back to index2020-11-8 Noah, the Heir of Righteousness by Faith
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews 11.7, we're going to be looking at Noah, the 00:00:11.400 |
third person on this list of heroes of faith. 00:00:23.240 |
By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark 00:00:28.840 |
for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir 00:00:33.440 |
of the righteousness which is according to faith. 00:00:53.120 |
May your word have its intended effects in our hearts. 00:00:57.600 |
I pray, Lord God, that you would soften hearts that have become callous. 00:01:02.280 |
If we have drifted, call us back that we may be anchored, that we may live lives truly 00:01:09.160 |
worthy of the gospel that we proclaim to believe. 00:01:13.920 |
I pray that these truths would not fall on deaf ears. 00:01:19.000 |
May your word and your word alone go forth and accomplish its purpose. 00:01:26.000 |
Alright, so when we think about the story of Noah, if you can put up the first, okay, 00:01:30.200 |
I don't know if you guys can see it, that's a typical picture that we remember when we 00:01:36.800 |
You have these cute animals who are sitting on this large boat two by two, right? 00:01:42.520 |
And so if you grew up in the church, you're very familiar with this picture, you know. 00:01:47.760 |
But this is not an accurate depiction of what we see in Genesis. 00:01:53.240 |
If you go to the next picture, and that's obviously a rendition of a tsunami that's 00:02:03.760 |
The story of Noah is really the devastation of mankind, that God's judgment. 00:02:10.880 |
It really is a foreshadowing of what God says is going to happen to mankind. 00:02:17.120 |
And he preserved only eight people, 1500 years have passed since Adam, and during those 1500 00:02:25.240 |
years, all those hundreds of thousands of people that must have been born during that 00:02:29.040 |
period and only eight people survived this judgment. 00:02:34.160 |
So the story of Noah is a depiction of the judgment that is coming. 00:02:39.600 |
It serves as a warning to mankind to take God's word seriously. 00:02:45.720 |
It also is a picture of how God will save mankind. 00:02:50.480 |
So I think we need to be careful when we teach our children that we don't simply sanitize 00:02:57.520 |
Because when I was younger, and I'm not saying that we can't ever use those pictures, but 00:03:02.360 |
when I was younger, before I became a Christian, when I thought of Noah, I've had that in my 00:03:08.320 |
It's a cute picture of animals coming together and riding a boat, going to the zoo. 00:03:15.380 |
And I remember once reading what the story was about, it's like, wow, this is the story 00:03:24.040 |
And we would never picture the book of Revelation in that way. 00:03:28.360 |
In fact, if you look at it, the animals coming to the ark is a very small portion of what 00:03:34.640 |
The majority of it is God warning year after year after year. 00:03:43.960 |
And in the end, just as God says, devastation comes. 00:03:48.280 |
You know, if you look at Genesis, Noah is introduced to us in chapter 5, just in genealogy. 00:03:54.760 |
And then chapter 6, 7, 8, and 9, and then 10 is about Noah's life. 00:04:00.040 |
So we have about six chapters in the book of Genesis about Noah and his descendants. 00:04:05.200 |
The only other person on this list that gets that kind of attention is Abraham. 00:04:11.080 |
And yet, in this text, we only have one verse. 00:04:15.440 |
So it's not that his life isn't significant, but that every part of what he says in verse 00:04:23.980 |
Because God uses Noah repeatedly in the Old Testament and the New Testament as an example 00:04:34.520 |
We need to take heed as we study Noah's life. 00:04:41.320 |
And we need to ask ourselves if Noah, what happened to Noah, serves to remind the world 00:04:52.940 |
And then to live the rest of our lives with this sanitized version where we're trying 00:05:00.620 |
to make a better life, we're trying to have an easier life, a healthier life, a long and 00:05:04.320 |
prosperous life, the whole time professing mankind is going to be wiped out. 00:05:11.840 |
Maybe not through a flood, as God said that he was not going to do it in that way, but 00:05:15.800 |
if you read the book of Revelation, it's pretty clear. 00:05:18.000 |
The devastation that's coming at the end of human history is going to be much like the flood. 00:05:28.220 |
Because it's going to be an eternal judgment. 00:05:32.320 |
What is it that we are to learn from this text? 00:05:35.560 |
So I divide it into three things that I think we really need to pay attention to. 00:05:41.880 |
First is that through Noah, God warns the world to turn from their sins. 00:05:48.480 |
And that really is the core of the gospel message. 00:05:53.280 |
It's not simply that there is a superpower being who created the universe who loves you 00:06:07.240 |
The gospel message begins by saying God is actually angry with this world. 00:06:18.560 |
He told Noah that they are all going to be gone. 00:06:22.640 |
Not just a few select, not just people here and there. 00:06:28.760 |
