November 26, 2001 Hebrews 11:7; Genesis 6:11-21
“The voyage of faith”
1. Noah’s faith was grounded on the word of God. “warned”
the nature of the people (Gen 6:5,11-12 “…every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”)
God gave a warning (Gen 6:13)
we live with warnings all the time yellow lights, cigarette packs [illus. Warning on the pharmacist on the sheet in Ben’s medicine]
this was a very serious warning – total destruction of the earth on all living creatures on it
it was a warning that God was under no obligation to give. Cigarette companies must put a warning on cigarette packs. They don’t do it because they have a concern for cigarette smokers. They do it because the gov’t says that they must. They have no choice. God, on the other hand, was not forced to give any warning. The people had already rejected God and His way. God was perfectly justified in destroying them without warning. But God had no desire to see his creation destroyed. His desire is that all men come to repentance. [illus. I, as a parent, am not obligated to give my children warnings. They know the rules and what the consequences of breaking those rules are going to be. Once they mess up, I am justified in passing out punishment immediately. But usually I don’t. I give warning after warning. Why? Because I have no real desire to pass out punishment.] Gen. 6 says that God was sorry – it hurt Him – that He had even made man because they had rejected His appeals and were now going to have to face his judgment. The giving of the warning itself is an evidence of God’s love and concern. It is evidence that it is not God’s desire to judge mankind even though that is his right.
All that Noah had to go on was God’s word – “not yet seen”
Noah had never seen rain much less a flood, and yet God told him that it was going to rain so hard that the water would destroy the flood. It’s difficult to believe a warning about something that you have never seen before. [illus. How many of us two months ago would have believed a warning about two planes being flown into the WTC towers? We’ve never seen anything like it before.]
Ever since 9/11, we have become very familiar with a new phrase in our everyday language – “credible warnings”. Due to a “credible warning”, all the bridges in California around San Francisco were put on high alert and increased surveillance. There was the thought that one of them would be attacked. Nothing happened. After the bombing began in Afghanistan, we were told that there was a 100% chance that there would be a new terrorist attack here in the states. So we all held our breath…and nothing happened. With each “credible warning” and each averted catastrophe, we begin to file those warnings in the “to be ignored” category of our brains. The more “credible warnings” that go unfulfilled, the more they lose their credibility.
All that Noah had to go on was God’s word both for judgment and for salvation. He had no evidence – none whatsoever – that what God said could or would happen. And even if the judgment did come, he had to trust that God’s plan for salvation was going to work. Noah had never seen a boat. And he had certainly never been trained as a ship-builder. He was a farmer in all likelihood. But God said that the world was going to be destroyed and that a boat built by Noah would provide rescue for Noah, his family, and all the animals of the earth. All that Noah had to go on was God’s word. But for Noah, that was enough!
[illus. Disciples’ fishing experience “because you say so, Lord”. These were experienced fishermen. They had worked all night and caught nothing. Everything about their lifelong experience told them that what Jesus said was foolish. Everything that their aching bodies said told them to disregard what Jesus said. Every sense told them that it couldn’t happen the way that Jesus said. It couldn’t be that easy. But they went against what their senses told them because Jesus said so.; Peter walking on the water. Jesus said, “Come”, and Peter came. All that they had to go on was the word of God, but that was enough.]
But that’s what faith is all about, isn’t it. Remember the definition that Heb. 11:1 gives. “Faith is the substance of the things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is taking what God has said and believing it simply because it was God that said it…even if there is no evidence to back it up.
Whenever you trust the source of a warning, it brings about a change in your life. Noah trusted God completely, and because of God’s warning, Noah’s life would never be the same.
2. Noah’s faith changed the direction of his life.
[illus. When we watch the weatherman, if we believe him, it changes the way we live our lives, at least for that day. It determines what we wear, whether we take an umbrella with us or not, whether or not we have to go to school, or whether or not that urge to not even get out of bed gets the better of us. Our faith in the weatherman, who is statistically not a very good prophet, changes the way that we live our lives.]
Noah believed God, and that belief turned his life inside out. Two things in particular were changed in Noah’s life by his faith.
It changed his attitude. “fear”
Your beliefs control who you fear and who you don’t. [illus. “Monsters, Inc.” – monsters have been told that children are a dangerous thing and have the capability of destroying their world. This belief controls their fear and therefore their behavior when they are confronted with a harmless little girl]
Noah didn’t fear people. He preached to them.
