Unprecedented Faith - "Noah: End Times Faith”

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.