 Hebrews 11 verse 7 reads, By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Now, as we're beginning here in chapter 11, and as we've moved into verse 7, obviously we need at this time to be reviewing a little bit of what we've seen up to this point, so that we can move into verse 7 and understand the point that he's making. Last time we were together we spent time looking at verses 1 through 6, and in those first few verses the author had been speaking concerning faith. And in verse 1 he had said that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I mentioned to you that the word substance there is speaking concerning to confidence and assurance. The point he was making is faith is the title deed of things that we hope for. And so faith, faith is a living faith. It's living in hope, a hope that is so real that it provides for us an absolute assurance of the promises of God. When he speaks concerning evidence that's the divinely given conviction of things unseen. In other words, by faith we see things that are unseen will be seen that worked out in the life of a man by the name of Noah in just a moment. But by faith we know certain things. We know that the worlds were framed by the word of God. That word framed speaks of being put in order or arranged. We know that God's word declares that it's God who did all things, that it's God who created all things. Genesis 1 1 tells us that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And so by faith what we do is we receive the explanation that has been given to us by God, the explanation of how things came into existence. So in order for us to know what happened we take God's explanation. Now the bottom line is we're going to have to accept some explanation concerning how the universe came into existence. And we as believers have chosen to believe God's word. God explained it for us and we believe it. And His word has been delivered to us. His explanation has been delivered to us in the Bible. The Psalmist in Psalm 119 verse 160 said the entirety of your word is truth. And so we have made a determination that we would simply take God at His word. If we can believe the first four words of the Bible we can believe the rest because the first four words are in the beginning God. And if you can believe that you can believe the rest of what the Scripture has to say. Now as we were looking at those first few verses he began to give examples of those who had exercised faith in God. He spoke in verse four concerning a man by the name of Abel. Abel, he says, gave a more excellent sacrifice in his brother Cain. That's because Abel's offering was approved because his offering was given in faith. Cain's was motivated by a desire to come to God on his own terms and so God rejected Cain's but God accepted Abel's offering and Abel has continued to be regarded as a righteous individual. Then we looked at a man by the name of Enoch. And I'm going to use Enoch as a platform to move on in because there's certain things about Enoch and all that we're going to need to look at because we're going to be looking at Noah in just a moment. And Enoch is a good and important individual to look at. Notice with me how we said in verse five Enoch was translated so that he did not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. And so he introduced a man by the name of Enoch. Enoch lived before the great flood and is a great example of living by faith. Genesis chapter five verses 21 through 24 speak concerning this man named Enoch. There it says Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. Enoch is a great example, a great example of what it means to be a genuine believer in the Lord. This is a man who had a continuous walk with the Lord. It wasn't sporadic. It was ongoing and not only that it was a walk that matured over a lifetime. At the end of each year that he lived he could actually look back and see that he had made progress and he was able to do that for 365 years. I can't even do that for 365 days. But this is an individual who is able to look over 365 years and see that he had a long walk with God in the same direction. This is a man who refused to be conformed to the evil world that he lived in. Because Enoch lived when the earth was progressively growing more and more evil even as we are living now in the last days and seeing the same kind of thing. And yet this is a man who did not remain silent but he actually spoke out clearly against the ungodliness as well as the blasphemy that he saw. It's interesting that he is referred to in a New Testament book of Jude in verses 14 and 15. Jude 14 and 15 says, Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men also saying, Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way. And of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. So this is a man who was a preacher of repentance. This is a man who spoke out against the evil of what was taking place. A great preacher of another day, a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon speaking concerning Enoch said, He lived when few loved God. He lived towards the close of those primitive times where we're in long lives had produced great sinners. Do not complain therefore of your times and of your neighbors and of other surroundings for amid them all you may still walk with God. Enoch did that. He lived in very difficult times and yet is a man by faith who walked with God and he pleased the Lord for over three centuries. He walked with God going in the same direction going to the same destination. Now Enoch had a son. We read about him a moment ago. His name was Methuselah. You see him in Genesis 5.21. In naming his son Methuselah and you're going to have to see this because it's going to take some time to develop this so this will all make sense to you at the end. In naming his son what he was really doing was enacting a prophetic ministry. The name Methuselah can be translated when he dies judgment. It can also be translated when he dies it shall be sent. Now according to Genesis 5.27 Methuselah lived for 969 years and when Methuselah died the great flood covered the earth. This great flood when he dies it shall come. This great flood came during the days of a man by the name of Noah. The word Noah means rest and so Noah was a son of Lamech who was a son of Methuselah. Lamech named his son Noah because he believed and it stated in