Genesis Lesson 12 Part 1: Noah But Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord. (Gen. 6:8) It is a principle with God that the more vile and wicked that men become, the more definite is the testimony against them. God also always chooses a man, such as Moses, Elijah, Daniel, or Noah. With the world in the shape it was in, Noah was a giant in his day. He was a spiritual giant in a wicked world and God chose him to be a vessel through which Messiah would enter the world to the saving of them that believe. We see that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We can see that God richly blessed him. 1. He was forgiven for he had found grace. 2. He was faithful for he was a just man and perfect in his generation. (to be just meant to be justified or saved) (to be perfect meant to live a godly life) 3. He was fruitful everyone on the planet descended through him. We see the faith of Noah described in 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. Let s look at some things about Noah s faith. The first thing we learn of it here is that it is (a) grounded in God s word being warned of God. God finds acceptable only one kind of faith; that not of feelings or of fancy but on the acceptance of truth of the word of God. We know that in Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
If you will recall, the disciples had fished all night and caught nothing in (Luke 5:4,5) And the Lord told them to let down their nets on the right side of the ship, there was obviously some measure of doubt or disbelief but Peter said, nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. Paul was on a ship in a great storm, they had struggled until all hope seemed to have disappeared. Then Paul stood forth and said Sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God that is shall be even as it was told me. In Ats 27:25. No doubt what God had told Noah, Noah had God s word on it. He and his family would be safe in the ark. He was able to have faith because it was faith that was grounded in the word of God. What are you trusting in? We see where Noah s faith is by his actions. We also see that Noah could see by faith. It was only by faith that Noah could believe things not seen as yet. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is only by faith that we can know the truth of God s word. As believers we walk by faith not by sight. We also see the character of Noah s faith, it was, moved with fear. Faith not only relies on the precious promises of God, but it also believes and fears the threatening of God as they are recorded in His word. C.H. Spurgeon said that he who does not believe that God will punish sin cannot believe that He will pardon it through the atoning blood. We see the evidence of Noah s faith because he prepared ark. Faith if it hath not works is dead (James 2:17). We see the witness of his faith, by the which he condemned the world. We see the reward of his faith, became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. It is a good point to note in looking here at Noah that he built the ark to the saving of his house. (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. We all know that no one else ever has or ever will receive the gift of eternal life by proxy. You don t go to heaven just because your momma and daddy or grandma and grandpa did. You have to make a choice. You have got to choose to become a child of God. What it speaks of here is the temporal saving of his family from the flood. This shows us that if we will move by faith and live for God, it won t buy our children or family members a free trip to heaven, but it can bring the blessings of God on all of those about us. Because Abraham exercised faith God gave his descendants the promises. Because Rahab believed the report of the spies and hid them, here whole household was preserved from destruction.
In Matthew 8:2 Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy Because of the nobleman s faith his servant was healed Because of the Canaanitish woman s faith, her daughter was made whole And Noah s faith was ultimately rewarded in the saving of his family from the flood. Arthur Pink, in commenting on this point of study in the story of Noah asks the question, Is not this written for our learning? We can learn from all of the examples that we find in the word of God that our family will be blessed if we will stay faithful and live for God before them. I am a firm believer that if we will live for God our households will be blessed in temporal things as well as spiritual things. It is a promise that if we Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) I believe that if I will follow God and live right that one of these days after watching me all of their lives, my sons will grow up and come to know that God of their father and follow Him in the same way. I believe that God will save my boys. (A little footnote here: It was quite a number of years ago that I wrote these notes and not long ago I did get to witness both of my sons making a profession of faith in Christ. Oh, Praise God for His faithfulness to His word. Now they must be trained in their walk for the rest of my life, and I will entrust them and their lives to God when it comes time for me to leave here.) There are those who will say that Well, that is a promise to Israel. Friend, look at the book of Proverbs. It is a book of wisdom, it is not a book of prophecy, it is not a book of history, it is not one of the books of the law, it is not a book of poetry. It is a book of wisdom. And that wisdom is there for all men, regardless of race, or station, it is for all to follow and know that God has it written for benefit. It is not just for Israel. The same preachers who preach that this is a promise only meant for Israel will also tell that we are to, Touch not mine anointed, neither do my prophets any harm. Yeah, they will preach this even though it is an old testament doctrine and made to Israel. Is this just for Israel? I also understand that it is no bonafide garuntee that my boys will get saved. But at least I can hold on to this hope till the Lord takes me home. I know that my boys have got to make a choice someday. They have got to get saved the same way that I did, but I do have at least one bible example of this principle.
