Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all here this morning. Good to have Guy Folsom and his family here with us this morning. I was thinking about the message today about Noah's life and testimony, and Peter tells us he was a preacher of righteousness. I’m always encouraged when Guy comes around; I don’t see him very often anymore. But to think about the history here of Mike Goff leading Guy to Christ and Guy leading me to Christ, and how we all ended up together in this church, what a privilege it is to be witnesses for Him in this world— to know Him and to have that peace and assurance. So welcome to Guy and Beth and Aaron.

We're working our way through this 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews and studying the subject of faith. The author is writing to a group of Hebrew believers in this epistle to encourage them to hold fast to faith in Jesus Christ, to not go back. He's also concerned about the unbelievers who might be in this congregation. We see these warnings mixed in after the doctrinal sections in the book, warning them about forsaking Christ, leaving their confession of faith, and going back to religion, to works, to rites, to rituals, trying to earn their way to heaven.

You remember that his main intent is to show that Jesus is better, that the new covenant is better. It’s built on better promises and is better than all facets of the old covenant of Moses. After expounding the great truths concerning Jesus' high priestly office and His sacrifice and the truth that He's better in every way in the first ten chapters of the book, he's here stressing the necessity of faith as the means to enter the new covenant in Christ.

The Jews of this time were so works-minded; they had twisted the Mosaic system into a works-righteous, self-oriented religion, much like so much of Christendom today. They were so set in their minds that one had to work his way into favor with God that it was necessary for the author to spend forty verses here in chapter 11 showing through the examples of the Old Testament that the way to please God, the way to come to God, to walk with God has always been by faith alone. And that the only way that one can come into a right relationship with Him through the blood of Christ and enter this new covenant blessing is by faith in Jesus alone.

This is the salient message of this chapter. What we see is that the faith of these saints was manifest in incredible ways in their lives, in the way they trusted and obeyed God. One of the greatest examples of this is the astounding, amazing life of Noah that we're going to look at in verse 11 today. 

I'd like to begin by asking you to turn back to Genesis 6. We find the historical account of Noah's life back in the book of Genesis, beginning in chapter 6. I'd like to begin at verse 5. 

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth, and he was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.' Then verse 8 says, 'But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.'"

Stay in chapter 6 there. Notice that Noah's deliverance, his salvation, was not based on what he did, not because of some great thing in him, but it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, unmerited favor. Noah was saved by God's grace through faith, and this is what we will see in his story of faith. 

Look at verse 13, Genesis 6: "And God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above, and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female, of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind. Two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself, and it shall be food for you and for them.'"

I want you to ponder this with me for just a second. Think about what God has instructed Noah to do. Think about the magnitude of the judgment that is about to come—the destruction of all flesh, the end of the world as Noah knew it. On top of that, He is to build an ark. 

Now Hebrews 11:7 says, "He warned him of things not yet seen." I believe that refers to rain, to the waters bursting up from beneath and the flooding of the earth. It had never rained, and this was no small undertaking; it would be a continual day-in and day-out dedication of the life of Noah to accomplish this task. 

Now look with me at the amazing statement in verse 22 of Genesis 6. It says, "Thus Noah did, according to all that God commanded him, so he did." The obedience of Noah was almost incomprehensible. He trusted God; he believed God. Our text says this morning that by faith he did these things. And that's the point, that's the message.

It would be natural to highlight the works of Noah, the amazing obedience, the faithfulness for years, decades, trusting and believing God, very likely in the face of ridicule and scorn and mocking. What he did made no sense—no human sense. But the author here in our text is emphasizing his faith. Faith manifested in what he did, how he so believed God and trusted Him to a point that he built the ark and received the animals and prepared, took his family in, and committed himself to the power and the provision and the protection of God. All that God commanded him, so he did. What profound faith! 

What an example to us! What a lesson of what it is to trust and believe God and His Word, His revelation to us. We're going to look at the obedience, the works of Noah, but don't lose sight of the root of his obedience—the emphasis of the author here. All these things he did by faith, and it was his faith that made him righteous before God. 

As we've noted before, there's no tension in the Bible between faith and works. It is man and religion that brings great confusion concerning this. As we see in the life of Noah, faith results in trust—belief that God is able to do what He says and is faithful to keep His Word. Thus, because I believe Him, because I trust Him, I'm anxious to do what He says. Remember the author's definition of faith: a man must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

I believe that trusting God, believing Him and doing what He says, will result in my good, and that's exactly what we see in the life of Noah. Let's look at our text in Hebrews 11:7, just one verse this morning on the life of Noah. It says, "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith."

