Now let's open our Bibles to
the book of Hebrews chapter 11. As we continue through this chapter
we come to verse 7 which speaks of Noah. Verse 7
of Hebrews 11, by faith Noah being warned of God of things
not as yet seen he 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." And the title of
this message is Righteousness by Faith. When you think about the story
of Noah, that's a story that we were all taught in Sunday
school. We're on Noah and the Ark. I remember in Bible school,
as a young child, a teacher often would try to trick us all by
asking this question, said, how many of each animal did Moses
take on the ark? And we'd all raise our hands
and say two, two by two. And he said, no, it wasn't Moses,
it was Noah. There are a lot of things that
revolve around this story, isn't there? I had Mark read Genesis
chapter 6, and really I'm going to get back to Genesis chapter
6 next week. The story covers Genesis 6, 7,
and 8, the story of Noah. You think about the ark, obviously,
the animals. Think about the flood, the deluge,
they call it. Think about the rainbow. All
of those things come into play. What does the rainbow represent?
Well, it's a covenant that God made. Somebody said, well, the
rainbow represents mercy. Oh, yeah, it does, but not just
mercy. It's mercy founded in justice. How do you know? Well, there
was a flood before there was a rainbow, a big one, covered
the earth. And a lot of people argue about
it. They debate on it. There's debates all over the
country, all over the world about how, Mark, you read the dimensions
there. How big was it? Could it have
held this? And all that stuff just diverts people's attention
from the real issue, which is really stated in this one verse
in Hebrews 11, concerning Noah, these several things that are
said about Noah, leading to this one issue, that he became heir
of the righteousness, which is by faith. If I had to summarize
the whole story of Noah and the ark and the rainbow and it all,
it'd be right here. Very simple. Now, you can argue
and question. You know, people are trying to
find the Ark. Some people think they have found
it. And I'll tell you what's going to happen if and when or
if they have found it. I'll tell you what it's going
to do. It's going to take people's attention away from the real
issue, the gospel issue of Noah, the story of Noah. Because this
story of Noah is a story of salvation by God's grace through Christ.
That's what it's about. Now in the case of Noah, now
here's some things we know about Noah. I'm gonna be turning back
here to Genesis 6. But like I said, now as you read
through that, there's a lot of things you might have questions
about. Talks about the daughters of men, the sons of God and the
daughters of men and giants in the earth. And, well, you'll
hear some wild stories about that one, aliens, angels, every
kind of myth and fabrication that man can come up with. If
you want to hear about that, come back next week. I'm going
to deal with it. But the thing that I want you
to notice here about Noah, now he's listed in the Hall of Faith
here in Hebrews 11. And this is not a listing of
men and women who were better than everybody else. It's a listing
of men and women who were saved by God's grace. Noah was a sinner
saved by the grace of God. And listen to what it says. In
verse five of Genesis six, God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. Now, when you read verses like
that and other passages of scripture, like for example, Romans chapter
three, verse 10, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's
none that do of good, no, not one. If you relegate passages
like that off to some other segment of society to which you don't
belong, you're gonna miss it. Because what's being described
there in Genesis chapter six and verse five and Romans chapter
three verses 10, 11, and 12 is the state of all of us by nature. As we are naturally born as fallen
in Adam. Born dead in trespasses and sins. That's me and you, left to ourselves. You say, well now wait a minute,
I'm a religious person. Even the religious person falls
under this category. Those who are religious without
Christ, religious without truth, religious without grace. Every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart is evil continually.
That's a religious person without Christ. Man's religion is evil in the
sight of God. And I thought about this yesterday
because I was working on some things I'm writing. The thing
about it is, the issues of faith and repentance, and that's what
we're talking about in Hebrews 11. Noah was a man of faith. Now a man of faith or a woman
of faith is a miracle of God's grace. A man of faith or a woman
of faith is a work of God. God's power, God is not, listen,
if you're a person of faith, you're not the result or the
product of your own goodness or your own freedom or your own
will. You're the product of God's will, God's power, God's goodness
in Christ. We've often said Christ's righteousness,
the merit of his obedience unto death, His righteousness imputed
is not only the ground of justification, it's the source of spiritual
life. Romans 8.10, this body is dead
because of sin, but the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is life because
of righteousness. Now where are we gonna find righteousness?
