(Slightly edited to obviate some obscurities in punctuation, vocabulary, and syntax. – Editor)
“Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he,”
Genesis 6:22
CONCERNING these words, we may observe what it was that God commanded Noah. It was the building of an ark according to the particular direction of God, against the time when the flood of waters should come; and the laying up of food for himself, his family, and the other animals, which were to be preserved in the ark. We have the particular commands which God gave him respecting this affair, from the 14th verse, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood,” and so on. Also, we see the special design of the work which God had enjoined upon Noah. It was to save himself and his family, when the rest of the world should be drowned: “Thou shalt come into the ark.” See verses 17 and 18. We may observe also Noah’s obedience. He obeyed God: “thus did Noah”. And his obedience was thorough and universal: “according to all that God commanded him, so did he”. He not only began, but he went through his work, which God had commanded him to undertake for his salvation from the flood. To this obedience the apostle refers in Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.”
The doctrine here is that we should be willing to engage in, and go through, great undertakings, in order to our own salvation^1^.
The building of the ark, which was enjoined upon Noah, that he and his family might be saved, was a great undertaking: the ark was a building of vast size, the length of it being three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A cubit, till of late, was by learned men reckoned to be equal to a foot and a half of our measure. But lately some learned men of our nation have travelled into Egypt, and other ancient countries, and have measured some ancient buildings there, which are of several thousand years standing, and of which ancient histories give us the dimensions in cubits; particularly the pyramids of Egypt, which are standing entire at this day. By measuring these, and by comparing the measure in feet with the ancient accounts of their measure in cubits, a cubit is found to be almost two and twenty inches. Therefore learned men more lately reckon a cubit much larger than they did formerly. So that the ark, reckoned so much larger every way, will appear to be almost of double the bulk which was formerly ascribed to it. According to this computation of the cubit, it was more than five hundred and fifty feet long, about ninety feet broad, and about fifty feet in height. To build such a structure, with all those apartments and divisions in it which were necessary, and in such a manner as to be fit to float upon the water for so long a time, was then a great undertaking.
It took Noah, with all the workmen he employed, a hundred and twenty years, or thereabouts, to build it. For so long it was, that the Spirit of God strove, and the long-suffering God waited, on the old world, as you may see in Genesis 4:3: “My Spirit shall not always strive with man; yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” All this while the ark was a preparing, as appears by 1 Peter 3:20: “When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.” It was a long time that Noah constantly employed himself in this business. Men would esteem that undertaking very great which should keep them constantly employed even for one half of that time. Noah must have had a great and constant care upon his mind for these one hundred and twenty years, in superintending this work, and in seeing that all was done exactly according to the directions which God had given him.
Not only was Noah himself continually employed, but it required a great number of workmen to be constantly employed, during all that time, in procuring, and collecting, and fitting the materials, and in putting them together in due form. How great a thing was it for Noah to undertake such a work! For beside the continual care and labour, it was a work of vast expense. It is not probable that any of that wicked generation would put to a finger to help forward such a work, which doubtless they believed was merely the fruit of Noah’s folly, without full wages. Noah must needs have been very rich, to be able to bear the expense of such a work, and to pay so many workmen for so long a time. It would have been a very great expense for a prince; and doubtless Noah was very rich, as Abraham and Job were afterwards. But it is probable that Noah spent all his worldly substance in this work, thus manifesting his faith in the word of God, by selling all he had, as believing there would surely come a flood which would destroy all; so that if he should keep what he had, it would be of no service to him. Herein he has set us an example, showing us how we ought to sell all for our salvation.
