Grace Extended
Bible Study.... Noah, the
"Saved by Grace" Saint
God’s love reaches out to you and when God’s love touches your need, we call it Grace.
"For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ... "
(Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV)
Noah was a good man in bad times.
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. (Gen 6:3, 6-8 [KJV]; Gen. 6:9, 22; 7:1).
What was the generation like when the God sent the destroying flood?
Man had no standard of moral behavior, each person did what was right in his own eyes; violence was rampant. There was no righteousness or sense of personal accountability for sin. Men had abandoned God and they were completely out of line with His holy nature.
(Ro. 1:17-25; 2:5-11)
While the rest of the world was corrupt and wicked, Noah honored God. Those that would find grace in the eyes of the Lord must be as Noah was and do as Noah did—trust God and choose to follow Him.
(1 Cor 15:10. Heb 11:7; Psa. 20:6)
"No matter how ungodly the environment you may be in, God will always find you and walk with you. Noah lived in perhaps the most wicked age in history. No one worshiped God. All the people worshiped idols and pursued their own sinful pleasures. Noah’s neighbors were evil; every person he associated with in the marketplace, or along the street, or in public gatherings, ridiculed the very thought of being faithful to God. Every temptation imaginable was abundantly available to Noah.... Nevertheless, Noah was not lost to God in the crowd of sinners. God noticed every act of Noah’s righteousness. Noah had chosen to live uprightly before God despite what everyone around him was doing....
As the world tries to persuade people to follow its standard, your life should stand in stark contrast as an example of a righteous person. Your life should convince those around you of the wisdom of following God. Do not underestimate the positive effect that your obedience will have upon those close to you." ("Experiencing God Day-By-Day," Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby, pp. 166, 167; 1955.)
For those 120 years, Satan and his demonic followers completely influenced the minds and actions of everyone except a "perfect" (though not sinless) man–Noah. And "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."(Gal. 1:6-10)
Why did Noah find grace in the eyes of the Lord?
Noah was pure in heart (ritually clean; free of sin) and in conduct (morally upright); he was obedient to all God demanded of him. By extending grace to Noah and his family, God signified that mercy and grace are found in knowing God personally. Personal knowledge and fellowship with God through Jesus Christ expresses itself in worship, prayer, trust, and obedience.
This one man, of all the countless multitudes then on the earth, was fit to receive God's gift of grace. The word grace means "unmerited favor" or "acceptance." And when "God’s love reaches out to you and when God’s love touches your need, we call it Grace." Grace is God’s love and mercy in action. God told Noah to build an ark of safety and within that ark he would find grace—salvation and deliverance. (John 1:17)
Salvation: God, Himself, would save Noah and his household from judgment. Deliverance: God, Himself, would be his personal ark of safety.
God's extended grace to Noah also signified that it is possible to escape the penalty of sin before the rains of Divine judgment are poured out on the ungodly and unbelieving world.
(2 Pe. 2:4, 5)
It could not have been easy for Noah to preach the message of repentance to an unbelieving world. It could not have been easy to devote every working hour to build a boat on dry land in a world which had never seen rain. It could not have been easy to fight public opinion, ridicule and potential harm in a world without love and compassion. Only a man who loved God with all his heart and who believed God could do the impossible could have endured such a testing of faith.
By faith, in obedience, Noah displayed a spirit, an attitude and character worthy of a man who walks with God. For his obedience and love, God extended grace and mercy in his hour of need.
(Mic 6:8; Mal 2:6; James 4:6)
