Hebrews - The Faith of Noah

Hebrews 11 is often called the Westminster Abbey of faith. I have visited Westminster Abbey in London on several occasions and I've concluded that Hebrews 11 and Westminster Abbey have very little in common. I think I know why people use that comparison. In the Westminster Abbey, you have the great heroes—literary, military, and so forth—of the British Empire. And in Hebrews 11, we have the great heroes of faith. But there are some differences.

The people in Westminster Abbey were famous because of their genius; the people listed in Hebrews 11 were famous because of the God that they trusted. They were ordinary, everyday, garden-variety kind of people who did amazing things simply because they trusted God.

I don't want you to read Hebrews 11 and get the idea that these people were different from you. They perhaps had a higher IQ or a greater opportunity for service than you do. No, the distinguishing mark of the people in Hebrews 11 is their faith in God.

Something else is true. The people in Westminster Abbey were accepted and lauded and honored by the nation. The people in Hebrews 11 were rejected, criticized, even killed. The world was not worthy of these people whose names are given in Hebrews 11 and those who are not named.

And yet, we have them before us in the Word of God, rejected, despised, laughed at, and yet the great heroes of the faith. The thing that distinguishes the people in Hebrews 11 is what God did in and through them in response to their faith in the Lord—the same kind of faith that you and I can exercise today.

Let's look now at the faith of Noah. Hebrews 11:7: "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."

Noah's world wasn't much different from the world in which we are living today. When you read Genesis 5, Genesis 6, Romans 1, and Matthew 24, you find out that it was a world of population explosion, a world of building, a world of inventing, a world of crime, violence, compromise—a world where the imagination of man's heart was only evil continually.

But Noah was different, and Noah's family was different. Down through the ages, God has used people who dared to be different. Anyone can float down the stream with the rest of the junk that's floating there in the river, but it takes strength and courage to fight against that stream and to accomplish the will of God.

Noah was different. Noah didn't go along with the crowd. The crowd was on the broad road rushing to destruction, but Noah was on the narrow road that was leading to life. And as a result, he and seven others were saved from the judgment of the flood. Can you imagine ministering for 120 years and having only your own family believe? Noah didn't have too many statistics to add up, did he?

But Noah was a righteous man, and Noah was blessed of God. It was Noah's faith that made the difference. The only reason Noah is listed in Hebrews 11 is because he was a man of faith. It was Noah's faith that made the difference—the kind of faith we need today.

Noah had faith in God, and we need that same kind of faith today. What kind of faith did Noah have? What were the characteristics of his faith? I notice first of all that Noah's faith involved the whole man: his mind, his emotions, and his will. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet"—there's the mind. "Moved with fear"—now there's the emotions. "Prepared an ark"—there's the will.

Many people have a faith that is only two-thirds real or one-third real. Oh, they believe in the mind; oh yes, they would give mental assent to the doctrines that are taught. Or perhaps their mind believes and their heart is stirred, but their will does nothing. I read in James that the demons believe that there is a God and they even tremble. So they have intellectual faith and they have emotional faith, but they don't have volitional faith—the will doesn't do anything.

Let's begin with the mind. Noah was warned of God. I have been saying throughout this series that this is where faith begins. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. God revealed His plan to Noah. God saw that Noah was a believing man. I read in Genesis 6:8, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."

God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth; God saw the violence that was on the earth and the corruption, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And because of this grace, Noah heard the Word of God.

You know, I am ministering the Word of God right now purely because of God's grace. I thank God for the freedom we have in this country to minister the Word of God and the freedom we have to broadcast the Word of God to various parts of the world.

The mind—he was warned of God. He was divinely instructed of God. The Word of God came to him. Now, they had not ever seen this kind of thing before—rain and floods, the fountains of the deep opened up, the windows of heaven pouring out the rain. They had not seen this. But isn't that what faith is all about? Faith enables us to see the invisible.

You'll notice what the Word of God says in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In Hebrews 11:3, we believe that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Throughout Hebrews 11, you find that the people of faith can see things other people can't see. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," said the Lord Jesus. And so Noah's mind was informed of God that a judgment was going to come.

Now, God has informed us that a judgment is going to come. The same word that came to Noah comes to us. God's past judgment was a judgment of water; He will never do that again. But His next judgment is a judgment of fire. In 2 Peter 3, we are informed that everything in this world has been reserved unto the judgment of fire. There is going to come a judgment upon this world. Now, what are people doing about it?

Not only was his mind informed, but his emotions were stirred—"moved with fear." And the word means godly fear. It's used only three times in the entire New Testament. It's used of the Lord Jesus in Hebrews 5:7: "He was heard in that He had godly fear." It's used in Hebrews 12:28, where the Word of God commands us that we should serve God acceptably with godly fear. Noah had a godly fear. Nothing wrong with fear! Fear can be a very legitimate emotion.

When you raise your children, you have to warn them; you've got to instill some fear. Don't go near the highway! Don't play with the fire! Don't fool around with the automobile! You'd better be afraid. People buy insurance because of fear. People go to the doctors and have a checkup because of fear. Nothing wrong with fear.

I hear people say, "Well, you preachers are always trying to scare people." Well, if I could scare somebody into trusting Jesus as Savior, I'd be happy to do that, because there is a judgment coming. There is a place called hell. And Noah had a godly fear, a reverence for God.

If you don't fear God, you won't fear judgment. You see, people today want to believe in a God who's sort of a marshmallow creature who doesn't really get too excited about sin. And yet there is a coming judgment and there ought to be a godly fear in our hearts.

