Faith That Saves

We've made it to the flood. Last week we read about the evil and depth of depravity that was rampant on the earth at the time of Noah AND God's determination to "make and end of all flesh"; to kill and destroy everything; everything accept Noah. Let's step back for a minute and look at the big picture:

• The world was evil beyond salvaging. "Every intention of the heart was only evil continually". God had created the world and saw that it was good but now God saw that everything was corrupted and evil.

• So God determined to bring total judgment and yet there was grace: Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (6:8). God warned Noah and commanded him to build an ark.

• And Noah believed God. He spent the next 100+ years building a giant boat nowhere near water.

• Finally the day came: God caused the animals to come to the ark (like a giant migration) and then God Himself shut Noah and his family in.

•And the rain began...

• Gen. 7:11 tells us that "The fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened". This was more than a thunderstorm. This was judgment.

And this is a pattern that we see throughout the OT: *Man sins, *God warns, *man ignores, *God judges and then *God restores. The story of the flood and Noah's ark is very familiar but it can also seem like a distant story; almost unreal. The judgment of the flood and the salvation of Noah teach us that God is determined to judge sin but those who believe His word and obey will be saved. You see, judgment was coming, God's mind was set. But He didn't do it on a whim. God isn't capricious and harsh, lashing out without warning. He waited, He warned and He worked through Noah to show that, even in the midst of total destruction and chaos, those who believe His word and obey will be saved from judgment.

Let's consider three major truths that speak to us today from Gen. 7.

I. God is longsuffering toward sinners

God was grieved over the sin that corrupted the earth. The level of violence and deviation had been building for centuries. Finally, God determined to destroy the earth. And even then He waited over 100 years to do so! He used Noah, who had found favor with God, to give His warning and prepare the way of escape. God is patient toward sinners!

1 Peter 2:5 tells us that Noah was a herald of righteousness. It took him about 100 years to build the ark but there's no indication of others believing and joining in. I'm sure CNN was there. Can you imagine being Noah in this violent culture; the mockery, the Noah jokes- "How many of Noah's sons does it take to drive a nail...?" They knew but they chose not to believe God; they chose to ignore Noah; eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, ignoring God, indulging the flesh, pursuing pleasure by any means possible. And the flood would seem like a surprise, but it's not. 100 years of warning met with 100 years of mocking, ignoring and rejecting the warning of God through Noah. And so...God determined to judge them.

II. God is determined to judge sin

Why is God so determined to judge sin? It's as if God said, "Enough is enough!" You can hear the resolve in His tone in 6:13; "I have determined to make an end to all flesh". And then in 7:17-24, the repetition drives home the intensity of God's judgment. Look at how many times the devastation of the flood is emphasized: 6x we read that the waters increased or prevailed and 4x that all flesh died or was blotted out. Every sentence is used to paint a picture of the total and utter destruction of the flood. This was no slap on the wrist. God wasn't joking around.

Can you imagine what this was like for Noah and his family; the screams and struggles, watching people grasping for their lives, taking in their last breath and dying. How long did it take for everyone to die; and then what was it like; millions, maybe billions of dead bodies, not to mention the animals. This was a graphic and horrific display of the wrath of God toward sin.
Some might ask: "How could a God of love do this? This God can't be just!"Some would say that God is unjust to punish sin; that if God was really a God of love he would never punish sin; He would never commit such atrocities. Actually, the opposite is true.

Right now there are 5 accused terrorists waiting for trial for their part in the 911 attack on our country. They're not denying the charges, they want the opportunity to explain why they did what they did and why it was right. To us what they did was reprehensible; to them what they did was right. Now, I have heard that by the venue being switched from a military tribunal to a criminal court case, it is possible (though unlikely) that these men may be acquitted. Walk free! Everything inside us would cry out that that would be unjust and wrong! Even evil! And it would reinforce and validate in their minds that what they did was right.

Justice is vital to society's good and it's an expression of love. God must be just and must judge evil or He would be a part of evil. God must not and cannot let the guilty walk free - that wouldn't be love- that would be wicked. In the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "God must punish sin...God and sin are eternal incompatibilities".

God is not unjust. God is holy; He has a standard which they broke. God, the sovereign ruler of all creation (which He created) uses His law to judge men who committed crimes against Him. They had no defense or excuse.

Application: But we can bring this closer to us than the evil of the pre-flood world or even than the 911 terrorists. The Bible says that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Don't think your sin is small. We need to know that our sin is incompatible with God's holiness. He cannot allow our sin to go unpunished and He cannot allow our sin in His holy presence. This is the bad news: God is determined to judge sin; but the good news is that those who believe His word and obey will be saved which brings me to my third point:

III. God is committed to saving those who put their faith in Him (Heb. 11:7)

God's Commitment to save: In the middle of God's determination to destroy the earth because of sin, we see that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord; He was pleased with him. And in verse 9 we're told why; Noah was righteous, blameless, he walked with God.
Before we move on I want to make sure we understand what this means. Noah wasn't perfect or sinless. On the contrary, Noah was a sinner just like the rest of us. The one difference between Noah and the rest of his generation is that he believed God. Listen to Lloyd-Jones again: "It was not even his character that saved him. It was that he walked with God. This means that he allowed God to lead him, that he went where God went, that he listened to God and said yes to God. God spoke and Noah said I believe. That's what saved him." God saved Noah because of his faith; because he believed God; not because Noah had something good to offer.

