Parallels and Lessons About Noah

After the pre-teen camp, I was able to attend. And it just happened that I did bring that Noah's Ark model, which is 1 by 6, which is the scale of what the Bible says it was. And of course, telling stories about Noah and his family. He's been on my mind. I'm sorry about that, but we're going to talk a little more about the parallels and lessons about Noah. According to Christ, Noah's life is very relevant and applicable to us today. If we read Matthew 24, verses 37 through 39, you'll see how important Noah is and that we are living similar times as he did. Matthew 24, 37 through 39 says, But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be, talking about Christ. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the Ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. So there's a parallel between the days of Noah and our days. And for those old enough, know in the past 30-40 years how society has changed so dramatically. You can almost put a dividing line from the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s with the rebellion of the youth and the birth control pill, and many things happened in the 60s. And you remember the hippies and all of that? Society changed markedly. There was a lack of respect toward the parents, toward those in charge of government. And from that time all the way to today, we have just seen a steady deterioration. Notice what the Orange County Register, the paper that we have in this area, mentioned today. It says, in the six months that have passed, 28 mass killings have occurred in the country. That six months, 28 mass killings, 140 victims, a mass killing is defined as an occurrence when four or more people are killed, not including the assailant within a 24-hour period. This year's milestone beat the previous record of 27 mass killings, which was only set in the second half of last year. So if you sum it up, it means 55 mass killings in a year. Nothing like that had occurred before. The fact that there are 28 of these mass killings in half a year is a staggering statistic that was mentioned by one of the detectives in charge. Yet, it represents a fraction of the country's overall gun violence. And of course, with guns, people have to be responsible, and there are so many irresponsible people nowadays. And with less respect for God, for His laws, society is becoming less and less interested in religion and in God, and we can see the difference. I'll never forget what one biology professor once said, who believed in the Bible and creation. He said, if you rear your children like animals, don't complain later, because you say that they came from animals, that they act like animals. They act like beasts. And so they're getting this fed through schools, that we just are this evolved chimp. We don't really have a conscience. We don't have a judgment before God. And people lose the fear and respect of God. And that's what we are seeing today.

Notice in Genesis 6, verse 12, I'd like to read it from a translation called the voice translation. Genesis 6, 12 says, they lived at a time when the world had become vile and corrupt. Violence was everywhere. God saw that the earth was in ruins, and He knew why. All people on earth, except Noah, had lived corrupt lives and ruined God's plans for them. He had to do something. So God had a lot of hope for mankind, created this beautiful earth. But mankind decided to do things on their own, to form their own societies. And we are seeing the eventual development now with all of this technology. Have you read what's going on in the Ukraine? There have been over 200,000 casualties. That's deaths and wounded Russian soldiers. And, of course, the Ukrainians, they're probably around 40,000 that have died. But they have actually now, instead of missiles, they have shells, artillery shells, that have a little microchip inside the shell. And so they're guided by the GPS satellite system. And so they can trace where there might be, for instance, a Russian tank, oh, five, ten miles away. And so they'll program it. They don't have to shoot a missile. They'll just shoot an artillery shell around. And that is guided, and it hits the tank wherever they want. It's a guided bullet. And now they talk about dumb artillery shells, which they just at random, you shoot them, you hope it hits something, and then you have the smart artillery shells. And it is a bloodbath going on right now. I tell you, God is grieving because of this. And mankind does not know the way of peace. And we see, unfortunately, the breaking of God's commandments. So let's look at some of the parallels and lessons we can learn from Noah. Because we are all related to Noah. Do you know that every one of us came from Noah's genes? Because the whole of mankind before Noah, they perished in the flood. And so Noah had three children, and those children had their brides, their wives. But we all descend from that common stock of Noah. All the races we have, whoever, they all are part of Noah's children. Let's look at the key verse that we're going to focus on, Hebrews 11.

This is a summary of the life of Noah and why he pleased God. Hebrews 11. In verse 7, it says, Now that's a mouthful. So we're going to break it down into four parts. The lessons and parallels with Noah and us. First of all, where it talks about by faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear. In the contemporary English version, it brings out something more in this first part of the verse. It says, Because Noah had faith, he was warned about something that had not yet happened. So if you're a person of true faith, if you're one of the spiritual children that are part of the descendants of Noah, that faith is something so important. And because of that, God warned Noah ahead of time of that coming flood. What does that remind you of? You remember what it talks about? That God is not going to do anything unless he reveals it to his servants, the prophets? Amos 3, 7. Surely the Lord does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. So God is going to tell the church before he intervenes, he will let us know what he's going to do. He will let the church know. He will not leave us in ignorance, just like he did not let Noah be in ignorance. So there will be a time before God intervenes that he will let us know.

