How do we know Noah obeyed God? So many things happen when we obey God.
This is a review of John MacArthur’s book Keys To Spiritual Growth with comments and study questions along the way. Feel free to study along and answer the questions or ask your own in the comments section below to enrich our learning. To go to the start of this series click here.
Previously…
4 OBEDIENCE - UNLOCKING THE SERVANTS' QUARTERS
Noah: A Life Of Obedient Faith
Noah Responded To God's Word
And now...
Noah Rebuked the World
Noah believed God’s Word and responded to it in obedient faith. That obedience on his part rebuked the world. Hebrews 11:7 tells us, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world….”
Just how did Noah proclaim his message of condemnation to the world?[1] By building an ark. That was his sermon. Every time a passerby saw him, heard him chop down a tree, or looked up at him walking along with a plank on his back, that person heard or saw a sermon. And it was saying, “Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming.” Yet not one person believed—though Noah stayed at his task a hundred and twenty long years.
Nor even the carpenters assisting Noah accepted his message. Noah must have hired many men to help him and his sons because they alone could never have carried the massive timbers they used in the construction of the ark. But although they helped him build it, these workers were not saved by the ark. They took their weekly paychecks, then perished in the Flood. Likewise today people assist in building the church by their labor and by their talent. They work for self-satisfaction, the praise of men, or whatever. Jesus said of such people, “…they have their reward in full” (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16). Their reward is an earthly one. They are lost and will perish because they are not secure in Christ.
Was God being too severe with these laborers who worked with Noah on the ark? No. Genesis 6:5 tells us what kind of people they were: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Each one was vile on the inside, and God saw it all… For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). God reads the heart.
But God’s heart was also involved. “And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:6). Does that mean that God changed His mind? Was He taken by surprise? Was He indicating that He had made a mistake in creating man? No, this is an anthropomorphism—a statement about God in human terminology. Scripture is conveying to us a sense of God’s grief and sorrow at the state of the human race. From a human standpoint, it appears as if God had a change of heart, regretting that
He had made man. But 1 Samuel 15:29 tells us, “The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.”
God’s judgment.
God hadn’t changed His mind or anything else—it was mankind that had changed. All of humanity had grown so corrupt that God decided to erase the race. “And the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them'” (Genesis 6:7).
That was a very radical solution to the problem. But the problem was worse than you might imagine. Much of the race had become a demonic aberration. When the Bible says that the sons of God cohabited with the daughters of men (Genesis 6:2), I believe the reference applies to fallen angels. Demons having sexual relations with women had evidently produced a grotesque race (Nephilim, Genesis 6:4) that was partly demonic. If humanity had continued on its course, the entire race would have eventually been so corrupt that God’s plan of sending His Son as a man to die for mankind might have been thwarted. So God decided to wipe out the entire race except for Noah and his family-in a worldwide, catastrophic judgment.
Was God too severe—was this the end of His mercy? No, the fact that God’s patience will end, the fact that He will ultimately judge this is the only hope for a sin-cursed world. If God didn’t act to destroy, then men would have had to live in a world of eternal sin and violence. And that would be unthinkable. We ought to be thankful that sin gets judged. God is holy and just, and He must set things right. But judgment comes only after God’s great patience.
That God should judge a sinful world is neither unfair nor too severe. In fact, the remarkable thing about God’s actions here is His mercy in preserving the race at all. If God had simply wiped out everyone, including Noah and his family, that would have been the end of sinful humanity on the earth. God could have restored earth to the perfect world He created. But because He is a God of mercy, He desires to redeem fallen mankind. So He preserved the race in the midst of this terrible judgment.
Humanity’s rejection.
Every person has enough knowledge of God so that he is without excuse (Romans 1:19, 20). From the time of Adam and Eve, God had promised a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15). From that time on, the expiatory sacrificial system was in effect. Mankind knew how to come to God. Adam lived 930 years and perhaps spent most of that time telling his offspring the truth about what sin had done to him and to the world. The preaching of Enoch served as a warning Jude 14,15 ), as did the ministry of Noah. But there came a tune when the Spirit of God no longer tried to make the case. The people knew the truth, but they had stubbornly rejected it. Noah’s life of obedience stood out in bold relief as an open rebuke to the men of his time.
