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Let’s turn now to
the reading of God’s word. If you would please stand for
the reading.
This evening we’re looking at
a verse from the book of Hebrews chapter eleven
resuming our
series
in the book of Hebrews
and we’re just looking at verse seven this evening.
Give your attention to God’s word, please.
Hebrews 11 verse seven,
By faith
Noah, being warned by God
concerning events as yet unseen,
in reverent fear constructed an ark
for the saving of his household.
By this he condemned the world
and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Let’s pray.
Father in heaven we thank you for your word. We thank you for the Holy Spirit
who inspired the writing of this word so many years ago and the preservation of
it throughout the centuries
so that we might have it in our hands today.
But Lord we know that with
our sinful hearts that alone is not enough to give us life. We need your
spirit
to come
and give
light to our hearts
that we might
hear and believe that we might find
and see and experience and taste and receive the life
that is within these words.
So we ask that you would come and do that this evening
for your glory and our good.
We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
You may be seated.
There’s a popular church in North Carolina
near where we lived
for many years
that would sponsor a billboard on the interstate not far from our house.
And for
a long time, many months if not a year,
it displayed the simple word
faith
with a line under
and was the word
fear.
Faith over fear.
The meaning was to say that they were holding on to faith over fear.
In this instance faith was pitted against fear.
I believe
that this display started
during the tumultuous time of the COVID pandemic trying to encourage people to
hold on to faith against fear.
And I understand what they were trying to say in this billboard and there’s
a very real sense
in which faith is the opposite.
It is in opposition to fear.
Jesus repeatedly rebuked his disciples for having fear rather than faith.
He viewed their fear
to be evidence as a lack of their faith.
And many in the broader Christian world are used to this
pitting of fear against faith.
But there is another sense in which
true fear,
true faith involves
a sense of fear.
And that is what is in view in our passage this evening.
In this instance Noah’s fear was not in opposition to his faith
but it was actually evidence of his faith.
Noah is an example of the way that fear and faith go rightly together.
When God issues threats of judgment
the response of faith is
to rightly fear
because it’s true.
If God’s threat is really going to come
to pass,
really going to take place then a believing response
is to be afraid.
Disbelief would simply laugh it off
but faith
fears.
So this evening we’ve come to the story of Noah as another example
set forth by the author of Hebrews as an exemplar
of certain aspects of faith.
Noah’s example of faith brings out three aspects of faith which we’ll look at tonight.
Number one, faith fearfully acts.
Number two, faith condemns the world.
And number three, faith inherits
righteousness.
Number one, faith fearfully acts.
Faith hears God’s warning,
it believes that warning,
and it heeds that warning.
It acts in response to that belief.
Callie and I just came back from Yamamoto, Japan which is a little seaside town
which is devastated in 2011 by the enormous tsunami.
Thousands of people up and down the coast lost their lives
and many of them from Yamamoto.
Part of what made the tsunami so deadly
was that
many people didn’t believe the warnings.
The earthquake happened,
alarms went off alerting people of the possibility of a tsunami.
Now there were places
in which the alarms didn’t go off
and that caused other problems.
But there were many places where the alarms did go off
and the people still didn’t heed the warning.
We heard the story of a missionary
who was living there very close to the coast with his wife and child
very close to the shore and the husband
at that time was away north
in Sendai helping Marie Uemoto
on the day of the earthquake and the tsunami.
But he had sternly warned his wife
that whenever an earthquake hit she must without hesitation
seek high ground
since their house was so close to the ocean.
So when the earthquake hit she immediately packed up, got in her car with the baby
to head for high ground.
At that point there was no tsunami in sight
but she was obeying her husband’s directions.
She tried to persuade her neighbors to come and get in the car with her
but they refused
thinking there was nothing to worry about.
Finally she had to leave without them.
Within an hour
their house was completely swept away
and the neighbors who had stayed behind perished.
There were no working cell phones
and so the husband returned to the site looking for his wife.
He could only find the barest traces of their house’s foundation
but no sign of his wife.
It ended up being a couple of days
before he was finally able to locate her
as he frantically searched shelter after shelter.
In fact he had begun to grieve her death
when he found her
after all.
