Noah / Hebrews 11:7 / Genesis 5-9

Introduction

Hello, church. How are we doing? If you came in a few minutes late, my name is Mike. I’m one of the campus pastors here at The Well, typically on Sunday mornings, and I’m just excited to be with you guys here. Last week, Brad introduced our series in Hebrews on the heroes of faith, and we’re going to kick that off tonight with a man named Noah.

The story of Noah is an interesting one. It’s a story that if you grew up in the church, you know really well, and even if you didn’t grow up in the church, you probably know it fairly well. It’s always been interesting to me—and it makes me laugh—how well we think we know this story. I picture how it goes in a Sunday school class for three and four-year-olds: “Okay, kids, gather around as we hear about all the death and destruction that God’s about to wreak upon His people!”

We have one of those kids’ Bibles at home, and we read through the stories with our girls. It’s amazing how you read through stories like Noah, and the summary is basically: God wipes out everyone except for Noah. Tonight, we’re going to start with a 30,000-foot view of the story just to catch everyone up, and then we’re going to take a deep dive into some important truths.

Noah is the story of God’s wrath being poured out on a sinful nation. The world is at an all-time low, and God tells Noah, “Build an ark because I’m going to make it rain. I’m going to flood the earth, and everyone is going to die except for the people on the ark. Bring some animals with you, wait, and float.” Eventually, the waters subside, and God restarts humanity through Noah. That’s the typical Sunday school version, but the story is so much more than that. In the flood, we see both God’s disapproval of sin and His incredible grace. In Noah, we see a man of epic faith.

Hebrews 11:7 (NASB)

By faith Noah, being warned [by God] about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

A World in Decline

Those are incredible words. I would love for those words to be written about me when I am long gone: a man of incredible faith. To understand Noah, we have to look at the context. Genesis 5 contains a long genealogy, and what we see from the time of Adam until the time of Noah is a “genealogy of decline.” From the moment Adam and Eve were put outside the garden, the world went from sinful to completely and utterly lost over the course of about sixteen hundred years.

By the time we get to Noah, there is almost no goodness left in the world. It’s interesting to note that Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah, actually died in the year of the flood. This means there was a member of Noah’s own family who was still alive but wasn’t walking with God. Things got worse and worse until we reach Genesis 6, where God looks upon His creation.

Genesis 6:5 (NASB)

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:11 (NASB)

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to live at this time? We look at the state of our world in the United States today and we often ask, “Why is it so dark?” But could you imagine living at a time where exactly one person on the entire planet was walking in faith? It is one of the most vivid descriptions of total depravity in Scripture. Not only was everyone evil, but literally everything they did or thought was evil as well. Everywhere you turned was darkness.

The Grief of God and the Gift of Grace

God’s plan for mankind at this point is drastic. He decides that because the world is broken, He is going to start over. He uses the term “blot out,” which in Hebrew is mecha, meaning to literally wipe clean or erase.

Genesis 6:7-9 (NASB)

The LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are [the records of] the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

Here’s the hard truth: they deserved it. God created them to walk in relationship with Him, yet the world had deteriorated to the point where God was sorry He had made them. We need to understand that word “sorry.” It doesn’t mean God regretted His decision as if He made a mistake or would do something different if He had a second chance. It’s more like the grief of a parent over a rebellious child.

Some of you in this room undoubtedly know exactly what that feels like. You are either in the midst of it or have gone through the pain of a wayward child who has walked away from Jesus. There is a sense of sorrow and deep pain when you think of the decisions they are making. As a dad of four daughters, I pray for them all the time because I’ve seen that pain in others, and it is a pain so deep. That is the heart of God here; He was in pain over the direction of His creation.

But then, just as He promises to blot out creation, we hear that sweet word that signifies the wrath of God meeting the grace of God: “But.” Verse 8 says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

The Cause and Effect of Faith

When we read that Noah was a righteous man and blameless in his time, our eyes are often drawn to his behavior. We think, “Noah must have been perfect, and that’s why God chose him.” But we have to understand cause and effect. If you have a sore throat, that is a symptom—an effect—of the cause, which is a cold.

In verse 9, the “cause” is that Noah walked with God. The “effect” was that he was a righteous and blameless man. The word “blameless” here doesn’t mean sinless perfection; it means he was set apart among his contemporaries. His works flowed from his faith. This is exactly what James talks about in the New Testament.

James 2:18 (NASB)

But someone may [well] say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’

The root of Noah’s deeds was his walk with God. He was already walking with God when nobody else was. At a time when it wasn’t popular, wasn’t fun, and offered no social benefit, Noah was faithful. God chose Noah to stand out for Him because Noah was already standing out to Him. He was ready to live radically because he was already living faithfully.

Building the Impossible

Then God calls Noah to do something that the people of his time would have thought was completely nuts. If they had insane asylums back then, they would have locked Noah up for this.

Genesis 6:14-15 (NASB)

’Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. ’This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

The Hebrew word for ark literally means “casket” or “enclosed box.” It’s only used one other time in the Bible: to describe the basket that saved baby Moses. Noah had no comprehension of what God was talking about. They had boats back then, but they were typically small, maybe ten feet long, meant for marshes or shorelines. God was calling him to build something 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. That’s a football field and a half long and four and a half stories high.

