Today we begin a new series of messages entitled Character Tour as Pastor Rick shares the life lessons we can learn from Noah. In Genesis 6:9 it says, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time." Now the word "blameless" doesn't meant perfection. It literally means "uncontaminated." As we shall see, Noah was not "contaminated" by the wickedness of his day. He was Gods' man through and through.
Noah lived in a culture that was unimaginably degraded...horribly corrupt and yet he was different. You may remember that Henry David Thoreau once said, "If I seem to walk out of step with others, it is because I am listening to another drum beat." And this is a good description of genuine faith. Christians who embrace a deep faith in God walk through life as though listening to another drum beat. They are out of step with the world. You see, there is no such thing as a Christian life that is not counterculture. If you are a follower of the Lord, it means you are going to have to make decisions that distinguish you from the sinful world in which we all live.
Here is a simple overview of the account of Noah:
If you want to study more about Noah
and the factual account recorded from
Genesis 6-9 simply click HERE
Since you're studying this passage, I have a question for you. The Bible says that Noah found grace in God's eyes, but it also goes to great lengths to point out Noah's righteousness. Did Noah earn God's favor or was it unmerited?
ReplyDeleteChris - Consider this from
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ccel.org/ccel/roberts_bh/holiness.xix.html?highlight=noah,found,grace,in,god,eyes#highlight
NOAH. God does not leave Himself without a witness. When all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth, and the earth was filled with violence, Noah remained true to God. He stood alone. Wickedness was general. It was also most intense. Men lived long, and became proficient in crime.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”—Gen. 6:5
It is impossible to describe sin as more intense or more deeply seated. In the midst of this moral corruption Noah lived a holy life for six hundred years. He had all the elements of true holiness.
There was a strong power of resistance. There is never an Eden on earth into which the tempter does not enter. You cannot build walls so high that they will keep out the emissaries of evil. Every apostle of truth will find it to his apparent advantage to sell out his Master. He who is willing to follow in the evil paths will never be at a loss for some to lead the way. In the most favored localities bad examples can be found. He who takes the broad road that leadeth to destruction, will never lack for companions.
Noah’s friends and neighbors, relatives and acquaintances, all forsook the service of God. In most places, here and there one can be found who has the fear of God before him. But it was not so in that age of the world. Go as far as he might, in whatever direction he might, he could find no assembly of the saints—for there were no saints to assemble. Every gathering was a wicked gathering. Every man was a wicked man. To stem this current of corruption required moral energy. He had it. We may have it. The force of gravity is just as great now as it was when the world was first swung out upon its orbit. So grace does not degenerate. It can do for us all it did for the patriarchs of the infant world.
Noah was a just man. He met all his obligations, both to God and his fellow man. Some men who call themselves honest will, when opportunity offers, take advantage of those who have taken advantage of them. They try to be even with the dishonest. If the government steals from them they do not hesitate to defraud the government. If they suspect others of misrepresenting, their own representations must be taken with allowance. But Noah was just. Honesty is essential to holiness. It is but a small part of holiness, but it is a necessary part. No excess in other directions can compensate for a lack here.
He was a devout man. While walking uprightly among his fellow men he maintained a spirit of true devotion to God. In every thing he was led by the Spirit. His life was one of communion with God. His prayers and praises were not formal. He walked with God.
Without a spirit of devotion the most rigid morality makes one but a Stoic. He is not a Christian. An essential ingredient is wanting. Without the love of God there can be no true service of God. But if we love God we shall walk with him. We shall have a consciousness of his presence. He will talk with us and we shall talk with Him.
He was consistent. His piety was all of a pattern. There was no redundancy and no lack. Some who are very devout abroad, are ill-tempered at home. Some will give liberally, but they make their money by questionable practices. Others are full of integrity, kind, polite, firm, but they encourage pride, both by silence and by example. Many hold out well for a time, and then gradually cool down to the temperature around them. But Noah was perfect in his generations. (Gen. 6:9.) He began well and he held out as he began.
In true holiness there is symmetry of character. Every one has his natural defects, but grace is intended to supply these defects. Whatever is too prominent it depresses; whatever is wrong it removes, and it furnishes whatever is lacking. Any one may become a saint. Whatever is needful for the purpose God can, by the mighty operation of His Spirit, impart. The Bible not only affirms that Noah was perfect, but the Saviour commands us to be perfect. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.”—Matt. 5:48. This has respect, not to any one good quality in particular, but to all good qualities. It is the practical application, made by the Saviour, of His own blessed teachings. It requires right feelings towards our fellow-men, and a course of conduct corresponding in every particular to that feeling. It enjoins love to our enemies, the kind treatment of all, and the full discharge of all the obligations which we owe to our Heavenly Father.
The end aimed at in all the teachings of the Bible, is this completeness of Christian character.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”—II Tim. 3:16, 17.
St. Paul also tells us that it was to secure this perfection of Christian graces that the ministry was given.
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”—Eph. 4:11-13.
With all these helps, it is expected that the weakest Christian excel the mightiest saint who lived and died without these aids.
“Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Matt. 11:11
Does not the prophet refer to this when he says,
“He that is feeble among them at that day shall be is David.”—Zech. 12:8