In the midst of wicked days, Noah found grace. This grace gave him what he needed to obey God in building the Ark. He applied the grace given to him. He was made clean. He entered a completely new world and started this new life at an altar he built. (Genesis 6:6-12, 7:5; John 15:4)

Speaker(s): Kim Shibley
Sermon 12340
7:00 PM on 7/20/2022

P. Shibley –

Hey, everybody. Welcome to mid-summer Wednesday night service. It’s awesome. Good to see you guys. We
have a group from Silver Spring in Columbia tonight. They left yesterday. There’s 14 of them.
Four of my elders are there. Actually, it’s pretty funny. Yeah, it’s good. Also, P. Jay Esterbrook
from York church with a group of young people, maybe 6 or 7. And then there’s a whole other
group from here. They have quite a group there for the summer harvest, so that’s amazing.
Let’s pray for them. We’ll pray for the message as well. (Prayer).

Good to see everybody. I was just so happy to come tonight and be here and talk about some
things. I’m going to read eventually in the book of Genesis. And I was just thinking about this
one guy that you all have heard of in the Bible. His name is Noah. How many have heard of
Noah? Anybody ever hear of Noah? Noah is okay. He is one of the most accomplished
characters in all the Bible. Did you know that? When you think of all that he did. Here’s a man
who God actually calls him righteous and blameless in Genesis 6. That’s saying a lot actually for a
generation that is labeled corrupt by God actually.

Let’s read Genesis 6:11-12. How many people have been to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky? Quite a
few? A few people. It’s pretty big. P. Bob Schwartz brought me there when I was – how many
people has P. Bob Schwartz brought to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky? He’s like a lifetime
member and one of the original guys. It’s pretty amazing. I was out there in December I think of
2016, and we only had so much time for the run through. But on one level, there’s this
depiction of what evil may have been like in the days of Noah. They even depict a type of
gladiator fighting or sparing with a dinosaur. It’s pretty interesting. You think about the
Romans. This was probably worse than even what the Romans did in the colosseum. And for
Christians that don’t believe in the great Flood which there are some that don’t, they think it
maybe never happened.

They think they believe in evolution and all that stuff.
Let me remind you what Jesus says in Matthew 24:37-38. Jesus was making a point about his Second
Coming, right? But he does mention that it is actually a thing that happened. This is not some
metaphor or some story that we can all just say that’s so nice how God saved everybody.
Whatever. But it seems that he’s making the point that the last days also in this part of
Matthew – he’s also seemingly making the point that those are going to be some evil days,
right, just before his return.

Ken Ham from that Ark Encounter, Answers in Genesis, he calculates that it took between 55
and 75 years for Noah and his family to build that ark. That’s a long time. That’s a lot of effort.
How many of you have put that kind of effort in for God? Seventy-five years of building one
thing, one project that long. That was a mighty task especially when you realize that Noah at
the time was 500 years old when he started. So there! I mean come on! Five hundred years old.
Genesis 7:5, I think that’s pretty amazing. So, this guy is like, he’s alright. Noah. You don’t think
about him this way sometimes, but this guy really had a formidable task in front of him.

He was a man of obedience. He had a great family that also believed. They believed the same thing that
he believed which is good. They also joined him for completing the task, but Noah also follows
through on filling the ark with the animals, going in with his family, closing the door, waiting for
seven days until it starts raining. And then he continues his voyage.

When he and his family finally leaves the ark, what does he do? He builds an altar and worships
God. Noah is definitely on my top ten list of awesome characters in the Bible. He’s like pretty
amazing when you think about it. Jesus is in that category of his own just in case you were
wondering. If you wanted to know where Jesus was on the list, he’s not on the list. He’s got his
own list. But after achieving all of that, right, he did – so after achieving all of that, God does
make a covenant with him and his family. That’s what we call the Noahic covenant. The
covenant is actually made with all of mankind. It’s a simple covenant. It’s just that God will
never flood to destroy the earth and God commanded them to multiply to fill the earth again.
He sent the first rainbow ever.

So, in my estimation, after all that Noah did, he certainly deserves the praise of everybody. He
should be given – he should have been given a lifetime achievement award I think by God. It’s
amazing. Come on. Noah, you’re amazing. Because he deserved it, right? For sure. He deserved
it. None of us could claim to have done what he did, right? It was incredible what he did. It’s
astounding what he did in that day. But it’s pretty shocking.