Genesis 5.29 this one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed and so he was prophesying that the judgment that would come would cleanse the earth of its evil. This is ultimately fulfilled completely in Jesus Christ the one who brings true cleansing and rest but he was prophesying concerning the fact that there would be judgment that comes and that Noah would have something to do with that and so we're being introduced to a man by the name of Noah here in verse 7. And as we look at Noah the Bible says that he was divinely warned of things not yet seen and he moved with godly fear and prepared an ark. Noah was warned by God concerning something that had never been seen on the earth. He was warned concerning a flood. You need to remember that during the days of Noah there was no rain. The Bible records that a mist would water the ground but there was no rain. It is commonly believed that there was a water belt that surrounded the earth which made for a perfect atmosphere which would give us understanding as to why people lived as long as they did. They lived under perfect conditions and so Noah lived in a day when people lived a long time but at the same time Noah was going to be used by the Lord because God was bringing judgment on the face of the earth. God had a reason to do that and the reason is found in the book of Genesis chapter 6. Let's turn our Bibles there and I want to give to you a little bit of a study in Genesis chapter 6 concerning a man by the name of Noah. I'll read verses 1 through 9 and we'll continue on looking at this man. It came to pass Genesis 6 verse 1. It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose and the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh yet his day shall be 120 years. There were giants on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart so the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast creeping thing and birds of the air for I am sorry that I made them but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. The first time the word grace is used in the Bible is found here in this passage in verse 8. That's the first time the word grace is used and it says Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We're going to be looking at this passage for a little while to get an idea about Noah because Noah being mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 it causes me to have to return to this particular portion of scripture so that we can look at his life. During the days of Noah the world is inundated with sin. What began with the fall in the garden blossomed into the sin of Cain but it didn't stop there. From Cain came a godless civilization that became so filthy that judgment became necessary. Now it's interesting to note that just before Jesus died on the cross his disciples spoke to him and asked him concerning his return and Jesus said conditions preceding his return would be similar to those of the days of Noah. In Luke 17 verses 26 and 27 Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah so will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. So Jesus said the conditions preceding his return would be similar to those of the days of Noah. That means that we can examine the days of Noah that we might have an understanding of the days that we live in the last days. Now I find it interesting and this is a side note here. I find it interesting to note that Jesus not only validated the great flood but he also gave us a glimpse into the future. Now what were the conditions? Verses one and two gives us first some insight. What was going on at that time? First thing and I'm going to touch this lightly. I'm not going to go deeply into it but the first thing we see in verses one and two are careless marriages careless marriages indiscriminate marrying was commonplace. That would infer a lack of relational commitment. It also speaks concerning looser sexual mores. Marriage was not valued, marriage was minimized. The Bible says that the sons of God saw daughters of men they were beautiful and they took wives of all that they wanted and so what you have is indiscriminate marriage. People were not really committed to the marriage. Today if we were to look at today and compare it to that thought indiscriminate marriage lose sexual morals. We see that to be true in the United States today. We see that to be absolutely true. I have seen that there are people who have what they call trial marriages. Every marriage is a trial by the way but they call them trial marriages and that means that if the first one doesn't work it gave us enough lessons to actually succeed in our second one. It's a trial marriage. It's like you try out a car, you try out a pair of shoes, you try out a marriage and there are people who have that mentality today. They figure that when they get married if it doesn't work they can get divorced and I've heard people actually say that. I've heard people say that. I mean I'll allow them to say well if it doesn't work we can always divorce and we can try again with somebody else. That's the same kind of mentality. What happens is there's not a valuing of the relationship. There's not an understanding of what it is intended to do. It's really the two becoming one flesh. It's God joining people together and intending so that he might have a godly offspring that as a result of godly people joining together but the society that we live in today is very much mirroring the society in the days of Noah. Indiscriminate marriage they took those whom they desired. There was no thought about the relationship having any value whatsoever and they saw it based on the beauty. They saw that the daughters were beautiful and so they took them. The daughters of men were beautiful and they took them for themselves all whom they desired and so it's all based on the superficial and the outside. There isn't a large amount of thoughtfulness or purfulness or anything else going into the relationship. It's something that I want. She's beautiful. I want her for myself and that's all that really matters and you saw that at the beginning. You'll see that also at the end. It's interesting to note that the sons of God saw the daughters of men. What an interesting way to put it. The sons of God saw the daughters of men. Now this is a study all by itself and at first I was going to take you in a different direction