Hebrews: Hall of Faith

If you'd like to take your bibles, we're gonna have our readings now before Ben comes to preach to us We're currently in a series in the book of Hebrews. We're going through that. The the chapter chapter 11 of Hebrews, which is the Hall of Faith. And we're up to Noah taking a few verses at a time, 1 verse at a time, actually.

But we have 3 readings today, 1 from the old testament, 2 from the new. I I was tempted, I have to admit, I was tempted to make you do a sore drill today. But I decided against it. I was I've decided to be boring. But our first reading is from Genesis chapter 6.

So if you want to turn that up, we're going to read verses 5 to 14. Genesis chapter 6 verse 5. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth. And that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made man that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

So the Lord said I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I've created. And with them, the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I have made them, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the lord. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had 3 sons, shem ham and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become. For all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

So make yourself an arc of Cyprus wood, make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. And if you want to turn over to Hebrews, you can follow on the screen if you want. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 7. It says, by faith, Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

And the last 1 is second Peter chapter 2. Versus 4 to 9. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment. If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and 7 others, if he condemned the cities of sodom and Gamora by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen. To the young godly.

And if he rescued lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless. For that righteous man living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard. This is the this is the reading of God's word, and Ben is going to come now and preach to us on these verses. Thanks. Hey, everyone.

Good morning from me. Good to see you all. My name is Ben, I'm 1 of the pastors of Church here. Let me look this up. Slightly.

Do you know that song who built the ark? Who built the ark? Do you know what my cousin used to say when I was younger? No 1. No 1.

I was like, how that doesn't make any sense? There's no way. Like, no, it's no 1. Brother, no 1 built the ark. There you go.

So please keep Hebrew's chapter 11 open. I know we were flicking through lots of pages there. I've got some of the the passages that we're gonna look at on the screen. But if you keep Hebrew's chapter 11 open, that's the 1 that we'll mainly be looking at. And let me just pray as we as we start.

Father, we thank you for your words, and we thank you for the story of Noah. Lord, it's incredible that it's such a popular children's story and sort of toy and things like that, but Lord we wanna take it seriously. We want to hear what you have to say about Noah and about what you did through him. And to the world. So please help us now.

Holy Spirit give us ears to hear eyes to see and hearts that are ready to to be challenged and to be changed because of your washing word and we pray this in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Okay. So we're in Hebrews. We're going through Hebrews chapter 11 if you're new or visiting us this morning.

And we're looking at each week, we're looking at the question, what is the kind of faith that God commands? It talks a lot about a faith that God commands. He he sort of best witness to it. He says this is good faith. This is the kind of faith that I like.

So that's the question we're asking. And it's a good question to ask because people have all sorts of different kinds of faith in this world. I can't count the amount of time people have said to me, Yeah, I believe in a higher power. Absolutely, I believe in a higher power. Yeah, you'd be silly not to believe in some kind of higher power.

Some people have that kind of faith, but it's not a particularly personal, higher power. It it doesn't have a name. It's not that interested in you. It's not that interested in whether you're interested in it. It's just a kind of higher power.

That's a faith that some people have. Other people have a faith in God, but that he's kind of up there, and he's not really that involved with stuff down here. Occasionally if stuff goes wrong, and we say, oh, please come down and help us. Please, you know, you're up there, but now we need you to intervene. So he's God, but he's up there, and he basically just wants you to get on with your life and do the best you can.

That's how some people think of God. That's the kind of faith that people have in God. Some people can speak truthfully about the God of the Bible. And they know the name of Jesus. And they can speak sort of correctly in some ways about God.

But by their lives and how they live, and some of the things that they do, they deny him. I think that's that's the camp we are in danger of falling into. That's the pitfall that we can fall into. This is the danger for us. In this room right now, we can be people who who know the blessing of God.

We can we can talk about him rightly. We can know the gospel. We can speak it, but then actually we sort of turn away from it in the way that we treat people, in the decisions we make about how we live our lives. Maybe Monday morning, we do something that's totally different to what our lips have confessed this morning. This is what some of us will do.

This is our danger, to have this faith in God, but then to turn away from it. And so are those the kind of faith that God's interested in? Is God just interested in a in a faith? Just have faith. That's all you need.

Just have faith. Is God just interested in any faith? What does God think about your faith? What do you think God thinks about the faith that you have? Hebrews, as we've seen, talks about a faith in God that perseveres and presses on and ultimately produces a crop.

