Let us turn then to God's Word
and I direct you this morning to the 11th chapter in the epistle
of Paul to the Hebrews and our text is found at verse 7 Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 7 by 5 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. In Hebrews chapter
11 verse 7, 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. We were thinking yesterday afternoon
of those words in the following chapter, chapter 12 and verse
1, so great a cloud of witnesses. And remember how in the immediate
context, of course, the apostles he is speaking of these that
he has spoken of in chapter 11. When we directed you yesterday
to those words, in verse of the next chapter, we were thinking
especially of those goodly number of obituaries that are to be
found in old copies of the gospel standard concerning those who
knew Asylum here in Portsmouth as their spiritual home. Many of them. If you had the
opportunity to look into that little book that we prepared,
you'll see there are several references to the obituaries,
not just the obituaries of those who were pastors, but those also
who were regular in their attendance or if not regularly did on occasions
attend services either at the Old Salem or in more recent years
in this present building. We can say then can we not that
the lines are fallen on to us in pleasant places and we do
have that goodly heritage of which the psalmist speaks. And
thinking of these things my Mine went to those words of the Apostle
in 2 Thessalonians. He says there at chapter 2 and
verse 15, Brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which
ye have been taught. We don't follow the traditions
of men, but we don't despise those who have gone before us,
that goodly tradition that we are able to enter into the inheritance
are, but of course ultimately our authority is not the traditions
of men, be they good men, but it is altogether the Word of
God that we appeal to. It's those things that are written
in this blessed book of Holy Scripture. Whatever things were
written, says Paul, written aforetime, were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
have hope. God has given us his written
words, the Scriptures. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, says Paul, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness. And so time and
again we have to come back to the Scriptures, we have to come
back to the Word of God. And I want this morning to direct
you to what we're told here in this verse that we've read as
a text concerning this man Noah, and to consider something of
the faith of Noah, one of that so great cloud of witnesses to
the truth of God and the truth of the gospel of God. That hymn
that we just sang of Joseph Hart, indicates to us that there is
much spiritual instruction, much gospel instruction to be drawn
from what we are told concerning the experience of Noah as the
Lord himself took him and shut him into the ark. Now that is
a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ and the believers
experience when he is shut up to that fight that is revealed
that faith that sent us in the Lord Jesus Christ. But turning
then to consider for a while what we can learn from Noah and
what is declared here concerning that faith that God wrought in
Noah's soul. 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 witch he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
Now there are a number of things we can say concerning this faith. First of all, clearly, his was
saving faith. His was saving faith. It says
as much in the verse. He prepared an ark to the saving
of his house. And he did it by faith. The faith
then brought salvation. Yes, salvation in a very real,
in a very literal sense. When God came in terrible judgement
upon the world, God came and condemned the world and destroyed
the world. But Noah and his wife and his
sons and their wives were safe. And they were safe there in the
ark. In a very real and a very literal
sense then, his faith brought salvation. But as I said, we
can understand this experience in a typical sense, can we not?
It was not just a literal, physical salvation, but he also knew a
spiritual salvation, this man Noah. What was Noah by nature? Well, he was, as all men, he
was of all those in that particular generation and there was great
wickedness in the earth. As we read there in Genesis 6
and verse 5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth and every imagination of the thought of his heart was
only evil, continual. I was reminded last week, I think
I quoted that verse last Sunday evening and I misquoted it, I
missed out that little word only. That's the trouble when one seeks
to refer to scripture by memory, we so often misquote. And that's
an important word, it doesn't just say evil continually, it
says it was only evil, continually. All that man was, was evil. And
Noah was one of that particular generation. the imagination,
the thoughts of the heart. Now, there in the margin in Genesis
6, 5, we are reminded of the richness and the fullness of
the particular Hebrew word that is translated imagination. In the margin it tells us that
it also has the idea of all the desires and all the purposes
of a man's heart, all that the man is, you see. Every imagination
of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. And that is true, is it not,
of all of us as we come into this world. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Without exception, we're all
born in that sad condition. We're dead in trespasses and
in sins. There is not a just man upon
the earth who doeth good and sinneth not. And I say in his
own nature that was true of Noah. We read subsequent to the flado
Noah was found in a drunken condition. In chapter 9 of Genesis and there At verse 20, O Noah began to
be a husband-man, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the
wine and was drunken, and was uncovered within his tent. He was a man, you see, who grows
the grapes in his vineyard, makes the wine, tastes the wine, abuses
the drink, and he is in a drunken condition and there he is naked
for all to see he was the grievous sin that Moses committed then
the wise man tells us in the book of Proverbs wine is a mocker
strong drink is raging whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise
and Moses was deceived by the wine and was drunken Is it not
one of those terrible sins that we have in that awful catalogue
that we find in the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians when Paul reminds
those Corinthians of what they were by nature and yet what they
became by the grace of God. And he mentions most awful things.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were
some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified by the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. Noah, you see, was a sinner.
