Chapter 11, titled this message, Faith, Fear,
and Obedience. Faith, Fear, and Obedience. These always go together. Where there is true, saving faith,
there is a genuine reverent fear of God, and there's obedience. Now, Noah, as we read earlier, found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He found grace in the eyes of
the God of all grace and the God of all comfort. I was reading some chapters before this earlier
today. And I read where Noah, Noah's
great-grandfather was Enoch. It caught my attention when it
said, Noah walked with God. And before that, it says Enoch
walked with God and Enoch was his great-grandfather. But that's
not why he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God did not
save Noah for Enoch's sake. God doesn't save us for mom and
dad's sake or anybody else. He saves us for Christ's sake. But he found grace in the eyes
of the Lord and he found grace, favor with God because of who
God is. Not because of Noah. Just like
us, we found grace in the eyes of the Lord because of who He
is. I read one writer who wrote this,
I don't remember his name because as soon as I read it I just turned
it off, shut the book because he doesn't know what he's talking
about on this subject. But he said Noah was the only fit person
in his day and his family was the only fit family in his day
and that's why God saved him. God did not save Noah because
he was a fit person. The writer did not understand
grace. Grace is for the unfit. Grace is for the unfit. Mercy
is for the guilty. Who mercy is for? Mercy is for
the guilty. Noah was born a sinner like everyone
else in that time and like I'm sure he had a lot of brothers
and sisters and he just liked them. You know, I've got brothers,
four sisters, two brothers. I'm just like them. I was born
to the same parents, same nature, but you know what made the difference?
Grace. Grace makes the difference. The
Apostle Paul said this, I am what I am by the grace of God. I am a believer by the grace
of God. I am saved by the grace of God. I am redeemed by the grace of
God I am what I am I'm a preacher of the gospel by the grace of
God by the grace of God now because of God's grace to Noah Noah found
grace in his sight God warned Noah that he was going to destroy
this world everything that had breath and I had to really think
about that because we forget this GOD DESTROYED THIS WHOLE
EARTH, EVERYTHING LIVING ON THIS EARTH EXCEPT FOR EIGHT PEOPLE
AND THOSE ON THE ARK. GOD KILLED EVERYTHING THAT HAD
BREATH AT ONE TIME. WATER COVERED THIS PLACE AT ONE
TIME. WATER COVERED THIS WHOLE EARTH
NOT JUST WHERE NOAH LIVED BUT THE WHOLE EARTH WAS FLOODED. THAT'S AMAZING, THINK ABOUT IT.
I THINK IT WAS LIKE 20 feet above the highest mountain the flood
was, and everything died. We have an example given to us
in the Word of God of judgment, of judgment. Now the warning here that God
gave to Noah is found in verse 7. By faith, Noah BEING WARNED
OF GOD OF THINGS NOT SEEN AS YET, NEVER SEEN SUCH A THING,
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. The first thing said about Noah
is his faith, by faith, by faith Noah BE WARNED OF GOD, MOVE WITH
FEAR, AND BUILD AN ARK. You know, the Scripture says,
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So whatever is done apart from
faith is sin, no matter what it is. I don't care if you give
a ton of money to charity, if it's done without faith, you
know what the Word of God says? It's SIN! Everything that's not
of faith is sin. And so what Noah did in the building
of the ark, he did by FAITH. He believed God. As I said last
Sunday, FAITH IS THE GIFT OF GOD, IT'S THE WORK OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT. HOWEVER, IT IS MY FAITH. It's
a gift of God, He gives it to me. In fact, it gives you something
of yours, doesn't it? God works it in us by the Holy Spirit,
the preaching of the Gospel. FAITH COMES BY HEARING, HEARING
BY THE WORD OF GOD. BUT GOD DOES NOT BELIEVE FOR ME. NOAH BELIEVED GOD. ABRAHAM BELIEVED
GOD AND IT IS COUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. WHAT A MYSTERY! WHAT A MYSTERY! IT IS A GIFT
OF GOD. GOD GIVES IT TO US AND WORKS
IT IN US AND YET IT IS OUR FAITH. IT IS NOT GOD BELIEVING FOR ME.
