Bible Reading:
Genesis chapter 6 verses 1 to 13

The Righteousness of The Lord Jesus Christ

2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Noah lived in days like those in which we live today. Genesis 6:5 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.

What a dark day it must have been. Men lived longer and had longer to develop their ways. Adolf Hitler was 56 when he killed himself in 1945. What evil he let loose in the world! How must men have been in Noah's day when their every imagination was only evil continually at five hundred or six hundred or even a thousand years old? We look round us and what we see looks bad to our limited perception. God knows and sees absolutely everything there is to know and see. God's pronouncement on society in Noah's day was that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.

Noah is described in different terms. We read in Genesis 6:8-9 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
We are told he walked with God. Noah was separate from those around him. It is difficult to stand apart, to head against the current of society and to swim against the tide. There is much to be said about his life and witness.

Noah trusted his God to keep him in that evil generation. He showed his faith by his works. He built the ark to withstand storms he'd never experienced - it had never rained before. Noah taught his sons and their wives so that they were prepared to go with him in following the words of God. But Noah did more than quietly get on with his life of godliness amongst his family. He did not keep a low profile and hope that nobody would notice him. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He was a witness to the truth in a world of evil.

It is Noah's message I want to consider. Noah is described as a preacher of righteousness. What was his message? The people around him were in need of knowing what righteousness was. What had been revealed about it at that time?

God had declared how He was to be approached in worship and had made His displeasure plain when His instructions were ignored by Cain. Cain despised Gods instruction to come to God with the blood of a sacrifice and to worship Him relying on the Saviour who was to come. Men went through their lives without calling on the name of The Lord.
God had ordained marriage between a man and his wife - not wives. Genesis 2:22-24 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Yet men were practising polygamy and having more than one wife.
God cursed Cain for the murder of Abel Genesis 4:11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; God-given life was not to be taken away by anyone else yet men continued in the way of Cain. The first man born of a woman was a murderer and succeeding generations followed his lead.

Knowing what righteousness is has never saved anyone from Gods wrath and judgement. Even seeking to practice righteousness is not enough. Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Noah's message must have been more than reciting Gods Laws to his hearers and urging obedience. A moral code is good but no moral code ever got a sinner to heaven. Besides, the hearer's only thoughts were continually of evil. Personal righteousness is what is needed.

"True religion is more than notion. Something must be known and felt.

There must be an inner work in a person's soul according to the truth of God for there to be any hope for that person.

So, if Noah was a preacher of righteousness - whose righteousness was he preaching about? Where was the origin of that righteousness? Whose righteousness was it, the hearers, or Noah's own, or some other righteousness?

If it was the hearer's righteousness did Noah tell the people how good they were? Did Noah preach the righteousness of men? Did he tell them what nice people they were? Did he tell them all was well and that no harm would come upon them if they continued in their own way?

These are the people described in Genesis 6:5-6 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 it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Also we read in Genesis 6:11-12 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. What good that these people had done could Noah have spoken about?

Maybe he was just a flattering preacher but The Unchanging God has made it abundantly clear what He thinks of such preachers. Jeremiah 23:14-17 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. This is what God has to say about those who deceive people about their standing in the sight of God. noah was not a preacher like those described here.

No, Noah could not have been preaching about the righteousness of the people in the world around him. They had none to preach about.

Perhaps Noah preached about his own righteousness? Did Noah explain in great detail about how good he was? Did Noah explain about his obedience to God in building the Ark as God had told him? Perhaps Noah regularly worshipped God and perhaps he sacrificed to God in the way Abel had in time past. Surely this was something he could proclaim to them as an example.

Noah could have told the people that he was a good man and that was why God spoke to him so he would be safe and his hearers would be lost. Noah stood apart from the majority. He could have directed attention to his godly life and proclaimed himself as the example of righteousness to be followed. "If you are as good and righteous as me you'll be safe."

No, I do not believe so.

The key to Noah and his difference to those around him is in Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. The Lord God Almighty had dealt with Noah in His Sovereign grace.

But for the fact that Noah found grace in the sight of God, Noah would have been no different to all those people around him - the ones with continuously evil imaginations and no righteousness. God chose to deal with Noah in His Grace. Grace can be explained as

Gods Riches At Christs Expense.

Grace is Gods undeserved favour to sinners.

The first thing God does in a man or a woman's soul when He begins to deal with that man or woman by His grace is He shows them they have no acceptable righteousness of their own. Noah, having experienced Gods' grace would have seen something of himself as God saw him. He'd have seen himself as a lost sinful sinner. He'd have seen that nothing he could do would make up for all the offences he'd committed in the sight of His Creator.

Having seen these things, and again by Gods grace, he'd have begun to look for righteousness from another source with which to please God. I am sure that Noah heard of the flawless perfection of creation before the fall. Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Noah lived at the same time as those who could have listened to Adam recount his time in paradise first hand. Noah was born about 1056 years after creation if you take the genealogy in Genesis 5 as a list of all those born in the godly line. Noah was living at the same time as all the godly line for seven generations from Enos, Seth's son onwards to his own father Lamech and his grandfather Methuselah who died just before the flood. These men were all living at the same time as Adam who lived until 930 years after creation. Noah was the first of the godly line, as traced through scripture, to be born after the death of Adam and Seth.

Noah, by Gods grace looked forward to The Saviour promised when God spoke to Adam and Eve after the fall. He knew why a lamb was to be sacrificed when men came to worship their God. There needed to be the shedding of blood if sins were to be forgiven and cleansed. A sacrifice must die if a man was to find suitable righteousness to make that man acceptable to God.

Noah had been shown that righteousness came by faith in God and by no other way. We read in Hebrews 11:6-7 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. It was this righteousness and this righteousness alone upon which Noah relied.

Noah did not preach the righteousness of his hearers. Noah did not preach about his own righteousness. Noah preached The Righteousness of Almighty God.

Now there is the righteousness to preach about - the only righteousness to preach about!

Noah, like The Psalmist in later years, made mention only of Gods righteousness. Psalms 71:16 I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only and also in Psalms 71:19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!

Noah walked with God. Noah knew that, as we read in Psalms 11:7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright. He knew God personally. He knew God to be The Almighty, The Creator of all things. Immense and infinite, there was nothing God could not do - except sin. Noah knew God expected perfection, perfect righteousness, because that was what God was and is and always will be - perfectly righteous. He knew God to be perfect in thought word and deed, entirely holy and pure. God's attributes are all infinite. His righteousness is infinite too. All the best words that could be put together to describe Gods righteousness would still fail to adequately set it forth.

By Gods grace Noah knew how to receive the Righteousness of God for himself. Noah knew how he could be judged to be as righteous as God. That was something worth preaching about - and Noah did!

Noah preached the Righteousness of God because he knew there was no other righteousness to speak of. Is that your experience this afternoon? Do you, like Noah, trust only in God and the righteousness which He gives? Only the righteousness of God is acceptable to God. No lesser righteousness than absolute perfection will do in the sight of God. It is through the life and death of The Lord Jesus and faith in Him that this righteousness can become ours. Those who believe God and turn from sin are viewed by God as being perfect in righteousness. As we read in Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. All who trust God alone are clothed with His righteousness.

To rely on any other righteousness is to have no righteousness at all. Such were all those upon whom the flood came. They perished without the righteousness Noah preached about and will be cast out from the presence of God at the last day.