But the wife was saved because she had believed her husband’s warning about the
earthquakes
and had obeyed his instructions
to flee regardless
of what it looked like at the time.
At the time the tsunami was unseen
and so the neighbors stayed behind. They refused
to take the precautions
and they perished.
In our passage we have something similar
only Noah didn’t have the option of fleeing to higher ground.
He had to build a boat.
At the time the danger was many years
perhaps even decades away.
We don’t know how long it took for him to build the boat
but Noah believed that that disaster was real.
The danger was real. God was speaking the truth
and he could be trusted
and thus he obeyed.
I’ve called this evening’s message Noah’s Constructive Faith
because his fearful conviction that disaster would come as God had predicted
prompted him
to construct a boat according to God’s direction.
Noah’s faith produced actions.
Actually it produced fear
and then it produced action.
Noah heard God’s voice,
God’s declaration of judgment
and rather than doubting it he believed.
We often think of faith as
positively believing that something good will happen.
It’s almost synonymous with hope
but we would hardly call it hope
to expect the most devastating judgment the world has ever experienced.
No, in this case
Noah’s faith prompted him
to fear
and then to obey.
Our Westminster Confession of Faith speaks of the multifaceted aspect of faith
in chapter fourteen titled On Saving Faith
in paragraph two.
It’s in the back of our Trinity Salter hymnals on page 927.
And it says this
in chapter fourteen point two
paragraph two
By this faith, speaking of saving faith,
a Christian believeth
to be true
whatsoever is revealed in the word
for the authority of God himself speaking therein
and acteth differently upon
each particular passage thereof containeth
yielding obedience to the commands
trembling like Noah
at the threatenings
and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come.
Faith is not simply a confidence that things will go well
it is also
the conviction that God is serious in his determination to judge sin.
Faith recognizes the certainty
the danger
of God’s coming judgment
and just as Noah believed God
would really send a flood
and so obediently made extensive provision by constructing a massive boat
when very possibly no big body of water was even in sight
the eyes of faith
today observe
that no matter how distant in time God’s ultimate judgment
appears
his judgment is certain
certain against sin
no matter how it may look like the wicked are prospering
and getting away with wickedness
faith believes God’s judgment is certain
and it fears
and this fear prompts action
no one else was building boats
no one else even joined Noah
besides his own family in the end
no one else on earth believed that God was serious
so no one else took action
until it was too late
faith doesn’t wait and see if God’s judgment will come
it takes the threat of God’s judgment
against sin seriously
and makes provision now
to ensure safety
of course in our circumstances this doesn’t mean building boats
it means repenting of sin
calling on the name of the Lord for the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ to be applied to your account
and your life
by the Holy Spirit
but this faith
will put you at odds with the world
just as it did
with Noah
which brings us to our second point
number two faith condemns the world
the story of Noah and the boat that he built is often recounted to children of
young ages
church nurseries are often decorated with murals
of the boat filled with animals and a rainbow
but the actual story is quite dark
a floating zoo and a rainbow are nice things to paint on nursery walls
but the backdrop for these things
was worldwide carnage
during our visit to Japan we heard many stories and saw pictures and videos
of the immense destruction and devastating power
of a very small flood
from the tsunami
we met one man who went out for groceries
before he got back his wife and child
were swept away never to be seen again
he never saw them again
the Bible doesn’t give us a population count of the earth at the time of Noah
but people have made rough estimates based on the information we do have in
Genesis concerning the length of life
of those individuals recorded
and there could easily have been many more than the eight plus billion
people
estimated to be living on earth alive today
some put it in the hundreds of billions of people possible to be alive
but even if it was
extraordinarily as small as the population
that we currently have only eight plus billion
that’s a lot of death
old men
young women
children
even babies were drowned in a matter of hours
Genesis chapter seven
verses twenty one and twenty three
recounts
and all flesh died that moved on the earth
birds
livestock beasts
all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth
and all mankind
everything on the dry ground in whose nostrils was the breath of life died
he blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground man
and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens
they were blotted out from the earth
only Noah was left
and those who were with him in the ark
I don’t think we often think as much about this grim reality
we are living in a massive graveyard
animal fossils can be found everywhere preserving the images
of the sudden and overwhelming destruction
