Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/bbcsylmar/sermons/71991/the-faith-of-noah/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Meaning that the first example of faith in Abel showed us how to trust a blood sacrifice of a lamb to gain God's acceptance, to gain his approval. [0:11] And then the second one of Enoch showed us a walk of faith that pleased God. And we saw with Enoch that he approached God in faith and that he diligently sought to know and to understand the ways of God and the truth of God. [0:27] And what he learned he put to practice because the Bible says Enoch walked by faith and that he walked with God. And so this was a walk of faith. [0:37] And then we also learned from the book of Jude that Enoch was separate from those ungodly sinners and their ungodly deeds that surrounded him. But he preached against them and he was not conformed to this world. [0:49] Rather he was transformed and he did so much that he pleased God. He was transformed so much that God translated him. The Bible says that God took him. And he was translated as it says here in our text in Hebrews 11. [1:03] Now we've covered Abel and Enoch. And I want to remind you before we get into the next one that we are not just studying these examples to encourage you to live a life of faith. [1:16] But we're studying these examples. I believe the reason they're given is to show you what New Testament faith is going to look like. What is how how faith in you in the New Testament. [1:27] I hope you understand. I'm not faith in you, but faith. God's faith in you by faith in this Testament. It's going to act a certain way. And these are the examples. [1:38] And so the first example was trusting the Lamb of God for your righteousness and not trusting your religion like Cain. The second one is to after that then to walk with God separate from an ungodly world and to walk in a way that pleases God. [1:55] So now today let's get into Hebrews 11 and verse number 7 and we'll study the faith of Noah. It's just one verse and that's all we're going to need because there's plenty in here. [2:06] Verse number 7. The Bible says, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. [2:25] The verse starts and ends with the same two words. And this is now the faith of Noah. But before we go into this anymore, let us pray together and seek the Lord's help in this. [2:36] Father, as we bow our heads before you, we come humbly and submissively. And we're seeking diligently as we're supposed to, to get to know you and to understand your truth. [2:48] And so Lord, please reveal truth to us from the word of God. God, help us to understand this example and why it is necessary and befitting for us to walk according to the faith of Noah. [3:00] And Lord, I pray that you'll just teach us something this evening and help us to be willing and humble to obey and to put into practice what we learn. And God, you've got to show us and you've got to help us. [3:13] And it's all got to be a work of you inside of us. And so please do that now as we submit to you. And we pray for these things in Jesus name. All right. Amen. The faith of Noah, without a doubt, without a doubt, Noah was asked of God to do something extraordinary. [3:31] I mean, out of this world kind of stuff. It was far, far beyond the human experience of the time. And therefore, it was just completely unrelatable. [3:44] He wasn't thinking outside of the box. Noah was living outside of the box and what he was called to do. He was commanded of God to do something that defied rational logic. [3:55] It was, as far as the realm of human understanding goes, this is absurd, even impossible for what he's going to go do. And if you remember with me that God gives faith proportionate to the ask. [4:11] And this is a big ask. And you read through Genesis 6, 7, 8. You read about Noah building the ark, preparing it to the saving of his house. And you fly right through that, you know, in one day's reading or portion of your reading. [4:26] And you don't, you cannot comprehend the amount of energy and effort and strain and time that was involved in this one man's life and this act. [4:37] It's just in Hebrews 7. It's just in one verse. Boom, we're moving on to somebody else. But I want to take some time and break down this verse here and draw out as much as we can about the faith of Noah. [4:50] So beginning in the verse, it says, By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet. Well, what is he referring to by that? What do you say? God warned him of something that was not seen as yet. [5:02] What could that be? Both. Together. The flood. The big worldwide global flood. And this is not new to us to hear about this. [5:15] But you've got to put yourself in Noah's shoes and realize this was brand new to him to hear about something like this. Not only the thought of water falling from the sky, like you mentioned, the rain, that didn't take place back then. [5:29] The Bible says in Genesis 2 that the water was, it was a mist. The Lord watered the ground through a mist. And so rain was a new concept to him as far as we understand. But such an amount of water that could fill the earth and put everything under. [5:45] It's more than his mind can just calculate and understand. But on top of that, there's something I think very disturbing about it. Notice in verse 7 it says, Noah being warned of God. [5:59] It