The apostle Peter
said, “God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the
world began” (Acts 3:20-22). In these verses Peter said that all of
God’s prophets preached the first and second coming of Jesus Christ
“since the world began.” According to this Scripture, Adam was God’s
first prophet to proclaim the gospel of the grace of God by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Adam and Eve experienced the grace of God in the Garden of Eden, when God shed the blood of innocent animals to cover their nakedness, and promised them that the “Seed of the woman,” the virgin-born God-Man (a biological miracle), Jesus Christ, would crush the head of Satan and provide salvation by grace through faith for all believers (Genesis 3:15, 21). Now we know that the people who lived before the Flood, the antediluvians, had the grace of God preached to them from Adam to Noah.
There are three ways in which God revealed to Noah the gospel of the grace of God and His will for Noah’s life.
1) By Word of Mouth. “God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). And God continues to speak to the lost by word of mouth, person to person. It is the most effective way to take the gospel of the grace of God to a lost world (Romans 10:13-17). It is very evident that Adam preached the gospel to his descendants. Consider Cain and Abel; they came at the same time, to the same place, for the same purpose—to worship God (Genesis 4:1-5). Who taught them to worship God? It was Adam, God’s first preacher. We know that Cain killed Abel and that another son was born to Adam and Eve, whose name was Seth. Seth had a son whose name was Enosh. “Then men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25, 26). Who taught Seth and Enosh to call on the name of Jehovah? God’s first prophet, Adam.
Noah could have received God’s Word from Methuselah, who could have been taught by Adam. When Adam died, Methuselah was 253 years old. This means that Adam, God’s first prophet, had 253 years in which to indoctrinate Methuselah. Methuselah lived 600 years after Noah was born; he was Noah’s grandfather. He had 600 years in which to teach Noah, his grandson. By word of mouth Adam taught Methuselah, and Methuselah taught Noah. So Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
2) By Written Records. Who is to say that Noah, who descended from Adam through Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, was not heir to all the records from Adam to Lamech? Jude tells us that Enoch prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all” (Jude 14, 15). This prophecy was written in the days of Enoch, who was born 622 years after the creation of Adam. When God created Adam, he was perfect in every way—spirit, soul, and body. This means that Adam, though never having learned, had perfect knowledge of all things related to this creation (Genesis 2:18-20). In this he is a type of Christ, and the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). When God created all the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, he brought them to Adam, who gave each of them their names. Adam did not memorize their names, he named them. He was created with a language and a vocabulary to express his every thought.
Therefore, it does not take a great faith to believe that Adam could have invented an alphabet of letters or other characters with which his spoken language could be written. Or God could have given him the alphabet of letters or characters when He created him. The people who lived before the Flood must have had a system of keeping written records. Noah must have had some of the written records from Adam to Lamech.
3) By Revelation. God revealed His will to Noah. He said to Noah, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood” (Genesis 6:14). When the ark was ready, He spoke to Noah and told him to enter the ark. When the Flood ended and the land was dry, God told Noah to come out of the ark. God speaks in many different ways to man.
Today, He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit and His written Word. However, in the past six thousand years, He spoke to man through dreams, or a voice from heaven. He often revealed Himself to man in the form of a man, or as the Angel of the Lord. We are told how He spoke to Noah; all we know is that He revealed His will for Noah’s life. Noah obeyed all of God’s commandments, “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). God, knowing that Noah and his family would be the only survivors of the Flood, entrusted Noah with the knowledge of all of His Acts from Creation to the Flood. In so doing, Noah was able to pass these truths on to his descendants down to Moses, who wrote under the inspiration of God the first five books of the Bible.
45-1 Noah: A Man Convicted
(Matthew 24:37-39)
“And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever’ ” (Genesis 6:3). The Holy Spirit began His ministry of convicting mankind of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:7-11) in the age before the Flood. He has continued to “strive with man” in every dispensation, and will continue as long as there are lost souls on earth. God began to strive with man in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve fell, the Lord came and called to Adam saying, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:1-10). Thus, God began His ministry of reaching out to lost humanity.
