In Genesis 5, we have a story of a man who walked with God and was no more. Enoch lived for 65 years and then the Bible says that he walked with God 300 more years and God took him to be with the Lord. He never died. (Genesis 5:24, Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.) In the Biblical record there was another man named Noah who walked with God. It seems the Bible indicates that at that time no one on earth walked with God or even followed God and His laws except Noah and his family. Now you will say, the Bible doesn’t say his wife or children followed God but I want to remind you in Biblical times the father was the head of the home and the family followed the father and husband because he made decisions for the family. What Noah did, the family did.

Notice in verse 8,“Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” “Finding favor means gaining approval, acceptance, or special benefits or blessings. There is also a close association among favor, grace, and mercy. The favor that human beings receive from God depends on his good pleasure and is often extended in response to prayer or righteous living.”Dictionaries - Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology It looks like the favor of God, “the grace and mercy”, was granted to Noah because God saw that Noah was not only living a righteous and blameless life, among a people who were wicked and evil but he was a man who walked with God.

This concept of leading one’s family to live for the Lord, which Noah seemed to do, is one of the things I want you to focus on today. Who is in charge of the spiritual lives of the family today? Who would you say?

We are all priests before God according to the Bible.

One of the things Noah was responsible for was the spiritual welfare of his family. When God told Noah that the world would be destroyed because of the wickedness of man, (Genesis 6:5, The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.) He clearly said that He wanted Noah to take His family along with him in the ark and be saved from the destruction. God never called his family evil, although the rest of mankind was called evil.

They had learned from their husband and father that God was worthy to be worshiped and that they could walk with God and be led by Him. Noah must have been thankful that he had stayed faithful to God and followed His commands and His ways. All through the years Noah had led his wife and taught his children how to worship and serve God too. Don’t you know that the whole family watched Noah’s life before God as he “walked" with the Creator? Not only did Noah “walk” with God spiritually, I think the concept shared here is that he walked with God physically, much like Adam might have walked with God in the cool of the evening. (Genesis 3:8-9,8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”)

What would have happened had Noah not led a righteous life and taught and showed his family how to serve and love God? They would have been left behind! God would not have destroyed the whole world and leave some who did not love or follow Him. That would have defeated the purpose of starting over again and eliminating the wickedness of the human race.

Let me take just a moment to say that there will be another judgment time coming in the future and maybe very soon. No one knows but God the timing of this judgment. But like in the days of Noah, today there are many who are wicked and evil and the world that God created is not the world that we have now, it has been corrupted by satan and sin. I want to make it clear that if the return of Jesus was to come today and the judgment was upon us, like the ark, there will only be those who enter the heaven that know the Lord and are called by His name. God has prepared heaven for those who love Him. Let me make this clear, No One! will enter heaven who is not a child of God and who are a part of His family. Trusting in Him by faith and personally accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord will be the key or gateway to this next life with God in heaven. No one will be able to get there by any other means and surely not on their own merits, for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The righteousness of Christ is the only way we can be a part of that family in heaven! So if you are not now prepared by accepting Christ by faith you should do it today.

Was Noah perfect? No! He did have sin but God saw in him the desire to follow God and to walk with Him even though he sinned. He found favor with the Lord. When God looked around and the whole world was filled with sin, Noah stood out and God poured out His grace on him.

Just a thought. We do not know when God will bring judgment on this world, it could be tomorrow or ten thousand more years, but if He did come again right away, have your children, young and old, seen from you a life that walked with God, taught about God and showed them how to serve and worship the Lord? Or, would they face the judgment without a godly witness about the Lord Jesus Christ from the ones who loved them the most?

Now, are you righteous and blameless? I hope so. It doesn’t mean that you are perfect but implies that you are a person seeking after God with wholehearted commitment and a desire to love and obey Him. Are you blameless and righteous? I hope you can say yes! There is no record of how long Noah walked with God, but you can be sure it was not just a short period of time but a span of time that proved to God that Noah was a committed man of God.

In the span of your lifetime, how long have you walked with God?

How long have you been faithful, blameless and righteous in your Christian life?

This is a magnificent event in the Bible, there is so much that is said in the scripture about the time of Noah and the importance of what God did then. The responsibility of Noah and Mrs. Noah in the lives of their children who are adults at the time of the building of the ark, is great. Long before this time the children had to learn from them the art of worshiping the Lord Creator in an era of wickedness and evil. Their lessons and life had to be the most influence in their lives. They succeeded because we see that they were included in the saved eight people from a whole world of wickedness.

What did they do right? We don’t know but it worked whatever they did. They were a homeschool family!

What are you doing for your family?

What effort have you put forth to teach your children about being blameless, and righteous before the Lord?

Have you relied solely on the church?

Have you devised a plan, that if there was not a church close by where you were, that the children who grew up in your family would become faithful Christians?(In the early days of America in the wilderness or on the frontier, parents had to do all the teaching about Jesus and the Holy Scripture all by themselves without the help of preachers or other teachers. There might be other families close enough that they might share some of the teaching but maybe not.)

What would you have done or what have you done to accomplish the goal of your children becoming mature Christian adults?

Why are we so reluctant to teach our children the truths of the scriptures and therefore rely on the church? Could it be that we have not learned them ourselves and because of that we don’t feel that we are qualified to teach our own children? Let me say that if that is the way your feel, then you have only you to blame. God gave each of us just as much ability to learn from the Word of God that anyone else has. In fact, these last generations have had more resources in Biblical information and spiritual training than just about anyone else. We really have no excuse at all!

You and I have a direct access to God through prayer because of a personal relationship through Jesus Christ. Because of that the Holy Spirit can teach us and we can teach them and then when they make the decision to follow Christ, they too will have the Holy Spirit to teach them. It will be a two-fold learning process. The Old Testament and the New Testament (the Gospels of Jesus Christ and the letters) teach us so much about our faith and how to live it and help others live it too.

Let me close by saying that each of us can and should be walking with the Lord, in righteousness and we can be blameless as well. This is a decision that we all must make and then follow through using our own personal quiet times (times alone with God) worshiping God on our own, plus cooperate worship with a body of Christ in a local church, singing hymns and songs of the Lord in praise and adoration to Him, participating in Bible studies in the home or at Sunday School or in small groups of some kind. Then if you are going to be walking with the Lord there is a need to serve in the church in some capacity to the glory of God and each of us should reach out to serve our fellowman through our sacrificial gifts or personal service. Each of us should worship the Lord in giving back to God in the manner of sharing tithes and offerings. I also believe the Word of God clearly says that one of the primary things every Christian should be doing is to pray and reach out to others with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You might say pastor that is just too much. Jesus didn’t think that the cross and the suffering He went through was “just too much for Him” to pay the price of our sin and redeem us for all eternity. Praise the Lord He was willing and followed through with that commitment!

My friends, today I hope you will recommit your life to walk with God in righteousness and live a blameless life. Parents I pray that you will begin to, if you have not already, teach your children the way of the Lord as you live before them and walk with God as a great witness to them.