IT IS ME BELIEVING GOD. THIS FAITH THAT NOAH POSSESSED
MADE EVERYTHING GOD SAID TO HIM REAL. We looked at that last
week. There in verse 1. You who believe God, this book
is real to you. The promises of God are real
to you and the warnings of God are real to you. The wrath of
God is real to you. It's real. The wrath of God is coming. And
that's sobering to me when I preach, because I preach to people that
are lost, just like Noah did. And I can see in their faces,
they are somewhere else. They are not listening. They
have no interest whatsoever, just like the people in the days
of Noah. But it says, Noah being warned
of God of things not seen as yet. Here's a divine revelation
given to Noah. He warned Noah of coming judgment. You know, the earth had only
known a gentle watering up to this time and there had not been
this flood and what God is speaking to him of and the world being
flooded. He hadn't seen that before but
he believed it. He believed it. I tell you what, every one of
us to whom God has given faith, when we heard the gospel, we
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but we also believed in the wrath
of God. I believe I deserve to go to hell. If God sent me to
hell, He'd be a just God, give me what I deserve. I believe
that. I believe that. And what Noah was told and what's
about to happen is going to be a cataclysmic disruption of the
whole world. Unprecedented! Unprecedented! I cannot imagine the fear that
gripped their hearts when it happened, I just can't imagine
that. In Revelation 6.16 they said
this, and they said to the mountains and rocks, and hide us from the
face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb." That's going to happen. They're going to cry to the rocks
and mountains to fall on them. But what was the cause of this
judgment? You know, God's judgment is a
righteous judgment. It's a righteous judgment. He
only gives what is deserved and no more. I mean, not one jot
or ten or more. Not at all. But the cause of this judgment,
as I read to you, is the moral decay and violence that filled
the earth. The imagination of the heart,
he said, was evil continually. There wasn't a good thought.
They could not muster up one good thought and God knows the
heart. And when God says they didn't
have a good thought, they didn't have a good thought because He
sees the heart. they had the moral decay and
violence the sons of god intermarried with the daughters of men here's what i think i do believe
this is what this is saying in genesis 6 too it says that the
sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair and
they took them wives of all which they chose Then in Genesis chapter
4 verse 26 it says, And to Seth, to him also there was born a
son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the
name of the LORD. They began to call upon the LORD,
the name of the LORD. And I believe these men, these
righteous mingled with the unrighteous. this led to this widespread corruption
to where there was so much violence and not a not a good thought
not even a good thought no more you know the word of god says
in 2 corinthians 6 14 be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness
and what communion hath light with darkness there's no good
gonna come out of that I know a situation right now, I can't
say much since this is live streaming, but this person is, and I've
known this person for years, sat under the gospel for years,
which should tell you about the age of this person. And they're
about to marry an unbeliever. This person's spouse died two,
three years ago. And I just, I'm like, do we not
read the word of God? Do we sit and just are we just
sitting like dumb animals and not listening? God's Word is God's Word. Here's an example I think of
this here, the sons of God intermarried with the daughters of men. And
I think Samson is a good example. Samson is a son of God. Samson
was used greatly of God. And what did he do? He went down
and married a Philistine woman and his parents said, don't do
that. Don't do that. And he did it anyway. And you
know what happened? What happened to him for doing
it? Jacob and Esau. Jacob went to find a wife out
of Isaac's family. And Esau heard, he heard his
father talking to him. Because his father said, don't
get a wife from among these people here. Go down to my father's
house and you'll get you a wife. Esau heard him and he just, on
purpose, on purpose, he went and got him a Gentile wife. Just
to rub it in her face. But here's what this is the SONS
OF GOD SAW THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN, THEY WERE FAIR, THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL.
