A Biblical Worldview in a Blighted World

Introduction

A biblical worldview in a blighted world is the order of the day. Pastor Michael C. Sherrard, author of Relational Apologetics: Defending the Christian Faith with Holiness, Respect, and Truth, explains, “A worldview is a set of beliefs that cause you to view life a certain way. We all have one. You cannot escape it. We each have beliefs that affect how we see life, form conclusions, and interpret our experiences.”1

Hebrews 11:7 reads, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

Our purpose is to analyze the life of Noah, a man with a biblical worldview.

I. Noah’s Eternal Values

Genesis 6:8 reads, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” Hebrews 11:6 reads, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Noah had eternal values while the whole world with the exception of his wife, three sons and their wives, had temporal values. Noah had a biblical worldview. Today there are those holding a naturalistic worldview as Michael C. Sherrard explains, or a narcissistic worldview according to Andrew Fellows, director of L’Abri Fellowship, Greatham, England, who gave a series of talks on “Narcissism: The Worldview of Self.”2 Fellows explains, “It is also important to distinguish Narcissism from modern individualism. Where individualism is a description of the ‘economic’ self, Narcissism is a description of the ‘psychological self’. Individualism describes the pursuit of wealth and material comfort. Narcissism describes the pursuit of identity and personal well being. This is why I believe that the Narcissistic model describes a new state of human consciousness - one that redefines the nature of the real. It may literally be the fulfilment of the apostle Paul’s description of the human in its last phase. 2 Tim 3:1-2 – ‘in the last days men will be lovers of self - literally they will fall in love with themselves’.”3

Noah had eternal values before Christ came and we can have eternal values after Christ came. Colossians 3:1-4 reads, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

II. Noah’s Enormous Venture

Hebrews 11:7 reads, “By faith Noah. . . prepared an ark for the saving of his household.” This was a huge investment of time and money, but he inherited the whole world. To build an ark is an enormous venture, just ask Ken Ham, just ask others who have built replicas of the ark. Imagine building an ark with three other men.  American Etymologist, Barry Popik, explains, “‘The ark was built by amateurs, but professionals built the Titanic’ is a popular saying meaning that the accepted wisdom isn’t always accurate. The Biblical Noah built an ark and saved humanity from a great flood; the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 to New York City.”4 According to Popik, this saying is variously attributed and variously cited. Maybe you read it or heard it in one of the following ways:

“The ark was built by amateurs, but the Titanic was built by professionals.”

“The Titanic was built by professionals, but the ark was built by amateurs.”

“Amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

“Professionals built the Titanic. Amateurs built the ark.”

“A lone amateur built the ark. A team of professionals built the Titanic.”5

Note the phrase, “by which he condemned the world. . .” (Hebrews 11:7) Dr. Frank Binford Hole (1874-1964) explains, “Had Noah merely denounced the unrighteousness of his age, he would have condemned the existing state of things without indicating what was right. As it was, he condemned it by the simple preaching of righteousness. In the light of what was right, the wrongness of existing things was plainly seen. Yet our verse in Hebrews 11 does not tell of how he ‘condemned the world’ by what he said, but rather by what he did. Men are more impressed by our actions than by our words. We read, ‘God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me’ (Gen. 6:13). These words clearly intimated that God had condemned the world, and it was only a matter of time for the judgment to fall. Noah realized that the sentence of doom had gone forth from God's lips: he accepted it, and in his turn he condemned the world by building the ark as a refuge from the coming disaster. Every nail, as he drove it home, was a token of salvation for himself and his house, but a token of condemnation for the world: it made the cleavage between himself and the world more pronounced. Has not this a great voice for our hearts to-day? . . .

Noah did not shrink from condemning the world. Do we? . . .”6 Worldviews collide when Christians obey God’s Word. Paul warned, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Proverbs 11:31 reads, “If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, How much more the ungodly and the sinner.”

