Faith, Hope, Love, Faith that Fears God

All right.

Are you ready for the Word of God?

Yeah, we're going to do it.

Let's do this this morning.

Let's look at Hebrews chapter 11, is where we're going to be, and we're going to look at verse 7.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

We're in a sermon series right now called Faith, Hope, and Love.

And it's all about the fact that we as believers in Jesus are called to walk a walk of faith, that Jesus Christ is supposed to be our complete hope.

All of our hope is found in Him.

And that as that we can love God and love people well once we experience the love of God ourselves, right?

So faith, hope, and love.

The key verse for this series is 1 Corinthians 13, 13, and it says, and now these three remain faith, hope, and love.

But what?

The greatest of these is love.

Last week Kelly did an amazing job with showing us what it looks like to have faith that pleases God as he spoke to us about Enoch.

Wasn't that amazing?

It was a great message.

If you haven't seen it, please go back and uh check our podcast or go online and find that and watch it.

But Enoch walked with God and he was no more.

God took him from this earth without experiencing death.

What an amazing uh testimony.

We learned that like Enoch, we are called to live lives of intimate fellowship with God.

That is supposed to be the normative experience of our lives, us having intimate relationship and fellowship with God.

That is what pleases God, and that is what he wants from us more than anything else.

And we were actually created for this, right?

And today we're going to spend our time talking about Enoch's great-grandson, whose name was Noah.

So let's look at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7.

Hebrews 11:7

And the title of today's message is Faith That Fears God.

It says, 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 together.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that your word is life and light.

We ask that you would shine your light into the areas of our life that need to be illuminated, that you would cause your life to change us, to transform us, to cause us to become more and more like Jesus.

Give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to this church today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now many of us came to know the story of Noah's Ark, maybe in different ways.

So you don't have to raise your hands, but many of us learned from flannel graphs, right?

Our first experience with James raised his head.

Our first experience with understanding Noah's Ark was a flannel graph uh expression of that, some Sunday school teacher somewhere.

Maybe it was a children's Bible, right?

And the the best part about the children's Bible is they always show smiling faces, and the boat looks so cute, and then the giraffe's neck is sticking way out of the top of the boat, right?

You can picture it with me right now.

Maybe it was a coloring sheet that you colored or your grandchildren colored or whatever the case was, or maybe even veggie tails, right?

So there's a lot of different ways that maybe we became acquainted with the story, right?

Some of you are saying yes to the veggie tails.

You're getting that song in your head right now.

Now don't do that.

Because you might miss, I'm gonna have to move quick this morning.

You're gonna might miss something.

Just, you know, remove that from your from your thinking.

Um, but really, here's the deal: most of these stories, oftentimes they're depicted more like a Disney cruise than what actually happened.

And so we want to have a grown-up version, we want to have a grown-up discussion around what actually happened.

And I'm not saying we don't need age-appropriate renderings of these Old Testament stories.

Of course, we need to do that, but we need to update our version, our view of things based on what Scripture itself teaches, right?

So let's look at that.

We're gonna need to go back to the book of Genesis in order to have a more thorough understanding of what this story is all about.

So let's look at Genesis chapter six.

And when I say story, by the way, this really happened.

This is true, right?

So Genesis chapter six, verses five through seven.

It says, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.

That is no Disney cruise, but this is the reality of what actually happened.

God looked on the face of the earth, and he was devastated by the fact that every intention of the thoughts of man's hearts, and also the actions that came from those thoughts, was only evil continually.

It says that he actually regretted having made man and was close to wiping man completely off the face of the earth, all of creation, all of the people, all of the animals, because he was truly sorry that he had made humanity.

Can you imagine knowing the loving kindness and the heart of our Father, how bad things must have been for him to get to that place.

They must have been very dark and very difficult.

Thankfully, the story doesn't end there.

It goes on, and we'll see that Noah found favor with God.

There was a man named Noah in verses eight and nine.

It says, But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

And these are the generations of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.

Noah walked with God.

Does that sound familiar?

Just like his great-grandfather before him, Enoch, it was said of Noah that he found favor with God and that he walked with God.

