Would you turn to Hebrews chapter
11, verse 7. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7. 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 Now, the first thing that I want
to draw to your attention is found in this first phrase, by
faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet. I've entitled this message, Things
Not Seen As Yet. Now, there are things that God
said Will be. So they shall be. But they're
not seen. As yet. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 5, judge nothing before the time. I think that's
glorious the way he calls Judgment Day the time. Judge nothing before
the time until the Lord come. who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels
of the heart. And then shall every man have
praise of God. Now, this time is coming, but
it's not seen as yet. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 24,
Paul said, Then cometh the end. You know, the Lord's going to
wrap this all up. Then cometh the end. The end
is coming. And when the end comes, that's
when everything begins, really. Then cometh the end. It's coming, but we don't see
it as yet. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and
with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. Now, it's not seen as yet. But
it will be. Behold, the scripture says, he
cometh with the clouds and every eye shall see him. But it's not
seen as yet. Paul said in Acts chapter 24,
there shall be a resurrection of the dead. You're going to
die. I'm going to die. That's for
sure. But there will be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. The dead in Christ
shall rise first. And then those who are without
Christ. Paul said he's appointed a day when he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. It's described in Matthew 25
like this. When the Son of Man shall come
in his glory and all of the holy angels with him, then shall he
sit on the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from his goats." Now, that time is coming. But
it's not seen as yet. Let me read the description of
this. Would you turn to Revelation 20 with me? I'd like you to look
at this. Revelation chapter 20. Beginning in verse 11, John says,
And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose
face the earth and the heavens led away. And there was found
no place for them. And I saw the dead. Small and
great. People who you've never heard
of. famous people, insignificant people in the grand scheme of
things, and people that think themselves to be significant.
They're all going to stand before the judgment seat of God. I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of
life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books, plural, according
to their works. Those outside of Christ, they're
going to be judged strictly, impartially, according to their
works. And God is absolutely just. And that's something that I can't
even bear to think about. What if God judged you? according
to your works. Now that is going to happen to
every unbeliever. It's not seen as yet, but it
will be. There will be a great white throne
of judgment. Now look in verse 13. And the
sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. Now, the book of life is that
book of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world with
all the names of God's elect in it. Those people were judged
according to Christ's works. Now, this time is coming. It's
not seen as yet, but it's coming. Now, at this time, I love to
think about this. At this time, every knee is going
to bow to King Jesus. Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord. to the glory of God the Father. Now, it's not seen yet, but it
will be. Everybody is going to confess
this, and everything as we see it will be destroyed. This building,
these bodies, this planet, everything as we see it will be destroyed. The scripture says, but the day
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works
shall be burned up. Now, it's not seen as yet. But
it will. And then the new Jerusalem will
descend out of heaven. And that great choir shall sing,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And they shall see His face."
Every believer, they're going to see the face of their Lord.
And there shall be no more tears, no more crying, no more pain.
And the Scripture says, then, then, shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun. Now, I want you to think about
that. You can't see me shining right now. I can't see you shining
right now. But one of these days, we will. The righteous shall shine forth
as the sun. Things not seen as yet. Now,
turn back to Hebrews chapter 11. Things not seen as yet. A lot of things that we don't
see right now, but we're going to see them. Now, in light of
that, verse 7. By faith, no. being warned of God of things
not seen as yet. Now, what was he warned about?
God said, I'm going to break open the fountains of the deep
rain has come down from heaven and I'm going to flood the earth
and everything that has the breath of life. I'm going to destroy
and you're to make an arc and you get in that arc and you'll
find protection. Now, the Lord warned him 120
years before that took place. He warned him of things not seen,
and yet he heard from the living God. Now, everything he did was
motivated by faith. By faith, Noah. He believed what
God said. God said, I'm going to destroy
the world with a flood. Most people look at that as,
well, that didn't really happen. Yeah, it did. Yeah, it did. Do you really believe Noah made
an ark? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. That all those different
kinds of animals could get into it? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't
understand how it all happened, but I believe the word of God.
I just, I just don't have it. I believe what God says. He warned
him. He warned him that he was going
to send this flood. Now, who is this man Noah? Let's turn back to Genesis chapter
six. You know, when we were listening
to that song, feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving.
My warrant is the Word of God. Naught else is worth believing. Now, remember this book we're
looking at and the story of Noah and every other story. It's the
Word of God. I might not be able to explain
how Noah could make an ark that big that would How's all those
animals? I can't explain that. We're given
the dimensions of it. He wasn't freelancing. God told
him how long it had to be, how wide it had to be, and how high
it had to be, and all those things. And it was huge. It was huge. Now, how did he do this? I don't
know. But he did. He did. This Bible is the Word
of God. This book is the Word of God.