In Genesis 6, God looked on the earth and behold it was corrupt. 00:06:32.880 |
For all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 00:06:35.560 |
And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me. 00:06:42.560 |
And when he says all flesh, he meant all flesh. 00:06:48.000 |
I mean, look at the whole world that has been locked down. 00:06:53.080 |
Because we are afraid that we are going to get this virus and a few of us might die. 00:07:03.400 |
And so in fear, the whole economy has been shut down. 00:07:14.480 |
But God says to Noah, all flesh, all flesh, a hundred percent of the flesh has fallen 00:07:22.680 |
For the earth is filled with violence because of them. 00:07:25.400 |
And behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 00:07:31.440 |
Now we would love to sanitize this and say, well, you know, God was done with that in 00:07:36.680 |
He started, he may have started out with that, but surely that's not who he is now. 00:07:50.280 |
In fact, it escalates because he said the wrath of God is being stored up. 00:07:56.760 |
If God was so grieved with 1500 years of men rebelling and sinning against God, how about 00:08:05.780 |
If he was angry with a few hundred thousand people, how about billions and billions of 00:08:13.960 |
So when he says the anger of God is being stored up and we see a glimpse of a tiny glimpse 00:08:20.000 |
of that in the book of Revelation, what would the wrath of God look like then? 00:08:26.120 |
In Amos chapter 3, 7, it says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his 00:08:35.160 |
God uses Noah, the prophets, the scriptures, the church, the apostles, missionaries, pastors, 00:08:45.120 |
Each one of us has been called what he revealed to us to tell the nations. 00:08:52.040 |
He says surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret counsel to his servants, 00:08:57.980 |
That's exactly what it says in Hebrews 11, 7, by faith Noah, being warned by God about 00:09:07.920 |
Remember last week we talked about how Enoch was established and he was caught up in Jude 00:09:16.040 |
He was the first evangelist who warned about the judgment to come. 00:09:21.400 |
What's interesting is Enoch has a child before he is taken up. 00:09:26.160 |
His name is Methuselah and his claim to fame in the Bible is that he lived the longest 00:09:37.320 |
But the significance of Methuselah is not the length of his life. 00:09:41.640 |
His name literally means in Hebrew, "when he is dead it shall be sent." 00:09:47.920 |
Now you know that God does nothing by accident. 00:09:51.600 |
That even the names of the prophets, even the names of the patriarchs have significance 00:09:56.720 |
because God embedded in their name what he planned to do in the future. 00:10:00.880 |
Methuselah's name is "when he dies it shall be sent." 00:10:05.300 |
If you look at the chart of their life, we know exactly what he was talking about because 00:10:11.600 |
Enoch dies, Methuselah is born, when Methuselah dies, what happens? 00:10:23.440 |
So God did not all of a sudden sprung it up on mankind and say, "I'm done and then you 00:10:28.840 |
He's been telling Enoch, he's been telling Noah, he prophesied within Methuselah's very 00:10:40.480 |
God has implanted all throughout history, every part of scripture, warning about the 00:10:50.800 |
The church has sanitized the gospel because it is not palatable to the world. 00:10:55.360 |
They will not come to church if we emphasize this aspect. 00:10:59.400 |
That's why hell slowly has fallen off the pulpit. 00:11:09.380 |
We have pastors who just outright say, "I'm not going to preach about sin because it ruins 00:11:17.560 |
So they have not rejected it and said, "It's not because I don't believe in sin, it's because 00:11:22.000 |
if we talk too much about it, people are going to be discouraged and they're not going to 00:11:27.120 |
By all practical purposes, it's been weeded out of the church. 00:11:31.040 |
And yet, the central message of the gospel is a warning about the judgment to come. 00:11:38.320 |
There's a reason why Noah's story is six chapters in the book of Genesis. 00:11:43.120 |
He didn't just pick out a few people here and there. 00:11:51.240 |
Isaiah 13, 9, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, 00:11:58.660 |
to make the land a desolation, and he will exterminate the sinners from it." 00:12:04.360 |
The way that we understand God, Isaiah 13, 9, doesn't make any sense. 00:12:12.800 |
And that's a common question that Christians in this generation, even Christians in the 00:12:18.000 |
church in this generation, ask that question. 00:12:27.520 |
Because we made the story about Noah, about two animals going home and resting and having 00:12:38.720 |
In 2 Peter 3, 10, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens 00:12:43.600 |
will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the 00:12:57.360 |
This means that every beautiful place that we visited, everything that the world says 00:13:09.120 |
And he warns the church not to be caught off guard, as if a thief is coming. 00:13:20.400 |
