One of the most difficult things for a child of God or a servant of Christ to do is to stand alone. If you were told that a prerequisite for leadership required standing alone, would you still want that job? If you know that constant criticism, frequent isolation and unjust accusations were headed your way, would you still want that position? Standing alone requires courage, tenacity, perseverance and patience. It involves having a strong sense of purpose and being unwilling to veer away from it.
Loneliness can make cowards of us all. When we feel like we are standing alone against the crowd, when all the pressure is on us to cave in, we rarely find the strength. In fact, we know we cannot do it alone. Even Jesus, in the loneliness of the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing what was ahead, cried out, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”
Paul, in 1 Timothy 1:15, says that “all who are in Asia turned away from me” and in chapter 4 he expresses his need for others, saying, “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:9-11).
Charles Spurgeon, in talking about depression, wrote these words in Lectures to My Students, a book that many have recommended to pastors training for ministry:
A minister fully equipped for his work, will usually be a spirit by himself, above, beyond, and apart from others. The most loving of his people cannot enter into his peculiar thoughts, cares, and temptations. In the ranks, men walk shoulder to shoulder, with many comrades, but as the officer rises in rank, men of his standing are fewer in number. There are many soldiers, few captains, fewer colonels, but only one commander-in-chief. So, in our churches, the man whom the Lord raises as a leader becomes, in the same degree in which he is a superior man, a solitary man. The mountain-tops stand solemnly apart, and talk only with God as he visits their terrible solitudes. Men of God who rise above their fellows into nearer communion with heavenly things, in their weaker moments feel the lack of human sympathy. Like their Lord in Gethsemane, they look in vain for comfort to the disciples sleeping around them; they are shocked at the apathy of their little band of brethren, and return to their secret agony with all the heavier burden pressing upon them, because they have found their dearest companions slumbering.
No one knows, but he who has endured it, the solitude of a soul which has outstripped its fellows in zeal for the Lord of hosts: it dares not reveal itself, lest men count it mad; it cannot conceal itself, for a fire burns within its bones: only before the Lord does it find rest. Our Lord’s sending out his disciples by two and two manifested that he knew what was in men; but for such a man as Paul, it seems to me that no helpmeet was found; Barnabas, or Silas, or Luke, were hills too low to hold high converse with such a Himalayan summit as the apostle of the Gentiles. This loneliness, which if I mistake not is felt by many of my brethren, is a fertile source of depression…
Every Christian minister has a target on their back. I used to think that the initials P. T. stood for “pastor-teacher,” but know I realize it stands for “prime target.” Every pastor and Christian worker has at times felt the intense loneliness of ministry, and when we feel all alone, it makes it hard for us to remain faithful to our calling.
Here is my question this morning: What kind of faith is it that enables a person to stand alone as a representative for God amidst overwhelming opposition? What kind of faith is that?
Hebrews 11 once again draws our attention to a well-known Old Testament figure by the name of Noah. He is well recognized even by people outside the church. We have songs, even movies about Noah. But we may have missed the significance of this man and his story. I fear that we have cut the guts out of the story and lost the most important lesson that we are to learn about God and this man.
By the way, the 2014 movie with Russell Crowe is probably the worst distortion of the biblical story that I have ever seen. Don’t put any credence in that movie.
So, what is the nature of this faith, that Noah had and God is looking for in each one of us? It is obedient faith, faith that believes God so strongly that it is willing to obey God even when the costs are astronomical.
Let’s note five things about this obedient faith which Noah possessed and which we, too, can possess.
First, let’s just remind ourselves of some general facts about Noah.
- Noah gets 4 chapters in Genesis (vs. Able and Enoch), but just one verse in Hebrews. In other words, we know a lot more about Noah than these other guys, but more is said about them in Hebrews than is said about Noah. He gets just one verse.
- The word “faith” does not appear in the Genesis account. Of course, it really didn’t appear in the Genesis account about Enoch or Abel either.
- Six of Noah’s predecessors were alive at his birth (Enosh, Kenan, Mahalel, Jared, Methuselah and Lamech), but all died before the flood.
- “Noah” means rest.
- Noah “found grace,” the first time that that word is found in the Bible.
- Like Enoch, Noah “walked with God.” (These are the only two men of whom this was said.)
So far, we have seen Abel worship and Enoch walk…now we will see Noah work.
Again, we will notice that although it is faith alone that saves, the faith that saves is never alone. It also yields fruit, it always results in obedience.
Noah’s obedience begins with God’s Grace (Genesis 6:8)
Both Noah’s obedience and his faith are gifts of God’s grace upon Noah. Noah’s salvation and continuing spiritual life were because God chose Noah, not because Noah went out looking and found God. He didn’t go on a search.
This text does not mention faith, as if that preceded God’s choice of Noah. God was sorry that He had made mankind.
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5) Boy, there’s a good description of total depravity. While total depravity doesn’t mean that everything unsaved man does is evil, it means that it is infected by and shot through with evil.
Can you imagine living in a time when it would be true that the years of everyone “was only evil continually”? You won’t hear that from Norman Vincent Peale, will you? You don’t see here, “I’m OK, you’re OK.” There’s no “goodness of mankind” evident here. Over the last few weeks I have re-watched Band of Brothers and Becky and I watched the two seasons of World on Fire on BBC, both of which speak of the atrocities committed by the Germans in World War II. It was truly disgusting. The whole world was like that in Noah’s day.