Is that very different from our own day? Our Lord said, “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37). Noah preached, and people laughed, as people now snicker at the proclamation of the gospel. The Holy Spirit was through striving then as He will be through in the future, when the church is taken away at the rapture. But in Noah’s day a remnant found grace, so today people are being saved by the grace of God—saved not from a judgment of water, but from a judgment of eternal fire.
God needs more men and women like Noah—those who will obey God no matter how bizarre or difficult His commands may seem.
The Motivation for Obedience
As great an example as Noah was, however, we can’t leave this subject of obedience without updating it by a New Testament concept. This will round out our understanding of obedience as a key to growth. Remember that we began this chapter by suggesting that one way to tell whether or not a person was a genuine Christian or a counterfeit Christian was the measure of that person’s obedience. But what is the motivating force of obedience? What kind of obedience is it? Let’s see if we can find out from the book of 1 John.
“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). The word “keep” in that verse carries the idea of watchful, observant obedience. It is not speaking of an obedience in response to force or pressure. We do not say, “Well, I have to obey, because if I don’t, I’ll get whacked by the divine hammer.” No, it isn’t that at all. It’s an obedience that responds out of pure love for one’s Master.
Alford’s Greek Testament defines the Greek word translated “keep” as “to watch or guard or to keep, as some precious thing.” The true Christian demonstrates that he knows God by the great desire of his heart to guard obedience.[2] The habitual, moment-by-moment safeguarding of the Word of God in a spirit of obedience is the sign of a mature Christian. When people claim to be Christians yet live any way that they want, in complete disregard for God’s commandments, they undermine their own testimony and put their claim of knowing Christ in doubt.
The word that John uses here for “commandment” is also significant. In the book of 1 John, the apostle uses the word entolē at least fourteen times, referring to the precepts of Christ. But in his gospel, when John speaks of the Law of Moses, he uses a different word—nomos. John wants to emphasize the precepts of Christ rather than the Law of Moses.[3] If we have a spirit of obedience toward the safeguarding of the precepts of Christ, a consuming desire that they be honored, and a determination to obey them, that constitutes continuing experiential proof that we have come to the knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
When a person becomes a Christian, he openly acknowledges that Jesus is his Lord. And if he sincerely enthrones Christ, then he gladly will submit to His authority. Obedience is a foregone conclusion. If a person says to Jesus, “You are Lord!” that settles the question. Thus those who continue to keep His commandments are the ones who are really knowing God and assured of it.
Two Kinds of Obedience
But what if we try to be obedient and fail? Are we condemned? I have struggled with this problem long enough so that I think I can help you understand it. We must distinguish between legal obedience and gracious obedience. Legal obedience pertains to the covenant of works. Legal obedience demands an absolute, perfect obedience without a single failure. If you violate God’s law even once, the penalty is death. That is the pain and failure of legal obedience.
But there is such a thing as gracious obedience. The terminology gives a clue about how the two kinds of obedience differ. Gracious obedience pertains to the covenant of grace. This is a loving and sincere spirit of obedience motivated by God’s grace to us. Though often defective, it is nevertheless accepted by God, for its blemishes are blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ.
See the difference? Under a covenant of works, obedience must be perfect to be of any value. In the grace covenant, God looks at the heart, not at the works. I’m glad, aren’t you? If God were measuring me on legal obedience, I would spend eternity in hell. But God looks at me and says, in effect, “MacArthur, with all your defects, you have a heart that desires to be obedient to Me. You have a spirit that wills to submit to My Lordship, even though you frequently fail.”
That is the point of the cross of Christ. Jesus died, bearing the full penalty for our sins and failings, so that His blood can cover whatever is defective in our day-to-day obedience. It is far better to be under gracious obedience than under legal obedience.
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, let me illustrate. Did the disciples always obey God? Of course they didn’t. Take Peter, for example, or James or John. All failed the Lord and made mistakes, sinful men that they were. Yet of them all Jesus could say, “Father, they have kept Thy word” (see John 17:6).[4] Had they? Consistently? They would have blushed at the very suggestion. Now, was Jesus measuring them by an absolute Mosaic legal obedience, or was He measuring their obedient spirits? You know the answer—their propensity, their desire, their determination to submit to Jesus Christ—that’s what Jesus measured, and He covered their defects with His shed blood.