Revelation 9, 18 and 19, "A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues." 00:13:34.200 |
If you've ever read the book of Revelation, 70% of what he says is about the judgment 00:13:39.280 |
And in one verse he says, "These three plagues killed a third of mankind by the fire and 00:13:44.840 |
the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. 00:13:48.800 |
For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for the tails are like 00:13:52.640 |
serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm." 00:13:56.920 |
Today if you preach from this text, immediately you get the label, "Oh, he's a fire and brimstone 00:14:06.280 |
Which means, I'm not going to go to a church of fire and brimstone. 00:14:10.480 |
That's what they did, you know, a hundred years ago. 00:14:17.320 |
Because we have a generation of people who think fire and brimstone is not biblical. 00:14:24.960 |
We have a generation filled with people just quoting scripture, they get offended. 00:14:34.480 |
As much as we love to hang verses and memorize scripture and put it on our t-shirts and tell 00:14:39.600 |
it to our children about the grace of God, the faithfulness of God, of the mercy of God, 00:14:52.080 |
That when the end comes, when the white throne judgment comes, what comes after that, there 00:15:05.040 |
But after the white throne judgment, what happens in the day of Noah is going to seem 00:15:15.240 |
All throughout scripture, mankind is warned that this will come. 00:15:21.640 |
Romans 118, "For the wrath of God is revealed, is even now being revealed from heaven against 00:15:29.480 |
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." 00:15:36.320 |
If you go on and share the gospel to the unbelieving world, one of the most common questions you 00:15:42.000 |
get is, "How can a God that you say is loving allow 9/11 to happen? 00:15:46.720 |
How can a God who is so loving and gracious and who loves us so much, why does he allow 00:15:55.240 |
Why do they allow injustice to happen if your God is so good?" 00:16:00.680 |
Part of the reason why is because we preach the wrong gospel. 00:16:07.800 |
We sanitize the gospel where they don't understand that God is angry with this world. 00:16:13.920 |
That in our natural state, if we die, we are not going to meet a gracious and loving God. 00:16:20.760 |
We are going to meet the God of Noah where he was so grieved and angered that he said, 00:16:31.080 |
That's the God that a man and a woman who is not covered by the blood of Christ will 00:16:37.560 |
And the Bible tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed. 00:16:41.000 |
So whenever you see disaster happening because of the sinfulness of mankind, it is a glimpse 00:16:57.920 |
In fact, the question really is, the only reason why we don't see more of it is because 00:17:05.560 |
It is because he left the church as a witness. 00:17:09.400 |
It is because he left the church to sanctify and to be the light. 00:17:16.280 |
But one day that light and the darkness is going to be separated for eternity. 00:17:21.400 |
And the Bible tells us that you and I are here just as Noah was given this message to 00:17:29.720 |
Hebrews 11, 7 says, "By which he condemned the world." 00:17:33.720 |
Genesis 6 says, "The Lord was sorry that he had made man on earth." 00:17:44.040 |
That God was so disturbed by the sins of mankind that he said, "Enough!" 00:17:53.360 |
Imagine if God had enough 1500 years, what his wrath would look like after all these 00:18:11.560 |
All these years of sexual immorality that has been stored up. 00:18:17.240 |
In Ephesians 4, verse 30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." 00:18:24.560 |
Imagine God was grieved because of sin of mankind and he wiped them out. 00:18:30.600 |
Ephesians 4, verse 30 when it says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." 00:18:43.080 |
He hates sin so much that he was willing to start all over. 00:18:48.560 |
So when he says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit," he's talking about an almighty God who by 00:18:55.600 |
the snap of his finger can wipe out the earth with a flood, with fire, with plague. 00:19:07.760 |
That's what it means, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit." 00:19:14.840 |
It's not saying, "Don't get on the wrong side." 00:19:16.920 |
To grieve the Holy Spirit is to stir up anger and wrath. 00:19:25.840 |
If that's what he says, Genesis 6, "And the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have 00:19:30.600 |
created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, and all the 00:19:36.560 |
For I am sorry, I am grieved that I made them.'" 00:19:44.960 |
"Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not 00:19:49.360 |
knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" 00:19:55.000 |
Whole reason why we even repent is because God was merciful. 00:20:00.520 |
He said, "Do you take lightly the grace of God, not knowing that God saved us from this 00:20:07.040 |
And then in verse 5, "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you 00:20:10.520 |
