Hebrews 11:7 Noah Walking by Faith in a Faithless World

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All right. Here we are. Hebrews chapter 11. And you can, if you have something, you can hold your place elsewhere will be Genesis chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 11. Genesis chapter 6. Perhaps you remember we are in Hebrews chapter 11 today. Passage known as the Hall of Faith in many circles. And we will step again into its hallowed halls. A kind of who's who of faith. Now that doesn't mean that these people were perfect. We'll see every single time just about the uh the evidence that they were not perfect, that they were uh faulty human beings, but uh they lived by faith. We would notice as we were walking into this museum of sorts, perhaps on the door, we would read the verse faith, there in verse one. There's a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Perhaps we would see verse two on a plaque next to the door. For by it, by faith, the elders obtained good testimony. Um, perhaps we would read the verse there, um, verse six, we covered last week. But without faith, it's impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The whole idea of faith, that trusting God is the thing that pleases God for us to trust him. And we've seen examples of it through Abel there in the beginning. Uh, Abel in in verse 4, he was a man who worshipped by faith. Now his life was cut short, but his testimony goes on that he pleased God through faith. Now, Enoch, we saw last week, is an interesting fellow there in verse 5. Uh, we see his exhibit there. Um, that he walked with God back in Genesis chapter 5. He walked with God and then he was not because God took him. Interesting uh thing we saw last week. We move on uh to verse 7, and just verse 7 today. It's Noah. We see a well-known individual, it's Noah, the theme of many a children's nursery, which is weird when you think about it. Um, he has songs and children's picture books and toys. How many of us had Noah's Ark in the bathtub? I did, I did, and um, and yet today we will consider his life. Now, first off, I want to kind of review something we looked at last week, the world that Noah lived in. Well, let's read verse 7, because that's our verse here in Hebrews chapter 11. We don't want to miss it. 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. Noah, a man who lived by faith. Now, again, a review uh what we considered last week. They're in Genesis chapter six. So you can hold your place in Hebrews. We'll be back from time to time. But we go back to Genesis six, just it's important and valuable for us to look at the account of Noah. Now, the people that the author to the Hebrews is writing to, they were Hebrews, they would have known this backwards and forwards. So the author just mentions Noah and some things that exemplified his faith. But the people would have flashed back to Genesis chapter six, um, seven, eight, and nine, really, is what we cover uh the account of Noah's life. But look at chapter six, verse one. Now it came to pass, men began to multiply on the face of the earth. Um, one thing we notice about Noah's day is that it included people. Men begin to multiply. Uh, that is probably an interesting word. It's different to add, uh, adding and multiplying are two totally different things. You get a much bigger number when you start multiplying. And because of the lifespan, right? Chapter five, we're all blown away by 900-year-old people, right? In this account, people that lived to 900 years and we're still having children at 300, 600 years old. Man, uh, I don't know how they did it, but they were different people, right? And they lived a long time and they had lots of children, and men began to multiply on the face of the earth. Um, the earth was filled with people. Some conservative estimates paint a population as large as our population is today, maybe even bigger. So, in about 1,500 years worth of time, the population of Earth is just hopping, right? And and yet, what about these people? Well, we read there in verses one through four, there was some spiritual weirdness going on. You can read lots of books on what this might have been, but it seems like there was some demonic stuff going on in verses one through four. But look at verse five. The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Verse 11 shows us that the earth was corrupt, right? So just put those two things together to begin with, right? Every intent and thought of the heart is evil only. So you've got a world filled with people, and all of them are just thinking about how to do evil. Now we're all capable of this, but they were really good at it until the world there in verse 11 was corrupt. Now, the idea and the thing you can picture on this word corrupt is something that's rotten, right? We've all we've all looked into the refrigerator, and you know, maybe we smelled something, was a little foul, you know, and we look and in the back there's that apple or whatever, you know. It's just rotten, rotten to the core, right? It's rotten. And if you're a guy, you go, well, I hope that takes care of itself. And you shut the door and you walk away, you know, right? But then rotten, you know, and it can churn your stomach a little bit, but that's the way God saw the earth was corrupt, totally rotten, like something left in the back of your refrigerator. Uh, verse 11 also tells us that the earth was filled with violence. Uh, that word filled there is overfilled, overflowing with violence. So you can picture the world of Noah's day, evil thoughts and intents in their heart continually. The world is rotten to the core and overfilled with violence. Our world is overfilled with violence, our entertainment is violent, our news feeds are filled with violence, right? And and and this was Noah's world. This was a world that Noah lived in. Now, one more thing that we notice is God's response in verse 6. Verse 6, and the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So here we we see God given some human qualities. It's an anthropomorphism, which is just fun to say. Um, that God is given human qualities of grieving and sadness. That God looked at the world