2Ch 32:33 And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchers of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his stead. 2Ch 33:1-16 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever: Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spoke to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God. Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. Hezekiah was a good man and a good example who, according to (2Kings 18:1-3) did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He did not live to see that boy of his get right, but he did right anyway and trusted God for the rest. But we see that Noah moved by faith. Shem was the one who was chosen to carry on the line which led to Christ but that does not mean that he was the only son of Noah which got saved. It is hard to imagine anyone could have lived through the flood, all that time in the ark, and to see the new world upon leaving the ark and all the wonders that they had witnessed, and never put their trust in God.
We also see that Noah s faith, manifested in his actions, was a condemnation to the lost world. In Hebrews chapter 11 we read that he had prepared an ark to the saving of his house, but we also see that it says he condemned the world by it. Noah is a picture of unpopular Christianity. These days the world is carried away with religious speech. It really doesn t matter much to people what you say. It is your actions that most concern people in these days. Most everyone can talk a good show today. With all the preachers on T.V. and Radio teaching a lost world the deep things of God s word, lost folks are being taught things that they are not able to grasp. They can not comprehend the deep hidden treasures of God s word but they can sure argue over the little things. It is the little things that are killing the effectiveness of the church these days. The trouble begins when a child of God, truly born again, saved by the Grace of God, lives as a child of God should live before a lost and dying world. When we talk the world smiles and goes along with us, but when we allow ourselves to be guided in our lives by what we say we believe then the light of the truth of the word of God is able to shine forth into a dark and dying world. By living as a Christian should, your life will be an open condemnation to the world. You will be disliked, even hated for this reason. by which he condemned the world. He moved by faith in building the ark, faith is the opposite of sin. Sin is an attitude that where God says, Thou shalt not, man says, I will. Faith is submission to God s government. And it is by faith that we find that Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. That does not mean that he obtained salvation by his actions, but that he manifested his salvation by his actions. There are several meanings to the Greek word that is translated became in this verse. All of those that apply to this verse indicate a change taking place that can be seen by those around an individual. So we see that Noah showed himself to be an heir of righteousness which is by We too are to become the heirs of righteousness which is by faith. We are to manifest our faith in our daily walk with the Lord, in the sight of a lost, wicked, perverse world. Part 2: The Flood Genesis 7:1-12 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the
face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In looking at the flood now we will first note the fact that it is being sent by God, in judgment, to destroy man. God has seen the wickedness of man in the earth and even the very thought in the hearts of men were wicked. Because of this wickedness being so complete God saw no alternative to destroying man. Notice: Gen 6:5-7 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. And God told Noah of what He planned to do in Genesis 6:13, And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Gen 6:13 And in the following verses He told him how to prepare for the time to come. We have just looked at the cause of the flood and that is the wickedness of men. This is a side of God that is not preached today. People become uncomfortable when preachers begin preaching on divine judgment or chastisement. The things that the world wants to hear are The Love of God, agreeing to disagree, and tolerance. Heaven help the poor preacher who names sin and warns men of God s wrath and His judgment. But even in His anger and displeasure, God saw Noah and showed him Grace in singling him out to be saved from the flood. For Adam and Eve God had provided a sacrifice. And we see their boys Cain and Abel as a picture of the two great classes of men in the world today. Those who are lost and those who are saved. The same principle applies and is still prevalent in the church today.
We also know from Jude 14 and 15 that the men of that day had heard preaching because Enoch preached to them of the coming judgment of God on the ungodly. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Jude 1:14-15 They also had the witness of Methuselah s very name; With Noah preaching to them for over a hundred years of the coming flood. They should have known that when Methuselah died the flood would come. They had been warned. Over and over, year after year the word was preached; over and over and time after time the word was rejected by the men of that day. But even worse, these men had not only the witness of Enoch s preaching, Methuselah s name, Noah s preaching, the ark for all to see, but they had the witness of the Spirit of God. Look at the word of God in Genesis 6:3. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, This tells us in no uncertain terms that the Holy Spirit of God was striving with men. God was trying to reach them, He wanted to be certain that all were warned and by His Spirit He strove with the hearts of men to turn them back to Himself. When man finally totally rejected God for the last time, the flood came. There are a number of parallels with the days of Noah and the days in which we live. (1) And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, Obviously there was a tremendous population explosion and men had begun to spread out in every direction, to multiply upon the face of the earth. The same is true in our day. There is definitely a population explosion. Unwed mothers, teen-age pregnancies, children having children. We have got a population explosion in our day. Abortion is killing babies by the millions but the population continues to grow. Men have again increased upon the face of the earth just as the days of Noah were. (2) (Jude 14) And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied. (2Peter 2:5) And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, This tells us that they obviously had preaching in the days of Noah. But they would not hear. They had been preached too about judgment coming to the world as we saw in Jude. They had been preached to about living right because we saw in Peter that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Righteousness plain and simple means right living.