of God’s judgment against sin
there has never been anything that comes close to the devastation of this event
of course thanks to the rainbow
we know there never will
the author of Hebrews doesn’t elaborate specifically on what it means that Noah’s
faith
condemned the world
but very likely he is thinking of something along the lines of what Jesus
says in Matthew chapter twelve
Matthew chapter twelve verses forty one through forty two
in Matthew chapter twelve Jesus
is speaking to
the Pharisees
an adulterous generation and he says
the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and
condemn it
for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than
Jonah is here
the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation
and condemn it
for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and
behold something greater than Solomon is here
well it’s possible in this passage in Matthew twelve that Jesus means that the
believing Ninevites will actively condemn the generation which saw and
heard and rejected Jesus Christ himself
even if they did not say a word
the example of the people of Nineveh would cast shame and condemnation
on those who had heard Jesus himself preach
and yet disbelieved
similarly
if Noah never said a word to his generation
his faith would have stood in contrast
would have stood as shame
to
his generation
one of the reasons is it also took away the excuse
that some might have offered for disbelief in Noah’s day
because once Noah believed God’s warning of a worldwide flood
it was impossible for the wicked doubting generation
to claim that they could be excused for not believing since no one
believed God
Noah’s belief
ripped away that excuse
from anyone trying to claim
that the problem was in God’s unbelievably
and not their own stubbornness and hardness of heart
that would have been if Noah had been silent
his faith would have condemned his generation
but I don’t think that we’re meant to think that Noah was silent
all those years that he was building the ark
the apostle Peter makes mention of Noah
in both of his epistles to his churches
in second Peter
chapter two verse five Peter calls Noah a herald of righteousness
the word herald is
translated as preacher
in other places
and the verb is the main one translated for preaching
so Noah was a preacher according to second Peter
and then we see this more
in first Peter
chapter three verses eighteen through twenty
you may want to turn to this passage since
this sentence is a little long and complicated
that’s first Peter
chapter three
verses eighteen through twenty
Peter says this
for Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that
he might bring us to God
being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit
in which
he went
and proclaimed to the spirits in prison
because they formally did not obey when God’s patience waited
in the days of Noah
while the ark was being prepared
in which a few that is eight people were brought safely through water
granted this is a very complicated sentence
this is actually
exactly the kind of sentences I used to write in college
and would go to the writing center
and Callie would help me untangle them
but Peter’s making
two separate points in this long sentence but he connects them in a
complicated way
by the end of verse eighteen which references Christ doing something in the
spirit
he picks that up in the next verse in nineteen
so we see that in the spirit Christ
went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison
what is Peter talking about
what we see next these spirits were disobedient
despite God’s patience in the days
in Noah’s day
while some people have offered very complex and elaborate interpretations of
this passage
the simplest explanation
is that Peter is simply referencing the preaching of Noah
to an unbelieving world
God warned Noah
of judgment
that was not only Noah building a boat as an act of faith
but Noah was also proclaiming God’s salvation at that time
even though Christ had not been born was not bodily present
Peter’s saying
Noah’s preaching
for people to heed God’s warning of judgment
and to come to the ark to be saved
was Christ in spirit
proclaiming
salvation
to those who were present at the time
so that Christ was preached
in Noah’s day as well
Peter’s two inspired letters seem to clearly indicate
that Noah’s faith which prompted him to build an ark also prompted him to preach
so on top of his existence as a believer being
a condemning contrast to the world
his message of warning against God’s coming judgment was also condemning
unbelievers hate to hear about God’s salvation in Christ
because before you even mention judgment
it is already implied
salvation offered
implies a need for it
which of course the backdrop is God’s judgment his holy wrath against sin
if God hates sin
then it matters how I live
what I do
what I say and what I think
in Romans chapter one verse thirty two the apostle Paul describes the ungodly
he says though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such
things deserve to die
they not only do them
but give approval to those who practice them
you see the wicked are not content to do wickedness themselves
but they must go further
to seek approval
and to approve of others
of their wickedness
despite the fact that many will claim they delight in wickedness
in the end this is simply their own attempt