I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, we see faith hears God; second, faith fears God; third, faith prepares; and fourth, faith speaks. 

Well, first we see that faith hears God. Verse 7 states, "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen." Romans 10:17 says, "Then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." In order to believe, we must first hear. We must first hear the Word of God. 

Now verse 7 says that Noah was divinely warned of things not yet seen. God came to Noah. He spoke to him, gave him revelation, warned him of things not yet seen. This is an amazing thing to think about because what God told Noah was to build an ark, a boat. He told him He was going to make it rain for forty days and forty nights. 

This would not be so unreasonable. To us today, we've seen rain, we've seen floods. Even this past week, we saw in Texas as much as four feet of rain that flooded that area. But although we don’t know for sure, many believe that Noah had never seen rain—that it had never rained. And he apparently did not live near the sea where ships would be common. 

God came to Noah and told him that He was going to destroy the earth and all flesh on it by a flood, and that he needed to build an ark to enter into it for safety. Noah believed God. He placed his faith in the Word of God, the revelation of God. God said it, so Noah believed it. This is the essence of faith. 

I was reading an article this week on Noah, and the author said we don't know a lot for sure about Noah except that the biblical account of the flood is fiction. Really? This man who wrote this article does not believe the revelation of God, does not have faith—at least not in God, but rather in his own wisdom and in men. You see, we all exercise faith. The question is, who will we believe? Noah believed God. He believed the Word of God. 

And my brothers and sisters, this is the essence of our faith today as well. God has said in His Word that he who believes in Jesus, who places his trust in His one-time death on the cross—God's provision for my salvation, a payment, a substitute to take the wrath of God for my sins—God said if I trust Jesus and Him alone, then I will be saved forever. Now, God said it, and I believe it. And that is my assurance, my friends. That's my hope, and my peace, and my joy. I believe Him and what He has revealed to me in His Word.

God told Abel to bring an animal sacrifice. Abel believed God and obtained a good testimony. God told Noah to build an ark to be saved from the judgment of the flood. Noah built the ark just as God commanded and was saved through the flood by faith, being divinely warned. We see first that in the life of Noah, faith hears God. And this is a lesson for us because men today don't hear God. They hear His Word. We bring the truth to them and they say, "No, I know better than that. My religious leaders know better than that." Fallible men know better than God. I don't believe God; I'm going to believe what I want to believe because it fits my life, my expectations, my desires. But if a man doesn't believe God, if he doesn't hear God, he has no faith.

Well, next we see that faith fears God. Look at Hebrews 11:7 again: "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear." Now the word here does not mean that Noah was frightened by the coming judgment of God or that he acted because he was afraid. Genesis tells us that Noah was a just man and that he walked with God. 

The word translated fear here has the idea of reverence. It speaks of a cautious, deliberate action on Noah’s part. Noah very carefully followed the instruction of God because of his reverence and respect for the Word of God. He so believed and trusted God and had a great respect for the magnitude of God's revelation. 

You know, I can't help but think of the contrast in the church today. One thing we seem to be lacking in evangelical Christianity today is godly fear—reverence, a respect for the magnitude, the greatness of the revelation of God in His Word. It seems to me that in going the ways of the world and having a motive to please men, we have all but lost a reverence—godly fear in the church. Preachers have no fear or respect for what they are doing in handling the Word of God, speaking from the pulpit. 

I was listening to a message a while back from a local pastor, and in the course of his message, he called Jesus "dude." I'm not sure that there's a godly fear being exercised there. But Noah was moved, it says, with godly fear. He so revered the Word of God, the power of God, the implications of the revelation that he moved cautiously, carefully, and circumspectly in carrying out the commands. The emphasis in the life of Noah here is that his faith resulted in his life, his work, obedience to God and His Word. 

So we see that faith hears God. We see that faith fears God. Next, we see faith prepares. Verse 7 again: "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household." God came to Noah and warned him of coming judgment, that because of the wickedness of man on the earth, God would bring a flood and destroy all flesh that walked the land and breathed air. He told Noah that he needed to build an ark and to enter into it in order to be saved. 

Turn back to Genesis with me again, Genesis chapter 7, and let's read as the story continues. Genesis 7:1: "And the Lord said to Noah, 'Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female, two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female, also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.'" 

And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood—of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth. Two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 

And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. 

