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Noah’s faith
Text: Hebrews 11:7
- Abel was confirmed to be righteous and then was killed by his brother because of his faith
- Enoch was taken away and never saw death because of his faith.
- Noah will survive judgment as a result of his faith.
Faith cometh by hearing the word of God
- Being warned of things not seen as yet…
- Noah believed God about something he’d never seen before.
- It’s a possibility that it had never rained before on the earth according to Genesis 2:5, but the earth had certainly never flooded like this before.
- You believe in Hell? You’ve never seen it. You believe in Jesus Christ? You’ve never seen Him. You believe in an incorruptible body? You’ve never seen it.
Faith is substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen
- Moved with fear because of God’s weather forecast.
- So Noah put to practice (practical) his faith. The evidence that Noah trusts God is the ark he builds.
- Let me illustrate something about us: Does the government lie to you? Does the weatherman get it wrong sometimes? But you know if the government says bored up and leave town because a hurricane is coming you’ll board up and either leave town or start storing water. I’m not saying that’s bad, but I’m illustrating the point. We are more in tuned with the warnings from people we know lie or at least get it wrong than we are with a God we say CANNOT lie.
- People want the effects of God’s work – survive the flood – but they don’t want God telling them what to do with their lives – build an ark.
- And they didn’t want to be told to build an ark because they didn’t want to believe that God was going to judge them for their sin.
- Noah’s abnormal lifestyle was based on what God said – REMEMBER THAT. It would be ridiculed, mocked, and ignored.
- People don’t see godliness as practical.
- 1 Timothy 4:8 … godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
- I can hear them trying to talk Noah out of things.
- Noah, if you keep working on that boat, your kids are going to miss out on so much. Noah, if you keep working on that boat you’ll never have any fun. You’ll never enjoy life.
- It’s not like Noah didn’t want to enjoy life, or didn’t want his kids to live normal lives, or didn’t want to enjoy family life. He knew whatever happened is only temporary and ultimately condemned if he didn’t make his life different for a period of time.
- People want to survive the flood but they don’t want a God telling them to build an ark.
Faith that justifies
- …by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
- Noah gets messed up after the ark in Genesis 9, but he’s already become the heir of righteousness which is by faith.
- Romans 1:17, 3:22, 4:5, 4:9, 4:11, 4:13, 9:30.