to silence the voice of their own conscience and wish away the coming
judgment of God
that deep down they know is true
you will quickly find if you spend much time with unbelievers
that they become uncomfortable simply by the presence of believers
throughout middle school and high school I participated in many theater
productions
with kids who were not always professing Christians
without me even mentioning a word
about their coarse and profane language
they would begin apologizing to me
for their use of certain words in my presence
I found this to be the same case at work as well
simply the fact that I failed to use
more of those vulgar words
made people around me feel uncomfortable
I was friendly to them
but I just refrain from using certain words and that
made them feel
condemnation
they need to apologize to me
of course I told them you don’t need to apologize to me it’s God
if you think it’s wrong talk to him about it
without speaking a word of judgment or condemnation
my faithful speech
made the world around me feel uncomfortable
condemned
and this is what faith does
if you have true faith
expect that it will inherently come across as condemnation
to an unbelieving world
Noah was building the instrument of salvation
and surely was offering that salvation to those around him
but they only viewed it
his faith
as condemnation of them
so faith will be viewed by the world as condemnation
but finally
consider how faith
is viewed by God
and this is number three faith inherits righteousness
now while I phrase this point as an action
for parallelism with the other points
faith inherits righteousness
the phrasing in our passage is slightly different
it says Noah became
an heir
of the righteousness that comes by faith
in the Greek
the phrase the righteousness that comes by faith is
placed at the front
literally this phrase might read
of the righteousness which comes by faith
he became an heir
the author of Hebrews does not want us to forget for a moment
where true righteousness comes from
why would he want to remind us of this
well if we go back to Genesis chapter six
verse nine
we see this said about Noah
these are the generations of Noah Noah was a righteous man
blameless in his generation
Noah walked with God
the author of Genesis is not focused
on specifying the source of Noah’s righteousness
or his the means of his becoming righteous
now this goes along with
what the Old Testament generally
by and large is less clear in this regard
this doesn’t mean that the Old Testament
contradicts the New Testament
in any way or suggests that there is an alternative means of salvation
simply that in the Old Testament the relationship between faith and
righteousness
is not as often or as clearly spelled out as in the new
but the author of Hebrews
looking back at Genesis six
he doesn’t want his readers us to have the slightest bit of confusion
Noah’s righteousness to the extent that it was true righteousness
was a righteousness that comes by faith
if we look back one verse previously
in Genesis chapter six
verse eight
we find
the justification for this
it says
Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord
several weeks ago when we looked at Hebrews chapter eleven verse six
we saw the author of Hebrews line of thinking
verse six in
Hebrews eleven and without faith it is impossible to please him
for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists
and that he rewards those who seek him
so it goes like this
Noah
found favor in the eyes of the Lord
which just means he pleased God
if Noah pleased God
it must be because he had faith since without faith
it is impossible
to please God
so in Genesis six verse eight it says
but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord
and then
next in verse nine it says Noah was a righteous man
blameless in his generation
notice the order of the verses
Noah pleased God
which means he possesses faith
and then he is described as righteous
we might expect it to be
come in the opposite order
Noah was a righteous man blameless in his generation
and as a result
Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord
I find myself often falling into this line of thinking in regards to myself
as long as I keep God’s rules
he’ll keep loving me and looking out for me
there can be a kind of comfort
in that kind of thinking
as long as we’re able to keep up
as long as we’re able to exceed the expectations of ourselves and others
maintain a good appearance before others
but what about when you stumble
then it’s devastating
not only must you face up to your own failures
but your eternal salvation
God’s whole relationship with you is called into question
if you’re acting on that assumption
how will you ever recover
frankly coming to this point
is most often the way that we discover subconsciously
our inverted understanding of salvation
and this is why we must return to the scriptures
again and again and be reminded
of the proper logic of salvation
Noah found favor
in God’s eyes
and then he became
righteous
then he was counted as righteous
he received the righteousness
of faith
but before we finish with this verse I want to return to the idea of
becoming an heir of righteousness
because Hebrews
11 verse 7 doesn’t say that Noah became righteous
but that he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith
why does he say it that way
well we’ve already seen the author of Hebrews mention this idea of heir
