Well, let's return in our Bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 and then verse 7. Hebrews the 11th chapter, the 7th verse. By faith, Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. And let us pray. Father, again, we thank you for just the opportunity to be together as a people of God in these moments. I would pray for the help of your Holy Spirit in bringing forth your blessed Holy Word to honor thyself, but also to truly do good to the souls of each one that is here this morning. I pray that you might be pleased to help us to behold blessed things out of your Word. Pray that it would reflect the truth of Holy Scripture and that you would cause it to increase our own devotedness to thee, our own love for thee, and deepen our walk with you. And so we just commit this time to you and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll be looking at this great chapter of Heroes of the Faith, Hebrews chapter 11. In verses 1 through 7, there are three examples, and the common features among them, that is Abel and Enoch and Noah, is they lived very long lives. And the time frame was before the flood, and in the case of Noah, during the flood and even after the flood. Abel is a great example of faith because he offered a sacrifice that was better than Cain's. And Enoch's example is unique in that, like Elijah, he didn't experience death. He was taken up, translated directly, to be with God. His faith is to be imitated because he walked with God at least for 300 years. The example of Noah is probably much more known than these other characters like Abel and Enoch. A large section of scripture is found where he is the preeminent person. Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9. He's the predominant person that is showcased there. He's mentioned in 5 and 10 of Genesis. In the Old Testament, in addition to that, references made to him in 1 Chronicles 1-4 and Isaiah 54-9 and Ezekiel 14-14 and 14-26. Jesus makes reference to him in Matthew and Luke. And the Apostle Peter writes of him in both 1 and 2 Peter. And moreover, the biblical account of Noah and the ark and the flood I think is probably much more known generally among people that don't even read the Bible very much or don't even come to church. Most have probably heard of Noah and the ark and the flood. There are many religious and educational organizations that use its name as a symbol of sanctuary or new beginnings. The Ark is a frequent subject in art and music and literature. Various businesses and commercial enterprises, even bookstores and toy stores, use the name. There's been many excursions to Mount Ararat to try to find evidence of the existence of the Ark. I don't want to say that it's been found in Kentucky, but you can go there and see the Ark, as some of you know. The Ark encounter is there. Some of you folks have been there. It looks like it'd be a really good place to go and actually see the Ark and experience it in a first-hand way. Our purposes is that Noah is another example of faith. Philip Hughes notes that the conduct of Noah illustrates and confirms the definition of faith given in verse 1. the assurance of things hoped for, that's his own salvation, and the conviction of things not seen, which would be the judgment of the flood, founded as it was on his confidence in the word which he had received from God. He also illustrates for us the principle that's brought out in verse 6, of chapter 11 without faith, it's impossible to be pleasing to God. And Noah was pleasing to God because he did have faith, and that was demonstrated by his obedience in constructing the ark and staying with that until it was completed. And so we see here a commendation of his faith for our benefit in at least three respects. I think I'll confine myself to two of those this morning. In the first place, first of all, I want you to notice the ground or the basis of his faith. And it is the warning he receives from God. By faith, Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen. This fits in with a description of faith in verse one about faith being things that are not yet seen. The Puritan John Owen wrote, both parts of this divine warning were things not yet seen. Therefore the apostle saith they were not yet seen, namely the flood and the saving of himself in the ark. They were not seen when Noah was warned about them. Wherefore, it was a pure act of faith in Noah to believe that which he had no evidence for, but by divine revelation. To warn, as you know, is the idea to give notice of approaching or probable danger of evil that it may be avoided or averted. It's to caution against anything that may prove to be injurious. And under this first heading I would have you notice five features of this warning that he First of all, and most basically, its content. What is it that Noah was warned about? And the most obvious answer to that, it was the certainty of a worldwide flood. Let me just read to you from the book of Genesis, some verses from Genesis chapter 6, verse 6. The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. And the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky. I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. And behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth. And behold, I, even I, am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish." So there's the content of the warning, the coming destruction, the coming flood. Secondly, notice the action which this warning required on the part of Noah, basically it's to build an ark. And let me just read to you some of the divine instructions that he receives. This is also, excuse me, from Genesis chapter six. He's told, make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You should make an ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it. The length of the ark, 300 cubits, its breadth, 50 cubits, and its height, 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top, and set the door of the ark and the side of it. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I, even I, am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life. from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your wives with you." So it's a massive structure. One commentator indicated the ark was not designed for beauty or speed. These dimensions provided extraordinary stability and the tumultuous floodwater. Cubit was about 18 inches long, making the arc 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high. Keeping in mind a football field is 100 yards long, 300 feet long. So it's 300 feet long plus another half of the football field. So a gigantic box of that size would be very stable in the water. The volume of space in the Ark was 1.4 million cubic feet, equal to the capacity of 522 standard railroad boxcars, which could carry 125,000 sheep. It had three stories, each 15 feet high. Each deck was equipped with various rooms. Pitch was a resin substance to seal the seams and the cracks in the wood. Thirdly, the Ark The authority behind the warning is God himself. That is, the warning has power because God himself is going to accomplish what he has to say in the content of the warning. Now, fourthly, the nature of this warning about the coming destruction of the world afforded Noah an opportunity to preach the gospel. John Owen wrote, there's no doubt, but that before and while he was building the ark, He was urgent with mankind to call them to repentance by declaring the promises and threatenings of God. Philip Hughes says his memory is revered because of the boldness with which he challenged the unrighteous generation of his day to repent and put their faith in God and warn them that if they continued abdurate divine judgment would overtake them. I think those sentiments are reasonable conclusion just based on a combination of some verses, let me share these with you. In 2 Peter 2 and verse 4, it says, for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and then 2 Peter 2, 5, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserve Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others when he brought of flood upon the world of the ungodly." So Noah is presented as a preacher of righteousness. Excuse me. And Peter also writes of him in 1 Peter 3, verse 19, beginning with verse 18, Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God. Having been put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit, in which he also, that is Jesus, went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison." And verse 20 says, who once, that is the spirits now in prison, that were once disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water. So the proclamation to the spirits now in prison takes place during the time that Noah is constructing the ark. Now, there's some debate about the identity of the spirits here. The Greek term translated spirits can refer to angels or it can refer to human beings, depending on the context. What makes the most sense to me is the spirits that are being made proclamation to. These are unsaved people in Noah's day. It fits the timeframe. So Christ, who is referred to in verse 18, is the one who is making proclamation to the spirits in Noah's day. Now, it's legitimate to conclude, I believe, that it was the Spirit of Christ working through Noah, as he did in the prophets that are mentioned in chapter 1 and verses 10 and 11. So 1 Peter 1, 10 and 11 says, as to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that follow. To know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. So the Spirit of Christ was speaking through the Old Testament prophets about his own sufferings in the future and his own glory to follow. So my understanding, it was the spirit of Christ speaking through Noah during the time of the construction of the ark. But the hearers were disobedient to the message of the preacher of righteousness. And they are now suffering judgment. Their spirits now in prison. They are confined like the rich man that we read about in hell in Luke chapter 16. We can add, and this is not in the context, this is not in the Bible, but I have to suggest to you, kind of knowing human nature, I would suggest that Noah would not have been involved in this construction project very long before somebody would have come up to him and said, what are you doing? I know like if Carol and I are driving around and you see an area of woods that is cleared. Maybe not the first question, but a question is, what are they going to build here? If there's construction downtown, there's just a foundation, what are they going to put in here? And so it's legitimate to conclude that he wouldn't have been involved in this construction project very long before somebody would have come along and said, what are you building here? Now, that would be a perfect pathway on Noah's part into the gospel. Whatever he says is going to be helpful in terms of the gospel. I'm building this large