That's the kind of picture language that we see. Earlier in the book of Hebrews. It's almost like this farmer faith. Yeah. Carrie and I have just started watching Clarkson's farm.

So farming is is on my mind. Farmer faith. Yeah, farmer faith. He understands the basics about farming. He knows.

He knows when you should plant. He knows when you harvest. He knows the conditions of harvesting. It has to be between 0.8 and 0.11 humidity and all that. So he gets all of that.

He knows how to do it. But then each morning, farmer faith gets up and he goes to work. He goes out into the fields. He puts his knowledge into action. He connects what he knows to what he does.

That's the kind of faith Hebrew says, that is alive. And that's moving forwards, and it connects knowing with doing. It marries the 2 together. Pharma faith. Contrast that with farmer couch, yeah, farmer sofa, farmer couch.

He knows all the stuff as well. If you ask him, When should we plant this type of seed? He says, I know exactly when you should plant that type of seed. It should be between this date and that date and should do it in this manner. This is how many should sprinkle.

This is about how much you should expect term. This is the humidity levels that you should do. He knows all of that stuff, but he's on the couch. He's not getting up and doing it. He's shrinking back.

That's the language that we've seen. He's not putting his knowledge into action or into practice, and he falls. And in the end, his farm produces thoughts. Hebrews uses that language, crops, and thorns. And so which farmer are you?

Which farmer are you? When you look at your life, Because look, you're here now, presumably you know a bit about this God of the bible. Now are you from a faith? Are you connecting what you know with the difficulties in your life? Or are you from a couch?

If you're from a couch, then then listen to this. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1, it says this, therefore, let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity. You see that language? That's just that's not just no stuff. Let's move on from that.

Let's put it into practice. You know, it's amazing. It's called elementary teachings, elementary. This is elementary school. You're all here.

It's elementary school. Welcome boys and girls. Today's lesson about Christ is these things. And and in Hebrew 6, it goes on to say what the elementary teachings are, the basic teachings. These are the basic teachings.

The basic teachings are this. Repentance, faith, baptism, the Holy Spirit, resurrection, and the final judgment. You understand all those things? Those are the elementary things, the basic things. It's a lot, isn't it?

But that's what Hebrew says. These are the elementary teachings about Christ, and we can't just know these things. You know, we have to lay the foundation. We have to understand these things. Let's not just get stuck there.

Let's move beyond them. Let's be taken forward to maturity. And that's, you know, what is maturity? It's not just knowing more stuff, is it? Maturity is a whole mature life, isn't it?

It's knowing these elementary cheatings about Christ and then living them out. That's what maturity is. We we're to be farmer of faith, not farm account. And there's perhaps no clearer example of this. And this kind of faith that is commended by God, then noah.

I know every single week the preacher will get up and say there's no better example of this than Enoch, then whatever. But There's truth in that. This is what God has prepared us to see today. And so in a sense, there's no better example than no 1 who we're gonna look at today. And look, I'm not gonna assume everyone knows the story of Noah's Ark, so let me very briefly go over it.

Early in the old testament, very early. Things go from bad to worse to worse. Humanity is corrupt. And so God says he's going to judge the whole world with with a flood. And this flood is going to wipe every living thing out, but he warns Noah what he's gonna do.

He he he comes to Noah, and he instructs him to build a large boat or ark, as it's known as. And he says, this ark is gonna carry you, your family, safely above the waters. You're gonna be saved from my judgement plus at least 2 of every animal that lives on the earth. And 7 of every clean animal because God thinks ahead, and so when they get off the ark and they need to sacrifice some sheep, They're not like, oh, we've just killed the only sheep. What are we gonna do now?

That is 7 of every kind of clean animal, so they can sacrifice when they get off and praise god. And sure enough after Noah completes the boat, God tells him to enter with the animals and the rains and the rains come, and it floods the world and it kills everything, but it saves all who are in the ark. That's the story of Noah. Now why is there no clearer example of this kind of farmer faith, this faith that God commends. They're nowhere.

Why is there perhaps no clearer example of it? Well, it's because if nowhere simply had a knowledge of God, If Noah simply knew about God, if he sort of agreed with what he heard about God, about his judgment, about his anger, but then did nothing about it, He wouldn't have got very far, would he? Imagine that. Noah, you believe in God, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you believe that God is angry with the world and its wickedness.