earlier all throughout the book
in Hebrews 1
verse 2
Jesus is described as the heir of all things
in chapter 1 verse 4 the name that he has inherited
is more excellent than the angels
verse 14 of chapter 1 the angels are described as servants of those who are
to inherit
salvation
then in chapter 6 of Hebrews inheritance
is explicitly mentioned again
verse 11 speaks of those who through faith and patience inherit the
promises
and verse 17 describes
believers as heirs of the promise
Hebrews chapter 915 ties Christ’s sacrificial death
to the release of eternal inheritance
to the heirs
the idea of heirs and inheritance
continue to show up in
chapters 11 and 12 as we’ll continue to see
going forward
but i think it is really the end of chapter 11 where we find
the reason
best spelled out
Hebrews chapter 11 verses 39 and 40
it says and all these
though commended for their faith
did not receive what was promised
since God had provided something better for us that apart from us
they should not be made perfect
by describing Noah as someone who becomes an heir of righteousness
that comes by faith
the writer of Hebrews is highlighting
the tension of the salvific reality in which believers live
an heir is someone who both possesses something and
does not
the nature of an heir is that he possesses the rights
to a future reality which has not yet fully come into existence
there are heirs to companies
heirs to estates
heirs to kingdoms
they each possess the right to something
that they do not yet fully take possession of
they do not have full possession of
because once an heir takes the throne
he’s no longer an heir, he is king
we speak of the distinction of living by faith
versus living by sight
and this is because faith is grasping, apprehending
taking hold of realities that have not
yet fully arrived
on the one hand
justification by faith
God’s declaration
of our complete innocence and righteousness based on the life, death
and resurrection of Christ
is immediately applied by the spirit to our souls
and this happens apart
from our existential
existential righteousness
it is based entirely upon Christ’s merits
and it is counted
to us
yet on the other hand
we are in sorry shape
we fail to live up to our new identity in Christ
and it is that
it is this that the writer of Hebrews is focusing on I think in chapter eleven
faith brings us into possession of the rights to something that we do not yet
fully existentially
possess
God has designed for his maximum glory
and our maximum
good and satisfaction in him
that our salvation happen in two separate stages
that we should possess by faith
a promise of a yet to be
a not yet reality
before possessing
that reality in full
that we should exist first as heirs
destined to inherit the promise
but not yet possessing it in its fullness
we need to be reminded of this
not only because we stand in a long line a large community of believers who have
staked their lives
on this hope
but because
also there are some
even us
who might get contentedly distracted by what we already do possess
it is good to be content in God
it is essential
that we gratefully enjoy all that God has given us now and is for us now
but it is a dreadful mistake
to think
that the extent to which we possess regeneration justification
and sanctification are all there is
or that they are an end in and of themselves
in fact
if we completely stop looking for something more
than what we already have
we come to lose faith
faith says
thank you Lord
for justification
for declaring me righteous on
based on the work of Christ
for sanctification for washing me clean and setting me apart
but I’m looking forward
to when I’m not just accounted righteous
but truly am righteous
I’m looking forward to when I’m not just empowered to fight sin
I’m not even tempted by it
fully glorified
and not as an end in and of themselves but as a means
to perfect fellowship
with God
in conclusion
we’ve seen that Noah’s faith was manifested by his actions believing
God’s warning that a flood was coming
and building an ark
meanwhile Noah’s faith made him an heir
of righteousness which he could never merit by his works but came by faith
Noah’s faithful action saved him and his family from temporary destruction
and his faith in God
saved him from eternal destruction
but by its very nature
Noah’s faith created a contrast between him
and the wicked world
and will do the same for you and I
our faith the instrument by which we receive salvation
also condemns the world
so it is understandable that the world would hate us for our faith
but it is at the same time their only hope
to escape God’s judgment
so like Noah
we hold fast to God’s promises and predictions
and faithfully proclaim
his salvation
to those around us who are otherwise condemned
Father in heaven we thank you for the
example and testimony of Noah
and the glorious
order of
salvation logic
then Noah found favor
in the eyes of the Lord
and then Noah was declared righteous
Lord we ask that you would give us that same faith you would
help us to realize
more deeply
the way that
your favor your choosing of us
is not based on us or anything within us
but that you love us and you then give us righteousness that comes by faith
we thank you praise you in Jesus name
well in response let’s turn
to
our hymnals and sing
hymn four
hundred and twenty
and let’s stand as we sing
in four twenty Christ for the world we sing