Now look down to verse 20. It says, "The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth—birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the Spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground, both man and cattle, creeping things, and birds of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive, and the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days." 

Noah's life of building the ark in obedience to God's warning was an amazing demonstration of his faith. But really, the essence of his faith comes when we see Noah go into the ark to enter the safety of the ark by faith and be kept by the power and provision of God through the judgment. 

This is such a tremendous picture of Jesus. God's judgment for sin was poured out on Christ at the cross, but for those who have entered in—who are in Christ through faith—we are safe. We are secure because we rest in the provision and power of God. We rest in Christ, who took our judgment for us, in our place, in our stead. And the wrath of God poured out on Him does not touch us because we are in Christ, just as Noah was in the ark—safe from the flood, God's judgment on the world that then existed. 

The text says that he was divinely warned of things not yet seen. What was he warned of? A judgment by flood, by water falling from the sky and bursting up from the deep. These things had not yet been seen. The point here is that God's revelation to Noah was quite out of the realm of human wisdom—not reasonable by the human mind, you might say. But Noah believed God to the point that he entered the ark with his family and all the animals, and in seven days, the flood came upon the earth. 

Can you imagine? He finally gets them all into the ark—with all this time of building—and now they’re sitting in the ark and it’s seven days, and it's still not raining. This is tremendous faith. But in seven days, the flood came upon the earth. Noah believed God's word. He believed that God would judge the world just as He said. So Noah made preparations. He prepared for the coming judgment by entering the ark, as God had told him. 

My brothers and sisters, God has promised another— a final judgment to come. Not like the flood, for God promised never to destroy the earth again with water, but rather a judgment is coming on this earth. Turn over to 2 Peter 3 with me, please. 

2 Peter 3 at verse 1: "Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first." 

Peter says, "We know this first, that scoffers will come in the last days." Can you imagine the scoffers that were in Noah's day? I can't imagine. The thoughts of their heart, the intents of their heart were only evil all the time. Can you imagine how they scoffed at Noah all those years building that ark?

Peter says, "In the last days there will be scoffers walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'" We call this uniformitarianism. 

I have this conversation with my father-in-law now and then, and he tells me everything is cyclical. Just put your money in the stock market, and it always comes around, and it'll be just fine. Everything continues as it has always been. That's what these men said. When’s Jesus going to come? He hasn’t come. It’s been all this time. Everything just keeps happening the way it happens. 

Look at verse 5, "For this they willfully forget, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water." 

Let me tell you something, Peter believed in the Genesis flood. Peter believed in the global flood of Noah as God recorded it. Verse 7: "But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." 

Why hasn't the Lord come? Because He's waiting on men to come to Him. He wants men to be saved. He sent us out to tell them the good news of Jesus so they can believe and come to Him. What if He would have come in 1999, before Guy Folsom met me down here at Crab Lake and told me the good news and shared the gospel? I’d be perishing in hell forever.

Jesus hasn’t come because He’s longsuffering. He wants men to be saved. Verse 10: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat—both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

It's interesting that Peter says that men willfully forget the flood of Noah's day, just as they now deny the Second Coming of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to judge the wicked and to establish His Kingdom on this earth. 

Let's look at one more passage, Revelation 19 at verse 11, that describes this time—the coming judgment. Revelation 19 at verse 11: "Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war." This is Jesus at the Second Coming, coming out of heaven. 

"His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword that with it He should strike the nations, and He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people free and slave, both small and great." And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 

Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in His presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped His image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. 

My friends, judgment is coming. Just like in the day of Noah—not by flood, but Jesus is coming back to judge the world, to set up His kingdom. 

Listen to 1 Peter 3:18: "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, by whom, by the Spirit, He also went and preached to the spirits in prison." 

Listen to this verse: "who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few"—that is, eight souls—"were saved through water." Did you hear the timing word of this in verse 20, "when once in the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared"? 

I don't want to get off on a rabbit trail in 1 Peter 3, but the text says that there was warning, there was preaching in the days of Noah about judgment, and yet only eight souls heeded that word. Only eight souls prepared for God's judgment, entered the ark by faith, and were saved from wrath poured out in the flood. 

The question for men today is this: Are you prepared for the wrath of God to come? The promise of the day of the Lord and the second coming of Christ—God's judgment on this world and the eventual destruction of the heavens and the earth before God creates a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 

And my friend, the only way to prepare, the only way to enter into the ark of God's safety—which is Christ—is by faith. This is the message of the Bible. This is the message of Hebrews 11. This is the message that Noah preached and that Jesus preached, and Peter and Paul. This is the message that we bring to the world, my brothers and sisters, because faith hears God and His revelation. Faith fears God. Faith prepares. And faith also speaks. 

