As particularly I have on my
mind to speak, as the Lord helps, on this seventh verse in Hebrews
11. Hebrews 11 verse 7. It is that
commentary on Noah's faith that we have here. By faith Noah,
being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he
condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which
is by faith. So we see here the faith of Noah. And the first point we read in
this verse is, by faith Noah, being warned of God of things
not seen as yet. So God warned Noah. God said that in 120 years, the
whole world was going to be flooded. And then he told Noah to build
the ark. And that was necessary for his
salvation and for his family and for the preservation of life. And by faith being warned of
God of things not seen as yet. We read clearly in the Bible
that There was no rain at that time. A mist came and watered
the earth. There was no rain in Noah's day
before the flood. There was no evidence that the
floods were getting deeper and deeper each year. And so Noah
thought that perhaps he ought to soon think of building an
ark. No, none of those things were
true. There was no physical evidence that a flood was on its way,
apart from this one thing. God had said so. and Noah believed
it. By faith Noah being warned of
God of things not seen as yet. You see we read in the New Testament
we are to walk by faith and not by sight. It is not where to
look and say well we consider and analyze that this is going
to be the way forward. But no we trust what God has
told us. So today we are to believe what
God has said about there is a heaven, there is a hell, there is a judgment
day, there is a time when Christ is coming again. You see, this
event of the worldwide flood in Noah, Noah's day, the Lord
Jesus himself picks up and speaks of it when he was on this earth
in Matthew 24 and verse 37. We read this, but as the days
of Noah were, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be.
Christ's second coming is going to be like, in some ways, Noah's
flood. For as in the days that were
before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and
knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall
also the coming of the Son of Man be. So here we have this
situation that what happened in Noah's day was a foreshadowing
of something that's happening again. No, it's not going to
be a flood this time. We're told in Peter that it's
going to be, the world's going to melt with fervent heat. And
it's going to be burned up with fire, not flooded this time.
But you see, Noah, by faith, Noah being warned of God, of
things not seen as yet, moved with fear. So he was, he believed
what God had said. He believed what God said about
the coming judgment. He took it seriously. And then
we read next in this verse, moved with fear. It moved Noah. He took God seriously and he
feared God, not in a way of terror, but in a way of reverence, that
God's word was true and what God had said would come to pass. And so you see we have a picture
of faith here, how we have a scoffing world that says, in Peter's day,
Peter says in his epistle, they will mock and they will say,
it's been going on, everything will carry on as it's always
carried on. But they were laughing, they
were mocking. They were ridiculing and quite
possibly Noah received a lot of ridicule for building his
ark. Quite possibly he received a
lot of ridicule for his faith. And yet what does Noah do? By
faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet. We
are to walk by faith. We are to believe what the Bible
says about what is coming. And we need to prepare for it.
moved with fear, and the next statement we have is prepared
an ark to the saving of his house. This faith of Noah manifests itself in works. As
James in his epistle says, faith without works is dead. Noah had
living faith And that faith was manifest in his obedience to
what God told him to do. This was not Noah's idea. This
was not Noah's plan, that he sat down with his family and
decided that if there's going to be a flood, I'll think I'll
make an ark. No, he was told by God. This
was God's appointed way to save Noah and his family and those
from the flood. It was an appointed way that
God had made. And way before the flood came, something like
more than 100 years before the flood came, there was this preparation
being made for when the flood did come. And that's the same
with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. There's a preparation of our
Savior before the sinner fell. There was a preparation. And
you see, the art was a long time being made. But there was a time
when it was complete, a time when it was finished, a time
when it was ready. And so it was with our savior.
When he first started preaching at Nazareth, they took him and
tried to throw him over the hill, the edge of the hill at that
time to finish him, to kill him. But he passed him through the
midst, went his way. His time was not yet. He wasn't
ready. there was going to be a time
when I'm ready to be offered. And he was ready for that time. But there was so that the art
was preparing. So Noah, you see, we read it moved with fear, prepared
an art to the saving of his house. This affected all his family.
And so living faith affects us and our families as well and
those around us. It has an effect. It had a great
effect, didn't it, on his family. And so may we have this faith
of Noah, and as we come together for a prayer meeting, that we
may pray that we might be people that have that courage and grace
of Noah to be able to walk in this way. You see, it had an
effect. Moved with fear, prepared an
ark to the saving of his house. But then we read, by the witch
he condemned the world. He condemned the world. Now,
we also know from the New Testament that he was a preacher of righteousness,
so he preached day by day, or preached perhaps on the Lord's
Day, I don't know quite how that worked, but he preached but he
also built. So both within his preaching
and his building he was declaring that this land that you're living
on to the people around him was going to pass away and it was
going to be flooded and all their houses and all their castles
and all their lands and all their livelihood was going to be washed
away. He was declaring that. and that
you see is interesting when we look at what we read in John's
gospel chapter 3. that very well-known verse, John
3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. Like he sent that ark, the ark
was a type of Christ, a way of salvation in the midst of utter
ruin and disaster. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world. We read here that Noah, by his
godly walk, he condemned the world. But you see, that was
a byproduct of what he was actually doing was preaching righteousness. You see, it's the same with our
Lord actually. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world might be saved. The purpose of
building the ark was not to condemn people, but to give life. But look at the effect it had.
