"By Faith Noah"

Well, this morning we look to finish chapter six, although some of the things that we'll consider will carry us into chapter seven next week. I want to remind us of what we've considered to this point in chapter six.

You remember that the first eight verses of chapter six really belong to chapter five in the book of Noah. And so we're looking at that genealogical structure, which is the backbone of the book of Genesis.

The Corruption of Humanity and God’s Grief in Genesis 6

And the book of Noah begins with verse nine. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Last week, we considered this major emphasis on the total corruption of creation through human sinfulness.

That's emphasized throughout chapter six at almost every juncture, that the Lord saw the wickedness of man. It was great upon the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And so now we have sort of the antithesis of the creation narrative, where once God looked upon what He had made and declared it as very good. Now God looks upon the earth, the works of His hand, His own image bearers, and He sees the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually.

And we read in verse six last week,.

The Lord was sorry.

Literally, the Lord repented that He had made man on the earth. He was grieved in His heart. In this gripping language, God repents over the fact that He had created. He's grieving over the sinfulness of man.

Now, we emphasized last week, and it's a good rehearsal this morning, God has neither parts nor passions. Of course, God does not repent as a man. He is not creaturely in the way that we are. We uphold, therefore, the doctrine of divine simplicity, but let us not take away from the marvel of what God has condescended to reveal here.

How corrupt has the earth become? The Lord God who made the heavens and the earth grieves. He grieves in His heart. He grieves in a sense He suffers long with sinful man. It's not that God has a sudden dimming of His eternal blessedness, as we said, some lack of fulfillment, but rather it's that through His plan, through the flood, more specifically, through the ark, there's going to be a greater fulfillment through which He will redeem man from sin.

And Peter mentions in 1 Peter 3, when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. So that's our bridge into our focus this morning. If we considered our grieving God last week, when once the divine long-suffering waited, now we're looking, we're zooming in on the days of Noah when the ark was being prepared.

That's our focus as we finish chapter six.

The Covenant of Noah’s Faith

And we're going to see three things. We have our good Presbyterian brother and his family with us this morning. And to introduce them to good old Baptist fashion, we do three sections and we try to make them illiterate if we can.

Not always, but it happened to work out this morning. We're going to see first the covenant of Noah's faith, then the character of Noah's faith, and then lastly, the call of Noah's faith. So zooming in, the first thing that we notice based on 1 Peter 3 .20, again, the divine long-suffering waiting in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, the first thing we notice is divine initiative.

Divine initiative.

There is a covenant to which Noah's faith corresponds. This divine initiative always has come forth to us.

In Scripture.

As we've been looking through Genesis, we've seen God always acting, not reacting, but taking the initiative. Not only in creation, but more specifically in redemption. We've seen that at every juncture up to this point.

Even though we're only six chapters into the book of Scripture, we see God promising the serpent crushing seed to the woman after she sins. We see God putting a mark upon Cain even though he's just killed his brother.

We see the promises and their fruit in a long line of the promised seed down through righteous Abel, down through Enoch who walks with God and is taken up for he is no more. We see it in the life of Noah.

We see a God who's acting. We see a God who's waiting even in his compassion as the outpouring of his judgment nears. A point we return to here, we've already emphasized in the past, is that God reveals salvation through judgment.

There's a great book by Jim Hamilton by that title,.

Salvation Through Judgment.

It's his biblical theology. He goes book by book to show how thematically this is always the way that God reveals himself and specifically reveals salvation. He does it through judgment. Well, let's do one better than Hamilton.

When God reveals salvation through judgment, He does so by way of covenant. And that's what we have here in chapter 6. God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me.

Verse 13.

The earth is filled with violence with through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Verse 18. But, that's the adversative clause. That's the contrast. The whole earth is corrupt. The thoughts of men's hearts are only evil continually.

I will destroy all flesh.

The end of all flesh has come before me. Anything that has the breath of life in its nostrils, I will crush, I will suffocate, I will blot out.

But, I will establish my covenant with you, Noah. And you shall go into the ark.

This is the first occurrence of the word covenant in the Hebrew Bible. The first occurrence of the term in Genesis. But as you'll remember, this is not the first covenant we've seen in Genesis. We've seen the covenant of works already in the garden.

The covenantal structure of redemption shows the priority of God's grace. And Noah is no exception to this. It's a sad day when people think that Noah's righteousness was his own. We've already emphasized the fact that Noah was included in this sinful lump of humanity.