He was a sinner in his very nature. He was no different to any other
man. But Noah became a saint by the grace of God. And we read
it, did we not? Again there in that 6th chapter
of Genesis and verse 8, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. That's what made the difference
in the case of Noah. It was nothing of Noah himself,
it was nothing that he did of himself, it must all be traced
back to the grace of God. Or what's a but is that that
we find in that verse, but Noah. It's in that context you see
when God sees the wickedness of man in all the earth. But
Noah, God is pleased to deal mercifully and graciously with
this particular man. Peter, in his second epistle
in the second chapter, tells us how God spared not the old
world, but saved Noah. Again you see the significance
of that little conjunction, but God didn't spare that wicked
world. God determined that he would destroy the wickedness
of men. But God saved Noah. And how do we see the grace of
God in the life of that man, Noah? What evidence do we see
of God dealing with him? We're told here in the text how
Noah was moved with fear. By faith, Noah being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. Oh, he knew
something of the fear of God in his heart. What a blessing
it is if God is pleased to grant to us that favour of feeling
your fear. Oh, there is a tormenting fear,
yes, but that's not the fear that moved Noah. James, remember,
speaks of that fear that is experienced even by the demons, by the devils. They'll believe us there is one
God, says James, they'll do us well. The devils, the devils also believe in thimbles. Well, the demons, you see, have
to acknowledge God. They're afraid of God. We see it when
the Lord Jesus Christ begins his ministry. We have the record
of that ministry there in the opening chapter of Mark's Gospel
and Christ is in the synagogue in Capernaum and he heals a man. And what do the demons say? Oh,
we know thee who thou art, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. Art thou come to destroy us before
the time? Oh, the demons, you see, they
tremble. They tremble before God, they tremble before God
as he's manifest in the flesh as the Lord Jesus Christ comes
to execute that great work of salvation for sinners. How Satan
and the host of demons rage against it, and yet how they are afraid,
how they are tormented. This tormenting fear then is
not what we read in the case of Noah. It was a theological
fear, because he found grace in the eyes of the law. That
fear of the Lord of which the wise man speaks in the book of
the Proverbs, that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of
knowledge, And what is that knowledge that comes with fear? Well, it's
the knowledge of ourselves and what we are before God as sinners,
but it's the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God who is not
only that One who is just and holy and righteous in all His
ways, but that God who is also merciful and gracious and loving. It is life eternal, says the
Lord Jesus Christ, who knows that He is the only true God.
and Jesus Christ whom they were sent. Oh, it's that knowledge
you see. Not just the knowledge of God
in all His holiness, but the knowledge of God as that One
who is so gracious that He loves the world and sends His only
begotten Son into the world, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life. It's that fear. The fear
of the Lord, says Solomon then in the Proverbs, is the beginning
of knowledge. And where there is that fear
in the heart of a man, there is the hatred of sin. Here is
the mark, you know, of the real fear of the Lord. There is not
just the fear of the consequences of sin. That is the fear of the
demons. What do they say to the Lord
Jesus Christ here in the Synagogue at Capernaum? Art thou come to
destroy us before the time that affright you, sir, of that judgment
that God will visit upon sin? If we have that real, filial
fear of God in our hearts, it won't be that we'll fear what
sin will bring to us, the consequence of it. We'll fear sin itself.
We'll desire to to flee from sin. Again in the Proverbs, Proverbs
16 and verse 16, by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. That's what God's fear does,
it makes sin hateful to us, we want to flee from it. An unctuous
life, to all that's right, to all that's wrong, that's what
the fear of the Lord is. And here is the great conflict
that the Christian feels in his heart because his old nature
so loves sin. And he grieves him therefore
that he has that old nature that is in love with sin because his
new nature so hates sin and would turn from sin. And so often times
the Christian is made to cry out, Oh that I had none of myself. Oh wretched man that I am, says
Paul. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Nowhere, I say, was by the grace
of God a saint, or in his own nature he was a sinner, but he
found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and the evidence of that
grace is this fear that he feels in his soul. And so the faith
that he has issues in salvation. He prepared an ark, it says,
to the saving of his house. How the Lord took him, and how
the Lord shot him in. That's a great verse, is it not,
that we read, part of a verse, Genesis 7, 16, and the Lord shot
him in. For when the Lord shot him into
the ark he was safe, he was secure, When the Lord is pleased to take
us and to shut us in to the Lord Jesus Christ, then we're safe, then we're secure.