Noah’s undertaking was of great difficulty, as it exposed him to the continual reproaches of all his neighbours for that whole one hundred and twenty years. None of them believed what he told them of a flood which was about to drown the world. For a man to undertake such a vast piece of work, under notion that it should be the means of saving him when the world should be destroyed, made him the continual laughing-stock of the world. When he was about to hire workmen, doubtless all laughed at him, and we may suppose, that though the workmen consented to work for wages, yet they laughed at the folly of him who employed them. When the ark was begun, we may suppose that every one that passed by and saw such a huge bulk stand there, laughed at it, calling it, “Noah’s folly.” In these days, men are with difficulty brought to do, or submit to, that which makes them the objects of the reproach of all their neighbours. Indeed, if while some people reproach them, others stand by them and honour them, this will support them. But it is very difficult for a man to go on in a way wherein he makes himself the laughing stock of the whole world, and wherein he can find none who do not despise him. Where is the man that can stand the shock of such a trial for twenty years? But in such an undertaking as this, Noah, at the divine direction, engaged and went through it, that he and his family might be saved from the common destruction which was shortly about to come on the world. He began, and also made an end: “According to all that God commanded him, so did he.” Length of time did not weary him: he did not grow weary of his vast expense. He stood the shock of the derision of all his neighbours and of all the world year after year: he did not grow weary of being their laughing-stock, so as to give over his enterprise, but persevered in it till the ark was finished. After this, he was at the trouble and charge of procuring stores for the maintenance of his family, and of all the various kinds of creatures, for so long a time. Such an undertaking he engaged in and went through in order to a temporal salvation.
How great an undertaking then should men be willing to engage in and go through in order to their eternal salvation! A salvation from an eternal deluge, from being overwhelmed with the billows of God’s wrath, of which Noah’s flood was but a shadow. I shall particularly handle this doctrine, that we should be willing to engage in and go through great undertakings in order to our own salvation, under the three following propositions:
First, there is a work or business which must be undertaken and accomplished by men, if they would be saved.
Secondly, this business is a great undertaking.
Thirdly, men should be willing to enter upon and go through this undertaking though it be great, seeing it is for their own salvation.
I. The first proposition is that there is a work or business which men must enter upon and accomplish in order to their salvation.
Men have no reason to expect to be saved in idleness, or to go to heaven in a way of doing nothing. No; in order to it there is a great work, which must be not only begun, but finished. I shall speak upon this first proposition, by answering two inquiries.
First, what is this work or business which must be undertaken and accomplished in order to the salvation of men?
Answer. It is the work of seeking salvation in a way of constant observance of all the duty to which God directs us in His Word. If we would be saved, we must seek salvation. For although men do not obtain heaven of themselves; they do not go thither accidentally, or without any intention or endeavours of their own. God, in His Word, hath directed men to seek their salvation as they would hope to obtain it. There is a race that is set before them, which they must run, and in that race be victors, in order to their winning the prize.
The Scriptures have told us what particular duties must be performed by us in order to our eternal salvation. It is not sufficient that men seek their salvation in the observance of some of those duties; but they must be observed universally. The work we have to do is not an obedience only to some, but to all the commands of God; a compliance with every institution of worship; a diligent use of all the appointed means of grace; a doing of all duty towards God and towards man. It is not sufficient that men have some respect to all the commands of God, and that they may be said to seek their salvation in some sort of observance of all the commands; but they must be devoted to it.
They must not make this a business by the by, or a thing in which they are negligent and careless, or which they do with a slack hand; but it must be their great business, being attended to as their great concern. They must not only seek, but strive; they must do what their hand findeth to do with their might, as men thoroughly engaged in their minds, and influenced and set forward by great desire and strong resolution. They must act as those that see so much of the importance of religion above all other things, that every thing else must be as an occasional affair, and nothing must stand in competition with its duties. This must be the one thing they do; Philippians 3:13, “This one thing I do.” It must be the business to which they make all other affairs give place, and to which they are ready to make other things a sacrifice. They must be ready to part with pleasures and honour, estate and life, and to sell all, that they may successfully accomplish this business. It is required of every man, that he not only do something in this business, but that he should devote himself to it; which implies that he should give up himself to it, all his affairs, and all his temporal enjoyments. This is the import of taking up the cross, of taking Christ’s yoke upon us, and of denying ourselves to follow Christ. The rich young man, who came kneeling to Christ to know what he should do to be saved, Mark 10:17, in some sense sought salvation but did not obtain it. In some sense he kept all the commands from his youth up; but was not cordially devoted to this business. He had not made a sacrifice to it of all his enjoyments, as appeared when Christ came to try him; he would not part with his estate for him.