God didn’t do that. He never gave him an award at all. Because look at this. Way back in the
beginning of history – I think it’s interesting. And this is my point actually is that Noah did all
this stuff, right? And we’re good at doing stuff. We’re all good at doing stuff. Stuff is what we
do. This is what we do. We do stuff all the time. We’re always trying to do something. We’re
always trying to please somebody maybe. Maybe not. We’re trying to please God for sure in the
things that we do for the church and all that. But we are so used to giving each other accolades,
right? Accolades.

How many people have ever watched the Tony Awards or when the actors all congratulate
themselves how wonderful they are or the Oscar Awards. Oh, you’re so wonderful. Oh, no.
You’re wonderful. You’re terrible or whatever! I’ll punch you in the face! Whatever happens,
but you have all these people. It’s so ridiculous, right, these millionaires telling each other how
great that they are. It’s so stupid. But anyway, regardless of all that, we can say in one sense we
wonder why didn’t Noah get more? Why didn’t Noah have more of a place in that sense, you
know, like hey, this guy’s amazing. He’s the savior of the world in a sense.

But look what it says – we look at it kind of in the wrong way. We look at it like we do
something and then we get something. We do it; we get it. That’s how work is. We work. We
get paid. We do some great task. We get an award. We win the Superbowl and we get some
award of some sort. Quarterback of the year. Most valuable player. Whatever it is. That was me. I was always the most valuable player! So funny. My coach hated me. I don’t know why.
You know, when I played football. He didn’t really hate me, but I did one time we were playing
Westfield, and I was the center. I should not have been the center. I was the fastest guy on the
team. I should not have been the center. But anyway, we were punting the ball. And I punted
the ball over the punters. I’m sorry. I kicked the ball over the punter’s head. That was not good!
My coach. I mean, come on. He walks and grabs me and pulls me out of the field. Puts me on
the bench. You’re never going to play center again. I’m like, thank you, Jesus! I’m never going to
play center again. I was not the – and we lost the game because of me.

But fortunately, that team also lost another game to another team, and so we ended up in the
championship with the team that beat them. Right. And you know what happened. I was
playing linebacker and I intercepted the ball. In for a touchdown. And those were the only
points scored. I’m just telling ya. I was the MVP that day. And I remember the next day I went
to the dentist office. I said to the dental hygienist, hey, do you have a newspaper? And she said,
yes. So, I actually looked in the sports page of the Springfield Union and there it was, like about
that big! It had to be like ten lines. Kim Shibley did this thing and we won the championship. It
was amazing. Anyway, that’s my championship moment right there.

Back to the message. Enough about my great football career. I wonder if that coach ever
regretted having me be the – Genesis 6:6. This is how God works. This all happens before Noah does
anything. Vs. 7-8. That is amazing to me. Wait a second. Noah hasn’t done anything yet and yet
he’s the champion. He’s the guy that’s chosen. Him and his family will be the ones to build the
ark. They will be the ones to preach righteousness. They will be the ones to essentially save the
human race. But he didn’t get an award at the end; he got an award at the beginning!

It’s kind of like us. When we believe in Christ, the Bible says that we are seated together with
God in heavenly places. What did I do? I just believed. Well that gives – see, that gave Noah the
strength. That gave Noah what he needed to complete the task that God had put in front of
him. I think that’s amazing. It’s the opposite of the world. You know, it’s pre-loaded in that
sense. This is what I love about the grace of God. It is so wonderful. It is so amazing. It is so
motivating because we know that we are co-laboring with the Creator to do whatever his will
might be. That is amazing.

Wait! Hold the tape! How could he find grace now? Cut! Cut! We got to redo this. We got to
redo this act. We got to re-write the Bible. Noah, you cannot get grace first. You get grace later
after you earned it. After you’ve done something that it so good and you think that it may
sound crazy, but this is exactly what we think. It is exactly how much of religion whether it’s a
Christian religion or another type of religion. It’s how we think. We think when we do, we get
rewarded.

But it’s just the opposite with God. With God, he has rewarded us for he loved us. He cares
about us. We are his children. For he puts inside of us what we need to do the things that he
wants us to do. It is amazing. It’s totally backwards from the world. Nonetheless, roll the tape.
Keep it going. What’s the tape going to look like in your life, right? What does the tape look like
for you? It’s not – if you’re trying to please, if you’re trying to please God through some efforts,
it’s not what it’s all about. Going to Richmond for 31 days.

