ILLUS: Last Sunday I said the world say “seeing is believing” but the word of God say “Believing is seeing”.
1.
Abraham believed in God.
2.
He left everything behind to do God’s will.
3.
He sacrificed things of this age for the things of the
age to come
4.
He exchanged the homeland for the unknown.
5.
He went where God asked him to go.
6.
He submitted to sacrifice, in obedience to faith, the
son of the promise.
7.
He awaited the coming city of God.
a.
Abraham had to leave his home as there his faith was
in danger. If he continued there he would have been serving the God’s of his
father not the creator of the universe. The demand of leaving his paternal home
and moving to an uncertain place was his first proof of faith, one he overcame
(Gen 12). Some of us are here today but we have not abandon the old home. We
still talk and do rituals, we still send money home for sacrifices and some
even carry their children home for those things. Where is your faith? Some of
you say things are not going well, we need to go home. While home you accept
every kind of thing because you want things to go well. Abraham did not return
to his old mess. His children did not return, even though they were leaving in
tents as wanderers they trusted the Lord and that is why Isaac and Jacob are
recorded as those who had part in Abraham’s heritage.
b.
Lot had to abandon Sodom, the land he chose when he
was separating from Abraham. He abandon Sodom to avoid being exterminated with
it (Gen 19)
c.
Joseph had to leave his paternal home because only in
this way could he be transformed into a useful tool in God’s hands. (Gen
37:19-36). If the brothers did not sell him into Egypt, he would not have been
governor in Egypt to fulfill the promise of God in his dream. Perhaps if he
stayed behind the brothers would have finally killed him as they hated him the
dreamer.
Abraham submitted to
sacrifice in obedience to Faith. Some of us say we have faith but we cannot
sacrifice our money, our time, ourselves to fellowship with God. Abraham
sacrificed his animals and even obeyed to sacrifice his only son of the promise
because of obedience to faith. If you are not sacrificing anything for the
Lord, then your faith is dead; there is no obedience in your faith.
Abraham waited for the
coming city of God, the glorious city (Rec 21:10-27). It is our eternal and
permanent kingdom (2 Pet 1:11).
That coming city is a
beautiful home and paternal house (John 14:2). That is where our Father lives;
the one who nourishes us, the one who protects and upholds us. That is
paradise; the place of rest; a homeland (Heb 11:14-16).
Are you preparing for
the homeland? While I have invested outside my village, I still think of
investing home with the hope that I will go home one day. What about heaven our
eternal home? Abraham lived like a traveler, tourist on earth because his faith
was directed towards heaven. We can only invest in our heavenly home by our
obedience in faith to God. If we are not obedient to our faith, it just shows
that we had no faith at all. The obedience is seen in what we do everyday and
how we live everyday whether we are doing what God expects of us or not.
Men of faith are men:
1.
Of prayer, like Elijah (Jam 5:17)
2.
Workers, like Noah. People who believe and do.
3.
Obedient, like Abraham
4.
Pleasant to God, like Enoch
I encourage you to develop
the courage
-
To live a life that pleases God, like Enoch
-
To work for God in the middle of mockery, like Noah
The foundation of Noah’s faith was
the gracious warning of God. Noah believed in the coming judgement. The Bible says
they were things not seen; but he moved with fear, prepared an ark to save his
house and by that action he condemned the world.
While Noah was building the ark in the area where no one ever believed
they could have abundant water not to talk of flood, people mocked at him. But the motivating force of his faith was the fear of the
Lord. What is your motivating force in the kingdom walk? Is it your money,
salary, acclamation from people, pride? If the force behind your faith is not
the fear of the Lord, then you cannot be consistent like Noah in the mist of
mockery.
Faith without works is dead. Faith must have an
action, if you say you have faith but you are not acting then you have no
faith. Noah’s action was his obedience and he built the ark.
When you act by faith in obedience to
the Lord, there is always a result. Noah’s result of his faith was the
salvation of his family. What is the result of your faith? Are you having any
results?
Faith always have a testimony. Do you have a
testimony of your faith? Noah had a testimony of his
faith and that was the condemnation of
the world. So the reward of Noah’s faith was that he became heir of
justice.
NOAH’s FAITH WITNESSES TO A LOST
GENERATION.
Noah teaches us the third
principle of a life of faith:
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared
an Ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and
became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”(v7).
“When the Divine longsuffering
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few,
that is, eight souls, were saved through water” (1Peter 3:20).
“God did not spare the ancient
world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly” (2Peter 2:5).
Noah has a good faith-report
from God because believing that God’s judgement was coming, he was concerned
for the salvation of the lost. He gave his life for the work of the Lord -
by
(1)
WITNESSING (despite the ridicule and hostility against him),
and
(2) by BUILDING AN ARK in
obedience to God which was a PLACE OF SAFETY and SALVATION for the
lost to come into and be saved (which also served as an amazing visual-aid
getting people’s attention so when they asked about it he could witness to
them, which would only have increased the attacks against him). By
giving them God’s Word and providing a place of salvation for them Noah removed
all their excuses for rejecting God. In this way he ‘condemned the world.’
Noah is a type and example for New-Testament believers, especially for us who
live in the generation just before the Rapture.
Jesus said: "As
the days of Noah were, so also will the Coming of the Son of Man be. For as in
the days before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the Ark, and did not know until
the Flood came and took them all away, so also will the Coming of the Son of
Man be (for at the Rapture believers will disappear from view as Noah did
and this will be followed immediately by the Flood of the Tribulation).
Then two men will be in the
field: one (the believer) will be taken (in the
Rapture) and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill:
one (the believer) will be taken (in the Rapture) and the
other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief
would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming (like a thief
comes unannounced with the world in darkness to take the precious things (the
believers) from the earth) at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew
24:37-44).
To the world Jesus will come
in the Rapture as a thief in the night, but He is only taking what belongs to
Him. In this comparison the world-wide judgements of the Tribulation are
likened to Noah’s Flood. The unbelieving world continues as if there was no
God, and believers (like Noah) must witness to them, warning of the coming
judgement and telling them of God’s way of salvation.
But to be like Noah we also have to help build the Ark. This corresponds today to building the Church.
The Ark is firstly a type of Christ - the place of protection and salvation, for
those in the Ark are protected from judgement and enter into a new-life.
But secondly the Church, the body of Christ, is also
called Christ because
we are in (union with) Him. Therefore the Ark serves
also as a picture of the Church.
Like Noah, our work for the Lord involves building the
Church, working to build a strong united community of love and acceptance,
where people can come and be saved. By faith
we know the Lord will judge the wicked but will save the righteous, removing
them from judgement in the Rapture.
Therefore we must warn people of sin and judgement and
provide them a place of salvation. All who believe and come into the Ark
(Christ & His Church) will be raptured before judgement falls.
As God removed Noah to safety before the Flood, showing His pleasure with his
faith, so God will remove believers in the Rapture before the Judgements of the
Tribulation will fall. In fact the last sign the world will have before the
Tribulation (the Day of the Lord) is the disappearance (removal) of believers
who are lifted up high above the floods of judgement. But before God does
this we must make the best use of the remaining time
to witness of God’s grace and judgement and to build God’s Ark
(the Church) so people have a place they can come and be saved and come
under God’s shelter and provision, a place where they can dwell in His Presence
with His people rather than living spiritually under the world-system.
So Noah teaches us that a man
of real faith will
(1) witness to a world that will often reject his message,
and (2) build the Church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:16-19).
So, a Biblical Christian
must be committed to his local Church.
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