The same with the Lord Jesus. in verse 18 of 3 John, he that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son. So you see as they despised Noah's
ark, they despised what he was doing, they were despising their
only hope of being saved when that flood
came. And so it is today in the preaching of the Gospel. If we
despise our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You see there wasn't
many arcs. There was one arc. There was
one door. And there was one way in. There
wasn't any lifeboats. You see there was, it was, there
was safety in the arc. And that arc was a picture of
Christ. And there was only one place
they could go to. And they needed to not despise
it, not ridicule it, but belief, and by faith enter in, prepared an ark to the saving
of his house, by the which he condemned the world. So his walk,
not that he looked down his nose and condemned them in that way,
but by his very walk, by his preaching and by the things he
was doing every time he banged another nail into the plank to
make another plank in the ark, he was declaring that this is
going to pass away. This world that you're building
here below is passing away with this flood. And so you see that
either had an effect, a savour of life unto life, or a savour
of death unto death. And this is the solemnness of
the preaching of the gospel. By the which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Noah became an heir. If you're heir to the throne,
or if you're heir to inherit a great inheritance, you did
not earn that inheritance, did you? If you're heir to the throne,
you didn't earn the throne, did you? It was so appointed that
you'd have that position. And so we see the vast difference,
you see, it's picked up in Romans, Romans 6, verse 23, the
wages of sin is death. Wages is something you've earned.
The wages, the earn, the things that you gain from your sinful
life is death. You gain that, that's your just
reward. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God, a gift, you see, an inheritance is a gift. And Noah, you see, he had that
righteousness, heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. He condemned the world and became
heir of the righteousness. He realized that he needed a
righteousness outside himself, that he needed that which was
out of himself. He needed the robe of Christ's
righteousness. and he needed to be clothed with it. And you
see, by faith, by obedience, by walking in that way, we read
that he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. And you see,
here today, we are in a similar situation, in the sense that
we do not know how long the world will keep running. In Noah's
time, it was told that it would be 120 years. We don't know how
long it will be. All the people of the world can
talk about millions of years in the past and millions of years
in the future. They cannot prove the millions
of years in the past. It's a complete odds with God's
word and a lot of scientific evidence as well. But the idea
is that it's going to go on forever. But you see here we're told that
it won't. We're told that Christ is coming
again. He came the first time not to
condemn the world, but the world might have life. That was some
2,000 years ago, he came, with that purpose. But Jesus is coming
again. We don't know when, but we need
to be prepared. We need to be ready because you
see, there was a time when Noah kept preaching and I think a
number of godly people actually died before the flood came. There's a number of people that
died just before the flood, taken away from the evil that was to
come. But there was, Noah was preaching and the door was still
open. But there came a time when the door shut. And it wasn't
actually Noah that shut that door, it was God. and God shut
him in. They entered the ark and the
door was shut. And when the door shuts, it shuts in and it shuts
out, doesn't it? Those inside are inside and those
outside are outside. There was only one door. And
so here we see a picture of the preaching of the gospel today
at the moment. As we are at the moment, the door of salvation
is open. The door of God's mercy stands
open all day to the poor and the needy that knock by the way.
But there is coming a time when that door will shut, eternally
shut. And you will be one side of that
door or the other. You will either be with Christ,
which is far better, or you will be outside, eternally. This is the seriousness of it.
And so the message here is that we need to, like Noah, take seriously
God's word, being warned of things not seen as yet. You might say,
but the world don't worry about this. There's no evidence that
this is going to happen. Yes, they talk about global warming,
a few degrees of global warming. We're talking here of the elements
melting with fervent heat. We're talking of extreme heat.
This is not global warming. But you see, there's no evidence
then of it burning up. Naturally, as we look at the
world, but we're told that this world will not last forever.
And therefore all of our investment here below is going to be burned
up. And so our need is to be ready
to be in Christ, to have her hope in God's mercy. You see,
God, in mercy, sent that ark. That ark was a type of Christ.
Noah went into the ark, and then the storm battered the ark, but
all that were inside the ark were safe. The ark received the
full torrent of God's wrath, like Christ did at Calvary. And
that very water, you see, that was devastating and killing everybody
by drowning was the very water that lifted the ark up. And so it is, you see, on the
cross of Christ, there is that separation between those that
are in Christ and those that are out. Judgment and mercy,
they came together in the flood and they will come together in
that last great day. And so, we need to be ready. So as we meet for prayer tonight,
and as we as a church are concerned with many ministries, we have
the market stall on Saturday, to warn, as it were, that this
world is not our rest. And there's a challenge, you
see, for those that know not the Lord to enter into this rest. But there's also a great challenge
for those of us who are Christians, that we may walk out in a way
that people looking at us say, I actually believe that that
person believes that, rather than, well that's what their
doctrine says, but whether they actually put it into practice
is something quite different. with his preaching and with his
building, declared the same message. May we in our lives then be those
who have a life that declares, this is not our rest. It is polluted. And to draw others, to come into
that door, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Not the pride of this
world. That the power of the Spirit
to convict people of their sin. You see, Noah realized the seriousness
of the situation. And God's judgment was across
the world. But you see, the judgment's coming
again. But we need, if we're in Christ,
then we're sheltered. Then we'll be safe. And we'll
be preserved. And we will get into the new
earth. You see, Noah, that ark brought
him into a new earth, didn't it? In Noah's case, it still
had sin in it. But you see, the Lord's people,
if they enter into Christ, ultimately they're going to the new Jerusalem,
a new earth where sin can never enter. They will enter into that
ark, and that will take them to a new earth, to be with Christ,
which is far better. And then they'll be able to bask
on these beauties, on these truths that were mocked and ridiculed
by the world they lived in. But they will realize that the
faith of God's people, to lay hold upon the truth set before
us in the gospel, to believe the word of God, is so much and
so important. Or may we be those who believe. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the
world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Amen.