how it manifests in our culture and society, the point is that this was also the culture and society of Noah’s day.
Because of this, God said He was “sorry” for creating humanity. We see this in Genesis 6:6, which says, “And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Then in verse 13, the Lord told Noah why. He said, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
But God’s sorrow wasn’t about making a mistake, because God doesn’t make mistakes. Instead, God gave humanity the freedom to choose between right and wrong (Proverbs 1:29-31), and His grief was about how far humanity had fallen from what He originally intended.
And please understand that God’s decision didn’t happen overnight. He gave humanity years to repent and change their evil ways, but as I have always said, God’s longsuffering doesn’t mean forever. In other words, there comes a time for judgment. And it wasn’t until Noah completed the ark and preached repentance that it became final.
Therefore, we can conclude that Noah possessed unprecedented faith for the unprecedented times in which he lived.
By faith, Noah heard God’s warnings about things he couldn’t see. He obeyed God and built a large boat to save his family and the animals of the world. By faith, Noah showed that the world was wrong, and he was made right with God because of his faith.
Noah found favor with God. We see this in verse eight, which reads, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8)
In other words, God liked what He saw in Noah. In a world full of corruption and chaos, where people were self-centered and self-absorbed, what made Noah so different? It was his faith.
What we see from Noah’s experience is two basic steps that made his faith unprecedented.
The first thing we see about Noah’s faith is that he believed.
Noah Believed
Now, I have to be careful, because the Bible also says that even the demons believe and tremble in fear (James 2:19). Instead, Noah’s faith went far beyond mere intellectual acknowledgment. Noah truly believed in God and that God meant what He said.
We could say that Noah believed in God despite the influence and events unfolding around him. It wasn’t easy for Noah to go against the grain and believe in God when everyone else turned their backs on God. And to make matters worse, most of Noah’s neighbors thought he was completely nuts.
So, what was the physical landscape that Noah had to contend with? Here, I am talking about the physical landscape.
“For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.” (Genesis 2:5-7)
Now, from that account, we read that, from the very beginning of creation all the way up to the time of Noah, rain was unheard of. I can just see Noah answering God, “Okay, what’s rain?” But it didn’t phase Noah’s faith, because Noah still believed in God. This is what we could call the classic definition of faith, as found in Hebrews 11:1.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Next, Noah had to believe God at His word and in His ability to make it happen.
“The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.” (Genesis 6:13-14)
Then He told Noah how to build it using the unit of measurement called “cubits.” A cubit is an ancient unit of measurement based on the distance from a person’s elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Now, the problem is: whose arm was Noah supposed to use? A giant’s or a small person’s?
Now, what they have found is that a cubit was about 18 inches. Still, when building something of such consequence, it was important to have the right measurements.
And so Noah had to believe in God and have faith that God knew what He was doing. It took, and still takes, great faith to follow God, not only when we don’t fully understand but also when everyone else is going in the opposite direction. This is what we call unprecedented faith. It takes faith and courage in one’s beliefs to go the right way, that is, God’s way, when everyone else is going the wrong way, or the way of the world.
And so, the first way Noah displayed his faith was to believe, that is, to trust with his whole being not only in the existence of God but also in His word. And then, on top of that, Noah believed that he could have a relationship with the living God and hear His words.
And this is the type of faith that God is calling us to have, namely, unprecedented faith in an unprecedented world.
Next, we see that such unprecedented faith demands obedience.
Noah Obeyed
“Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” (Genesis 6:22 NKJV)
Now, the directions God gave were not up for discussion, and they weren’t vague, so they couldn’t be interpreted as Noah saw fit. God gave specific dimensions.
To break it down, in the cubit-based system where a cubit was 18 inches, the New Living Translation translates Genesis 6:15-16 as follows: “Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.”
Talk about an understatement: “A large boat.” The magnitude of these dimensions literally dwarfs the version we learned about in our children’s books and Sunday School.
Literally, it was shaped like a barge. It was taller than a four-story building, as long as 1¼ football fields, and half as wide as a football field.