Noah did fear God. He took God seriously. He didn’t play around with God. [illus. You don’t play around with medicine that is prescribed by your doctor. You follow the directions completely especially when those medicines if used incorrectly might have very serious side effects]
Noah’s attitude was the motivation for the next thing that changed about his life.
It changed his actions. “built”
Some people allow their fear to stifle their activity. But that’s because they have a fear of men, not a fear of God. A fear of God always motivates to activity.
God was very specific about the blueprints for the boat. (450 ft. long, 75 ft. wide, 45 ft. tall; gopher wood; 3 decks; coated with pitch or tar inside and out; one window; one door)
It was basically a giant floating box.
What if Noah had said, “Ok, God. I believe you about the coming judgment, and I believe that a boat is the answer. But I don’t much like your design specs. I want to build it out of pine. It’s a lot closer to my house. The gopher wood is a lot harder to get to. And I don’t want the boat to be so boxy. It needs to have some grace and some style. It needs a jacuzzi and a sushi bar. It needs his and her staterooms and a shuffleboard on the top deck. And it definitely needs a lot more windows to air out the smell of all those animals. I want to be a classy captain looking down on all those drowning people. I want to be sitting in my captain’s chair looking down my nose at those people when I say, “Told you so!” And one more thing, Lord. Why don’t we change the name of this boat from Noah’s ark to “Noah’s yacht”?” Noah didn’t make any of these changes because he knew that the ark wasn’t built for pleasure; it was built for survival.
But there were some things left out of the plans that even a ship built only for survival should have. There were no lifeboats. There was no “plan B”. If this ark didn’t work, then all was lost. Noah’s total faith and trust had to be in God’s one means of salvation. So it is with us. There is no plan B apart from Jesus. We’ve placed all of our trust in Him.
There was also no rudder and no steering wheel on this giant boat. Noah had no means of determining what direction the boat was going to go. He was at the mercy of God. He let God take Him wherever He wanted. We could learn a lot from Noah. We are more than willing to get on God’s ark of safety but once there, we want to steer things in the direction that we think is best. God’s got a direction for us to go. And if we let Him do the steering, we’ll wind up not only at the place of safety but also the place of beauty.
Noah’s ark wasn’t built for style, grace, beauty, pleasure or maneuverability. It was built for stability. It was built for survival. It was built to provide salvation for the human race.
Noah had a choice to make. He could either change God’s plans, or he could allow God’s plans to change his life.
Once Noah received the plans, he picked up his ax, kissed his wife and headed out the door. (Gen. 6:22 “Noah did everything…”) There were a lot of things on Noah’s “to-do” list for that day. There were a lot of things on his “honey-do” list for that day. But both of those had to be put aside. When you have a choice between fixing a leaky faucet and saving the world, which would you do? [illus. In 1983 John Sculley quit his post at Pepsico to become the president of Apple Computer. He took a big risk leaving his prestigious position with a well-established firm to join ranks with an unproven little outfit that offered no guarantee, only the excitement of one man’s transforming vision. Sculley says he made the risky move after Apple cofounder Steve Jobs goaded him with the question, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” – Flying Closer to the Flame, Chuck Swindoll, p. 39
As Noah built, the direction of his life changed further still. Noah not only built, but he also…
“preached” (2 Peter 2:5)
Noah’s neighbors started to notice that something weird was going on over at Noah’s house. They could tell he was building something – something BIG. But they had no idea what it was. Finally, the neighbors could stifle their curiosity no longer. One of them was elected to go see what was going on. “Hey Noah. What you building?” Noah – “A boat.” Neighbor – “A boat?! There’s no water near us. The closest lake is a day’s walk away. Why in the world are you building a boat, and why are you building it so big?!” Noah – “God told me that He is getting ready to destroy the world with a flood. I’m building this boat for my family, the animals of the earth and anyone else who wants to come with us. Do you want to come?” And then the laughter starts.
That neighbor goes and tells the other neighbors. They come in small groups at first, but the bigger the boat gets, the bigger the crowds get. And each time the crowds come, Noah’s response to their questions is the same: “God told me that He is getting ready to destroy the world with a flood. I’m building this boat for my family, the animals of the earth and anyone else who wants to come with us. Do you want to come?” And the laughter just kept getting louder and louder.