We have the same problem today. People are warned about judgment. People are preached to about living right. But just as the days of Noah were people will not listen. Men can preach but people won t change even though they may know better. That is just the way that they were in the days of Noah. We see in 1 Peter 3:21 that they were disobedient. That means that men made a willing choice. They chose to go their own way. These days people make the same choice. Most folks will say Ain t no preacher gonna tell me what to do, and they huff and puff and rebel. I don t tell anyone what to do. But I can, I will and I do preach what the word of God teaches. It is then left up to the individual how they respond to the truth of the word of God. They went so far in their rebellion that the Lord testifies to us that every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. Their minds were full of wickedness. And it is no different today. People are just about as wicked as they ever have been at any time in the past. How else could a man conceive such things as partial birth abortion or cloning? How could men suggest such a thing as same sex marriage? All around us we have a thousand different uses for tobacco, alcohol, sexual perversion, pornography, gambling, crime is getting worse by the day; because men are evil today just as they were then. Very few are trying to live for God today. As the days of Noah were! Not only was there a population explosion and preaching going on but there was prosperity. (3) That seems to be the single greatest contributor to the failure of man these days. If we will once again recall the days of Noah we saw in our previous studies that these people were prosperous. We looked at the sons of Lamech and we saw that they were industrious. Jabal had cattle which signifies an income. Jubal was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. Tubal Cain was the father of those who worked with brass and iron. With these three we see that they men of that day were industrious, cultured, and technologically advanced. In short, they felt that they were rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing. This is exactly the attitude of the world today. Everybody is doing so well that they don t need God anymore. As the days of Noah were! Here we are nearing the end of the Laodicean church age that Jesus spoke of in Revelation 3. In the end of the Laodicean church age the Lord is going to be pushed completely out of the church. We are in this age now. If you notice the church s attitude in Revelation chapter 3 you will see the reason people did not want to be preached too. Rich and increased with goods, have need of nothing. Then notice also the condition of the church, the Lord is speaking to them that are in the body but yet not of the body; that is a picture of the church in our day, it is full of lost folks. And you see the Lord at the end of the Laodicean church age, standing without the church, knocking, wanting back in.
Looking now at Matthew 24 in the first 14 verses, Jesus tells the Jews of the signs of the end times. In verses 15-26 He tells them of the great tribulation to come upon them in the end times. And then in verses 27-31 He tells them of His coming in great Glory which is going to take place at the end of the tribulation. I know, as any serious bible student does, that Matthew 24 is a message primarily intended for Israel. That is who Jesus is preaching to here. But friends I know also that when the rapture takes place, it is the church that will leave here. Jesus is coming back in the clouds and not all will see Him then but he will take out His church. When Jesus comes back for all to see it is at the end of the tribulation. That is when He will come back to the mount of olives and the mountain will cleave asunder. But if we observe what the message is to Israel in Matthew 24; Jesus has warned them of the tribulation. In verses 32-36 He gives them the parable of the fig tree to exhort them to be observant of the signs of the times. Then He gives them what I want us to look at now. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the son of man be. And then reading verses 38-44 we see a very vivid description of the rapture taking place. Once again, I know, and it is true that Matthew 24 is for and to the Jews. But the church is clearly and undeniably mentioned here in this description of the rapture. For years I have wondered at this passage of scripture. Why is it that the rapture is mentioned in this passage, how does it all tie together? Look again at Noah. But as the days of Noah were, We can see in looking at the men of Noah s day and then comparing those days to present day conditions, that we are living in the days of Noah; The message being that men could have repented and entered the ark, and there been safe from the awful judgment of God. Today men can be saved from the coming judgment of God upon this world by putting their faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work at Calvary and thereby entering the body of Christ, the church. Just as those who were within the ark were saved from the flood, those of us in the body of Christ, the church, shall be saved from judgment; the great tribulation to come.