Because of Noah walking the walk of faith, remember it said in Hebrews 11, by faith, Noah.

He was a man who exemplified what it looked like to live life differently than the rest of the world.

He was a man who understood that there was a God that was greater than him, that was to be worshipped and adored, and that his relationship with him was something to be treasured and guarded and kept and protected.

And because of all of these things, and because of the sovereignty of our God, and because our God is one who keeps his promises, God decided to show him favor, to smile upon him.

God was pleased with Noah.

Listen to this: God was pleased with Noah before he ever did anything to obey him concerning what he was about to ask him to do.

God was pleased with him.

Similarly, we read in the New Testament, we just had a baptism here.

And when Jesus was getting ready to be lowered down into the waters of baptism, before he had ever performed a miracle, before he had ever preached a sermon, outside of maybe to his mother or his brothers and sisters, before he had ever done any mighty thing in this earth, it says that heaven opened up and his heavenly father said, This is my son in whom I am well pleased.

And we see the in the shadow of that, we see the shadow of that in the Old Testament, even here in the experience of Noah.

Noah was shown favor by God.

He didn't have to earn this favor, it was a gift that was given to him.

In Hebrews 11, again, in that passage, it said, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen.

And as we go back to Genesis in chapter six again, it says, Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

Man, that was a terrible time, wasn't it?

Just think about it.

We're gonna get there.

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them.

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die.

This is severe, this is extreme, this is strong, and yet this is God doing what is well within his rights, well within his justice, well within his ability to do.

God brought Noah up to speed on his judgment plan.

Can you imagine how surreal this all must have seemed to Noah?

Just a man who was going about his business, keeping his relationship with God a priority.

God warned him as a friend would warn someone that he loves of impending danger.

It was important to God to explain the reason why Noah would need to obey him when he would tell him the rest of the story.

He actually gave him more than he gave to Abraham and others.

He gave him foresight or understanding of what was about to come so that he would have inspiration to obey.

It's like he built a bridge to Noah, for Noah.

He doesn't always warn like this, as we found it even in our own lives, but in this case, with the huge impact, what was about to happen, he chose to do so.

The next phrase is probably the one that's most important, in my opinion, for us to grasp this morning.

That is that it said that Noah feared God.

Noah feared God.

It says that by faith, Noah in reverent fear.

In reverent fear.

It may seem strange that faith and fear were coexistent in Noah's experience.

It seems like that these two things are opposing values, that they cannot be in the same discussion at the same time.

And yet in this case, they absolutely belong together.

Faith and fear together were what forged the ability for Noah to take steps of obedience.

It's obvious here that he's being honored in this passage in Hebrews 11 because of his faith.

He's a part of the hall of faith.

All of these great men and women of old who by faith did great exploits, looking for a kingdom that was yet to come.

The problem is that a lot of times we don't understand Bible terms correctly.

When we hear the word fear, what do we think of?

We think of terror, we think of dread, we think of something horrible coming against us.

But in the Bible, when it talks about fear, the fear of the Lord, it is instead indicative of the highest level of respect and honor that can be given to someone.

It is the absolute optimum amount of respect and honor and value that we can give to someone else.

Noah respected and honored God.

He was highly motivated by the fear of God.

In fact, it was the motivating force in his life.

He recognized that God could have easily targeted Noah.

God could have easily said, I'm gonna wipe out the whole earth.

But he chose to favor Noah.

He chose to warn Noah.

And now Noah is showing this fact that he is living in the fear of God.

His heart was turned toward God, and that is what inspired God's response.

You see, faith is intended to affect our hearts first.

Faith affects our hearts before it affects our actions.

Our hearts must be truly changed, as Noah's heart was changed in order for us to have the proper fear of God in place.

We need to pray to God often, God, change my heart, search my heart, free me and rid me of any wicked way, deliver me from anything that would keep me from you.

The next thing is that Noah obeyed God.

It says in Hebrews 11, in reverent fear, he constructed an ark.

The surest sign of having the correct balance of faith and fear in our lives is that obeying God is not optional.