From the first He was “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
When the Holy Spirit convicted Noah of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, he repented an “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). The question is often asked, how were the lost saved before the death of Christ on Calvary? The answer is, they were saved by grace through faith, looking forward to the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we are saved by grace through faith, looking back to the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way anyone can be saved is through the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:10-12; Romans 3:25).
Now, the people who lived before the Flood had the gospel preached through prophecy and through typology. Therefore, those who rejected the gospel, which was preached by Adam and his descendants, were without excuse (Romans 1:20).
1) The pre-Flood people had the gospel preached through prophecy. When Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord cursed the serpent for allowing Satan to possess it and speak with Eve, tempting her to sin (2 Corinthians 11:3). Then the Lord said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). This is the first promise of the virgin-born Redeemer. There is no seed of a woman. The woman produces the egg and the man the seed. This prophecy is a biological miracle. No woman can reproduce without the seed of the man. Yet the Virgin Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ while she was still a virgin (Luke 1:30-35). Those who lived before the Flood had the promise of the Savior who would bruise the head of Satan.
2) The pre-Flood people had the gospel preached through typology. God in His grace provided a covering for the nakedness of Adam and Eve: “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). They did not need a theologian to tell them that the innocent had died to atone for the guilty. Before God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden, He gave them the gospel in prophecy: the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. And the Seed of the woman would shed His blood to atone for lost souls.
This gospel was handed down from Adam to Cain and Abel; Cain rejected the gospel, but Abel accepted (Genesis 4:1-16). Then Seth was born; Adam gave him the gospel, and Seth believed. “Then men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25, 26). Adam gave the gospel to each of his descendants. He lived on for 243 years after Methuselah was born, and Methuselah lived 600 years after Noah was born. Adam had 243 years in which to give the gospel to Methuselah, and Methuselah had 600 years in which to pass it on to Noah.
45-2 Noah: A Man of Vision
(Proverbs 29:18)
“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint” (v. 18). As a consequence, people fall apart; they lose all consciousness of righteousness. They go to pieces spiritually and morally. The last verse in the book of Judges illustrates: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The Lord is saying, as it were, “Where there is no vision (revelation) of God in all His love, power, and glory, the people perish, fall apart, and turn to spiritual anarchy.” Jesus said, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:36-39).
At the second coming of Christ, history will repeat itself. Noah’s family is a type of the body of Christ – those who have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Those who drowned in the Flood were comparable in that day to those who will have heard and rejected the gospel of salvation in the day to come. Without a vision of God in His coming glory, they will perish.
Noah was a man of vision. The word “vision” is not found in the Bible until Genesis 15:1; yet it is found over a hundred times in the remaining Scriptures. It suggests a supernatural experience; it is something or someone seen other than by natural sight (Acts 16:8-10). Noah had a vision of the grace of God; he found grace and knew it. How did he know? By faith. Noah had a vision of God’s plans for the ark. For 120 years he was true to that vision. He worked on the ark and walked with God. He had a supernatural vision of the unseen that was more real than anything seen with his natural vision (2 Corinthians 4:18).
45-3 Noah: A Preacher of Righteousness
(2 Peter 2:5)
The Scriptures tell us that Noah was “a preacher of righteousness” (v. 5). He heralded the righteousness of God.
The righteousness and justice of God are revealed in two ways:
1) By punishing the wicked for rejecting the righteousness of God in Christ (Psalm 11:5, 6);
2) By rewarding the righteous who were made the righteousness of God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20, 21).
The righteousness of God is that attribute which assures man that God is just and will always do what is right. The righteousness and justice of God are manifestations of His holiness. To say that God is holy is to say that He is wholly pure and separate from sin. In eternity past, present, and future, He is pure. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
Noah was a preacher of righteousness and justice. It is not possible to declare the righteousness and holiness of God and not proclaim His justice (Jeremiah 23:5, 6). This preacher of righteousness warned the wicked of their ways for 120 years (Ezekiel 33:7-9). It has been said that Noah never had a convert, but this is not true. He preached the righteousness of God; his wife and his three sons and daughters-in-law were saved by grace through faith. During the 120 years that Noah preached the righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit was striving with the lost (Genesis 6:3). Some could have been saved and died before the Flood. However, he certainly won seven souls to faith in “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6).
