1. Noah’s obedience was tested by the world in which he lived. Noah preached righteousness to a thoroughly corrupt culture.  He proclaimed that the end of the world was coming …that God would wipe out the world with a flood.  He did this for 120 years and was mocked, ridiculed, and scorned for it.  Perhaps Noah had ‘converts’ early on in his ministry.  But they were not true converts.  They began to peel away from him as he kept proclaiming that the flood would come, and it did not.  Noah lived in very difficult times for a godly man.  If you determine walk with God and find grace from God, you’ll always be in the minority.  The way is narrow; few are on it.  The devil energizes the world to appeal to the flesh.  There are two types of people:  those determined to do right and those determined to do wrong.  There really is no in-between.  If you determine to do right, you will be alienated, mocked, and even belittled.  However, the trade-off is the grace of God!
2. Noah’s obedience was tested by the stress of doing God’s will. His two primary tasks were building and preaching.  He did both so that God could secure a remnant and bring to pass the prophecy proclaimed in Genesis 3.15:  He shall bruise the serpent’s head, and the serpent shall bruise Messiah’s heel.  But the preaching and building took preparation.  There were burdens and deadlines.  There was all the expense and labor.  There was the rejection he faced year after year.  Noah lived under unimaginable pressure which came down upon him daily.  You can’t use the pressure of school, a part-time job, playing basketball, and homework as an excuse for failing to do God’s will.  Godly people are busy people.  They have a lot of responsibility.  They bear their own burdens and the burdens of others to fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6.2, 5).  If you want the grace of God, you need to do God’s will in the pressure-cooker of a busy life.
3. Noah’s obedience was tested by the exhaustion of his work. Noah would not be deterred from either preaching or building.  He finished both tasks, entered the ark with his family and all the animals, and then God shut the door on a whole generation of mankind.  Noah finished what God called him to do.  The windows of the heavens opened and the fountains of the deep broke through the earth’s surface.  God destroyed all flesh, but Noah found grace.  Exhaustion is no excuse for disobedience.  We cannot whine about being tired.  Many times, we are not tired; just lazy.  Don’t allow yourself too much recreation …too much downtime.  Work is the will of God for you.  When you fail to put a lot of effort in your studies or on a sports team or in a community project, you really reflect poorly on the work of Christ.  Imagine His exhaustion on the cross of Calvary.  Yet, He did not say, “Father, kill them!  They deserve it!”  He said, “Father, forgive them!  For they know not what they do.”

When we look at it in this light, we see that the hallmark of Noah’s character was his obedience.  He moved with Godly fear, prepared an ark, condemned the world with his preaching, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith (Hebrews 11.7).  Noah was an obedient man because Noah was a believing man.  He was truly a man of God.  The commands of God took preeminence over the whims of flesh.  But he didn’t obey God for a brief period.  He obeyed consistently over a period of 120 years.  Indeed, Noah found grace and favor before God.