than I am tonight. I have to be honest with you. I can't take you in the direction I had wanted to or was considering because it would take an awful lot of developing just to get to one point and therefore I am not going to do that but I will share a thought with you. Something that is not aligned with what I was intending to share at first but when it says sons of God and daughters of men one of the applications to those phrases the sons of God and daughters of men would be that it would be speaking of sons of God being descendants of the godly line of Seth and the daughters of men descendants of the evil line of Cain and that's an appropriate application that would mean that there was an intermarriage taking place and here's your application an intermarriage taking place between those who were related to God believers and those who were not related through faith to God unbelievers that would speak in other words of believers marrying unbelievers now is that a bad thing to do let me ask you the question I'm not asking it for you to shout out an answer is that is it wrong to do that is it wrong for a Christian somebody who loves the Lord is it wrong for that person to date and to marry somebody who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ now I'm not asking you to answer it but I'm throwing the question out and I'll give you the answer the answer is yes it is yes it is wrong I've had people over the years say oh you know I'm missionary dating please there's no such thing what you are is attracted you're attracted to something that you're not finding in a Christian man or a Christian woman and what you're attracted to isn't necessarily something good the Bible makes it very clear that marriage is to be honored it's to be valued God is the one who established it and he made it very clear that we are not to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever Christians are to marry born again Christians that's what God intends for you and for you as a Christian to hook up with a person who is not born again is to violate God's word for you and the result is always pain it's always suffering well somebody says well you can have pain and suffering if you marry a believer too not the same kind not the same kind of pain and suffering of course marriage bring in with it all of the trials and things that you go through it's going to be difficult it's going to be difficult for anybody who gets married regardless of whether you're a believer or not but when you're unequally yoked with an unbeliever and you enter into a relationship like that you're asking for problems you're asking for trouble you're asking for struggles according to Hebrews chapter 13 we'll get there someday verse 4 marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure for God will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral marriage is to be honored it is an institution established by God and it's to be entered into in relation spiritually with somebody who has a walk with Jesus Christ and so what you're seeing is indiscriminate marriages that are taking place the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose we're seeing that today you know when I was born again when I first got saved back in 1970 one of the first things as a single man that I learned was to make sure that if I was going to date anybody that I was to be dating and ultimately marrying people who were joined to the Lord people who were Christians that was one of the first things that I heard but I can tell you as a pastor living in the 21st century that many people even in this fellowship do not adhere to that at all they don't seem to to care that that's what scripture says because for them a date is more important than honoring the Lord unfortunately now God's response is recorded in verse 3 in verse 3 it says the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh yet his day shall be 120 years and so what the Lord is saying here is I'm going to give them a season of grace I'm not going to judge them immediately but I will give them 120 years so he gave man space to repent even though mankind rejected the conviction of the spirit because he said my spirit shall not strive with man and so by saying my spirit shall not strive that's another way of saying my spirit has been convicting them but I'm not going to continue to work with them because they continued to reject so I'm giving them a space to repent in this scripture we find that they had 120 years to do so now why did he do that well it's because he desired the world to turn from his evil and 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 15 Peter says bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation in Romans chapter 2 verse 4 do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness tolerance and patience not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance sometimes we may think well we didn't get dealt with we didn't get judged God didn't spank me so it must be okay he must approve that that's not the truth at all there were times when my kids were doing things that were well deserving of a spanking well deserving of it and and I didn't respond to it I gave them a space I gave them some time I gave them an opportunity and then I beat them up no I I just gave them some time in order that they might see that they're doing something wrong you don't always move immediately there are times that you let them reap the consequences of bad choices and all and so the Lord said I'm not going to deal with them immediately I'm giving them some time to repent and just because the Lord hasn't dealt with me over some sin immediately doesn't mean that he's not going to when David fell with Bathsheba and had sex with her and and all it was a full year until he actually repented in return to the Lord God gave him time to be miserable in his sin and that's what happens and so that's what's happening here the Lord says I'm going to deal with them but over time now it's interesting how it says in verse four there were giants on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and bore children to them those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown fossil remains indicate that numerous animals at one time were giants and that's I find interesting because you find fossil remains of mammoths and cave bears and and dinosaurs and even giant