are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath." 00:20:15.280 |
After hearing the gospel, after being enlightened, after being around the fellowship of the Holy 00:20:21.200 |
Spirit, after being in the church, given the word of God, and after all of that, you simply 00:20:28.720 |
drift along into the world, denying the Savior by our life, loving him with our lips. 00:20:45.080 |
If observing mankind stirred him up that much, how much more if we are storing up this wrath 00:20:51.080 |
Matthew 24, 37-39, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah. 00:20:59.640 |
For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving 00:21:03.160 |
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark." 00:21:06.640 |
You notice here, he doesn't talk about pornography. 00:21:13.880 |
He just says they were just marrying, giving in marriage, drinking, eating, just like everybody 00:21:23.040 |
Yet in all of that, they were living in rebellion against God. 00:21:32.120 |
And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. 00:21:39.160 |
So the storing of the wrath isn't just murdering and killing. 00:21:50.400 |
And living a life away from the purpose of God. 00:21:54.280 |
Just living our lives like everybody else in this world. 00:22:05.840 |
Being religious, yet having our hearts far from Him. 00:22:20.520 |
Secondly, God gave opportunities for people to repent. 00:22:24.600 |
Not only is Noah's ark serves as a warning to mankind, it's actually an opportunity where 00:22:32.160 |
God is being patient and calling us to repentance. 00:22:48.320 |
And you know what it says in Hebrews 11.7, it says, "In reverence," when he heard the 00:22:52.560 |
warning was coming that isn't there yet, "in reverence he prepared an ark." 00:23:02.400 |
And in the short statement, basically it says, "because he believed." 00:23:08.800 |
God said judgment is coming, the world is going to be wiped out, and because he believed 00:23:14.440 |
The word reverence in some of your translations, it says he feared. 00:23:19.740 |
For whatever the reason, we think fearing God is not biblical. 00:23:30.480 |
He was being interviewed and asked, "What happened to you?" 00:23:37.680 |
Now whether you believe his faith is genuine or not, but at least this statement I can't 00:23:48.260 |
And because I fear God, I don't fear anything else." 00:23:51.880 |
Don't you fear your peers and other people in the entertainment industry? 00:23:57.520 |
The politicians that you're being called this and you're being called that? 00:24:01.480 |
Do you not know the consequence of having that political thing and being religious? 00:24:09.320 |
And because I fear God, I fear nothing else." 00:24:14.480 |
Noah heard the warning and he said because he believed, he feared God. 00:24:23.420 |
He took his warning, he took it serious, and that's why he started building this ark. 00:24:26.680 |
This ark was 500 feet long, 85 feet wide, 50 feet high. 00:24:32.680 |
Five story building, even though it had three levels. 00:24:36.720 |
People often say, "Oh, could they have fit all the animals?" 00:24:42.440 |
There's 34,000 known species that are living in there. 00:24:46.360 |
In 2014, they said over 90% of the animals that we know of are smaller than cats. 00:24:52.800 |
So, it's just even scientifically, if you were to say, "Was that boat big enough?" 00:25:09.080 |
What do you think that Noah did for 120 years while he was building this? 00:25:18.760 |
Why this drama of rain and flood for 40 days and 40 nights? 00:25:28.260 |
Why did he do that with the aid and then just destroy them? 00:25:32.280 |
What was the drama of 120 years of building this ridiculous square box in the middle of 00:25:38.840 |
the desert, while for 120 years, enduring the mocking, probably, of all their neighbors? 00:25:50.880 |
This is before Home Depot, where you can go and get nicely cut wood. 00:25:55.440 |
You have to cut down trees, and you have to get it all handmade. 00:26:02.760 |
You know, it's interesting that the ark is just a rectangular box. 00:26:08.680 |
It's almost like it wasn't meant to go anywhere. 00:26:15.580 |
And God did it on purpose, to leave a witness. 00:26:18.160 |
What do you think he did for 120 years, when people asked him, "Why are you building that 00:26:25.000 |
For 120 years, every time they asked him, "Hey, God said you're going to be judged. 00:26:33.360 |
God said you're going to be judged if you do not repent." 00:26:37.560 |
So the 120 years of his labor was a physical and verbal witness of God pleading with mankind 00:26:52.080 |
Genesis 6.22, "Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did." 00:27:10.000 |
We've made Christianity so complicated today. 00:27:15.420 |
It's almost like if you convert and become a Christian, you have to go to seminary to 00:27:18.800 |
even understand what you're supposed to believe or not believe. 00:27:28.360 |
And you want to know what he has to say, read the Bible. 00:27:35.720 |
We have books, seminaries, conferences, discipleship, programs, training. 00:27:46.040 |
But if you say you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have to follow Jesus Christ. 00:27:49.880 |
