I started this study series in hopes to help us all to see that many people live in times of trials and suffering. We need to know that what we are going through is not any different than what others in the past and in our present time are dealing with. My focus is not so much to share in detail everything that I have faced that has been a trial of suffering but for us to see in the Bible how normal the people of faith were and that their situation is not much different than ours. Yeah we may never get transported directly to Heaven as we have seen in our last study with Enoch but the life he was living before was in a world full of evil people just as we do, even those that would fall into the category of false teachers or false prophets. Our lives are no different and yet we often times think that we are faced with difficulties that no one else has experienced or could ever relate to.
I think often about all the struggles I have faced, from broken relationships to failures with the battles of sin to seeing those close to me turn from Christ to seeing sickness and death of a loved one. All of these have had different impacts to my life, some have given me strength to grow spiritually and others I have allowed to weaken me and to lose my grip on the faith I should have in the situation. I try to not dwell on the victories nor the failures because every situation is different that I have faced. None have posed the same exact situation so none of what I have faced could be faced with some cookie cutter formula. I would have to depend on God in every situation not to give me a fresh word or some dream that would give me clarity but rather to stay focused on God as He speaks to me from His Word.
The only thing we need in the trials and suffering of life is seen in our faith in God. Of course the faith we have is not just some belief that God is going to get us through our situation but it is seen in living out faith in our life. This is going to be seen in the story of Noah as we dive into this Scripture for this study. I did want to start back in verse 6 even though we have already spoke on this verse because I think there needs to be more details brought out of this verse. So let’s look briefly at our first point for this study.
1.Faith that seeks for God.
Look with me at Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
We have so clearly seen in the last study that those that please God is those who have faith. We know that this verse makes it clear that those that do not have faith do not please God. I don’t think that we need to clear this up to much but just know that this verse will probably be re-visited over and over again throughout this series because it says so much to how we could ever please God. Now some people might say that this pleasing of God is because they have faith and therefore they would be taking credit for their righteous status but to do that would be untrue to what Scripture teaches in it’s entirety on this subject.
So to look at this I want to look at the second part of this verse again. Look with me at Hebrews 11:6b for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. I think to often people use this verse in reference to receiving salvation but that is not the context of this verse. We do know that salvation is as Ephesians 2:8 says For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
We do know that grace and faith are both a gift of God that is given freely to the person who is given salvation through Christ. But in relation to what we see in Hebrews 11, we do not see the means of salvation nor the work of salvation in this verse. This faith that we see in Hebrews 11:6 is in relation to believing God in the situation that you are faced with. Yes faith is what we have in order to have salvation but by no means is faith a one time act. Faith is the way we live out our life in the good times and in the trials that we face.
So we move back to what our verse says and we see that for whoever would draw near to God, and I want to stop right there for a moment. Again this is not in relation to salvation in this verse even though it may apply but we see strictly put that those who would draw near to God. Who is it that will draw near to God? Will it be the spiritually dead? Will it be unbelievers? Could a spiritually dead person decide to move closer to God?
I think the answer is that no spiritually dead person could ever move closer to God unless first God draws that individual to Himself. Jesus says in John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
So in order for a spiritually dead person to draw close to God, you must be drawn by God. There is so much more that we could go into and talk about here but suffice it to say that only those that have already been drawn by God, only those that have been regenerated could ever draw close to God. So for those that we see in Hebrews 11:6 this is speaking of those that have been redeemed by faith in God that will draw close to God.
Secondly we see those who do draw near to God must believe that he exists. So it is in the trials of life when you are going through the difficulties of life that many people doubt that God is even there. It becomes difficult to understand how God could be there and yet allow these things to happen. So we must believe that He is here with us in our trial and we must also believe that he rewards those who seek him.
Once again this can not be in reference to salvation when we are speaking of seeking because we remember that Romans 3:10-12 says “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
So again it is not the spiritually dead or unbeliever that is seeking for God but only those that have been spiritually awakened that seeks. We seek for God in the tough times and we seek for God in the good times. It is in those times we find that God rewards us. I do want to point out the word for rewards that we see in Hebrews 11:6. It is the Greek word misthapodotés (mis-thap-od-ot’-ace) which means paying what is due. God is not giving to unbelievers their wage of salvation, only grace is given for salvation. If we got our wage then we would get Hell for eternity. This is a reference not to salvation but that we are rewarded for being obedient through the trial by seeking for God in that trial. This is what we have seen so far with Abel and Enoch and this is what we will see as we move into our next person in our next point.
2.The faith of Noah.
Look with me at Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
The story of Noah and the flood really spans from Genesis 6:1 to Genesis 8:19 when they leave the ark even though you can read much more about Noah all the way through the 10th chapter of Genesis. In no way are we attempting to cover all of that but what I want us to see is how Noah reacted to God in what He would do. Notice that we see as we do in Hebrews 11:7a that by faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
We know it is by faith but how is it that Noah could have this faith? Let’s look at the original account to get some answers. We know that God had seen the corruption of the human race and decided to flood the entire world. But God decides to leave a small remnant so that is where Noah comes into the picture. In Genesis 6:8 the Bible says But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
How is it that Noah found favor? Is it by his good works or deeds? No it is by faith. We see in the very next verse in Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Now it was not by his own righteousness that he was made blameless but it was by God’s mercy and grace. It was this grace that Noah had received that gave him the faith to believe in God. Not only did he believe in God but he believed in such a way that he spent many many years building an ark for a flood. The people of that time had never seen a flood so this was beyond comprehension for Noah or any person. So why did He do it? Hebrews 11:7 says he built the ark in reverent fear. This word in the Greek is the word eulabeomai (yoo-lab-eh’-om-ahee) which means to respect or revere. It is to have a Godly fear that shows a sense of caution. It was that Noah knew God in such a way that he had respect for His commands and authority. It wasn’t that Noah knew all things or understood all things just because he was told, it was that he had faith in God.
I love the fact that at the end of God’s instructions to Noah we see in Genesis 6:22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. There was no hesitation or trying to figure out whether or not he needed to spend his time doing this. Simply God commanded Noah and he did what he was supposed to do. It was not that Noah had some intelligence beyond the other people on the earth but that he had faith in God that not only did He exist but that He was the one to reward those who are truly seeking Him. Noah was already righteous in God’s eyes because God had given him that status but it was now Noah that would act in faith to do what no other would do in that time in building the ark.
Let’s look back again at the last 2 things that we see in Hebrews 11:7b By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. First he condemned the world by preaching to those that were around him. 2 Peter 2:5 says that Noah is a herald or preacher of righteousness. His message would be that God is not happy about the sinfulness of the human race and the only way out is through God’s righteousness. It would be through the salvation of the ark that God commanded Noah to build that would be the message. It would be that God makes a person righteous through His loving grace that Noah would preach.
Also this act of faith in God would solidify that he was indeed righteous. We see that he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Righteousness was not in the act but in the faith. The actions came by way of his faith in God. He drew near to God, He was a seeker of God as he day by day built the ark, day by day preached to the scoffers around him. It was hard on Noah I’m sure, knowing that many in his family, friends and strangers alike would be swallowed up in the wrath of God through the flood but this did not turn him away from living out his life in faith. He may have had many difficult talks, he may had spent his life savings and his time and energy but this all proved that he was a man that was living by faith in spite of the trials and difficulties in front of him.
Disciple's Direction 