And yet, what makes the difference is God's favor rests upon him. The total description of fallen man has been given. And then some glorious bolt of grace comes in verse eight of chapter six. But, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

And because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Noah becomes a just man, a righteous man. He walks blamelessly along the earth. And God says, I'm going to establish my covenant with you. The term establish is different than the usual construction where we might read a translation, he made a covenant, or God makes a covenant.

Really, literally, the Hebrew there is cut. You always cut a covenant.

Most likely a reference to cutting.

The sacrificial animals that were the picture of the covenantal curse.

We'll see that as we move forward.

With the narrative of Abraham.

Here, it's the term establish. It's a different verb. And normally, establishing a covenant confirms a pre-existing arrangement. As though there already was a promise, or an oath, or a sign, or perhaps a revelation given.

And now God is establishing, he's reaffirming that. He's going to establish a covenant, but this isn't the creation of a relationship. This is rather the affirmation of a relationship. And I think it follows out of verse eight.

A covenant solemnizes a relationship. And the reader would know from Genesis 6, 8 that Noah's already found God's favor. And God is now confirming a covenant with him. In Noah's 600th year, God is obligating himself to preserve him and his family through the flood.

When we get through the flood, only Noah and his family remain.

And we'll see that next week. And then we again find the same language.

That we had in chapter six. We'll get through the flood in chapter seven. We'll come to Genesis 8, and we'll read that God, after he unfolds the Noahic covenant, he says, the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually, yet I will not destroy the earth by flood again.

You see, there's this continuity to sin. Even when you reduce the vessels of sin.

To Noah and his family, sin still reigns.

Death still reigns through sin. Humanity is still crooked and depraved.

There are none righteous, Paul says in Romans three. What makes the difference is simply this. God establishes a covenant.

He binds himself. This is again and again revealed in scripture, the priority of covenant as God's way of dealing with mankind. God is grieved at the sinfulness of man, and yet in his wrath, God shows mercy to Noah for the sake of the promise he has given in Genesis 3 .15.

I will establish my covenant with you. And notice what he doesn't say in the context. He does not say, Noah, if you walk perfectly from your very heart, knowing that I know all of your thoughts, all of your intentions, I will eventually establish my covenant with you.

No, he doesn't say that.

There's no conditional language here to be found, is there? It's completely unilateral. Now certainly, we'll see in a little moment, certainly there are going to be duties that flow out of this covenantal relationship.

God appoints the ends and he also appoints the means, but both, this is the emphasis,.

Both are the result of the covenant.

Being established by God.

They're not the condition to the covenant.

I will establish my covenant with you. I'm going to do this, Noah, the same way he'll do it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is my covenant, my terms, my arrangement, my sacrifice. Though much flows out of the relationship with the Lord, the very moment Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, his salvation, his destiny was secure.

He would not perish. He would have eternal life.

And so it is with the believer.

Though there may be years of toil to come, years of preparation, curveballs, trials, hindrances and setbacks, stumblings,.

Seasons of backsliding,.

When you have been found in the Lord's sight.

To have His grace,.

In that very moment, your salvation has been secure. In eternity past, redemption is with you, concrete. This is all of our hope and say. In other words, God's establishment of a covenant with His people as an ordinary way of relating to them is the foundation for our assurance.

It's the foundation for the perseverance of the saints. God is not arbitrary. God is not fickle. God does not change. Therefore, we are not consumed. God has established a covenant with us. Why do we, every Lord's day, come and partake of the bread and the cup?

The cup, which is an emblem of the blood of the new covenant. So that we're always reminded of this. It's not my greatest successes of the week. It's not my greatest failures. It's not the resolutions I didn't fulfill.

It's not the things that I do not want to do that I do. And it's not the things that I do that I do not want to do. It's simply the fact that I'm in a covenantal relationship.

With God through Christ, my Savior.

And under His blood, by faith in Him, I am saved.

God's covenant secures Noah.

As the basis of his salvation.

But the faith that comes out of this covenant bears fruit.

And that's what we see next.

The Character of Noah’s Faith

We see a character to Noah's faith.

A covenant establishes a relationship. And when you have a relationship with the living God, you'll bear the fruit of that relationship. And we see that in Noah's faith. We see the commandment of God, the very specific commands.

And we'll look more in detail next week at the Ark, because there's some beautiful biblical theology about how the Ark represents Christ. But we see these very specific commands, and we read nothing in the narrative.

About what Noah did to fulfill these commands.

We simply read the summary statement that he did.

According to all that God commanded him. We don't read about the details.

Of the massive toil he undertook. We don't have any blueprints. We know nothing of the labor that went into this, though it took 120 years. We simply have the summary statement,.

Thus Noah did.

