The Revering Faith Of Noah Series

THE REVERING FAITH OF NOAH

Hebrews 11:7

My brothers and my sisters, I have reason to believe that there is a shortage of people that revere or fear God and His word. It is evident because of not only the things that the so-called unbelievers do, but because of what many of those who attach themselves to the Lord’s church do. The world eats drink and is merry, and many in the church do the same. The world curses, swears, plays the lottery and does other worldly things. But some that are in the church does it to. Mind you, I know that the bible tells us in James 4:17, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” But there are some that know this scripture and have elected to do as they please. The only way to tell those who just attend church from those who revere the Lord, is that you will find the revering ones diligently seeking to please the Lord, and the others diligently seeking to please themselves.

As we look at the Lord’s champions of Faith in this eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we will not only see their names and hear their stories, but we will also see the type of faith they exhibited. The first three verses gave us the description of faith. But the rest including the two we just completed, shares with us the types of faith they had;

• Abel in verse four had: Worshiping faith v.4

• Enoch in verses five and six had: Walking faith vv.5 & 6

• Noah had: Working faith v.7

• Abraham had (Part I): An Obedient, Hopeful Faith, vv.8-10

• Sarah had: An Impossible Faith, vv.11-12

• The Patriarch had: Waiting Faith, vv.13-16

• Abraham also had (Part II): A Sacrificial Faith, 11:17-19

• Isaac had: A Repentant Faith, 11:20

• Jacob’s Faith was: A Worshiping Faith, 11:21

• Joseph had: An Undying Faith, 11:22

• Moses’ Parents had: A Loving, Fearless Faith, 11:23

• Moses had: A Self-Denying Faith, 11:24-28

• Israel’s Faith was: (Part I): A Delivering Faith, 11:29

• Israel’s Faith also was (Part II): A Conquering Faith, 11:30, and

• Rahab had: A Saving Faith, 11:31

All had and acted upon the faith that they had in God.

So today let’s venture into Noah’s reverential faith and see how the Lord knew that Noah revered Him, but also to see in his reverence an obedience that would move God.

First of all . . .

1. NOAH BELIEVED GOD’S WARNING (v.7a)

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear,”

Just recently BET programed a series of documentaries called “Exalted.” They are documentaries of the lives of people who through the grace of God received icon status. Just recently they showed the documentary of a preacher who received such a status but while he was there he changed his doctrinal beliefs. He started to believe in the Doctrine of Inclusion that Jesus died once for all mankind whether they accepted Him or not. He also believes that God is too merciful and loving to condemn those who he had saved according to this Doctrine of Inclusion, to send them to hell for eternal damnation. This my brothers and sister are the classic example of someone not believing the warning of God.

The text allows us to see that by faith Noah after being warned by God of the great flood, which was something that he had never seen, was moved with a holy fear. Now the word fear is an interesting word that is found in the bible. Its meaning will vary depending upon the context, from giving reverence or respect to God as we find in this text, to meaning being “terrorized” as found in Exodus 15:16. Or from showing “carefulness” as found in Joshua 22:24, to showing “concern” in Proverb 29:25. The point I’m attempting to make is that this fear that Noah had was not because he was terrorized by God but because he put God into the highest esteem. But getting back to his faith, Noah believed the warning that God gave him because there was a time in the bible when the earth had become so wicked that it was filled with wickedness and violence. It was so corrupt that every imagination of man’s heart was corrupt and evil. Man had reached the point of no return; he would appear to never repent or return to God. That is when God was left with no other choice: but to destroy the earth. But there was one man on earth who was godly, and his name was Noah. Noah worshiped and honored God in his life. Therefore, God warned Noah of the coming judgement and Noah believed Him because he honored God and His word. Now although Noah had never seen a flood, Noah had enough faith in God and His word, to do what God asked him to do. We the church has to get back to this point of revering God and His word. We’ve brought into the world and its philosophy. We’ve brought into what society is saying as far as the church stepping over the lines of equal rights in certain issues. And many in the church don’t fear or revere God, like the saints of old and it is shown in our actions. There was a time when even the drunk feared God so much that if he was inebriated and walking on the same side of the street that the church was on, he would cross the street to prevent from walking on the same side as God’s house. But now we’ve gotten our degrees, our good government jobs, we got a position in the church, and we think that we are so important to the church, that we will come to church whenever we want to and sometimes will come with the smell from the night before. I tell you that is a classic example of not having the fear of God. We’ve simply gotten too comfortable in our worship to God. But Noah believed God’s warning even though he had never seen a flood.