45-4 Noah: A Man of Action
(Genesis 6:22)
“Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (v. 22): Noah was a man of action – God commanded, Noah acted! (Psalm 37:5). Once he knew the will of God for his life, he obeyed. In the Genesis account of the flood, we learn of Noah’s ingrained, unwavering, active obedience to God’s revealed will. He was conformed to the purpose of God (Romans 12:1, 2), but not to the ways of the pre-Flood world system; for he had nothing in common with that wicked generation (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). He walked in fellowship with God and found the spiritual strength to resist the temptations of that day.
Paul tells us that all temptations are common to man; so don’t think that you are the only believer that has been overtaken by temptation. You may live in a situation where there is obviously much to tempt you, or you may live where there is apparently little to tempt you. Regardless of your circumstances, you will be tempted; there is no escape. But we have good news: God has promised that He will not allow us to be tempted above our spiritual capacity to resist, and that He will make “the way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13). “He [the Holy Spirit] who is in you is greater than he [Satan] who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Noah, a man of action, resisted the temptations of that age as he walked with God. He found:
1) Saving grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
2) Justification by faith (Romans 5:1).
3) Peace with God by faith (Romans 5:1).
4) The righteousness of God, which he preached by faith (2 Peter 2:5).
5) Perfection in his generation, because he found it by faith in God (Colossians 1:28)
God commanded Noah, saying, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood” (v. 14). He gave Noah the plans for the ark, and Noah went to work. It was a monumental undertaking in many ways:
1) Consider the size of the ark: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. But how long is a cubit? The Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans defined it differently, from 17.5 inches to 24 inches. Using an 18-inch cubit, we see that Noah’s ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. It has been calculated that the ark had the cubic capacity of more than 500 freight cars. It was three stories high and was divided throughout into rooms, or dens.
2) Noah and his sons needed skilled help to build the ark. The trees had to be felled, sawn into thick boards, and dried in the sun or in a kiln. For that huge amount of lumber, much of it must have been transported many miles. The ark was covered with pitch inside and out to make it waterproof; this must have taken tons of pitch.
3) Noah took enough supplies to last a year and ten days for his family and all the animals while in the ark, as well as enough to last until first harvest (Genesis 7:11; 8:13-19).
4) Noah assumed the total cost of the ark and all the supplies. He must have been a wealthy man. Yes, it cost Noah dearly to build the ark; but consider what it would have cost him if he had not built the ark. If your faith has never cost you anything, you have faith that is dead (James 2:17, 18). When King David wanted to buy Araunah’s threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord, Araunah offered to give it to the king, and David said, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price: nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). Noah had faith that cost him every material thing, but is also gave him and his family every eternal thing—salvation by grace through faith (2 Corinthians 4:18).
45-5 Noah: A Man of Faith
(Hebrews 11:7)
In this brief text the Holy Spirit reveals seven elements that embody faith. Noah had great faith. Noah “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9), lived, worked, and preached righteousness for 120 years. The world was so corrupt that the Lord said “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The seven parts of Noah’s great faith are:
1) The foundation – being warned by God. The only foundation for saving faith is the infallible Word of God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith not founded upon God’s inerrant Word is vain belief (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). By faith Noah was triumphant over the evils of the people who lived before the Flood, which ended in the judgment of God (Genesis 7:20-24).
2) The measure – he believed “things not yet seen.” Paul tells us that “God has dealt to each one [believer] a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). Real faith does not have to see to believe: “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). For 120 years Noah believed “things not yet seen”; then he saw the prophecy of the Flood fulfilled. Noah did not look at visible things, but by faith he looked at invisible things. Because they are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). By faith Noah and his family came through the judgment of the Flood, and saw God’s glory.
