turn with me if you would this evening to Genesis chapter 6 and we'll take as our text verse 22, Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. This evening we are continuing just to look at some of the major events that take place through the Old Testament. We've already seen creation and the fall. We've seen the promise that has been given. And the promise is the seed of the woman. One who would be born, as we saw, of a virgin birth. Really the rest of scripture is interpreting that verse for us. That when you come to the flood, then really what you are seeing there is God preserving the seed of the woman. He preserves the seed of the woman in his destruction of the ungodly, but yet the saving of Noah and his family. And from that new beginning as it were, that regeneration that takes place at the flood the seed of the woman will come who will be the saviour not only of Adam and Eve but will be the saviour of Noah himself. The account of the flood is an incident, part of scripture that even young people, the youngest people here this evening will know and recall Noah and the flood. There are few if any events in the whole of scripture that are equivalent or anything like it, where God's judgment comes upon a whole generation and destroys that whole generation. Indeed When you come to the end of the account, you discover that God gives a sign that indicates that never again would he bring such a flood until the time comes when he will return, Christ will return in judgment. There will never be again such an event. So, in many respects, this is a very unique event in the whole of Scripture. That's why I come to it this evening because you can hardly say that you're going through major events in scripture and not come to the flood and bring out the flood. Last week we saw how there are two lines in scripture. There is the line of Cain and we saw how Cain and his descendants become worldly. They depart from the things of God. very quickly. Indeed it is not only that polygamy is then introduced for the first time, you see that in the line of Cain, it is also that murder, willful murder and almost boasting in murder from one of the descendants of Cain. His father has committed that or his predecessor has committed that and now it is committed again and it's boasted in. On the other side however you have Seth who is the next child of Adam and Eve and you discover that that is the godly line. You come down that line and you have such names as Enoch and we are told that Enoch walked with God. There is the godly line. Then men began to worship the Lord and for all these years Enoch walked with God and he was translated he didn't see death God took him to be with himself and down through that line you would have thought that these two lines would just go their separate ways but that's not very often the case you discover that very soon there is intermarriage you discover that the godly line begins to have intermarriage with the ungodly line, they are unequally yoked. And as is so often the case, godlessness results. Someone may ask you why it is or how it is. Indeed it may be one of the questions that is asked of Noah, just as it can be asked today. How can you believe in a God who could bring such a flood? How can you believe in a God who will bring such judgment? And those who say that are willfully negligent of the fact that when God brought the flood upon the face of the earth, godlessness and rebellion against the Word of God was rife. God's judgment was according to their deserts. They had rebelled against God and to the extent that all you had left was a knower and his family. The rest had rebelled and as it were lifted their fist in the face of God. People forget that. People willfully are negligent of that. When a nation, when a people lift their fist to God it will bring God's judgment. It will bring more of God's judgment. And in Noah's day so it was that there was godlessness and God is therefore justified in bringing his judgment. But let us also see that for a hundred and twenty years God also gave them warning. God gave to them the warning that judgment was coming. That unless they repented and unless they turned from their sins they would all likewise perish. A hundred and twenty years. I think what we would have to say is that God is merciful and long-suffering and slow to wrath. Sometimes in the scripture you will find that God's judgment comes in a moment of time. Uriah put out his hand and touched the cart that with the ark was on it. Immediately God's judgment came upon him. In the day of Noah there was a hundred and twenty years. But yet, however long it was, God's judgment may be slow, but it is sure. And eventually, God's judgment came upon that generation. And there is one man that stands out of the whole of that generation as a man that is given to us for our example, and that is Noah. Noah is given to us as a wonderful example and what John Calvin says is that he is given to us as a wonderful example of the power of faith. The power of faith. The power of faith. True faith, saving faith. Now I want you to notice that even with this man of great power, even with this man who was a man of faith who for 120 years built an ark and yet, yet for all that, Noah was not perfect. Perhaps you wait till the end of the sermon before I say that. Well, I'm not going to say that at the end of the sermon. I'm going to say that now. You see, even after he is saved, you see, and I don't need to go over with you what Noah later does, what his sons covered over his sin and his nakedness. Noah was not perfect. There is only one man who, since the fall, and he has not come by natural generation, there is only one man who is perfect and who keeps the law perfectly, who does everything perfectly, who satisfies the law perfectly. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. and even Noah himself was someone who trusted in the Lord. He had to take animals into the ark, not just to preserve the future of these various kinds of animals, but he also had to take animals that were to be used as sacrifice, pointing forward to the one who would be the true saviour, the one who would truly save his people from their sins, the true ark into which sinners can go, the true saviour to which a man who is a demoniac may run to. We saw him this morning, a man that had an evil spirit in the tombs, hurting himself, killing himself among dead tombs and dead bodies. A man that no one could tame, he couldn't tame himself, but Jesus was able to do it. Jesus was there, he could come and run to Jesus, even as he was, even with these evil spirits still in him, he could run to Jesus and Jesus would bless him. And Jesus just doesn't cast out the spirits, he puts something else in there. He gives him his grace. He gives him his grace. Well, Noah, in the days, in Genesis chapter 6, Noah points us forward, even there, to the seed of the woman. To the one who would be the true sacrifice. And it's wonderful when you come to look at Noah and his faith. And Noah builds an ark. It's wonderful, isn't it? He builds an ark. 120 years of building an ark and he's preaching. And then the rain starts to come and the ditch starts to swell up with water and he gets into the ark and the place is totally flooded. People are destroyed. It's wonderful what Noah's done, isn't it? Well, think about this. If you think it's wonderful what Noah did, getting into the ark in the midst of that storm, Think of the Lord Jesus Christ who stood in the face of the storm and told the storm to be still and to be silent. The Lord Jesus Christ did something that Noah could never do. Noah as a man could build an ark. Noah as a man could go into that ark. God could close the door on the ark behind Noah. But Noah And nobody else in Noah's day could stand in front of the rain that started coming down or the swellings of the deep. Nobody could stop that. Nobody could quench the flood that was coming. All that Noah could do was to go in the ark. But Jesus is asleep in a boat. And while he's asleep in the boat, a storm arises. Such a storm that These fishermen that are experienced fishermen are crying out for their lives. Maybe they are going to drown the same way as the people in Noah's day. But Jesus stands up and he says, peace be still, be muzzled. There is no storm going to harm my disciples. So you see here Noah and he begins to build an ark. Now why does Noah build an ark? What is the grounds of the faith of Noah? If we have faith, whatever we believe, you must have grounds for your believing, for your faith, for what you believe. The Christian faith is not just blind faith. People would like you to think that the Christian religion is blind faith. Go in there blindly. Blind faith! That's what you need to have as a Christian. That's not true. The Christian of all people, of all Christians have grounds for their faith. And Noah has grounds for his faith. The best grounds of all. And later on Paul tells us what that is, doesn't he? When in Hebrews chapter 11 and at verse 7 he says, Noah be warned of God. That's the grounds of Noah's faith. He's been warned of God. What better What better grounds can a person have for his faith, for God to say to him, there is a flood coming, and you better prepare. What better grounds does the Christian have today for his faith in Christ, than what God has told us in His Word. God told Noah, there is a flood coming, but you build an ark, and you and your family will be saved. What better grounds do you have today for your faith than the word of God? Not the word of man, not the word of a church, not the word of a pope or a priest or anything else, but the word of God. There is the grounds for your faith. It was the ground upon which Noah built the ark. because God had warned him of what was to come. Now we must always be building upon the Word of God. And the promises that God has given to us in his Word. There's where true faith rests. And that faith of Noah that was rested and grounded upon the Word of God being warned of God, of things not yet seen, built an ark. That was the faith, that was faith that lasted. That's the faith that was strong. That was the faith that was able to last for 120 years. That was the faith that took Noah into the ark and that was the faith that at the end of the day Noah had for that 120 years. God had warned him of things. And that was despite the distance of time that he had to maintain that faith. Some people, you see, they have a temporary faith. A faith that only lasts for a short time. Why? Because it's not grounded and rooted in the love of God in Christ. If you have faith that's rooted and grounded in the love of God in Christ, then that's faith that will last and persevere unto the end. Because Noah had been warned of God himself, it went for 120 years. I think when you look at Noah, he had no other evidence in which to base his faith. He had nothing else in which he could trust. There was no evidence to support that faith other than the fact that God had told him it was true. Is that describing your faith? You believe that there is a judgment day. You believe that one time Christ will return and He will judge the quick and the dead. You believe in glory and heaven, the Father's house. You believe in hell. Not because the world believes it. Not because a church even believes it. You believe it because God has told you. God has told you there is a heaven and a hell. God has told you there is only one Saviour and you must prepare for that day. God has forewarned you there is only one ark into which you must come. Not only was it the case that in Noah's day that there was no other evidence that he could, that would be for him to put his trust in this. Not only was it that there was no other evidence, but all the evidence that was there appeared to be to the contrary. All the evidence that was in front of his eyes said the very opposite. After all, had there ever been a flood before? Had anything of this nature ever happened in the world before this? No. One day followed another day, one season followed another season, one year followed another year, and it was all uniformity. Never before had there been such a flood. So why should there be one now? would appear to