It is not only necessary that men should seem to be very much engaged, and be devoted to their duty for a little while; but there must be a constant devotedness, in a persevering way, as Noah was to the business of the building the ark, going on with that great, difficult, and expensive affair, till it was finished, and till the flood came. Men must not only be diligent in the use of the means of grace, and be anxiously engaged to escape eternal ruin, till they obtain hope and comfort; but afterwards they must persevere in the duties of religion, till the flood come, the flood of death. Not only must the faculties, strength, and possessions of men be devoted to this work, but also their time and their lives; they must give up their whole lives to it, even to the very day when God causes the storms and floods to come. This is the work which men have to do in order to their salvation.
The second inquiry is, Why is it needful that men should undertake to go through such a work in order to their salvation?
Answer: Not to merit salvation, or to recommend them to God. Men are not saved on the account of any work of theirs, and yet they are not saved without works. If we merely consider what it is for which, or on the account of which, men are saved, no work at all in men is necessary to their salvation. In this respect they are saved wholly without any work of theirs: Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” We must indeed be saved on the account of works; but not our own. It is on account of the works which Christ hath done for us. Works are the fixed price of eternal life; it is fixed by an eternal, unalterable rule of righteousness. But since the fall there is no hope of our doing these works, apart from salvation by grace, offered freely without money and without price.
But we answer, secondly, though it be not needful that we do any thing to merit salvation, which Christ hath fully merited for all who believe in Him; yet God, for wise and holy ends, hath appointed that we should come to final salvation in no other way but that of good works done by us. God did not save Noah on account of the labour and expense he was at in building the ark. Noah’s salvation from the flood was an instance of the free and distinguishing mercy of God. Nor did God stand in need of Noah’s care, or cost, or labour, to build an ark. The same power which created the world, and which brought the flood of waters upon the earth, could have made the ark in an instant, without any care or cost to Noah, or any of the labour of those workmen who were employed for so long a time. Yet God was pleased to appoint, that Noah should be saved in this way. So God hath appointed that man should not be saved without his undertaking and doing this work of which I have been speaking; and therefore we are commanded “to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling,” Philippians 2:12.
There are many wise ends to be answered by the establishment of such a work as prerequisite to salvation. The glory of God requires it. For although God stand in no need of any thing that men do to recommend them to His saving mercy, yet it would reflect much on the glory of God’s wisdom and holiness to bestow salvation on men in such a way as tends to encourage them in sloth and wickedness; or in any other way than that which tends to promote diligence and holiness. Man was made capable of action, with many powers of both body and mind fitting him for it. He was made for business and not idleness and the main business for which he was made, was that of religion. Therefore it becomes the wisdom of God to bestow salvation and happiness on man in such a way as tends most to promote this end, and to stir him up to a diligent use of his faculties and talents.
It becomes the wisdom of God so to order it that things of great value and importance should not be obtained without great labour and diligence. Much human learning and great moral accomplishments are not to be obtained without care and labour. It is wisely so ordered, in order to maintain in man a due sense of the value of those things which are excellent. If great things were in common easily obtained, it would have a tendency to cause men to slight and undervalue them. Men commonly despise those things which are cheap, and which are obtained without difficulty.