And of course, we are preparing for that time. Spiritually, we don't know when that is, but there will be one day when God will tell us, just like he did with Noah. Notice in 2 Peter 2, verse 5, where it talks about Noah. 2 Peter 2, verse 5.

Talking about God, it says, He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. And then it says, verse 9, The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations or trials, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. There is a day of judgment here on this earth. And God means business. He's very patient. He was very long suffering. He waited 120 years until he intervened. The ark had to be prepared. People did not get any better. They got worse and worse. Isn't that what's happening today? Just read the papers. You see now all the lifestyles that are out there, and everybody wants to do their own thing. And it will all be unto you if you stand up for God's way and for God's principles. You're going to be persecuted just like Noah was. He was a preacher of what? Righteousness. The right way of life before God. And he didn't shirk from his duties. He continued. How many converts did Noah have outside of his family? You know how many people he converted? Zero. Nobody paid attention. The world's not paying attention.

And it's very unfortunate. People's hearts are getting harder.

People are enticed with all the technology and the riches and everything that fills their lives. They don't want anybody to intervene.

In Matthew 24, let's go to Matthew 24, verse 21.

We are very lucky, brethren, where we are at today. Matthew 24, verse 21 and 22. Here's Noah's version of society when Christ comes back. We had Noah's example. Now we have society's and the church's example. Matthew 24, verse 21, it says, For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time. No, nor ever shall be. When this happens, the intervention, it's never happened before. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. God will intervene. He will not let man destroy himself. Right now, we have a pretty crazy ruler in Russia. He thought he could just invade the Ukraine and take over within a week or two. Well, it's been a year and a half. He's getting more bogged down. And unfortunately, he's got the nuclear weapons. And he's moved some of those over to Belarus, which is another country next to the Ukraine. These are warning signs. And we're living under the bomb.

Unfortunately, it started in 1945, where the atomic bomb was created, and two of them dropped, wiped out about close to 140,000 people between the two. And they are building more. So you see, do you want to depend on man for your safety and welfare?

Do you want to depend upon the leaders of this world to bring peace, when they can't even have peace in their own families? They can't even give us a good example!

So we have been patiently preparing just like Noah. And we have a work to do, just like Noah had a work to do. Notice the second part of Hebrews 11.7. Hebrews 11.7.

It says, He moved with godly fear. That's a very good description. And prepared an ark for the saving of his household. In the Passion Translation, it says, He stepped out in reverent obedience to God and built an ark that would save him and his family. Yeah, He didn't just sit around. He had a job to do. And He did it with this reverent obedience to God.

So faith first is an attitude of belief and of action.

It's not only what you believe, but how you apply it. How you carry it out. It didn't say, Oh, Noah was very concerned. Oh, yes, he heard what God said, but he never built the ark. What kind of faith is that? It's an empty faith. Doesn't mean anything until you take action about your faith. Notice in Hebrews 11 verse 1, it says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Substance is actually the physical actions you carry out about what you believe.

So it's first an attitude, and then it's the corresponding action. Faith is based on the concrete actions you take about what you believe. Now, is that something that you can understand? And not all of this gibberish that they give you of faith is something in your heart. And just accept the Lord. That'll be great. That's not what I learned. At 17, I was faced with a biblical command. I understood. I proved it. Sabbath is the fourth commandment. It's something to rest on that day.

I proved Sunday, being the first day of the week, that is not a holy day. That was not sanctified by God. Once I proved it, I looked through the entire Bible. There's nothing about Sunday being sacred in the Bible. There's not one word of the Sabbath being changed to Sunday in the New Testament.

There's not any controversy where any of the Jews attacking the church ever said, Why are you keeping the first day of the week now? Here we've got over 30 years of New Testament history, from the time of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the time of the Council of Jerusalem. Not one word, not one accusation a day, we're not keeping the Sabbath day. That would have been fur. That would have been so controversial. The Jews would have attacked the church immediately.

Nobody kept Sunday. That's something that the Pope, about 300 years later, in 321 AD, it was the Emperor Constantine, set up the rest on Sunday. You can read that decree. 321 AD.

Everybody in the Empire has to rest on Sunday. And then the Nicene Council, that's where they set it up. The Catholic Church said, the first day of the week is the week to keep. The first day of the week to keep. There's nothing in the Bible here. Well, I went to the priest about it. He couldn't explain it to me. And you know what?

Once my faith, the conviction was there, the next Sabbath I was attending church, keeping the Sabbath day. I didn't have any excuse. I knew I was going to break the Sabbath day one more time, and I was going to sin before God. And so I met the minister. We had to go to Chattanooga hour and a half drive. There weren't any churches close by. But I knew I had to keep the Sabbath day. Now, I didn't know what faith was and everything like this.

This is the concrete action you take after you know what God's commandments are. That is living faith. That is a relationship between you, God the Father, and Jesus Christ. And so it says here, now faith is a substance, the concrete example of what things hope for. The evidence, the actions that show of things not seen. I know the kingdom is coming. I know Jesus Christ is coming. He's going to keep the Sabbath day. He's going to make people keep it.