God’s standard of holiness is still absolute perfection, but He has graciously made provision for our inevitable failures. If we do something wrong or fail, He doesn’t say we are finished and no longer Christians. No, God is looking at the constant flow of a heart that has in it the spirit of obedience. The true Christian has a desire to submit to Jesus Christ, even though he cannot always make that desire come to pass. But God reads and accepts it.
Such obedience is based not on law but on love, not on fear but on friendship.[5] Several verses in John point this out. As Jesus was telling of His imminent return to heaven, He did not say, “Now keep My commandments or else.” Rather, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me…” (John 14:21). So we obey, not because we fear, bur because we love.[6]
Non-Christians, of course, know nothing of this gracious obedience. Instead of submitting themselves to the lordship of Christ, they go about trying to crank out righteousness of their own and by that act are damning themselves under legal obedience. “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him…” (Titus 1:16). They may make a profession of knowing God, but, unlike Noah, their works don’t back them up. At the Great White Throne Judgment, many people are going to say, “Lord, Lord, have we not done wonderful works in Your name?” But Jesus will answer, “Depart from Me, I never knew you” (see Matthew 7:21-23).
There is no true knowledge of Christ that does not result in a spirit of gracious obedience.
The Pattern of Obedience
We have, then, the principle that it is possible to identify a Christian because of his obedience. Now, let’s go on to the pattern of obedience. By “pattern” I mean something that you can trace. First John 2:6 tells us, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” The word “abides” is equivalent in John’s writings to expressions like “knowing Him,” “walking in the light,” “being in fellowship.” All those terms indicate salvation. The point is that if you declare that you are a Christian, you ought to show a pattern of walking in the same manner as He walked.[7]
You may say, “Oh, it was bad enough that we had to keep His commandments. Now we have to walk like Him. I can’t do it!” Well, the verse does not say that every aspect of our walk will be exactly like Him, but that we will walk in the same manner. Christ is our pattern. We are to move toward the likeness of Christ. We ought to live as He lived. Obedience moves us toward Christlikeness.
Take a couple of specifics. Philippians 2:8 tells us about Jesus: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Jesus was in the form of God, but He did not insist on hanging on to that glory and privilege. Instead, He was willing to lay it aside temporarily and humble Himself. That is the greatest illustration of humility ever. And that is our pattern to follow.
Note that this passage also speaks of Christ’s obedience. Our Lord was obedient in everything. He paid His taxes. He obeyed the Mosaic law to the very letter. He obeyed the ceremonial law. He obeyed the special divine stipulations of His Messiahship. John’s gospel makes this point very clear. Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to de My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:8). His entire attitude was marked by a spirit of obedience. Again, “…[The Father] has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29). And in John 14:31: “…As the Father gave Me commandment, even so do I….” Again, obedience. Christ set the pattern. His loving obedience, then, becomes the very thing that we are to trace our lives after.
This chapter began with a reference to a man known as the Great Imposter. One day many years ago Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr., came into my dad’s study and began to talk about Christianity. My preacher-father handed him a multivolume systematic theology—just as a starter. He devoured it in very short order. Ultimately he became a Christian—not a fake one but a genuine believer.
Whether or not you realize it, people are looking at your life all the time. They are hearing the sermon your life proclaims. “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22). Will the same be said of you? You grow to be like Christ while you obey.
Questions & Notes
- Just how did Noah proclaim his message of condemnation to the world? ↑
- The true Christian demonstrates that he knows God by the great _________ _________ _________ _________ to guard obedience. ↑
- When John uses the word “commandment” he wants to emphasize the _________ of Christ rather than the _________ of Moses. ↑
- What verse in John 17 would suggest strongly that we are not condemned when we sin but live under a gracious obedience rather than a legal obedience? ↑
- Such obedience is based not on law but on _________ , not on fear but on _________ . ↑
- We obey, not because we fear, bur because we _________ . ↑
- Which verse in 1 John tells us there is a pattern of obedience in true Christians? ↑
Click on the "Keys To Spiritual Growth" tag below to see all the posts in this series. To go to the start of this series click here. For a great way to move through the Bible in short devotionals add the Grace to You App to your phone and find them under the "Read" tab of the app.