We have to be shut in to that. And how does God deal with us
shutting us in to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why? He shuts us in in
the first place to what we are as unbelievers. We're shut up, are we not? As
Heman says in Psalm 88, I am shut up, I cannot come forth.
There's no delivering myself. I can't deliver myself. Only
God can deliver me. And God must come and God must
save me. This was the faith of Noah I saw. It was saving faith
that this man was blessed with. But not only do we see here in
the text that his was that faith that brought salvation, it was
also justifying faith. Look at the end of the verse.
He became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Heir of the righteousness which
is by faith. That is justifying faith. Again, in the portion that we
read, we read those two chapters, Genesis 6 and 7, and the opening
words of chapter 7, God says to Noah, thee have I seen righteous. Thee have I seen righteous, God
said to him. Now, as I just said, he was no
different by nature to the other men and women of his own generation. He was one of those, you see,
that God saw. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth. And yet, What do we read concerning
Noah? God declares thee have I seen
righteous. Again in chapter 6 there, in
verse 9, Noah it says was a just man and perfect in his generation. And Noah walked with God. He was a just man. He was a perfect
man. Now what does that mean? It doesn't
mean that he was a man who was detained by his own endeavours,
a state of sinless perfection. The margin there in Genesis 6,
9 indicates to us that the word perfect means upright. Noah was a just man and upright
or righteous in his generation. and he walked with God. It's the sign really that we
read concerning the man Job. Remember how we're introduced
to Job there at the beginning of the book of Job and we're
told something concerning Job's character. There was a man in
the land of Oz whose name was Job. and that man was perfect
and upright and one that feared God and understood evil. The same really as we are told
concerning Noah. The amazing thing is when we
consider the man Job is that this man is brought to realize
that he has no righteousness in himself, no innate righteousness. If we compare the opening words
of the book of Job with what he confesses when we come to
the last chapter of the book of Job. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eyes seeeth not. Wherefore I abhor
myself, says Job, and repent in dust and ashes. You see, these men who are upright,
these men who are said to be just and perfect, are the men
who see that they have no righteousness at all in themselves. That was
certainly the case with Job. He had to confess it, he had
to acknowledge it. God says at the beginning what
he was. But that righteousness that he
had was not innate. This is true, is it not, of all
these so great cloud of witnesses. It was true, I say, of Job. It was true also of Paul the
Apostle. He says in Romans chapter 7,
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good
thing. That's what his confession is
with regards to himself and what he is. In himself there is nothing
of any good, nothing of any worth, nothing of any value. And what
is his desire then, as he says in Philippians 3, to be found
in him, to be found in Christ. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, he says, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And Paul then is the justified
man. And this is the message that
Paul preaches at Antioch in Pisidia in Acts 13. All that believe
in Christ, he says, are justified from all things that they could
not be justified from by the deeds of the law. He preaches
righteousness. In himself, you see, there is
no good thing. His one desire is to be found
in Christ, having that righteousness of Christ. We see the same in
David. In his great penitential psalm,
Psalm 51, he has to confess against thee the only of a sin and undeceivable
in thy sight. He was a sinner. And he confessed
his sin. We referred yesterday afternoon
to the words of David there in Psalm 38 and verse 3 following
when he speaks of himself as if he had some awful leprous
disease that covered him from the crown of his head to the
soles of his feet. But he was no leprous man, he
is speaking of his spiritual state, he feels it, he is a sinner. No soundness in sound. And so
what does he say in another psalm, Psalm 71, I will go in the strength
of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine own. My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness, all the day long. I say this is the witness
of this great crowd of witnesses. They do not speak of themselves,
they do not speak of their own righteousness. They have no righteousness
of self, all their righteousness is that that belongs to Christ.