Now, while critics have tried to dismiss the ark as not seaworthy or unable to stay afloat in such a storm, a test conducted in Korea concluded that the ark’s design consistently performed among the best possible designs, which is why so many barges and boats still use these basic dimensions.
As a side note, critics also dismiss the flood as a local event rather than a worldwide event. However, the account says that the waters continued to rise until they were more than 20 feet above the mountains (Genesis 7:20).
Furthermore, the flood record appears in more than 270 legends and historical records from ancient cultures across China, Mexico, and the Middle East. We also have geological records worldwide that document a massive flood in the same strata of the Earth’s core.
While more can be said about these facts and figures, the main point is that Noah had unprecedented faith, obeyed, and built.
It reminds me of a story I heard about the Dallas Cowboys’ legendary quarterback, Roger Staubach, and their legendary coach, Tom Landry. What many don’t realize is that Staubach never called his own plays on the field. He didn’t like it, but he considered Landry a genius at football strategy, so he followed. In the end, Staubach said, “I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey, there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.”
And this is what Noah did, and this is what we need to do if we want to live in harmony, fulfillment, and victory. That is, following God’s design for life. While we may not understand exactly why God wants us to do something a certain way, we can be assured that it is always the right way. That way can be found in God’s word, the Bible.
Now, we see Noah's obedience in two additional ways.
a. Noah’s Faithfulness in Obeying
Because of Noah’s faithful response to God’s call, he stood out as a beacon of righteousness.
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” (Hebrews 11:7 NKJV)
Despite the prevailing culture of evil and wickedness, Noah chose to walk with God. He chose to be faithful, even though it took considerable time. He remained faithful to the process of building the ark and to his proclamation of God to the people.
Now, this is something we saw in our men’s study as we’re going through the book of Ezekiel. It says that because of the evil in Jerusalem, not even Noah, Daniel, or Job, in all their righteousness, could save the city or its people.
And this is brought out in Peter’s second letter, which records that God didn’t spare the ancient world, and he goes on to say, “But saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 2:5 NKJV)
b. Noah’s Obedience was Comprehensive and Proactive
“Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” (Genesis 6:22 NKJV)
The comprehensiveness of Noah’s obedience is evident in the word “all.” Noah didn’t cherry-pick God’s word to fit his preferences. He didn’t pick and choose; rather, he followed God’s word to the letter.
Also, Noah’s obedience was proactive. That is, he stepped out in faith, trusting God’s word, “and did it,” even when there was no visible evidence of an impending flood.
Conclusion: God’s Blessings
Obedience to God isn’t easy, but it’s always worth it. So what happens when we have such unprecedented faith? In a word, blessings.
When it was all over, the rain stopped, the waters receded, and the ark settled on dry ground. And look what it says.
“So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.’” (Genesis 9:1 NKJV)
The biblical principle behind this is straightforward.
Belief Coupled with Obedience Equals Blessings
Unprecedented faith recognizes that God alone is our sovereign Lord. This means He will bless us in ways that are best for His kingdom, which, by the way, always ends up being best for us.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NKJV)
As written, it doesn’t make sense. Why the definite article, “the”? It’s confusing until we understand what Paul was saying.
The term “the called” is also used by Paul at the very beginning of his letter to the Roman church. In verse six, it says, “Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.” He is referring to the saints, the “called out” ones, those who are called out of the world. When we come by faith in Jesus Christ, we are called out of this world of sin and into the kingdom of God.
Therefore, the blessing is that God will work out everything in a believer’s life, both the good and the bad, and make it what I call the Kingdom of God good. This means that when we walk by faith in God and His purposes, God’s blessings will follow.
Therefore, those who are in Jesus Christ, who believe in Him as their Savior and Lord, will be saved. I could say this another way.
Jesus is Our Ark
In other words, Jesus is our refuge and keeps us safe in these unprecedented times.
Let me conclude with this, which follows our title, “Noah: End Times Faith.” An end is coming, and God has provided a way for us to be saved and delivered, and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. So get on board by faith before the door closes.