Not in ourselves, but in Christ. So this is talking about all
of us. But look at the first thing in the Bible that said
about Noah, verse eight of Genesis six. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. It doesn't say Noah was looking
for God's grace, but he found it. None of us by nature are
looking for God's grace. There's none that seeketh after
God, no not one. If you're a sinner looking for
grace, God's already been there. Because we're not gonna look
for it. We're gonna look for things that'll give us room to
boast. But it doesn't say here, but Noah was a better guy than
the rest of that bunch. It doesn't say that Noah prayed
through or walked an aisle or got baptized. It said Noah found
grace. And let me tell you something
about grace. This is set back in Genesis chapter three. Grace
always has, and always will reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Noah was a sinner saved by God's
grace based upon the righteousness of the promised Messiah. That's
what he was. He goes on in verse 9 of Genesis
6. These are the generations of
Noah. He says Noah was a just man. That means he was not guilty. That means sin was not imputed
to him. That means righteousness was
imputed to him. Look over at Genesis 7 and verse 1. Listen
to this. Now this is the Lord saying this.
The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the
ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
God saw Noah as righteous in that generation. How? Christ hadn't even come yet.
No. But he was coming, and that's
a sure thing. And that's how God saw it. For
all the promises of God in Christ are yea and in him, amen. Noah,
look back at verse nine now, Genesis six, Noah was a just
man, he was a righteous man. And he was perfect in his generations.
Now that word perfect doesn't mean morally pure. And if you
want to find out how morally pure, now Noah was a moral man,
generally speaking. But if you want to find out how
morally pure Noah was, just read on and you'll find out. Noah was a man of like passions
as us. He was a sinner saved by grace. So that word perfect doesn't
mean morally pure. You may have in your concordance
in your Bible the word upright. Upright. What does that mean?
Well, it says here and it tells you what it means. He was perfect
in his generations and Noah, just like Enoch, walked with
God. It means he was a man of faith.
He believed God. He believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He looked forward to the promise of Christ's coming.
Now, I'm not going to argue with people. Somebody says, well,
how much theology did Noah know? He knew the gospel. He knew how
God saves sinners. How do you know that? Well, look
back over at Hebrews 11. This is our text. In the case
of Noah, a sinner saved by God's grace, we see another prime example,
just like we saw in Abel and Enoch. We see another prime example
of how faith's foundation is the word of God. That's number
one. Faith has a foundation. What
is it? It's God's word. It's not your opinion or my opinion
or your view of things or my view of things. It's not the
consensus. It's not what we vote on. It's
what God says. That's faith's foundation. Whatever
I believe about salvation, about a right relationship with God,
about how God saves sinners, about how I should live, how
I should think, how I should walk, it's got to be based on
what God says and what God says alone. And then secondly, we see in
Noah an example of how faith's object is Christ, the Messiah,
as the Lord our righteousness. You need righteousness. I need
righteousness. If you find it anywhere but in
Christ, you're not upright. You're down wrong. Is that a
word? And then thirdly, we see that
faith's evidence is believing, resting in and following God
and turning away from every other supposed way of salvation, repentance. Look at it, verse seven, by faith,
Noah, first of all, number one, being warned of God of things
not seen as yet. God spoke to Noah. This is God's
word. It's God's word of promise. How
do you know that God made Noah a promise? I'll tell you how
I know. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And grace is
based upon the promise of God to send Christ, the Messiah,
to put away Noah's sins, to work out a righteousness whereby he
could be just to justify Noah. That's what grace is all about.
Grace is not just a smile. It's not a Hallmark card, folks.