Oh, yeah, absolutely believe that. You believe that God's gonna flood the world, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. He's gonna flood it.

The judgement's coming, the flood, the rains are gonna come. Okay. So why aren't you building the ark? Why is your faith not being connected to what you do? And so if Noah hadn't had this kind of faith, that produces fruit, that gets to work, that connects what he knows with what he does, he would have just been like the rest of mankind.

You see? The faith that gets gets working and it's a really clear picture of that. And listen, we're a lot closer to this story than we realize. It's not just children's story, it's not just a little nice wooden thing that you can find in John Lewis, with the animals in. Just like in Noah's time, the clouds of God's judgment are hidden from our eyes, but they're gathering.

They are gathering. God has set a time to judge the world and he is going to destroy every wicked thing forever. But also as in Noah's time, God has provided a way for us to be saved from that. The clouds are gathering. It's gonna rain.

It is gonna rain. But God's also given us a way to be saved just like he did. And so, you know, as we ask as we ask the question, do I have a faith that is commendable by God, This is a great case study to look at. And we're gonna look at 3 things this morning. We're gonna look at 3 ways that Noah's faith when connected with what he did, made him.

And his faith made him a man of righteousness A preacher of righteousness and an heir of righteousness. Those 3 things, a man of righteousness, a preacher of righteousness and an heir of righteousness. So first point, a man of righteousness. So in a oh, next slide please. Thank you.

So in Genesis chapter 6 verse 9, we read this about Noah. Noah was a righteous man, which means he's right with God. He was blameless among the people of his time and he walked faithfully with God. Now, when you're reading the book of Genesis, there's a lot that makes nowhere stand out from the rest of the story. When you're reading along, you go, oh, dear, oh, dear, and then you get to know you are, this is different.

Firstly, because the state of the world and no his time was pretty bad, if that was awful. When you get to this point in Genesis, the state of the world is awful. Genesis 6 verse 5, we read it, it says every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Triple whammy. Every thought was only evil all the time.

Every only all. Bam. Yeah. It's clear and the Lord regretted that he made human beings on the earth. His heart was deeply troubled.

So Things are bad, and they've gone bad really quickly. We've gone really quickly in just the first few chapters of the Bible from this glorious severed day rest after God made creation. And creation was good. It was very good. And God blessed it.

Humanity was the sort of priestly image of God serving in the garden, God walked with his people, and it was beautiful. And literally just a few chapters, we go from that which is glorious 2 uncompromising total every all, only wickedness and turmoil and brokenness, and evil, and unrest all because of human rebellion against God. It's Stark. This is like you know when you're watching Titanic and there's like a long sort of this it's a great movie. There's lots of good things, and then it takes ages to get to the iceberg.

Well, the iceberg comes quickly in the book of the bible. It's like page 2. Boom. Whoa iceberg. Ah, we're sinking already.

We go from the seventh day rest and glory to every inclination. It was only evil all the time. Really really quickly. Things are really bad. But just when God resolves to wipe the human race from the face of the earth and it looks like the bible's ended seriously.

The bible could have ended in Genesis chapter 6 verse 7. Yeah. That's when the Bible could have ended. God says I regret that I made humanity. I'm gonna wipe humanity from the face to the earth.

Just when we get to this point, we have, what is affectionately known in this church, as the first big but of the bible. Yeah. Did you know the big buts of the bible? Here's the first big buts of the bible. It says, but Noah.

But noah, and we're introduced to noah whose name in Hebrew means rest It means rest. So suddenly, like you're reading the book of Genesis and you're in pitch blackness and suddenly there's a flicker of light, but nowhere Let's look at sort of a faint scent of a flower coming from a garden that you used to remember coming in. Well, this reminds me of of sort of seventh day rest. Here's Noah. He's like a distant echo of a melody.

There's like a song that I used to know, and I can hear the faint melody of that song that was sung in Eden. And so here comes nowhere, not only is his name an echo of humanity in the garden, but he's also walking like humanity. You know those sort of evolutionary pictures they have of the monkey, the chimp that begins to walk into the man, and then it's like the modern day man. On a computer? Well, the man in in in Eden was walking with God.

And then the iceberg just, you know, cursed man is like this, but here's Noah. And he's walking with God. He's walking like the the people in Eden before the fall. He's walking like Enoch who we saw last week. He's walking in faith.