3) The power – he was “moved with godly fear.” He was moved to act with godly fear in reverence that led to repentance, resulting in salvation by the grace of God. Noah not only believed God’s promise of grace, but also His promise of judgment. Those who do not believe that God will punish sin in the impenitent sinner do not know saving faith. Noah, like all lost sinners, had a choice: he could accept the gift of God, which is eternal life, or he could choose to live in sin and collect its wages, which are eternal separation from the mercy of God (Romans 6:23). The power of Noah’s faith moved him with holy fear to obey God and build the ark. He believed that God would judge man, as He promised, saying, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.” (Genesis 6:7).
4) The proof – he “prepared an ark.” To those who lived before the Flood, Noah was a fool. He was building a huge ark of gopherwood on dry land, which seemed senseless. The ark was the evidence of Noah’s faith; he had a living, working faith. His faith provided the working force that “prepared an ark.” Faith that does not motivate works is dead (James 2:17).
5) The fruits – “for the saving of his household.” Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and his labor was not in vain. He ministered to his wife, three sons, and three daughters-in-law. All seven believed, and were saved by the grace of God.
6) The function – “by which he condemned the world.” The gospel of the grace of God will do one of two things when proclaimed by faith:
a) It will bring salvation, when believed (Acts 16:31).
b) It will bring condemnation when rejected in unbelief (John 3:36). To illustrate, the sun will melt a hard chunk of ice, but also harden a soft lump of clay. The gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit will save or condemn.
7) The recompense – and “became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” When we were saved by faith in Christ, we were made righteous with the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), even though we remain in this body of flesh which is under the curse of sin and death (Romans 7:24, 25). God sees us as righteous because we are in Christ by faith. However, there is a righteousness that we cannot know until we stand before Him in our resurrected, glorified bodies; then “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
The reward that God promised Noah was that he would become “heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” God tells us that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). None of the saved of the Old or New Testament entered into their inheritance. Noah, along with all the saints, must wait until Jesus comes and resurrects the bodies of all believers before he can enter his full inheritance as an “heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
How does your faith compare with Noah’s?
Master Outline 45 – Noah – The Man who built the Ark
[1] Who said, “God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began?”
[2] The people who lived before the flood were called?
[3] What are the three (3) ways God revealed His grace to Noah?
1.
2.
3.
[4] What is the most effective way to take the gospel to a lost world?
[5] Cain and Abel came to the __________________ ____________________, at the
____________________ _____________________ for the _____________________
_______________________, to ____________________________.
[6] Who was God’s first preacher?
[7] How old was Methuselah when Adam died?
[8] How long did Methuselah live after Noah was born, and what was the relationship?
[9] God ________________________ His ______________________ to
____________________.
[10] What are the two (2) primary ways God speaks to us today?
1.
2.
[11] How do we know Noah obeyed God?
[12] Did the Holy Spirit ministry of convicting mankind of sin begin in the New Testament? TRUE or FALSE. Explain.
[13] How was Noah convicted of sin, and how did he find grace in the eyes of the Lord?
[14] How were the lost saved before Christ?
[15] What two (2) ways did the pre-flood people have the gospel preached?
1.
2.
[16] Why did God curse the serpent?
[17] What is the first promise of the virgin-born redeemer?
[18] This prophecy is what type of miracle? Explain.
[19] Before Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, what did God give them?
[20] Did Seth believe the Gospel? YES or NO. Explain.
[21] What does lack of vision cause?
[22] What does it mean, “At the second coming of Christ, history will repeat itself?”
[23] What does the word “VISION” suggest?
[24] How long was Noah true to his vision?
[25] The Scripture tells us that Noah was what type of preacher?
[26] What two (2) ways is the righteousness and justice of God revealed?
1.
2.
[27]What is the righteousness of God?
[28] Is it possible to declare the righteousness and holiness of God without proclaiming His justice? YES or NO. Explain.
[29] How do we know Noah was a man of action?
[30] Paul tells us that all temptations are what?
[31] What five (5) things did Noah find as he walked with God?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
[32] How big was the Ark?
[33] It has been calculated that the ark had the cubic capacity of more that _______________ freight cars.
[34] How many days of supplies did Noah take on the ark with him?
[35] What does the statement, “If your faith never cost you anything, you have faith that is dead.”
