11th March 2026

11th March 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read - Hebrews 11:7 (take some time and read Genesis 6:1-9:28)


Message Alan Burke


Noah, in the midst of a wicked world that grieved the Lord, was to build an ark in faith of things unseen. He was thus warned of what lay ahead by God, and in response, he built the ark. He simply believed in the word of God and built an ark in response. Adam and Eve, in the garden, failed to believe the word of God, but Noah, by faith, believed and built the ark. For God had forewarned him about the judgement. In Genesis, we are given the details of that vessel, the ark that Noah built. Just like throughout Scripture, it doesn’t tell us everything we might want to know, but I tell you this much: even though the text doesn’t explicitly tell us this in the book of Genesis, it is that Noah would have been ridiculed by men for two reasons.


The first, obviously, is building an ark. Secondly, all the while Noah, though his actions, and more than likely his words, was telling people about the judgement of God and showing his faith in that word, even in the midst of the wickedness of the earth. By faith, Noah built an ark. An ark that would have spoken of the coming judgement of God because of the wickedness of the people. It would have taken decades to build and would have grown before the eyes of the people. They would have had ample opportunity to enquire about the salvation that it spoke of. The people of that day had every opportunity, like today, to repent and flee from the coming judgement of God, but what we discover is that only Noah and his family boarded the ark and were saved. 


Little has changed. Today, there are churches littered across this land that proclaim the coming judgment of God against the wickedness of man, but many are declining. Many do not want to hear the warning or repent of their sin. Instead, they choose to ignore, to ridicule, to mock the faith of those who look to the word of God and the promises of God, who by faith trust in Him and the salvation that He offers in Christ. For Christ is the true ark, and all who rest in Him will be brought safely through the coming storm of God’s judgment.  


Hebrews also reminds us that Noah did this “in holy fear”. This ‘holy fear’ that Noah had was not to do with the flood itself but with Noah’s relationship with God. The word of God reminds us that the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom (Prov 9:10), that the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him, and His love is towards those who fear Him (Ps 103:13, 17). Not the fear of terror but a filial fear. God’s people are to fear Him, walking in His ways, keeping His commandments. They are to remember the Lord in all our ways, to fear Him and obey His commands. Fearing the Lord is to know Him and respond accordingly. 


The true fear of God acknowledges God as Lord and Saviour and seeks to honour Him above all things. The true fear of God knows God as Father and seeks to please and obey Him rather than to sin against Him. Noah feared God rightly and sought to honour Him in the midst of a wicked generation. For all of us, we should fear God rightly, seeking to honour Him in the midst of a wicked generation. We will fail, but entirely we will be victorious through faith in Christ. For Noah looked to Him, the one who was promised who would come. We look to the one who has come and will come again. We have the benefit of knowing much more of what God has done and was doing, for Christ has come. For those before He came, the saints of the Old Testament, they trusted in the promises of God, of the one that would come. Noah was saved by the work of Christ, and we are saved by the work of Christ.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q12 What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.
​