Still thinking about Noah, the preacher, the builder, the solitary voice of warning at a time of unrestrained corruption, moral collapse, and spiritual blindness. “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Genesis 6:11. “It was corrupt,” we read again in the next verse as “all flesh had corrupted” not only their own way, but first, and primarily the Lord’s “way upon the earth,” Genesis 6:12, in setting up so many idolatrous ways by which they corrupted the true worship of God. From the beginning, there has always been only one way, which is “the way of righteousness.” II Peter 2:21. Noah preached it, the prophets declared it, Christ fulfilled it, and the redeemed in every generation walk in it. Isaiah 35:8.
The apostle tells us that Noah was a “preacher of righteousness.” II Peter 2:5. While the ark was in preparation, Noah was preaching, in the spirit of Christ, I Peter 3:20, prefiguring the gospel, and declaring in prophetic witness that salvation could never be found in man, (but only in the righteousness of God’s provision,) that every form of man-made righteousness is a lie, and that outside of the righteousness which God provides in Christ, Philippians 3:9, all will perish. And here is the staggering irony, though Noah preached the only way of salvation, the world completely ignored him. Wasn’t there a vast population at this point? And only eight were ‘saved’? Noah must have seriously been the world’s worst evangelist! Yet, the measure of Noah’s ministry was not numerical success but faithful proclamation. Think about it, Noah’s preaching didn’t ‘regenerate’ a single soul, and ‘his’ little congregation never grew, but yet his message never changed. I Corinthians 9:16. Noah was not preaching social reform, tolerance for sin, cultural relevance, moralism, or behavioral improvement, and certainly not how to live your best life now. His message was not shaped by the preferences of the age, nor tailored to attract the multitudes. In essence, Noah preached the righteousness of GOD, and by extension, he preached CHRIST, the only refuge from judgment, the only “door” to salvation. John 10:9.
In light of this, today’s gimmick and results-driven pulpits, (which have turned the ‘gospel’ into a marketing scheme, and ‘salvation’ to a transaction,) are a tragic parody of truth, measuring success in decisions rather than in fidelity to Christ. Against such man-made theatrics, mechanized decisions and scripted ‘conversions’ where ‘salvation’ is reduced down to a formula, &c., we are reminded that it is GOD who quickens the dead, not man who coaxes them to life. Such distortions stand in sharp contrast to the gospel Noah preached. Believers are not called to ‘regenerate’ souls, fabricate faith, or multiply converts, but simply to proclaim the “way of righteousness,” the way of CHRIST, John 14:6, one SHEPHERD, one DOOR, one NAME under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12. The ark was but a figure, Colossians 2:17, CHRIST is the substance. Outside of Him, there is no salvation. In light of what remains, one could almost say that the flood obliterated every pretense of man-centered religion and in essence left one testimony afloat, once again, that “salvation is of the LORD.” MPJ