[36] What are seven (7) elements that embody faith?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
[37] Have the saved that are dead from the Old Testament and New Testament entered into their inheritance?
Adam and Eve experienced the grace of God in the Garden of Eden, when God shed the blood of innocent animals to cover their nakedness, and promised them that the “Seed of the woman,” the virgin-born God-Man (a biological miracle), Jesus Christ, would crush the head of Satan and provide salvation by grace through faith for all believers (Genesis 3:15, 21). Now we know that the people who lived before the Flood, the antediluvians, had the grace of God preached to them from Adam to Noah.
There are three ways in which God revealed to Noah the gospel of the grace of God and His will for Noah’s life.
1) By Word of Mouth. “God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). And God continues to speak to the lost by word of mouth, person to person. It is the most effective way to take the gospel of the grace of God to a lost world (Romans 10:13-17). It is very evident that Adam preached the gospel to his descendants. Consider Cain and Abel; they came at the same time, to the same place, for the same purpose—to worship God (Genesis 4:1-5). Who taught them to worship God? It was Adam, God’s first preacher. We know that Cain killed Abel and that another son was born to Adam and Eve, whose name was Seth. Seth had a son whose name was Enosh. “Then men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25, 26). Who taught Seth and Enosh to call on the name of Jehovah? God’s first prophet, Adam.
Noah could have received God’s Word from Methuselah, who could have been taught by Adam. When Adam died, Methuselah was 253 years old. This means that Adam, God’s first prophet, had 253 years in which to indoctrinate Methuselah. Methuselah lived 600 years after Noah was born; he was Noah’s grandfather. He had 600 years in which to teach Noah, his grandson. By word of mouth Adam taught Methuselah, and Methuselah taught Noah. So Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
2) By Written Records. Who is to say that Noah, who descended from Adam through Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, was not heir to all the records from Adam to Lamech? Jude tells us that Enoch prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all” (Jude 14, 15). This prophecy was written in the days of Enoch, who was born 622 years after the creation of Adam. When God created Adam, he was perfect in every way—spirit, soul, and body. This means that Adam, though never having learned, had perfect knowledge of all things related to this creation (Genesis 2:18-20). In this he is a type of Christ, and the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). When God created all the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, he brought them to Adam, who gave each of them their names. Adam did not memorize their names, he named them. He was created with a language and a vocabulary to express his every thought.
Therefore, it does not take a great faith to believe that Adam could have invented an alphabet of letters or other characters with which his spoken language could be written. Or God could have given him the alphabet of letters or characters when He created him. The people who lived before the Flood must have had a system of keeping written records. Noah must have had some of the written records from Adam to Lamech.
3) By Revelation. God revealed His will to Noah. He said to Noah, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood” (Genesis 6:14). When the ark was ready, He spoke to Noah and told him to enter the ark. When the Flood ended and the land was dry, God told Noah to come out of the ark. God speaks in many different ways to man.
Today, He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit and His written Word. However, in the past six thousand years, He spoke to man through dreams, or a voice from heaven. He often revealed Himself to man in the form of a man, or as the Angel of the Lord. We are told how He spoke to Noah; all we know is that He revealed His will for Noah’s life. Noah obeyed all of God’s commandments, “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). God, knowing that Noah and his family would be the only survivors of the Flood, entrusted Noah with the knowledge of all of His Acts from Creation to the Flood. In so doing, Noah was able to pass these truths on to his descendants down to Moses, who wrote under the inspiration of God the first five books of the Bible.
45-1 Noah: A Man Convicted
(Matthew 24:37-39)
“And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever’ ” (Genesis 6:3). The Holy Spirit began His ministry of convicting mankind of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:7-11) in the age before the Flood. He has continued to “strive with man” in every dispensation, and will continue as long as there are lost souls on earth. God began to strive with man in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve fell, the Lord came and called to Adam saying, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:1-10). Thus, God began His ministry of reaching out to lost humanity.