Starting a church potentially. Yeah, it’s excited. Yeah, it’s something that we want to do but how did that motivation even start? How did it even start? The team found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why are you sitting in your
chair tonight hearing me talk? Because you found you need grace in the eyes of the Lord. You
need grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah hasn’t done anything yet. He hasn’t been tested. I mean he has, but he hasn’t. He’s not
overcome difficulty that we know of in the face of adversity which we need to do sometimes.
He hasn’t even really yet obeyed God. I’m sure he has but not in this sense. Not yet. And grace
is his reward, right? Already. Now? Wait. That comes now. It is a reward. It’s not a reward for
what we’ve accomplished. It’s an award or reward based on what Christ accomplished when he
died for us, when the lamb was slain before the foundations of the earth. It’s amazing, isn’t it?
It’s amazing how God’s grace works. We receive grace of course the moment that we receive
Christ but we receive grace even to receive Christ. It’s amazing.

Ephesians 2:8-9, that’s how it is. We receive grace but let’s look at it again. “for by grace you have
been saved through faith and that not of yourself,” Noah. I think Noah knew grace. Noah knew
grace a long time ago. Noah knew that it wasn’t Noah. Noah knew, of all people, Noah knew it
was God that did everything. Noah could not do anything. Noah could build a boat. “It is by
grace that you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.” Not of yourselves. I
know – I think about that all the time. I think about how much I can fail and how much I do fail
in so many different ways. I fail in relationships. I fail at my church. I fail God all the time. I don’t
pray the way I should pray. There’s a lot of things I should be doing. I don’t soul win enough. I
don’t do all kinds of thing enough and yet I know this is not how God bases his love for me.
That’s not how God bases his grace for me and maybe you do the same thing.

One thing we have to understand all the time is that we are human and this is going to happen.
Nonetheless, what do we do? We turn back to God and we say thank you Lord for your grace. I
know when I pray oftentimes I pray and say, Lord, Jesus, I pray like the Lord’s prayer. Our
Father, who art in heaven – God, you’re in heaven and I’m on earth. You see everything. I just
see what’s in front of my face. Thank you, Jesus for your grace. Thank you for leading me. Thank
you for giving me what I need to live this life, what I need to lead my family, what I need to lead
my church, what I need to just live and be happy and be satisfied with the things that I have
that are from you. Cause everything is from God. It’s amazing. You see without grace, we can
do nothing. Without grace, we can’t really live the Christian life.

I mean this is how religion is. Religion – many people in our church too – many people have
lived the Christian life without applying grace to their life. It happens all the time. It happens all
the time. People live the life; they live the life in works. They want to please other people
through their life. They might want to please themselves. They might think they are pleasing
God. “Well, I listened to 18 messages today.” What did you listen to? You know, I mean,
whatever! Whatever! Look at what I’ve done. Hear what I say. See all my fruits.

Jesus says this in John. 15:3. “You are already clean” – I love that. Come on. I’m filthy. Have you
ever felt dirty? Ever felt wrong? Have you have someone come up and say it to you that they
were very offended by something that you said to them, and you don’t even remember saying
it? But I never said that. Yes, you did. I heard it. Okay. Alright. You feel terrible. What did I say?
How did I do that? I don’t know. Or maybe I said something and I did say what I shouldn’t have
said. What do I do? How do I fix it? I don’t know. I can’t fix it except for God’s grace. Except I
can lean on him. I can believe in him. I can believe in his mercy.

You are already clean in whatever state you are in. If you are a believer in Christ, if you are truly
a believer in Christ in whatever state you find yourself, in whatever place, – if you are saved, if
you are bought by the blood of Christ, if you’ve been sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of
redemption, if you’ve been born again by the Spirit of God, then you are clean. I don’t care
what your mental state is right now. You are clean. Noah was clean before he even started
putting one nail in a board, before he collected a board, before he saw the bill at Home Depot,
he was already clean. Man, the price of lumber back then was, I don’t know.

Three million, 300,000 linear feet of wood. Something like that. Ken Ham again. You’re already clean not
because of you. Not because you saved the world which Noah did. You’re already clean because
of the Word which I have spoken to you. Isn’t that good? That is so good.

These next statements is so key that Jesus makes. This is what we have to think about especially
if we are not thinking right. We have to start thinking right. Jesus says, abide in me. Spend time
with me. Come back to me. If you look in Psalm 42 and Psalm 43, “as a deer panteth after the water
brooks, so my soul panteth after you, O Lord.” This guy goes back and forth and back and forth,
right? I’m having a real hard time, but then I go back to God and I’m doing good again. But then
I have a real hard time and I’m going back to God. This is what is our life, really. The problem
with some people is that they don’t come back. They think it’s all over. They think that it wasn’t
even worth it or they get mad at God or whatever the case may be.