Although the work of obedience performed by men be not necessary in order to merit salvation; yet it is necessary in order to their being prepared for it. Men cannot be prepared for salvation without seeking it in such a way as hath been described. This is necessary in order that they have a proper sense of their own necessities, and unworthiness; and in order that they be prepared and disposed to prize salvation when bestowed, and be properly thankful to God for it. The requisition of so great a work in order to our salvation is no way inconsistent with the freedom of the offer of salvation; as after all it is both offered and bestowed without any respect to our work, as the price or meritorious cause of our salvation, as I have already explained. Besides, salvation bestowed in this way is better for us, more for our advantage and happiness both in this and the future world, than if it were given without this requisition.
II. The second proposition is that this work or business, which must be done in order to the salvation of men, is a great undertaking.
It often appears so to men upon whom it is urged. Utterly to break off from all their sins, and to give up themselves for ever to the business of religion, without making a reserve of any one lust, submitting to and complying with every command of God, in all cases, and persevering therein, appears to many so great a thing, that they are in vain urged to undertake it. In so doing it seems to them, that they should give up themselves to a perpetual bondage. The greater part of men therefore choose to put it off, and keep it at as great a distance as they can. They cannot bear to think of entering immediately on such a hard service, and rather than do it, they will run the risk of eternal damnation, by putting it off to an uncertain future opportunity.
Although the business of religion is far from really being what it appears to be to such men, (for the devil will be sure, if he can, to represent it in false colours to sinners, and make it appear as black as terrible as he can); yet it is indeed a great business, a great undertaking, and it is fit that all who are urged to it should count the cost beforehand, and be sensible of the difficulty attending it. For though the devil discourages many from this undertaking, by representing it to be more difficult than it really is; yet with others he takes a contrary course and flatters them it is a very easy thing, a trivial business, which may be done at any time when they please, and so emboldens them to defer it from that consideration. But let none conceive any other notion of that business of religion, which is absolutely necessary to their salvation, than that it is a great undertaking. It is so on the following accounts.
First, it is a business of great labour and care. There are many commands to be obeyed, many duties to be done, duties to God, duties to our neighbour, and duties to ourselves. There is much opposition in the way of these duties from without. There is a subtle and powerful adversary laying all manner of blocks in the way. There are innumerable temptations of Satan to be resisted and repelled. There is great opposition from the world, innumerable snares laid, on every side, many rocks and mountains to be passed over, many streams to be passed through, and many flatteries and enticements from a vain world to be resisted. There is a great opposition from within; a dull and sluggish heart, which is exceedingly averse from that activity in religion which is necessary; a carnal heart which is averse from religion and spiritual exercises, and is continually drawing the contrary way; and a proud and a deceitful heart in which corruption will be exerting itself in all manner of ways. So that nothing can be done to any effect without a most strict and careful watch, and great labour and strife.
Secondly, it is a great undertaking because it is a constant business. In any business which requires great labour, men love now and then to have a space of relaxation, that they may rest from their extraordinary labour. But this is a business which must be followed every day; as Luke 9:23 says, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” We must never give ourselves any relaxation from this business; it must be continually prosecuted day after day. If sometimes we make a great stir and bustle concerning religion, but then lay all aside to take our ease, and do so from time to time, it will be of no good effect; we had even as good do nothing at all. The business of religion so followed is never like to come to any good issue, nor is the work ever like to be accomplished to any good purpose.
Thirdly, it is a great undertaking because it is an undertaking of great expense. We must therein sell all: we must follow this business at the expense of all our unlawful pleasures and delights, at the expense of our carnal ease, often at the expense of our substance, of our credit among men, the good will of our neighbours, at the expense of all our earthly friends, and even at the expense of life itself. Herein it is like Noah’s undertaking to build the ark, which, as hath been shown was a costly undertaking: it was expensive to his reputation among men, exposing him to be the continual laughing-stock of all his neighbours and of the whole world: and it was expensive to his estate, and probably cost him all that he had.
