After Noah received the revelation, he immediately believed in the Word of God (Heb. 11:7). According to the Bible, to believe always means to believe through the Word. In Romans 10:14 Paul asked, "And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?" Without the preaching of the Word, it is difficult for people to believe. Believing comes about by listening to the Word. Thus Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." Undoubtedly, Noah heard the Word of God and believed in the Word that he heard. Do not say that you have no faith. Do not say that you cannot believe. As far as we are concerned, we do not have the faith, but faith is God Himself believing in us. We need to come to Him and have Him infused into our being. We need to be infused with what God is. God is believing. God is our faith. When you come to Him, are infused with Him, and listen to His Word, spontaneously the very God who has been infused into you will believe in and for you. This is what it means to believe in His Word.
Noah preached what he believed in and practiced. He was a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5). Why did Noah preach righteousness? Because nothing was righteous in his generation. The earth was filled with violence, and that violence included robbery, murder, fornication, and lawlessness. Noah preached righteousness, telling the people to get right with God, with others, and with themselves or else God's righteous judgment would come upon them. Noah preached this kind of righteousness probably over a period of one hundred twenty years (6:3). Perhaps the people accused him of being a mental case, saying to him, "Noah, what are you talking about? What do you mean that a flood is going to come? Look at the sky. It is the same as usual." I believe that Noah suffered a great deal of mockery during that one hundred twenty years.
While Noah was preaching righteousness, he was building and preparing the ark (1 Pet. 3:20). Perhaps the people said to him, "Noah, are you building a house for your grandson? You're crazy to think that a flood will come. Why are you building such an ark—three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, thirty cubits high, with three stories, a side door, and one skylight opened towards the heavens? This is ridiculous!" If you had been Noah, would you have built such an ark? Perhaps even your dear wife would oppose you. It might not have been easy for Noah during those years.
After Noah had prepared the ark, one day, perhaps while the sky was still clear, God told Noah to enter the ark and to bring with him his wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law (7:13-16). Noah's wife, children, and daughters-in-law were all so submissive. They entered into the ark with all the living creatures. If I had been Noah's wife, I probably would have hesitated. But they all entered in.
After Noah entered into the ark, God shut him in (Gen. 7:16). His entering into the ark was a type of our entering into Christ. Although we are free to enter in, once we are in, we have no way to get out. Once you believe in the Lord Jesus, you can never get out of Him. It is up to you to come in, but it is not up to you to go out. I can strongly testify that during the past fifty years I have tried several times to get out of Christ. I tried, but I discovered that I had been locked in. Once you get into Christ, you are locked in Him.
When Noah, his family, and the living creatures entered into the ark, people probably said, "Look at those crazy persons. What are they doing? They don't care for their homes or for anything. They have forsaken everything just to go into the ark." The Lord Jesus has said that in the day of the Son of man it will be the same as it was in the days of Noah (Matt. 24:37-39). People will eat, drink, marry, and give in marriage. Suddenly He will come, just as the flood came in Noah's time. When the flood came, Noah and his family were in the ark, protected, preserved, and saved.
We all must be today's Noah. Let us follow Noah's steps to find grace, walk with God by faith, receive the revelation, believe in God's Word, testify to people what we believe in, work on what we believe in, and step into what we believe in. Finally, God will lock us in the ark, and we shall be preserved and saved.