But that’s not how it is. John. 15:4, you cannot bear fruit without abiding in Christ who does all the
work by the way. Who declares you righteous by the way in 2 Corinthians 5:18, as righteous as him.
You have his righteousness. That is crazy. That doesn’t even make sense. How can I be right
when I know I’m so wrong and I’ve been so wrong all throughout my life and yet God declares
me right. Was Moses perfect? I’m sorry. Moses. He wasn’t either. Was Noah perfect? Noah was
not perfect yet he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Vs. 4-5. Without – Christians, brothers, sisters – without Christ, you can do nothing. What does that mean? It means that you have an
active faith in Jesus. You have an active faith in Jesus. You speak to him. You read his Word. You
fellowship with other believers. That’s what it is. You think about life in a different way. We
think about life differently than other people. We do.

Vs. 5. When Noah left the ark, he walked into a completely different world than he left. Did you
ever think about that? The world that he left was a world of plenty, a world of plains, a world of
people that had things. There was industry. There was food. There was all kinds of things. I
don’t know what those things were but it seems like things were going pretty well. They had
some I’m sure some amazing advances. They had tremendous amounts of knowledge. Imagine
the kind of knowledge you could obtain living hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s crazy, right?
It’s amazing. He did. Also, it was very lush and he walked out on a mountain and he might have
even said, what is a mountain? Because the earth had completely changed. It completely
changed. Everything was gone.

We know there was an olive tree somewhere because the dove brought back an olive branch.
But he went into a completely different world and he left a world of plenty. And also, there was
no civilization whatsoever. It was just him and his family and a boat but no water. No water to
float the boat. Can’t go back. Actually, he probably had to take the boat apart to make shelters
for his family.

But Noah did something else first. This is what I love about Noah, too. Okay, he opened that
door. And woe it was different! Have you ever opened your door one day? Have you ever found
out one day that your life had changed? That everything was different because of something
that happened? Now what do I do? Nothing is the same. I don’t know what it could be. It could
be anything. It could be sickness. It could be death. It could be a loss of some sorts somehow.
Job. Everything’s changed. What do I do? This is what Noah did in Genesis 8. This is the first thing he
did by the way. vs. 20. First thing that he did was worship the one in whose eyes he found
grace. He worshipped the one in whose eyes he found grace.

I find it puzzling when Christians, people who have either grown up in the church or became
Christians later and then served God. People that served God. But when there is a challenge in
their life, when something difficult happens, however, whatever. There’s a million different
things, nine hundred thousand different things. There’s a lot of different things that can
happen. What do they do? I don’t know. Maybe they get angry at their family. Maybe they get
angry at the church because of course it’s the churches fault whatever it was. Maybe it was the
churches’ fault. I don’t know.

But the truth is, the bottom line is this that when people walk out of the ark, they need to
worship God. When things change in your life, they need to build an altar somehow. They need
to find God somehow. If something happens in your life that is disturbing to you, if something happens in the church that is disturbing to you, at work that is disturbing, in your family that is
disturbing, there’s one thing that you must do in order to activate you faith and that is to begin
by worshipping God. Worship God in those moments, because if you worship God in those
moments, God will comfort you. God will reveal to you what is next. He might not reveal, he
might not take away the problem as we know with the Apostle Paul but he did say he trusted
God in those things. He trusted God in those things.

Sometimes people fail to apply forgiveness as we do as well. But what do we need to do? We
need to do what Noah did. We need to – we’ve already done much of what Noah did. All of us
did. We found grace in God’s eyes. Amen. And if you are here tonight and you can’t say you are
a believer in Christ. You don’t know for sure that you’ve accepted Christ. Have you given your
life to him? Have you really given your life to Christ? That’s a good question to ask. Have I given
– you know. I’m not trying to tell you you can lose your salvation. You can’t. But maybe you’ve
never really been saved. Maybe you’ve never asked – maybe you are here tonight for the first
time. Maybe somebody brought you. That’s okay. That’s a good thing.

What do we do? We believe. We believe in him. We believe in the one who declares us
righteous because of the work that Christ did on the cross. Amen. I love it. I just love how Noah
just began to worship God as soon as – what an ordeal that much have been. What a shock that
must have been. The first thing he did was to remember who saved him and that was the Lord.
Amen. Amen. Let’s pray (prayer).

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.