You just have to read Isaiah 66. It tells you right there at the very end that when He comes back, let's read it just in case I read it when I was 17 years old, when I was checking what the Bible said about what holy days there are. Isaiah 66. It says, verse 15, For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.

And then He says here, in verse 23, For it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, that's the biblical month, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord. Now, do I want to be one of those dumb people that are going to come and say, Well, I thought Sunday was the day I was supposed to keep.

I didn't want to be one of those people. I know that the Sabbath is what Jesus Christ is going to establish. And so, why not start now? Why not start keeping the true fourth commandment and take the veil out of the eyes? So, this is part of the reverent obedience to God, that Noah was a man of action.

God said, this is what I want you to do. He didn't argue. He started building it. And so, he was moved with godly fear. So, everyone that has true faith has responsibilities to carry out, just like Noah did, a preacher of righteousness. It wasn't just building the ark, but he continually pronounced a loving, but a warning message of what was coming. He wanted to save them as well.

We want to save the world. This world would be so different if they just kept God's commandments. If they followed this, we wouldn't have all this violence. We wouldn't have to worry about people stealing. We wouldn't have all these broken marriages. Everybody would know how to live according to God's ways, which is the way of peace, of joy, of love, of patience, kindness, goodness, all these fruits of God's Spirit.

So, the responsibilities that we have are based on God's laws, what He commands. Are we going to put man's commandments first or God's commandments? And what is one of our chief responsibilities now in this church? We have a work to do. Matthew 24, verse 14, defines our main commission given by Jesus Christ. Matthew 24, verse 14, why do you think we have all of these TV programs? Why do we think all this free literature? We never charge anybody one penny. It's all covered by tithes and offerings of the members. We don't have to go begging for... You can have all the literature. Within the first two weeks that I learned about the Sabbath and through a friend in high school, I had all the literature free. I accumulated it. I read it. It made sense. Matthew 24, verse 14, it says, In this gospel of the kingdom, of the coming kingdom, just like there was a coming flood that Noah preached about, will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. The curtains will close. It's going to be too late afterwards. The world is going to have to face all of that. We want to save as many as possible. That's why we cannot charge for our literature. That's why we cannot compromise with what we talk about, obeying God. Just look in the Bible. Prove it for yourself. This is what we keep. We obey God's commandments.

And so we have a gospel of the kingdom as a loving but warning message to the world. And the second commission that we have is found in Matthew 28, 19 and 20. Matthew 28, 19 and 20.

Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, all the races, all the people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, all the commandments that Christ gave, all the commandments of the Father that He expanded and gave the Spirit of the law and not just the letter of the law. And lo, I am with you always. He is in charge of this work, even to the end of the age. Talk about the end of the society as we know it, until Christ comes back to intervene. And so this is what we've been doing for over a hundred years. Sending the gospel to all the world. We have the Spanish edition that we send, and I have the opportunity to oversee the Spanish edition. And we send thousands of magazines out. We have YouTube videos in Spanish. We have everything a person would need in all of Latin America. All they have to do is contact us and say, We want to obey God. We want to follow His way. That's all you need. That's called faith. And all we do is we just teach them what we have learned. Well, start by keeping the Ten Commandments. Don't leave the Fourth Commandment out.

I had a member that mentioned before we began services. Someone asked him about, What is the sign between God and us? Now, there are several, but the first sign is if you are a Sabbath keeper or not. Notice Exodus 31.

Exodus 31. When she asked me about that sign, I went straight to this scripture. Exodus 31 verse 17.

Verse 16 starts the thought. It says, Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It's a continuous covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

So this is a sign. That's what it's called, the mark, whatever it is. That's what begins to open the doors to God's truths. I have never known somebody that keeps a Sunday that understands the great truths that are here in the Bible. God has to open your mind to that. There is no other way than through keeping the Sabbath day because as long as we're violating that, it is a sin before God and we are responsible for it.

Now, I did it in ignorance. I had no idea. But because I did it in ignorance does not mean I am not responsible for it. And I repented before God of doing that. And so we have these two great commissions to preach the gospel, a loving but warning message to the world, and to prepare a people for God.

Those that are going to be part of Noah's spiritual children. God and Jesus Christ bring them in and just like to know his family that we are all part of. And then, of course, we have responsibilities in our personal lives. How are we doing? Well, we start with the Sabbaths, but then you find out there are annual Sabbaths, which are holy days during the year.

There are seven of them that are to be kept just like a Sabbath day, a day of rest, a day of holy convocation. We have food laws that are in the Bible. Do you know that from Genesis to Revelation, there is not one man or woman of God that ate pork or shrimp. Or lobster. And, of course, Jesus Christ is the great example.