From the first He was “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
When the Holy Spirit convicted Noah of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, he repented an “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). The question is often asked, how were the lost saved before the death of Christ on Calvary? The answer is, they were saved by grace through faith, looking forward to the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we are saved by grace through faith, looking back to the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way anyone can be saved is through the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:10-12; Romans 3:25).
Now, the people who lived before the Flood had the gospel preached through prophecy and through typology. Therefore, those who rejected the gospel, which was preached by Adam and his descendants, were without excuse (Romans 1:20).
1) The pre-Flood people had the gospel preached through prophecy. When Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord cursed the serpent for allowing Satan to possess it and speak with Eve, tempting her to sin (2 Corinthians 11:3). Then the Lord said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). This is the first promise of the virgin-born Redeemer. There is no seed of a woman. The woman produces the egg and the man the seed. This prophecy is a biological miracle. No woman can reproduce without the seed of the man. Yet the Virgin Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ while she was still a virgin (Luke 1:30-35). Those who lived before the Flood had the promise of the Savior who would bruise the head of Satan.
2) The pre-Flood people had the gospel preached through typology. God in His grace provided a covering for the nakedness of Adam and Eve: “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). They did not need a theologian to tell them that the innocent had died to atone for the guilty. Before God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden, He gave them the gospel in prophecy: the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. And the Seed of the woman would shed His blood to atone for lost souls.
This gospel was handed down from Adam to Cain and Abel; Cain rejected the gospel, but Abel accepted (Genesis 4:1-16). Then Seth was born; Adam gave him the gospel, and Seth believed. “Then men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25, 26). Adam gave the gospel to each of his descendants. He lived on for 243 years after Methuselah was born, and Methuselah lived 600 years after Noah was born. Adam had 243 years in which to give the gospel to Methuselah, and Methuselah had 600 years in which to pass it on to Noah.
45-2 Noah: A Man of Vision
(Proverbs 29:18)
“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint” (v. 18). As a consequence, people fall apart; they lose all consciousness of righteousness. They go to pieces spiritually and morally. The last verse in the book of Judges illustrates: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The Lord is saying, as it were, “Where there is no vision (revelation) of God in all His love, power, and glory, the people perish, fall apart, and turn to spiritual anarchy.” Jesus said, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:36-39).
At the second coming of Christ, history will repeat itself. Noah’s family is a type of the body of Christ – those who have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Those who drowned in the Flood were comparable in that day to those who will have heard and rejected the gospel of salvation in the day to come. Without a vision of God in His coming glory, they will perish.
Noah was a man of vision. The word “vision” is not found in the Bible until Genesis 15:1; yet it is found over a hundred times in the remaining Scriptures. It suggests a supernatural experience; it is something or someone seen other than by natural sight (Acts 16:8-10). Noah had a vision of the grace of God; he found grace and knew it. How did he know? By faith. Noah had a vision of God’s plans for the ark. For 120 years he was true to that vision. He worked on the ark and walked with God. He had a supernatural vision of the unseen that was more real than anything seen with his natural vision (2 Corinthians 4:18).
45-3 Noah: A Preacher of Righteousness
(2 Peter 2:5)
The Scriptures tell us that Noah was “a preacher of righteousness” (v. 5). He heralded the righteousness of God.
The righteousness and justice of God are revealed in two ways:
1) By punishing the wicked for rejecting the righteousness of God in Christ (Psalm 11:5, 6);
2) By rewarding the righteous who were made the righteousness of God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20, 21).
The righteousness of God is that attribute which assures man that God is just and will always do what is right. The righteousness and justice of God are manifestations of His holiness. To say that God is holy is to say that He is wholly pure and separate from sin. In eternity past, present, and future, He is pure. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
Noah was a preacher of righteousness and justice. It is not possible to declare the righteousness and holiness of God and not proclaim His justice (Jeremiah 23:5, 6). This preacher of righteousness warned the wicked of their ways for 120 years (Ezekiel 33:7-9). It has been said that Noah never had a convert, but this is not true. He preached the righteousness of God; his wife and his three sons and daughters-in-law were saved by grace through faith. During the 120 years that Noah preached the righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit was striving with the lost (Genesis 6:3). Some could have been saved and died before the Flood. However, he certainly won seven souls to faith in “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6).
