MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 6:9-13
NOAH, OR A GOOD MAN LIVING IN DEGENERATE TIMES
I. That good men living in degenerate times are not overlooked by God. The degenerate and wicked condition of primitive society was under the eye of God. He saw the moral apostacy of the age, that it was almost universal. Noah was the only glad exception. He was the only just and morally perfect man to be found. God did not overlook him in the multitude. God saw Noah and his efforts to be good. Good men are not lost in the mass to the eye of heaven. The surrounding darkness renders the solitary light the more apparent. So the prevalency of evil makes the purity of moral goodness more remarkable. The gardener may overlook the one gay flower in the midst of the weeds, and may pluck all up together; but not so with our heavenly husbandman, he infallibly separates the good from the bad, so that the former is never destroyed through the uprooting of the latter. A good man in the world is conspicuous to the vision of God. In the most wicked ages of the world’s history there has generally been one good man left as a representative of the church, and as a rebuke to the follies of the times, and he has generally been divinely shielded from the perils of his situation, and has been rewarded for his heroic testimony to the right. God remembers Lot in the wicked Sodom. A merciful providence is ever over the good.
II. That good men living in degenerate times are often characterized by signal piety. Noah was not merely a good man, just maintaining a reputation for external morality in these barbarous times, but he was a perfect man. The light of his piety was not dim, but bright and constant. It did not flicker before the rude winds of sin around it. The grace of God kept it bright and constant in its flame. This grace was sought by Noah. Without it he could not have retained his moral rectitude in such perilous circumstances. And if we search the annals of history we shall find that the darkest ages have been illumined by the lives of the brightest and best saints, as if the wickedness around them was a new stimulus to devotion, and also to a decided testimony for moral purity. How often has a noted place of business, where the worst characters have wrought their daily toil, been favoured with one lonely pattern of piety. Piety at such times is:—
(1.) A contrast.
(2.) A rebuke.
(3.) A testimony.
(4.) A duty.
III. That good men living in degenerate times are anxious that their family connections may be preserved from moral defilement. Noah begat a family in those degenerate times. The sons here mentioned were not the offspring of a mixed and wicked alliance. It is not unlikely that the purity of the domestic life of Noah may have been to a large extent his safeguard now. A pure home life is a refuge from the sin of the world at large. It is the tower into which a man may run and be safe. And thus by thoughtful and intelligent considerations, by devout prayer, and by parental solicitations, Noah would endeavour to shield his family from the dark sins of the age. This is a parental duty, but it is often utterly neglected, and not unfrequently frustrated by sorry indiscretions. The father who would keep a son from the world’s allurements to vice must be wise in his measures, and kind in the application of them. In this task coercion means failure.
IV. That good men living in degenerate times receive the communications of heaven in reference to the destiny of men. “And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” There are times when God has need to speak to men. By whom does He speak? Not by the great of the earth, not by the mighty; but by the morally pure. Only a pure heart can vocalise the messages of God to humanity. To such only will the commission be entrusted. God did not give the tidings of threatened destruction to the violent men, to the men of renown, but to Noah, who was just and perfect. To the good are entrusted the purposes of heaven in reference to the future of men. The servants of God know the things which must shortly come to pass.
1. This is a dignity. It is a great honour for any man to be selected as God’s spokesman to the race, especially was it so in the case of Noah. He was probably despised by men, but God made him the teacher of those who ridiculed him. A Divine honour was thus put upon him and upon his name and family for ever.
2. This is a discipline. Honour which comes from God is generally associated with discipline often painful and severe. The visions are generally followed by the thorn in the flesh. Man is in danger of pride, hence exaltation has to be blended with pain. Noah not only was singled out to communicate the message of God to men, but he also had to build an ark for his own safety during the threatened flood. The building of this ark would be a terrible discipline to him. Its successful accomplishment would make him a moral hero. He would have to endure the world’s scorn. He would be nearly alone in his task.
LESSONS:
1. The good man is worth the mention and commendation of God.
2. That true piety can survive the darkest ages and live through the most arduous toils.
3. That good men know most of the mind of God in reference to the world’s future.
4. That good men will not be included in the destructions which overtake the wicked.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 6:9. The piety of Noah:—
1. It was characterized by justice.
2. It was characterized by moral perfection.
3. It was characterized by holy communion with God.
Grace will not suffer the church to cease, but continues its being in the accepted ones of God.
Grace makes a record of the state and propagation of the church for the use of future ages.
In one person or family the church may be visibly preserved, from whence it shall grow anew in after times.
Righteousness by faith must qualify the church of God, from the first to the last in the line of it.
Evangelical perfection turns hearts into the commandments of God, and is proper to the church.
In the worst of times true saints strive to be the most perfect toward God.
The Christian’s walk:—
1. Christ the rule of it.
2. Christ the company of it.
3. Christ the end of it.
Genesis 6:10. Fruitfulness in body is an effect of grace, to continue God’s church.
The holiest parent cannot bring forth a holy seed; that is born of grace.
Little and small may be the visible church; father, sons, and wives, but right.
Grace puts the last before the first, and the younger before the elder. Shem is before Japhet.
Genesis 6:11. Apostacy from God and pollution of worship, is the corruption of men.
Such corruption in God’s face is high provocation.
Violent injury to man generally accompanies apostacy from God.
Fulness of such iniquity makes the world ripe for judgment.
The earth is corrupt to-day:—
1. In its commerce.
2. In its pleasures.
3. In its literature.
4. In its ambitions.
Genesis 6:12. God must see and mark iniquity done before Him.
God layeth open all the corruption of men which He sees.
Man is a self-corrupter; he pollutes his own way.
The habitation of man is an aggravation of his sin:—
1. The earth is beautiful.
2. It is fruitful.
3. It is prophetic.
God’s look toward the world:—
1. Scrutinizing.
2. Penetrating.
3. Terrifying.
4. Astonishing.
5. The prelude of doom.
Man’s way on the earth:—
1. Perverse.
2. Contrary to God’s law.
3. Contrary to human enjoyment.
4. Characterized by impurity.
5. Attracts the wrath of God.
Genesis 6:13. God talks with good men.
God reveals His wrath before He executes it.
Thus was Noah put in possession of God’s thoughts about the scene around him. The effect of the word of God was to lay bare the roots of all that which man’s eye might rest upon with complacency and pride. The human heart might swell with pride, and the bosom heave with emotion, as the eye ran down along the brilliant ranks of men of art, men of skill, men of might, and men of renown. The sound of the harp and the organ might send a thrill through the whole soul, while, at the same time, the ground was cultivated, and man’s necessities were provided for in such a way as to contradict any thought in reference to approaching judgment. But, oh, these solemn words, “I will destroy.” What a heavy gloom they would necessarily cast over the glittering scene! Could not man’s genius invent some way of escape? Could not the “mighty man deliver himself by his much strength?” Alas! no: there was one way of escape, but it was revealed to faith, not to sight—not to reason—not to imagination [C.H.M.]
Divine destruction:—
1. Richly deserved.
2. Awfully certain.
3. Penitently averted.
4. Generally neglected.