dragonflies and they've even found giant cockroaches they found them in my house but they they have even giant cockroaches you know they there were some extraordinarily large things and so if there were large animals it's not surprising that there were giant people and these giants did incredible things now they continue on in history even after the flood and that's what he says in verse four and we think immediately of a man by the name of Goliath we were in Israel just last week and we're in the valley of Ella and that's where David had his confrontation with the man of Gath by the name of Goliath and and when you read the scriptures relating to that confrontation and and Goliath is described for you I mean he was nine foot nine you know he must have weighed an incredible amount of weight you know an enormous man I mean think about it how can you picture a man who's nine feet nine David was more than likely right around my height and maybe even a little shorter than I because the average man during his day probably wasn't much taller than five six to five eight and so David was you know what would be an average kind of guy average size but the man that he had combat was against was a man who was almost four feet taller than he that's that's so beyond me it's like if you saw a guy walk on the basketball basketball court and his head is almost touching the rim that's how enormous Goliath was and he also had brothers you know when the scripture says that David took five smooth stones that's because he had four brothers he was going to take out the family that's what that's all about he wasn't expecting to miss and then have to have you know reload his sling he brought five to take out the family that's the kind of guy David was and he took out Goliath and that's what happened but he was nine feet nine inches tall and somebody says oh that's not possible that people can be that tall we have people today who were eight feet six and we have some of the tallest people there's still tall people to this day you know and we do call them giants and and so there are giant people during that day and there are some to continue to even into our history but what's going on well notice verse five the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually every inclination of the heart was only evil continually sin was unrestrained Jesus said as the days of Noah so it shall be when he returns sin is unrestrained Romans one speaks of those who are inventors of evil and that's what we see in our day today unrestrained evil people who not only do evil do things that are wrong but take pleasure in them and take pleasure in the things that others do that's what we have today and so those are it's very similar to the days of Noah we have people who's every inclination of their heart is only evil these are people who don't who do not fear God and these are people who give themselves over to every expression of sin I was I was watching with Marie yesterday a program and frankly I don't know why I took the time to do it but I watched a portion of a program with her and it was one of those those shows on TV they talk about you know crimes and Marie likes those kinds of shows and but just to illustrate this briefly there was a murder some young kids who were still in high school decided to kill a 16-year-old little girl they strangled her and they didn't know what to do with her dead body these are high schoolers who killed a 16-year-old little girl they don't know what to do with her body so they wrap her in a burlap kind of wrapping soak her with gasoline and and light her her dead body on fire thinking that it will incinerate that of course it's not what's going to happen and it doesn't so now they're saying what are we going to do with this body so they have a friend this is a friend who likes to torture small animals he cuts them up with knives so they go and get their high school friend who gets a saw and dismembers the body of a 16-year-old little girl they throw her body parts into a bag they try and and get rid of some parts in one place they go to a manhole cover they lift it up and drop the rest of her body parts in that and the kid who's speaking about what he and his girlfriend did to this little 16-year-old girl he doesn't have a single bit of emotion as he's speaking about it he doesn't seem to have any remorse regret or any sorrow heart at what happened and i was looking at this 17 18-year-old kid and i'm amazed at the evil and i'm also amazed at the evil of a boy who would take a saw and cut off a schoolmate's head and arms and legs and throw him in a sack and throw him down some manhole cover into some sewage system that happens unfortunately and it happens often enough for us to realize that the day that we're living in is evil and that the thoughts of men's heart are getting worse it's not getting better i don't want to try and you know the fear of humanity into you but it's just a fact that's just the truth uh listen i've seen it in my own life without wax and eloquent nostalgically and all of that but i have seen it in my own life growing up here in southern california born and raised in california i can tell you that during the 50s we could sleep with our doors unlocked even though we lived in a busy on a busy street in a busy neighborhood we were able to sleep with our windows open when it was hot during the summer we weren't afraid that somebody would break in and and harm us there was no fear like that whatsoever you could leave your cars unlocked there was just it was just a lot different in those days to children five years old could walk to school in my neighborhood and and the neighbors actually would take care of them it actually makes sure that they got to school and a mom would pull over and get it get if it was raining and and get a stranger's little kid and put them in the car and bring them on home do you know as a pastor now i will be someplace when a child falls down and hurts themselves and my first feeling is to want to go over and pick the child up but i won't that i that i feel if i get near this child and the child's crying they may think that i'm a lust in the child and and i actually have to think before i act now because i'm concerned about that that somebody who's trying to be a good Samaritan helping somebody on the side of the road somebody can be robbed or killed as he's helping