How do you know when you're living a life that is balanced correctly between faith, which is putting our trust and confidence and hope and surety in a God that is greater than we are, and fear, which is honoring and respecting and paying homage and valuing and knowing that He is greater than we are?

It bothers me when I hear prayers of people commanding God to do things.

Where is the fear of God?

The fear of God is not optional in our lives.

And obeying God isn't optional either.

In verse 14 of Genesis 6, it says, Make your God told Noah, make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.

This is how you are to make it, the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.

Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of it, the ark, in its side.

Make it with lower second and third decks, for behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wife with you, 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 according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive.

Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up.

It shall serve as food for you and for them.

Noah did this.

He did all that God commanded him.

Think through this a little bit.

Let's dig deep.

Up to this point, as far as we know, according to Genesis chapter 2, verse 5, the earth did not need to be watered by rain because there was a firmament in place, and the humidity and everything was kept at a perfect state, so that things grew without hardly any uh any problem, and there was all kinds of life that could uh could be established underneath that kind of care.

Genesis 2:5

But God is saying that there was going to be a flood that would come, that there would be waters that would come from the earth.

What is this rain that God is talking about?

Noah probably also lived in the hill country, nowhere near a body of water large enough to float this boat.

This boat was the size of one and a half football fields.

If you've ever tried to run just one football field at one time, multiply that again with another half.

And then side to side and then go top to bottom and think of the dimensions.

If you've ever been to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, I encourage if you've never been there, I encourage you to go just to get an idea of the scope of this thing.

It took Noah around 100 years, 100 years to build the ark with the help of his family.

You can imagine the amount of ridicule that he must have faced on a daily basis.

Noah doesn't look like rain today, whatever that is.

How are you doing, God?

Did you hit your thumb?

Did you curse God?

What are you doing?

Need a little help?

I'm too busy today.

It says in the New Testament that Noah was a herald of righteousness.

And a herald refers that word can be used to refer to preacher.

And so I don't know.

The Genesis account doesn't say anything about him actually that I could find that says anything about him actually preaching with words.

But how many of you know his actions preached very loudly?

His actions over a sustained period of time, 100 years, preached very loudly.

And here's the lesson we can learn from that.

We are the only Bible that some people will ever read.

What version are we giving them?

Is it the children's Bible version?

Is it a cartoon version?

Is it is it just the pieces of the Bible?

The ones that we like?

What version are of the Bible are other people reading in us?

Sometimes, my friends, the walk of faith can be very lonely.

But how many of you know it's always worth it?

Noah believed in his heart that everything that he was enduring, that everything that he was going through, that the effort, the practice, all that he was going through alongside of his family would be worth it one day.

And so he was counted as righteous because of his faith and because of his obedience.

In fact, it says that God honored Noah's obedience by preserving his family.

In Hebrews 11, again, it says, 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 in faith.

Genesis 7 is the next leg of the story.

In verse 11, it says, In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, is it is God particular?

On the day all the fountains of the great deep, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth.

So there was water that came from above, and water that came from below.

And the windows of the heavens were open, and rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

And on the very same day, Noah and his sons Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every winged creature.

They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh, in which there was the breath of life, and those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in.

As we consider that there were a lot of people who all of a sudden became believers.

When the raindrops began to fall and when the flood waters began to rise.

I guarantee you that there were many people who weren't believing in God because Noah had preached about God or because they had walked with God up until this point in time.

They were crying out because they recognized this was the end.

This was it.

One of the reasons I think that God had to shut the door.

Moms and Dads, and I'm going to say, especially dads, your family is your first church.

What a shame it would be for me to get to the end of my life and to be in the boat, and my kids are outside.

I believe that Noah himself would have been willing, if it was required of him, to step off the boat if it meant that his family would be preserved.

God honored his word, and because he did, we are here today.

Did you realize that God replenished the earth through Noah's offspring from Shem and Ham and Japheth and their wives and their children and their children and their children and their children to us today?

God preserved a remnant.

God is a God who always preserves a remnant, a group of people to represent Him.