He walked faithfully with God. And so not because he was perfect, because we'll we'll see this later. He's not perfect, but because of his walking living faith, which makes him separate from his people of his time, Noah is the first person and this is a bit of bible trivia for you. He's the first person to be called righteous in the bible. He's the first person to be called righteous.

He's the first person to be called, right with God. He's a man of righteousness. Noah was a righteous man. That's a beautiful smell coming in this wicked world. And so just when you think it's all over, in Genesis.

It's game over for humanity. God is gonna wipe the the floor and and go on to a different project. Here comes a man, but nowhere. But Noah. And what's this man of righteousness gonna do?

Is he gonna be a farmer faith? Is he gonna be farmer faith or is he gonna be farmer couch? Well, Have a look at Hebrews chapter 11 in your bibles verse 7. By faith, nowhere When warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an arc to save his family. So here is where we see the living faith of Noah.

When he's warned about things not yet seeing, He trusts the word of the lord and he gets to work when he's warned about things not yet seen. You see, noah couldn't see the clouds building, and he's like, oh, it looks like it's gonna storm pretty badly. I better get on with what God said because I can see it. But he couldn't see it. He didn't have the BBC weather forecast app on his phone.

I looked at it this morning to see what would happen today. I think it just rained, but it's now stopped, and the sun's come out again. He didn't have that. He couldn't see, oh, God's told me it's gonna flood. Let me just check that.

Literally, day after day as he's working on this boat in the middle of a field, nowhere near the water, in the middle of dry land, in the blazing sunshine, he's probably wondering Is this nonsense? God's told me a flood's coming, but I can't see it. Maybe his eyes would have been telling him, this is nonsense. And I wonder, have you ever felt like that? Have you ever looked around?

Did you ever have these moments? I occasionally have these moments. I'll sort of look around me and I just go, am I a bit mad for believing this? I am actually a bit mad. I can't really see it.

My bit mad for just trusting in in this word. I could be building a swimming pool or a summer house with my life but instead I'm building a lifeboat in the middle of this sort of field for a storm that I can't see. You're all here on a Sunday morning when you could be doing sports or at a spa, I don't know, whatever it is that you like to do. You could be doing something. You could be spending your money on holidays or saving for a bigger house, but steady you're tithing.

Do you ever have those moments where you're like, why a bit mad for this? I think the world tells us we're a bit mad for it. But look, in the years it took nowhere to build the ark, I'm sure he must have had some similar doubts as well. So we're told he couldn't see. When he's warned about things not yet seen.

He couldn't see them. Yet in faith, In holy fear of what his eyes could not see, he was driven forward because it says he could not yet see, but he believed 1 day that he would see. He said, God has said it. And therefore, I believe it. I know God does not lie.

I know God trustworthy. I know that what he said will come to pass and so it's twice in the chapters. It says this. There's this refrain. It says nowhere did everything just as the Lord commanded him.

And nowhere did all that the Lord commanded him. He gets to work. I wonder, are we are we like Noah? When we're warned about things that we do not see. Are we like Noah?

Do you have Christian people in your life warning you about something, perhaps a sin in your life? Do you have Christian people lovingly pointing something out and saying, whoa, hold on. If you keep going that way, that's danger. Even though you can't see it, You know, we've only got 2 eyes. We can't see every blind spot, can we?

But in this room, there's 250 pairs of eyes. We can help each other. We can say, wait, I know you can't see that, I know you don't understand that, but you are heading towards danger if you keep going that way. And so are we gonna be like Noah? When warned of things we do not yet see, are we gonna put our faith into action?

Or are we just gonna lean on what my eyes can see? You know what? To be honest, I see it. I don't really understand it, so I'm just going to carry on. Well, the Bible tells us look that the judgement clouds of God are gathering.

They are gathering. Jesus is going to come back in judgment. It's gonna come back on the clouds, we're told. And it's gonna come like a thief in the night. So are we gonna have a faith like noah that heeds the warning when we can't see it?

And are we gonna put things into practice? You see, Noah was a man of righteousness because of his faith that got to work? When he could not see. He's a man of righteousness because he had a faith that got to work even when he couldn't see. That's the first thing.

He's the man of righteousness. Secondly, he's a preacher of righteousness. 2 Peter, we read it. This is 2 Peter chapter 2 from verse 5. It says God did not spare the ancient world when he bought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness and 7 others.