BEAUTY LIKE RICHES CAN BE DANGEROUS, IT CAN BE DANGEROUS. And this is a warning to us,
compromise will corrupt, it will corrupt. Then, listen, the Word of God,
as He warned Noah, the Word of God is full of warnings to us. Like Noah, we are also warned.
We're not warned of a flood, but of a fire and judgment that's
coming. This place is gonna burn up.
Who in this house, there ain't nobody in this house, you're
intelligent people. You wouldn't go buy houses on
fire, would you? He wouldn t do it. This place
is on fire. Revelation 6, 17 For the great
day of his wrath is come, and WHO SHALL BE ABLE TO STAND? Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. I forgot to put
whether it was 1st or 2nd. We ll turn to 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Okay, that's 1 Thessalonians.
Look at verse 7. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, WHO SHALL BE PUNISHED WITH EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION
FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, AND FROM THE GLORY OF HIS POWER,
WHEN HE SHALL COME TO BE GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS, AND TO BE ADMIRED
IN ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE." He said, because our testimony among
you was believed in that day. But God's going to burn it up.
He's going to burn it up. Let's not get too attached to
it. Let's not get too attached. Just as the world continues as
it was in that day, in Noah's day, until JUDGEMENT came. It continued. You'll overlook,
he said, as it was in the days of Noah, they were married, giving
him marriage, you know, just what it was, life was just going
on normal. It was just normal, just everyday living. And then
BAM! One day God shut the door in
the ark, shut Noah in the ark, and shut that door, and JUDGEMENT
fell. I tell you when God saves that
last sinner, I believe when God saves that last sinner in Christ,
in that ark, JUDGMENT IS GOING TO HAPPEN! It's going to fall
on this earth, it's going to fall on this world and everybody
in it that does not believe. It's going to happen! We see some signs of judgment
in the weather. Aren't we, don't we? What about
tsunamis and they come through and they wipe out a bunch of
people? Here, several years ago, wiped out thousands of people. And we see marks of judgment,
just a little bit of judgment. God speaks once, yay, twice,
man believes Him not. Man doesn't believe, he doesn't
believe God speaking, God speaking. WIPED A BUNCH OF THEM OUT DOWN
THERE IN TEXAS, GOD SPEAKING! But nobody believes that, they
don't want to believe that God is a God like that. They don't
want to believe God would do such a thing as that, YES HE
WILL! He's done it many times since the fall! That's God's BRAIN OF JUDGEMENT!
And that's just what someone said, the SIMMERING OF JUDGEMENT!
FULL BLOWN JUDGEMENT IS YET TO COME! But notice the response
of faith to the warnings of God. It says, He moved with fear and
prepared an ark. Noah had a faith that believed.
You know, not all faith is saving faith. You know that? I pray often, I do. I pray often. Lord, don't let my faith be false
faith. May it be genuine. I pray it's
genuine and the repentance is genuine. Of course, if the faith
is genuine, the repentance will be genuine because that's where
repentance comes from, believing God. But I pray that all the time
because I know this, not all faith is faith, not all faith
is saving faith. Saving faith is marked by FEAR
and OBEDIENCE. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together as the manner of some is. You know, I see the
same faces here all the time. Faithful, faithful, faithful.
Some are spotty. Some are spotty. But some of
you are just very faithful. You're here all the time. You
want to hear the gospel. You need to be fed. You need
to be fed. Saving faith is marked by fear
and obedience. Noah took God at His Word. God
did not give Noah a sign. He didn't give him a dream. He gave him His Word. A promise. This is a promise. Noah, I'm
going to destroy the world. I'm going to do it. He didn't give Noah a sign. There
was no precedent for Noah to go by. He'd never seen a flood
before. Not to my knowledge in this.
He only had was a promise. Isn't that what we have? The
promises of God? That's what we have and they're
very real to us. Promises are very real. This
kind of faith is of God to believe, listen, to believe in things
yet not seen. I do, you do, don't you? I've
not seen Jesus Christ. I've not seen God, not physically. I've not seen heaven. I've not
seen the spiritual blessings of righteousness and justification.