We're looking at a narrative that is very concise. The proper word is laconic. It's a laconic narrative.

Not a lot of information is given.

And so we're reading between the lines, really, when we pull out the grit and the difficulty of Noah's obedience. And we're trying to grapple with the character of Noah's faith. What would that have been like?

Well, thankfully, we have the divine assessment already, in Hebrews 11. We know something of what Noah's faith was like.

When we turn to Hebrews 11.

And we read, beginning in verse seven, 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.

Three words stand at the banner of our focus.

In light of Hebrews 11.

And those three words are these,.

By faith, Noah. By faith, Noah. That's like, to me, that's like a Bunyan name.

For a character.

By faith, Tim. By faith, John.

I would want to have that as my Bunyan title. By faith, Ross. By faith, of course, is not part of his name. It's the bell toll of Hebrews 11.

The great gallery of the faithful. By faith, by faith, by faith.

We have a working definition of faith.

Given to us at the outset.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. And the writer of Hebrews, when he mentions Noah,.

Echoes that definition.

By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen. So there's that echo. Notice first, Noah is divinely warned. God reveals something to Noah, and Noah responds to that revelation. By faith, Noah, being divinely warned.

Of things not yet seen.

So the first thing to understand about Noah's faith is it's a response to divine revelation. God always takes the initiative. God divinely reveals something to his chosen one, Noah, and Noah responds by faith.

Noah's faith was a response to revelation. Thomas Boston, the great Scottish Puritan, says, divine faith is a believing of what God has revealed.

Because God has revealed it.

That's divine faith.

Revelation is heralded from the mountaintops. A lot of people that we rub shoulders with have heard God's revelation, but they don't believe it as God's revelation. What does James say? Even demons tremble and believe.

Even they understand the revelation of God.

Divine faith is a believing of what God has revealed.

Because God has revealed it.

People may believe scripture truth, but not with a divine faith unless they believe it on that very ground, the authority of God speaking His word. We don't know how Noah received this revelation. However he received it, he knew it was from God, and therefore he believes it accordingly,.

And he was moved by that revelation.

Noah believes God about the flood,.

Though that flood was yet unseen. Though all of the evidence that he could muster would show there's never been anything like this. Could this really ever happen? Could it be that the hills and the mountains I see afar will be covered by water?

Could it be that God would really cover the earth with water? Where would that come from? We've never seen rain. We've never seen a river like that.

Yet he was moved by his faith, by his belief.

In something he couldn't see.

He was moved to prepare the ark that God commanded. He had no physical evidence to verify this would happen. There were no climate scientists holding round table conferences saying we got to really ramp things up.

The coming flood. There weren't flash floods that were swirling around the regions and he could begin to infer, wow, there's a really big flood coming. Something like that. All he had was God's Word.

That's all he had.

And that's all he needed.

That's all he needed.

If God said it, that's all I need.

I live by faith on that.

Man doesn't live by bread alone. He lives on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

That's true of Noah.

No evidence in the world. No evidence from previous history. All I have is God's revelation and that is all I need. God, help me to trust in you. Help me to build my life by faith upon what you've shown me.

Alexander McLaren says, the far off flood was more real to him than the shows of life around him. That's real faith. See, the reality that seems to compose our lives, it so easily ensnares us and distracts us.

That didn't grip Noah's heart. What gripped him was the revelation of something he had not seen. Something that was coming and he was sure of it by faith. And therefore he gave himself to a course of life.

Which would sheer folly unless that future was real.

You see, his faith moved him to adopt a course of life that was foolishness.

Unless that future was real.

Unless that day was coming. Unless that judgment would happen exactly as God had said. Isn't that what Paul says in a sense? If Christ is not risen, we're the most pitiable fools, right? If it's not true that Christ is risen and he's returning, why are we changing our course of life?

Why are we looking like fools to a watching world? We're pitiable unless that's real. Faith obtains the fact that it's real. Are you living in a way that it could be said your life is foolish unless God's Word is true?

And then you're a very wise man or a very wise woman indeed. You're a wise child. You have a very mature faith at a young age because you're living by faith upon God's Word. Not upon the things that you observe and see.

Not upon what you extrapolate from the world and the course of history around you. But from God's Word alone. Noah is the archetype of that kind of Christian faith. Secondly, notice Noah is moved with godly fear.

So first, Noah is divinely warned. Second, Noah is moved with godly fear. By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear. It strikes me that the favor of God when it rests upon us, not always, but often, comes to us initially as a warning.

