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THE KING’S BUSINESS
cesses are still at work—though not so extensively. III. THE WARNING. 1. To Noah,—to one “among the faithless faithful found” (6:9). (2) Its content (6:13-17).. (3) His obedience (Heb. 11:7; weigh each phrase). 2. Through Noah. (1) His preaching (2 Pet. 2:5). (2) Its reception (7:21, 22; 1 Pet. 3:20). (3) The days of grace (6:3), (4) Our day of grace (2 Cor. 6:2). (5) To us (Matt 24:36-39, 42). IV. THE ARK. 1. Its description. Our space forbids i t 2. Its contents. Eight souls (1 Pet. 3:20). How few! All creatures the Lord 'would preserve. deluge were closed and the waters “con tinually” (“going and returning,” i. e., ebbing and flowing) gradually subsided. The Ark grounded. The summits emerg ed. Noah sent out the raven which flew “to and fro” (“going and returning”) finding a rest and a feast, from carcase to carcase; type of “the flesh” itself, which returns after every judgment to its carrion (Prov. 26:11; II Pet. 2:22), like San Francisco to its worldliness after the earthquake. But the dove, em blem of a Spirit-filled soul, “found no rest for the sole of her foot” in such a scene and returned to the Ark, whence Noah, like our Blessed Saviour, put out his hand and took her in (Matt. 11:28; John 6:37). “Return thou unto thy rest, O my soul.” The second time the dove returned she brought a “fresh olive leaf” (lit.) the sign that “redemption was nigh, even at the doors” (Matt. 24:32-33); and such a burden is fittest for the wings of a dove (Ps. 55:6), the first carrier of the gospel of the new creation, and such a Dove Is the Spirit of God (Matt. 3:16), who brings the earnest of (Eph. 1:13-14), and can only make His abode in the new creation. II. THE EXIT FROM THE ARK INTO THE RENOVATED EARTH 2. The renovated earth. It typified the Millennial World. God had shaken the wicked out of the earth (Job 38:13; Heb. 12:27). But as Noah had brought the clean and the unclean (7:8,9) with
as men”). The degeneracy of Israel was mainly due to heathen women (Judges 3:5-7, etc.) Believers are to marry “only in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:39; 2 Cor. 6:14). “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” and much pure meal can never sweeten it (1 Cor. 15:33). The weird theory of fallen spirits, though suggested, is not sup ported by Scripture, though it had some early advocates. Such shadowy sugges tion as these Scriptures afford eannot support such unusual exegesis. The com mon view has the analogy of Scripture and experience. (3) The decree of God, “I WILL DESTROY,” 6:7. Even divine patience is limited, 6:3. Yet only be cause man becomes wilfully incorrigible (Luke 19:43). 3. Its physical causes: 40 days and nights of rain, and “all the fountains of the great deep” broken up, the bottom of the sea rising, or the land sinking, and overwhelming “all flesh.” Such pro I. THE PASSING OF THE FLOOD 1. The faithful God. “God remember ed Noah,” etc. God forgets nothing but our sins; He is mindful of His covenant; can a woman forget her sucking child? __ Yea, she may forget, yet will not I forget thee (Jer. 31:44; Psa. 3:5; Isa. 49:15; 17:10; Psa. 115:12; 8:4; Mark 6:47-48; Exod. 2:2). More alone on the solitary waste, than the sailor clinging to !his spar and scanning the horizon with reasonable hope, Noah, confident in Him who “remembers the righteous,” patiently endured. And the Lord remem bered His “hidden ones” (Psa. 83 3), Ap pointed to obtain salvation (I Thess. 5:9) and to behold “what desolations He hath made in the earth” (Psa. 46:8). If thy “life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3) “only with thine eyes shalt thou be hold and see the reward of the wicked;” “Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place and It shall not be” (Ps. 91:8). # 2. Noah’s log. The record reads like a shipmaster’s log. Noah registered dates, soundings, conditions of weather, the ebb and flow of waters, and inci dents of the voyage. This is the word of an eye witness and therefore a strong witness to the truth. Over the chaos the Lord “made a wind (same word as “Spirit,” Gen. 1:2; see Ps. 104:30) to pass over,” etc., and the sources of the GOLDEN T E X T—“I do set m y bow in (he cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant betw een m e and the earth.” Gen. 9:13.
3. Type of Christ. We are baptised "into Christ” (2 Pet. 3:21; Col. 2:12). 4. Noah’s gospel our gospel, (1) “Come thou . . . into the Ark,” 7:1 (2) “The Lord shut him in,” 7:16 (Col. 3:3; Rom. 8:19-21). Lesson VI. February 9—God’s Covenant with Noah. Gen. 8;1; 9:17
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