I've not seen these. I believe them. I believe them just as sure as
I'm standing here, I believe them. I told someone not long ago,
if I said I didn't believe, I'd be lying. And I know I'd be lying.
I'd have to be lying to you if I said I didn't believe. Because
I do. And I do because I can't help
it. And you can't either. This kind of faith is of God.
It says in verse 1, Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen. They're real to you. And now here, listen, this was
a faith that believed. Here's a faith that moved, or
a fear that moved. No, that was born of faith. If
you believe God, if I believe God, we have a right fear of
God. I know we do, because faith produces
that. It produces that. This was not
a paralyzing fear. There's a fear that's paralyzing. Somebody breaks into your house.
That's a paralyzing fear. Me and Madison was talking about
that. I don't know how we get on some of the subjects we do,
but we were talking about somebody breaking into our house. She
said, I'll just get in the closet and just freeze. That's what
she told me. That's a paralyzing fear. THAT'S
WHAT THAT IS! THIS WAS A FEAR THAT CAUSED HIM
TO MOVE INTO ACTION! IT'S A REVEREND ALL THAT MOVED
HIM TO ACTION! I KNOW MANY HEAR WARNINGS, BUT
THEY'RE NOT MOVED BY FEAR, THEY'RE NOT MOVED BY LOVE, THEY'RE NOT
MOVED AT ALL! THEY'RE DEAD! YOU DON'T MOVE
DEAD PEOPLE! NOT BY THE MESSAGE, THEY'RE NOT MOVED BY IT! All but eight people died in
the flood. Is that not astounding to you?
The whole human race, how many millions? Maybe a billion. I'm
sure they reproduced at that time easily. Sin hadn't taken hold. I mean,
it had, I think it was Henry said one time, they lived to
be 900 years and some years, it took a while for sin to break
down that perfect body. But only eight people entered
into the ark. Only eight out of millions, millions,
millions. Only eight went into the ark. He had a faith that believed.
He had a faith that caused him to fear and moved him to action.
And he had a faith, or a faith here that moved him to act. He
built the ark. He built the ark. It was a great cost in this and
labor and ridicule. You think they didn't ridicule
him? Believe me, I've been ridiculed
over the gospel that I believe. I've been ridiculed over it. He was ridiculed and he worked
and labored. James wrote this though, faith
without works is dead. You know, if he had believed
God, if it had just been a nominal faith, a false faith, he'd have
died with everybody else. But no, he built an ark, and
I mean a big one. He didn't build a canoe. It took
him 120 years to do it. And Noah's faith was persevering.
His obedience was obvious. And his persistence was obvious
because he stayed at it for 120 years. Doris just had her 101
birthday last week. She'd have 19 more years to go. I thought about that today. I
thought, she'd have 19 more years to go before the Ark's finished. And Noah's message and his life
condemned the world. Think of what he had to deal
with, think of what he had to deal with, the whole world, I
mean the whole world, everyone of them, violence, evil imaginations, he was the
only one that believed God and lived godly. He had his family and I'm assuming
they did too. Only God knows. I know Noah did. I do know that. Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. So I know all about Noah. He believed God. And he believed God in the face
of all that rebellion. and all that sin and all that
debauchery, he walked with God by faith. Noah was said to be a preacher
of righteousness. His life was one of godliness in an ungodly
world. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians,
he said, You are a living epistle, known and read of all men, so
was Noah. His life was a walking epistle. A testimony to the grace
of God in an evil, evil world. His life and his preaching stood
in contrast to his generation's life of sin and violence. But
there's one man, one man who didn't walk with them, who did
not walk with darkness. I know he hadn't rubbed shoulders
with I know he had to trade with them, but he sure didn't partake of
their evil deeds. He didn't do it. Today, listen, every true believer,
by their godly living and witness, warns and condemns the world,
and warning them and witnesses them will add to their condemnation. I think of a man that just made
fun of me when I was young, a young believer. That'll just add to his condemnation.
