Scripture Reading: Gen. 6:5-14; Heb. 11:7
Ⅰ
Noah believed in God, walked with God, pleased God, and enjoyed all that God is:
A
Satan had corrupted man to the uttermost, and God had determined to destroy the man whom He had created for His purpose.
B
Thus, it appeared that God was defeated; but Noah points to the sovereign factor that provided God a way to continue to carry out His original purpose with man.
C
Through Noah’s life and work, God gained the victory over His enemy and changed the age.
Ⅱ
Noah’s life was a life that changed the age—cf. Phil. 1:19-21a:
A
The life that changes the age is a life that inherits the godly ways of the forefathers:
１
Noah inherited Adam’s way of salvation, receiving the promise of Christ as the seed of the woman and the covering of Christ as the God-satisfying righteousness—Gen. 3:15, 20-21; cf. Isa. 12:2.
２
Noah inherited Abel’s way of offering, which is that of offering Christ to God, not only as the sacrifice for our sins but also as a gift for pleasing God— Gen. 4:4.
３
Noah inherited Enosh’s way of calling on the name of Jehovah to enjoy all that He is—v. 26; Jer. 33:3; Rom. 10:12; 2 Tim. 2:22.
４
Noah inherited Enoch’s way of walking with God, which is to take God as our center and everything, living and doing all things according to God and with God—Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5-6; 2 Cor. 5:4, 9, 14-16; 6:1.
B
God showed Noah the true situation of the corrupt age in which he lived—Gen. 6:3, 5, 11, 13; Matt. 24:37-39; 2 Tim. 3:1-5.
C
“But Noah found favor [grace] in the sight of Jehovah”—Gen. 6:8:
１
When Satan has done his best to damage the situation, there have always been some who found grace in the eyes of God to become ones who turned the age—cf. Dan. 1:8; 9:23; 10:11, 19.
２
The main purpose of the record of Genesis is not to show the fall but to show how much God’s grace can do for fallen people:
ａ
Grace is God Himself, the presence of God, enjoyed by us to be everything to us and to do everything in us, through us, and for us—John 1:14, 16-17; Rev. 22:21.
ｂ
The enjoyment of the Lord as grace is with those who love Him—Eph. 6:24; John 21:15-17.
ｃ
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as the bountiful supply of the Triune God is enjoyed by us through the exercise of our human spirit—Heb. 10:29b; Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23; Philem. 25; 2 Tim. 4:22.
ｄ
God’s word is the word of grace—Acts 20:32; Col. 3:16; cf. Jer. 15:16.
ｅ
We experience the processed Triune God as the grace of life in meeting with the saints on the ground of oneness—Psa. 133:3; 1 Pet. 3:7; Acts 4:33; 11:23.
ｆ
We can experience the Lord as our increasing and all-sufficient grace in the midst of sufferings and trials—2 Cor. 12:9.
ｇ
We need to labor for the Lord in the power of His grace—1 Cor. 15:10, 58; 3:12.
ｈ
We need to be good stewards of the varied grace of God—1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 3:2; 2 Cor. 1:15; Eph. 4:29.
ｉ
By the power of grace, the strength of grace, and the life of grace, we can be right with God and with one another; grace produces righteousness— Heb. 11:7; Rom. 5:17, 21.
Ⅲ
Noah’s work was a work that changed the age—1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:12:
A
God gave Noah an all-inclusive revelation, a further revelation, the revelation to build the ark, which was the way that God would terminate the corrupted generation and bring in a new age:
１
The ark is a type of Christ (1 Pet. 3:20-21)—not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the church, which is the Body of Christ and the new man to consummate in the New Jerusalem (Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:15-16; Col. 3:10-11; Rev. 21:2).
２
The building of the ark typifies the building of the corporate Christ, with the element of Christ’s riches as the building material, by those who work together with God—1 Cor. 3:9-12a; Eph. 4:12; 2:22.
３
This building is the working of Christ into people to build them together by Christ that they may become God’s manifestation in the flesh—1 Tim. 3:15-16:
ａ
The crucial matter in our work is to minister the building and builded God into others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17a; 1 Cor. 14:4b.
ｂ
We need to practice one thing—to minister the processed and consummated Triune God into others so that He may build Himself into their inner man; we need to pray that the Lord will teach us to work in this way—2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 3:9a, 10, 12; Rom. 11:36.
B
By building the church and entering into the church life, we will be saved from God’s judgment on today’s evil generation through the great tribulation and will be separated from that generation to be ushered into a new age, the age of the millennium—Heb. 11:7; Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27.