Noah-God's Man for God's Plan, Part 1

This morning as we continue our study in Genesis chapter 6, in the study of Noah, God's man, for God's plan. Noah was the man for his day and age. I wonder if you are that man or that woman for this day and age. Noah was a unique man. He was an energized man. He was an endowed man. He was a man that God used in a very special way. He was a man that God chose. And I'm reminded of John 15, 16 where Christ said to his men, you did not choose me, I chose you. And as I look back on Noah, you got to ask yourself the question, when did God choose Noah?

Did God look around the earth and and see the evil of man's hearts that it was only we could continually and say, man I got to figure out somebody to choose. Noah's a good guy, I'll choose him. Is that what God did? Did God look down from heaven's throne and and pick a name out of a hat and say, well Noah looks like a pretty good guy, I'll take him. When was Noah chosen? Better yet, when were you chosen? If you've been chosen of God, if you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and the Bible says you didn't choose me, I chose you, when were you chosen?

When did all this happen? Were you chosen last week? Last month? The day you gave your life to Christ? When were you chosen? Well the Bible answers that question for us with these words. Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. So the Bible tells you when you were chosen. You were chosen before the earth's foundation was ever laid.

When was Noah chosen? He was chosen before the earth's foundation was ever laid. And this morning as we talk about Noah, God's man for God's plan, I want to be able to answer some questions that have been asked. Every week I get questions. And so as we embark on this topic about Noah and him being God's man for God's plan, I want to be able to answer some questions that came about as a result of last week. And that will lead us into our discussion this morning. God has a plan. You know that don't you?

God's got a remarkable plan. The question is when did that plan evolve? Does God sit around like we do and make up an agenda and things don't necessarily go right? So He has to change His agenda. Man is changed so He's got to change. And He's not really quite sure what's going to happen in the next millennium just because we embarked on this new millennium. How does God function? Well it's important to note that God has a plan. And because God has a plan He always has a man to fulfill that plan. So if He has a man that He chose before the foundation of the world and that man fits into His plan that means that His plan was laid before the foundation of the world as well.

So it's important to note that God has a plan and that plan is always plan A. There is never plan B. There is never an alternate plan. God never changes His mind to change a plan. It's always been the same plan. Do you know what that means? That means that sin was a part of the plan of God. Now I know some of you are going to be upset that I said that. But to say that Genesis 3 was not a part of God's plan was to say that God didn't know what He was doing. That doesn't mean that God is the author of sin because the Bible is very clear about that God is not the author of sin.

Man sins by his own volition, by his own choice. But sin is a major part of the plan of God to fulfill His purposes. Why? Because God is going to get the glory. Now I believe that God will receive a greater amount of glory because sin entered the world than if sin never entered the world. Now before you brand me a heretic please understand that God has got a supreme plan that rules over man, that rules over everything. But because He allowed sin to happen He knew that through the allowance of sin His greatest glory would be displayed.

Now I know some of you are going to wrestle with that for a while, and some of you are going to go home and talk about it over lunch, and you're going to have a hard time digesting your lunch because of what I said. But God's got a plan. For those of you who have been with us on Wednesday nights you sort of have got an idea about that. I would invite you to turn with me to Revelation 4 for a moment.

For those of you who are with us on Wednesday night this will be a little bit of a review. For those of you who are not well then you're in for some eye-opening issues this morning. Revelation 4 verse number 1 says, Now, in order to go into great detail you're going to have to get the tapes. But what I want to say to you this morning is that when John had this vision in Revelation 4 and he went up into heaven, when he went up into paradise, when he went into heaven's abode he saw a throne. The throne was standing.

That means it deals with permanence, it's unchangeableness. And there was one who was sitting on that throne. Now we know through the text that the one sitting on the throne is the Lord God the Almighty, the one who created all things because that's what Revelation 4 tells us. But the one who was on the throne is sitting. To sit on the throne is the realm of reign, is the realm of rule, is the posture of rule. John receives a vision. The whole point of the vision is that what's going to be unfolded in that vision is such wrath, such horribleness, such disaster, that what John needs to know is that there is somebody in complete control of all that's going to take place.

