Let's open our Bibles again this
evening to Hebrews chapter 11. The writer had quoted the Old
Testament verse, the just shall live by faith in chapter 10 and
verse 38, the just shall live by faith. And then we say that
he followed this by giving a definition of faith in verse one of chapter
11. Now, faith is a substance of
things hoped for. the evidence of things not seen. And then he tells us in verse
two, that it was by faith that the elders obtained a good report. And he begins to mention a number
of the elders as we go through the chapter. And in doing so,
it seems that he shows us various characteristics of true faith. characteristics of the faith
of these elders that he mentions. We looked last time at Abel and
Enoch in verse 4 and 5. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts and by it he being
dead yet speaketh by faith Enoch was translated that he should
not see death and was not found because God had translated him
for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased
God. You remember what it was that
we saw associated with the faith of Abel and Enoch. It was righteousness
with Abel. It was righteousness that was
associated with the faith of Abel. Those who believe to the
justifying grace of God, those who receive righteousness, they
come to experience in their heart and in their conscience, the
righteousness of God, which is by faith. And we know that Abel
offered a lamb. He offered a lamb, trusting in
God's promised lamb, that his lamb pictured. The lamb that
Abel brought and offered to God as a sacrifice, pictured the
lamb of God, that John the Baptist pointed out, the Savior, Jesus
Christ, our Lord, who taketh away the sins of the world. God
testified, the scripture says, to his gift, his offering. As I pointed out, many believe
it was by fire, that fire came down from heaven and consumed
Abel's lamb. God testifying to his offering. With Enoch, it was pleasing God. And we saw that pleasing God
by looking in Genesis chapter five, which speaks to us of Enoch. It says, and Enoch walked with
God and he was not for God took him. So we saw that pleasing
God and walking with God are synonymous. That the way we please
God by faith is to walk by faith. Tonight, I want us to look only
at Noah, verse 7, and what we may learn about faith from his
example. From Abel, we learn this about
faith, that righteousness is received by faith. From Enoch,
we learn this about faith, that we walk with God and please God
by faith. If you will now, let's look at
Noah. And first, let's see that both
righteousness and walking with God was true of Noah. These two
things that we see in Abel and we see in Enoch, righteousness
and walking with God, Noah has the same faith as they had, the
faith which is a gift of God, faith in Christ the Lord, and
so we will see that he too had this righteousness given unto
him and that he walked with God. Let's read this verse here in
chapter 11 first, verse 7, and then we'll go to Genesis chapter
6. 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. Now, turn with me, keep your
places here of course, but let's go back to Genesis chapter 6
and let's see that these two things were true of Noah as well. righteousness, and walking with
God. In Genesis chapter 6, and we'll
read verses 5 through 9. And God saw, Genesis 6 and verse
5, 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. 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 thing
and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made
them. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. These are the generations of
Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations, and Noah walked with God. You see, the
first thing that we read here about Noah is that he found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And then we read that Noah was
a just man, a just man. How was it that he was a just
man? How was it that he was justified? Did he somehow escape the pollution
that was true of everyone else that God saw when he looked upon
man at that time? Was Noah the one exception? When
we read that he was a just man, how was he a just man when he
lived in a world of wicked men and women. Well, we know it was
the righteousness of God. He was declared righteous. Christ's
perfect obedience was imputed unto him as it is unto all who
believe. As Paul in the New Testament
gives the example of Abraham, Abraham believed God and it was
imputed unto him for righteousness. You see, the same thing we saw
about Abel, his faith was connected with righteousness. True faith,
saving faith, always brings a person into the realization of being
declared righteous, of being justified before God, justified
by God. Something else that we read about
Noah and righteousness in 2 Peter, in that letter, we read, Noah,
the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness. He was justified
by faith, like Abel. He received that righteousness,
which is of faith, and he was a preacher of righteousness.