His faith involved the whole man: his mind was instructed, his emotions were stirred, and his will acted. He prepared an ark. True faith leads to obedience. Now you can imagine how his neighbors must have laughed at him as Noah is building this ark. "What are you doing, Noah?" "I'm building an ark." "What's it for?" "Well, a flood is coming." "What's a flood?" "Well, God has told me to gather together all the creatures and put them in this big ark to preserve them through the judgment."

And they went away laughing, didn't they? They said, "You know, this fellow Noah's a lovely fellow, he's a hardworking man, but he's just a little bit odd." True faith leads to obedience. Faith is not believing in spite of evidence. Noah had no evidence of the flood. Faith is obeying in spite of circumstance and in spite of consequence—ridicule, laughter. Faith and works always go together.

You say, "Well, I believe what God says." Has it changed your life? Is your will obedient? Do you have a whole faith or a partial faith?

Noah's faith involved the whole man. Secondly, Noah's faith influenced the whole family. I read that he prepared an ark to the saving of his house. People are greatly concerned today about the degeneration and the destruction and the division of the family. Divorce is rampant, and unfaithfulness is rampant, and unfortunately the people whose names and pictures appear in magazines and newspapers don't always set the best example.

But here's a man who began to influence his whole family. If your faith doesn't influence your family, it's not likely to influence anybody else.

That's why when the requirements, the qualifications for the pastor are laid down in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, it says there his children should be believers. His wife and children should be in the fold, because if you can't win your own family, if you can't discipline and instruct your own family, you're never going to do much good in the church. If a man does not know how to take care of his own family, his own household, how is he ever going to take care of the church of God?

Now, this doesn't mean that Noah's faith saved his house. You cannot be saved by proxy. It means that Noah's faith led to the faith of others, and they trusted in God and believed His Word and they were saved. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house," if they will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

His faith involved the whole man, his faith influenced the whole family. Thirdly, his faith indicted the whole world. "By which he condemned the world." Now, the building of the ark and the saving of his household was a condemnation to the world. The kind of world he lived in was a wicked world and it was a careless world.

Our Lord had something to say about this in Matthew 24:37: "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."

Nothing wrong with eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage; those are normal everyday things. But these people were just living careless lives. They were satisfied with the second best.

Noah was a witness by his life; Noah was a witness by his preaching. 2 Peter 2:5: "God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." So by his life and his preaching, by his obedience, he condemned their unbelief, he condemned their carelessness, he condemned their indifference and their indulgence.

And Noah indicted the whole world. You know, the world doesn't like people that expose sin. Jesus exposed sin and He was crucified. When the neighbors went by and saw Noah working on his ark, they must have thought he was a little bit weird.

But Noah would say, "Oh no, a flood's coming," and they'd smile and say, "Yeah, we've heard that before." Year after year you've been saying that. Noah was faithful to do God's will. He trusted God's Word and won no converts except in his own family. He didn't have too many statistics to report, did he?

But he was faithful to God and his faith indicted the whole world. Hebrews 11:38 says of people like Noah, "of whom the world was not worthy." And I can tell you when people were drowning in that judgment, they didn't laugh at Noah. They were saying, "Noah was right, we should have listened."

Some of us who minister the Word of God are laughed at, we get letters from people who ridicule us and who argue with us—that's perfectly all right. Perfectly all right. We're going to lovingly, faithfully keep ministering the Word of God because we know that God's Word is true. And those who don't want to accept the Word of God have to accept the consequences of not believing God's Word.

His faith involved the whole man: his mind was informed, his emotions were stirred, and his will acted and he obeyed God. His faith influenced the whole family; he won his loved ones to the faith that he himself held. His faith indicted the whole world.

And finally, his faith inherited the whole blessing. He became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Now, faith doesn't make us poor; faith makes us rich. Oh, you might be poor in this world, but you are rich in the next world.

The children of this world know how to make money and how to succeed and how to become important, but then when they get to the next world, they have nothing. Faith makes us rich, not poor. The riches of God's grace and the riches of God's goodness—we are the heirs of God. Romans 8 says we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Righteousness—he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Notice now, God didn't just simply save Noah's body by taking him through the flood. God saved his soul, and God enriched his life. And when you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you have all that you need. And how did this happen? By faith. You see, eternal life is not just temporary safety. Eternal life is far more than coming through a flood or coming through surgery or coming through an auto accident.

Eternal life means eternity with God, and it means God's life in us now. Eternal life means we experience relationship with God, and one day we're going to go to live with God. His faith inherited the whole blessing. He was spared judgment and he entered into a new earth with new blessings and new joys.

Now let me ask you about your faith. Is your faith total? In other words, does your faith involve the whole person? Is your faith intelligent? Have you understood the Word of God? Is your faith emotional? Has it stirred your heart? Is your faith leading you to do something? Are you obeying God? Then your faith involves the whole man.

His faith influenced the whole family. Is your faith making a difference in your home? Now don't worry about those outside—you need to pray for them and witness to them—but oh, start at home! Jesus said to that man He had delivered, "Go home and tell what great things God has done for you." Does your faith influence your whole family? Do your children know what it means to believe?

Does your faith indict the whole world? Do the people around you realize that you are walking with God? You see, we condemn the world as we walk with God because our lives are different. And his faith inherited the whole blessing. Oh, I want for my life and for your life all the blessing that God has for us. Noah to me is a wonderful example of total faith: believing God with everything you have and trusting God for everything He wants to give.