So don't look at this as just an ancient story. This is the
Gospel. Now look in verse 5, Genesis
chapter 6. And 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 that's me and you. When God
looks in the thoughts of our heart, all he sees, this is regarding
every natural man, all he sees is only evil continually. Do you believe that? I do. I believe it first because
God says it. And second, I believe it because
I know it so. I know it so about myself. Now
this is how God views every man. Now let's go on reading. Verse
6, And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air. For
it repenteth me that I have made them, but no found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. Now, Noah was included in that
bunch described in verse 5. He was just as bad as anybody
else by nature, but Noah found unmerited favor in the eyes of
the Lord. I want to too, don't you? I want
to find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Look in verse 9. These are the generations of
Noah Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. And
Noah walked with God. Now, you see that description
of Noah? I don't in any way want to excuse or overlook his behavior,
but I can show you some very dark things about Noah. What
about when he got drunk? He planted a vineyard, got drunk,
and what happened with his sons? There's some dark stuff going
on. Yet when God speaks of Noah, he calls him just and perfect. And if God says he's just and
perfect, he is just and perfect. And I'm looking at some people
in this room right now whom God would say they're just and they're
perfect. They're without sin. Now, this
is what the gospel does. It makes a man just. It makes
a man perfect. God's testimony concerning that
person. Look in Genesis chapter seven, verse one. And 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." Noah
was a righteous man. He was a righteous man just the
way Abel was a righteous man. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. It didn't say he was viewed as
righteous or legally viewed or constituted as righteous. It
says he in his person was righteous. Now, that is the description
of every believer. My sin became Christ's. His righteousness becomes mine
so that I'm actually righteous. As a matter of fact, Noah is
called in the book of Peter a preacher of righteousness. He believed
the same gospel you and I do. Now, I appeal to every believer,
who is your righteousness before God? Christ, you really believe that
he is your righteousness before God, and that's what you're holding
on to. Noah, God said, be, if I seen
as righteous before me now, it says by faith. No, go back to
our text in Hebrews chapter. Hold your finger there in Genesis
chapter six, because we're going to come back there. But Hebrews
chapter 11, verse 7, by faith, Noah being warned of God of things
not seen as yet moved with fear. Now, all that Noah did came from
the God given faith that he had. He believed what God said. God
said, I'm going to flood the earth. Noah believed God. concerning all of those things
which are not seen as yet. Now, do you believe everything
God says concerning things not seen as yet? God says these things
in his word, we don't see them. But we believe them. We know
they will take place because God said they would. Now, Noah
lived in a day very much like today. Remember when the Lord
talked about, as in the days of Noah, the days of the coming
of the son of Man B. In the days of Noah, they were
eating and drinking. They were marrying. They were
giving in marriage. They were building. They were planting.
They were buying. They were selling. And God flooded the earth. Noah
lived in a day very much like today. And God warned him about
what was going to take place. Look back in Genesis chapter
6, beginning in verse 19. I'm sorry, verse 9. These are the generations of
Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. And
Noah walked with God. You know, I just can't get past
that. That describes me. That describes every believer. And this is what God says. A
just man. Perfect in his generation. Isn't
that wonderful? That's what every believer is.
Believe this. Receive it. Lay hold on it. Believe
it by faith. It's the truth. It's what every
believer is. Verse 10, And Noah begat three
sons, Shem, Ham, and Jacob. The earth also was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked
upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupted, for all flesh
had corrupted his way upon the earth. And 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 thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch, and this
is the fashion which thou shalt make of it. The length of the
ark shall be 300 cubits, 450 feet long. The breadth of it,
50 cubits, 75 feet wide. And the height of it, 30 cubits,
45 feet high. And I read somewhere, somebody
said that's the perfect sailing vessel as far as being capsized.
It would be safe on those dimensions. Perfect engineering for a boat.
Just an interesting thing. And verse 16, a window shalt
thou make to the ark. And in a cubit shalt thou finish
it above, and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side
thereof, with lower, second, and third stories, shalt thou
make it. And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters
upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of
life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die.
But with thee will I establish my covenant." And thou shalt
come into the ark now, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy son's
wife with thee. And of every living thing, of
all flesh, too, of every sort, shalt thou bring into the ark,
to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and female."