For 120 years, Noah built, Noah preached, and people laughed.
But Noah kept on building, and he kept on preaching.
It would have been a lot easier on Noah and his family if he had been able to keep all this building stuff hidden – if everything hadn’t been so public. But it’s kind of hard to hide the fact that you’re building something when that something is 1 ½ football fields long, a football field wide and the equivalent height of a 4-story building. Noah had no choice but to make his faith public.
There are several things that we do in this church that are intentionally very public. There’s baptism. Baptism doesn’t change a thing about your standing before God, but it makes public to everyone there that you have chosen Christ as your Savior. In this church, we ask you to come forward and make a public stand if you want to become a member of this church. Again, that doesn’t change a whole lot for you personally. It means that you get to vote on decisions in the church, and it opens up a few more areas of ministry for you in the church. But much more important than either of those is that it says to everyone here that you are publicly proclaiming your support of this body and your willingness to do whatever God says to help it to reach the potential that God has for it. When we give the invitation at the close of each service, you can make a decision for Christ for salvation or for surrender right there at your chair. You don’t have to come forward and talk to me or talk to God at the altar. But making it public will solidify that decision in your heart. It will cause other people to pray for you and with you. And it will do one more thing.
Making his faith public gave Noah the opportunity to provoke faith in other people. When you make your decisions for Christ public, you provoke faith in other people. You get people that are already a part of this church excited about what is going on here. You provoke them to start inviting friends to come and see what is going on just like Noah’s very public building of a boat provoked his neighbors to invite their friends to come and see what was going on. And you just might get people that have not yet made up their mind about Jesus to walk this aisle to Him as they see you being willing to stand up in front of everyone for Him.
Noah’s public building of a boat gave him the opportunity to tell the world about the way of rescue that God had provided. Noah couldn’t keep his faith a secret anymore.
The whole direction of Noah’s life was changed by the faith that he had. It caused him to build and it caused him to preach. See, Noah had learned something that most of us have yet to get a handle on. Faith is not just something that you have; it is something that you live by. It changes everything about your life. “The just shall live by faith.” (Heb. 10:38)
Noah’s faith did more than just impact his life on a daily basis, and it impacted more than just him personally.
3. Noah’s faith influenced every part of his world.
It saved his family. “saved”
Noah’s faith in what God said, and his willingness to build a boat as a result of that faith provided the means for the rescue of his family. Noah couldn’t force his family to get into the ark with him. All that he could do was provide the means for their salvation and tell them what God had said would happen if they chose to disbelieve him. They had to make the decision to walk through that door. But Noah had lived such a life of integrity before his children that when he told them this wild story about a coming flood, they believed him and responded.
No one can make another person come to Jesus, and I can’t make you live a life of faith in Jesus. That is a decision that each person must make for themselves. But I can put before you that option. I can declare to you the truth so that if you choose to live according to God’s Word, you will be saved.
It condemned his neighbors. “condemned”
The more information that you have, the greater your responsibility if you choose not to respond to that information. Noah’s neighbors had a constant reminder for 120 years that the flood was coming. They heard the constant clink of the hammers. Every time they looked out their windows, there was that monstrosity casting a shadow over their homes. They knew the truth, but they chose to ignore it.
The Bible tells us that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. But when we refuse the truth, when you refuse to listen to the clink of the hammers as they nailed Jesus to the cross, when you refuse to see the shadow of the cross that is cast every time you pass a hill in WV, then you stand condemned before God. When you stand before God at the judgment throne and He asks why you didn’t listen to the truth that surrounded you, you will have nothing to say. God will be shone to be perfectly just in condemning you to an eternity of punishment.
That is not God’s desire. Even as Noah was proclaiming God’s coming judgment, he was building the way for them to escape that judgment. God mercifully waited the whole time it took to build the ark before He poured out His judgment (1 Pet 3:20). But God’s mercy ran out, and His justice took over (Gen. 6:3).
It made him righteous. “became heir”
It wasn’t the fact that Noah built an ark or preached for 120 years that gained righteousness for Noah. It wasn’t that he was sinless either. (NOTE: drunkenness in Gen. 9:2) It was Noah’s faith in what God said that made him righteous before God. It was the fact that he was willing to change his mind about himself, his world, and his future based solely on the word of God. He walked by faith, not by sight.