doesn't say Noah being informed of God. God just wasn't saying, hey Noah, this is what I'm going to do. You want to see me do it? He's warning Noah just as much as everybody else. [6:10] Noah's being warned of God that God's about to do something. And I don't think this was a very easy warning to hear. So keep your place in Hebrews. But let's go back and take a look at exactly what this was. [6:22] Back to the first book of your Bible in Genesis chapter 6. Noah was warned of God of things not seen as yet. [6:35] Genesis chapter 6. And we're going to read through this portion, starting with verse 11 down to verse 20. [6:48] Well, we'll finish the chapter. And so just follow along, get a little insight into Noah. Verse 11 says, The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. [7:01] And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. [7:15] And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of. [7:28] The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou fashion it above, and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. [7:42] With lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And behold, I, even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven. [7:54] And everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant. Thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. [8:05] And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and female, of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing on the earth after his kind. [8:20] Two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee and for them. And thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. [8:35] Now, I'm going to have to notice a few things out of this passage here. And this is the warning that we're reading from God. In order, the order of these words to Noah, it's a lot to take in. [8:49] He begins by telling him, the end of all flesh is come before me. And the earth is corrupt, it's full of violence, I will destroy them with the earth. The first words that Noah gets from God, it's not positive, it's not friendly and warm, it's a horrible thought. [9:09] It's over, Noah. I'm putting an end to this whole thing right here and right now. That's the first thing God says to him. Don't you think that'd come as a bit of a shock to you? I mean, maybe he understands how wicked the men on the earth are, and how he's walking with God. [9:25] He understands this is not the way the Lord intended it to be. But he shows up and says, it's over. It's all over. And then he tells them in verse 14, 15, 16, to make an ark. [9:39] To make an ark. This is a command God gives. I mean, he has never thought of this, has never come to his attention until this moment. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Oh, by the way, 300 cubits by 50. [9:50] And I could just think, Noah's thinking, what? 300 cubits? By 50? By 30? Do you have any idea how massive that is? [10:02] Of a vessel? If God told you to go into your backyard and build him a shed, you'd probably think, okay, yeah, I can pour a slab, and I could, and if he said, oh, by the way, I want that shed to be 30 stories tall, all of a sudden, okay, that's out of my ability. [10:22] That's out of my range there. That's just got a little bit. But God didn't just say, I want you to make a boat. He said, I want it to be 300 cubits long. Do you know how far, how big that is? [10:33] That's, there's different cubit measurements, but just say it's 18 inches is a cubit roughly. That's a football field and a half of this thing, just from end to end. [10:48] 30 cubits tall. That's 45. And, or was it, let me get back to the measurements. Yeah, 30 tall. So that's 45 feet tall, four and a half stories, this thing. [11:00] And inside, it's going to have three levels. And so this is, this is nuts. This is huge. I want you to feel the enormity of those numbers because Noah heard it from God. [11:12] He had to digest those numbers. And his mind is racing and thinking, I can't even picture a vessel that big, much less, how are these hands going to do that? [11:27] It's not Noah's ark building construction company going on here. This is out of his wheelhouse. This is out of his wheelhouse. And in verse 17, the Lord says, I'm going to flood this whole place off. [11:38] It's going to be with water. A flood of waters is how I'm going to do this. And you're going to make an ark. And I'm going to deliver you and your family. Now, if you heard all of that, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, if you heard all of that for the first time, that's a lot to take in. [11:58] I think that's an understatement to say that. Noah exercised faith in the word of God when it defiled any human experience that he had to date, or anyone did, any logic or reasoning of raining water from the sky so heavy and so high that it covers every mountain and the entire earth and every living thing is put to death. [12:24] And that God's going to be the one killing off everything. Everything that has the breath of life in it, I'm killing it. I'm done with it, Noah. That's a lot to take in. [12:36] This is beyond Enoch seeking to know God and diligently seeking him and walking with him separate from the world because Noah did that too. I didn't read those verses, but look earlier in the chapter 6 and verses 8 and 9. [12:51] Noah did that too. Verse 8 says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. [13:03] There's