The same again in the case of Daniel. What does he say concerning
himself when he is favoured to see something of the glories
of God? My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, he says,
and I retain no strength. His comeliness, all that was
best about him, turned into corruption. And yet
he speaks of righteousness, does he not? when he speaks of the
Lord Jesus Christ and that great work that Christ did when he
came into the world to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sin, to bring in everlasting righteousness. To bring in everlasting
righteousness. Oh yes, no righteousness in himself
so far as Daniel is concerned. All his comeliness is corruption.
But he looks to him who has brought in an everlasting righteousness,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so also with
this man Noah, when we read that Noah was a just man, and perfect,
or upright, in his generation, and Noah walked with God. It's
not innate righteousness that we're to understand. He has none
of that. He's a sinner. But he is a justified sinner.
Why? Because he is a man of faith,
and his faith centres in the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith,
Noah became heir of the righteousness,
which is by faith. It's that same righteousness
of which the apostle is speaking then. in Philippians chapter
3, where, as we just said, Paul's great desire is to be found in
Christ, not having his own righteousness, but that righteousness which
is of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this righteousness was what
Noah preached all the time he was making the Ark. Peter tells
us in 2 Peter 2, verse 5, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He preached justification by
faith. All that great, that precious
truth that was rediscovered of course at the time of the Protestant
Reformation. That great message that was shown
to Martin Luther The just shall live by faith and the preciousness
of that truth. With the said of it, it is the
article by which the church stands or falls. And this is why we
say that the Roman church is no true church, it's an apostate
church. Because they deny that doctrine of justification by
faith alone, in Christ alone. And this is why, of course, the
whole doctrine of the Mass is such a blasphemy. Because they
say it's a repetition of that one sacrifice that Christ has
made, as if that sacrifice could be repeated. It was one sacrifice
for sins forever, no repetition. It is to do despise to the work
of Christ, you see. To say that in the Mass they
are offering to God a sacrifice, a true sacrifice, though it be
a bloodless sacrifice. Now I say these things because
these last days and weeks the media has been full of Roman
Catholic propaganda, has it not? How these things have frost before
the general public all the time. And they speak of masses as if
masses were such innocent things. Why the very articles of the
established Church of England declare concerning the mass It's
a dangerous deceit, it's a blasphemous faith. It's a denial of Christ. And the just man lives by faith.
The justified sinner is a man like Noah, an heir of that righteousness
which is by faith. Or what can we say then concerning
the faith of this man Noah? It's saving faith. He was moved
with fear. that real felial fear of God
in his heart and he prepared an ark to the saving of his house
but also it was justifying faith he became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith and then thirdly and finally with regards to the
faith of Noah do we not see here that it was supernatural. It was not just a natural faith.
It was supernatural. By faith, Noah being warned of
God of things not seen as yet. He's warned of God, God speaks
to him, he has the word of God and he is told something of things
that had not yet been seen. All he has is the word of God. And that's what he believes.
That's what his faith is rooted in. It was enough that God had
said it. Now, there is a natural faith.
There is a natural faith. The The Psalmist reminds us on
those two occasions, Psalm 14, Psalm 53, that the fool hath
said in his heart there is no God. Atheism is foolish. And we see
it all around us. I was talking just previous to
coming across here this morning, talking with Graham Miller at
home, and talking about how men love to believe a lie. That's what happened of course
in the Garden of Eden, with our first parents, when the serpent, the instrument of Satan,
comes to Eve. What does he do? He tells a lie.
Contradicts the word of God. God had said concerning the consequence
if there was disobedience and partaking of the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they shall surely die.
That's what God said. And when Satan comes with the
serpent he says they shall not surely die. It's a plain contradiction
of God's word. And they believe the lie. And
they partake. And we see it, do we not, through
all the succeeding generations, men believe a lie. And the great
lie, of course, and this is what we were talking about at home
this morning, is the lie of evolution. You know, if I take my car and
I just sit it outside home and leave it standing there, what
the evolutionists would tell me is, you know, it's not going
to run down, it's not going to rust out. Everything is running
up. Things are not running down,
they are running up. It's all around us, we see it. Change
and decay, says the hymn writer. In all around I saw it. And yet
men tell us that things should really be improving. Because
things are evolving, things are getting better. Man has evolved
from some lower form of life, from some slime or something.