I think about what David wrote in Psalm 71 in verse 16. He said, I will make mention
of thy righteousness even of thine only. Now that's true of every person
who believes in Christ to the saving of their soul. They're
not going to be talking about their righteousness. They're
going to be praising God for His righteousness which is imputed
unto them. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. And I was thinking he preached
for 120 years, evidently. And at the end of 120 years,
he and his wife and his three sons and their three wives were
the only ones who entered into that ark. You say, well, do you
think he ever got discouraged? 120 years preaching, a preacher
of righteousness. And as far as we know, and listen,
we don't know for sure. Now we assume, and I've heard
this from preachers, he preached 120 years and no one believed. But remember this, someone could
have believed, many could have believed and died and gone on
to be with the Lord before the deluge came. It's possible. But he was a preacher of righteousness
and like David. And as I said, once a man understands
and receives this righteousness, which is by faith, he's only
going to speak of that righteousness. He's not going to be talking
about his righteousness and the righteousness of anyone else
but Christ. Look with me, keep your place
here now, and let's go to Philippians, a very well-known passage of
Scripture. In Philippians chapter 3, there
was probably no one more self-righteous than Saul of Tarsus. We don't know that for sure,
but we know that he was very proud of everything that he was,
a Pharisee of the Pharisees. But when he met Christ, what
am I saying? He didn't speak anymore of his
righteousness. As far as he was concerned, he
counted his righteousness to be no more, no better than refuse,
than done. And he would speak only of Christ,
his righteousness. Notice that in Philippians chapter
three, beginning with verse four. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. If it comes to bragging, Paul
said, I've got some bragging rights too. And he had already
gone through that. I might have also confidence
in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised
the eighth day, that's what the law commanded. of the Stock of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching
the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church,
touching, now notice, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless. No one could accuse him, as far
as he was concerned, of being a lawbreaker. But, it all changed,
didn't it? when he met Christ. When he saw
what true holiness, what true righteousness is, his went out
the window. He didn't want to talk about
his anymore. The scripture says this about
God. It says that he is of pure eyes
than to behold iniquity. How righteous, how holy must
a person be to go to heaven? As holy, as righteous as God
is. He can't look upon evil. Purer eyes than to behold evil.
How holy, how righteous must a person be? You say, well preacher,
that's impossible. It's impossible for you, for
me, for any other man to establish a righteousness of our own that
will allow us to stand before a holy God. That's true. But
the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed unto everyone
who believes, that's the robe, that's the righteousness in which
we will appear before Him, those of us who know Him. This is what
Paul is saying here. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ, yea, doubtless, And I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the
loss of all things and do count them but done that I may win
Christ. Now notice, and be found in him
when I stand before God. I do not want to appear there
in my righteousness, in my filthy rags, for that's what our righteousnesses
are called, filthy rags. But I want to be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, by my keeping the law, by my obedience to the
law, no, no. But that which is through the
faith of Christ. the righteousness which is of
God by faith. So, as we saw about Abel, his
faith is connected with righteousness. We see the same thing that's
true of Noah. The first thing we read about
him is he was a just man. He was justified. He was declared
righteous. That's a legal term, isn't it?
He was declared righteous by the judge of all the earth, that
is God Almighty, and dressed in the righteousness of Christ. A person is as holy as he is,
accepted in the beloved. Saving faith will always trust
and speak of Christ's righteousness only. I know every person here
tonight who knows the Lord, who's been saved by the grace of God,
by the blood of Jesus Christ, the last thing you would want
to do is to profess that your righteousness is going to open
heaven for you. But your hope and your trust
and your confidence, if you know Christ, is in Him and in Him
alone. Now the second thing we saw about
Enoch, he walked with God. The same thing we see is true
of Noah. Notice that again in verse 9.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man, justified
and perfect in his generations. And Noah He walked with God. He walked with God. He pleased
God. And I pointed three things out
about walking with God. What it means to walk by faith. We walk or live in expectation
that when our life is ended in this world, we have a building
eternal in the heavens. Number two, we walk, we walk
by faith, we walk in the light and have fellowship one with
another. And that one with another means
we have fellowship with God. We have fellowship with God.
We walk in the light as he is in the light. Have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth
us from all sin. And that word cleanseth is an
ongoing thing, isn't it? As we walk, yes. Just like our
Lord, Him washing the disciples' feet. What did that picture?
It showed that in this world, yes, we have sin, we do sin,
but at the same time, the blood of Jesus Christ is always washing,
cleansing us from our sin. John said, if any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous, who
is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for
the whole world. There's only one propitiatory
sacrifice for sin that God accepts, no matter if a person's a Jew
or Gentile or whatever. And we walk By faith, walk in
the spirit. So we walk in expectation, we
walk in the light, and we walk in the spirit so that we do not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, I want us to consider, if
you turn back to Hebrews 11, I want us to consider something
that we read about concerning Noah and his faith And we see
that this is a characteristic of true faith. What is it? Fear. Fear. Hebrews 11 and verse 7. By faith,
Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear. Fear. Someone might say, well,
I thought I read over there in 1 John that perfect love casteth
out fear. You did, you did. That is true
of a certain kind of fear, no doubt about it. But there is
a fear, a fear which perfect love always has with it. There
is a fear which always accompanies true faith. There is a fear which
is, as the Old Testament tells us, the beginning of wisdom,
a fear which is compatible with love and with assurance, and
it always accompanies faith. So we see three things about
faith. righteousness, walking with God,
and fear. Three things about real saving
faith. Now, let's consider three things
about this fear. The fear that Noah and all true
believers have. First of all, this fear is not
that fear which is called servile or or slavish fear. It's not that fear that a slave
might have of a cruel master. It's not that fear that a citizen
might have of a despotic dictator. It was not the kind of fear that
a condemned criminal might have of the executioner. Here's a
man sitting on death row. and he sees a hangman walk by,
he might have a slavish fear of that man because he knows
that man's going to end his life. We're not talking about that
kind of fear. It's not the fear that demons
have. The demons spoke to the Lord
Jesus Christ when he was here in the flesh, and they said,
what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou
come to torment us before the time? We're not talking about
that kind of fear. Noah, like Paul, knew whom he
had believed and was persuaded that he was able to keep that.