If you say you believe in Jesus Christ, you actually have to believe in Jesus Christ. 00:27:53.700 |
You can't say you believe that he's the way and then not go. 00:27:58.600 |
You can't say that, "I believe the warning is coming. 00:28:01.760 |
I believe the world is going to be wiped out." 00:28:05.300 |
And then live the rest of your life like everybody else in this world. 00:28:19.940 |
But if you believe in the message that the Bible teaches, either you believe it and you 00:28:26.720 |
follow him or you don't believe it and don't follow him. 00:28:30.840 |
But you can't say, "I believe" and then not follow him. 00:28:37.480 |
It simply says, "He believed, he feared, and he did it." 00:28:49.000 |
First Peter 3, 20-22, "Who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the 00:28:57.440 |
He kept waiting in the days of Noah, telling them to repent. 00:29:01.120 |
"During the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought 00:29:05.200 |
safely through the water, corresponding to that baptism now saves you." 00:29:09.600 |
Not only did he leave a witness to them, he left a witness to us of what God was going 00:29:14.480 |
That through his death and resurrection in our baptism, he said he was going to save 00:29:22.120 |
Just like he condemned the world for rejecting him, he will condemn the world and those who 00:29:27.080 |
believe and are saved through the water, just like Noah, we will be saved. 00:29:32.840 |
Not the removal of the dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience 00:29:36.280 |
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone 00:29:39.760 |
into heaven after angels and authorities and powers and had been subjected to him. 00:29:49.880 |
Yes, I know the room is filled with Chinese Americans, but I'm going to teach you some 00:30:11.320 |
And I know somebody is going to correct me too after that. 00:30:14.040 |
That's the word for boat in the Chinese character. 00:30:17.120 |
And as you guys know, the Chinese character basically at one point were pictures that 00:30:21.040 |
were made into characters, and you could see the meaning of the word. 00:30:25.360 |
You know, like we look at English words and we do the history of that word and where it 00:30:32.000 |
came from, so it either came from Greek or Latin or something, and that's how we dissect 00:30:36.040 |
the word and say, "Hey, this is what this word means." 00:30:38.080 |
With Chinese characters, it's embedded into their character. 00:30:42.400 |
Well mainland China has been using the simplified version, but those of you who are Taiwanese, 00:30:50.740 |
And this Chinese word for boat are three words, three pictures put together. 00:30:59.240 |
If you've ever studied Chinese, there's so many words like this. 00:31:02.240 |
In fact, when I took Chinese class, one of the words that really intrigued me was the 00:31:13.440 |
So the teacher who was teaching this, she studied Chinese character history, and she 00:31:20.540 |
So she was telling us about the character, and she said, "The number for, or the character 00:31:31.640 |
So I went up to her and I said, "Why is the number for man six?" 00:31:40.600 |
So I opened up the Bible and I showed it to her. 00:31:46.440 |
I mean, there's all kinds of, you can go to a website that has a bunch of this stuff. 00:31:51.120 |
Character for righteousness is a character of a lamb over an altar. 00:31:58.080 |
It's like, "Why is this character for righteousness? 00:32:01.120 |
Why is a lamb being offered up over an altar the word for righteousness?" 00:32:11.040 |
So I got to share the gospel with her through these Chinese characters. 00:32:16.000 |
We could just say it's embedded into the culture. 00:32:20.040 |
Obviously, the Chinese culture, they've used this language for thousands of years. 00:32:25.280 |
That's why I always, you know, I'm very skeptical. 00:32:28.560 |
I said, "They didn't have boats before missionaries?" 00:32:33.600 |
So it didn't make sense, but, you know, I'm skeptical. 00:32:38.800 |
They must have had that from the very beginning. 00:32:49.160 |
But whether you believe this or not, God has left imprints of himself if you are interested. 00:32:59.160 |
He said he left evidence of himself in all of creation. 00:33:04.080 |
He gave us the word of God, the Holy Spirit, all of it, so that if we are interested, if 00:33:09.600 |
we humble ourselves and seek him out, he left imprints. 00:33:13.000 |
The problem is, the Bible says we suppress the truth because we're afraid if we find 00:33:18.400 |
the truth that all the other things that he said is true. 00:33:24.920 |
That he said you have to pick up the cross as well. 00:33:29.480 |
So if this is true, I don't want this to be true, so neither do I want this to be true. 00:33:40.160 |
Because I don't want to receive the consequence of what this means. 00:33:50.420 |
Cultural Christianity is simply jumping through the hoops to appease what is expected of whatever 00:34:02.840 |
And following Christ, following Christ requires us to focus our eyes upon Christ. 00:34:13.920 |