He's just improving. And it's just a lie. Men love
to believe a lie. And the Bible is so plain, so
straight, is it not? They are fools. The fool has
said in his heart, there is no God. Men should be theists, men
should believe in God. But to believe in God, to be
a theist, is not salvation. I dare say that there are many
who are not atheists. They are not even agnostic. There
are many still in our land, one would imagine, who would be prepared
to acknowledge that there is a God. But that's not salvation, is
it? That's not the faith that saves,
that's not the faith that justifies. Noah's faith clearly rested in
the word that God had spoken. And we see that, we see that
in how the man Moses responds to the word of God when God speaks
to him there in chapter 6 of Genesis
God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for
the earth is filled with violence through them And behold, I will
destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark,
and shalt pitch it within, and without with pitch, and so on.
And then at the end of the chapter, Thus did Noah, according to all
that God commanded him, so did her. And then again in chapter
7 verse 5, Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded
him. Why was he obedient to the Word
of God? Because his faith was not simply
a natural faith. His faith was a supernatural
faith. This is that true faith, you
see, that believes the Word of God.
And his evidence by an obedience to the word of God. In the opening
words of the chapter we are told, faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. What Noah was told was something
that he'd never seen with his natural eyes, that God was going
to send this awful flood, the windows of heaven are going to
be opened, there's going to be tremendous rains upon the whole
face of the earth, the fountains of the great deep are going to
be broken up. And he believes. Something that
he'd never seen before. And he believes it simply because
God had said it. He believes the Word of God.
And why does he believe God's Word? Because God puts it in
his heart to believe His Word. This is true faith, this isn't
Temporary faith. We read something of temporary
faith here. Those very solemn words that
we have previously in chapter 10. Chapter 10 at verse 26 we read,
If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge
of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But
a certain fearful looking forward of judgment and fiery indignation
which shall devour the adversaries, he that despised Moses nor died
without mercy under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath
trodden on the foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despise unto the Spirit of Christ. These are those,
you see, who had a fight. They had a fight for a period.
They received the knowledge of the truth. But now there's a
sad declension. They're turning away from the
truth. And it's not just in chapter
10, is it also on a previous occasion in chapter 6, Paul says
something very similar. when he speaks again of faith
that is but passing and temporary. Chapter 6 verse 4 he says, It
is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted
of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost
and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the
world to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again
unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put into an open chain. That was never true
faith, and yet, how close it came to true faith. And these portions are left on
record, they're very searching scriptures, are they not? When
we come to them, we sometimes fear, is that true of our faith? Is it eventually going to be
exposed as being but a temporary faith and not the true faith
of God's elect? The faith that this man Noah
has was in no sense natural. It was not a faith of his own
making. It was that faith that was wrought
in his soul by God. Faith of the operation of God. who has raised the Lord Jesus
Christ from the dead. That faith that we've said so
many times as we see in Ephesians is the product of such a mighty
work of God that it is the same power that was there in Christ's
resurrection that has to come into the soul of that sinner. The exceeding greatness of his
power to us would who believe, says Paul. The exceeding greatness
of his power. I love the language of the Apostle. It's not just the power of God.
It's not just the greatness of the power of God. It's the exceeding
greatness of his power to us would who believe. And it's according,
he says, to the working of his mighty power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places. It's in the same manner
as that power that was there when Christ was raised again
from the dead. This is the faith that Noah had. It's a supernatural faith. There in Colossians 2 verse 12
faith of the operation of God who has raised him, that is Christ,
from the dead. By grace are you saved, through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. All this, friends, is the faith
of Noah. The faith that embraces the Word
of God, that believes the Word of God, that rests simply in
what God himself has said. By faith Noah being warned of
God of things not seen as yet. God wrought that faith in his
soul, and we see it, do we not, in his readiness to act in obedience
to what God himself had said. Remember how James speaks of
the evidence of that true faith? He says, even so faith, if it
have not works, is dead, being, love. He's not saying that works
is acts that contribute something to a man's justification. It's
not of works, lest any man should boast. But what we see, you see,
in those works is that that indicates that the faith is a genuine faith,
it's a true faith. By their fruit he shall love.
We see this fruit of obedience in Noah. His faith rests in the
Word of God and he acts upon the Word of God. That's what
we must do. When God comes, when God speaks to us, we have to
respond. We respond in faith. He was warned
of God, of things not seen as yet. What does he do? He's obedient
to the Word of God. Oh God grant that we might be
obedient to that voice of God as He comes to us, as He speaks
to us, as He sits before us. The only way of salvation, we
have to be looking on to Jesus, the author, the finisher of our
faith. Oh God grant that we might know
something then of this supernatural faith, this saving faith, this
justifying faith that was demonstrated in the case in the experience
in the life of a man like Noah. May the Lord bless his word to
us.