After receiving the vision of the, or the letters for the seven churches, that he was to deliver to those churches and things didn't look so good as he would write to those churches, he needed to know that there was somebody still in control. Now as the future is about to unfold before him, he still needs that reassurance that no matter what befalls man on earth, there is someone in complete control, there is someone on the throne who rules supreme for all eternity. In other words, God's got a plan.

Plans never changed. In fact, maybe John's mind went to Psalm 103 verse number 19 that says the Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all. God has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all. It rules over everything. It rules over man's sin, man's rebellion, man's wickedness. It is the supreme rule of all because the plan was designed by the God of the universe. As you recall, Habakkuk received a similar vision. He was a little nervous about what God was going to do to his people.

He was going to take the wicked Chaldeans to destroy his people. He didn't like that. In fact, he had a little debate with God about what God was going to do because God's plan didn't fit Habakkuk's agenda. So in Habakkuk 2 verse number 20 the Lord God said this, The Lord is in His high and holy temple. Let all the earth be silent. In other words, God is in control. God's not out of control because wicked people destroy good people. God is still in control. Therefore, let all the earth be silent before Him.

God has a plan. And the plan has always run according to His designing. I wonder today in our little world, in our little house, if we can say God's plan is going as He planned for my life. Acts 15 8 says this, Known to God are all His works from the beginning of the world. Known to God are all His works from the beginning, from the foundation of the world. Psalm 33 11, The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of His heart from generation to generation. Those words help us understand the providence of God.

Meaning that God is on His throne. God stands supreme. But I want to let you know something. God being on His throne is the most difficult thing for us to understand. In fact, Charles Spurgeon said this. In one of his messages he made a careful point about the doctrine of God's sovereignty and the doctrine of the fact that God rules supreme and how unbelievers just hate it. Listen to what he says. There is no doctrine more hated by the world, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah.

Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion the worlds and make the stars. They will allow Him to sustain heaven and earth and bear up the pillars thereof. They will even let Him light the lamps of heaven and rule the waves of the ever moving ocean. But when God ascends to His throne, His creatures gnash their teeth. And when we proclaim and enthrone God as preachers, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated.

Then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us. For God on His throne is not the God that the men of the world want to love." Is it not true? God, you can do this over here and you can do that over there, but once you begin to invade my life, once you begin to say that I must submit myself to your sovereignty, that I must have you as my king to rule supreme of my life, they gnash their teeth. When they see evil happen in the world, when they see just people treated in an unjust kind of way by government, by people in society, they begin to gnash their teeth at the sovereignty of God.

For somehow He has made a mistake. For somehow He has missed His plan. For somehow He is out of control. And for us to come along as preachers, for us to come along as Christians and say that God is enthroned in heaven above and He has a plan that rules supreme, they hiss at us, they curse us, they mock us because they will not capitulate to the ultimate truth of the Scriptures that God rules and God demands that you submit yourself to His rulership. That's what the Bible teaches. I love what Psalm 99 1 says, the Lord reigns, let the people tremble.

That's it. There is a declaration of God's sovereignty. The Lord reigns. You can't be any more concise than that. Now what's the duty as the result of that declaration? Let all the people tremble. Let them all tremble. So the message today is rejected because they don't want to follow the kingliness of the king. And then there is also in the days of Noah the remnant who found grace. And is it not true that there was a remnant today who finds grace? The Bible says in Matthew chapter 7 that small is the gate, narrow is the way, and few there be that find it.

As it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be when the Son of Man comes back to earth. In Noah's day, remember Enoch? He was miraculously translated up into glory. He didn't see death. He just zipped right up into glory. Is it not true that we are awaiting the rapture of the church? For one day we will be translated into glory and not see death. And then of course there was demon activity on the earth during the days of Noah. Is there not demon activity today? Sure there is. As it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be when the Son of Man returns.

In the days of Noah, there was a man. A man designed by God to fulfill his plan. As it was in that day, so it is today. God has a man. God has a woman. God has a son, a daughter that He will use to accomplish His plan. And we can praise Him for that. What does that man look like? What are the characteristics of a man that God uses in His plan? Now we get to our outline. And for that I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 in the six minutes that we have left this morning.