somebody who's pretending they need help that happens all the time we read it in our newspapers even in this area and so the man's man's heart is not good it never has been it's evil and what was taking place at that time was was the inclination of their heart was evil constantly it was it was a time where sin was unrestrained and so what happens well the bible says the lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth he was grieved in his heart so the lord said i'll destroy man whom i have created from the face of the earth both man and beast creeping thing and birds of the air i'm sorry that i have made them the end of god's patience is reached and god decides to bring judgment so all of this is taking place but verse eight noah found grace in the eyes of the lord noah was a just man perfect in his generations noah walked with god so in the midst of depravity there's a man a man by the name of noah a man who walked with god now the writer of Hebrews had said that noah was divinely warned of things not seen god had made a statement and god makes the statement that he's going to bring a flood notice verse 13 of the same chapter god said to noah the end of all flesh has come before me the earth is filled with violence through them behold i will destroy them with the earth verse 17 i myself am bringing the flood of waters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life everything that is on the earth shall die and so god says i am going to do something and this is that which is still yet future now turning back to Hebrews chapter 11 let me show you some more things the bible tells us in verse seven that he moved with godly fear how does faith respond to these kinds of things well one faith is put into action faith is obediently practical he knew that god was angry at sin and he also knew that god was bringing judgment so he obeyed him he prepared an ark now when you read about this ark so many times we think of a boat and the fact is it was built it was built more like a cigar box the shape was more square and rectangular it was like a giant chest it was 450 feet long it was 75 feet wide it was 45 feet high and there are those who have have uh checked out the dimensions and seen that it was divided into three decks how much could you load into this ark and and they have discovered that it would have 1.4 million cubic feet of space it could hold the equivalent of 522 box cars something of this size could hold 125 000 sheep if need be the smell would be terrible but it could be done 125 000 sheep now the interesting thing about this ark according to genesis 6 verse 16 is it only had one door it only had one way in and it only had one way out and one of the things that i find interesting about this is when god had noah in the ark with all of the animals the bible says that god closed the door now imagine for a moment noah with his three sons shem ham and japheth as they're there in a plane it has never rained and yet there he is building this enormous ark and he's covering it with pitch and it takes 120 years for him to fulfill his ministry patiently and obediently he works on the ark now as he's doing so neighbors are coming by undoubtedly and watching this man as he's working on the ark and as they come and they look at him they ask him what are you doing and noah says i'm building an ark and they say what's an ark and he says it's a it's a boat that's going to float float on what it's going to float on the rain water that's going to pour onto the earth what's rain well god is going to cause a water belt above us to explode and it's going to drop all of the water within it to the point that the highest mountain in the world is going to be covered by by water 15 feet above and so the entire earth is going to be filled with water as god opens the fountains of the deep the water that's within the earth and god joins the water that's in the water belt and it's going to flood to such a degree that every living thing is going to die and therefore you need to get right with god and can you imagine the response that they had they'd look at him and they'd say just a minute and then they go get a friend and they say i'd like you to tell them what you just told me and that's how it went and there he is working on this ark obediently for all of these years and not a single person was saved but what i find interesting outside of his family his wife and his sons and their and their wives what i find interesting about all of that is how the bible says but god closed the door here's a question for you why would god be the one to close the door i'm certain that that noah could have had some system that he could have closed the door himself why did god close the door i have a belief in perhaps is wrong but i have a belief that god closed the door because it was judgment god was bringing and noah having a tender heart just to hear the sound of his neighbors who would be there peeling away and trying to open that door themselves i wonder if it's possible that noah might have been tempted to open the door to let them in i suspect that he would have at least the temptation to do that but when the door is closed it's closed for good and god is the one who closed that door there was no opening it once the door was closed and so noah built an ark noah was moved and notice what it said in verse seven he had been warned of things not seen that's the flood and he was moved in other words there was an action he was moved with godly fear and he prepared an ark for the saving of his household and so he moved with godly fear his faith was put in action but also he was patient as i said a moment ago he built an ark over the period of 120 years and as i said he endured taunting and mocking over all of those years in the entire human population only he and his family believed god not only was he building that ark but he was also witnessing because while he and his sons worked he was preaching god's upcoming judgment in in second peter chapter two verse five the bible says god spared not the old world but saved noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly over 120 years and no one outside of his family repented even though he i'm certain was warning the people of a coming judgment and that gives me insight because there are two things that you can look at with his faith one is that he did he moved obediently