WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 4)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

Hebrews 11:7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How important is the matter of faith?

So important that we find an entire chapter of the Bible dedicated to it, a chapter that we have been looking at in micro-fashion over the past few days as we move through what will be a 19 message series titled “What Faith Brings”.

Yesterday, we looked at an Old Testament figure who wasn’t necessarily familiar to most Christians, a man named Enoch who we learned was a descendant of Adam and hailed in Hebrews, chapter 11 for his faithful walking with God through his life, a life that would have been lived with a desire to please the Lord.

As we pivot to today’s message, we find a tribute to a man who most everyone knows of, whether they are a Christian or not. That man is Noah who constructed the great ark that spared him, his wife, his sons and daughters in law, and a whole bevy of animal pairings from destruction from the great flood.

Here’s what we read about him in regard to faith in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 7:

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

Now, of interest, there is no recording of any rainfall happening on earth until Noah had completed the ark and loaded it with his family and the animals. At that time, the people of the world had become so evil and wicked that God actually regretted every creating human beings (Genesis 6:5-6). In His disappointment and anger, He decided to eradicate the human race along with all the animals, birds, and ground crawling creatures with the exception of those on the ark (Genesis 6:7). And so when the first rain fell, it fell hard and for a long period of time, forty days and nights, which flooded the entire earth.

So why were Noah and his family chosen to be the sole survivors?

The scriptures in Genesis, chapter 6 tell us he was “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (v. 9). This faithfulness is what led Noah to build the ark even when others would have seen it as nonsensical. With a sense of “holy fear”, Noah fully believed God was going to do what He said after being warned of what he was still yet to see and because of that faith, our passage today tells us that he became an “an heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith”.

Noah, obedient in his response to God’s will, became a model of practicing righteousness through faith and as a result, God delivered him and his family from death. Once the flood waters disappeared, they were the only people left alive.

So how does this translate to us as Christians today?

Well, as sinners who were wicked and short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), we were destined for destruction until we, by faith, placed our belief in God’s promise of salvation through His Son. By that faith, we chose to live a new life, leaving behind Hell and damnation and exchanging it for the right living found in following Jesus and behaving as He did. Through Christ, all believers became heirs to righteousness and that inheritance of righteousness included a bonus, an added claim to the very kingdom of Heaven as co-heirs with Jesus Himself (Romans 8:14-17).

What does faith bring?

It brings us to a place where we, like Noah, experience holy fear that drives us to be obedient to God’s calling, a calling that includes belief in His Son Jesus in order to be saved from our sin. Then, our belief in Jesus allows us to inherit righteousness and Heaven as we dedicate our lives to selflessly serve others just as He did. Rescued by God through Christ, we are saved from the sure destruction of judgment and given an eternal, glorious Kingdom future.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.