only two men in the Bible that says they walked with God. It's Enoch back in chapter 5 and Noah in chapter 6. And so Noah, just like Enoch, walked with God. [13:14] A perfect man. A just man in his generations. He was a good guy. And God took Enoch, but God spared Noah. [13:26] There's a little different reaction to the way God deals with these men. But just let that first thought sink in, that being warned of God of things not seen as yet. And Noah, by faith, he exercised faith in what God told him to do. [13:40] And so move back to Hebrews chapter 11 now. Hebrews 11. We'll spend our time here now. So Noah was warned of God, and I'm just trying to get you to think on this. [13:55] We could spend a lot more time on it, but it was a big, big thing that God dumped on Noah that night. Now it says this, by faith, verse 7, by faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, next little phrase says, moved with fear. [14:12] Moved is an action, but this is an internal one. This is on the inside, moved with fear. Preparing the ark was the external thing that he did, but that followed the internal to fear the Lord and his word. [14:29] The fear of the Lord dwelt on the inside of Noah and therefore influenced the actions and the obedience of Noah on the outside. That's an important thing to understand about this faith. [14:42] God spoke some awful wild things to this man, and some dreadful things to this man, and Noah reverently submitted no matter what. He didn't balk at God's word. [14:54] He didn't flinch at it. He didn't question it. Instead, no, he moved with fear. When the Lord said, this is what I'm going to do, but I want you to understand, this was a warning. So yeah, he moved with fear, because God's going to do this, and if I ignore his word, I'll be swept away with it too. [15:14] And so he moved with fear. Don't forget that this construction project is one like no other. Maybe Noah built boats before. Maybe he did build fishing boats, and maybe he and his boys did have a construction company, but they've never done one like this one. [15:30] And he'll be the laughingstock of the entire region. For the amount of time it took him to do this, don't think for a minute it didn't draw spectators and people coming to see. [15:41] And if we know about Enoch preached to that ungodly world, and that was two generations ago, if it was that bad then, now it's such a case that God even repents that even made man on the earth, and decides, I'm destroying all of them. [15:56] Then, don't think that the environment was very friendly to helping Noah build this ark. Don't imagine that he had the support of sinful men. [16:07] It wouldn't surprise me if they attempted to sabotage the project, or interfere in some way with Noah's obedience to the Lord. Why would you say that? Well, the world has never been friendly to a just and perfect man that walks with God. [16:21] Sinners don't assist God's people in fulfilling God's word. The Bible says that they hate you, that they'll persecute you, that they'll accuse you, that they'll speak all manner of evil against you falsely. [16:34] Surely the world interfered in some way, if not intimidation, and maybe even physically. Not to mention the animals. All these animals, tamed and untamed, domesticated, male, female. [16:51] I mean, this is unheard of. This is absolutely insane that he's going to do this thing. It's unprecedented. It's wild. However, despite the obstacles, despite the atmosphere, despite the enormity of the project, despite being asked to do something that has never, ever, ever been done before, Noah feared God. [17:20] Noah feared God above fearing the wicked. Noah feared God above the magnitude of the work, above the wild and crazy nature of the whole thing. Noah feared God. [17:31] On the inside, he feared God. And I can't stress to you tonight how big of a deal that is, to fear God. When God speaks, you hear and you fear. [17:45] If God said that to him, there is no other voice on the planet that he's going to listen to. There is nothing that's going to deter him because God spoke to me. God told me to do this. [17:57] And I fear God. And so I'm going to build. I'm going to build and build and build and build for years and years and years and years and years. And I'm going to do it right here, where there's no flood. [18:14] It makes me wonder, in your Christian life, what does it take for you to disregard the Word of God? Or what does it take for you to disobey the Word of God? Does it take a few mocking sinners to get you to clam up and quiet? [18:30] Does it take a task that you've never attempted before? To say that, oh, this can't be the Lord because I don't know how to do that or I'm just not equipped or I'm not talented enough. [18:41] If God asks you to do something you're not comfortable with, is there a limit to your obedience? I bet there is if there's a limit to your fear of God. [18:52] Because those two things will probably run parallel. The fear of God you have in you, the obedience will ride right along. [19:02] But where that fear drops or where it stops or where you fear somebody else or your own insecurities or whatever it is, speaking in front of people or approaching somebody that you think, you know, with a gospel track, whatever that fear is that kicks against the fear of God, that's where your obedience will stop. [19:18] And