And if you look at Hebrews, chapter 11 verse 7, you'll read in your bibles that it says by his faith, he condemned the world. So how does building an ark make Noah a preacher And how does his faith condemn the world? The answer is this, because in faith, He preached the coming judgment of God as he built the ark that would save him from it. He preached the coming judgment as he built the ark that would save him from it. See, nowhere had a very simple sermon.

Much simpler than this 1. Noah had a simple sermon. It had 2 points. Every day when he got to work and he built the ark, he preached this sermon. It had 2 points.

Point number 1, God is judge. There's a flood coming. Point number 2, God is Savior. He's building an ark. He's provided a way to be saved.

You see the sermon? You see, he's a preacher? 2 points. I've got 3 points. Maybe I should take a leaf out of Noah's book.

2 points, God is judge. And God is Savior. That was what he was preaching. And why by his faith did he condemn the world? Because the world did not listen.

Day after day after day, the world heard this sermon. God is judge. There's a flood coming. But God is Savior. He's provided an ark.

And they did nothing about it. And so he condemned the world in his faith because they did not listen. Now I was doing some interesting reading this week. This is part this is part of the sermon where you have to humor me by being pretending you're also interested in this sort of stuff smiling and nodding a lot. Okay?

So I was doing some interesting reading this week about how the arc is a throwback to Eden and it's also sort of a pre figuration of Mount Sinai, the Tabernacle, and the Temple. If you've switched off already, just put a smile on your face and listen. Okay? So why is the ark a throwback to Eden? Because it's like a microcosm of creation.

There's all the animals in it. There's the humanity in it. It's like the Garden of Eden again. Everything's there, that was there in the beginning. And so it's like, going back to Eden, it's like, oh, look, here's a little Eden.

Humanity was thrown out of Eden, and everything's sort of scattered, but God's brought it back together. So the so the ark is is kind of like a throwback to Eden and it prefigures Mount Sinai the tabernacle in the temple because it has 3 levels. The arc had 3 levels, had a lower deck, a middle deck, and an upper deck, 3. That's not an accident I don't think. I think that's this deliberate.

God wants to show us something there because you see Mount Sinai had 3 levels. When Moses goes, and gets the the law of God for for Israel. There are 3 levels to Mount Sinai. The people couldn't touch the bottom. They had to stay at the bottom.

But the priests could go halfway up, and the high priests, it was Moses could go to the very top, and go and see God. At the top and go and go and receive the law. So there's 3 levels. And then when the arc comes to rest on dry land after the flood, it lands on a mountain, which is temple language. At the top of a mountain, you'll find the temple, and that's where the ark was.

And also, the Ark is 1 of the very few instances instances in Scripture where God designed something and gives it to humans to build. So he does that with the tabernacle as well. So you know, has anyone got an iPhone or a Mac or something? If you look on the back of it, it will say, designed by Apple in California, assembled in China. They can't say made in China.

They have to come up with like a cool way of saying. It's not made in China. It's it's assembled, you know. So it's designed by Apple in California. It's it's a sorry, you know, all the way around, designed and then assembled in China.

Well, stamped on the tabernacle, and on the ark, is designed in God by heaven. No. Designed in heaven by God. Made assembled by humans and earth. The tabernacle and the ark both have this design, this heavenly design, designed by God in heaven given instructions assembled by man on earth.

And so look, that might be reading too much into it. I get excited by that sort of stuff. But at the common theme with Eden, with Sinai, with the Tabanak or with Temple, the common theme is that God is there. That's the thing that links all those things together. God is there.

And so what Noah was pre to the world as he built this 3 tiered arc was that the way to be saved from judgment was to be with God. God is here. There's salvation with God. Come to God. And so that's his that's his sermon.

That's what he's preaching. God is judge, but yes, God is Savior. And what's the application of his sermon? Go to God. Go to the place that's like Sinai.

Go to the place that's like Eden. Go to the place that's like the tabernacle. Go to where God is and that's how you'll be saved. You're not right with God, but if you go to God, he can make you right with him. And what a foreshadow, by the way, the arc is of the cross.

The cross of Jesus, when you looked at the ark, you saw a piece of wood, and as you looked at that wood, you saw this sermon. God is judge. There's a flood coming, but you also saw God is Savior. He's provided a way to be saved. And when you look at the cross of Jesus, you see God is judge.

And God his savior. God has provided a way to be saved. And that was his message. That was that's how he's a preacher. And it both saved his message, and it condemned.

