Faith That Builds

0:00Good morning. This certainly feels new, interesting, but wonderful. So good to look out at from this room and see you all. You can go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 11. We're going to have a hopefully, Lord willing, um balanced diet of law and gospel this morning from Hebrews 11 and verse 7. We're only covering one verse. Again, I said I probably wasn't going to do that, but here we are again. This story of Noah or reference to Noah and his faith. But there was, of course, too much here to move beyond just this one verse. So that's where we're covering Hebrews 11 and verse 7. Very quick recap. We started this kind of trinity of people here. Abel, Enoch, and Noah three weeks ago now with Abel. And we mentioned and talked about the reality or the fact that Abel is demonstrating to us the sacrifice of faith. The sacrifice of faith, that the faith that Abel had in God and in his sacrifice was expressed in that sacrifice, both that Abel gave and the sacrifice that Abel became as a result of that faith. So Abel demonstrates the sacrifice of faith. Enoch last week demonstrated the work or the walk of faith. Enoch walked with God. He had a relationship with God. And by that relationship and by that faith, through that relationship, Enoch was, of course, taken up to heaven and did not die. This week we talked about Noah, the work of faith. So we've had the sacrifice of faith, the walk of faith, and now the work of faith in Noah. I want to mention very quickly as we look into this the flood and the whole story surrounding Noah. And I don't think I mentioned this specifically when we're going through Genesis, but just how expansive is probably not the right word, but how how the the this flood narrative, this story of this great flood that by which God judged the earth, how it is uh extends to all cultures across the world and through time. I want to give you a couple points of reference, uh more than a couple, just again, this is just for your information and for your notes. Uh in Mesopotamia, there was this epic of Gelgamesh. Uh, there's a story I'm not going to pronounce his name, but uh one of their uh their characters uh builds a boat and he brings animals on his boat and he survives by this getting on this boat, uh survives a divine flood judgment on the earth. This is in Mesopotamia. They have an Akkadian myth that also accounts a flood that was sent by the gods uh to judge the world and killed many, many people. Of course, we have the Genesis narrative from our Bible. China uh has this hero, Yu, who controls uh basically controls the water uh by dredging and building these channels, and there's this great flood, and ultimately the China dynasty is founded as a result of this man uh overcoming a judgment of water. Uh Native American tribes, there's the hobbies, uh the Minonomies, and the Incas all have stories of a great flood destroying humans and men and women surviving, or a man and a woman surviving, uh through either through the on the backs of a turtle or through hiding in a cave or through various things. Australia has an aborigine uh story in which a serpent rainbow floods the earth, right? There's India has a flood narrative, Japan has a flood narrative where there is a giant catastrophic flood and Shinto saves them. Greece, Africa, there's Nordic flood narratives. Every single culture across the world has a flood narrative. But we cannot underestimate then or understate the significance of this story and the global event that this flood was. And as a result of all of those things I just mentioned, the historicity of this flood. It was a historical event. It actually happened. This is not an allegory. God really did judge the entire world through a flood. And this event, then, next to creation, is perhaps one of the most significant events in all of human history. Lives were shortened after the flood by God. Geography was shifted and changed. Wildlife, of course, was altered in some respects. The climate was changed. Global life, as we know it, shifted post this event. But that's not the only shift that happened, right? There was a spiritual shift here. The judgment of sin by God in an extraordinary way. The judgment of unbelief by God. The declaration of righteousness by faith was made evident here. The application of faith in the life of a believer and in their work. And of course, salvation from judgment by faith. All of these things are so evident in this story. So again, I said we're going to have a mix of law and gospel this morning. This title of our sermon and what we're going through is Faith That Builds. Faith that builds. We're going to talk about Noah's pleasing faith. We're going to talk about faith being motivated by reverence, or and even work being motivated by reverence, and this idea of condemning versus inheriting. So Noah's pleasing faith, reverence as a motivation, and condemning versus inheriting. That's more or less where we're going. Somewhat of a long intro. We got to get moving. Stand with me as we talk about, or as we read, Hebrews 11, verse 7. One verse. 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. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you for your word. As always, Lord, please we ask now, would you speak for Christ for his sake and for his glory? Ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Okay, now that we just got done reading that verse, turn back to Genesis very quickly. Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6, starting in verse 9, I want to show Noah's walk. We have to establish again Noah's walk, just like we looked at Enoch last week with the walk of faith. I want to establish Noah's walk. This is verse 9 of Genesis chapter 6. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Noah walked with God. Noah then, like Abel, he trusted God's sacrifice, didn't he? Noah, like Abel, trusted God's sacrifice. Remember again, when Adam and Eve first sinned, when they fell and God came to them, what they had covered themselves with fig leaves, and God had to sacrifice an animal, right? Shed blood to cover their shame with the skins of an animal. This is something that Abel clearly knew himself, right? When he brought forth his sacrifice, and it was by that faith, and trusting in the sacrifice and the shedding of blood that God provides for him, that is the basis by which Abel's sacrifice was commended, right? Or he was commended as righteous by faith in God's sacrifice. That is Abel. Certainly Enoch was commended as righteous through that same faith. And then here we see with Noah, Noah too, had to have trusted in God's sacrifice. The same sacrifice with Adam and Eve, the same sacrifice through Abel, Enoch, and now Noah is trusting in that same sacrifice. Noah, like Enoch, pleased God in his walk, right? We see the same word in the Hebrew. He had a relationship with God. Noah walked with God, just like Enoch. Genesis says that Noah was a righteous man. Why was he righteous? He was righteous because he walked with God, because he had faith in God, because he trusted God by faith. And he pleased God by walking by faith. Certainly we cannot say that Noah was totally blameless, right? Our text in Genesis says that Noah was blameless in his generation, but certainly Noah wasn't wholly blameless, right? You remember a couple chapters from where we just read when the flood has ended, and Noah sets up a vineyard and partakes a little too much of the fruits of his vineyard and ends up in a very difficult situation, a sinful situation. Well, certainly Noah, if in the eyes of men was not blameless, but he was blameless in the eyes of God. Noah was blameless in the eyes of God. He was righteous in the eyes of God, and how can that be? Romans 5, 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Justified there, as we have talked about many times, means a declaration of righteousness, perfect in God's sight by faith, not by works. 2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Believers are not only forgiven of our sins, but we are credited with God's righteousness. Complete, spotless, blameless, perfect before him in his eyes. And that is the basis. Faith is the basis on which Genesis can say that Noah was blameless. That same basis on which each of you can say, having trusted in Christ, that in God's eyes you too are blameless, perfect, complete the praise and glory of Christ. Consider also then the faith that it took Noah to build the ark. There is some discrepancies on the amount of time that it took him to build the ark. Later or earlier in Genesis 6, there's this mention of 120 years. If you look at his age and his kids' age and all of that, it's somewhere between 75 to 120 years it took Noah to build the Ark. 75 to 120 years it took him to build this ark. Almost certainly he was mocked for building this giant boat near the sea? No. Best we can tell, and I look, I Google mapped it, best we can tell where Noah built this ark was roughly 200 miles from any sea. He was in the middle of nowhere. Basically equivalent of us in downtown Rockdare here building an ark and hoping that we'll make it to Galveston one day. He built this ark in the middle of nowhere. 200 miles from the sea, 75 to 120 years to build, and at this time, by all estimates, there was millions of people on earth. Certainly he was mocked, ridiculed, for building a boat in the middle of nowhere. Millions of people on earth. Noah and his family were standing alone. Completely alone. Pleasing faith, faith that Noah exhibits, true faith, often requires us to stand alone. The hippies in the 70s get a lot of credit for being counter-culture. Counter-cultural, don't they? They weren't really risking anything, though. They were just doing what they wanted to do. They weren't sacrificing anything. The real counter-cultural life is walking with God by faith. This is counter-cultural. You only have to look as far as marriages. How does a marriage walking by faith look like to the culture? Family? How does a family centered around faith in God? Walking by faith, how does that family look? Countercultural? Our minds, our attention, life itself, the church even, the church offices, our church worship, even the gospel. How does that look in relation to faithfulness to God and walking by faith? It looks very different than what the culture says. Pleasing faith then often looks like building a boat in the wilderness. Pleasing faith often looks like building a boat in the middle of nowhere. Okay. Now we gotta go back to Hebrews. Hebrews 11. That was Noah's pleasing faith, by the way. I don't think I might mention that, but you're taking notes. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen. In reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. Obedience fueled by reverence is pleasing to God. Obedience fueled by reverence is pleasing to God. Y'all know how the Puritans got their name? Maybe we've talked about this before. The Puritans got their name, that was an insult. They were reverent and they were obedient, and they were ridiculed as a result of that. They were Puritans. Goody goodies, you might say. Holy rollers, maybe even, they would be accused of. Loosen up a little bit, Puritans. Why are you so rigid? So they they took up the name and they said, fine, well, we'll take it. Call us Puritans. That was counter-cultural, wasn't it? Obedience fueled by reverence, pleasing to God, and it is counter-cultural. High view of God. Reverent fear by faith. This necessitates obedience. I'll say that again. A high view of God, reverent fear by faith necessitates or necessarily breeds obedience. That's the point that James is making all throughout James, but specifically his contrast of faith and works. Faith without works is dead. He is not in contrast to Paul, who says that our justification is by faith, not by works. James is not contradicting that at all. But what James is saying, what we're saying, what Noah showed us is that fear of God, reverence to God by faith and faith in God necessitates obedience. This is always the case. And we contrast that against self-righteous obedience, right? A pharetical obedience that is obeying purely to make themselves look better or to because they desire to show everybody that they're more holy and better and all of those things, right? We reject this. But in light of the clear teaching of Hebrews pointing back to Noah, by reverent fear, Noah constructed, Noah built, Noah obeyed. Because he had faith and he had reverent fear of God. How do we know that Noah had faith? How do we know? Apart from the Bible telling us that Noah had faith and walked with God, how do we know that Noah had faith? He built the ark as God commanded him to. He built the ark. Imagine Noah saying that he trusted God. Imagine Noah saying that he believed God and he had faith in him. I trust you, Lord. But then he never built the ark. He continued in his own life, doing his own thing, busying himself with his own projects and his own problems. And he never actually followed through on that faith in obedience to God. What would we say about a man like that? You having been told by God that I will flood the earth and this is what you need to do, and Noah saying, I trust that Lord, I'll get to it, and then never getting to it. Does that man have faith? I'm gonna get to the gospel side of it, I promise. But this is a reality that we have to deal with. Faith without works is dead, as James says. This is a reality we have to wrestle with. We have to deal with this. And we attempt to get around this by just focusing on the gospel, which, yes, right, we're gonna get there. We're gonna focus on the gospel. But the point here from Noah, from Hebrews, the point is to show that we are saved by Christ, but Hebrews is showing that faith in that salvation obeys. Faith in salvation that we're given obeys. Reverence hears the voice of God and it obeys it. God is a God of means, isn't he? Could God save all men apart from preaching the preached word? Could he just stir the hearts of men on his own and do that? Yes, he could. He certainly could. But he has chosen means, the preaching of the word. Could God do everything that he does apart from our prayer? Certainly he doesn't need my prayer or your prayer, but he has ordained prayer as the means. He is a God of means. So we preach in obedience to him because that is the means by which he is saving. We pray in obedience to him because that is the means by which he is doing his will. True faith, then, reverent fear of God, it necessarily obeys. We must obey. We must obey. So that's motivation by reverence. Now then, the second half of that verse. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Noah condemned the world through his witness. I've said this just a second ago. Surely he told people what he was doing, didn't he? Surely he said, I'm building a boat because God is going to flood the earth. And that's why I'm doing this. Surely he told people. A hundred years of work. Surely word got around, this crazy guy in the wilderness is building a boat because God's going to judge the world. And that work and that witness made him a herald of righteousness. That's what Peter says, 2 Peter 5, that Noah was a herald of righteousness. That he was he was a messenger of righteousness, saying to the world, this is what faith in God looks like. This is what it does. It manifests itself in doing. And he was proclaiming that to the world. They did not listen. They did not hear. Noah condemned the world through his faith. Matthew 24, verse 36 is the words of Christ. But concerning the day or the 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 and marrying and given 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. Right before the eyes of the watching world was the evidence of God's word. The evidence of faith, the evidence and the testimony of God's word to Noah, the world will be flooded. And they did not listen. Because why else? Unless this person is crazy, why else would someone build a gigantic boat to nowhere? They could see God's word then in action. But they ignored it, didn't they? If they really thought about it, they would have known that this was God's work, but they ignored it. How many today? How many today live with no attention to the work of God, to the spiritual matters of God? How many people today live indifferent to God's word? Obedience by faith condemns their indifference. Your obedience by faith condemns