Now, this ark that Noah built, the first thing that I think
about it is it was huge. Plenty of room. Plenty of room
for anybody who wanted to come in. You don't have to worry about
there being no room. This ark was huge. And this ark typifies the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know that in the ark, there
was safety, there was security, there was salvation. Anybody
and everybody in the ark was saved from the wrath of God.
And outside of the ark, there was nothing but the judgment
of God. Now, there was no room for freelancing.
He gave exact specifications as to how big this ark was to
be in the rooms and so on. And the scripture says it was
pitched within and without with pitch, a black tarry substance
to keep the water out. And this is this pitch is the
same word that is translated atonement. It's the atonement
of Christ that keeps the wrath of God from entering into me.
It's the atonement of Christ that keeps me on the inside.
Notice, it was pitched on the outside and on the inside with
the pitch. It's the blood of Christ that
keeps me, that preserves me, that inspires me to come into
the Lord's presence. Now, this ark had one window.
You can only look up. Faith in Christ. It had one door,
one way into Christ. Now, this ark saved Noah. and his house. Everybody in that
ark was saved. All outside of the ark were drowned.
All in Christ are saved and all out of Christ are lost. Now,
not one drop of water got into that ark. Now, here's what I
like thinking about. Noah, God warned him about this. This is
going to happen. And we know that Noah spent 120 years building
this ark. Now, can you imagine 120 years
of that hammer hammering away? I mean, it was so big it took
that long. What a construction project. How many times did people
pass by Noah and say, that man's insane. He's crazy. This is the most ridiculous thing
I've ever seen, building an ark in dry land. He is crazy. And I imagine perhaps there were
some people that asked him what he was doing. He said, well,
I'm building an ark. God said there's going to be a flood.
And I bet that some people along this 120 year period thought,
you know, maybe he's right. Maybe I better help him. I want
to get in on that ark. And maybe they worked with Noah
for a week or a month or even a year, but they lost interest
because the water never came down. And they thought this is
not going to happen. This is ridiculous. But here Noah keeps
building, 120 years building that ark. And the scripture says
that by it, look in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7, here's what he did
in building that ark. By faith Noah, being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, he 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, in this building of the ark, the scripture says he actually
condemned the world. Now, we're not told. We're really
not told. Was Noah telling people God's
going to send a flood and he's going to kill everybody and there's
only safety in this ark. Perhaps he was. We're not told.
I kind of think he was because I know the scripture says he
was a preacher of righteousness. He preached God's righteousness
in destroying the world. But here he builds this ark and
the doors finally opened and God says, come into the ark.
And, you know, everybody came into that ark before a drop of
water fell. The door was opened and the people
that came in the ark, Noah and his three sons, three daughters-in-law,
his wife, the animals, they all came into that ark before one
drop of water fell. Still couldn't see. Still couldn't
see where the flood was going. They didn't see dark clouds.
They didn't see rain coming. They didn't see the fountains
broken up, but God said they would. God said, get in the ark.
In they went. Now, God shut the door. He shut them in. What do you
think would have happened if they would have left the door
open and the rain started falling? You reckon people would have
been flocking into that ark? Sure, they would. They would
have wanted to get... They would have desperately wanted
to get in that ark. But that's contrary to faith,
isn't it? They didn't believe the Word of God. And the door
was closed. And the waters came down. The
Scripture says it rained for 40 days. Those people outside the ark,
I think of people banging on it, beating on it, open the door,
open the door. No, he couldn't. And I guarantee
you there wasn't a sign on that ark saying, smile, God loves
you, to those people. That wouldn't have happened.
Here the rain comes down. And what happened with Noah?
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 which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness,
which is by faith. Now, he became heir of righteousness. How many times have you known
someone who inherited something, maybe a lot of money, and they
were just worthless people, but they got it anyway? You've seen
that quite a bit. I mean, they only got it not
because they deserved it, not because they worked for it. They
got it because they were heirs. Heirs. Heirs of God. All that Christ has coming, because
I'm in Him. All that Christ has coming. I
have coming. I'm an heir of God. He became
an heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. Now I want
to read some about this righteousness, which is by faith. Would you
turn with me to Romans chapter 10? Now, before I read this passage
of scripture, let me say this to myself. Let me say this to
you. What does God require? Perfect righteousness. Do you
believe that? Perfect, absolute righteousness. God is not going to have anything
to do with you or me except send us to hell if we don't have a
perfect righteousness. And this is the righteousness
which is by faith that he's speaking of. Now, you know that you haven't
worked at this perfect righteousness. Paul said, Oh, that I may win
Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is in the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, the righteousness
of faith. Noah became heir of the righteousness,
which is by faith. Now, Romans chapter 10. Paul says in verse one. Brethren. My heart's desire. And prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. They weren't, but Paul says,
I want them to be. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God. They're very zealous regarding
what they believe. They're very sincere. They're
very religious. They have a zeal of God. These
are not apathetic individuals. These are people that don't care.