It says that Noah was the eighth person who was saved. There were 7 others saved through his preaching. That's his wife, his 3 sons, and their wives. And as he preached, those people listened. And they believed.

And they came onto the ark. And 7 is an interesting number in scripture. It's God's number. It means completion, fullness. So There's a picture here of God completely saving his people on the ark.

But then also, Noah condemns the world because as he's preaching, people refuse to listen. And I wanted to say that's the same case today with preaching, by the way. As as As a sermon is preached, 2 things are happening. People are saved, and people are condemned. They are saved as they listen, as they see, as they hear, or they're condemned as they refused to listen.

And as they turn away, And so as Jesus has preached, it's like the arc coming all over again. Jesus who is God Emmanuel. God with us, not us with God but God with us. He comes, it's like the art coming and he's saying like, all aboard, all aboard. Come on everyone.

Come and be safe with me, come and be with God, with me. And so if there's an ark, there's a flood coming, if there's a cross There's a judgment coming, but there's also salvation. I was thinking on the day of the flood, the world couldn't say to no. Hang on a minute. We weren't warned warned about this.

You didn't give us enough time to to respond to this because it says that the doors of the ark were open right until the day of the flood. God shuts the door of the ark just when the judgment begins to come. On the day of the flood, the world could not say they were not warned. The doors of the ark were opened. On judgment day, the world will not be able to say they were not warned because the arms of Jesus are open.

Right until that day. And so in faith, Noah was a preacher of righteousness who condemned the world. He's a preacher. He's got 2 point sermon. God is judge but God is Savior.

And finally, I'll just get that 1. He's the heir of right he's an heir of righteousness. Noah, he's a man of righteousness, he's a preacher of righteousness, and he's he's an heir of right Now I want to get something absolutely straight here. Noah was not saved because he was perfect. Noah was not given the arc because he was sinless.

He's not righteous because he's absolutely pure. He was blameless among his people, at the time because of his faith in God, not because of his purity, and we see this really clearly after the fall. So, you know, God has given us a picture after the flood. Where we see really clearly that, no 1 was not a perfect man. Okay?

So after the flood, there's kind of a rerun of creation in the fall. The the arc settles on land. The water's recede. The sort of 7 day language, the animals come out just like in in creation. And God tells them to be fruitful and multiply, but then we read that nowhere plants a vineyard and drinks the wine, the fruit.

And as a result, he gets drunk and he ends up naked and ashamed. Lots of parallels between what happens to Adam and what happens to Noah. And then Noah gets covered by his son, so there's like a covering going on. And the idea that we're left with is after reading this Noah story is we haven't really changed. Nothing much has changed.

There's been a kind of cleansing, but nowhere is still sinful and he still needs to be saved. And so he's he's not perfect, and God really paints very clearly for us. And so the question is how could nowhere a sinner have been an heir of righteousness? Well, have a look at Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 again. He became an heir of righteousness.

He became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. He became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. The Bible tells us there is a righteousness that is not our own, It's apart from the works of the law, and it is in keeping with faith. If you look down at verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 11, look look a bit further down. It says this.

It says all these people, so enoch, Noah, all these people were still living by faith when they died. So nowhere, as sinful as he was, even though he ended up naked and ashamed even though he ate the fruit of the vine, which is a picture of what happened to Adam in the garden. Even though he was still a sinner, He was still living by faith when he died and so he became an heir of the righteousness that is by faith. He became an heir of the righteousness that is by faith. And just before we we look at some applications and finish, there's another really amazing thing that we learn about Noah.

After he stepped off the ark, how would you imagine this? Right? So you you've you're on the ark, all of your annoying neighbors have been washed away. Yeah? You know when you go on holiday, you're the first to the swimming pool in the morning, and you love it because there's no 1 there.

No 1 must have had a bit of sense of, When I step up the arc, there's gonna be no 1 in front of me in the queue. There's gonna be no 1 nicking my space by the pool. The world is his oyster. He can do whatever he wants. It must have been quite a sort of exciting thing in a funny way, but even after he steps off the ark, He sighs.

And he's still a bit disappointed, because he desired a better country. You look at verse 16 of Hebrews chapter 11, it says, instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly 1. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them. So even nowhere with the whole world at his feet when he stepped off that arm even with no annoying neighbors, even with every sort of problem person in his life absolutely gone. Even with everything exciting that was yet to be done, side.

