Noah: By Faith Saved His Household

Throughout the New Testament we find warnings from Christ and His apostles of an impending judgement. Frequently, this coming judgement is compared to the Flood that destroyed the world during the time of Noah. This is most clearly seen in the two letters Peter wrote. In 2 Peter 3 we find these words:

2 Peter 3:1–7 ESV

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

The first thing I want you to notice is that this warning of a Final Judgement comes to us from Christ by the prophetic words of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. This is not an obscure doctrine, but rather one that is well attested in both Testaments.

Second, people don’t take it seriously, they even mock it. Why is this warning so easily dismissed? It is because it has been so long in coming and they forget that God has already destroyed the world in judgement in the time of Noah. Moreover, they forget something else...

2 Peter 3:8–9 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Because God is eternal He does not view time as we do. To us a thousand years is a long time, to God it is nothing, but what is something to God are the souls of the elect. God will not usher in His Final Judgement until every soul predestined for salvation comes to repentance and faith. In Ephesians 1:4, Paul says God has loved and chosen the elect before the foundation of the world. Therefore, we can be assured that He will not bring an end to this world until each and every person whose name is written the Lamb’s Book of Life is saved.

However, we don’t know when that Day will be. Perhaps someone listening to this sermon today will repent and believe in Christ because they hear this warning. That person could be the last person predestined for salvation. If they are, this service will end not with the benediction, but with “the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord.” (1 Thess 4:16-17)

When that happens, this is what will happen to those who are “left behind”:

2 Peter 3:10 ESV

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

As in the days of Noah, there will be no second chance. If your family is not in the Ark that God has provided there will be no place to escape the fires of God’s judgement, but God has provided an Ark, a safe place for your family.

Like Noah, God Has Given You a Way of Saving Your Family

The New Testament clearly links Christ and the Ark. Peter say this in his first letter...

1 Peter 3:20–22 ESV

because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Peter makes it clear that it is not the mere mechanical act of baptism that saves, because he says, “not as a removal of dirt from the body,” meaning that the passing of water over the body does not cleanse anyone. Baptism “saves” because it is a sign and seal of the cleansing power of Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is a “sign” pointing to the reality of Christ. Baptism is a “seal” guaranteeing us that if we place our faith in Christ we will be united to Christ in the saving effects of His death and resurrection.

It is faith in Christ that a father must build, just as Noah built the Ark in “reverent fear.”

This brings us to the application question:

Like Noah, Will You Respond in Faith?

Since our text is only one verse, let us look at it again:

Hebrews 11:7 ESV

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

What is the first response in faith by Noah? Reverent fear!

In our church culture today, neither reverence nor fear are very popular. But in the Bible both reverence of God and the fear of God are the marks of true godliness and true religion. If you truly believe that God is the type of God Scripture says He is the first response you will have is reverent fear! Where you see a lack of “reverent fear” you see a person who really doesn’t believe in the God of the Bible.

Noah heard God’s warning of impending judgement and he responded with “reverent fear.” In this sermon today, I have clearly proclaimed to you God’s warning of a second and Final Judgement of this world. This judgement will come suddenly and will come unexpectedly. Do you believe this?

If you do you will build and Ark for your family—that Ark is Christ! This responsibility is particularly given to fathers.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

When Paul writes, “the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” he has in mind God’s commandment to fathers found in Deuteronomy 6:1-9. Let me read from verse 7:

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

It takes discipline and commitment to excel at anything in life. Isn’t it interesting that parents will “discipline” their children to go to school each day and to practice the piano or some sport, but when it comes to religious instruction there is little or no disciplined instruction.

Faith in Christ is not like a virus that you catch just from being in the room with other Christians. Through out study of the book of Hebrews the author of Hebrews has pointed us time and time again to the negative example of the children of Israel and their unbelief. If anything is caught like a virus it is unbelief!

Faith in God is the most difficult endeavor a person can engage in. In fact, apart from the miracle of regeneration a person cannot have faith.

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

If this is the case fathers, why should we presume the Lord will work the miracle of regeneration in the hearts of our children if we do not “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord”?

So fathers, be like Noah, in reverent fear build up Christ as the Ark for your family.

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