and he grieved. That world word grieve there is the idea of a young wife experiencing infidelity in their marriage, wife or husband experiencing infidelity in the marriage. And you just look at God's heart in this and just aches, just a heaviness. This is not the way it was meant to be. This is not the beauty that I intended. Look at this rottenness. And God was grieved. Now, the world is evil, we see there. In verse 7, God's determined to judge the world, but verse 8 shines a little bit in this dark world. But Noah, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In a world populated, overfilled with violence, Noah found grace. Um, now what brought about this grace? Well, verse nine, next verse, this is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. So this is kind of a simple side of what made what brought grace in God's eyes when he looked at Noah. He walked with God. Noah had a relationship with God. Um, when the rest of the world could care less. I think that's important to point out. Now let's turn back to Hebrews chapter 11. You save your place here in Genesis. We'll still be jumping back, but Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7, let's try to go about it a little more structured like. First thing we see about Noah is that he walked by faith and not by sight. Look at verse 7. Noah was divinely warned about things not yet seen. He was moved with godly fear, and he prepared an ark. So this is the part we know about Noah. God calls him to build an ark. Let's go back now, flipping back to chapter 6, Genesis chapter 6. We see the call to build the ark in verse 13. God said to Noah, 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 gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height, 30 cubits. So here you know the story. God tells Noah to make an ark. And this word ark um is only found one other place in the Old Testament, and it's not the Ark of the Covenant, which is surprising. This word Ark is also found in the book of Exodus, when Moses' mother puts Moses in the river. She puts him in a basket, puts him in an ark. And so the best we can get from this is what was the ark? It was a floaty thing, right? It was a floaty thing, but we see here it was rather large. God gives Noah the dimensions there in qubits, uh, biblical measurement. Essentially, we're looking at 150 yards long, which is easy to figure out in your head, right? A football field and a half long, uh, about 15 yards tall, about three stories total there. But this is a big thing. I think that's what we want to get out of this. Something that's as long as a football field and a half and three stories tall, and Noah's making it in his backyard, right? God gives him uh this uh decree here. I don't know, I couldn't think of a better word. It gives him the plans for it. Um, now it took, we gather from Genesis 6, verse 3, it took him 120 years to build this. Because in Genesis 6, 3, God says, man's years will be 120 years. Well, people lived longer than that following the flood, but we get the idea here that God starts a timer when he gives Noah the dimensions on the ark and he says, 120 years. Now, picture that, right? 120 years. Noah is building this ark. That's a big deal. Um, and yet he really didn't have all the reasoning as to why. Think about it. God says, I'm gonna flood the earth. And it's humorous to think about this. We can see Noah's side of the thing, right? God says, Well, Noah, I'm sending a flood. It's gonna rain for a long time and flood. And Noah says, Okay, God, what's a flood? What's rain? Right? We get the idea from Genesis 2 that it didn't work that way before the flood, that there wasn't rain, that things were irrigated through a mist that kind of came up out of the ground. Uh, but it didn't work that way. So you put all these things together, and Noah's given this huge um, what am I looking for? What word? Commands? I don't know. This is this thing, God's saying, do it, build an ark. 120 years, you're gonna build it. Now, Noah didn't understand all of that, he just trusted God. And we don't know how God was speaking to Noah at that point. Was it just an impression in his heart? Was it an audible voice? We don't know, but he just trusted God's word to him, and that's the foundation of faith. To trust and take God at his word, to walk by faith and not by sight. Um, it seemed a far-fetched promise. Jesus tells us about the days of Noah, that in the days of Noah, people were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. What does that mean? Well, we know the world is evil, but what Jesus is saying there, it was life as usual. People were going about normal, everyday life kind of things. And Noah looked at this and said, But God said he's gonna judge the world. God said he's gonna flood the world, and I need to build this ark in spite of that. He didn't see it, but he trusted God. And we walk by faith. 2 Corinthians 5 7 says, we walk by faith and not by sight. And in a lot of ways, I've been learning a little bit lately uh about flight in aviation, right? Braden has been going through school, he's got his private pilot's license, and I'm just excited. But I learn a lot of stuff. I learn a lot of stuff about uh how you really fly a plane. I don't know how to do it, but but the the second stage that he's learned, now follow. This is kind of interesting. The the second stage is the IFR stage. It's an instrument rating where you fly the plane using just your instruments. Um and and interesting, that's how most planes, most big commercial planes, are flown, are by instruments and not by sight. They have windows, but there's very few times that they need to use the windows. Use it for like two seconds right before you land. Uh, but other than that, you fly the plane mostly by using instruments. Um, and that's what they learn. So check it out. You realize you can't trust what you see. That's one of the things he's been learning. You can't trust what you see. Most crashes that happen that aren't mechanical, that are human error, are because people are trusting what they see. Um, you know, the the crash, Buddy Hawley back in the 60s or whatever. Uh, the pilot was trusting, I'm going up