This wasn’t a weekend project. It took Noah over a hundred years to build this ark. Can you imagine him pounding nails in front of his house while the neighbors talked? A kid grows up watching the “crazy guy” build a boat, and then that kid grows up and shows his own son the “crazy guy” still building. Noah endured generational ridicule. People likely threw things at him. They hated God, and they certainly didn’t believe Noah’s warning that it was going to rain—something that had never happened before.

Genesis 6:22 (NASB)

Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

Noah did everything God commanded. Even when he didn’t understand, even when he knew he’d be mocked, even when he knew it wouldn’t be smooth sailing, Noah obeyed. And the “crazy” didn’t stop with the boat. Then God told him to gather the animals.

Genesis 7:1-5 (NASB)

Then the LORD said to Noah, ’Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you [alone] I have seen [to be] righteous before Me in this time. ’You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ‘For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.’ Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him.

Noah basically had to buy a zoo and put it on a boat. I just have one question: Why the mosquitoes? He could have left those off! But again, Noah did according to all the Lord commanded. He understood that God’s ways are higher than our ways.

The Storm and the Silence

Noah wasn’t just a builder; he was a “preacher of righteousness,” as 2 Peter 2:5 calls him. He spent those hundred years telling a desolate world that salvation could only be found on the ark. But when the time came, only Noah and his family entered. The Bible says the Lord shut the door. The Lord saved them; the Lord sealed them. Noah built the ark, but God did the saving.

Then they floated. They were on that ark for about 340 days—just under a year. Some of you can’t be in the same house as your family for two days without losing it, let alone a year in a floating box full of animals and the smell of manure, with death and destruction outside the walls. I imagine that as the months dragged on, doubt started to kick in. Noah probably wondered, “Did God forget me? Is He ever coming back?”

Genesis 8:1 (NASB)

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

We’ve all been there. Things get worse and worse, and you cry out, “God, what is going on?” You start to question if He is even real or if He loves you. It is normal to have doubts. But in the middle of the boat, in the middle of the conflict, God remembered Noah. He hadn’t actually forgotten; it’s just the Bible’s way of saying God decided to act.

When they finally left the boat, their first instinct was worship.

Genesis 8:20 (NASB)

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

After their darkest time, their first thought was to build an altar. (Side note: it must have sucked to be one of those clean animals—you survive the flood only to be the first sacrifice!) But this is a beautiful picture of Noah recognizing God’s faithfulness.

A New Covenant

In Genesis 9, God gives Noah the same command He gave Adam in the garden: “Be fruitful and multiply.” This was a new beginning for humanity, a symbol of grace. When everyone deserved to die, God spared humanity and gave an unconditional covenant.

Genesis 9:11 (NASB)

‘I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.’

God gave us the rainbow as a sign. It’s interesting that a rainbow only appears when it’s raining and there are dark clouds. The glory of the rainbow shines right in front of the darkness. It’s a constant reminder that God is faithful even when we are not.

How Big Is Your Faith?

As we wrap up, I want to ask you: How big is your faith? Hebrews 11 says Noah was warned about things “not yet seen” and he prepared an ark. I’ll be honest with you—some of you might not be ready for this message. I know that because sometimes I’m not ready for it.

I used to think I only had to put my faith in Jesus once. But as I mature, I realize I have to put my faith in Jesus every single day. I have to give my life to Him every morning and say, “Lord, do what You will.” And sometimes, when you say that, He calls you to build an ark in a landlocked country. He calls you to endure ridicule.

Is your faith big enough to do things that seem crazy? What could God do in your life if faith squashed your fear? The Well is known around Fresno for people who have taken big steps of faith—starting nonprofits, investing in neighborhoods, going halfway across the world. Who’s next? Why not you? If God is calling you to it, He will be faithful to bring you through it, but He wants people who will say “yes” to the crazy.

Jesus Is Our Ark

Maybe you’re here tonight and you don’t even know why. Maybe life has gotten hard and you’re hoping church will solve your problems. But coming to church doesn’t save you. Only a relationship with Christ does.

There are incredible correlations between Noah and Jesus. When the world was set to die, God made a way through the ark. Today, death and destruction still await those apart from Christ. We deserve it; the wages of sin is death. But Jesus is our Ark. He is the only way to salvation.

Luke 17:26-27 (NASB)

’And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Jesus is saying that someday, it’s going to be too late. You’ll be going about your business, and then the end comes. You cannot turn to Christ after you die. God made a way through the ark, and He made a way through Jesus.

My hope is that you would come to faith in Christ and then join this community as we grow together. Let’s be a church with big faith that does big things—things that make people who don’t follow Christ ask, “Why in the world would you do that?” And our only answer will be: “Because God told me to.”

Closing Prayer

Father, I’m just grateful that You are faithful. Lord, even in the midst of our doubts and the things You call us to that seem crazy, You are faithful. We don’t have to wonder if You’ll come through. We don’t have to wonder if we should risk, because Lord, if You call us to it, it’s not a risk at all.

Like Noah, may we be men and women of big faith. When You call us to build an ark, to bring the animals, or to preach the good news to people who don’t want to hear it, may we be the people who say, “Yes, God.” You are faithful and good and powerful. In Jesus’ name, Amen.