The favor of God when it first wakes us up, when it first opens the eyes of faith and warms the heart of faith, that initial encounter is often one of a threatening, a certain trembling, maybe even a terror.

Not always.

Some people are warmed into the love of Christ and maybe that comes down the road. They look back and they realize what they've been saved from. But ordinarily, the experience of conversion for many Christians, especially those who have that sudden conversion, is a certain dread of judgment.

And that dread of judgment is, in fact, God's favor finding them and resting upon them, plucking open their eyes to help them see that they're heading headlong into a path of destruction. When children of God are given their ears to hear and God's grace comes to them, it often comes in the form of conviction over sin.

And because there's conviction over sin, a terror of the impending judgment of God.

Think of Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, right?

How does God's favor find him? That invitation to the celestial city. He doesn't go, oh, that would be so great. I hope I can set out and start just dashing with the heart full of hope to the celestial city.

No, what does he do?

He plugs up his ears and he runs. Because he's so concerned about the judgment that's about to drop down upon the city of destruction. Hearing God's threatening leads to fearing God's threat. Even though that threat is yet unseen.

It's the beginning of faith.

And you wake up, though many are blind, many are asleep, many are indifferent. And it's only when you get to that place so often that you begin to understand just how merciful, just how free and rich the free grace of God and Christ is to a sinner that's so terrified of God's judgment.

We read that Noah was moved with godly fear. Moved with godly fear. Thomas Manton. I was reading his sermons on Genesis 6. Really excellent. Good reading if you cozy up by your fireplace.

Thomas Manton.

He says this is the fruit and the consequence of Noah's faith. Certainly a part of it. The note is this. Godly fear is a fruit and effect of faith.

But we have to unpack.

What is godly fear?

When we're saying that Noah's moved by godly fear,.

What are we describing here?

Faith, he writes, as it works upon the promises, begets love and hope. But as it works upon the threatening,.

It begets fear.

Now, just put your thumb there for a moment. We have our faith beholding the promises of God. And that's working in a certain love and a certain hope. But then we have our faith also beholding God's threatenings.

And that works in us a certain fear.

Now, what kind of fear is that?

Love, fear and hope are not contrary. Though they be different, they may stand together. And they all proceed from faith. So this isn't something introductory. Noah was moved with godly fear, but then he began to trust God.

And he matured in his relationship with God.

No, no, no.

The writer of Hebrews is saying, this is something that characterized Noah's faith.

Throughout his whole walk with God.

He was moved by godly fear. And so we have to distinguish between a slavish servile fear.

And a filial or fatherly fear.

Manson says servile fear is a fear without any hope, without any comfort. And it weakens the certainty of faith rather than the security of the flesh. But now the gospel fear is mixed with hope and joy.

Psalm 210,.

Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling.

That's an interesting verse, isn't it?

I love Psalm 2.

Rejoice with trembling.

What does that look like?

Serve the Lord with fear, I can understand. But rejoice with trembling.

Because this is Hebrew poetry,.

These are parallel lines. Serving the Lord is parallel to rejoicing. So it's not serving the Lord with a servile fear, but it's also not this happy-go-lucky, bubbly indifference. You serve the Lord with this joyful comfort and trust in him.

And yet there's this reverence. There's this note of reverence and humility. This is what Manton says, Because our affections are apt to degenerate, therefore God would have this mixture. Hope is apt to degenerate to presumptuous boldness and joy to grow into fond boasting.

Do you see what he's saying there?

If these things aren't mixed, if we don't have fear based on God's threats, fatherly reverent fear, and also hope built upon God's promises, if we don't have that mixture in our life of faith, then we'll either be boastful or we'll be overconfident, confident in the flesh.

These things come together in the children of God. He continues, looking at Acts 9 31, The churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace and were edified and walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Notice they walked with fear.

And they also had the comfort of the Holy Spirit. This is what Manton says, They walked with fear to keep them from sin. They walked with the comfort of the Holy Ghost to keep them from sinking under affliction.

On earth, we still need this mixture. In heaven, there's all joy, no fear of punishment. But on earth, there's a mixture of flesh and spirit, something to comfort us, something to humble us. There's no true piety without either.

Lastly, on this point, consider the fear of Adam. Remember when Adam sins, how he's immediately seeking to hide from the presence of God, right? He buries himself in the earth, as it were, to get away from the presence of Yahweh.

And Manton says, in short, there's a fear that keeps us from coming to God. That's fleshly, that's carnal fear, servile fear. And then there's a fear that keeps us from coming away from God.

This is the faith that Noah has, the fear that Noah has.

