NOAH -THE WORK OF FAITH.
Hebrews 11: 7. By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Continuing in the SECOND HALF-PRACTICAL.
Consisting of Chapters 10: 19 - 13: 25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.
Now in the TENTH SECTION
Within Hebrews 11: 1-40
The Fulness of Faith.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
In Abel we saw how faith makes death the path to life. In Enoch, how faith conquers death. In Noah, how faith saves others from death by the work it does for them (these are the works that are spoken of throughout the New Testament which we are to be about doing, Warning the lost , churched, unchurched and who ever else is left, emphasis added). The moment the entrance into the Holiest through the Blood had been set Open to us, we were called to the work of Grace and Love ( 10: 19, 24, 25). "If" with Abel we have drawn near to God, in the death of Christ and the death to self--- this is the root of the tree; "If" with Enoch we have given ourselves to a walk with God, in His presence and good pleasure--- this is the tree growing from the root; let us, with Noah, do the work of faith, that can Bless and save those around us--- this is the fruit of the tree. In his story we find all the essential elements of faith combined.
By faith Noah, being Warned of God concerning things not seen as yet. Faith has ever to do with the future and the unseen (as up to the beginning of the rains of the flood the peoples of the earth had never seen or known of rain drops falling from the skies as moisture came up from the ground until then to water all plant life, emphasis added). Faith lives in God's word and thoughts; it sees what the world can not see: it sees all, the future too, in the light (knowledge) of God. When God reveals His terrible, almost incredible judgment, it simply believes. It trusts not to its own experience or instinct, its thoughts or wishes. Faith believes in the inconceivable fearfulness of a judgment to come. O believer! "If" you would live and save men, believe what God has said of the impending doom that is coming on the world.
Moved with godly fear. When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane (verse 9), under the sense of what sin and death are, it was with godly fear. We are exhorted ( 12: 28) to offer service well pleasing to God with godly fear, because our God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. How awfully and repeatedly our Epistle speaks of the fate of the disobedient. Surely it becomes us, whose eyes have been opened, with godly fear to listen to God's Warnings, and then, under the mighty impulse of that motive, moved with godly fear, on some to have mercy with fear, as snatching them out of the fire.
By faith Noah prepared an ark. Faith wrought fear, and fear wrought diligence, and faith guided heart and hand for the work of deliverance. No one had ever heard of a coming flood, and the destruction of a world by water. No one could ever have thought, if the world were drowned, of an ark escaping alone. But Faith Lives in intimacy with God; it Knows His secrets of judgment (the wrath about to come ) and of salvation; it so possesses a man that he gives up his life to act it out. In the face of the mockery of men, and the long delay of the day, and all the difficulties of the work, Noah held fast to God's word. Simply to listen to what God says, and in the obedience of faith to give up our whole heart and life to carry it out: this is faith.
To the saving of his house. The true believer is Blessed by God, to be made a blessing. The faith of Noah, made perfect by works, saved his family; and with the family he saved the race, and became the father of us all. His preaching appeared to have little fruit, and yet the whole Church of God, since his day, owes its life to his faith too. Man was created in God's likeness in this too, that he has power over other lives. The power begins with the family, but reaches farther. The man of faith who with Abel, in the one sacrifice, has passed through death to a New Spiritual Life, and with Enoch walks with God, has power with God, the power of a spiritual Life and of Blessing.
Through which faith he condemned the world. The difference between the unbeliever and the believer is this: the one is a man of the world, and lives here; the other is a man of God, and lives spiritually in Heaven. His whole life is a Protest and a Condemnation of the world. Abel, Enoch, Noah--- all three were equally rejected and despised by the world, because they Condemned its works. God grant that the Life of His True believing children (those who are the receptive ones, who enter His presence and then reside there... emphasis added) may be so clear and bright, that the world may feel itself Condemned by them!
And became heir of the Righteousness which is according to Faith,--- the righteousness of standing in the right relation to God, of a life of which faith is the root and power. Righteousness has been defined as the giving each his due. This is the worth of faith in the sight of God: it gives Him His place as God, in it the soul confesses that it is nothing, and that God is all. This faith God counts for righteousness.
The faith that Noah manifested with regard to the ark, and the salvation it was to bring, we must show in relation to Christ and His Salvation. The Opened Sanctuary is an ark of refuge: Christ has Completed and Perfected all. But what work there is for us to do, in gathering into it all that can be saved! Let us, like Noah, give our lives to this. Let us listen to God's Lawful an awful threatenings on a sinful world, and be moved with fear. Let us believe in the infinite power of the Great Salvation provided, with the Love that waits to dispense and apply it. Let us believe in the call of God, that invites and enjoins each one of His Redeemed children to be a messenger of Mercy to the perishing, and that assures us that He will abundantly use everyone that Trusts Him. By faith Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house: does not this give faith a new attractiveness and value. By the prayer of faith and the Love labor of faith, by the death to self in Christ, and by the walk in the presence of God, our hearts can be filled with a Love and a power that cannot be fruitless. The Holy Spirit that came from our beloved Priest- King on the Throne in the Holiest, as a witness to God's pleasure in us, and to the indwelling of our Lord, came especially as an enduement of power, to make us in our turn witnesses for Him. Oh! all of you who, by faith, have entered into the Holiest and its Blessings, go forth and work the work of Love of faith; by a Living faith bring in those who are still without. This is the faith that makes you an Heir of the Righteousness which is according to faith.
1. Abel, Enoch, Noah: all types of Jesus. Abel: the righteous one, hated and slain by his brethren, coming to God with sacrifice. Enoch: the beloved son, in whom God is well pleased, walking with Him on earth, and taken up into heaven. Noah: preparing salvation, saving His people, condemning the world.
2. The one thing God gives me is, Jesus the dying One, the Living One, the Redeeming One. The one thing He asks of me is to Trust. His Faith will make me like Him. Beginning with the Abel-blessing drawing near to God through death, I come to the Enoch-blessing, the life of unbroken fellowship. And so I learn the secret of the Noah-blessing, and become a savior of others. And all, By God's Faith restored in us, to us.
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