It's not just a feeling. It's not the warm fuzzies. Grace is God's justice satisfied
by a proper, God-appointed, able, willing substitute. Surety. In order for me to experience
God's grace, somebody's got to stand in my place and take my
punishment. And drink damnation dry. The
damnation that I deserve and have earned. And there's only one who qualifies,
one who's appointed of God, one who's willing, and one who's
able, and that's Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. He was prophesied
as the seed of woman in Genesis 3.15. He was prophesied as the
lamb in Genesis 3.21. Abel believed it by God's grace. Cain didn't. Cain was left to
himself. What do you suppose would have
happened to Abel if God had left Abel to himself? He'd have ended
up in the same place as Cain, right? Enoch believed it. Now we come to Noah. Noah found
grace. So it's God's word of promise,
but it's also God's word of threat. Now, when I say threat, you know,
somebody said, well, God just doesn't make threats. No, listen
to me. God said this world's evil. I'm
going to judge it. The world is damned. I'm going
to wipe this world away. That's what he said to Noah.
And let me tell you something about God. He is faithful to
what he says. He didn't look at us and say,
now, I'm going to give you three times. And on the third time I'll act,
no. God says it, that settles it. It will happen. We can depend
on God and his word. Do you know to disbelieve God
is the ultimate insult to his glory? To doubt God, to disbelieve
God is the ultimate insult to his glory. Because the gospel,
the good news of salvation, based upon the merits of the obedience
and death, the righteousness of the promised Messiah, that
reveals the ultimate, what the old writers called the Shekinah
glory of God in Christ. God promises to save any and
all sinners who come to Him seeking salvation His way, by grace through
Christ, based on Christ's righteousness alone. God promises to condemn
sinners based on anything else. That's it. Noah believed God
by faith. And then look at the next one
in verse seven. How do you know he believed him? What's the evidence? Well, he moved with fear. He
moved with fear, he prepared an ark. to the saving of his
house. Now Noah's moving with fear was
based on God's warning of judgment to come. And this fear here is
not a legal fear, just a legal fear of punishment or some kind
of a mercenary work for earned reward. No, that's legalism.
This fear is a respect and a regard for the glory of God. God means
what he says. God commanded Noah to build an
ark. Now I'm gonna show you in another
message how that ark is a picture, a type, a foreshadowing of Christ. Do you know if you're a believer,
you're on the ark right now, you're in the ark, you're in
Christ. You know how the ark, Noah was
shut in the ark by God, Noah and his family. And then the
rains fell and beat against that ark. All the wrath of God hit
the ark. Didn't hit no one, his family.
And that's the way it is with us in Christ. All the wrath of
God that we've earned and deserve because of our fallen Adam, because
of our own sins, fell on our substitute, our ark, Jesus Christ. And we're safe in him. We're
safe in the ark, the ark of God. I love that passage in Romans
5, 20 and 21, where it says, where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. For as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You know, when it says for sin,
where sin abounded, the picture there in the language is a picture
of sin overflowing us like a flood, like we're drowning in a sea
of sin. That's us, isn't it? Even at our best, we're drowning
in a sea of sin. But where sin drowns us, where
sin overfloods us, grace much more abounds. How? In Christ. That's a beautiful
picture, isn't it? So he moved with fear and he
prepared an ark to the saving of his house, his family. Noah
acted upon what he believed. He didn't just say, his faith
was not just a mere profession. Oh, I believe that. Have you ever heard of the term
practical atheism? You've heard of atheism, I'm
sure. An atheist is somebody who says there's no God. Practical
atheism is a little different. Practical atheism is a person
who claims to believe in God or a God but lives their life
like there is no God. In other words, it's just words. His faith was more than just
words. He prepared the ark and he prepared it according to the
instructions that God gave. But now look at the next line.