The poet W. H. Auden was a believer in the goodness of man, until he walked into a movie theater in New York City in Yorkville on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, near where he had lived when he first arrived. It was still a largely German-speaking community and this was before the U. S. had entered the war. The film was Sieg im Poland, a documentary of the Nazi invasion of Poland. It was graphic. Hitler’s SS Storm Troopers were bayoneting women and children, and members of the audience cried out in support of their fellow countrymen, “Kill the Poles! Kill them!” He was horrified and his belief in the natural goodness of humankind was dashed.
Charles Hodge, an eminent theologian, wrote this about depravity:
Our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable; our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God.
Our pride, vanity, and indifference to His will and to the welfare of others, our selfishness, our loving the creature more than the Creator, are continuous violations of His holy law.
We have never been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had that delight in the divine perfection, that sense of dependence and obligation, and fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God, which constitute the love which is our first and highest duty.
We are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God, because we are never what His law requires us to be.
If we have never made it our purpose to do His will, if we have never made His glory the end of our actions, then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence.
Genesis 6:11 adds, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.”
“And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Gen. 6:6). God’s heart was filled with pain and agony because the prize of His creation was rebelling against Him.
So God determined to judge sinful humanity at that time. “So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (Gen. 6:7).
And in the midst of all this darkness and depravity, when everything seemed lost, “But Noah found favor (grace) in the eyes of the LORD” (Gen. 6:8). God chose one man out of all humanity, showed him grace and gave him a mission.
God had promised a seed, a redeemer, that would come from Eve to crush the serpent once and for all. How could that take place if the entire human race is now corrupt and destined to be annihilated? Genesis 6:1-5 indicates that the human race had become so degraded that it was hardly human anymore.
But the shaft of God’s grace and mercy pierced through the thick darkness. “Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (Gen. 6:8).
- All men deserved God’s wrath; but one man was chosen to survive.
- All men were condemned, and justly so; but one man was justified.
- All men went astray from God; but one man was called.
- All men were lost; but one man was saved.
- All men were unbelievers; but to one man faith was given. Noah found grace, not merit, but grace, in the eyes of the Lord.
- There is always a remnant according to the election of grace.
This doesn’t mean that Noah was a good man and God decided to reward him for his goodness. No, God decided to set his pre-ordained affection on Noah and graced him. His unmerited favor was on that man, and Noah, just like all of us a sinner, trusted God and began to walk with God. To that man Noah God gives an unbelievable assignment.
Grace towards Noah brings forth his trust. God’s faithfulness is what initiates Noah’s faith in God.
Noah’s Obedience Depends Upon God’s Word (Hebrews 11:7; Genesis 6:14-16)
The faith that stands alone is the kind of faith where everything in my life is dictated, shaped, molded, and directed by God’s revelation, His Word.
Can you imagine hearing these words? “”I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood”?
This is what is meant by the words of Hebrews 11:7, “being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen…” God was warning Noah that he was about to destroy the earth. He didn’t tell him how yet, but he told him to build an ark.
A what? An ark.
The primary unseen thing he was warned about was, of course, that the earth’s population was about to be destroyed by a monstrous cataclysmic flood—judgment by water (cf. Genesis 6:17). Implicit in this was a second thing not seen and certainly never dreamed of—that God was going to deliver Noah and his family through a great ark that Noah himself was going to build.
Now imagine how this all came down on this pre-diluvian farmer. The only floods he had ever seen, if indeed he had seen any, were the wadi washers that came from an occasional thunderstorm.
And God asked him to build this huge structure, a boat as we know it. It was huge, “the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits” (Gen. 6:15).
And the amazing thing is that even though Noah had never seen a flood, didn’t know what an ark was, he implicitly obeyed God, without question or complaint.
And it took him 120 years to build this ark. Noah worked long and hard, exhibiting his faith in God through his obedience to His Word. Noah would say that faith in God is not a “hunch.” Nor is it positive thinking or a leap in the dark. Noah would tell us that his faith was based on the fact that God “warned” him. God spoke to Noah and told him what He was about to do. Noah believed God and got busy building a boat to ride out the storm.
Remember that faith is in “events as yet unseen,” future things that God tells us will happen, which reminds us of Hebrews 11:1, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
But Noah was seeing that flood as if it were already present. He believed it would happen and he built an ark so that he and his family would be rescued. Genuine faith always has a basis, a firm basis. It is founded on what God says and for us what God says in His Word. In fact, a faith that doesn’t rest upon God’s Word is not a faith worth having. It is a false hope. But true faith has a sure foundation. It is not based upon our feelings or emotions. It is not based on our traditions. No, our source of authority, the basis of our faith, is the unchanging Word of God!
As we’ve been saying all along, faith must have a revelation (Romans 10:17). Here was the revelation of judgment that would happen in 120 years as well as the means for the salvation of his family (Genesis 6:17-18).
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
Explicit instructions for this ark had been given to Noah in vv. 14-16.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
This visual certitude was combined with a future certitude, for he had “the assurance of things hoped for”—namely, the promise of salvation for him and his family.
So Noah built an ark. Real faith will always act on God’s revelation. It will always obey. The book of James repeats this again and again.
It was in his building of the Ark that Noah’s faith was seen. We know this not because the word “faith” is mentioned in the story of Noah. It isn’t. We know it because Noah’s obedience pleased God and the text tells us that you can’t please God without faith.
Warren Wiersbe says that “Noah’s faith involved the whole person: his mind was warned of God; his heart was moved with fear; and his will acted on what God told him” (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament, p. 835).
Grace Still Amazes 