the indifference of the world. They have no excuse. When they see you responding by faith to God's good word in your life, being obedient to God's word, this condemns an obstinate world. They have no excuse for not seeing God working. This is what Calvin said. He says, This the fact that Noah obeyed the command of God condemns by his example the obstinacy of the world. And the fact that he was miraculously saved from the midst of death is proof that the whole world, which God would doubtlessly have preserved had it been unworthy, or had it not been unworthy of salvation, justly perished. The fact that the world saw what Noah was doing and ignored it proved that they justly perished for their unrighteousness. Again, reverence by faith condemns an unjust world. Okay, now we get to the gospel. This is the good part, so hang with me. Hang with me. Righteousness by faith, our inheritance by faith. Philippians 4, 4 to 11. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more, Paul says. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Whatever, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, he says, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, and may share in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the salvation or the resurrection from the dead. We need a righteousness to see God. We have to have a perfect righteousness. We have to have a perfect righteousness to meet God in mercy and not in justice. Knowing that, then, all of our doing is underwhelming and it's flawed at best. And though we strive by faith to do many great things, we must seek after pure righteousness. If not, then it will all be for nothing. Our God gives, takes away, doesn't he? Some plant, some water, God gives the growth. That's the lesson that Job learned. Certainly one that Paul has articulated there to the Philippians. That our aim, church, our mission is to know Christ and to trust him first. To know the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, to become like him in death, that by any means we may obtain resurrection. Like his. By faith, by that faith, Noah became an heir of righteousness, our text says. By faith Noah inherited or was given for all time righteousness. Romans 4, that is why it depends on faith. In order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring. That's Romans 4, 16. Inheritance, this inheritance of righteousness rests on grace through faith. Noah wasn't righteous because he built a boat. He built a boat because by faith in God's promise through grace he became an heir of righteousness. And this is a righteousness that is eternally secure. What you need to see God is perfect righteousness. Not something you could ever get anyway, is it? And the security is that this righteousness that is required of us, that we so desperately need, has been purchased for us. It's been prepared for you. And by the free gift of grace, it was given to you by faith in Christ. And by that you have secured an eternal righteousness and an eternal inheritance. The gospel here is that Christ has built an ark for our salvation. And presently the door is still open to all who would trust in him. So our business is first is to trust in the ark of salvation, Christ. And second, our work is to warn that the judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. The reign of God's judgment is coming again. But there is salvation to those who trust in Christ. Okay, reversing the order then. This is the last thing I'll say as we close. Reversing the order, then, going from gospel to law, and we went from law to the gospel. By faith in the finished work of Christ, we receive a blessed inheritance of righteousness, by which we are made right with God. And resulting from that inheritance is a reverent life that trusts and truly works for the good, the glory of God, as the means by which we honor God, the means by which we hope in Him. And in hope that others might also find salvation in the true ark of God, Jesus Christ. And that is a faith. This articulation is a faith that inherits righteousness. And that is a faith that builds for his sake, his glory. Amen. That he trusted in you by faith, Lord, that he pleased you by his trust in your sacrifice, Lord. That's the testimony of his relationship to you, Lord, that he walked with you. Thank you, Lord, for the sure testimony of the righteousness that he had, the blamelessness that he had before your eyes by faith. Lord, we confess our sins to you this morning, knowing that, Lord, in the eyes of the world we are not blameless. But by faith in your Son, and our Savior and Lord. You have so graciously declared us righteous in your eyes. Undeservedly so, only by grace, Lord. Our sins condemn us, Lord. But you have offered us forgiveness and we thank you. We thank you for that great faith. We pray now, Lord, as a result of that faith, as a result of the inheritance of righteousness and the eternal life that you've given us through the resurrection of Christ and ultimately our resurrection, Lord. We pray and ask, Lord. May you stir up in us a reverent fear for you, Lord. A holy awe of your goodness and your grace, Lord. And through that reverence, Lord, through that trust and faith in you, Lord, may we build boats in the wilderness. May we obey you, Lord. May we live for you. May we suffer as you suffered, Lord. May we die the death that you died, Lord. That we will obtain the resurrection and eternal life. I ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.