“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.” – Hebrews 11:7
Long ago Martin Luther wrote, “If
you want to interpret (the Word of God) well and confidently, set Christ before
you, for he is the man to whom it all applies, every bit of it.” Edmund Clowney
said much the same thing in recent times: “We do not find Christ in the Old
Testament by spotting accidental references or similarities here and there. He
is the center, the structure of the whole history of the Old Testament.”
“By
faith Noah” – God the Holy Spirit is
showing us how that “faith is the
substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” He is
showing us how that “without faith it is
impossible to please God.” The example he selects and holds before us in
this seventh verse is Noah.
The basis of Noah’s faith was the
Word of God. – “By faith Noah, being
warned of God of things not seen as yet.” Faith must have a foundation. And
the foundation of all true, saving faith is the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Noah
believed, because God spoke. And he believed what God spoke, though it was
contrary to all reason, experience, and science. God warned him of things not
seen as yet: —The Universal Flood, Though It Had Never Rained. —The Building Of
An Ark, Though No Ship Had Ever Been Built. —The Saving Of Himself And All
Creatures In The Ark. —The Destruction Of All Who Were Not In The Ark.
The evidence of Noah’s faith +was
his reverence for and obedience to the Lord God. -- “Moved with fear, (He) prepared
an ark to the saving of his house.” Noah feared God, because he believed
God. He had an awesome sense of God’s holiness, justice, and truth. And he was
overwhelmed with the sense of God’s goodness. His reverence for the Lord God
caused him to obey his Word. Immediately, without delay, before the first
raindrop fell, Noah began preparing an ark exactly according to the pattern God
had given him. His object in doing so was that he and his family might be saved
from wrath, according to the promise of God. Like James, Noah showed his faith
by his works. Faith believes the Word of God and acts upon it. Show me a man
who believes God, and I will show you a man who reverences God and obeys God.
The fruit of Noah’s faith was
justification. By his faith in and obedience to the Word of God, “he condemned the world.” As a preacher
of righteousness, he declared the certain
condemnation of all who would not believe. And by his actions,
he both reproved the unbelieving and aggravated their guilt. At the same time,
Noah himself “became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith.” Neither his faith nor his obedience made him righteous.
But by faith he received the righteousness of God in Christ, which is
justification and eternal life.
Will you, or will you not, believe God? There is a storm of wrath approaching.
God will punish sin. But he has made a way for sinners to escape his wrath
(John 3:14-16). By his obedience to God as the sinner’s Substitute, by his life
of righteousness and by his sin-atoning death, Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
has become the Ark of deliverance for God’s elect. I hold before you the Ark of
God, Christ Jesus. Will you enter in? Will you trust the Son of God and be
saved?
The ark of Noah and the flood are
facts of history, plainly revealed in the Word of God. The ark is not a myth.
It is a fact. The flood is not a piece of fiction. It is a fact. Let the
critics, the infidels, and the scoffers say what they will. We look upon them
with disdain, as fools and liars. The Word of God is true. We rest our souls
upon the validity and veracity of Holy Scripture.
The Cause of God’s judgment upon
the earth was the sin and depravity of the human race. Only 1,000 years after
the fall, man had become so degenerate that “the
thoughts of his heart were only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Generation
after generation, man became more and more vile, until at last “it repented the Lord that he had made man
upon the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” God did not change. But
he was so grieved by man’s sin that he turned against the human race in wrath
and justice. Man had rejected the counsel of God and despised the longsuffering
of God. So the Lord God came against him in his holy wrath.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). The cause of Noah’s salvation was God’s
sovereign grace. The Scripture does not say, “The Lord found grace in the eyes
of Noah.” The Scripture says, “Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Because God from eternity set the eye of
his grace upon Noah, the Lord God found a way to be gracious to Noah. God found
a way to save Noah. The ark was devised by God, not Noah. Noah alone was chosen
as the object of God’s grace. Because he was chosen of God, Noah was
effectually delivered from the wrath of God. The Lord God established his
covenant, preserved his seed, and accomplished his purpose with Noah.
The means of salvation was an ark.
Noah and his family were saved in the flood by a ship, an ark, which God
commanded him to build. It saved those who were in it from the violent wrath
and vengeance of an angry God. As there was but one ark in the days of Noah,
there is but one way of salvation. The whole world was drowned under the flood
of God’s wrath, except for those eight happy souls in the ark. Christ alone is
the Savior of men. “There is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” If you would
be saved you must be robed in Christ’s righteousness and washed in his blood.
You must come to the Ark, Christ Jesus.