And true unity in the church is unity that happens as a result of men and women who are 00:34:23.800 |
Even if we look different, even if we speak different languages, even if it takes us to 00:34:31.480 |
See God through Noah warned them for 120 years that they would return, but they would not. 00:34:42.080 |
Third and finally, by faith God made Noah an heir of righteousness. 00:34:48.120 |
Genesis 6, 8, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." 00:34:54.120 |
Noah became an heir of righteousness according to faith. 00:34:57.000 |
You know whenever we study Hebrews chapter 11, we have two ways that we get imbalanced. 00:35:05.320 |
So the first group of people will look at Hebrews and look at all these achievements. 00:35:13.600 |
He gave up everything, he built the ark, Abraham walked down to the desert. 00:35:20.200 |
And so some people will read this chapter 11 to challenge whoever that they are challenging. 00:35:27.200 |
Look, we're supposed to do, we're supposed to give our life. 00:35:32.760 |
And then other people will read this text and say, no it's by faith. 00:35:38.540 |
Everyone starts by faith, by faith, by faith. 00:35:40.680 |
It's not about what they did, it's about faith. 00:35:44.440 |
So stop talking about what we should do and just talk about what he did. 00:35:52.160 |
Either extreme is not biblical because the point that he's trying to make is because 00:35:57.600 |
he believed he did this, the evidence of genuine faith is that they obeyed. 00:36:05.640 |
His salvation didn't come because he worked, he worked because he believed. 00:36:12.600 |
You can't profess faith and then just go home. 00:36:19.040 |
You can't just profess faith and become a member of the church and then just go home 00:36:31.920 |
If you profess and there's no evidence of that, it may not be genuine faith. 00:36:35.480 |
And if you think that you're going to somehow gain righteousness by doing all of this stuff 00:36:40.200 |
and yet thinking that somehow you can earn your righteousness, it's completely unbiblical. 00:36:45.960 |
He's saying, Noah did all of this because he believed and he became an heir. 00:36:56.240 |
It belonged to somebody else and when that person dies, you get it free. 00:37:08.680 |
By faith, he became an heir of righteousness. 00:37:12.200 |
But his faith caused him to build that ark and be a witness for 120 years, telling people 00:37:23.800 |
What's interesting here is out of all those people, now we have no idea how many people 00:37:27.800 |
were there, minimum thousands, hundreds of thousands possibly for 1500 years. 00:37:33.000 |
And remember, each one of these guys lived hundreds and hundreds of years. 00:37:38.440 |
Meaning they could have had hundreds of kids. 00:37:44.680 |
We don't know that for sure, but just how human beings work. 00:37:49.280 |
Out of all those people, eight people got saved. 00:37:58.520 |
That's a pattern that we see all throughout scripture. 00:38:05.600 |
Isaiah 10.21, "A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob, the mighty God." 00:38:15.360 |
Romans 11.5, "In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a 00:38:26.360 |
Romans 9.27, "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the sons of 00:38:30.800 |
Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.'" 00:38:45.200 |
So we don't like to be the first ones to do anything. 00:38:50.020 |
We usually wait until we see if it's acceptable to the community that we belong to before 00:38:58.200 |
We will wait until the masses come together, then we can speak out, then we can walk, then 00:39:11.320 |
Just as he saved the eight among the multitudes, the Bible says that he will do the same at 00:39:17.920 |
In Matthew 7.13-14, "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is 00:39:44.060 |
Cultural Christianity isn't a lesser Christianity. 00:39:52.240 |
And it is so powerful that we can live all our lives jumping through hoops to belong 00:39:58.240 |
to whatever church that you belong to, and yet you never truly followed Christ. 00:40:08.920 |
You know, when we're young, part of the reason why children are cute is because they don't 00:40:15.680 |
think too much about what other people are going to think. 00:40:26.360 |
As soon as they hit puberty, all of a sudden, you know, they're very aware, in fact, hyper 00:40:33.200 |
They'll cut their hair a certain way, wear tight skinny jeans. 00:40:38.280 |
You have to have a certain kind of sunglasses, you have to wear certain brand of shoes, because 00:40:46.640 |
But you know that peer pressure never goes away. 00:40:54.800 |
So in your 20s, you know, you have a certain way because that's what your friends do. 00:40:59.960 |
You do certain things, you get certain jobs, you buy certain houses, you buy certain cars, 00:41:11.320 |
How come the other parents are doing this, and they have this many children, and they 00:41:24.320 |
I spent a lot of time with seniors when I was teaching ESL. 00:41:30.400 |
You would think that at the age of 70 and 80, you know, they're just kind of coasting 00:41:42.320 |
Lot of the comparing they do is, what did their kids give you? 00:41:46.920 |