He desired a better country. He desired a country where God walked among his people where there's no curse, where there's no death, where there's no sin. And look at verse 13 of chapter 11. It said they did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth, nowhere was a foreigner and a stranger on earth.

And so he knew that this sort of new world under him when he's on the boat and he sort of goes, there's going to be a new world under me, it's cleansed in a way. It's not the world that I'm looking for. It's not the world that I really, really long for. And so he still, even though he stepped off that bow onto fresh green grass, and was and was filled with excitement in a way for the possibilities that were before him, he still Look forward to glory. Look forward to a better world.

And because of that, he was an heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. And 1 day, Noah's gonna wake up Step onto some green grass of the new creation, and he's not going to sigh. He's not going He's going to go, this is it. This is the land that I was longing for when I stepped off the ark all those years ago. This is it.

This is truly my home. This is gonna satisfy me. This is the place I'm not disappointed with, so by fair he was an heir of the righteousness that comes in keeping with faith. And so let's tie this all up together. What can we learn today from the story of Noah?

What are we gonna learn? The first question is this, are we gonna hope are we hoping that this world is gonna satisfy us? Really challenged me this week thinking about nowhere stepping off the ark and sighing. And looking forward to glory, Because are we hoping that our new kitchen or our new extension or our next family holiday or or whatever it is that we're looking forward to in this world? We are we hoping that that's gonna be the thing that finally brings us rest?

Maybe we're hoping that we can patch our family up or patch our work situation up or Patcha, friendships up. You know, we've got this language. We've talking about a forever home or, yes, you know, that forever home and that forever It's nonsense. Nowhere knew that the cleansed world below him wasn't going to be his forever home. Longing for a better country, longing for a better world.

And if no 1 was longing for a better world with the whole world at his feet, how much more should we It's better by far to long for a better country. And so a question I had this week was, are you expecting too much of this world? Are you expecting too much of this world? I actually thought let's allow this is a bit controversial. Let's allow ourselves to be disappointed with this world, shall we?

Should we allow ourselves to be disappointed with this world, with our families? Let's allow ourselves to be disappointed with our families. With our work. It's a bit disappointing. Yeah.

But that's okay. Because you're not meant to be fully satisfied by it here in this world. You're not meant to have a fully patched, fixed, glorious life now. You're meant to look at this world and go, you know what? I'm looking forward to a better country.

Where I will enjoy my family, forever, but in not now, there are going to be difficulties now. We're going to fall out now. People aren't going to be perfect now. Let's allow ourselves to be disappointed, shall we? Be disappointed by the sermon, please.

Be disappointed by me. Please, sigh, wish he was shut up. I'm longing for a better sermon. I couldn't know where to preach. She had 2 points.

Let's let ourselves be disappointed and long for a better country. You know, we've heard a lot about Paris syndrome in the evening services, which people go to Paris and get really depressed. Let's have life syndrome, shall we? Let's have it because no 1 had it and it's good. It makes us long for a better country and that's okay.

That's the place where we're fully meant to be satisfied, not here. That's the first thing. The second thing, are we going to listen to the preaching of the cross, the the cross is is the greatest 2 point sermon ever. God is judge, but God is Savior. He's provided a way to be saved.

Jesus is our salvation. Go to him Emmanuel, God with us, the ark, Eden Sinai, the temple, the tabernacle. God was there, and salvation was in those places. And his Jesus God with us. Go to Jesus.

He's the person who will save us. He's the 1 who saves us from the flood of God's judgment. There is salvation Design in heaven by God, assembled on earth. And finally, are we gonna be declared righteous in God's side blameless among our generation because of a faith that heaves the warning about things not yet seen and that gets to work and grows. We gonna have that kind of faith, farmer faith, sort of faith, that connects knowing with doing.

Let's read verse 7 1 last time. 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. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the story of Noah, There's an awful lot of stuff here we can learn.

But father, we thank you so much that you have highlighted his faith for us in this book of Hebrews, to take note of and to to imitate in order that we might be saved. Father, we are saved through faith, but a faith that trust that connects, knowing with doing, that gets to work, that goes to you for salvation. And, father, pray for us in this room. That we would also have that kind of faith. Keep us please from confessing things on a Sunday that we then deny by our lives on a Monday.

Help us please to to to be people who put our faith into action. And ultimately, to go to you, therefore, as our source and means of salvation. And we pray this in Jesus' name amen.