Sorry about the long introduction, but if you wouldn't ask me so many questions I wouldn't have to answer them each week. So, I'll like Adam did pass the blame onto somebody else for this morning. But in Hebrews chapter 11 it says, "'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 and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.'" There are four characteristics about the man that God uses to fulfill His plan.

I'm going to give you just the first one this morning. He receives righteousness. That's number one. That's where it all begins. God has a man for His plan, not because of the man, but because of God. Let me say it to you again.

God has a man for His plan, not because of the man, but because of God. Noah found grace, found favor in the eyes of God. Read that last week in Genesis chapter 6. Noah was graced, not because of what he did, but because of what God did. Hebrews 11 says that he became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. That's remarkable. He received righteousness. Now, my question to you this morning is, have you received the righteousness of God? Do you understand what that means? The Bible tells us in Psalm 116, verse number 5, gracious is the Lord and righteous.

Jeremiah 12, 1, righteous art thou, O Lord. Righteous is the word that means straight. Because God is righteous, there is nothing crooked about Him. Because God is righteous, it is an expression of His holiness. So, when God found favor, when Noah found favor in the eyes of God, when God graced Noah and destroyed the world, God was still righteous, not crooked. He was straight. There was no unrighteousness in Him. In fact, the psalmist says in Psalm 145, 17, the Lord is righteous in His ways and kind in all His deeds.

Think about that. The Lord is righteous in His ways and kind in all His deeds. Because God is straight, every deed He performs is kind. So, the seven-year tribulation of God is kind to the world because He is righteous. He is not unholy. He is holy. He is pure. He is right. He is straight. He is correct, never wrong. Psalm 92, verse number 15 says, there is no unrighteousness in Him. So, that tells us that God's plan is perfect. From the very beginning of time, God's plan has always been running the way He wants it to run because it is a perfect plan.

It is a righteous God who orchestrates the plan. Noah received righteousness. God graced him. He became an heir of the righteousness of God. I wonder if you have received the righteousness of God. The Bible says that He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Jesus Christ, the perfect, spotless, sinless Lamb of God became sin for you. First Peter 2.24 says that He bore in His body our sins on the tree.

That tells us that when Jesus Christ hung on the tree, He became sin for us. That's why God poured His, God the Father poured out His wrath upon Christ on the tree. That's why God the Father turned His back on His Son and the whole earth became dark. Why? Because He is a purer eyes than to behold evil. And so Jesus Christ would take upon Himself the sins of the world. He became sin for us. In order that we then might become the righteousness of God in Him. He bore our sin that we might bear His righteousness.

Now note, God does not make you righteous. He declares you righteous. He transforms your life. He cloaks you with His righteousness so that when God the Father looks down from heaven, He sees His righteousness. He does not see your sin any longer once you have appropriated the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. See, Noah believed the promise of Genesis 3.15. And he believed in what God said. He took it by faith and trusted in God Almighty. And God graced him. God gave him His righteousness. That is He declared Him right before Him.

The Bible says in 1 John chapter 2, verse number 2, He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. Now whenever you see the word propitiation, all you have to do is think of three simple words. And that is this, a sacrifice that satisfies our sentence. That's it. A sacrifice that satisfies our sentence. A sentence, by the way, that is just. When someone decides that they don't want to accept that sacrifice on behalf of their sins, then they confirm that the fact that God's wrath is upon them by their own volition.

That's not an unjust God who does that. That's man confirming his own sentence in his life. Noah was a righteous man. Are you righteous this morning? Not because of anything that you have done, but because God has declared you right before Him, because by faith you have accepted His just payment on the cross for your sins. How do you know if you're righteous? Number one, you're separated from unrighteousness.

For the grace of God does appear to all men, Titus 2.11. What? Teaches us to deny ungodliness, worldly lusts, and to live righteously and soberly and godly in this present age. If you've received the righteousness of God, you have separated yourself from unrighteousness. You seek after righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And lastly, you're satisfied with His righteousness. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Are you satisfied today? Are you seeking after that which only God can give? I trust that you are that way, that God in His wonderful grace has bestowed upon you the wonderful gift of salvation. Let's pray.