45-4 Noah: A Man of Action
(Genesis 6:22)
“Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (v. 22): Noah was a man of action – God commanded, Noah acted! (Psalm 37:5). Once he knew the will of God for his life, he obeyed. In the Genesis account of the flood, we learn of Noah’s ingrained, unwavering, active obedience to God’s revealed will. He was conformed to the purpose of God (Romans 12:1, 2), but not to the ways of the pre-Flood world system; for he had nothing in common with that wicked generation (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). He walked in fellowship with God and found the spiritual strength to resist the temptations of that day.
Paul tells us that all temptations are common to man; so don’t think that you are the only believer that has been overtaken by temptation. You may live in a situation where there is obviously much to tempt you, or you may live where there is apparently little to tempt you. Regardless of your circumstances, you will be tempted; there is no escape. But we have good news: God has promised that He will not allow us to be tempted above our spiritual capacity to resist, and that He will make “the way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13). “He [the Holy Spirit] who is in you is greater than he [Satan] who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Noah, a man of action, resisted the temptations of that age as he walked with God. He found:
1) Saving grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
2) Justification by faith (Romans 5:1).
3) Peace with God by faith (Romans 5:1).
4) The righteousness of God, which he preached by faith (2 Peter 2:5).
5) Perfection in his generation, because he found it by faith in God (Colossians 1:28)
God commanded Noah, saying, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood” (v. 14). He gave Noah the plans for the ark, and Noah went to work. It was a monumental undertaking in many ways:
1) Consider the size of the ark: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. But how long is a cubit? The Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans defined it differently, from 17.5 inches to 24 inches. Using an 18-inch cubit, we see that Noah’s ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. It has been calculated that the ark had the cubic capacity of more than 500 freight cars. It was three stories high and was divided throughout into rooms, or dens.
2) Noah and his sons needed skilled help to build the ark. The trees had to be felled, sawn into thick boards, and dried in the sun or in a kiln. For that huge amount of lumber, much of it must have been transported many miles. The ark was covered with pitch inside and out to make it waterproof; this must have taken tons of pitch.
3) Noah took enough supplies to last a year and ten days for his family and all the animals while in the ark, as well as enough to last until first harvest (Genesis 7:11; 8:13-19).
4) Noah assumed the total cost of the ark and all the supplies. He must have been a wealthy man. Yes, it cost Noah dearly to build the ark; but consider what it would have cost him if he had not built the ark. If your faith has never cost you anything, you have faith that is dead (James 2:17, 18). When King David wanted to buy Araunah’s threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord, Araunah offered to give it to the king, and David said, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price: nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). Noah had faith that cost him every material thing, but is also gave him and his family every eternal thing—salvation by grace through faith (2 Corinthians 4:18).
45-5 Noah: A Man of Faith
(Hebrews 11:7)
In this brief text the Holy Spirit reveals seven elements that embody faith. Noah had great faith. Noah “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9), lived, worked, and preached righteousness for 120 years. The world was so corrupt that the Lord said “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The seven parts of Noah’s great faith are:
1) The foundation – being warned by God. The only foundation for saving faith is the infallible Word of God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith not founded upon God’s inerrant Word is vain belief (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). By faith Noah was triumphant over the evils of the people who lived before the Flood, which ended in the judgment of God (Genesis 7:20-24).
2) The measure – he believed “things not yet seen.” Paul tells us that “God has dealt to each one [believer] a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). Real faith does not have to see to believe: “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). For 120 years Noah believed “things not yet seen”; then he saw the prophecy of the Flood fulfilled. Noah did not look at visible things, but by faith he looked at invisible things. Because they are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). By faith Noah and his family came through the judgment of the Flood, and saw God’s glory.
3) The power – he was “moved with godly fear.” He was moved to act with godly fear in reverence that led to repentance, resulting in salvation by the grace of God. Noah not only believed God’s promise of grace, but also His promise of judgment. Those who do not believe that God will punish sin in the impenitent sinner do not know saving faith. Noah, like all lost sinners, had a choice: he could accept the gift of God, which is eternal life, or he could choose to live in sin and collect its wages, which are eternal separation from the mercy of God (Romans 6:23). The power of Noah’s faith moved him with holy fear to obey God and build the ark. He believed that God would judge man, as He promised, saying, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.” (Genesis 6:7).