Fourthly, it is a great business because sometimes the fear, trouble, and exercise of mind, which are undergone respecting the salvation of the soul, are great and long continued before any comfort is obtained. Sometimes persons in this situation labour long in the dark, and sometimes, as it were, in the very fire, they having great distress of conscience, great fears, and many perplexing temptations, before they obtain light and comfort to make their care and labour more easy to them. They sometimes earnestly, and for a long time, seek comfort, but find it not, because they seek it not in a right manner, nor in the right objects. God therefore hides His face. They cry, but God doth not answer their prayers. They strive, but all seems in vain. They seem to themselves not at all to get forward, or nearer to a deliverance from sin: but to go backward, rather than forward. They see no glimmerings of light: things rather appear darker and darker; insomuch that they are often ready to be discouraged, and to sink under the weight of their present distress, and under the prospect of future misery. In this situation, and under these views, some are almost driven to despair. Many, after they have obtained some saving comfort, are again involved in darkness and trouble. It is with them as it was with the Hebrew Christians: “After ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions,” Hebrews 10:32. Some, through a melancholy habit and distemper of body, together with Satan’s temptations, spend a great part of their lives in distress and darkness, even after they have had some saving comfort.
Fifthly, it is a business which, by reason of the many difficulties, snares, and dangers that attend it, requires much instruction, consideration, and counsel. There is no business wherein men stand in need of counsel more than in this. It is a difficult undertaking, a hard matter to proceed aright in it. There are ten thousand wrong ways, which men may take; there are many labyrinths wherein many poor souls are entangled and never find the way out; there are many rocks on which thousands of souls have suffered shipwreck, for want of having steered aright.
Men of themselves know not how to proceed in this business, any more than the children of Israel in the wilderness knew where to go without the guidance of the pillar of cloud and fire. There is great need that they search the Scriptures, and give diligent heed to the instructions and directions contained in them, as to a light shining in a dark place, and that they ask counsel of those skilled in these matters. And there is no business in which men have so much need of seeking to God by prayer, for His counsel, and that He would lead them in the right way, and show them the strait gate. “For strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;” yea, there are none that find it without direction from heaven. The building of the ark was a work of great difficulty on this account: that Noah’s wisdom was not sufficient to direct him how to make such a building as should be a sufficient security against such a flood, and which should be a convenient dwelling-place for himself, his family, and all the various kinds of beasts and birds and creeping things. Nor could he ever have known how to construct this building, had not God directed him.
the media mill in the United States; there is scarcely a newspaper which has not, at some time in the last 10 years, run a story on the Seminar’s findings. And such publicity has its dangers. As one opponent expressed it, “In this age of mass ignorance, to have headlines proclaim that this or that fact about [Jesus] has been declared true by supposedly scientific inquiry has the effect of gospel. There is no basis on which most people can counter these authoritative-sounding statements.”
Those scholars who are determined to work on the assumption that there is no such thing as the supernatural find it is perfectly easy to rule out most of the Bible. From start to finish it is unashamedly a supernatural book, so this unbelieving approach must leave out everything that is specifically Christian; it cannot be satisfied with removing a few isolated passages. And seminar members have gone to work on this principle with a will. The guidance they have given themselves include the assumptions that short passages are more likely to be accurate, as are those with vivid images and sayings which run against the social and religious tendencies of the time. On the other hand, they assumed the worst about parables with explicit applications, and ruled out quotations from the Old Testament and sayings expressed in “explicitly Christian terms”. These instructions illustrate the determinedly negative and arbitrary basis on which the whole process was based, clearly encapsulated in the direction to Seminar members, “When in sufficient doubt, leave it out.” Lying behind all their thinking is the assumption which is basic to most present-day New Testament scholarship, that the Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses, but were cobbled together by later writers on the basis of earlier documents and oral tradition. But if Dr Thiede, a German academic, is right in his assertion that fragments of the Gospel of Matthew held in an Oxford University library were written not much later than 60 AD then no one can dispute the fact that the writer was an eyewitness.