III. Noah’s Earnest Vying

Noah was vying for souls not for supremacy. Proverbs 11:30 reads, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise.” Noah faced apathy. Matthew 24:37-39 reads, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” 2 Peter 2:4-5 reads, “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.” Noah was “a preacher of righteousness” who preached for 120 years. Genesis 6:1-8 reads, “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” 2 Peter 3:9 reads, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” He gave Noah’s generation 120 years, He gave Nineveh 40 days, He gave Sodom and Gomorrah one night. What would have happened if people repented? Remember what happened in Nineveh. Later, God did deal with Nineveh, but they repented at the preaching of Jonah and it averted the judgment of God at that time. In Genesis we read about Abraham interceding for Sodom, the place his nephew, Lot, chose to dwell (Genesis 18:16-33). Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler (1822-1909) shares the following in a message titled, “The Sin of Discouragement”: “Noble old Dr. Adoniram Judson [1788-1850] preached in Burmah for six years without the first visible convert, then came a great harvest.”7

In Sifted But Saved, Dr. William Walter Melton (1879-1967) writes, “We are not told what the neighbors thought of Noah in his wild and fanciful venture, but it is easy to draw on our imagination here without fear of going astray. Beyond doubt, it was an age of unbelief; Noah was quite certainly the only one who had faith enough to listen to God’s warnings and risk so much to act on it. Our conclusion is that he was the joke of the country. On the one hand, faith leads people to do what is most common-sensical when all is said and done. But before the full tale is told, the same faith leads to actions that seem preposterous to the unbelieving.

Ezra, Nehemiah, and many other reformers were not taken seriously by the people of their times, but their faith led them on in spite of the atmosphere of derision. Real faith does not waver before criticism. . .

Perhaps this age more than any preceding demands a faith that can stand the test of criticism. Everything sacred is being tried in the furnace. The critics have riddled our Bible in trying to cut its heart out. But we are confident that when they have worn themselves out with the effort, they will find that they have not changed one truth or principle.”8 Along these lines note the reaction of the Athenians to the preaching of Paul on the Areopagus. Acts 17:32-34 reads, “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, ‘We will hear you again on this matter.’ So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” (Emphasis mine) Most likely Noah faced mockery.

IV. Noah’s Epic Voyage

Noah’s epic voyage is one of the most storied events in human history.  Remember the flood stories for example, the Gilgamesh Epic. I use the term “epic” in terms of story, not in terms of myth or mere legend. The earth experienced a flood over its entire surface for the Bible tells me so (Genesis 6-9). We find further mention of the flood in the following scriptures:

Isaiah 54:9 reads, “For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.” Luke 17:26-27 reads, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” This is a parallel of Matthew 24:37-39, already cited. 1 Peter 3:20-21 reads, “who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 2:5 reads, “and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.” 2 Peter 3:6-7 reads, “by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 

Noah and seven others embarked on the ark and disembarked after many days. There is some discrepancy among bible scholars on exactly how many days Noah and his family remained on the ark. It is hard for us to imagine what it must have felt like to be in the ark for a year or more. 

Ken Ham with Answers in Genesis is constructing a stationary replica of Noah’s ark and Johan Huibers, a Dutch carpenter is constructing a seaworthy replica of Noah’s ark to set sail from the Netherlands in the summer of 2016 to arrive 5,000 miles later in Brazil coinciding with the 2016 Olympics.9 Johan Huibers is working with The Ark of Noah Foundation in Pasadena, California, to raise the funds to complete this project. The purpose of these projects is to enhance Christian evangelism and apologetics.

V. Noah’s Exciting Victory

Noah built an altar. Genesis 8:20-22 reads, “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. ‘While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.’”

Rev. Matthew Henry (1662-1714) writes, “Noah was now gone out into a desolate world, where, one might have thought, his first care would have been to build a house for himself, but he begins with an altar for God. He begins well, that begins with God. Though Noah’s stock of cattle was small, and that saved at great care and pains, yet he did not grudge to serve God out of it. Serving God with our little is the way to make it more; we must never think that is wasted with which God is honoured. The first thing done in the new world was an act of worship.”10

After a great victory there is great vulnerability. Just because you have a great victory, it does not mean you are home free. Not until you are home in heaven. Vigilance is necessary after victory. Vision is needed to see ourselves as we are from God’s perspective.

VI. Noah’s Embarrassing Vulnerability

Genesis 9:20-27 reads, “And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: ‘Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.’ And he said: ‘Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.’”