It's a fear that keeps us from going away from God. It keeps us communing with God. It's a holy fear, in other words. Jeremiah 32, verse 40, I will put my fear into their hearts and they shall not depart from me.

Do you see?

Not a fear that makes the Christian afraid to enter his presence, but actually makes the Christian afraid to leave his presence. And that's the kind of fear that Noah has. Third, notice that Noah prepares an ark.

By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen,.

Moved with godly fear, prepared an ark.

This is almost shorthand for Noah obeyed. Noah prepared an ark is Noah obeying all that God commanded. Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did. That's emphasized twice. It's a super awkward Hebrew sentence, but it's all about emphasis.

Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did. That's the emphasis. He did it. He did it according to everything that God commanded.

He did it.

So by faith, Noah is thus Noah did. It's the same thing. By faith, Noah equals thus Noah did.

Right?

The one who has that covenantal favor, the one who's given a heart to express faith in the God who's revealed himself, is the one who will obey the commandments of God. Whatever God commanded him, thus Noah did.

Now we have to ask the question,.

Can we assume that 120 years of ark construction rolled by flawlessly? We can hardly live 120 minutes in holiness. Can you imagine 120 years? Can you think of the kind of ebbs and flows you have in your own walk of faith, even though the spirit isn't dwelling you, even though you're walking under the power of the spirit, even though you're on the other side of the fullness of time, and therefore you are greater than even John the Baptist?

Do you think his whole obedience, his whole obedience in the construction of the ark was without spot and blemish? Maybe except once, maybe around year 47 on a Wednesday afternoon, you know, he stubbed his toe on the timber pile and let out a hearse.

If Noah was a human being, we knew that this whole ark construction was full of all sorts of depression and frustration and irritation. Maybe some of you this week have been putting together toy sets that you've built and you've experienced in a microcosm what it was like to put together a big ark.

If you ever put together an Ikea piece of furniture, you know what I'm talking about when you're turning the directions upside down and you're like, where's the Grimlock? Where's this fondue?

We're missing pieces over here.

It's frustrating to build a shelf unit, how much more an ocean liner without the power of any cranes or hydraulic tools or construction crews. Was there no bickering in Noah's marriage during these 120 years?

No loss of nerves. If he didn't lose his patience, did he not lose heart? Would it not be the most natural thing perhaps to have depressed weeks of doubt? What am I doing? Maybe my neighbors are right.

My reputation is going out into the earth as a crazed man. Did God really reveal that to me or am I just deluding myself?

Where's the evidence?

Where's the sign of his coming? Perhaps there was that entire month with all the timber left under those bright blue tarps because he just couldn't bear to go out there and take up the hammer again. All of this would be very natural for us to infer.

The amazing thing about the narrative is we simply don't have the details. It's as though all of those stumblings, all of those fits and starts, all of those ebbs and flows, all of those bouts of frustration and marital bickering and depressed weeks of doubts and depression naps mid-afternoon and seasons where the timber was untouched.

It's as though none of that mattered. The summary statement had to hold. Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him. And that was the summary statement of his life. You know, I was reminded of this just this past May at my grandfather's funeral.

My grandfather was a Christian.

And the thing that I'm always annoyed about at funerals is there's no amount of time that you can give to people to express a memory. There's no length you could give to a eulogy that could truly contain all that has occurred in a person's life.

And so you have a scattering of a few memories and then maybe a 10 minute summary and some eulogy. It just seems like such a pitiful return on 82 years of walking on the earth and all the things that that composed.

And yet as I was preaching the sermon for his funeral and using Genesis with Jacob's blessing and just how he had walked with the God who had been the God of his fathers, who had been his shepherd. And I was thinking of that this week because, you know, that's the summary statement that matters.

And that was the summary statement of my grandfather's life, right? He had lost.

He had trial.

He had years of not walking with the Lord. He had all sorts of spouts and bits and depressions and lost hope. He has children that are wayward and mixed up in all sorts of degeneracy. And yet his life had this arc, especially toward the end, the past five years or so.

He drew so close to God.

And that was all that was needed to say. He walked with God.

He walked with God.

That's the summary statement. Now, we've already said that Genesis one through 11 is really just an introduction to the patriarchal narratives, right? The main focus, the concentration of the book of Genesis doesn't really begin until chapter 12.

This is all preface. This is all introductory. And so we're looking at things from a 10 ,000 foot view, but there's theology here. If more time was devoted to Noah, the kind of time that was devoted to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, wouldn't you see some of Noah's folly?

Wouldn't you see the stumbling, the cruelty, the deception, the sinfulness?

Wouldn't you see that?

Of course you would.