They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness. And here's what
they're ignorant of. God's righteousness. And going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. Now, there's not a more
important verse of the scripture than that right there. For they,
being ignorant of God's righteousness, His righteous character, His
righteous requirements, the righteousness in the gospel, and because of
that ignorance, they go about to establish their own righteousness,
thinking, God needs to save me because I've done this. They
have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God,
the righteousness which is in faith, the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. For, verse 4, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For
Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by it. But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise. First, it tells us
what not to say. Say not in thy heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is to say, to bring Christ down from
above. Don't say in your heart, what can I do to get Christ to
come down here and do something for me? Strike that from your
thinking, he says. Don't say that in your heart.
And then says next in verse seven, or who should descend into the
deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. Don't say
in your heart, what can I do to make his death work for me?
What can I do to bring him up and cause his death and what
he did when he suffered and died and went into the grave and went
into the deep? What can I do to make that work for me? That
works, that's all it is. Just quit talking that way. Verse
8. But what sayeth it? The word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the
word of faith, which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Do you confess that? You confess. He's the Lord. You believe that? He's the Lord. He is Jesus, God's Savior. Do you confess that? And shalt
believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. Now, do you hear what he says?
You believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Now, that doesn't simply mean
you believe that it happened. That's not talking about believing
in events. You believe God raised him from
the dead because he did what God sent him to do. You believe
that He actually put away sin. And you believe in your very
heart of hearts that God raised Him from the dead. Now, that
says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. Saved by the grace of God, saved
by the righteousness of Christ, saved from your sin. Saved to
be just like Christ. Saved to be preserved unto eternal
glory. Thou shalt be saved. Verse 10, For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made to salvation. Now, my heart. With the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. The heart is the whole man. It's
the understanding. It's the affections. It's the
will. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. I understand. I want to say this right. There's a very real sense. Don't misunderstand me. There's
a very real sense in which I don't understand anything I believe. I don't really understand how
sinful I am. I don't really understand how
holy God is. I really don't understand His
power and His might and His wisdom. And the stuff that I believe,
I understand it, but I don't. I believe what God says. I know
what God says is so, but do I comprehend it? No, but I believe, and I
do have this much understanding. I do understand. Oh, my soul,
I know this. I believe this. I understand
that the righteousness of Jesus Christ is my only righteousness
before God. I understand that. Now, not only
do I understand it, I love it. I love His righteousness being
my righteousness before God. Do you love that? Remember, with
the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. Not only do I
understand this, not only do I love this. Give me the choice. Let's talk
about the will for a second. Would you rather be saved by
Christ's righteousness or your own righteousness, which would
you rather have? I don't have to think, hmm, let
me think about that. No, not at all. With the heart,
with the understanding, with the affections, the will, With
the heart man believeth under righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made. I confess, this is what I believe.
I don't have a desire to believe anything else. For with the heart
man believeth under righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. They won't be put to
shame, and they won't be ashamed. You know, I'm going to stand
before God. I'm going to stand before all the universe. And
all my life is going to be put up on a big screen. And I'm not
going to be ashamed. It's all good. It's all perfect. It's all righteous. I will not
be ashamed. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay, fully absolved from
these I am, from sin's tremendous curse and shame. I'm not. I'll tell you what. If you knew what was in my heart,
I'd never be able to look you in the face again and the same
thing with you. Same thing. That being said. I'll never be ashamed. I'll be
the righteous to shine as the sun. Verse 12, for there's no
difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now, that's
the righteousness which is by faith. Now, beloved, there are
things not seen as yet. There's a whole lot of things
that are not seen as yet. To me, this is an awesome thought.
The time is coming. How much could you use $100,000 right
now? You could use $100,000, couldn't
you? There's nobody in this room that would be indifferent about
$100,000. Any figure, a million, whatever. You know, the time
is coming where if you saw $100,000 laying in the street, it wouldn't
be worth your time to bend over and pick it up. That time is coming. All the
things that we consider important, they're not important. They're
things not seen as yet. Standing before God in judgment,
the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, things not seen
as yet, but they will be. They will be. By faith, Noah
being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. And he prepared an ark to the
saving of his house. He got in the ark. By the witch,
he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which
is by faith. Let's pray.