boat because God is going to destroy the world because of the sin of the world and you need to repent. That's what I'm up to here. Then in the fifth place, the warning which Noah received from God was commensurate with his character. The warning that Noah received from God corresponded to the character of the being of God. That is, God always acts in a way that's reflective of his person. There's more than this, but let me just isolate two of his perfections in this context. One, I think, would be his holiness. The content of the warning is simply a display of the holiness of God. It's his reaction against the sin of man. In chapter six and verse seven, the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, to birds of the sky, for I'm sorry that I have made them. And now the earth, verse 11 of chapter six, now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Genesis 6, 13, then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. And behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth." So the activity of God in destroying the earth was a revulsion to his holy nature against the prolific sin that was going on on the part of man. And we see in light of that also this warning, there's also a display of his patience. So we see his holiness in action, but also his patience in action. He could have destroyed the entire world in a moment, but according to Well, how long is kind of a side question, how long. Did it take Noah to build the ark? John Owen says 120 years. John Calvin says 120 years. Some believe 100 years. More recent commentators say 75 years. So I'm just gonna pick 120 years. Not because it's the only thing out there, but to me that's the simplest understanding of Genesis chapter six and verse three. If you see that differently, I won't quibble about that. But he's working on this project for a long time. And he's encouraging men and women to take heed to the warning. And then 1 Peter 3, 20 says, who once were disobedient, it says, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons were brought safely through the water. So I think it's really the same for people in all ages. God gives men and women time to respond to the gospel, and there's a process of hearing it, but the time is limited. And so the Bible says, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he was near. Time is always fleeting, the opportunities is always diminishing. So we see God's holiness, but we also see God's patience and giving them occasion to repent and come to Christ. But his spirit will not always strive with man forever. He gives all a window of opportunity to believe on Christ, but that doesn't last forever. So in the first place, we see the basis of his faith is the warning that he received from God. Then secondly, I want you to notice the expression or the demonstration of this faith. The text says, in reverence, he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household. That's the demonstration of his faith. To prepare is to build or to construct. And this is obedience to God's warning. This is faith in action. Now, since the demonstration of his faith is obedience to God, I would have you notice three or four characteristics about this obedience. And this is a little bit of overlap to what I mentioned under the first heading. But first of all, his obedience, notice it's marked by reverence. The text says, in reverence he prepared an ark. The King James Version says, moved with fear. The ESV, in reverent fear. And this reverent fear corresponds to the nature of his calling. It fits with what he's called to do. Recall in Genesis 6.13, then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. And behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. The ark that he would labor to build for so many years was a means of salvation for some, but it was a sign of destruction for most and for many. And John Owen, excuse me, writes about this disposition. He says, it's a reverence for God mixed with a dreadful apprehension of approaching judgment. Seeing God by faith under his representation of him, he was filled with a reverent fear of God. So realizing this activity was so closely aligned with the destruction of the unrepentant led him not to be flippant or not to be not levity, but sobriety and reverence. That was his tone. That was his demeanor. Oh, it makes a point. This is what drove him and stirred him on to obedience. And we can add also this disposition of of reverence, not lightheartedness as it relates to the conveying of the gospel, that that's pleasing to God. That's the right way to communicate the gospel because it reveals an apprehension of the gravity of the issues that are involved. Before we've made mention of the preaching of the apostles in the Acts of the Apostles and in the New American Standard, you see a repetition of the phrase, they solemnly testified. Peter in Acts chapter two and verse 40, with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, be saved from this perverse generation. It was the same with Noah, be saved from this perverse generation. It's the same in our day because nothing has changed. So the message is be saved from this perverse generation. And so we note the disposition connected with his message was reverence. In reverence, he prepared an ark. And we can say in reverence, we can conclude he would have communicated the truth about what he was doing. Secondly, notice the duration of his obedience. Maybe 75 years, maybe 100 years, maybe 125 years. There are two factors that make his obedience, excuse me, the duration of his obedience so laudable. Number one, there was the incessant influence of scoffers and mockers during this time. In 2 Peter 3, in verses three through six, Peter says, know this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lust, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, It escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. Now the fact that there will be mockers between the first and second coming of Christ does not exclude the fact that there were mockers since the fall of man. Men were following after their own lusts, in the time of the Lord Jesus, and they were following after their own lusts during the time of Noah. So we conclude there would have been no shortage of scoffers and mockers during the time that he was building the ark. John Owen says that the preparing, building, and finishing this vessel so that it would float in water was a new thing in the earth, requiring labor and expense in a long continuance of time. And a strange thing, no doubt it was in the world to see a man with so great an endeavor build a ship where there was no water near him." So I mean, you can see how this would lend itself to all kinds of ridicule. What kind of a lunatic is this? You're building this massive vessel and there's no water around here at all. So we can be assured of the reality and mockers that would have been there. And I would say to you, we can be assured of the reality of mockers. and scoffers in our own time. Owen says there are always amongst them scoffers that deride all that are moved with fear at the threatenings of God and behave themselves accordingly, which is an exact portrait of the present condition of the world. So Owen was saying in the 17th century when he was writing, it was the exact same as it was during the time of Noah. And we can say it's the exact same now as it was during the time of Noah. and John Owen. What I'm saying is if you fear God and you love Christ and you seek to live a holy life, don't be surprised if there are unsafe people who are disobedient to the gospel. They're enemies of the truth. They're devoid of the influence of the Holy Spirit. Don't be surprised if they deride and ridicule your faith and your love for God and your desire to live a holy life. Secondly, we can add another factor that makes the duration of his work here so laudable. There were not only scoffers, but also he had no positive response to the message. Can you imagine that? We're talking years and years and years, and he had no positive response to the message. Now, part of it is because they were disobedient, but our Lord gives us insight on why this was the case in the gospel of Matthew 24. And the point our Lord makes is these people were secure in themselves. They didn't really have any concern about their own soul. Matthew 24, 37, for the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days, which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. So shall the coming of the Son of Man be. So here, our Lord, he doesn't mention disobedience. He rather just talks about their lives. They had no concern about their soul in spite of all this message and all this teaching about coming destruction. They were not concerned about the eternal state of their soul. They're just doing what people do, eating and drinking and giving in marriage. But that did not deter Noah. He continued on with the construction. He continued on with his message. So we see this disposition of obedience is marked by reverence. And we see the duration of his obedience amidst these obstacles in spite of scoffers, in spite of no response, in spite of apathy to what he had to say. And then I want you to notice, thirdly, the design or the purpose of his obedience. What propelled him to go on? Well, partly it's because of the fear of the Lord. But we're told also here that it was for the salvation of his household. The purpose for which he was constructing the Ark was for the salvation of his household. So we see that he had a great concern for the salvation of his own family. In fact, at the end of the day, those are the only ones that were saved. Nobody else was saved. All of his efforts led to only his own family being saved. But that was his great concern. And it seems to me that this should be your great concern and my great concern as well for a family. It's wonderful to see them successful in various pursuits. But the outstanding concern, the great concern, has to be the salvation of their soul, evidence of true conversion. Because the Bible says, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world? and lose his own soul. Jesus Christ came into this world, what? To save. I mean, that's the issue at the end of the day. That's the concern that we should have for ourselves and for others as well. And let us pray. Father, we thank you for the example of Noah, his faithfulness, and pray that you, by your blessed spirit, would cause us to be increasingly like that. Help us to be faithful. Help us to be reverent in our presentation of the gospel. Help us to continue to seek your holy face. Help us to be concerned through prayer and speaking and tracts. Help us to be concerned about the true repentance and the true salvation of those that we know, that they would truly be delivered from future certain eternal destruction through faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.