So they compare the success of their children with other grandparents. 00:41:56.640 |
And so we rise to the expectation of the community that we belong to, but we never break out. 00:42:06.200 |
See, cultural Christianity can be easily explained by psychologists and sociologists. 00:42:14.320 |
Religious people go to church because they need to be comforted. 00:42:19.160 |
They want their children to be taught morals. 00:42:23.800 |
They go to church because they need community. 00:42:27.600 |
Because we live in a society where there isn't any community, so a lot of people go to church. 00:42:31.320 |
So if you happen to run into a non-Christian who is perfectly happy with their family, 00:42:38.800 |
they have community with whatever it is that they have. 00:42:43.320 |
And they feel secure, and they're not worried about death. 00:42:47.120 |
I don't need it, because what they are observing is cultural Christianity. 00:42:53.440 |
And so they'll say, "I don't need the gospel," because they think that's what Christianity 00:42:58.800 |
But the message of the cross and the life that he calls us to makes no sense psychologically 00:43:06.840 |
Jesus took rich fishermen and told them to follow him, and they gave their lives, professing 00:43:16.520 |
that their Savior was resurrected from the dead. 00:43:21.080 |
Apostle Paul, who already was in the top of the world as a Jew, said, "No, now you will 00:43:29.360 |
He already told him, "You're living a nice, comfortable life now, and from the get-go, 00:43:33.360 |
God said, 'I've called you to the Gentiles, and I will show you how much you will suffer 00:43:38.000 |
He told him he was going to suffer for his name's sake. 00:43:48.040 |
The biblical Christianity that Jesus calls us to, there is no psychological, sociological 00:43:53.000 |
answer unless you actually believe that judgment is coming. 00:44:02.840 |
Why would you risk the future of your children? 00:44:06.960 |
See this secular, materialistic world, it makes no sense. 00:44:14.040 |
Either you are crazy, or you actually believe what you profess to believe. 00:44:25.680 |
Because everything in the middle is just cultural sociology. 00:44:31.340 |
You just happen to have a lot of Christian friends. 00:44:34.720 |
You just happen to be raised in a Christian home. 00:44:37.920 |
Your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents happen to be Christians, so you're Christian 00:44:41.920 |
because the easiest thing to do if you grew up in that culture is to remain there. 00:44:48.240 |
So you happen to run into a bunch of Christians, and so they happen to be your best friends. 00:44:53.680 |
So the easiest thing for you to do is to stay in that, and in order to stay in that, you 00:44:58.400 |
just jump through the hoops that they jump through. 00:45:07.080 |
There's a reason why God calls people out into the desert. 00:45:10.260 |
He breaks them away from their community and makes them stay alone with God for a period. 00:45:25.200 |
The sociological aspect of modern Christianity that you and I experience is so powerful that 00:45:33.160 |
it can easily deceive nominal Christians that we hold on to this community for dear life. 00:45:44.240 |
Even when false doctrines are being preached, even as it slips, you hold on to community 00:45:53.500 |
Because what we are following is cultural Christianity and not Christ. 00:46:03.640 |
I learned this when I was younger back in college, and I shared with you because my 00:46:08.600 |
parents moved around so much, there was a longing in my heart to belong somewhere. 00:46:14.060 |
And I couldn't articulate that when I was younger, but I realized that that was what 00:46:24.860 |
And then right when I was confused, puberty hit, you know, junior high school. 00:46:29.400 |
That's why I started getting into a lot of trouble. 00:46:33.020 |
And then in the midst of all of that, I became a Christian. 00:46:37.960 |
And when I became a Christian for the first time in my life, I felt I belonged. 00:46:52.160 |
And so I didn't even realize what was going on in my heart. 00:46:55.080 |
But when that happened, nothing else mattered to me. 00:47:04.720 |
I tried so hard to get on this team and everybody that I knew, instantaneously I lost interest 00:47:09.600 |
because that's not the community that I wanted to be part of. 00:47:21.040 |
But I had to learn because that's the community I wanted to belong to. 00:47:25.540 |
To this day, I have songs memorized in my head that I don't know what it means. 00:47:32.500 |
And then I came to college and there was this campus ministry. 00:47:37.840 |
And my former youth pastor asked me, "Hey, Peter, you want to be disciple?" 00:47:42.080 |
And I was, "Yes, that's the reason why I came to Biola." 00:47:45.660 |
So he started meeting up with me and I didn't realize that he was part of this campus ministry. 00:47:53.760 |
And I joined this ministry and we would have meetings. 00:47:55.520 |
And at that time, I was the youngest guy there and all of my roommates were 10, 12 years 00:48:01.440 |
But I was elated and all of a sudden, it became a thing at Biola. 00:48:06.320 |