because faith moves and two he would preach that word obediently also so he was warning people by giving to them the warning god had given to him but he was also acting on what god had said and in doing so he waited no when i got saved in 1970 it just so happens that there were quite a number of ecological things going on at that time and people were looking for the return of christ and it just so happened that as i got saved i was hearing a little bit about the actually a lot about an event called the rapture and the second coming and and various things that i was hearing about i was beginning to wonder what what is this all about and all and and they said you know jesus christ is returning for the church well i got saved in 1970 and now it's 2007 and he hasn't returned yet so what's that mean does that mean he's not going to come back does that mean that i've been a fool for all of these years and waiting for just something that really is not going to happen no waited 120 years he waited for god to perform what god said he was going to do and it took 120 years until god did it but god ultimately did and so every day that i wait is a day closer to the return of jesus christ what i'm called to do is believe him and to act on that belief and to share with other people be ready now as a result of that the bible tells us in verse seven that he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness so the preached message had two effects one it gave people information that they became responsible for listen when you hear the gospel when you hear the message of the gospel you now have a responsibility before god for what you've heard you have heard enough of it in other words to to be held uh accountable by god you could never stand in other words before god and say i didn't know i've never heard i am not aware of these things even when i was 20 years old just before god saved i could say well i didn't really hear but that's not true i had people who had witnessed to me on a couple of occasions shared with me about jesus told me about the cross of christ told me i could commit my heart to him that i could be saved my life could be transformed that jesus forgives sins i'd heard that i just didn't respond to that and there are numerous people who can say of the same thing they might say well i don't like the christian message but they are familiar with what it that what it does say they are familiar that we say that that we're sinners lost that we need god's grace that jesus christ was sent in order to save us they're familiar with those things they just reject those things and but what happens is they have more to be held accountable for ultimately and they stand before god with that in john 1522 jesus said if i had not come and spoken to them they would not be guilty of sin now however they have no excuse for their sin they've heard and they're held responsible and so the preach message has two effects one it makes people responsible because it gives them information and two it builds up those who believe in trusting god's word because faith inherits god's blessings no all became an error of righteousness he was made righteous by faith he was saved through faith and not only was he saved through faith but so was his family now that to me is a very beautiful thought notice how it says that he said he prepared an ark for the saving of his household what a beautiful thought that is he was moved with godly fear and it preserved his family and if you're moved with godly fear you can preserve yours so we have our prayer for prodigals and you go and you pray for your kids because you know the judgment that they're going to stand before god with more responsibility because they've been raised in a christian home because many of them have heard the gospel since they were babies because they've heard the message because you may even serve the lord and and they have seen that you know i speak to parents quite often who are very brokenhearted over their children and the life their children have chosen to live i have speak to them quite often often after after services in the morning i'll have conversations with people and we talk about that we pray for families all the time i really believe very strongly that when you're building an ark if you will when your life is being set into the hands of god and you're doing the things that god has called you to do and you're sharing with people and encouraging them to come to faith in christ that in a sense you're also preparing that that place where you can be saved in because when that ark was opened up and no one his family's climbed inside and the door was closed even though all heavens was poured were pouring out the water and earth was pouring out from beneath it and people were being wiped off the face of the earth no one wasn't killed and neither was his wife neither were his sons and neither were their wives they were preserved and so our walk of faith is is like building an ark that we invite our families into so that they might be saved too so that when god brings judgment which he will our families are saved that to me is a tremendously important thing i want god to move in my life and i want god to move in the life of my children and the work that i perform is intended to be built in an ark for my family so my prayer life and my devotional life my my personal life all of that is intended to be kind of like that ark we're in christ preserved in him so when judgment comes we're protected and that's what it's all about that's why when the kids were small that's why i gave them devotions that's why to this day i pray for my children on a daily basis that well god will work in their life that's why that's why i have a grandson and and i pray for him and when he stays with us we give him devotions in his baby devotional that he has that's why i do that and so that he might have a relationship with the god of his grandfather that's the desire of our heart and that's what happened with noa noa lived in a time when evil was rampant and every intent of the thought of man's heart was only evil continually and it grieved the lord's heart that he had created man made a determination to judge him but noa found grace in the sight of the lord and god preserved him and his family and that's my desire today even though we live in evil times to be preserved by the grace of god