4) The proof – he “prepared an ark.” To those who lived before the Flood, Noah was a fool. He was building a huge ark of gopherwood on dry land, which seemed senseless. The ark was the evidence of Noah’s faith; he had a living, working faith. His faith provided the working force that “prepared an ark.” Faith that does not motivate works is dead (James 2:17).
5) The fruits – “for the saving of his household.” Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and his labor was not in vain. He ministered to his wife, three sons, and three daughters-in-law. All seven believed, and were saved by the grace of God.
6) The function – “by which he condemned the world.” The gospel of the grace of God will do one of two things when proclaimed by faith:
a) It will bring salvation, when believed (Acts 16:31).
b) It will bring condemnation when rejected in unbelief (John 3:36). To illustrate, the sun will melt a hard chunk of ice, but also harden a soft lump of clay. The gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit will save or condemn.
7) The recompense – and “became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” When we were saved by faith in Christ, we were made righteous with the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), even though we remain in this body of flesh which is under the curse of sin and death (Romans 7:24, 25). God sees us as righteous because we are in Christ by faith. However, there is a righteousness that we cannot know until we stand before Him in our resurrected, glorified bodies; then “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
The reward that God promised Noah was that he would become “heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” God tells us that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). None of the saved of the Old or New Testament entered into their inheritance. Noah, along with all the saints, must wait until Jesus comes and resurrects the bodies of all believers before he can enter his full inheritance as an “heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
How does your faith compare with Noah’s?
Master Outline 45 – Noah – The Man who built the Ark
[1] Who said, “God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began?”
[2] The people who lived before the flood were called?
[3] What are the three (3) ways God revealed His grace to Noah?
1.
2.
3.
[4] What is the most effective way to take the gospel to a lost world?
[5] Cain and Abel came to the __________________ ____________________, at the
____________________ _____________________ for the _____________________
_______________________, to ____________________________.
[6] Who was God’s first preacher?
[7] How old was Methuselah when Adam died?
[8] How long did Methuselah live after Noah was born, and what was the relationship?
[9] God ________________________ His ______________________ to
____________________.
[10] What are the two (2) primary ways God speaks to us today?
1.
2.
[11] How do we know Noah obeyed God?
[12] Did the Holy Spirit ministry of convicting mankind of sin begin in the New Testament? TRUE or FALSE. Explain.
[13] How was Noah convicted of sin, and how did he find grace in the eyes of the Lord?
[14] How were the lost saved before Christ?
[15] What two (2) ways did the pre-flood people have the gospel preached?
1.
2.
[16] Why did God curse the serpent?
[17] What is the first promise of the virgin-born redeemer?
[18] This prophecy is what type of miracle? Explain.
[19] Before Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, what did God give them?
[20] Did Seth believe the Gospel? YES or NO. Explain.
[21] What does lack of vision cause?
[22] What does it mean, “At the second coming of Christ, history will repeat itself?”
[23] What does the word “VISION” suggest?
[24] How long was Noah true to his vision?
[25] The Scripture tells us that Noah was what type of preacher?
[26] What two (2) ways is the righteousness and justice of God revealed?
1.
2.
[27]What is the righteousness of God?
[28] Is it possible to declare the righteousness and holiness of God without proclaiming His justice? YES or NO. Explain.
[29] How do we know Noah was a man of action?
[30] Paul tells us that all temptations are what?
[31] What five (5) things did Noah find as he walked with God?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
[32] How big was the Ark?
[33] It has been calculated that the ark had the cubic capacity of more that _______________ freight cars.
[34] How many days of supplies did Noah take on the ark with him?
[35] What does the statement, “If your faith never cost you anything, you have faith that is dead.”
[36] What are seven (7) elements that embody faith?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
[37] Have the saved that are dead from the Old Testament and New Testament entered into their inheritance?
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