when he was going down through the clouds. And and and most of the time that's when things go wrong, is when you trust what you see and not what you know on your instruments. Now, here's how it parallels, right? God's word is an unfailing instrument in our life. God's word of truth will always be true. What we see and perceive in life, not always true. You ever notice what you feel is not always true, right? Yeah, you wake up one day and you're like, I just feel really bummed out today. Well, why? I don't know. I just do. You know, it's like we can't trust our feelings. We generally can't trust what we see on the outside of things, but we can trust God's word. And that's what Noah was doing here. He was trusting the instrument that never fails of God's word to him. He trusted God's word more than his own eyes. That's important. And even though he didn't see it, he was divinely warned of these things unseen, and he built uh the ark. Now, the next thing we see about Noah here in verse 7, always verse 7, uh, back in sorry, in Hebrews, we are flipping back and forth a lot. That's okay. The next thing we see here in verse 7 is that he was moved with godly fear. Godly fear. King James here does say fear just alone. Uh, New King James tries to help us out by putting uh the word godly fear in there. But but we might get the wrong idea from that word fear nowadays. He was motivated by fear. And we could simply put that being motivated by fear is not a great way to live your life. It can just have a lot of heartache involved in it, a lot of stress involved in it. Uh, Paul says, be anxious for nothing, but everything with prayer and supplication, make a request known to God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. Don't be anxious, don't live your life in fear. But godly fear is probably more like reverence. So Noah had a reverence for God. Noah, in walking with God, knew who God was, his character. He saw that God was holy. He looked at creation and he saw that God was powerful. He knew God's uh righteousness and his perfection. He knew God's character. Um, he probably got to learn God's love and kindness and patience with him in his life. He knew all these things about God, and it changed the way he lived. Um he knew what God was like and what God liked. I think those are two very important things that we need to know about God. What he's like, loving, holy, righteous, and what he likes. What he doesn't like, sin, right? Um, all these things. Uh, and God is perfectly balanced and he's just perfect in all of his ways. Um, now, the fact that God is just, that's one of the big qualities you see here in Genesis chapter six, right? God is just. Uh, that's not a very popular thing for us to see as God's character nowadays. We like the fact that God is loving and kind, patient. We like those things a little more. And we look at God as a judge sometimes, who is just ready to forgive, always ready to forgive. Now he is because of Jesus, but he's also just. And we understand that a God who is loving but not just would not be very good, right? If he was just so loving that, you know, in in our minds, that he let the murderers just go slide by. Well, you know, I know you killed someone, but but it's okay. I'm loving, I forgive you. If God didn't have justice in those situations, there's no way we could look at him and say that he was good. So Noah understood this balanced idea of God's loving kindness, but his righteous judgment. And judgment was kind, the world wasn't gonna slide by. Now, it changed the way Noah lived. Um, and he built an ark. Now, notice here also in chapter 11, verse 7, try to stay um organized here. Um, he prepared the ark for the saving of his household. And this really stood out to me. Noah's household. Um, the longer I go on in life, um the less I feel concerned about having it all, right? You know, there was a time back in the past where it's like, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get a million dollars. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna earn a million dollars, and you know, and and whatnot. Now that I'm older, more of my motivation is I want to see my family taken care of. I don't know if that's just something that happens when you hit 50 or something, but like, I just want to see my family taken care of. I want to see my grandkids taken care of. I want to see them okay physically, financially, but most of all spiritually. I'm with John, right? The apostle John, there later in his life, I think it's in John 3. He says, I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth. Man, nothing makes me happier than to know that my kids follow the Lord with all their heart. And and I think as Noah went on in life, this is it. He he made the ark for the saving of his household. Um and and in doing that, um, he really showed them what God was like. I mean, he saved them physically, but he also gave them this spiritual basis, right? Um, back to Genesis chapter 7. We're running out of time, but that's okay. We'll get there. Genesis 7. We see kind of the process, and you ought to just kind of picture this in verse 13. You can read the chapters yourself, but in verse 13, just picture this. On the very same day, Noah and Noah's son, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and three wives of his son with them, entered the ark. So in verse 13, they entered the ark. Verse um 15, and they went into the ark with Noah two by two, all the animals. That's always nice to remember. They went into the ark uh and were were saved as well. Verse 16. Uh so those who entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God commanded, and the Lord shut him in. So picture it as Noah, his family, and all the animals uh that were taken are in the ark, the door shuts, and God shuts the door for him. Now notice verse 21 as the waters began to prevail there, and all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts, and every creeping thing that creeps on earth, and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on dry land died. Now, this is where we really get a feeling for what could have been going on in Noah's heart. He looked back at 120 years building this big