Dr. Thomas Whitelaw (1840-1917) explains, “Though the first mention of wine in Scripture” is found in Genesis 9:21, it might not be the first time it was made.”  Dr. Whitelaw further explains, “Since the sin of Noah cannot be ascribed to ignorance, it is perhaps right, as well as charitable, to attribute it to age and inadvertence. Six hundred years old at the time of the Flood, he must have been considerably beyond this when Ham saw him overtaken in his fault, since Canaan was Ham’s fourth son (Genesis 10:6), and the first was not born till after the exit from the ark (Genesis 8:18). But from whatever cause induced, the drunkenness of Noah was not entirely guiltless; it was sinful in itself, and led to further shame. And he was uncovered. Literally, he uncovered himself. . . which more correctly indicates the personal guilt of the patriarch. . . . That intoxication tends to sensuality cf. the cases of Lot (Genesis 19:33), Ahasuerus (Esther 1:10, 11), Belshazzar (Daniel 5:1-6).”11 Rev. Matthew Henry explains, “The drunkenness of Noah is recorded in the Bible, with that fairness which is found only in the Scripture, as a case and proof of human weakness and imperfection, even though he may have been surprised into the sin; and to show that the best of men cannot stand upright, unless they depend upon Divine grace, and are upheld thereby. Ham appears to have been a bad man, and probably rejoiced to find his father in an unbecoming situation. It was said of Noah, that he was perfect in his generations.”12 Dr. John Gill (1697-1771) shares the following comment: “Either not being acquainted with the strength of it, as is thought by many; or having been used to weaker liquor, as water; or through the infirmity of his age; however, he was overtaken with it, and which is recorded, not to disgrace him, but to caution men against the evil of intemperance, as well as to encourage repenting sinners to expect pardon: and this shows that the best of men are not exempted from sin, nor secure from falling; and that though Noah was a perfect man, yet not as to be without sin; and that whereas he was a righteous man, he was not so by the righteousness of works, but by the righteousness of faith: and he was uncovered within his tent; being in liquor when he laid down, he was either negligent of his long and loose garments, such as the eastern people wore without breeches, and did not take care to wrap them about him; or in his sleep, through the heat of the weather, or of the wine, or both, threw them off.” Habakkuk 2:15-16a reads, “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness! You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also—drink!”  Lamentations 4:21 reads, “Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, You who dwell in the land of Uz! The cup shall also pass over to you And you shall become drunk and make yourself naked.” The devil wants to disgrace the saints. Someone said, “Humble yourself or be humiliated.” Proverbs 16:18 reads, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.” James 5:6 reads, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.’” 1 Peter 5:5 reads, “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.’”

Paul the apostle demonstrates a biblical worldview in the following passages:  1 Corinthians 9:24-27 reads, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” Philippians 3:12-14 reads, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8 reads, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Are you willing to pay the price to have a biblical worldview?  

Conclusion

Genesis 9:28-29 reads, “And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.” Noah lived only 19 years less than Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived. Then as now the great need of the hour is a biblical worldview in a blighted world.

1Michael C. Sherrard, ”What the Fighting Over Gender Issues is Really All About,” Accessed:05/04/16  http://www.michaelcsherrard.com/blog/2016/4/28/what-the-fighting-over-sexual-and-gender-issues-is-really-about .

2Andrew Fellows, “Narcissism: The Worldview of Self” Accessed: 05/05/16 http://www.bethinking.org/human-life/narcissism-the-worldview-of-self .

3Andrew Fellows, L’Abri Papers #AF03 “Culture of Narcissism” Accessed: 05/05/16 http://www.labri.org/england/resources/05052008/AF03_Narcissism.pdf .

4Barry Popik, “The ark was built by amateurs, but professionals built the Titanic” Entry from June 02, 2009 Accessed: 05/06/16 http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/the_ark_was_built_by_amateurs_but_professionals_built_the_titanic .

5Ibid.

6F. B. Hole, “He Condemned the World” (Extracted from Scripture Truth Vol. 31, 1939, page 156.) Accessed: 05/05/16 http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/hole/Art/He_condemned_the_world.html .

7The Cambrian, ed. E. C. Evans, “The Sin of Discouragement” by Theodore L. Cuyler (Utica, NY: T. J. Griffiths Printer, 1895), 16:142.

8W. W. Melton, Sifted But Saved, edited and annotated by Robin Hardy [originally published (Philadelphia, PA: Judson Press, 1925)] (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2001), 117-118.

9Accessed: 05/06/16 https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/johan-huibers-and-his-ark/ . 

10Matthew Henry, The Miniature Commentary: Being Short Comments on Every Chapter of the Holy Bible: Genesis To Esther (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1840), 22-23.

11The Pulpit Commentary, eds. H.D.M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, Exposition by Rev. Thomas Whitelaw (New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls Company, n.d.), 148-149.

12Henry, Commentary, 24.

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort 30775 Jay Drive Spanish Fort, Alabama 36527

Author of Don’t Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah and

Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice [Both available on Amazon.com in hardcover, paperback and eBook]

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Miss-Revival-Spiritual-Awakening/dp/1462735428 & http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Biblical-Preaching-Giving-Bible/dp/1594577684 / fkirksey@bellsouth.net  / (251) 626-6210

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