so it says here in verse 7 that Noah moved with fear and then he did something. Then there's the external, the prepared an ark to the saving of his house. [19:31] He prepared an ark. This is the visible action, the one that everybody knows Noah for. I mean, like on a worldwide scale, Noah's flood, Noah's ark. [19:43] They built a massive replica of this in Kentucky. And I was going to show you some pictures of it, but nobody's manning it back there, so we'll just not deal with that tonight. [19:54] But just to give you maybe a little visible idea of the scope of this thing, it's bigger than you even imagine. This is no small feat. [20:06] And even if you get that, I don't think you get it. I think it's even more outrageous and unheard of than what you're picturing in your mind or understanding just like, yeah, it's a big boat. [20:16] Yep, that's big. That took a lot of work. But would you consider this? This is a major engineering feat. And did Moses have other boats to look at, like other arks that are three stories tall and this long? [20:35] Does he know about keeping it buoyant? Does he know about the load-bearing structures that's got to be stories within and how you're going to brace that to the entire frame of this thing? [20:51] Does he know all of this stuff? This is a major feat of engineering and architecture. That's before the construction even starts. And where's he going to get the material? [21:02] You can't just order it. It's not going to show up on a flatbed. Where's he going to get all this material? To assemble this. He's got to locate that, collect that, assemble it all into a waterproof vessel capable of surviving an epic global flood. [21:20] This is a masterful project. You think you could do it? You think you could do it? I mean, when you heard those numbers and what God's going to do, how would you react to that? [21:40] How do you think he financed the project? Does anybody ever talk about that or think about that? Do you think he just, just it showed up? [21:51] Or he just went out there with his own two hands and an axe and started cutting trees down? I mean, if you start thinking like that, he had three boys. That's a four-man workforce. [22:04] Cutting all that timber and then cutting it down. I mean, is there a sawmill? Well, I don't know. [22:15] The more I think about it, the more absurd this thing is. And it makes me feel like he had to finance this somehow. He had to incorporate workers or laborers. I can't even get into it. [22:27] It's beyond my ability to understand the cost, the planning, the labor. It's just the more I think about it, the more complex it becomes. It's an immense build. [22:43] I can imagine Noah hearing those numbers, picturing, doing the calculating a little bit and saying, God, I can't afford to build an ark that big. I don't have the resources. I don't have the money for that. [22:54] Or did he? I don't know. But he prepared an ark. Makes me wonder about Christians. I mean, it looks like Noah spared no expense. [23:06] He poured himself, his very life, sweat and energy and labor and his own, I would suggest, personal finance. I don't think he raised the money. [23:17] I don't think he had fundraisers for his ark build. I don't think he had people volunteering. If you think about it, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger than you ever imagined. [23:28] And yet, it just staggers me to think that Christians today won't even trust God with a tenth. Do you think Noah built that on his tithe? [23:39] No. Do you think he set a tenth aside for the ark? That's just as nuts. And Noah's the example of what? Of faith. Of trusting God, preparing something, doing, giving of his own, his hands and his own abilities and his own cost and finance to do something God told him to do and just doing it. [24:01] And it says this. This is where I want to get to at the end here. It says, By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark, notice this part, to the saving of his house. [24:17] Earlier we saw Abel and he just kind of, he got acceptance with God personally, just him and God. Enoch walked with God and God took him. [24:28] But Noah's faith and Noah's actions and his obedience, he gets his wife involved, he gets his three sons and their three wives, there's eight souls there that are delivered from this worldwide flood because of Noah's faith, because of Noah's fear, that he prepared his obedience, prepared this ark to the saving of his house. [24:49] So Noah's family was delivered. But everybody that they knew, everybody they grew up with, everybody they saw in a day-to-day, everything are gone. [25:04] Every single one of them. Noah's father, his name Lamech, back in chapter 5, Lamech, after having Noah, he had sons and daughters. So that tells me Noah had brothers and sisters. [25:16] That probably tells me, I don't have to think too hard here, that Noah and his three boys, they grew up, those boys grew up with aunts and uncles and cousins. And not one of them got on the ark. [25:27] Not a one of them. So everything they've known, everything they've ever seen, it all perished in the flood. And I'm just going to speculate a little bit here about Noah's family. [25:39] I bet it wasn't a popular thing to be one of Noah's kids. Noah, he walked with God. Noah wasn't interested in fitting in with this world. [25:50] He was a just man and a perfect man before