Intro: Noah lived in a day of grace –- and so do we! In Noah’s case, the door of salvation was open for 120 years –as 1 Peter 3:20. We live in a day of grace, when God’s offer of salvation is still being made to men and women. Noah lived and worked in a day of terrible apostasy –- and so do we! As Noah lived and labored for the Lord in a time of great spiritual and moral darkness and wickedness.
Noah lived and worked at the end of an age or dispensation –- and so do we! Noah worked for God in the last days of his dispensation; we live in the last days of the dispensation of grace.
Text: “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.”
There are five outlines concerning this text in Hebrew 11:7
Noah Work of Faith
1. He feared God
2. He prepared an ark for salvation of his family
3. He condemned the world in his time
4. He was an heir of Righteousness
5. He found grace in the eyes of God
2) Jesus is the Ark of Salvation
The ark is a type of the Son of Man. The ark was made of gopher wood, and it is a type of the humanity of the Lord Jesus. The salvation that they experienced was a salvation out of the world. At that time, all the fountains of the great deep burst open, the windows of heaven were opened, and the flood came upon the whole earth.
What was the Ark Represents?
A. The ark provides us with a wonderful type of the Church.
1. It was built by God’s initiative (Mt. 16:18).
2. It was designed by God. God provided the pattern.
3. It was made up of many trees built together (I Pet. 2:5).
4. It had many rooms or compartments (Gen. 6:14; John 14:2, 23).
5. It had an atonement (pitch) covering (Gen. 6:14).
6. It only had one door into it (Gen. 6:16; John 14:6).
7. It was a place of the presence of God (Mt. 18:20; Eph. 2:22).
8. It was available for clean and unclean animals (Acts 10:9-16).
9. It was a place of food or provision.
10. It was the God ordained means for people to escape judgment (Compare Acts 27:31).
4. Noah was a Heir of Righteousness
In the Old testament if Noah is the heir of righteousness so in the New testament we are the Righteousness of God in Christ. How was Noah righteous? By faith
What is an heir of righteousness?
Answer: The literal meaning of heir is “someone who has been appointed to receive an inheritance.” An heir is a person who receives something of value from a father (see Mark 12:7)
In this case Christ’s Righteousness
5. Noah Found Grace
Genesis 6:5-8 – 5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
This is the first mention of grace in the Bible (see Gen. 6:8). The name, “Noah” means “rest”. Rest finds grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jesus had no sin, but was full of grace—why? He was full of rest.
Noah’s Ark is a picture of Jesus and His finished work
1 Peter 3:20 - NIV
“… to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, …”
The Mandarin word for boat, when broken up into individual characters, has the words, “vessel”, “eight”, and “people”. It paints a picture of eight people in a boat, which accurately depicts Noah and his family in the ark—Noah, Noah’s wife, their three sons and their wives.
Noah was not righteous because of his character, he was righteous because of the blood of the Lamb (Jesus). Noah believed in the same blood sacrifice, and was pronounced righteous by faith.