God said, it'd be better than a millstone tied around your
neck and you drown in the depths of the sea than you fend one
of my little ones. You know, God forgets our sins, but He
don't forget theirs. He don't forget it. The only
sins he forgets are those who are in Christ. Our sins are gone. But everybody else outside of
Christ, he doesn't forget, not even a thought. And it's coming
back. Now let's look at the blessings
that followed Noah's faith. It says he became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. Well the same thing said of Noah.
same thing same faith you know his faith is exactly as our faith
the faith of everyone whom god has saved is the same it's in
the lord jesus christ god god he became the heir of righteousness
which is by faith god protected anoa at the appointed time god
said to him in chapter 7 Coming to the ark. Coming to the ark. And God shut Noah in. God was
in that ark, coming to the ark. He didn't say going to it, he
said coming to it. He's in there. And God shut the door. God shut
the door. And if God shuts the door, you
know what scripture says? When he shutteth, no man openeth.
If he openeth, no man shuts. And after this, listen, not a
drop of rain fell till all were in the ark, and after that, judgment
fell. Judgment is going to fall on
this world. It's going to happen. Judgment
fell, it came violently and suddenly. Christ said He'd come as a thief
in the night. He said this world is going to
burn up with fervent heat. But in all this judgment and
death and violence and God KILLING everybody, God's KILLING them,
that's what He's doing, Noah's safe. Noah's safe. Safe in the ark, that ark that
he was told to build that's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we are safe in Christ. We are safe in Christ's judgment.
God's judgment is not going to touch us. It fell on Jesus Christ
2,000 years ago at Calvary. The flood came as God said it
would. God is good for His Word, you
can take Him at His Word. And all that remained outside
the ark was DEATH Regret. I wish I'd listened to Noah.
Well, it's a little too late now. Henry said one time, hell
is truth realized too late. Death and regret and judgment.
People were, you know, I think people were, no doubt, were probably
hanging onto the side of that ark. I have no doubt about that. When the rain came and the water
was coming up, they realized Noah was telling the truth. The
Preacher of Righteousness! God s Righteousness! God is a
Righteous God! He s going to bring Judgment! And no doubt the Righteousness
of Christ. And no doubt people were hanging onto that Ark But
there's no salvation in a profession. There's no salvation outside
of Christ, hanging on to a profession you made umpteen years ago. There's
no salvation in that. Somebody can say that they accepted
Jesus as their personal Savior, and that's their hope. You're
going to perish. That person's going to perish.
THERE IS NO LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE ARK. THEY ALL GOT SWEPT AWAY.
SOONER OR LATER THAT ARK, YOU KNOW HERE, I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS
TODAY, THAT ARK, IT'S IN THAT STORM. THAT ARK IS TAKING THE WRATH
OF GOD. IT'S NOT JUST LIKE FLOATING DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. THIS IS A STORM GOING ON, A FLOOD,
VIOLENCE GOING ON. THE EARTH IS BREAKING UP. And
Noah is safe in that ark. And that ark didn't run against
the rocks and break up. I thought, it didn't run against
a mountain and break up. God guided that thing that whole
way. You know how easily it could
have ran into a mountain and broke up, but it didn't. Because
that represents His Son, whom the Lord says, My servant shall
not fail. He can't fail. That ark can't
fail. That ark's a type of Christ.
It's not going to run into a rock and split. It's not going to
do it. In that Lark, Noah was safe,
his family, and all those animals. In Christ, we are safe. Our life
is hidden with Christ in God. When Satan wanted to touch Job,
God let him touch everything but his life. You can't do it. He said you can't touch his life. Faith, fear, and obedience always
go together. These are the evidence of faith.
Faith, the gift of God, it produces fear and obedience. Here's the
obedience. You flee to Christ. You flee
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the faith of God's elect.
That's the faith that God has given. Judgment's coming, and
I say to all who listen to this, flee to the Lord Jesus Christ
from the wrath to come, and all is well. All is well.