the Lord. But I wonder if his kids felt the same way that he did. And I'm not going to presume either way too hard, but I've been, the proof is in the pudding. [26:06] How many kids grow up in a God-fearing family and stick it out or stick around or just not quite where mom and dad are? [26:19] And it just makes me wonder, based on my own experience and my own personal life, what these kids felt about what dad was doing and how much mockery they got, how much ridicule they endured. [26:33] Dad could handle it. Dad wasn't interested in being conformed to this world, but what about the kids? What about when they were growing up? What about when dad was walking with God? [26:45] I wonder if they were a little more in touch with technology of the day, with the fads of the day. And again, I don't want to presume too much about them, but their dad didn't care to fit in, but I can't help but wonder about the kids. [26:59] And I'm not just pulling this out of nowhere because we've all seen it. And I'm living proof of it. I'm personally, that was my deal for quite a while. I wonder how much they were interested in getting into that ark or how much they put into that ark. [27:15] But Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house. It might have been a rough span of years staying with dad while the ark was in preparing. And it might have been a little hard in their hearts to get on that ark and leave their world behind. [27:30] But when that door shut and no one else came on that board with them, just them, their immediate family and a bunch of animals. But when that rain started falling and when it turned out dad was right and dad feared God and I bet you they were glad he did. [27:49] And I bet you they were glad that they stayed with him. That they didn't walk away from it all and turn their backs on what dad was doing. Because what Noah did by his faith and by his obedience saved his house. [28:05] He saved his wife and his kids. They experienced this same flood for themselves and they were spared from the destruction but it wasn't because of their doing. [28:19] I want you to ponder that for a moment. It was Noah's faith and obedience that resulted in the deliverance of his family. I want you to ponder that it could be that walking with God and fearing God and giving your life's energy and your resources to God and humbling yourself before the Lord no matter what it could be that the result of that would be deliverance of some of your family too. [28:53] We all got families. I don't mean just children. I mean you've got families. You want to see them perishing with ungodly sinners in the destruction that God sends? [29:07] Don't you want to see them delivered? Don't you want to see them get in the ark? Well I need you to realize tonight that God will deal with your family through you and by your faith. [29:20] You start walking with God. you start being just and perfect before the Lord and when God speaks you obey what he says. You might find out that God wants to reach your family just the same way he reached you but he wants to use you to do it. [29:38] Why did God save me and not the rest of them? Or why did God why did well that's a big question everybody always asks. The answer is he probably did it to get to them through you. [29:49] So by faith Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house. It's a far bigger ask than just bringing an offering like Abel did in verse 4. [30:04] It was a different measure of faith because this thing spanned decades of labor and commitment. Noah's faith enabled him number one to believe the word of God when it conflicted with everything he had ever seen with his eyes or experienced in his life. [30:26] His faith enabled him to believe what God said. His faith secondly enabled him to fear God more than the surroundings more than the opposition and more than the obstacles. [30:40] And his faith enabled him to do something that no one had ever done before. Something so monumental that the whole world knows about it still today and the best part his family got saved in his obedience. [30:58] It was by faith. By faith. If there's no faith then there's no fear there's no obedience there's no ark and there's no deliverance. [31:10] faith. And this is an example. It's another example for New Testament Christians to understand that faith acts the same way in us. [31:24] By faith Noah and there's what he did. And if you have faith in this New Testament then this is what it's going to look like. If God's word doesn't match your experience or what your eyes have seen you can still believe him. [31:38] you can still exercise faith and fear and obey him. If God moves you to do something that's outside of your comfort zone he'll give you the faith to enable you to overcome your doubts and to overcome your reservations and your obedience can affect others. [31:59] Your personal obedience can affect other people in your life and in your family because God operates that way. That's just the way he does it and the history bears this out. [32:13] So by faith Noah did this. If there's a progression here I don't want to rehearse this too much but the Lamb of God the Lord Jesus Christ with Abel is the picture there. [32:27] And then walking with God seeking God getting to know the Lord and now your life starting to be a pleasure not conformed to the world but a pleasure to him and now that just