He ate lamb. He ate fish. But he never ate these things. Neither did his disciples. Neither did the church. So that is also part of keeping God's commandments. And, of course, the tithe to separate 10% of the income and give it to God. So the work can be done. We have a tithe to be able to keep the feasts as well. And, of course, then we have prayer, Bible study, meditation, and occasional fasting.

When we feel we're getting too far from God, we need to dedicate some time to fasting, getting closer to God so he can get closer to us. And then, going beyond that, show love, respect, and care toward others. Especially the family of faith. In Galatians 6, verse 10, I'll read it to you from the Good News Bible. It says, So then, as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone, and especially to those who belong to our family in the faith.

So we take care of our brethren, of our own. Let's go to the third part of Hebrews 11.7. It says, I'm going to read it from the Message Bible. It says, His act of faith, which was the building of the ark, drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. So Noah showed he wasn't just going along with society, was he? He wasn't conforming to the false teachings, to the false ways, to the false counterfeit teachings that are out there.

No, he did not conform to the world. Notice what it tells us in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Romans 12. This scripture really hit me hard at the beginning, as I was changing my life as a young teen. Verse 1 says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable, or the expected service. It means what God expects of us. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So there's a transformation that slowly takes place. Our minds and hearts are transformed. So we are leaving a witness to the world. Maybe people think, oh, this group, look at these ideas they have, keeping old and New Testament practices like the Sabbath or the feast days. Well, people throughout the ages, including Noah and his family. Noah kept the Sabbath day, because in Genesis 2, verses 1-3, is when God said he completed everything and he set apart the Sabbath day and blessed it.

And you know who came later? Noah. That was one of the first commandments that God gave mankind to rest on the Sabbath day. And from that first time with Adam and Eve resting on the Sabbath day, till today, the cycle of the weekly cycle has not been broken. Just ask the Jews. They've been keeping it for thousands of years. And that cycle has never been broken. Today is the seventh day. Look it up in the dictionary, what it tells you about the Sabbath day. Just look it up. It says, the seventh day of the week. And look up Sunday, the first day of the week. God never blessed or set apart the first day of the week.

In 1 Peter 2, verses 11-12, we are leaving a witness to the world, obeying God, having a personal relationship with Him and Christ. One day, people will recognize when their veil is taken out of their eyes, off their eyes. 1 Peter 2, verses 11-12, in the contemporary English version, it says, Dear friends, you are foreigners and strangers on this earth. So I beg you not to surrender to those desires that fight against you. Always let others see you behaving properly, even though they may still accuse you of doing wrong.

Then, on the day of judgment, they will honor God by telling the good things they saw you do. One day, they will recognize it, even if it isn't now. We are leaving them an example of faith in action. We didn't create the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day is in the Bible. We just want to obey God. And He says, this is what you should do. We are just following along what God has said.

In the last part of that Hebrews 11-7, it says that Noah became heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith. So Noah has not received the reward yet, but he became an heir, which is something that's going to talk about a future inheritance of righteousness, just as we are striving to do. Notice in Hebrews 11 verse 6, it says Hebrews 11-6, but without faith it is impossible to please him.

I don't care what he doesn't need money. He doesn't need anybody to do other things. It's impossible without faith to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So seek him with all your might. Have a relationship where you desire to please him first. Don't worry about everybody else. I remember I had to face that. I was the only one in my family. But I wanted to have a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ and this Word. This is the mirror, spiritual mirror, that I had to look at every day of my life.

And I didn't want to be a hypocrite and say, no, I don't want to follow that because it doesn't agree. I want to follow the easy way of the world, the wide and broad path, which leads to destruction. In Hebrews 11.13, after he talked about Noah, he says, verse 13, These all died in faith, not having received the promises.

They were still heirs. But having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. In verse 32, it says, Escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, not because they were, but God was in them, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Do you want a better resurrection? Do you want to be part of that first resurrection when Noah is going to arise and you're going to be able to meet him? Notice what it says in verse 39.

It says, All these people of faith, having obtained a good testimony through faith, yes, they weren't just forgetful hearers, but they were doers, did not receive the promise, because that's coming when Christ returns. God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. In other words, they haven't been resurrected and glorified or perfected, and we are going to be part of that same resurrection. What an undeserved reward to be there with Noah, with all of these people, and be part of the same team. What greater reward can we ask? And so, action steps? The first one? Like Noah, he did not conform to the world. That's the first example. He did not follow the crowd, did he? He followed God. He walked with God. Number two, exercise living faith. Faith that is shown by what we do.

Not all the pretty words, but what we do in action. Three, back God's work and church. We're part of a body. Each part is precious and important. And lastly, like Noah, be patient. Do what is required, and you will receive your reward. And it would have been all worth it, believe me. So, brethren, that's a little bit about the life and lessons of Noah.