This is important. He said, he prepared an ark to
the saving his house. Listen to this. He says, by the
which he condemned the world. What? What does that mean? He condemned the world. Here's
what it means. Noah building that ark was a
declaration of God's just judgment of wrath against the sinful world. You hear that? In other words,
this ark I'm building, there is no salvation for any sinner
but on that ark. I don't know how long it took
Noah to build the ark. There's a lot of debate on that.
Don't get diverted on that. Some say 40 years, some say 50
years, some say 120 years. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2 with
me. Here's the point I want to make.
From the time that God made the promise and the threat to destroy
the earth, to the time of the actual flood was about 120 years. Don't know if Noah started building
the ark the day after God spoke to him or a few years after,
we don't know. Doesn't matter, Noah built the
ark. And of course we know that it wasn't by his power and his
wisdom and his ingenuity that he built the ark, it was all
of God, wasn't it? We'll see that in another message. But
from the time God spoke to Noah, to the time that the flood came
was about 120 years, and I know this, Noah did more than just
build the ark. You know what else he did? Exactly. Y'all read this, didn't you? Look a second, Peter. You know,
Peter's talking about false preachers here. Living in a day of false
preachers. Those who claim to be the people
of God. They're false prophets, he says. Well, Noah's day was
a day of false preachers, too. And it says here in verse five
that God spared not the old world. That's talking about the world
before the flood. But saved Noah, the eighth person. We'll talk about that another
time. And listen to how he identifies Noah. A preacher of righteousness. Bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly. Now, Noah preached God's justice. But Noah preached the gospel.
And that's what Peter's point is here. He preached Christ.
All the time he was building the ark, he was preaching, too.
Preaching the gospel. And the issue is this. What righteousness did Noah preach?
Well, over here in Hebrews 11, 7, it tells us, He became heir
of the righteousness which is by faith. Righteousness by faith. What
is that? A lot of misconceptions today
about that. Let me give you a couple. One
of the biggest misconceptions about the term righteousness
by faith is this. People believe that God accepts
our faith in place of righteousness. In other words, God sees that
we're just imperfect people. And He knows we cannot come up
to snuff and we're going to fail, so He accepts our faith instead
of righteousness. My friend, that's heresy. Do
you know if that were true, Jesus Christ would not have had to
come and die on that cross. If that were true. God, listen
to me, God will accept nothing short of perfect righteousness. in order to have a right relationship
with him, in order to be accepted, in order to be saved. Perfection. I've told you the story about
having lunch with a fella and he was talking about that. He
said, what does God require? And I said, he requires perfection.
And he said, well, nobody can do that. And I said, that's why
salvation's by grace and not by works. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified, be declared righteous. So that's a misconception. Here's
another one. Some people believe that God
declares us righteous because we believe. As if faith comes
first. Well my friend, that's heresy
too. Now Noah was a man of faith.
And that gave evidence that he was an heir of the righteousness
which is by faith. But Noah, the first thing that
you see about Noah is that he found grace in the sight of the
Lord. You see, righteousness is the
ground of a right relationship with God. Righteousness is the
source of spiritual life. It's the source of faith. It's
the source of everything that we do to evidence salvation None
of that is our righteousness or makes us so. But our righteousness is the
source of it. Where do we get righteousness?
What is this righteousness by faith? Well, first of all, righteousness
is perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. Technically,
righteousness is not a moral quality of character, technically
speaking, even though sometimes we speak of it as if it is. Technically
speaking, righteousness is the perfect standard by which God
measures moral quality of character. In other words, you say, well,
I love people. Well, how much? What's the standard of love?
If you're going to say, well, I know God will save me because
I love people. Well, how much love do you have
to have? What's the standard by which we can measure that
love to see if it comes up to snuff? Well, how many times you
hear me quote Acts 1731? There's coming a day in which
God will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead. If you're seeking salvation, a right relationship with God,
forgiveness of sins, blessings from God, based on your love
for Him, then your love must equal Christ's love. And He was love incarnate. Perfect
love. That's something, man. You say,
well, I'm going to try to do the best I can do. Well, that's... You ought to try to do the best
you can do. But is that going to make you righteous? You see
what I'm saying there? Righteousness is not really moral
qualities of care. It's the standard. It's the measure
by which God measures all of us. And what does that teach us?