brings us right up to Noah because he just just like Enoch walked with God and now a big ask and Noah shows us that it can be done by faith. [32:48] It's too big of an ask for me that's too big to give 50 years 60 years 70 years of my life to some project that is just wild and yet there's your example and that's what faith will do. [33:03] you know how many men and women have left their homes in America and have gone to countries where there's no running water and no electricity and they've taken with them a King James Bible and they felt the call of God on them to go do something for Jesus Christ and to tell a people about the Lord Jesus Christ to go there and prepare an ark to see some people saved and they went and if you read some accounts they labored for 10 years for 20 years for 30 years they didn't get rich they didn't get popular they didn't have people helping them out they just served God they feared God they obeyed what he told them to do they did it how? [33:53] by faith that sounds like too big of an ask for you right? to go somewhere that you've never been to follow the Lord leading you for some just handing out a gospel track sounds like too big of an ask it's scary or witnessing to your co-worker and trying to just breach the subject about Jesus Christ and about their soul but it can all be done Christian by faith you've got to start exercising faith God gives you a little you trust his son with it and it can start growing and it can start growing you may not be asked to do something Noah did but I promise you you'll be asked to do something for God will you fear him enough to obey him to do something that he's not asking somebody else to do just you just you well if you exercise faith then you can accomplish something for the Lord [34:57] Jesus Christ so we're going to dismiss with this but before we go this thing here that we're reading about with Noah it's more than just a historical account about God rescuing eight people and destroying who knows how many there's a picture in this as well if you want to call it a type there's a picture of salvation by obeying what God said and getting in the ark and I wonder if you were alive in that day if you would have got in the ark or if you would have said that's crazy you're a crazy cracked up old man and so I wonder tonight before we leave the Bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ left heaven came to earth lived a perfect life died on a cross to pay for every one of our sins and in doing so built an ark he built an ark in the sense of if you'll get into him you can have deliverance from damnation from the destruction in hell for your sins [36:11] I wonder if you realize tonight that when Noah built and what Noah got in delivered him and his family but if you'll get into Jesus Christ you can deliver your soul from paying for your sins in hell that's a picture and I want everybody in this place to know this and to understand that you can have forgiveness of sins and you can be born again and you can have acceptance with God like Abel did if you'll believe on his son the Lord Jesus Christ if you reject Jesus Christ say I don't need that I don't need that ark I'll build my own you don't know what you're talking about you got nothing to offer God he is so holy he is so high and lifted up you don't understand who he is you got nothing to offer him nothing so you better take his son what he offers you and I a free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ a free gift why would you not want that so we'll pick up later with [37:18] Abraham's faith and we'll move on past that but before we do let's bow our heads and we'll take off here just in a minute if you bow your head and let me just ask this question do you know for sure do you know for sure right now that if you die that you'd go to heaven do you know that you're in the ark that is that you're in Lord Jesus Christ if you don't know that then don't leave here not knowing that I'd love to take this old Bible and open it up and show you what the Bible says what God did for you to save your soul from hell but don't be mistaken God will damn a sinner he'll send hell is created for the devil and his angels God will send you there too as an unclean sinner unless you receive a cleansing unless you receive forgiveness which is offered through the sacrifice of [38:19] Jesus Christ if you'll believe on Jesus Christ and receive him you can be saved all right we're going to dismiss if you have any questions about your soul and about where you go when you die I'd love to answer those questions from the Bible before this evening's over Father in heaven thank you for tonight thank you for this great example in our Bible of Noah thank you for the faith that he showed and the action that it put forth and Lord may it be seen in our lives to help our faith not to be stagnant but not to sit around and just pretend we can talk about it but we can't do anything with it Lord give us action to our faith and help us to trust you and fear you and obey you and then Lord I pray even stronger than that that this last thought that you bring our families into the ark by our testimony and by our obedience I pray that you'll use each person here that your child that you'll use them to win their family to Jesus Christ give us boldness and courage give us wisdom and discernment and we'll give you the glory for all you do in Jesus