which he had committed unto him against that day. This fear,
this fear that Noah had was not a careless fear. It was not a
fear which made him careless about his salvation. This fear
was not a despairing fear, thinking that there was no hope. God told
him he was going to destroy all flesh. This fear that he had,
it wasn't a fear of despair, thinking that he was going to
be destroyed. And this fear was not a presuming
fear. He didn't reason, well, like
some people do, well, if I'm to be saved, I'll be saved. Well, if I'm to be saved, I'll
be saved, and if not, I'll be lost. That's not the kind of
faith he had. He knew that God could save him,
and he told him to build an ark. And that's what he did. He moved
with fear. His fear was not presumption,
it was not despair, and it was not careless. Some people Sad
to say, misuse the truth concerning God's sovereign grace, don't
they? And they forget about the fact that man's responsible. We have responsibility, all of
us. It's God who works in us both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. The second thing about this fear,
this fear causes a person to reverence God. That's the way
I usually speak of this fear. It's reverence. It's reverence
of God. This fear produces a holy awe
of God. He preached for 120 years, preached
righteousness. and how he must have thought
of God's wrath coming upon unbelievers. Listen to this verse in Psalm
36 in verse one. The psalmist said, Psalm 36 in
verse one, the transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his
eyes. No doubt God's description of man in Noah's
day, we read it just a few minutes ago. God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Do you think
that Noah thought like the psalmist? When he saw the wickedness of
men, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart
that there is no fear of God before his eyes. And I would
ask myself and ask you tonight, do we think like the psalmist
when we see the wickedness and the evil and the sinfulness all
around us? And does that thought come into
my heart? That there's no fear of God before
his eyes. to live like that, to act like
that, to conduct himself like that. There's only one thing
that could explain that. There's no fear of God before
his eyes. He doesn't realize it's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Noah no doubt experienced that as
he was preaching for all those years. And the third thing about this
fear, this fear produces a humble distrust of ourselves. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon said,
let us fear God for his greatness and let us fear ourselves for
our sinfulness. Let us fear God for His greatness
and let us fear ourselves for our sinfulness. A person with
this fear, the fear like Noah had, and the fear that every
child of God has, this reverential fear, this awe of God, will never
cause a person to say, well, I'll tell you one thing, I'll
never fall. Oh no, we've got too many examples
in the word of God of men who we would have never thought would
have fallen, and yet they did fall. Too many examples in the
scriptures for any child of God to ever make such a statement
as that. Well, I'll never fall. And I
thought about David just to show you how How even a believer, we fear. This fear produces a fear for
ourselves. David, the scripture says, was
a man after God's own heart, the sweet psalmist of Israel. You know, one time when Saul
was the king and Saul was trying to kill David, One time, David
was in that cave with his men and Saul and his men came in
and went to sleep in that cave. And it had to be a sound sleep
because David came by and cut off part of his garment. And
when he got out of the cave, the scripture tells us that his
heart smote him. His heart smote him. What have
I done? That's the Lord's anointed. Remember
when one of his men wanted, he said, let me go over and I'll
take care of him. He'll never come. He'll never
walk again. And David said, Oh no, that man
is God's anointed king. And when David cut off part of
his garment, the scripture says his heart smote him. But listen,
years later, When David, you know how he orchestrated the
death of Uriah. And when word was brought to
him that Uriah was killed, do you know what David said? His
heart didn't smite him. He sent word back to Joab, the
sword devoureth one as well as another. Same man, same man whose
heart smote him for cutting off the garment of the Lord's anointed,
and yet when he heard that the man whose wife he had violated
and had destroyed in that battle was dead, his response is, well,
the sword destroys one as well as another. That's a man of God. This fear that Noah had and this
fear that God's people have, this reverential fear of God
causes us to be fearful and not to trust ourselves, to distrust
ourselves, to know that but by the grace of God. I remember
that preacher, I can't think of his name right now, but he
lived in London I believe it was and his house was on the
road where they carried men out to execute and many times they
would have a man going out to be hanged and he would be in
one of those carts and they'd come by his house and His response
was always the same There goes whatever his name was there goes
John Bradford but by the grace of God And that's so, isn't it? Now, I'm going to stop here because
I want to look next time at Abraham and see another characteristic
of faith, and that is obedience. Let's sing a hymn and we'll be
dismissed.