Even though it was a very small campus, all of my peers started joining this ministry. 00:48:11.880 |
So even though I was the only one at that time, all of a sudden, six months later, this 00:48:15.520 |
tiny little ministry of like three or four or five people, it grew to about 50. 00:48:23.240 |
And for the first time, not only did I feel like I belonged in God's kingdom there, I 00:48:28.520 |
I never felt that at church, in neighborhood, anywhere. 00:48:35.120 |
You know, have friends to hang out with, you know, leading worship, praying together, evangelizing 00:48:41.120 |
But about eight, nine months later, they all started leaving. 00:48:48.480 |
They started having problems with ministry and then it was no longer the cool thing to 00:48:52.360 |
So as much as they came in all at once, they started leaving all at once. 00:48:58.120 |
And I was so tempted because for the first time, I felt like I belonged somewhere. 00:49:02.440 |
And I got a small taste of what it felt like to belong somewhere. 00:49:16.640 |
And so I was really on the verge of telling my leaders that I'm going to leave. 00:49:26.200 |
And so it was in me that was competing with my loyalty to God and this. 00:49:31.560 |
And I was rationalizing, it's the same thing. 00:49:39.580 |
So I decided that I'm going to give it six months. 00:49:46.320 |
And if I feel the same way after six months, whatever I'm saying like, oh, I got to leave 00:49:51.960 |
If I feel the same way, and this isn't just an emotional tug because I want to belong 00:49:55.480 |
to that group, then in six months, it'll be more clear. 00:49:59.760 |
Sure enough, six months came and it became crystal clear that I needed to stay. 00:50:09.320 |
What I was being challenged by, what I was learning, was greater than any fellowship 00:50:12.840 |
or whatever that I thought I was going to miss in doing that. 00:50:16.160 |
The reason why I tell you this story was because that made such a huge impact in my heart because 00:50:25.120 |
I was already saying, I'm going to give my life and I'm going to follow Christ and I'm 00:50:31.240 |
But that desire to want to belong was so strong that I was rationalizing in my head, I can't 00:50:40.720 |
possibly do this or else I'm going to lose my friends. 00:50:45.600 |
I'm not going to be able to be a part of this community. 00:50:49.440 |
And at the end of all of that, I realized, wow, that pull, that peer pressure is so powerful 00:50:57.480 |
that if I'm not careful, I can live the rest of my life jumping through hoops to try to 00:51:02.280 |
belong somewhere while denying Christ in the name of Jesus. 00:51:13.500 |
The truth will always pull us out of our comfort zone. 00:51:20.320 |
Don't look around to see if your friends are doing it. 00:51:24.000 |
If you have a community of people to do this with. 00:51:28.600 |
First and foremost, do you believe what the Bible says? 00:51:36.440 |
From my experience, if you follow Jesus genuinely, you will experience loneliness that you may 00:51:48.380 |
not have experienced if you weren't a follower of Jesus Christ. 00:51:53.620 |
Some of the most intense feeling of loneliness came after I made a decision to follow Jesus. 00:52:01.640 |
As much as I wanted to belong, as much as I desired to belong, the feeling of being 00:52:09.500 |
isolated was never more intense than after I truly committed my life to Christ. 00:52:22.760 |
He's more to me than anything else in this world. 00:52:42.720 |
Have we sanitized the gospel like the Noah's Ark, where the punch and the power of the 00:52:54.480 |
You've sanitized it to the point where we made a to-do list of things that we do. 00:52:59.760 |
And if you behave this way, if you say certain things, if you go certain places, then I'm 00:53:07.840 |
Yet it does not fit the message of the cross. 00:53:12.120 |
The wrath of God is being revealed against all unrighteousness. 00:53:21.080 |
And all of that, all of everything that we see in the book of Revelation, is actually 00:53:25.800 |
God being merciful so that sinners would see that and repent. 00:53:34.480 |
But when the end comes, there is no more patience, only righteousness. 00:53:43.920 |
And he will divide between those who are covered and those who are not. 00:53:59.440 |
Narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life. 00:54:11.720 |
Do not let peer pressure keep you in nominal Christianity. 00:54:32.080 |
Heavenly Father, we pray that the truth of your word will not just go through one ear 00:54:45.960 |
We pray for men and women who take your warning seriously and embrace the truth of salvation 00:54:55.840 |
That we may live up to the calling, live up to the gospel that you have given us. 00:54:59.480 |
That we may live worthy of what we profess week after week. 00:55:05.360 |
Lord, as you warned us that in the end times, that because of the increase in wickedness, 00:55:17.120 |
Help us, Lord God, that we would not be a part of that many. 00:55:23.520 |
That we would strive to be the few that believe and act. 00:55:30.440 |
That we may also be heirs of righteousness by faith.