In 2 Corinthians 4:13, it says, "...and since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed and therefore I spoke.'" Paul says, "We also believe and therefore speak." I know that Noah is a great example of faith producing obedience, and his obedience to God's commands were nothing short of profound. 

But the thing that struck me when I thought about Noah building that ark all those years—perhaps 120 years he worked on that ark—working away on a project that seemed like lunacy to all his neighbors is that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Peter tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. 

You can imagine his dad, Lamech, and his grandfather, Methuselah, out there helping him. You know he called them to help. It reminded me of Ricky Herkman's. Every time I go over there, he's been building this big addition on his house, and there's Rick, and there's his father-in-law, Buzzy, and they're helping him. 

I'm guessing that Lamech and Methuselah were around, and they were probably also preaching about judgment and faith in God and telling Noah how he was building the ark wrong the whole time, I’m sure. The name Methuselah means, "When he is dead, it will be sent." This is why he was the oldest man to ever live—because God exercised His mercy on the earth for so long before the death of Methuselah and the onset of the flood. 

2 Peter 5 says, "...and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly." I read commentaries that said we do not know if Noah preached or warned at all. Peter said he was a preacher—a preacher of righteousness. 

And here's the thing, my brother, my sister in Christ, if you believe God with the kind of faith that Noah had, faith enough to spend 120 years building an ark where it had never rained, if you have this kind of faith, then you can't keep it to yourself. Just like Pastor Krenn sitting in that airport yesterday, those people sat down beside him. What’s the first thought in his mind? I need to witness to these people. I want to tell them about Jesus. Why? Because I believe God! 

I believe that Jesus died for my sins. I believe the promise of everlasting life through faith in Him, and I want others to know that. I want others to believe that. I want them to receive that and be saved. You have to tell people; you have to warn people; you have to invite them to believe God and get into the ark and be saved from the wrath to come. This is what Noah did. This is what all the great men of faith did by their words and by their witness in this world. 

And that's why we are here today, left in this world so that the world may know that Jesus is the Christ. Paul said that God has given to us the word of reconciliation, that we are ambassadors for Christ. We preach Christ crucified. It's through the foolishness of the message preached that men can believe and be saved. 

We bring the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus—the full satisfactory payment of my debt for my sins by Jesus on the cross—and we implore, we beseech, we beg men to come to Christ in faith. Just as Noah believed God and spoke, warned of the judgment to come, and invited men to come into the ark, so we invite men to come to Jesus. 

And just as Noah prepared the ark and entered it by faith, so today God is saving those who will believe. John said in chapter 1, verse 11, "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name." 

It seems that so many will not believe. It must have been a great discouragement for Noah sitting on that ark as the waters began to rise. When I went to the ark exhibit in Kentucky, the overwhelming thing was the immense size of the structure. What struck me inside was the amazing amount of room—room that went unfilled. Not because God did not offer safety, security, salvation from His wrath in the ark, but because men would not believe. 

They would not put their faith and trust in Him. Only eight souls were saved through that flood. Only eight believed. And yet Noah was faithful—building, preaching, trusting God—because for Noah, by faith, it was all about the means and the instruction that God had given him. It was not about the ends. The result, the outcome, is up to God. Noah was faithful because he believed God. 

He's a great example to us. We believe, therefore we speak. Faith speaks. And many, if not most, will not believe. They will not receive our message. They hold on to their religion, their own self-righteousness, rather than submitting to the righteousness of God through faith. 

But that does not mean that we should change our methods and our means to meet the world. God has sent us out to preach the gospel. It's through the message preached. Faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus; that is the means. And that is what we are to be concerned with, not the ends, because we plant and we water. It's God who gives the increase. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for this great chapter, Hebrews 11, and for the life of Noah—the account that you've preserved for us of that amazing event in the ancient world. And we just thank You for the salvation that You provide from Your wrath, from Your judgment. We thank You that we see that picture in the ark that Noah built, and that they went into that ark by faith and rested in Your provision. 

And so we see that fulfilled and complete in Jesus at the cross, and that He has died, it is finished, He has paid the debt, and we can receive Your righteousness. We can receive Your free gift of salvation by trusting in Him, believing in Him. Thank You for that truth, that tremendous grace that we find in Christ. It's in His name we pray, amen.