be to the contrary. And not only that, Noah was swimming against the tide of popular opinion. Because popular opinion didn't say that in 120 years time there was going to be a flood. Nobody believed such a thing. His neighbours, his friends, those around him, they never believed that there was going to be such a flood. But Noah did. And in order for Noah to swim against the tide, In order for Noah to stand in a day in which people denied such a thing, he would have to have good grounds for that belief. And the ground was, he'd been warned of God. It's as simple as that. It doesn't matter what the vast majority of people in our country say, what do you believe? Do you believe what a majority in a nation say? Well you might believe that when it comes to a vote or a referendum on independence. You might say a majority will say this or a majority will say that. And that is what we go along with. But when it comes to whether there is a judgement day coming, we don't put that up to vote for the people. God has said there is a judgement day coming. Do we believe the word of man or do we believe the word of God? That's what it boils down to. It's not only even that the majority of people didn't believe it. It's that they would actually ridicule this man Noah for what he believed. They would think him rather simple. full of notions about a judgment day, about floods and people going to be... and he starts to build an ark. So it's not only that he doesn't have any evidence other than the word of God, the evidence is to the contrary. People don't believe it and people will actually ridicule him for it. Things don't really change all that much, do they? Times don't change. We move on from Noah's day, we move on to the 21st century and you find the same things are apparent even in our own day. I remember once an email that I got and it was a wee bit Nippy put it that way. And when I responded to him, I pointed out to him that there's a judgment day and that we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Well, if I did. If simply telling them the gospel was bad, that was offensive. He ridiculed The idea that there's a judgment day. Things don't change. Times don't change, you see. How are you today to live in a world, live in a society that will not just not believe the gospel, not believe what the Bible says, but will actually ridicule the Christian? How are you to live in such a day? It's by having your faith grounded. on the fact of what God has said in his word Noah being warned of God and it's the work of faith as well not just being grounded in the word of God But here was Faith that got up and was active. He built an ark. What a great work that was. You would think on the ark 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits which is about 450 feet by 75 feet by 45 feet. It was a massive boat in its day. I think in one of the prayer meetings they said that there had never been a vessel, there has never until the 19th century, there had never been a vessel that had been built in this size. but that great work was the work of faith. Faith that is grounded upon the word of God and what God has said is able to do great things. We've all read of missionaries and ministers of the gospel and Christians who have done mighty things because of their faith. They have been moved by faith to do mighty things, to do wonderful things. They've changed nations. The disciples themselves overturned Jerusalem and they turned the place upside down. Why? By their faith. They were cast into prison, left in the deepest prison and they sang Psalms. Why? Because of their faith. because of their faith. The Apostle Paul, a small, diminutive kind of man, not a man that is great in speech or anything else. He goes into the Areopagus and there he is. All the great philosophers of the day. And he goes in and he speaks. He brings Christ before them. He takes the gospel into Turkey, and goes through Cyprus, and up into Turkey, and round, and back again, and now out into Corinth, and to Philippi, and Thessalonica, taking it right into Rome itself, taking it right to Caesar. Why? Faith. Such faith that's grounded upon the Word of God. How many discouragements the Apostle Paul had, didn't he? Discouragements on so many different sides. He says that himself, doesn't he? And yet, what faith? Faith is grounded upon the truth. He says, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. I can do all things. I appeal unto Caesar. I want to go before Caesar, because Caesar needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. When he leaves Ephesus, they say, don't go. Don't go. Do you know what's going to happen to you there? Are you not fearful for your life? going to roam itself. The faith that does mighty things. Missionaries that have gone in to places in order to take the gospel at the cost sometimes of their lives. Why? Faith. The power of faith. It's the power of that faith that enabled Noah for 120 years to build an ark. Long duration, great work. And he didn't spare anything, did he? For that 120 years he was spent and being spent and everything he had, all his substance. I wonder what it cost Noah to build that ark. I wonder how much it cost him. It cost him a lot of time. It must have cost him a lot of money. He couldn't have done it on his own. If he had, he would have to, and at that time he would have had to have gone and he would have had to have got the materials and bringing it all together. But he didn't spare anything. Ananias and Sapphira. Why is it that you lied to the Holy Ghost and kept back part? Why? If you had faith, if you had that faith, Noah spared nothing. For all that time, whatever it cost him, it was true faith. It doesn't count that cost. Why? Because faith that's grounded upon the truth of God, the promises of God, is faith that is powerful. Powerful. And what happened? It was faith that he was moved with fear. How can you have fear in faith? Well there is that sense in which perfect faith casteth out fear, and perfect love casteth out fear, and there is a sense in which John Calvin says, here is faith that rests upon the promises, but here is also faith at fear that looks to the judgment. And he had such faith, and he had such a fear and reverence of God in his own day, The result was that he condemned the world. His very living and his very faith condemned the world. It was the ark really that condemned the world, wasn't it? By it, the ark, he condemned the world. But the ark was the work of his hand. The outcome of Noah's faith was an ark. Woe folly! People saying to themselves, woe folly, in the middle of a dry place, in the middle of a place that this will never sail. But by it he condemned the world. By it he condemned the world. My friend, Your faith and the work of your faith is a testimony before the world of the grace of God in Christ. If you have faith that is based upon what God has told you in his word, and if your faith is a faith that is working, Because if it's not working then it's not true faith. Faith that doesn't work is not true saving faith. Show me thy faith without thy works and I'll show thee my faith by my works. And such faith that rests and trusts upon what God has said is a condemnation to the world. You might not think that. And I'm sure as Noah was there working away, time day after day after day, year after year, building this ark, he's saying to himself, well, God has told me to do this. Every single nail that went in, every strap of wood, whatever it was that went onto it, condemning the world. And what was the condemnation? It was the condemnation that the world was not listening to what God is saying. It's not that they weren't listening to what Noah had to say. Who cares what Noah has to say? Who cares what Noah has to say? It's what God has said. And that's their condemnation. That their ears were deaf to what God was saying. That a judgment was coming. Peter takes up that very thing, doesn't he? When he says, today, he says, they willfully neglect and forget the fact that one time God brought a flood upon the face of the earth and they willfully neglected it then and today they equally willfully neglect what God has said. Who cares whether they listen to what I say? Who cares whether they listen to what you say? But surely it's important that they would have ears to hear what God has said. and your very faith. The faith of the believer stands as a condemnation to every single person in this country, every individual in Edinburgh. When a man of faith is seen and his labours are a labour of love to the Lord Jesus Christ, what a condemnation to the world whose ears are deaf. to the voice of God. But there's a two-fold aspect, you see, to Noah's faith. Because Noah's faith is very powerful. It's a powerful faith. It's such a powerful faith that he builds an ark, and as that ark is going up, as that ark is building, it's condemning the world But it's a testimony to something else. It's a testimony to the fact that he becomes an heir of the righteousness of God by his reign. God imputes righteousness to Noah. That's why I began, not waiting until the end, when Noah actually sins but right at the beginning we saw despite the fact that Noah has such powerful faith he has such a powerful testimony and witness in his own day yet Noah is a sinner but yet he becomes an heir of the righteousness which is by faith however and whatever However Noah may fail, however we may fail, whatever sins we may have, however these sins are ever before our eyes, yet here's the power of faith. Not only and not principally even that it condemns the world, but he becomes an heir. of the righteousness of God. He's right with God. And that's powerful. That's powerful. He's right with God. He saves himself. He saves his family. And every believer in this world. Every believer in this room, every believer that has faith, and you might say to yourself, well I don't have the faith that Noah has. I don't have the faith that he had to build an ark, to do all of that, my friend. If you have faith, even that small faith, even the smallest faith, that faith, achieves much, because you're an heir of glory. If you trust in Christ, if you're trusting and resting upon Him and on Him alone, as you have been commanded in the Word, then it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what you've done. You can be like that man, demon possessed. And when he sees Jesus afar off, he runs to him. And who's running with him? Or who's running in him? But the demons. And the man comes to Jesus and bows to Jesus and the demons are still there. And it's Jesus that cleanses him. It's Jesus who makes him free. Arise. Then you see him sitting at the feet of Jesus fully clothed and in his right mind. My friend, there are those in Noah's day that would say about Noah, this man is off his mind. Do you know Noah was the only one that was in his right mind? Because he listened to God. The rest of them were off their mind. And the only one people today who are in the right minds are those who are listening to God and are trusting in His Son Jesus Christ. When it came to the flood Noah went into the ark and we're told that it must have been some door because God closed the door and Noah was safe. He had the promises of God He had the Word of God. By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things yet not seen, things that were yet to come, he built an ark to the saving of his house. And by it, he became an heir, an heir of the righteousness of God by faith. So it is that every believer whose faith is grounded in the right place, then that's faith that's powerful. It's faith that will persevere. It's faith that will condemn the world. And it's faith that will leave an air of glory itself. Let us pray. Most gracious and ever-blessed Lord, we thank Thee for Thy mercies and Thy goodness to us this day. Bless us as we part the one from the other. Bless us, we pray Thee, in the days that are to come that we would rest upon the Lord. Go before us now, and may we have that faith that is powerful. May it be a faith that would even build an ark, a faith that works, a faith that perseveres despite all that there is in the world. that would speak against it. Pardon us all our sins for Jesus.