We already looked at 7:17-24 and saw how the repetition accentuates the destruction of the flood but let's look at it again and see how the repetition also points to God's commitment to save Noah. "The waters increased and bore up the ark...it rose high above the earth...the waters prevailed and increased greatly...and the ark floated on the face of the waters." And in the end, after all had died we read; "Only Noah was left and those who were with him." In the midst of the flood and destruction, chaos and judgment, Noah (and those with him) "rose above". God's favor toward Noah is a picture of God's undeserved grace toward us; to all who believe in Jesus. Noah is also a picture of Christ for us: all who entered the ark by faith were saved just as all who enter Christ through the cross by faith will be saved. There's nothing you can do; no level you can ever attain that will make you acceptable to God. The only way we receive the "favor" of God is by faith; to believe Him and His word.

When do you feel favor from God? What does it take for you to feel accepted by God? If your answer is anything other than faith, you're not experiencing real grace. One way to gage this is to ask, "What do I require of others to be/feel accepted by me?" This is indicator of the grace you're receiving/experiencing-you can't give what you don't have.

The grace and favor of God is free, it can't be earned. If you pay for any of it, you have to pay for it all. Gal. 3:2-3: "Did you receive the spirit by works or faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?" NO!

Faith or Obedience: Turn to Hebrews 11:7. This verse tells us that "[Noah] became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith ". But let's read the whole verse... God warned Noah and by faith he... what did he do? He built an ark! And by this, building the ark, he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Are you catching this? I thought we were saved by faith alone?

Flip back to Genesis 7 and let's compare Heb. 11:7 with Gen. 6:22, 7:5, 7:9, and 7:16. Moses is again using repetition to get our attention on this point: 4 times in this passage we read, "Noah DID all that the Lord commanded him". Do you think of faith in these terms? When you think of your own faith is there an action right behind it? Just for fun, let's go back to Hebrews and run through a few of the heroes of Faith recorded for us there. By Faith:

• Able: offered a sacrifice
• Noah: Constructed an ark
• Abraham: obeyed when called; he went
• Sarah: Conceived; kept trying when Abraham was as good as dead
• Israelites: Crossed the Red Sea
• Rahab: Welcomed spies

They all had faith that was counted to them as righteousness because of what they did. Noah believed God which led him to obey and build the ark. Philip Hughes puts it this way: "It was by the building of the ark that the faith of Noah was most dramatically demonstrated." Faith is always followed by action. We tend to separate obedience from faith but scripture says they're inseparable. "We're saved by faith alone but we're not saved by faith that is alone" Luther

Do you believe God? Don't answer too quickly! Is there action, evidence of faith? Do you believe what God says will happen, will happen? Consider these:

• Phil. 4:5: Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand
• 2 Cor. 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
• Ecc. 12:13-14: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
• Does this scare you? It should, it should have an effect on our lives, that's why it's in this book.

What would have happened if Noah didn't build the ark; instead he said, "I believe you about the flood, but I have a few personal goals I need to get to first. I'll get started after that? Or, I'll do it tomorrow." We wouldn't be reading about Noah today.

This story isn't here so men can sit around and debate about man's responsibility vs. God's sovereignty and how that plays into salvation. It's here so that we can see our place in God's history; it's here to put us in our proper place in history. We have the choice to believe God and obey or be washed away in the flood. God is moving forward, He's accomplishing His plan. He will judge sin and he will have a people that believe His word and obey. And through their demonstrations of faith, God's purposes will be advanced and accomplished.

The question isn't "Did God save Noah because of what he did?" The question is "Why did Noah do what he did?" Because he believed. Why do you do what you do? Are you building something that seems ridiculous to your neighbors? Are you preaching righteousness with your life and words? Have you set aside the rest of your life to invest in something that appears to have no value in this world but you know will have eternal value in the next? What are you sacrificing to do it? You know Noah had a few goals that he had to put on the shelf in order to build the ark. Is our faith active?

Keep your finger in Genesis and open to Ephesians 2. I want to see if we can make a few connections here. Let's read *Gen. 6:5-7, now *Eph. 2:1-3. Now back to *Gen. 7:18, and *Eph. 2:4-6. We are not unlike the generation that was destroyed in the flood. We deserve the wrath of God. And God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He will judge sin but those who believe His word and obey will be saved. Through Christ, we have found favor with God (like Noah). Through Christ we have been raised up (like Noah) above the judgment that we deserve. Let this amazing, undeserved grace guide and motivate all that we do.

In closing...I have 3 groups on my mind.
• 1st -Christian: Those who are frustrated or stagnant in your growth. Are you a doer of the word? Can you or those around you see demonstrations of your faith? James 1:22-25 Are you hearing only and deceiving yourself? Study this passage and start doing. The one who acts in faith is blessed in his doing.
• 2nd-Christian: Are we preaching righteousness and declaring the warning of the coming judgment? As one being saved, should we keep it to ourselves? Doesn't that seem unethical? What we believe will dictate what we do? Christian, that day is coming, preach the gospel?
• 3rd-Do you have a Savior? Are you aware that a day is coming when everything you have thought, said and done will be judged-not on a curve; placed on a scale against the perfect holiness that God requires. Just like the flood, it will come without warning and the judgment will be without exception. No one will make it on their own merit. Only those who have the righteousness of another, Jesus Christ, will be able to stand before the judgment seat. Put your faith in Jesus Christ today.

I'll leave you with the words of Mr. Spurgeon:

The gospel does not consist in making a man's sin appear little. The way Christians get their peace is not by seeing their sins shriveled and shrinking until they seem small to them. But on the contrary, they, first of all, see their sins expanding (like the sin in Noah's generation), and then, after that, they obtain their peace by seeing those sins entirely swept away - far as the east is from the west. ~ CH Spurgeon
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