The whole tendency of unbelieving biblical scholarship is to ignore the evidence. For instance, although the Seminar has dismissed the resurrection as non-historical, it is one of the best-attested facts of history. Paul presents compelling evidence to the Corinthians: “He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles” (1 Cor 15:5-7). Even in far-off Corinth these claims ran the risk of being disproved at some stage, for multitudes were still alive who knew the facts about the events which had taken place in and around Jerusalem. The fact of the resurrection was also fundamental to Paul’s hope of salvation. “If Christ be not risen,” he confessed plainly, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” And again, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor 15:14,17). Could Paul have submitted to all the hardships he experienced unless he knew that the Master he was serving was the risen Saviour about whom he wrote so fervently: “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”?
The fact remains that John as well as Matthew was an eyewitnesses of what they wrote in their Gospels. Mark, it is understood, wrote under the guidance of an eyewitness, Peter – as well as under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, like all the other writers of Scripture. It was Peter who claimed, with reference to that great supernatural event, the transfiguration: “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet 1:16). Luke too lays emphasis on the fact that his Gospel is the evidence of eyewitnesses: “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:1-4).
There is throughout most of modern New Testament scholarship a wilful disregard of such men as John, who could say of Christ, with whom they had spent more than three years in close contact, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). But modern scholarship will accept as genuine in the Bible only what will satisfy the demands of fallen human reason. To quote an expert in this field, Professor Linneman, (a German Professor of New Testament, who was previously an enthusiastic proponent of the critical study of the Bible and who has published books and articles on the subject), “For historical-critical theology, critical reason decides what is reality in the Bible and what cannot be reality; and this decision is made on the basis of the everyday experience accessible to every person. Nothing is accepted as fact unless it is generally held to be possible. That which is spiritual is judged using fleshly criteria.” And again, “These philosophies simply presupposed that man could have no valid knowledge of the God of the Bible, the Creator of heaven and earth.”
Professor Linnemann explains the principles employed in teaching courses on the Bible in universities: “The one who takes up study is required to approach theological study ‘without presuppositions’, to seek the truth ‘radically and without holding back’.” But of course students cannot escape from the influence of presuppositions; they can only exchange one set of presuppositions for another: “The fundamental presupposition of university theology in its entirety . . . is the conviction that the final authority regarding what is true is the trained, professionally informed, regimented critical intellect. That is, holy Scripture is subordinated to reason. Reason decides what in the Scripture is true and real. Reason decides what is certain, probable, or improbable in the Bible and what did not, does not, and never will occur.” Professor Linnemann also accuses erstwhile colleagues of “using grotesque literary methods which would lead immediately to absurd results if they were ever applied to the work of a poet or a theologian”.
It is disturbing that the Bible is treated so irreverently, and in such a way that those who study it are unlikely to profit from it. Yet it should not surprise us. Paul himself warned, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim 4:3f). There have been many departures from the truth which have destroyed the souls of multitudes, and this form of unbelieving scholarship is also highly dangerous. When the Word of God loses its authority over the souls of sinners, they feel safe in ignoring the claims of God. And Moslems have been known to throw the writings of professedly Christian critics in the face of missionaries and say, “Your own people say that the Bible is not true.”
Spurgeon once asked with characteristic insight, “Is anyone so gullible as the person who determines not to believe the Bible? He swallows a ton of difficulties, while complaining that we have swallowed an ounce.” But the time will come when it will become unfashionable to read the New Testament in the light of such God-provoking and irrational principles. The time will come, to put the matter on a higher level, when believing scholarship will once more take its rightful place in institutions of higher education, and when those who were once deceived by their teachers, and those who deceived themselves, will turn to the Lord in repentance.
In the meantime let us who accept that the whole Bible is the inspired Word of God not rest satisfied unless we have truly come to know in a personal way the God who is there revealed. Although we cannot see Christ in this world with the eyes of the body, how earnest we should be in seeking grace to say about Him from the heart, “We beheld His glory [in His inspired Word], the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”! Those who have thus seen the Saviour have indeed profited from the Scriptures. They have been made willing to bow before the living God and worship.