floating box. 120 years of being made fun of, of saying, What are you doing, old man? You're crazy. And then he goes into the ark and the door is shut by the hand of God, and the waters begin to come, and it comes from the rain, comes from the stored water under the earth, all over the place, water comes and it fills the earth, and all flesh died. That's heavy. This is where it's not a children's story, right? As the rain started, people began to knock on the door. Noah, hey, hey, hey, wait a second, let me in. And the water got higher and higher, and they heard the screams, and they heard all the sounds of people dying in the flood. And Noah, that would have been really rough, no doubt, but Noah looked around at his family. They were there. By God's grace, his family was saved. Um, and and and he had to have said in his heart, it was all worth it. It was all worth it. And and that's the life of faith. You know, it doesn't just affect us, it affects those around us. Um, but notice. Well, before we go on in 30 seconds, look at this and I go, that's really nice, but that's Noah. He's a Bible character. He's superhuman, right? To build an ark. He's a Bible character. Well, read Genesis chapter 9, verse 20 and 21, uh, a little later, but we find out that Noah wasn't perfect. We have a rather embarrassing story as the flood is over, the ground is dry, and they begin harvesting things. Um, Noah plants a vineyard, drinks a lot of wine, gets very drunk, and takes all his clothes off in Genesis chapter 9. Now, why do we read that story there? There might be some reasons why. One, the Canaanites are mentioned, and they're the people that later become the enemies of God. But but even more than that, I think it's for us, people like me that look at it and go, uh, Noah, he was a Bible character. I can never live up to that. And you go, well, maybe I can live up to that. The man was not perfect. The man had his faults and his embarrassments. And that's an important thing to remember as we look at the life of faith. We're all flawed. They were all flawed, and by God's grace, God gives us what we need to get through this life. Now, let's turn back one last time to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7. I think we'll stay here. Um, He prepared an ark for the saving of his houseball, household by which he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness, which is according to faith. So, last off here, Noah condemned the world. Uh, Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2, 5, that Noah was a preacher of righteousness while he built the ark. So I had no doubt that Noah didn't from time to time stand up and say, judgment is coming. God's gonna judge this place, you wicked people. But probably even more than that, what preached for Noah was the fact that he built a big old ark in his backyard on dry ground when it had never rained before. Um, it was his words, but it was definitely his actions. He drew attention to himself, like some kind of roadside attraction, you know. And he took a stand. He had to have been taking a stand as people said, Why are you doing this? Well, God's gonna judge the world. We're all wicked. God's gonna judge the world. Get in the boat when the time comes. Get in the boat. And Noah went the opposite way. Think about it. Noah went the opposite way from not just a few people, but the rest of society, the entire world's population. Was going this way, and Noah was going this way. Man, it's hard to live. I have great fellowship with you guys, right? And other friends. But man, doing the right thing, being different in the modern world is really hard. You ever look at some of the standards that you draw in your life, and you know, you go, maybe I'm just being too critical of these things. Maybe I'm taking too tough of a stand on sin in my family. And and you look around, you go, everybody else is doing it. Why am I not doing it? And you think of Noah. Nobody else was doing the right thing. Nobody else cared either. And here's Noah and his family. And Noah says, look, this is what I'm gonna do. I trust God, I serve God. And and and and he did the right thing. He took a stand. I bet it felt lonely. I think that's some comfort for us to take. It probably felt lonely because righteousness, a lot of times, a righteous life feels really lonely. You feel like you're the only one. But the thing we see here with Noah, being human, it can be done. It's something we oftentimes see in this passage. It can be done. Human people can live by faith, a righteous life, different than the whole rest of the world. Trust God with everything that you have. People can do it. But the other thing it really tells us is it's worth it. Because as Noah sat there with his family, God's grace, he made it through. He definitely said, well, it was worth it. 120 years of being made fun of, it was worth it. And it is. And we see a great picture here of not just the life of faith, but also life in Christ, right? Uh the world will be judged. I mean, sin will be judged. The wages of sin is death. But God provides an ark, a shelter through the storm, and it's Jesus. Now, it's being in Him, it's trusting Him. God's judgment was not taken away without death. Right? Jesus died on the cross and he paid the price, the judgment that every single person deserved. But then he offers it as a gift and says, look, come in the ark. Trust your life to me, and you'll be saved. And the biggest question of all we can answer is, are you in Christ? Are you trusting him with everything? Um because it's the only way to find salvation in this wicked world. So, God, thank you so much for this example of Noah, uh human being, very flawed, but by grace, he stood and trusted you. And God, uh, we see the evidence that it was absolutely worth it. God, I just pray you would take something from this into our week. God that we would learn to trust you and what you have to say, even when we don't see it, even when the rest of the world care less, God, we would trust you. Uh, with our families and with our futures. God, whatever it is, God, we would trust you completely with all of our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray.