A Greater Faith

Good morning, church. Great seeing all of you here this morning. I'm just returning from the men's retreat in Ashboro, North Carolina. We had 70 men go to the retreat. And as we heard earlier in the service, that's why there are more empty seats today because a good majority of our men went to the men's retreat.

And so I'm still pretty supercharged from that. I preached last night, got in a little bit after midnight last night, and I'm still trying to remember if I'm preaching last night's sermon or this morning's sermon. And so at the first service, I chased all kinds of rabbits. I don't know what's going to happen in this service.

I was just so fired up. I left a service last night with men lined up to come forward with tears in their eyes to pray that they would be priests of their home, that they begin to pray for their wives and their children and their workplace and their schools. And there was a powerful service last night and we've got men coming home. I pray that they come home fired up to serve their communities and their families. Well, we're in the book of Hebrews.

And we started two years ago on the book of Hebrews. We broke it into three parts. So if you're looking at your notes like it says sermon 19, what happened to the first 18 sermons? Well, we did the first eight sermons in 2023, and I think we did 10 last year.

And we'll finish up the book of Hebrews this fall. That's our plan, Lord willing, going verse by verse through the book of Hebrews. Our title for this series is Jesus is Greater. And we call it that because the keys are under the doormat to this house. As soon as we get into chapter one, verse four, it tells us what the theme of this book is.

It says, Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.” This book is about Jesus, and Jesus is greater than anything you're facing today. And that's what the book of Hebrews is about. It's showing us that he is greater. That's the theme.

Now, Hebrews is an unusual book. It's an epistle, which means it's a letter, but it has no benediction. It has no final greeting. It has no salutation. It doesn't tell us who the recipients are.

It has no author's autograph. It's an unusual book. Yet its title, Hebrews, is appropriate because it's clearly written to 1st century Jewish background Christians. So they came from a Jewish background, but they came to faith in Christ. And you might say that the book of Hebrews is really about explaining to us how to read the Old Testament.

You could say that the book of Hebrews is like the reader's digest version of the Old Testament, especially Chapter 11, that we're entering into today, because it's teaching us that the way to read scripture and to understand scripture rightly is to read it through the lens of Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, this book is about Jesus and to rightly understand it this book of Hebrews has helped Jewish background people, I think, to understand how their book fits into the new covenant in Christ. The internal evidence would direct us to this book probably being written around 65 A.D. prior to 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed by the Romans. Because of the way it refers to the temple, it seems to refer to it as if it were still standing.

The majority view of the book is that it was probably written by the Apostle Paul. That's the traditional view. We're not certain. But it certainly sounds like the way Paul talks. Although he always signed his letters and he always had who he was addressing and those kinds of things.

It's unusual for Paul to write one like this. But that's still a traditional view. Some say, well, it might have been written by people who traveled with Paul and would have been marked by his voice, his way of talking. So maybe they were writing it and it sounds like Paul because they hung out with him so much.

And so some say, well, maybe it was Apollos or Barnabas or Clement or one of those guys that would have sounded like Paul. No one knows for sure. I tend to lean towards a minority view. Not that it matters that my view matters, but I like looking into these things. And I think perhaps Luke is the one who penned it.

Luke was a traveling companion of Paul. He was a very educated man. He was a physician. We know he wrote the book of Luke. We know he wrote the book of Acts.

Perhaps he wrote the book of Hebrews. And the reason I really lean into it is because I'm a student of the Greek language of Koine Greek, which is the language of the New Testament original writing. Koine means common. Another way of saying it is that it was written in southern Greek. It's y' all Greek.

Okay, it's that kind of Greek. And so the one place, though, actually three places where it's not Koine Greek is the first four verses of Luke, the first four verses of Acts, first four verses of Hebrews. It's not written in Koine, it's written in classical Greek. It's highbrow Greek, very formal.

And that, to me, lends itself to the possibility that Luke is the author. Well, perhaps it doesn't matter, because what really matters is it's the word of God. The author is the Holy Spirit who inspired it. Now, last fall, we finished up with chapter 10 with a sermon entitled A Greater Possession. And our greater possession is Jesus.

And today we're going to be talking about a greater faith. Now, the reason it's titled Greater Faith is not because of the quality of our faith nor the quantity of our faith, but the object of our faith. It's a greater faith because it's a greater object of our faith. It's not great faith in God, it's faith in a great God that makes it a greater faith. The reason it's a greater faith, biblical faith, true faith is a greater faith.

Not because we faith harder, believe harder, believe more. That's not it. That would put it on human effort. It's a greater faith because we have a greater Lord, Jesus. We have a greater God.

And so if you have faith as a mustard seed, Jesus says, you can move mountains. It's not how much faith you have, it's whom you believe. It's not what, it's not how much, it's whom you believe. It's a greater faith because of Jesus. Now, you've probably heard people say, you got to keep the faith.

People say that whether they're part of our faith or not. They could be Muslims, they could be Buddhists. They could just be someone who doesn't believe in any kind of religion. But they'll say keep the faith. They'll write songs about it.

What do they mean when they say that? When somebody says to you, keep the faith, they probably say that to you because you're feeling discouraged about something. And they say, you have to keep the faith. Got to keep the faith, Susie. You got to keep the dream alive.

What do they mean when they talk about keeping the faith? They're not really talking about keeping the faith the way biblical faith is described. They're saying, don't get discouraged. Believe in yourself. That's what they mean.

Don't give up, don't quit. That's nice. It's what you would call positive thinking. Keep the faith in that environment. And that way of saying it is you got to stay positive.

Don't get down on yourself. That only has so much value, because it's up to you to keep the faith. In fact, today we see a movement among young people that's been described as deconstructing the faith, as if it were something constructed by man that needs to be deconstructed in order to examine its validity. And so, especially among the millennials and Gen Z, we hear this popular idea and you see this on social media and discussions about deconstructing the faith. Perhaps they've been misunderstanding the meaning of faith because perhaps the reason they want to take it apart is it was never faith in Jesus.

It was faith in their parents' religion. And then their parents let them down and they now have to deconstruct it because it was never really their faith in Jesus. It was their faith in their parents' religion, or it was their faith in a preacher. And then heaven forbid they found out the preacher was a sinner too, or that was their faith in a certain denomination or etc. And so the church let them down.

Their parents let them down or something let them down. But did they have biblical faith? Because it's not how much faith you have, it's not even the quality of it, because we're all sinners saved by grace, if you know Jesus, but it's faith in him, that's what makes it a greater faith. Do you have that faith today? Do you have faith in Jesus?

That's what we're going to be talking about in Hebrews chapter 11. We'll be looking today in the Epistle of Hebrews Jewish background, believers were encouraged not to shrink back from believing because of trouble and persecution that they were experiencing, but to live by faith that's greater because it rests in Christ Jesus. And I believe today that we can see why faith that rests in Christ is greater. As we look at the text, I believe we'll see three reasons why faith in Christ is greater. Let's dig in.

Chapter 11, we're going verse by verse. Are you ready? Got your seatbelts on? We're going to move. Here we go now.

Hebrews 11:1-7 (ESV) 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

7 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. This is God's word.

We're looking for three reasons why faith in Christ is greater. Here's the first.

Do you see that word in your text? If you're taking notes today, we encourage you to do that. It's in there three times in different forms. Commendation. Commended. Commending.

Verse 2, verse 4, verse 5. Do you see it the first time in verse 2. You see it for by it. Now what's it? The neutered pronoun here points back to faith.

You could read it like this. For by faith, Verse 2, “For by it the people of old received their commendation.” By it, by faith, the people of old received their commendation. He's letting us know where he's headed now. In chapter 11, he's about to give us the Reader's Digest version of the Old Testament.

He's about to give us what some have referred to as the faith hall of fame. He's going to show us, especially if you were a Hebrew background, a Jewish background believer, how to understand where Jesus is in the Old Testament story and how it was that God showed favor to particular men. He lists three here, three exemplars of biblical faith. He mentions Abel, he mentions Enoch, he mentions Noah, he mentions more.

But that's where we're stopping today. What was it about them? Is it because they were sinless? No, they were sinners. What was it about them?

God showed them favor because they had faith in that which is not seen, that which they hoped for but had not yet received. In fact, he begins like this by telling us his definition of faith. He wants us to understand that biblical faith is different from worldly faith. It's different. And he gives us a definition in verse one of his faith.

Now, why is he doing this? Well, let's remind ourselves we are on sermon number 19. We've done 10 chapters already of Hebrews. So what was the last thing that we read in chapter 10? Well, it was in verse 39,

Hebrews 10:39 (ESV) “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” So he brought up faith as being that which would help guard against them shrinking back because of persecution and trouble. But now he's going to say, now, I don't mean just keep the faith. I don't mean like that.

Let me tell you what I really mean by this word faith. And I'm glad he does this. It's helpful to me. I hope it's helpful to you. He first of all says now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.

That word assurance is an important word. It's a particular word that could be translated foundation. It could be translated confidence. Faith is the confidence of things hoped for. And it's the firm trust, the assurance.

It's like the rock upon which things hope for. So our hopes. And that's kind of like future tense. It's things that haven't happened yet, but God says they're going to happen. It's like promises that God has made, but we've not yet received them.

And so biblical faith has a concrete rock of assurance that's inside the believer. I think it's a gift from God.

Worldly, lost people don't have this kind of faith. They don't have any. But we have this, this heavy foundation that we could call assurance or confidence that what God has promised, we hadn't seen. We're only hoping for it, but we believe it's going to happen.

Jesus said he's coming again. I believe it. Jesus said he's going to judge all the earth. Everyone will stand. There's a payday someday.

I believe it. I hadn't seen it yet. There's a lot of violence in the world today. There's a lot of brokenness. When's God going to move?

He says he's going to. He's going to wrap it all up someday.

And I believe that I have hope. I believe I have the hope of heaven, that someday I'll depart this world, but it won't be the end of me. And for those that believe, it won't be the end of you either. I have hope. Have I seen it?

No, I haven't. But I have this firm assurance, this rock, this anchor for my soul. I just believe it with all my heart. That's biblical faith. Then he says, so that's the aspect of faith that takes hold of hope.

It makes it better than, I hope it doesn't rain today. That's hope as a wish. It's more like hope as a rope. It's more like anchored in the empty tomb and, and beyond the veil to the throne room where Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. You can take a hold of a rope like that.

It's anchored on both ends. It's anchored in the past and it's anchored in the future. And it's hope like a rope.

And this kind of faith has got that kind of anchor. And so I can believe, I can have faith in that which is to come. Things hoped for. I have assurance of it. Here's the second part of that definition.

He says, now faith is the conviction of things not seen.

And then he gives us an example of something we didn't see. Verse 3, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

That takes faith. There was a time when the universe did not exist and it came from that which was not visible. The Latin term for that theory, which is not a theory to me, it's a faith doctrine, is ex nihilo. Out of nothing, God said, let there be light. By his word, he spoke the universe into existence.

He flung the stars across the galaxy, he lit the sun, he put the earth a spin on it, and he sent it around in orbit and took the dust and he made himself a man and he breathed into him and he became a living soul by faith. Now, I wasn't there. Boy, you sound convinced. How old are you? Well,

in regards to comparison to other people, I'm pretty old. Not compared to those people back there in the book of Genesis. I'm 67 years old. I've seen a few things, but I didn't see any of that. Well, how do you believe that?

I have faith in things I haven't seen because God said so.

That's biblical faith. I have a conviction. The word conviction could be translated proof or evidence, tested evidence. I have a sense of conviction, of evidence in my soul and plus Romans tells me when I look at the creation, if I'm honest with myself, and it implies there has to be a creator because of the intelligent design of the perfection of everything and how it works, of conviction, and gives us that example. But by the way, that's not the only thing I haven't seen, you're going to find that I have very little credibility by the time I finish here.

You'll be like, wow, I didn't see

Noah when the flood came. I didn't see the ark. I didn't see that. Did you see that? I didn't see it whenever Enoch walked with God and was not.

What is that?

That's been bothering me since the first time I saw that. The first time I read that, I think I was like 12 or 13 years old, and I was like, that's the coolest thing ever. What is? That I wasn't there when Jesus carried that cruel cross on the Via Dolorosa outside the city gates of Jerusalem, up the hill called Golgotha to Calvary's hill, I wasn't there. Were you there?

Did you see that?

Faith has the conviction of things not seen. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? Were you there when they nailed him to the cross? Were you there?

Were you there when they spit upon him and put a crown of thorns upon his head, when they beat his back 40 lashes with that cruel whip of the cat of nine tails that had metal and glass broken and tied into the leather so that it ripped his flesh to the bone? Were you there by faith? I have a conviction that not only I believe it, but it was my hand that nailed him to the cross.

It was my hands that beat him because it was my sin that put him there. And it was yours too. By faith. We have a conviction for things not seen. We didn't see any of this.

We didn't see any of it. But for the believer, we believe it. That's biblical faith. And by it, the people of old, he's going to name some people of old, he's going to give us Abel and Enoch and Noah in today's sermon, and they receive their commendation. And what's their commendation?

The word commendation I've said is here three times. It has the idea of God's approval. Now, have you ever applied for a job and they asked for references and you had to put down names and addresses, phone numbers and emails or whatever you usually call those people and say, hey, hey, I put your name down as a reference.

Hope you'll say something good about me.

People like to put my name down.

They put my name down, they'll call me, hey, preacher, I put your name down on a reference. I'm trying to get this job. I said, well, do you want me to say something good about you? Well, please. I'll try to think of something.

That's what a commendation is. It's a reference of approval.

The people in the Old Testament, the people of old, didn't receive their commendation because they were good people. They weren't. They didn't receive a commendation because they were sinless. They were sinners. How'd they get it?

By faith. In what?

In themselves? It wasn't in works, it wasn't in self effort.

They looked into the future and they had a thin thread. They didn't have all the revelation that we have. Jesus hadn't come yet, but they had little hints like in what's called the protoevangelium in the book of Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, where it said that there's a seed of the woman that's coming which seems to hint at the virgin birth that's coming. And that the evil one, that Satan is going to bruise his heel, but he's going to crush his head. That's often referred to as the first gospel.

They had that. Adam and Eve got that before they had kids. I'm sending one, he's going to handle this. And little by little through the ages, they get more revelation. They get a progressive revelation that points more and more to a Messiah, to a Christ that's to come.

And finally in the New Testament he comes. And so the people in the Old Testament get commendation because they're believing that which is promised but have not yet received. And people in the present are believing things that have already happened that we didn't see, but we believe it. And we all look to the center of Jesus and we receive his commendation by being in Christ and Christ in us. Are you still with me?

And now we get to this example of Abel. It says, in Hebrews 11:4 “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.” Now why was it more acceptable? I think it's clearly because he offered a blood sacrifice. We don't have background in the Bible.

We have hints about how much he would have known.

It's not wrong to bring as Cain did because Abel, it says as they grew up, you know, Adam and Eve had two boys, they had many other children, but Cain was their firstborn. The second born was Abel. Abel became a shepherd, it says, and Cain became a farmer. He worked with crops. Abel worked with sheep.

How did he get more acceptable? Cain brought, he brought from his harvest. It says he brought some of his harvest at harvest time. God didn't accept it.

Abel, it says, brought the best of the first few lambs that he had. There's some hints there, brought the best. Now the Bible has offerings in it that you bring the first fruits of your crops. So what Cain did wasn't wrong in terms of bringing a gift, but it didn't make him right with God.

But what Cain offered. He offered by. Or what? Abel, rather, offered? He offered by faith because he brought the blood.

It says in Hebrews 9:22 (ESV) “… and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” The hint we have prior to this is that when God saw Adam and Eve and Adam, why did you hide Adam? And he said, because we were naked. He said, who told you you were naked? They covered themselves, they hid themselves.

That's what we do when we sin. We hide from God. God has to go looking for us. No one looks for God on their own.

God has to go looking for us. They hid themselves and they tried to cover themselves with leaves.

And then when he puts them out of the garden because of their sin, it says he covered them with what? Animal skins. Where did he get them? He offers the first sacrifice, the first blood sacrifice. So then they get it right there, don't they?

We don't have a lot of detail. Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice, Cain did not. And so in Abel, we see a foreshadowing of the whole Old Testament sacrificial system that's fulfilled in Christ Jesus at the cross. So we see in Abel a type that by faith he recognized. I'm a sinner.

I'm not perfect. But somehow, by faith, me offering this little lamb points to a future lamb that will be given. I haven't seen it yet, but I hope for it. I know my father Adam told me that there's one coming that's going to be the seed of the woman that's going to crush the evil one's head who lied to them in the garden. And so he didn't have a lot of information.

I don't know how much information he has. I just know what I see here in Genesis, “But by faith” He says, 6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected?

Cain's out there kicking mud clods. His face is downcast. He's starting to harbor bitternesses in his heart.

And he says, 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right.

God's so patient with us, see, we don't get to decide how we make ourselves right with God. God provides the provision for us to be right with. Yeah, we can't do it with our own self effort. He provides a way.

But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” He warns him; he loves Cain. Cain says to Abel, he said, in verse 8,“Let’s go out into the fields.”

Now, if you're a younger brother, you know, you never let your older brother show you something.

If you're a younger brother, you know this already. If your big brother says, hey, come here, I want to show you something, you do not go over there, right? Cain took him out into a field and he killed him. And so we see the first murder didn't take long. First generation murder.

Then God's not finished with Cain. He goes to him. 9 Afterward the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?” “I don’t know,” Cain responded. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

He says,10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! 11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. 12 No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.” Abel's faith pleased God not because of the amount, the quantity, not because of the quality.

His faith pleased God because he offered a lamb that pointed to the lamb. And that's why he's in the faith hall of fame. That's why he's here. It's not because of his great faith, but the object of his faith. And as a result, it was commended to him as righteousness.

God commended him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. We're speaking about him today. The life of Abel, his faith still speaks.

Abel's faith pleased God because he trusted God's way to get right with God, not his own way. Here's number two. Here's the second evidence.

We're on Enoch now. That's our second Old Testament hero here of the faith. Of all the people, he would pick. Okay, so Abel's in chapter four of Genesis. It's like he went, well, let me go to the next page.

And he went to chapter five and picked up Enoch, who's only got four verses, and they are strange. Like, if I was going to pick somebody, I would avoid Enoch because I'm not sure what happened there. Not a lot of detail. He was born to his father, Jared.

He's the father of Methuselah, who's the longest living human that's listed. Enoch, it says he walked with God for 300 years of his life. Genesis 5:24 (KJV) “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” When I read that the first time, it was like I heard music in the background.

What in the world? You got to get over to Hebrews to go. What did that mean? And it says, 5 “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” Well, that's not how it words itself over there in Hebrews, although it is sort of similar.

But here it gives more clarity. See, this is what I tell people. If you're a new believer, read the New Testament first, okay? Don't jump over there in Leviticus, okay? Start with the New Testament and maybe read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament.

More specifically, read it through the lens of Christ and look for Christ on every page. It'll help you. And that's what Hebrews is trying to do for us, right? Okay. But Enoch, I probably wouldn't have picked him, but the Holy Spirit picked him.

By faith, Enoch was taken up. Taken up.

He's the first rapture, okay? He's the first one that gets raptured. The word here literally means to transfer from one place to another. The King James version says it like this. “He was translated.”

It could also be. It could also be translated. The word here in the Greek could be translated to be transported. Which, as an old Trekkie myself, I kind of visualized Scotty beaming me up in my thinking, like, what is this? I don't mean to make fun.

I believe it. I heard of an old preacher talking about this and saying he kind of visualized God and Enoch walking along together. They'd been doing it for 300 years, him just talking to God like a way of life. He had a relationship with God. It wasn't this distant theological, religious kind of thing.

It was the Lord, he's talking to him. And they were walking along one day, and God turned to him and said, you know what? You're nearer to my house than we are your house. Why don't you just come on home?

So he didn't die. He got transferred. He got translated. He got transported to heaven. There's only two people in the Bible like that.

One's Enoch, you know, the other one, Prophet Elijah, caught up in a fiery chariot, never saw death. This is why some who read the book of Revelation and they see the story of the two witnesses that come to preach in Jerusalem. Many think it's Enoch and Elijah. We're not sure. They're not named, but it makes sense, possible.

What's this Enoch story in here for? Why is it here? By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found. I guess some people went looking for him because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended.

He was approved as having pleased God. How do you please God? Well, good question. Let's look at the next verse 6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

You can't do it. And it's really not your faith itself that pleases him, but it's your faith in Jesus that pleases him.

You're sitting in a chair. I see you sitting out there. Did you get a cup of coffee or something to drink? You got a cup holder there? Where

have you ever been to a church that's got cup holders? Huh? How about that, then? When you sat down, did you have faith that that chair would hold you up? Was it the amount of your faith that held you up?

Was it the quality of your faith that held you up? Or was it the quality of the chair?

It was the chair. It was the chair. Some of you, if that chair had not been there, you'd have hit the floor, right? And some of you have been pushing that button that says, help, I can't get up.

You know who you are.

It's faith in the object of Jesus. And that's why. That's why Enoch is commended. He has faith that pleases God. For whoever would draw near to God.

You want to walk with God and God to walk with you. You want to draw nearer to God. You must believe he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him. And how does he reward them? Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV) “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

How does he reward them? James 4:8 (ESV) “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you…” What's the reward for wanting to walk and seek God Himself?

He gives you himself.

He gives you Christ to live in you and you to live in Him. How do we draw near? Ephesians tells us. Ephesians 2:13 (ESV) “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” It's faith in the sacrifice of Jesus. It's faith in the cross, of what Jesus accomplished.

I wasn't there. I didn't see it with human eyes, but I saw it with eyes of faith. So did you, if you believe.

Enoch's story reminds us that it's not just believing about God, but it's the kind of faith that walks with God, that prays and talks to Jesus daily and draws closer to him through His Word and through prayer and through fellowship. With other believers. And hearing the preaching of God's word, we sense his presence.

It's less about religion and more about a relationship. Which leads us to the third reason.

It's the only kind of faith, the faith in Jesus. And he gives us our third example here. He's given us Abel. He's given us Enoch. Abel in chapter four of Genesis;Enoch in chapter five. Now we're in chapter six. Who do we run into here?

Noah. We got several chapters on Noah. It begins by talking to us about the fallenness of man and how God repented that he made man. He looked at humanity and he was sorry. He regretted that he made us because we were waxing more and more sinful over time.

It wasn't getting any better, it was getting worse. He said, I'm going to have to put a stop to it. But Noah, it says, found favor with the Lord. The word favor could be translated as grace. And grace means unmerited favor.

It means you didn't earn it. It's a free gift. Or as the acronym, G R A C E. God's grace at Christ's expense. Noah, he found in him one that would obey him, that would believe things hoped for, yet not seen. And he went to Noah.

It says, let's see what he says here in Hebrews, because we're trying to learn how to read about Noah from the New Testament. And he says, 7 “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.” He says, I'm going to destroy all flesh.

He'd never seen that happen before.

Some have suggested that during this time period, no one had ever seen rain, that the earth was fed by dew. The scripture talks about, when it describes the coming of the flood, that he broke up the waters from the deep. And some suggest that maybe there was only one continent at that time. And the continental plates were moved apart and the waters rushed up and created the oceans.

And maybe Noah had never seen an ocean. Maybe he was completely an inland guy. He didn't live out at the Outer Banks. And so he's supposed to build a boat. People were like, what are you building?

An ark. Why? Because everybody's going to die if they don't get on board. If you don't get on God's boat. Well, that's crazy.

You're crazy. Noah. And he spent the next 100 years. The scripture said he was around 500 years old. And the flood came at 600, when he was 600.

Some suggest they'd never seen rain. That the waters were held in a canopy like environment that shielded us from radiation, allowing almost an Eden like temperature worldwide. That would allow plant life and animal life to grow to huge sizes and for the longevity of man to be increased. Well, these are suppositions. I offer them only as speculation, but possible explanations.

Trying to dig in. Maybe they'd never seen rain. He says, water's going to fall from the sky. It's going to burst forth from the earth. God told me that.

And he told me to build this boat. And it took him a hundred years to build it. And they said, you're crazy. And no one believed. And the only people that got on the boat was Noah's family.

And it says, God shut the door when they got on board.

It reminds me of Romans 8:1 that says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” You know who that ark represents in Noah's flood? It's not a boat. What saved Noah from the flood? Was it because he built a boat?

No, it's because by faith he went on board the boat that God told him the design for that boat. That ark is Christ. There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You got to get in the ark, which is Jesus. And this is Noah.

By faith, he hadn't seen it yet. He's got assurance of things hoped for. He knows more about it than Enoch, he knows more about it than Abel, because God's told him more. But he still doesn't know as much as you and I know. We got the whole book.

But he believed what he saw and what he heard from God. And in reverent fear, he constructed an ark for the saving of his household. And by this he condemned the world. Now, did he set the judgement of the world? No.

But if you light a candle in darkness, that candle by its nature condemns the darkness and it tells the darkness. Hey, you're in the dark. No, I'm not. Yeah, you are. Here's light.

That's what light does. Light makes those that are in the darkness be aware that they're in the darkness. And when he built the ark he told them the floods were coming and they didn't believe it. And when the floods came, they found out they didn't condemn. Noah didn't condemn them as the judge, God did.

But his message condemned them because they didn't believe it. And then as a result of him believing in God, he became, these are our final words here, “an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

An heir. Now, how do you get this righteousness? Was Noah righteous? Noah? Did God count him righteous?

Yes. Well, that's not fair. He wasn't righteous. In fact, keep reading chapter six, chapter seven, chapter eight, chapter nine.

First thing he does, plants a vineyard, gets drunk on new wine. Well, hallelujah, Noah. Glad we rescued you of all humanity. Is it because we're supposed to go, man? Be more like Noah?

No. It's because you better get in the ark. That's the only way he got saved. And how did he get righteousness? He's an heir.

He inherited it. How did he inherit something? Do you have to be good to inherit? No. Do you have to work hard to inherit?

No. You have to be the child of someone who would give you something. If you want to inherit eternal life, you have to inherit it from the only one who has it. If you want to inherit righteousness, there's only one righteous. You have to become a child of God.

Are you with me? But that's not fair, you say. Oh, absolutely, it is fair. He only offers this to his children only those who by faith believe the ark of God, which is Christ Jesus. Here's what Paul says in

Romans 3:22-24 (NIV) 22 “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Friends, I'm a sinner, saved by grace. I'm no better than you.

I have no quality that would allow me to go to heaven. I have no qualification that would allow me to stand before you as your pastor. I don't deserve it. I don't. But Jesus in me does.

He lives in me. And as I get older, I desire less of me and more of him. How about you? I want to get in him, and I want him in me. And this is why.

We'll see Abel, we'll see Enoch, we'll see Noah and glory someday. And I'll see you, and you'll see me. If you have a little faith. Faith like a mustard seed in the Ark of God, the Lamb of God. When it walks with you, Jesus.

Oh, he's greater. He's greater.

Let's pray.

I pray for the one this morning; you came in on a thin thread. Someone invited you to church. Or maybe you were just like, I need something. Something's missing in my life. Maybe you've

left church. You've got a church hurt. You've been deconstructing your faith. But today you heard something.

That's the Holy Spirit speaking to you. That's the spirit of Christ.

Would you give your life to Jesus today? Right where you're at, right in your seat, Bow your head, every eye closed. Pray like this. Dear Father, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me. He died for my sins.

I believe that. I believe he was raised from the grave on the third day and that he lives today. He's risen to heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father. Father, I believe that. And I invite him to come into my life by his Holy Spirit, to forgive me of my sin, to make me a child of God, to impute to me his righteousness, his eternal life, his relationship with you.

Father, in place of my sin, in place of my death, in place of my separation, I believe that by faith I receive that right now. And if you're saying that if you're believing the Lord Jesus will save you, he'll make you a child of the King.

Others are here. And you're a believer. You believe in Jesus, you're a follower of Christ. But there's an arena of your life that you've yet to by faith entrust to Him. Is it your marriage?

Is it your job? Is it your school? Is it a relationship?

Is it your family? Is it your children?

Lord, I give you my all by faith. Less of me, more of you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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1. Because it’s the only faith commended by God.

2. Because it’s the only faith that pleases God to draw near.

3. Because it’s the only faith that inherits God’s righteousness.

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