Righteousness, for me, for you, for Abel, for Enoch, for Noah,
can only be found in the one person who is righteous. The one person who can and did
work out by his finished work, his obedience unto death, righteousness
as the surety and substitute of his people, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's gospel righteousness. That's what the righteousness
which is by faith is. It's the righteousness of God.
God said, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
in the gospel. It's the righteousness of Christ
freely imputed to all God's chosen people and which they all receive
by God given faith. It's the righteousness of Christ
that's imputed, which is the ground of everything that I have
that makes me acceptable to God. Justification before God. I'm
not guilty. That means I'm not condemned. I'm the culprit. I'm the sinner,
but I'm not condemned. There is therefore now no condemnation
in Christ Jesus. Those who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. Somebody said, well, we're not
charged, but we're chargeable. Oh no, I'm not even chargeable.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. Aren't you glad it says
without works? For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Faith is not
our righteousness. Christ is. We believe in Him.
His righteousness imputed is the source of our faith. The
preaching of the gospel is salvation for God's people, but it's also
condemnation for the world. Turn to 2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2. Now, Noah preached
the gospel. He built the ark. By that, he
condemned the world. What is he saying? The gospel
is a message of salvation, but it's also a message of condemnation.
Because it tells me and you, it told Noah and all his generation,
there is no salvation in the world. There is nothing but condemnation
for you outside of Christ, outside the ark. And if we fail to preach
both, we're failing to preach the gospel. Somebody told me
one time, said, well, I don't want to preach a negative message.
I want to preach a positive one. And I told him this. I said,
you don't have any choice about what you preach if you preach
God's word. You can't make that call. You don't have that kind
of authority, you see. That's God's business. God tells
his preachers what to preach in his word. And you know what
he says? Now, this will float your boat.
And let me preface it with this, and I'll close with this passage
here in 2 Corinthians 2, because this sums up Noah's message,
the gospel, and every preacher's message. Think about the Apostle
Peter standing in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost preaching
Christ. And how many people were converted? 3,000. Now was Peter successful? Yeah,
he was successful. Wasn't Peter, though, was it?
It was God. Probably, somebody says a few
years, somebody says a few days, Stephen. He stood in Jerusalem,
he preached to a crowd. How many were converted? None. Was Stephen successful? Yes,
he was. But nobody was converted. Well,
how can you say that? Well, look at 2 Corinthians 2,
verse 14. Now listen to this, now thanks be unto God, which
always calls us to triumph in Christ, always now, and maketh
manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. When we're
successful, when we make known the gospel, when we preach the
gospel, making known the savor of his knowledge in every place,
for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved
And what else? In them that perish. Now, we're
not happy over people who reject Christ. Isn't that right? I think it's the saddest thing
in the world when people walk out that door, still in unbelief. But you see, here's what I'm
telling you. That does not determine the success or the failure of
my preaching. Because if I preach Christ, I'm
victorious. He says in verse 16, to the one
we're the saver of death unto death. That's sad, isn't it? But to the other, the saver of
life unto life. That's a joy. That's glory to
God. Well, who's sufficient for these
things? You think about that. What a responsibility. What a
responsibility Noah had. We're not, but he says this,
now listen to how he ends this. He said, but now, you see now,
somebody might read something like that and they get discouraged
and say, well now I'm gonna change my ministry, I'm gonna change
my message. No, Paul said, he wrote, for we're not as many
as which corrupt the word of God. We're not gonna, I'm not
gonna hold back. I'm not gonna corrupt the word
of God to make it any different than what God says here. But
as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we
in Christ. That's what Noah did. Noah believed God, and he looked
forward to Christ. And he is building that ark,
a testimony of his faith in the promise that God made.