Faith Reverences God

Today we continue in our study of the Hall of Faith by considering the example of Noah, the great man of God who built the ark to escape God’s judgment. To see that, let’s begin by reading Heb. 11:7 and the backstory from Genesis 6:1-14. From these two passages, I want you to see two points – the Foundation for Reverence and the Proper Fear of God.

First, see the foundation for reverence. As with the other OT examples we’ve considered so far, there are major questions that come up as we read their stories. With Noah, there is an important question glaring at us – why were Noah and his family spared when the rest of the world was not? At first blush, we might be tempted to answer that Noah was spared because of his “blamelessness”. After all, in Genesis 6:9, we have two clear descriptions of Noah – he was “a righteous man, blameless in his generation.” So, we could read that and think, of course, God spared him because, of all the millions of people alive at the time, Noah was the only one who was blameless. Besides that, we see in verse 22 that Noah “did all that God commanded him.” Noah was obedient to God’s command, and surely that is why God spared him.

But, we have a couple of problems with that answer. For one, we have the general problem of good theology. The testimony of Scripture is that no one is righteous and blameless. Rom. 3:10-11 says that there is none righteous, no not one. And, we know from Noah’s own story that he is not blameless in the way we think. If you go on to Genesis 9, you’ll find that Noah is a drunk who acts in anger to split his family. We also have the problem of Hebrews 11. You’ll notice that the writer of Hebrews doesn’t extol Noah for his virtue or his righteousness. Instead, the writer finds Noah notable for his faith. You find that in Genesis 6 as well. Understand, Noah wasn’t sitting under a lotus tree, pondering the problems of the world, and suddenly came up with the idea to build an ark. The first we ever hear of Noah in this story is in verse 8 – “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” How did Noah know to build an ark? How did he have such perfect dimensions for housing the animals and ensuring its seaworthiness? Because God showed him favor. Noah’s deliverance from the judgment of God was purely an act of God’s grace. Certainly, Noah acted in faith upon receiving that grace to build the ark, but even that was enabled by God’s power. Also, verse 9 gives us the reason Noah was considered righteous and blameless: he walked with God. Just like his grandfather, Enoch, Noah faithfully walked with the Lord. He was not considered blameless because he did good works or lived a perfectly moral life, but because he loved the Lord and set his heart know him.

This leads me to my second point: the proper fear of God. Back in Hebrews 11:7, you’ll notice that Noah’s faith not only motivated him to obey God, but it also motivated him to fear him. Now, fear is such a loaded word in our culture. Most people, when they hear that word, think of a horror movie or a haunted house. You might think of the shock of fear that you get when someone scares you, or the concern and worry you feel when you have an unresolved situation. But that is not what is meant here. The writer also doesn’t mean that God is to be dreaded. This is not the type of fear you might have if you woke up one morning while camping and opened your tent flap to see a grizzly bear standing outside. Rather, this is the type of fear that you might have when interacting with a policeman or soldier. That officer has both the power and the authority to execute justice on you. Should you resist him or disobey, you can fully expect painful consequences. And yet, he is there for your good, and obedience to him should only lead to justice for all involved. You might say that you reverence that police officer because of the authority and power he represents. It is the same with God. God has both the power and authority to execute justice on all of humanity, and it is that exact power and authority that he showed in the flood. Noah, uniquely among all of his generation, reverenced God because of it.

A relationship of faith with the Lord will always lead to a reverence for what he says. This is why I believe that there are far fewer true Christians in America than those who claim the name of Christ. By statistics, 63% of Americans claim to be Christian, but what number of those reverence the Word of God? What number of those would be willing to give up their own desires for the sake of what God says? What number of those are so committed to the Lord that they would give up their whole way of life to follow the call of God? Would you obey the word of God regardless of the scorn of your friends and family? Would you face mockery for 120 years because you fear what God has said?

This faith and reverence in the Lord had two results in Noah’s life. According to Hebrews, this reverent fear of God motivated him to construct the ark, and through that reverence he saved his household. In 1 Pet. 3:20-21, Peter uses Noah’s ark as a metaphor for what happens to us when we are baptized. Just as Noah, by God’s grace, passed through the waters of judgment and was delivered to new life, so too we pass through the waters of baptism, symbolizing our death to our old life, into new life with Christ. In the same way, just as Noah reverenced God and faithfully trusted his deliverance, so too we are called to trust God’s word and wait for deliverance at Christ’s second coming.

Second, the faithful reverence of Noah condemned the world. Can you imagine the scorn and ridicule that Noah received while he built the ark? While I’m sure Noah prophesied and warned his friends and neighbors, he didn’t have to. The construction project alone would have been a testimony in itself. He believed God and worked as others went on with their lives as though no judgment would ever come. So, the writer says that his faithfulness condemned the world. In the same way, our faithfulness condemns the wicked of our present age. They may scoff and scorn our prudish commitment to the word of God. They may hate us as we seek to live righteously before them. And, they will stand condemned in the end because they saw the truth in us, and they rejected it nonetheless. So Paul says, in 2 Cor. 2:15, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance of life to life.”

Friend, judgment is coming. It may be tomorrow or 120 years from now or even 5000, but it will come nonetheless. Repent and reverence the Lord through faith.

Brothers and sisters, Noah serves as an example of faithful reverence for us. It is a heavy task in our day to reverence the Word of God in a world so set against it. But, this is what true faith looks like. And, the witness of Noah should give us hope that God will vindicate us. Our faithfulness will result in our salvation and in the condemnation of the world.