And He did this so that the many could experience life, so that we could have the privilege of sitting here this morning.

The rest of the story of this, of this, uh, of the ark, as we know, is about a year later, after floating on that water, finally getting lodged on dry land, God opened the door and they walked out.

And it says in chapter 9, then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth.

I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I make between you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations.

I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

Friends, it's time for us to take the rainbow back.

The rainbow belongs to God.

It's his covenant.

It's his sign of a covenant.

And it's something that we need to embrace as his sign of the covenant.

Noah's faith and action condemned the people of the day who failed to respond to the example of that godly man and presumably to the reasons he gave for his conduct.

Noah undoubtedly told him why he was doing such an extraordinary thing as building an ark on dry land.

Living righteously as he did condemned wickedness.

And God called him righteous.

God called him righteous.

Are we prepared to live like Noah in our day?

That's the question I want to leave us with this morning.

Are we prepared to live like Noah in our day?

If we are born again, how many of you know we have favor with God?

Because God provided a boat in the person of Jesus Christ.

He built a boat so that everyone who would repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with a sincere heart could enter into that boat and be given favor with God, shown favor with God and be delivered from the end which will be the judgment of God.

Have you entered the boat?

Have you been born again?

Have you found favor with God?

Like Noah, we've also been warned of what is to come in Matthew 24, verse 36.

Matthew 24:36

Jesus said, But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.

So will be the coming of the Son of Man.

My friends, we are living in another day like Noah.

If we look around us, we can see in this earth a strengthening of defiance of God, a casting off of all restraint, which is something Jesus promised in just a few verses before the one that I just quoted you, that the love of many would grow cold, that they would turn their hearts away from God, that they would become hardened in their hearts toward God?

What kind of a people?

Look at a man, a young man, who walks up to somebody who's an insurance agent and kills him.

Look at him and make him a hero.

What kind of people do things like that?

What kind of a people, uh, what kind of a women's rights group refuse to stand up for women in sports, and yet they'll run to Massachusetts so that the abortion law can be changed from 24 weeks of legality to whenever the doctor and the patient determine that it's right for them to abort their child up until the day of birth.

My friends, something is wrong.

Something is wrong.

I'm not here to try to just stir you up emotionally today or to get you concerned from the standpoint of the tone of my voice, but I am asking us to pay closer attention to the day and times that we're living in.

This is a time to be more serious than we are, right than we are concerning the things of God.

This is a time to stand for righteousness.

This is a time to build a boat.

This is a time to make sure that our families understand the truth about Jesus Christ and that we are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is a time to stand for righteousness.

This is a time to make our yes our yes and our no our no.

This is a time for us to fear God, to honor the King, to make sure that we are serving God in the way that He deserves to be served.

My friends, we are coming to the end of days.

The last question.

Do we fear God enough to obey him?

Do we fear God enough to obey him?

Thank God Noah did.

And I have to believe, and I'll look around this room this morning, I believe there's a remnant.

I believe those there are those in this room that are chosen by God, who have been called by God, who have responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ, who've acknowledged their need for a savior, and who aren't content to just live like the rest of the world lives.

Am I right?

As I look around this room, am I right to believe that this room is filled with people like that?

That this room is filled with people like Noah and his family.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the example of Noah.

We pray the prayer of David, Lord.

We ask that you would create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us.

Cast us not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from us.

Lord, we know that there is a day of judgment coming, and of course, we want to make sure that we are on your side.

But Lord, let us not be of people who are content with just us alone.

For there's a difference in this time in the kingdom.

Because I believe with all of my heart, Lord God, that your desire is to draw many more people, many more people to the abode of your salvation and your security.

They would be drawn by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They would be drawn by the lifestyle of Christians who stand out from the rest of the world, not in arrogance, not in judgment ourselves, but in representing God, in fearing God and living like what he thinks is more important than what I think.

What he desires is more important than what I desire.

God shake us and change us.

Distribute us, Father, break us and distribute us to this broken world that we might be an example.

May the Holy Spirit, who obviously was with Noah, may he be with us in all of our days.

In Jesus' name.